Places to be.. (Cass)

[Darian]

He smiled as he watched Cass latch on to the stag, and he ran after her, knowing her grip to be a tenuous one. His blade felt lighter in his grasp from continuous use, but still it took him some time to get to Cass and even when he did he wasn't sure how much help he could give with the deer bucking wildly everywhere and making a killing blow very hard without hurting Cass. So much fresh blood was running down the beast’s neck, and he could see a bruise quickly forming on Cass's leg, and he hoped none of the abundant blood was hers, but it was very hard to tell. His grip tightened even more on the longsword and he held it up vertically and to the side of himself, but he still kept his distance, wary of the beast’s powerful hooves. The only way he would be able to get to the beast safely was if Cass was far removed from it, and with that thought in mind, he bent his legs at right angles, and tensed up to spring forward. " On a count of three Cass, release the deer. One... Two... Three!" he yelled out and at the end of the countdown charged forward, his sword held high above his head, and he viciously chopped down on the deer's exposed neck, hoping to fell the animal with one powerful blow.

The edge of the blade bit deep into the back of the deer’s neck, issuing forth a spray of blood while it started burying itself deep, and a loud snap could be heard from the animal as it sheared through the spine of the deer, and broke its neck. The deed weight of the deer suddenly lurching forward tore the blade from his grasp, and it head lolled uselessly on the end of its neck as its body collapsed against the ground, it's limbs twitching spastically in the throes of death, and Darian took a step back to dodge the jerky movements, and took the chance to see how Cass was faring. " Are you alright, it looks like the deer got a glancing blow on you " he said pointing to her leg, and rushing over to her and wrapping her up in a tight hug before planting a kiss on her lips, and turning back around to observe the deer. It was finally beginning to stop thrashing so much and staling forward behind the twitching deer and got a grip of his quivering longsword handle before tearing it from the deer’s neck, eliciting another spurt of blood. Holding it in two hands again, he slammed the blade down hard against its already torn neck, severing it completely this time, and causing the rest of the tremors to stop, the deer effectively silenced for good, and he watched as the lifeblood spilled out all over the ground pooling every which way. " Now comes the grisly part of taking it back to camp and skinning it " he said looked at her with a crooked grin and whipping his blade off on the beast’s fur before sheathing the longsword at his hip. Carefully he grabbed the deer's two hind legs and pulling it along he walked with Cass back to their camp.

[Cass]

As Cass struggled to keep hold of the deer she spotted Darian running forward with his long blade in hand. She could feel the blood leaking from the stag's neck as she kept trying to push her claws further into the animal's flesh. It was clear that the small wounds she was giving the deer simply wouldn't be enough to still the frantic beast. She suddenly heard Darian's command and the moment he said three she let go of the stag, hitting the ground and rolling about three feet away from where the deer was raging about. Quickly getting to her knees Cass watched as Darian charged and brought his blade down on the deer's neck. Blood sprayed from the animal's neck and Cass absentmindedly licked her lips at the sight of the blood. She watched as the deer's heavy body collapsed, its legs still violently twitching.

Rising to her feet Cass smiled as Darian rushed over to her and pointed out the ugly looking bruise on her leg. But that was about as awful as the bruise got. She could still walk. She was simply marked for a short period of time. Far better than the wound she recieved when the wolves attacked many days ago. "I'm fine. It's only a bruise. It'll heal in a few days time." Cass happily kissed Darian back before approaching the dead deer with him. Cass nodded as she studied their kill. It was a nice big stag with big antlers and a lot of meat on his thick bones. She watched as Darian severed the head from the rest of the body. The twitching stopped, the stag's life gone forever. Cass bent down and picked up the stag's head by its antlers. "It'll be a long and bloody process. But by the looks of it we'll have plenty of meat and hopefully you'll get the bones you wanted." Straightening to a stand Cass kept a firm hold on the deer's head.

"We should keep this," she gestured to the head. "I've heard that the heads of kills builds reputation and fear among those who may wish to harm us. It can seve as a warning once we are through with obtaining what we want from the animal."

[Darian]

The deer's body grated against the bed grass that covered the forest floor, a shuffling sound stirring in their wake and Darian looked over to Cass and their grizzly trophy with a impish grin. " Aye I'm sure such a gruesome sight with ward away the occasional travel, and with more, and more humanoid ones maybe ward away more, especially after I maledict that skull in your hands " he said thoughtfully and knew he had his work cut out for him this day, as he dragged the dead weight of the deer across the forest floor, paying no mind to the forest around them unless it was to look for a easier path to travel through the wood, or to listen for any predators. Thankfully he heard no predators and the paths where easy to travel enough and they made it to their camp in no time, their long dead fire issuing forth no more smoke now. Stopping his dragging he grabbed the deer's front legs in his left hand with its hind legs in his right hand and picked it up and over the makeshift barrier he had created earlier, carrying it aloft till they reached the center of the camp just off of where they hand made their fire. He made a quick motion for Cass to lay the head down beside the body, and he pulled his dagger from its sheath stooping low to the body and opening up a small incision in the base of its belly, a thick lazy trail of blood oozing from the wound, and he dragged the tip of the blade upwards to the breast bone of the deer, the line of the thick blood spreading.

While he let it drain out there, he cut out two branching angled lines from where his cut left off at the breastbone, tracing its collarbone on either sides, and forming a bloody Y pattern on its under belly before stopping to pay attention to its limbs. With the underbelly cut he had exhausted his knowledge of how to skin a deer, and in favor of not knowing how to carefully remove the limbs, he simply pulled the limb all the way to the side so its arm was spread over out behind it, and after plunging his knife into the soft soil by the deer’s torn neck, he would step on the extended limb, pinning the hoof down to the ground with his foot while he drew his long sword out and raised it high above his head. He swung it down hard, and it hit the limb between its shoulder blade and torso with a loud thwack of crunching bone, and the product being a lot more blood everywhere, and the limb ending up only half severed. Raising it high again, he slammed it down with all his might, this time a satisfying tear sounding from the corpse as at last the flesh tore from bone, and the arm fell off behind it rolling on the ground. He then repeated this process with all of the other limbs, and when he was finished he wiped the blade of his sword off on the deer's pelt before sheathing it back in its scabbard and stooping low to the body. " All I need to do is remove this skin from the torso, and then the meat will be readily available, could you strip those legs of their skin, and start a fire for me? " he asked softly to Cass offering her a kiss on the cheek if she was close to him, before resuming his study of the deer's body, and pulling his dagger from the earth.

Lifting up the vertical flap of skin on the left side, he ran his dagger just under the layer and with a quick brutal motion severed the bindings that held the skin to the muscle and he did the same for the other side and the triangle portion as well. Sticking the blade back into the earth, he dug his fingers underneath the skin and pulled hard, tearing the skin off from the rest of the deer's muscle and after much fighting finally released it of its burden, sending the gory mess rolling as the last of the skin came loose, and carelessly he tossed the proffered pelt to the side on the ground, worried more about the meat at the moment. This he had even less experience in but he gave it his best, and tracing along the ribs as best as he could he cut sharply to both sides of it, and behind them as well before pulling off large sections of the meat, and setting them on the ground beside him, the rib cage now fully exposed, and he attempted to do the same on the back, but just came out getting plenty of slivers of meat to add to the pile of it.

What was left was what he hoped to be undesirable meat, and the bones, and hooking his fingers between the ribs in the middle of the cage, he lifted the gory mess up and placed it beside the head, dropping it roughly to the ground as his attention was more focused on their trophy now that his work with the meat of the deer was done, and he had the chance to experiment. Bloodied dagger still in hand, he began slicing into the tender flesh of the deer's face and popped out the eyes first, and then worked on scrapping as much skin and muscle he could while leaving the antlers on the beast for effect. It would make his work harder, but it was a interesting piece, and the antlers seemed to complete it very well. Gradually he could see the white bone underneath as the skin gave way to flesh, and the flesh gave way to bone, and soon the entire outer skull was bone, and only the inside remained flesh and blood for now. That didn't matter though all he needed was a clear surface area to carve on and he had it on the foremost part of the animal's skull, and sticking the knife into the ground for the third time that day, he shouldered off his pack, and after releasing the straps on it, reached inside and produced a large brown bag riddled with dried blood stains, and he set it carefully beside him, unraveling it reverently as he looked over his well kept tools.

With a selective eye he chose a chisel from the pile offered to him, and grabbed up a smaller hammer as well and set to work on making a fine large circle on the creatures forehead, making it as wide as he could so that it would fit the coming piece of art that he would carve inside of it, and from experience born of years of practice, the edge of the metal chisel made a deep clear line that gradually rejoined itself making a circle. Smiling, and letting out a gust of air, he blew the bone shavings from the smooth forehead of the deer skull, and then sighed thoughtfully before decided what to do. The tip of his hammer was soon ringing against the bottom of the chisel once more as he struck it over and over with precisely enough pressure not to break through the skull and otherwise ruin to bone underneath and gradually the shape of a large stag soon began to form within the center of the circle, much like the one he carved upon. In the back ground he filled the area with vibrant lush trees and bushes, and tall thick grass, but within the shadows of one particularly great elm, he drew a hunter with a club, seeming to try and stalk up upon the unsuspecting deer and bash its brains in. He supposed that it was ironic that he was carving a deer being killed by a sneak attack, on a deer that had died similarly and recently, and a smile found it's way to his lips as he continued to chisel away until he couldn't no more.

Another quick blow against the white grimy surface of the bone sent the shavings away once more, and after replacing the chisel and hammer carefully back within the pack he retrieved a small file from it and began to work on sanding down the sharp ridges and grooves still left on the piece and preventing it from looking life like. The rough metal made a sawing noise as it grinded down on the bone, and after a while it could easily get really repetitive, but to Darian it sounded like music in his ears and he continued on merrily going about finishing his carving, the details of the deer and hunter slowly coming to life, with the exception of the couple of mistakes he had made. With one final blow across the surface of the bone, he smiled enjoying his completed work and replaced the file in the pack before rolling it back up and stowing it away in his back pack and almost absent mindedly he grabbed his dagger and slit the edge of his thumb eliciting a drop of blood to pool on it. Before the precious drop could fall to the dusty ground though he pressed it against the circle on the forehead of the deer, and then backed off dagger still in hand, and simply admired his work. The way the dim golden light of the setting sun played off of it outlined it just beautifully to him and whipping the dagger off on his tunic, he replaced it in its sheath before looking at Cass. What its sundown already? he thought curiously and looked to Cass to see the progress on their dinner since his stomach was rumbling. " How does it look? " he asked. " I felt like I worked on it for no longer than a bell but I think I must have been out longer, do you know how much time has passed, and if dinner is ready? " he asked with a smile, a hand raising upwards to scratch behind his head, a little habit of his when he was thoroughly confused and among trusted company.

[Cass]

Cass nodded as she carried the deer's head in her hand. "It will serve as a good warning." She paused briefly to collect her cloak, dress, boots and gloves before continuing on with Darian back towards the camp. As they walked Cass studied the stag's body. There was plenty of meat on its bones. She smiled a bit knowing that soon all they would need would be heat if they wished to cook their meat. They would have enough meat that they wouldn't have to worry about spending coin or starving for a little bit. She was glad the hunt was successful. And the old familiar adrenaline that had pumped through her veins during the hunt caused Cass to bask a little bit in her happiness. It felt good to return to her roots a little bit. She had always enjoyed hunting with her brothers. Well, she had enjoyed hunting animals for food. The hunting for humans was a different story altogether. In fact, she had prefered to merely study them.

"And that's just another reason why you shamed us all," her imaginary friend hissed, appearing beside her for only a moment before disappearing into thin air.

Shaking her head Cass quickly focused her thoughts back on the task at hand: returning to camp. Looking back over at Darian she gave him a small smile before focusing on the wilderness around them. She kept her eyes peeled for any predators that may cross their paths. She was on alert, ready to stop and spring into action at any given moment. Thankfully, though, no threat crossed them on their journey back to camp. Cass stopped and let Darian lift up the stag's body before carrying it over the barrier he had set up. Once Darian and their catch was safely on the other side Cass simply stepped over the barrier and followed Darian towards the center of the camp. She set the stag's head down where Darian gestured. Then Cass simply watched as Darian cut into the underbelly with his short blade, draining the blood from the animal. Cass watched as the blood flowed easily from the long wounds Darian had made. Again Cass's tongue slipped out of her mouth and licked her lips. But only for a moment.

She watched as Darian pulled out his long blade again and began hacking off the limbs of the deer. More blood poured from the animal and while it wasn't a very pretty sight Cass had seen more gruesome sights...like hacking a human apart. She was shaken from her memories when Darian asked her to skin the limbs and start a fire before giving her a soft kiss. She smiled and nodded, bending down to collect the four limbs. "I'll strip the legs and start up a new fire." With her new task presented Cass carried the limbs about three feet away from Darian, giving him as much space as he needed so he could skin and do his own thing with his part of the deer. Sitting down Cass arranged the four severed limbs in a row. She'd need to skin them. Flexing her claw-like fingers for a moment Cass picked up the first limb and carefully began slipping her talon underneath the flesh, ripping it away from the muscle of the leg. It was a long and bloody process, ripping away large chunks of skin and fur and tossing it carelessly away from the camp sight.

When she was finally done skinning the limbs Cass looked over and found a large pile of meat resting beside Darian as he focused solely on the stag's skull. Her stomach growled quietly, reminding her that she needed to eat and that a lot of time had passed since returning to the camp. Collecting the skinned limbs Cass brought them over to where Darian was hard at work. She placed the limbs down beside the rest of the stag's torn body. She then selected two nice chunks of meat and made her way over to the black ashes of their previous fire. Setting the meat down Cass went to fetch some sticks before returning to the spot. Kneeling down Cass nervously began to try and start a fire by rubbing two sticks together between a thick nest of sticks. The first several attempts did nothing but test Cass's dying patience. But she kept at it, determined to get a fire going. Eventually she spotted a tiny wisp of smoke drifting up from the two sticks. Cass carefully leaned in and began to blow softly on the two sticks until a small flame erupted. Grinning Cass backed away from the fire, giving it time to spread and catch.

Selecting two thicker sticks Cass pireced each stick into the chunks of meat. She then began to roast them over the open fire. From there she simply watched as the fire slowly began to cook the meat. The sun was sinking fast when Darian finally approached asking about how much time had passed and the status of their dinner. "You've been working hard on that skull for a long time. All through the daylight hours. Night is just about to wake." She gestured to the skinned legs resting by the body. "I skinned the legs as best I could. Our meat should be done shortly. So, erm...what exactly did you do to the skull?"

[Darian]

Standing up, he walked over to Cass before plopping down beside her to more enjoy the warmth that was radiating from the fire. The smell of roasted meal caused his hungry stomach to rumble even more, and he liked his lips, before smacking them in anticipation. " It smells like a fine meal you made here " he said with a smile, glancing over at her. The warmth of the fire warmed him to his bones, and he stretched out backwards in a relaxed posture to more enjoy his basking in the flames light. Deep oranges and reds resonated from its center and painted the pair in a warm glow, and he nodded, acknowledging her question, and looking back over at the skull. " I brought out the power of the creature through a rather specific picture, only time will tell what it does " he said with a faint smile, one that told of a history experimenting with such things, and seeing countless trials go this way and that. It was a unpredictable art form but that was the allure of it to him, and it was what he most enjoyed about it, besides the actual process of carving of course. The worse thing the skull could do for his efforts to him was to manifest nothing, and that just simply meant a wasted piece of bone and that he had to try again in hopes of achieving results.

Looking over lovingly at Cass, and slowly moved his hand over hers while he stared into the bright orange flames for a few moments, his mind content to just blankly stare into its destructive beauty. Squeezing her hand softly, he got up and rose to one side of the spit, and turned the stick slightly viewing that the meat was darkening pleasingly to the eye, though he had no chef’s knowledge what so ever and this could actually be not so good for the meat. He was to hungry though to care for tastes, and after a gesture of approval from Cass, lifted the meat from the fire, and stood it up end, to end leaning against a tree to give it a chance to cool off and then placed two of the legs to roast similarly over the fire, while they waited for the others to cool. It would be a fine feast this night with enough meat to last them day's afterwards and sustain their sustenance needs as well as his need for bones for the time being. Figuring the meat had cooled enough by now, he went back and retrieved the two big sticks and gave one to Cass before sitting down beside her, and looking at the steaming chunk of flesh hovering in the air before him, steam radiating from the cooked flesh, and he looked over at Cass, a wide grin evident on his face. " You did well with the cooking " he said with a smile.

[Cass]

She watched as Darian sat down next to her, eagerly eyeing up the meat. Cass shrugged. "I'm just roasting the meat. I've noticed that you like your meat cooked. Actually, I've noticed that a lot of humans prefer roasted meat over raw." She smiled when Darian stretched out, clearly relaxing after a hard day of hunting and skinning. She listened as he explained what he did to the deer's skull. She nodded as she looked over at the skull. "Only time then." She was interested in what powers the skull could possibly hold. But she would just have to be patient and wait to see what would happen. Cass's attention swung back to the meat as Darian sat up and selected his chunk of meat and placed two deer legs over the fire to roast as well. Cass hadn't even thought of cooking the legs! Quietly taking her own chunk of meat she blew on it, giving it time to cool off before biting into it.

Parts of the meat were hot and well cooked but some parts not so much. But Cass didn't really mind. Meat was meat to her, whether roasted or raw. She had spent much of her childhood consuming raw meats from all kinds of animals. Some of which she wouldn't dare share with Darian. No need to talk about such dark and beastly things. Sitting quietly beside Darian Cass hungerily dug into her meat, happily filling her stomach. She was glad that not only was she getting a tasty meal tonight but also now had more meat to share with Darian in the days to come. Darian's compliment on her cooking caused Cass to blush just a tiny bit. "Um, thanks. I, erm, didn't really know much about what I was doing. I kind of was just guessing as I went along."

She sent her gaze up towards the darkening sky. She let out a slow, calm breath of relief now that the annoying sunlight was dying. "Night is approaching. Should we use it to rest or work some more?"

[Darian]

Figuring the meat had cooled off enough by now, he took a big bite out of the tender flesh, and chewed enjoying the taste of food after so long without a meal. The meat tasted a bit tangy from the spots rawness in the center, but he didn't pay too much attention to it, as hunger always trumped taste, and he removed it from the sustaining fire after all so he had no one to blame but himself. Besides raw beat burnt any day, and he was happy for the added filling to his belly and the contentment that spread throughout it. Taking another bite of the juicy meat, and after taking a moment to chew, he looked over to see how Cass was enjoying her meal. " Yes, odd thing about my race, we just can't stomach raw meat for some reason " he said with a smile and jokingly. Taking another hearty bite from the chunk of meat, he chewed thoughtfully and swallowed. " Well my stomach tells me that you are doing fine by it " he added as a compliment to her cooking and offered a loving nudge before digging back into his fine meal before him. The meat tasted even better the more he consumed of it, and the warmness of it spreading throughout his body, and when he had his fill, he set the stick beside him, resuming the relaxing posture as he had before.

" We can use it to do some work on fixing up the camp even more " he suggested looking around and seeing that the defenses could use some improving. Problem was that he wouldn't know where to even start, and he had no knowledge what so ever to add to the working of this endeavor. It couldn't hurt to try however, and the least he could do would give it his best effort, and with that thought in mind he rose up, and took a brief scan of the camp and thought they could probably use some better defense around the parameter of the camp, and some other traps if they could manage it. He had no idea what they would make traps out of thought, maybe some select pieces of wood, and flexible twigs. " What do you think the camp could use protection wise " he asked her curiously while looking around the camp and pacing a tight circle around her, his mind roaming with ideas and possibilities. Maybe if they could get their hands on some twin or some such they could try their hand at creating a trip wire or two about the forest and really foil anybody that would try to steal upon them in the night. The added protection definitely would help him sleep easier at night, and maybe Cass as well.

[Cass]

Cass finished off her chunk of meat, satisfied. Setting her naked stick down she lickd the remaining juice off her lips. "Huh. Yeah. That's weird about your race." Cass just didn't understand what was wrong with raw meats, but she let those thoughts drop away. There were more pressing things to think about. "Well I'm glad your stomach is satisfied. Mine is as well." She gestured over to the nice size stack of meat. "And our stomachs will be satisfied for many dinners to come." Cass felt good. They had gotten what they had come for: meat and bones. She hoped their luck would remain good for as long as they stayed out in the wilderness. During her time with Darian she was slowly beginning to understand the differences in dangers. In Sunberth, like in the wilderness, one had to be alert and aware of thier surroundings. But In Sunberth the predators were humans with sharp blades and in the wilderness predators were animals with twice their collected strength.

Rising to her feet as well Cass took a good look around the camp. Protection. Yes, they needed to focus on making their camp safe from unwanted visitors. And night had a habit of bringing about those unwanted visitors. "Well we could use an unstoppable army of slaves that could do constant rounds around our camp and if an enemy apporaches we could easily sacrifice their lives to save our own..." She paused, seeing where her mind was heading. No. That was not the correct answer to his question. That and they didn't have anyone out here but themselves. "Erm...never-mind. We could, um...make some traps. We'd need some supplies I think."

[Darian]

He laughed softly at her first suggestion at using slaves, and shrugged it off figuring it to be a instinctual response. Her next words proved to be even more useful sounding though for traps would be good to surround themselves with. The only question was how would they make the traps, and out of what materials. Walking forward, and taking long strides, he headed over their little barrier and looked around the wood, making estimations in his head and trying to figure out how everything would exactly work out. Their seemed to be some promising looking vines clinging to the tree, but he didn't know how well they would actually turn out, but with another thought decided that it couldn't really be all that much worse than a length of twine. " Try and collect something sturdy that could easily be made sharper " he asked Cass softly, and idea already taking root in his head as he started off deeper into the woods. Taking out his dagger he began walking along any narrow trails he could find and began trimming the thin, spider web like vines that clung to the trees, and green twigs that littered the forest floor whenever he found them, and stuffed them into his pack for later application. When he had a sack full of the random odd bits of green he could find, he began to make his trek back to the camp, eager to see what all Cass had collected, and what their minds could come up with together. Thoughts of more than one type of swinging traps came to mind, and he knew the afternoon was far from over and there would be much, much more testing of the traps to happen this very night.

[Cass]

Cass cast her gaze downward at Darian's light chuckle concerning her first suggestion. She was actually a bit shocked such an idea came out of her mouth. Maybe she wasn't as different from other Ziths as she thought. Which wasn't a very happy thought but...no. Shoving such trivial thoughts from her mind Cass looked back over at Darian when he gave his order to find something sturdy that could be made sharp. "Okay." Walking back over to her pack she grabbed it, slung it over her shoulder and set out over the barrier and into the wilderness. She looked about the thick forest, trying to find stuff that could be useful and be made into traps. Sturdy items. Sturdy items that can be sharpened. She kept those goals in mind as she slowly searched the wilderness, making sure not to wander off too far away from the camp.

Eventually Cass stumbled upon thick stickes that were most likely branches at some point before they fell off. She collected five thick branches, certain that her claws or Darian's blades could sharpen the ends into a deadly point. She then spotted a few thin rocks. Well, they could probably be sharpened as well. Bending down Cass collected handfuls of thin rocks and placed them within her pack. She then turned around and carefully made her way back to the camp with her items in tow. She found Darian already at the camp, waiting for her. With a small smile Cass hurried up to Darian, showing him the thick sticks first. "I found some sturdy sticks and some rocks that we might be able to sharpen." Setting the sticks down Cass dumped the rocks out of her pack. "I, um...I can go back and keep searching if this isn't enough or what you wanted."