/ * AH, WE MEAT AGAIN.
The villageโs reception of them, doubtless a fruit born of their groupโs many efforts to bond, is not at all affected by their hunting trip the week before. Despite their deep aversion to the consumption of meat and the deaths of animals, Rusalkaโs people have taken to them much more kindlyโ watchful eyes and wary glances transforming into sweet smiles and inviting natures. Perhaps too kindly, some would argue. The sovereign glances down at her cotton garments, stitched with palpable care, yetโฆ unsuited for her. The battlefield would not welcome her, dressed so. Beside her, Andrei works in relative silence; she can imagine he is not too pleased about the ordeal, either.
Eir draws her attention back to the task at hand, gaze falling upon the ingredients and tools laid out before her. The knife in her grasp is a far cry from a weapon, if its performance now was anything to judge from. With her palm flat against its hilt, she struggles to press cuts into pieces of meat, never quite forming a clean line. They were to marinate whatever game that yet remained, creating jerky to preserve their hunt. It was unlikely that the villagers might take to eating it, after all, and that they had become so involvedโฆ
The forest left no trace of their excursion; left no hints as to the bountiful hunt they had harvested. Though they could little hide the scent of meat, nor the meals of their own; Eir had done well to ensure that graves had been well and thoroughly dug. Where there once lay the carcasses of deer and bear, the earth had swallowed themโ at the whims of her affinity, grass grown and nurtured by blood, life blooming across barren soil. It was a gruesome sigh, after all; one little would wish to bear. Yet, she wonders if it may have kept them slightly independent of the village.
Her mind does not dwell on those thoughts, however, placing the past where it should stay. The sovereign presses her knife deeply into another chunk of meat, shedding off pieces of fat. Though they are deep in their task, the silence feels heavier than need be. With a brief glance towards the other, Eir remarks on their trip. โThe bear wasโฆ unexpected.โ
@ulircursed !