forum I summon thee @Young-Dusty

Started May 08, 2019 by @amber_is_in_a_loop

tune

She looked over at Rick, anger flickering in her eyes. "My father was in the military. You know how that is, I imagine. My mother was passive expect when it came to my sister."

Rick nodded in understanding and stayed silent, listening.

"Lot of dead people in my direct family now. Dad died fighting, Mom died chasing down my sister after she ran away. I was caught in between it all."

Rick still kept silent, not wanting to interrupt such a rare burst of openness. He merely nodded again to show he had heard.

She looked over at Rick, uneasy at his silence.
"I don't know what else to tell you."

"Well…I guess they taught you, somewhere along the line, that you can never show weakness. I've been there, my dad was a veteran too and he didn't tolerate us showin' our feelings very often. But he had it all wrong, and I think your folks did too–no disrespect to them, acourse."

Charlotte snorted. "Disrespect all you want. Both my parents were idiots," she told Rick bitterly.
The words, however, felt acrid on her tongue— she knew it wasn't true. She just wanted to end the conversation.

Rick sighed. "I'll have to take your word for that. Either way–"
But just then there was a rustle from the darkness nearby. A minute later, Slash reappeared, a smallish deer hanging limply from his mouth. He dropped it and turned back into a human, looking tired and dirt-smudged and triumphant.
"I did it," he said. "I hunted. Bet you didn't expect me to find anything, huh?"

Charlotte looked down at the deer, then back up at Slash. "You are the king of my world," Charlotte deadpanned, then stood up to get to work on the deer.

Slash looked genuinely unsure whether to take her seriously or not. Rick sighed and went back to stoke up the fire. "Thank-you, Slash, that's just what we needed. How much of that is actually ours, though? I know you growin' boys have to eat a lot of red meat."
Slash eyed the deer critically, as if imagining it cut up into portions. "I'll take…..the head and the legs, I guess. You guys can't hunt for yourselves, so you need the best parts to stay strong." He said all this as if it was obvious.

(WHAT A SWEETHEART)
Charlotte nodded, humouring him. "That's very thoughtful of you."
She pulled her longest knife from her bag. "Are we doing this civilly or not?"

(lol ikr XDD)
Rick shrugged. "I think you're the only one of us that could pass for civilized, to be honest. Whatever's quickest and easiest is fine with me."

She nodded. "I'll cut his head off first, and make sure you get as much of the muscle and nerves as possible. We'll have to keep the pelt and the hoofs, so that has to come off second. I'll have to chop through the bones of its legs though, which might take a minute. You can have most of its organs, humans don't digest them well. Sound okay?"

Slash nodded, staring at the deer hungrily.
Rick finished adding wood to the fire and glanced at Charlotte. "Need any help with all that, or would you rather I start setting up everyone's sleeping arrangements?"

She shook her head. "I've got this," she told him with unintended sharpness. It wasn't him, it was the fact she'd told him so much.
But she was too proud to apologise.

Rick shrugged, seeming unbothered, and started properly breaking camp. "So Slash, where'd you find this deer? Did you have to go far?"
"Nah. There's one of those places where the dirt tastes good over that way–" He pointed over his shoulder. "–and a bunch of deer were hanging out there. This one barely even saw me." He grinned proudly again. "I can hunt again in the morning if you want."

"I think this'll holding us the morning, if not all of tomorrow."
The head was already off, sitting beside Charlotte and watching her work. She was skinning the deer expertly, working delicately and without damaging the animal further.

Slash shifted back into a pine marten and picked up the deer's head in his jaws, then carried it over to his nest in the grass and settled down with it. "Juft toff me the legthh when you get them off," he said. the sound of bone cracking followed shortly after.
Rick finished his work and pulled a collapsible lantern from his back pack, lighting it with a small stick from the fire and hooking it to his belt. "Hey Slash, d'you happen to know where the closest clean water is?"
"There'ff a ftream jutht over the hill."
Rick winced. "No need to talk with your mouth full, son. I'll be right back, I'm gonna go refill my canteen."
Once he was gone, Slash stopped eating and glanced at Charlotte. "You guys are acting weird," he said bluntly. "What happened while I was hunting?"

Charlotte tensed slightly, and failed to hide it. "Nothing, we were just talking," she assured Slash, sawing at the leg bones.

Slash's nose twitched. "You're all jittery," he observed–seeming completely oblivious to the possibility that he could be making her jittery. "Did you guys….get in a fight or something?"

"I—" She broke off, trying to stabilize her voice. "No. On the contrary."
One leg fell off.

The teenage Deorn tilted his head, puzzled. "Huh? Then what were you….?"
Just then Rick came back, dousing his lantern as he reached the fire. "Boy, that stream sure is cold at this hour. How's that deer coming along, Charlotte?"

Charlotte exhaled heavily, lifting her head to the sky in relief. "Right on time there Rick! It's coming along well, the pelt is off and cleaned and I've got two more legs to go!"

"Wonderful! Here, I'll take one leg, you take the other." Rick pulled out his knife and started in on the deer, careful not to get in Charlotte's way. "This is gonna taste good. How do you like your venison?"

She stiffened, having Rick close to her again, but this time she thought it was more discreet. "Fully cooked."
And her last leg came off. She chucked three of them over to Slash before starting to cut the deer open.

Slash practically pounced on the deer legs and began to gnaw on them–but his pale eyes were still locked on Charlotte and Rick with a mixture of suspicion and nosy curiosity.
"Sounds fine to me," Rick was saying as he detached the final leg. "Boiled or roasted? I have some spices we could add to make it a little more interesting."

"Yes, go for it. I think roasted would be best."
Reaching into the gaping hole of the deer's chest, Charlotte pulled out all of its organs in a bloody pile. Standing up, she walked over to Slash. "Take your pick." "

"All of them," Slash said, eyeing them hungrily. But then he hesitated. "Are you sure you don't want any? They're the best part."

Charlotte debated, and set them on the ground before taking the liver and the heart back. "All yours."
She brought those and the rest of the meat back to the fire where Rick stood.

Rick had set up a spit over the fire and was busy cutting the meat into manageable chunks and skewering them on sticks. "You know, this'll take a while to cook, so maybe what we should do is take turns watching it while the other catches some rest. We've only got so many hours in the night before it's time to head out again. Sound like a plan?"