As much as she disliked him, she could not help but admire the skill with which he cleaned the hide. There was something almost graceful about the motions, which clashed with his brutish demeanor. Had he been a friend, she might have simply sat and watched him work, but that seemed likely to grate upon his nerves, which she had probably done quite enough of already.
She fought back a frown, but said nothing more. She did not doubt him in the least, and was not yet convinced that he wouldn’t kill her the moment her eyes closed. It was troubling, of course, but the threat of death was not anything new, “It does a bit. Went down a bit like a stone too…may be time to toss the rest of it out.”
She was quiet for a moment, brows furrowing as she returned to patching up the shirt, “…Do you ever travel with anyone?” it seemed a stupid question, after all, it was perfectly clear that he didn’t care much for people, but surely even someone like him would have some need for company every now and then. Even if it was only for survival, “O-Or have you always been on your own?”
Yeah, that bread was well on the way to becoming a murder weapon. Still, she didn't need to toss it out. She could cut what was left of it in slices and fry it up with a dollop of grease in the morning. That ought to make it halfway edible.
By the time he’d let his focus on his work dwindle enough to say so, however, time had slipped away from him and she’d posed him a question instead.
"I've worked with people. Camped with them. Used to be they hired me for muscle or provisioning, on treks or expeditions and the like. That was a while ago." And by that, he meant several decades ago since the last time he signed on for something like that. More time than she or even her elders had been alive.
"At the end of a job like that, you really get to appreciatin' being on yer own, not having to tell every uppity little backyard-adventuring shit what and what not to put in their mouth or what and what not to wipe their ass with–..." He shot her a glance. “Why’d you ask?”