Celes ruthlessly disassembled my fighting style. It's not like it was bad, but according to her, "You don't stomp on someone's foot if you're basically the world's lightest person." In a nutshell, some parts weren't exactly suited for my body. That being said, it's not like it was all bad. She said I had good reflexes and speed, and if I were to aim at the vitals of enemies, I could potentially stand as at least somewhat of a threat.

Of course, her words are doing little to comfort me at the moment. Not when I've found out how much of a monster she truly is.

For reference, lets take a look at the information I've collected throughout the night!

...Hah...

Night Stalkers are large, humanoid monsters. They're almost three meters tall with arms reaching almost to the ground. Additionally, their legs are responsible for most of their size, being over half their total height. Their bodies are pitch black, and the sound of wind constantly leaks through their mouths.

In terms of danger, I can hardly see them with their speed. In my eyes, they're basically dark blurs flying all over the place. And their power, well, their strikes alone can even topple smaller trees if not watched carefully,

...Celes murders them in one hit. When the first Night Stalker came, I nearly jumped out of my own skin, it freaked me out that bad. Celes, however, was unfazed. With the turn of her body, she just jumped up, slapped it, and its head exploded.

Also, as it turns out, Cata's stronger than me. She can accurately follow the Night Stalker's movements and act accordingly.

A kitten is stronger than me. Not a normal one of course, but a kitten nonetheless.

...I never had much pride in the first place, but at this rate, I might lose what little I have.

"Hey Maestra, you doing okay? You're looking a bit empty there."

Yes, yes, I'm fine. Just ignoring my crippling neck pain and my staggeringly low self esteem. I give her a smile with a thumbs up for extra effect.

"I've never seen someone with such a miserable look in all my life."

She saw through it, huh? How disappointing. With these two here fighting while we camp out for the night, I really have nothing I can do. Celes did joke about sleeping, but now I can't help but wonder if she was serious.

...And now that I'm thinking about sleep, I don't feel tired at all. Fatigued, yes, but I don't feel like I can fall asleep.

CRACK

I jolt once again to a sound almost like an explosion. It's the sound of Celes killing another Night Stalker. My eyes follow the corpse as it drops lifeless to the ground.

"Nine."

In other words, the ninth one so far. You really are using pure force.

Celes... aren't you tired? It's just past midnight. Even if you aren't tired physically, doing the same thing over and over again takes a toll on your mind. D-don't get me wrong though! It's not like I'm worried about you or anything, i-idiot. It's just, if you get into trouble, then I'm pretty much screwed.

And... you probably don't even know what's going through my mind right now. It's too dark for me to write in the snow, and it's not like I can just tell you.

...

Huh...?

What's this weird sensation? I'm getting this feeling as though there's something really... "eatable" nearby... but where is it coming from? My head turns as I look around for the source, and my eyes settle on... the pile of... Night Stalker corpses.

...Eh?

Haha, what a funny joke. To think that those abominations could be seen as edible in my eyes.

...It's not a joke. Why can't it be a joke? Please let it be a joke.

I walk over to the group of headless corpses lying on the ground. The snow around them is soaked in the deep scarlet red of blood, and the latest addition to the collection of bodies twitches ever so slighty. It's... kinda unnerving. And the feeling only gets stronger as I approach.

As soon as I arrive at the pile, I pull out a body from the others. The skin is damp and cold, and as the muscles have stiffened, it feels as hard as a brick.

Yuck. This isn't appealing at all, so why do I feel like I want to eat this corpse...?

...No. Now that I'm focusing a bit more, it's not about the corpse. It's like there's something inside of it that's attracting me. But...

The thought of cutting open corpses isn't fun, the actual action even less so. I really don't want to dig inside this thing. I suppose I could get Celes to do it for me, but I don't want to distract her from her job.

Mostly cause I might die if she isn't paying attention.

...Why am I even so bent on getting whatever's inside of this stupid creature? I ate some food earlier, so I shouldn't be so focused on this now. Why should I care about eating something now?

...Even so, I feel like I've got to get whatever's inside of it as soon as possible.

My heart pounds as I stare at the creature's chest.

...

Agh, okay, fine! I'll do what you want, stupid instincts! I start cutting away at the skin with my claws. Surprisingly, I'm making quite a bit of progress, but that's only because the skin is soft.

Eventually, I cut a hole in the creature big enough to stick my hand through, and proceed to do just that.

...Why is there a rock inside of this thing? Of course, there's the organs and usual internals, but what's a rock doing here? I don't have rocks inside of me, do I? Rather, I think it'd be bad if I did.

As I pull the rock out of the body, a quiet squish sounds out as a bit of blood splatters around. Gross. But for some reason, the now clearly shiny rock I'm holding gives off a pleasant feeling far overpowering my disgust.

...Why do I want to eat rocks? Did Celes do something to me without me knowing? And speaking about Celes, she's looking over here right now, or more specifically, at the rock I'm holding in my hand.

"I see you dug out the monster core. Not bad, not bad. It can be pretty hard to find their location inside the body, so for you to find it isn't bad at all."

...Was that last part an insult?

I start looking at the monster core in my hand. It's pitch black, a similar color to the skin of the monster it was inside, yet still seems shiny in some way or another. It doesn't make sense at all. More importantly, I'm starting to feel really... hungry...

crunch

Huh? Did I just eat it? More importantly. it tasted sweet?

"Shit, what the hell do you think you're doing? Don't eat it! Spit it out!"

Celes dashes over and starts pounding on my back, but it's too late. I've already swallowed it, so it's long gone. At this rate, you're going to break my back, so please stop...

Eventually, I escape from Celes's grasp. Afterwards, she harvested the rest of the cores and put them into a bag, out of my reach. It's disappointing, it tasted pretty good but now with her holding onto them, I won't be able to grab another to eat...

I'm surprised I'm disappointed about not being able to eat rocks, though.

"To think that you could eat a monster core. Normal people, or rather, basically all people would explode upon eating one, so you nearly gave me a heart attack there. It's the same thing with raw monster meat."

...I've now eaten both of these things. I'm not sure how exactly to think about it, but seeing as I haven't felt any danger signals from anything, I'll assume it's not something to worry about. Sooner or later though, I'm going to need all of these lingering questions answered.

I make an apologetic expression. I'm not really sorry, but I'll do it anyway.

"Aah, we coulda sold that for a good fifty silvers or so too...! How could you just eat it like that? You just ate fifty silvers!"

Fifty silvers? How much is a silver anyway? Probably a decent amount, based on what I'm hearing, but I can't be sure. Also, we have eight other corpses, and by the time day comes around, we'll probably have more. Losing one core won't be a big deal. Please stop overreacting.

On a side note, even if the cores were still readily available, I don't think I'd eat another. For some reason, it was really quite filling, even though it was just a smaller than palm sized rock.

"And even if we didn't sell them, we could have used it as a back-up magic supply! Or a power source for a magical tool! And you just ate it!"

I get it, okay? I get it! I nod my head to show my understanding. Thankfully, Celes seems to have calmed down a little bit, but is still a tad heated.

That being said, where'd the bag full of the cores go? They were just next to Celes a moment ago. She seems to have noticed too, as she's looking around just as I am, confusion evident on her face.

rustle

Ah.

"Ah."

As we both look off to the side, we see Cata rustling through a small, leather bag. Soon after, she comes out with a monster core and promptly crunches down before either of us can react.

...Oh no. Celes is...

"...Oi, you shitty cat. You'd better return that bag if you know what's good for you."

This is going to be a long night...