Valiel indicated the direction the doe had gone with a nod. "Catch that thing! I can heal, but don't let it get away!" They could talk about how he shouldn't blame himself later, right now, they needed the meat and the pelts.
She focused on her chest, which ached, and felt the weird bending sensation of bones knitting back together. There was a loud pop as she reset her ribs.
Phalakros glanced in the direction that the doe had gone, then looked back at Valiel, hesitating. He didn’t want to leave her, but… she said she’d heal. He still didn’t want to leave her, though. She meant more to him than a mere doe.
However, the sound of Valiel’s ribs resetting convinced him, along with startling him a bit. He then looked her over one last time before he morphed and took off after the doe.
He looked very worried, which was sweet, and she'd need to thank him later, but right now, the doe was escaping.
"Go!" Valiel said urgently. She tried to stand as he took off running, but one of her shoulders had taken damage from the kick, and she took a second to heal that as well, before heading back to the two deer they'd already killed.
Phalakros swerved through the trees, quickly flapping his wings as he followed the scent of the doe. Valiel lingered in his mind, but he urged himself onward. It would be a waste if Valiel had been wounded for nothing.
A few minutes later, he found the doe and moved to pace it, hovering directly above it. He then calculated some things before moving ahead of the deer and morphing in midair. The doe yelped and tried to dodge, but Phalakros landed on top of it, knocking the wind from the doe simply because of his weight. Phalakros then sat up and quickly snapped its neck.
He lingered a moment afterward, catching his own breath, then stood, picked up the deer, and carried it back. It took him a bit longer to get back to Valiel, since he was walking, but he was happy to be near her again once he arrived.
(Bump)
(Hey again… second obligatory apology for the long radio silence…)
Valiel made her way back to the two deer, and proceeded to try to dress them. She worried about whether she should have chased dwn the last doe after healing herself, but… She trusted Phalakros to get it.
She shifted her hands to have the razor claws of a massive predator cat, and began carefully skinning the deer, working hard to get the hides off in one piece. She had skinned the doe fully, and had the pelt hanging over a branch by the time Phalakros got back. The buck was bigger, and was taking a bit longer.
Valiel glanced up as Phalakros came into the clearing, carrying the second doe. "Success! You got it!" She beamed at him, wanting to immediately get rid of any worry he may have.
(It’s fine, lol)
Phalakros chuckled shyly, not used to being praised for something he did. He quickly noticed her progress on skinning the deer, and was happy to see that she seemed to be doing alright despite her wounds.
“Do you need help? I am not too experienced with this, yet I do not wish to force you to do everything on this journey. You have done a great deal for me already,”Phalakros asked.
He dropped the deer he had near to Valiel, and looked around, eyeing the three deer corpses for a moment. He wasn’t sure what to do now. He wanted to make sure Valiel was alright, but otherwise he had no idea what to do with himself.
(Alrighty, grin. @Davadio)
Valiel just smiled at him. "You're not making me do all the work, I enjoy this. You could start field dressing that doe, if you want. Just try to make sure the pelt comes off in one piece."
If they were going to make sure he was warm, they'd need the hides intact. Even the little bits would come in useful for fastenings, to make sure he could keep warm clothing on.
She noted his concern. "Phalakros, I can heal my wounds when I'm in good condition. Exhaustion makes it difficult, but I'm alright at the moment. Slept well, all things considered." She was trying to reassure him everything was ok.
Phalakros smiled a bit, glad that she didn’t feel forced. He then nodded and kneeled down next to the doe. At her reassuring words, he visibly relaxed.
“Alright. I was not sure, and I hate to see you hurt,”he replied.
A gentle smile grew on his face afterward and lingered. He studied how Valiel was working, and mimicked her. Though he could use his Bone Magic, he wasn’t too practiced with it, and it had been impulse and instinct that had led him earlier. This time he wanted to actually know what he was doing.
He carefully cut into the deer, still using Valiel as a reference for the whole field dressing process. When he was done, he had a fairly neat hide set to the side.
( @Davadio. No rush. Just bumping them so you can find them easier)
Valiel smiled at him as she watched him figure it out. He was a quick learner, with a lot of obvious intelligence under all the self-consciousness.
Over the next few hours, they worked to separate sinew and tendons from the muscles and bone of the deer. They dried the hides and other relevant bits in the sun, and finally got down to butchering the meat. Between the two of them, they put down 3 whole deer. Valiel had talked about bulking up. They would need to be well fed and heavy to survive the harsh conditions in the Hinterlands, as well as have the energy to fight off all the things they might encounter.
As the sun started to dip, Valiel got to work cutting the deer hides into manageable pieces they could work with. The scraps, they would use as thread and fastenings, along with the sinew and tendons. She had plenty to work with to get a good start on keeping Phalakros warm.
She kept up a steady stream of small talk and stories, many of them funny, as she worked, trying to make sure Phalakros felt safe and could be assured of her protection. Besides, he was just easy to talk to.
(Sorry it took me so long to reply)
Phalakros didn’t notice Valiel’s smile as he watched her. However, once he finally did, he couldn’t help replying with a shy smile. He had always known that insecurity had been his biggest problem in life.
He worked steadily beside her, following her lead with how she wanted all the materials from the three deer set up. It was nice to do something productive, particularly something that would lead to a resolution of his ‘condition’ as well.
Valiel’s stories and talk did indeed keep Phalakros relaxed. The humor in her tales also made him laugh, and he gladly listened to her every word. He didn’t talk as much as she did, but that was just his nature. He was never a big talker, even in his childhood. Though, when he did talk, he shared many of the mellower, sometimes humorous, stories of his times with Lucitius. It was so casual, and for a little while at least, Phalakros forgot that this mission of theirs was to help ‘exorcise’ the horrifying Alter-Ego living within him.