Southward Bound

[Alegretto]

When the girl got up, Turnrin seriously considered telling her to stop and rest her arm.

He did, however, see her point. It would be bad to let the cougar spoil. He stood up and walked over to her and the animal carcass, and he responded when she asked her question. "I think I'll stick around," he still hadn't gotten all the answer he wanted out of her yet.

"And if you're gonna move this then let me help." he crouched down next to the cougar. "I know I don't look all that strong but I'm pretty sure I can at least help," he grabbed the animal's hind legs, ready to assist her in moving the cougar downstream.

[Ickedu]

Felinn looked him up and down when he offered to help, trying to estimate his strength, but then just nodded, grabbed the front legs of the dead cougar and then lifted the front of the animal without another word.

She waited until Turnrin also had lifted his part and then slowly began to walk downstream. She refrained from giving instructions or asking whether the man could still hold his part, but from time to time she looked back to him to see if everything was alright.

She also didn't try to begin a conversation. Her attention was mainly on the environment and the path they had to go.

Her breathing soon was a bit strained again, but still she did not slow down as long as Turnin could still follow and didn't stop until the two had covered a few dozen paces. Then she turned around to Turnrin, nodded him and indicated to put the carcass down.

When the animal was on the ground again, she drew her dagger and began to work on her prey.

[Alegretto]

It was a bit harder than the monk would have liked to admit, but together he and his new acquaintance moved the cougar's body downstream. It took most of his focus to complete the task, and he didn't try to talk at all, though he did make a few grunting noises whenever he had to step over a particularly bothersome obstacle.

Once she gave the signal, Turnrin slowly dropped the animal's body, letting out a sigh of relief as he did so and sitting down on the bank. When the girl pulled out her dagger and went to work, Turnrin actually began looking close. "Interesting," he mumbled, mostly to himself. "Most interesting."

The monk pulled a small notebook from his robes as well and a quill, a small vial of ink, and a piece of charcoal. As the girl worked, Turnrin rapidly took noted on what he saw, and e drew some diagrams as well using the charcoal. All of this was going to make an excellent addition to his catalogue.

[Ickedu]

When Turnrin took out his writing utensils, Felinn looked up to see what he was doing. But after a moment, without a question she continued her work.

Her cuts were clean and done with great experience. Also the way of her cuts was not arbitrary, but she used a technique that was taught by the Connlaothian scholars in the recent past that was supposed to maintain the overall quality of the meat and ensure a clean result with as small as possible a chance for diseases.

That didn't mean that her work was not messy. Felinn didn't mind it, but the blood and the sight and smell of the organs she removed was none too pleasant.

When Felinn had removed the internal organs and sorted them by edible, useable and useless, she dragged the dressed cougar a bit nearer to the water and cleaned it from the in- and outside.

Finally, she buried the useless parts under a thin layer of dirt and some stones.

When her work was done, she turned back to Turnrin, stepped up to him and tried to get a look at what he had written or drawn to his notebook.

[Alegretto]

The smells and the sights of the next few minutes made Turnrin blanche a bit, and gag some, but he kept faithful notes of his observations. The entire process was fascinating, and the monk watched each step with increasing admiration for the girl's skill. She clearly knew what she was doing, and it was quite impressive.

When she finished up her task and showed interest in seeing his notes, he gladly showed her the product of his own work. "Not as impressive as putting food on the table," he laughed gesturing at the cleaned carcass, "but it's a living. They're just my observations about the cougar as an animal, and what it's insides are like."

Turnrin assumed the girl couldn't actually read the notes, most people couldn't, so he felt a need to explain what it was he had written down.

[Ickedu]

Felinn continued inspecting Turnrins notes fore some more moments without answering, then turned her gaze to him and regarded him from head to toe again still without speaking. Her look was very interested, almost as if she was looking at him for the first time.

"So... is this what you were doing... when the cougar tried to get you? Why are you... doing this?" While talking, she finally turned away from Turnrin to go back to the dressed cougar, then looked at him to see if he would pack up his utensils and again help her carrying the carcass.

[Alegretto]

The girl's question made Turnrin stop to think. It wasn't that he didn't know the reason he was creating his catalogue, he just needed to come up with a way to explain it. By the time he'd composed a response, she was standing next to the cougar's corpse, looking at him expectantly.

He started putting his equipment away. "I'll tell you what, I'll explain after we move this back," he stated while walking over to the animal. He once again grabbed the hind legs, ready to assist in moving the cougar.

[Ickedu]

Felinn grabbed the front legs of the cougar, and together with Turnrin, they made their way back to the designated resting place. The cougar was not as heavy as before, now that all unusable parts were removed, but as they neared their destination, it became apparent, that Felinn finally reached the end of her strength.

But obviously she was not yet finished with her work. As soon as the cougar was put down, Felinn started to walk away again.
"Just... wait here. I will be back soon"

And without looking back or waiting for an answer she disappeared into the brushwood. A moment later nothing of her could be heard or seen anymore.

...

The sun slowly began to set and the day neared it's end, but Felinn took her time. It was about half an hour later, before Felinn without a warning stepped out of the brushwood again. She carried a bag on her back and had some additional small pouches tied to her belt that had not been there before.

When she had reached the resting place, she looked around for a moment, if everything was alright here.

[Alegretto]

Moving the cougar with the girl drained Turnrin of most of his energy, and he sat down heavily after they were done. He looked at the girl when she started speaking, and he almost made a move to follow her when she left, but she was out of sight by the time he had stood up, so he didn't bother. His tracking skills weren't exactly top notch.

He sat back down with his back against a tree, and closed his eyes, thinking about the past few hours. The action was starting to catch up to him, and his shoulder was hurting where the cougar had pounced on him. He sighed, and before he even realized it, the monk had nodded off.

[Ickedu]

When she noticed the sleeping man Felinn smiled and even chuckled quietly to herself. She really could understand him. She was tired herself, but while living alone in the wild she had formed a habit of not letting things unfinished before allowing herself to rest. Fortunantely the most tiring work had already been done and the meat of the cougar could wait until tomorrow before she had to deal with it. So only some small and pleasant things remained.

She let Turnrin sleep and first looked around the camp within a small radius. When she found nothing of importance, she took off her weapons and the pouches from her belt. Her bag she already had dropped a while earlier. Her shoes were the next that came off, immediately followed by her jacket and tunic. Both of them were stained with blood and teared where the cougar had bitten her arm.

Wearing no clothes but her breeches, she knelt down at the stream and began cleaning her jacket and tunic. When she had finished this as good as possible she hung her clothes over some branches to dry and again returned to the water.

For a moment she just knelt there, breathing deeply and listening into the forest. The winds still blew and the night promised to become chilly, but for the moment Felinn didn't mind. She began washing her hands with calm movements, then she took some water with her hands and drank slowly. The water was clear and quite cold.

Finally she began washing her hair that was still a mess with blood and dirt. Felinn worked very leisurely and enjoyed it. Most of her live now was occupied by somehow trying to survive, so she valued the moments when she could do something just for her pleasure. Regardless of how small these things seemed when looking at them rationally.

When Felinn was finished, she took her jacket that fortunately was mostly dry, curled up on the bare ground at the roots of a big tree, covered herself with her jacket, closed her eyes and fell asleep.

As usual her sleep was not very deep. Living alone in the wild it was important for her not to be caught off guard even when sleeping. So even quiet sounds woke her enough to find out the reason before she again continued to sleep. But nothing special happened this night.

When the new day was dawning, Felinn woke up and opened her eyes. For a moment she remained curled up at her sleeping place and just looked into the forest. But she didn't allow herself to rest much longer and soon got up and walked over to the stream, still wearing no clothes but her breeches. She shivered slightly in the cold morning breeze, but from time to time she needed to feel the harsh wild to get her going.

As the evening before she knelt down, drank a little water and washed her face. Then she stood up again and began collecting some dry gras and branches to make a fire.

[Alegretto]

Turnrin slept fitfully, he kept having dreams that a massive tabby cat was trying to eat him, but he managed to doze through the entire night.

He awakened earlier than usual, probably a byproduct of falling asleep in the late afternoon as opposed to his usual sleep schedule, and sat up with a huge yawn. He took stock of his surroundings, and for a moment he was too tired to remember how he'd ended up resting with his back against a tree.

He was able to recall after a few more moments of sitting down, and that mystery solved, the monk set about trying to stand up. It proved treacherous the first time, he rose too quickly and all the blood rushed to his head, but after sitting down again for a bit he was able to right himself without falling over again.

Turnrin searched his surroundings for his new acquaintance. What was her name again? With a start, the monk realized that he had never gotten her name, it had slipped his mind completely. He saw some of her belongings so she was probably nearby. His suspicion was confirmed when he saw her walk back into camp with kindling for a fire. ((OOC: just kinda going off what you said she was doing before. A little bit of a presumption but I hope you don't mind ;)))

Now, the first thing Turnrin noticed when he caught sight of her was that she was looking much better this morning. Ok, in all honesty, that wasn't the first thing. The first thing he noticed was that she wasn't wearing her tunic. His noticing of the rest of her condition, however, came almost instantaneously after, so it was close enough to count as the first thing he noticed.

At least, that's the rationale that Turnrin reasoned out in his head as he turned around, blushing profusely. "Good morning," he called over his shoulder, "you seem to have, ah, misplaced your garments somehow."

His words came out stutteringly, and it was obvious that the monk was very, very uncomfortable.

[Ickedu]

"Good morning!" she answered the greeting cheerfully.

"No, I didn't misplace them, but my things are still wet from washing, so... oh... oooh..." It took a moment, before Felinn realized that she was topless, and that this maybe was not proper when camping with an acquaintance. But she was so used to living on her own for the recent months that this thought just hadn't occurred to her when she had begun her morning work. She blushed heavily and looked around to find where she had put her clothes.

"I... sorry, I haven't... I didn't... Just wait a moment. If it bothers you... I will put them on... It... should be all right... they are not really wet anymore, and it is not too cold, so... "

When Felinn finally saw her clothes, she quickly began walking over to them, but then realized that she still was carrying the fuel for the fire.

"Oh... sorry, it will take a moment."

She turned around, walked over to the place where she had planned to start the fire and put down the gras and branches. This in turn took some time because somehow it seemed inefficient to her to just throw the stuff down. So she directly began preparing the fire to be easily ignited.

[Alegretto]

Turnrin heard the girl set down something, probably the firewood she'd been carrying, but he didn't hear the tell-tale rustling of someone slipping on a garment. The crackling of wood kept comin from behind him, so he figure that she was setting up the fire.

Turnrin listsened for a moment longer before he decided to try distracting himself from what was going on behind him. He ran his thoughts, and during the course of his contemplation he realized that the girl had never told him her name. "Uh," he spoke over his shoulder again, "I don't think I ever got your name. Do you mind telling me? It would make conversation a lot easier."

[Ickedu]

Felinn continued preparing the fire while she answered:
"Hmmm... why would it be easier to talk, when knowing my name? Just call me what you want."

A light giggle could be heard from the young woman.
"I think I will call you... bookworm. No... that does not really fit. Hmmm... The cataloguer! Yes. This... is what you are doing, am I right?"

When she finally had completed preparing the fire, she stood up again and walked over to her clothes. There she took her tunic that was still a little clammy, but put it on nevertheless.

"Alright... I am fine again. I hope you are hungry."

[Alegretto]

Reassured that the girl was once again decent, Turnrin faced her again. Her proposal to call each other by whatever name pleased them put the monk in some consternation. It was just odd to not know the someone's name...

But he didn't want to force the issue, and she already had a nickname for him. He thought about what she had called him, "the cataloguer", and it didn't take a large stretch of the imagination for him to decide what he wanted to call her. "Alright then. I guess I'll refer to you as Huntress, since that's what you do, I'm guessing."

He moved towards the fire, now with a grin on his face at the prospect of food, "Oh, and I'm very hungry, actually."

[Ickedu]

Felinn smiled and nodded when Turnrin decided about what he wanted to call her. "Huntress... that's interesting." Again she giggled quitely. "Although... I understand why you choose to call me that. But we could still change our names later, if we think they do not fit anymore."

She took one of her small pouches, went over to where she had prepared the wood for the fire an took out two stones and a piece of tinder fungus. One of the stones, a flint, was light grey and slightly transparent, the other, a pyrite, glimmered metallic and she used a piece of leather to hold it. Then she began striking sparks onto the tinder fungus. She clearly was proficient with this, but the pyrite seemed to cause her discomfort. Even her hair, that had shimmered in a bright golden color until now, seemed to loose its gloss and turned to a dull grey-blond while she was busy lighting the fire.

Nevertheless it took her just a few minutes until the fire began to burn. Relived she put away the stones and at once her hair got back some of its golden tone. Then she began cutting a few stripes of meat from the cougar and roasting them on spits while she jointed the rest of the cougar.

During her work she once again did not try to start a conversation by herself.

[Alegretto]

"I guess we can..." Turnrin said in response to the girl's words, though he didn't sound as if he was too sure. He was going to say more, but something stopped him. The girl looked like she was working intently, and the monk decided not to say anything so as not to bother her.

Usually he was more chatty, but he was actually pretty busy himself at the moment observing the changes in the girl's hair. He was fascinated by the varieties of colors she exhibited, and he pulled out his notebook again so he could start recording the different shades and hues that he noticed.

When she finished starting the fire, Turnrin asked her a question. "Why does starting a fire make your hair change to that duller color?"

[Ickedu]

"I..." Felinn hesitated and regarded Turnrin for a moment.

"I don't really know. But... but I am no mage! I was tested!" The affirmation seemed really important to her and she looked anxious to The Cataloguer while shadows began to darken her hair slightly.

"It's just..." She again took out the pyrite using the piece of leather from before and immediately put the stone on the ground an arm's length away from her. "... some materials don't agree with me. A firesteel would be much better to make fire, but that would... kind of.... burn my hand. So... the fool's gold is the best trade-off for me to make fire. But I still have to be... be careful with it. My mother... she told me, many of her people have this condition."

[Alegretto]

Turnrin furrowed his brow. Clearly the girl was magical in someway, though he could understand her insistence to the contrary considering her home country. However the traits she was exhibiting were oddly specific. Was it possible? What was in fool's gold? He'd probably read it somewhere...

He racked his brain but it was no use. He wasn't an alchemist, he much preferred studying living things. Well, there was still one way to prove his hunch. It wouldn't be fun, but necessary things often weren't...

Slowly, gingerly, Turnrin tapped the fool's gold with his ring finger. He pulled away the appendage instantly, as if the rock was very hot, and indeed there was a slight burning sensation where his skin had touched the rock. There was definitely iron in the rock, and the Huntresses' reaction meant that she had at least some Fae heritage.

"Tell me, Huntress, is it at all possible that your mother was born in another country?"

[Ickedu]

Felinn watched Turnrin surprised when he tried to touch the pyrite and was obviously hurt by it. Then she nodded slightly to his question. "She was... brought here from... from Serendipity. Are you..." again she hesitated a moment and pointed to the stone, "... Are you... also tainted?"

When asking her question, she seemed to shrink down a bit and her hair lost even more of its color. It was just not respectable to ask such a question, but she had to know.