The Road to Nowhere

[Lion]

Bishop really had his work cut out for him, here.  This animal had a lot more to offer than he thought, but at least the meat would be good and he could store plenty of it on his person to save for later.  It might take a long time, but as far as he was concerned it would all be worth it in the end.  Because really, who knew when there was going to be another time he was going to get a chance like this?  One could never tell in his situation.

As he worked, he thought there was going to be nothing more than silence.  And he wouldn't have minded it.  But maybe she might learn to trust him after all.  Bishop looked up and gave an innocent face along with a shrug.  "Practice.  Lots of practice," he said.

"My grandmother taught me how throw like this.  She taught me how to knife hunt when I was young, just a lad.  I never really used it much aside from the time I spent with her.  I didn't have to really when I got older.  But I never forgot....  Where did you learn how to fight with a blade?"

[Haze]

His response surprised her. She had expected something like the army, or a gang, or even just from the pure fun of learning the art of knife throwing, but never from someone like a grandmother. The flash of surprised showed briefly on her features, but she hid it, as soon as he began asking his own questions.

Served her right for opening her mouth in the first place. "From a ... friend..." her voice wrapped snidely around the word, as her eyes narrowed towards the fire. Tobias was hardly a friend, but he had taught her the fundamental skills of knife fighting when she'd been brought into the gang. Pity was he'd taken a shine to her.

She wasn't filled with an ounce of false humility as she continued. "I still have a lot to learn. I was just lucky today that I was faster than you. I grew up on the streets - had to be quick to get something to eat."

[Lion]

To be entirely honest, he didn't enjoy knife hunting for its sport or for the enjoyment of sticking things with sharp, shiny blades.  He was a country boy, and life on the farm required him to be able to kill and skin a pig to put plenty of food on the table.  If you didn't know how to hunt, you wouldn't last long, least of all for a family.

Bishop worked still as she answered him.  Frankly her answer did not surprise him.

"I'd heard living in the cities could be a hard life," he replied.  "But I wouldn't know much about it.  I'm a country boy, born and raised.  But maybe it's not that different.  Same concept applies.  You have to work hard to eat, to make a living.  It was tough work...  And I think you're faster than you think are you.  You're quite good."

[Haze]

Ehren couldn't deny that she was wary of the compliment, but she ducked her head in thanks. "City life as a street kid is a lot different from country life, I can assure you," she responded however to his observation. She wasn't without memories of her childhood, living out in the country and she could honestly say she would have much rathered the life of living off the land, than the life that had been handed to her.

She turned the meat at the fire, stomach growling with the satisfying sizzling sounds, and the smells beginning to emanate from the food. This was far better than the stale loaf she'd resigned herself to eating earlier. She continued to take the meat from Bishop as he worked, setting it aside on skewers.

"Have you never lived in a city then? Never been to one?"

[Lion]

The meat came off easily, his hands working deftly as they remembered what his brain could not have been able to explain.  It had been a long time since he'd done it, at a time when it no longer seemed necessary when he could afford to have someone else do the butchering for him.  But the habits of old, skills learned, were not easily discarded.  Soon the bore was gutted and cleaned through, save perhaps the head, but he wasn't sure if he had the tools to take the tusks off.

He looked at his bloodied hands, taking a seat by the fire and taking a rag he had from his boot, cleaning his knives and his hands.  "I...I did, not too long ago.  That was where there was the most work to be had.  I was good at what I did, and it was easier to sell to market with the market so close by, you know what I mean?  But you...I mean, you don't look like much of a country girl.  These woods, especially these back ones, can be a hard place to live.  How did you find yourself out here?"