"Will you... Maledict it for me too?"
A season ago, Razkar would have stared blankly at her words. But now, after nearly a year among the barbarians, he nodded slowly instead.
Malediction, they call it. A strange, almost medical term for the Power of Bones...
"It is... possible," he said eventually, but his pause hinted otherwise.He scratched under his chin, eyeing the still carcass critically, raking his gaze across it until they rested on the wetly-shining tusks. "But there is risk. When work Power of Bones, bring back spirit... and anger. Remember what happen to it."
He inhaled sharply, straightening up with a new confidence in his eyes. Gone was the almost-fearful introspection, the savage afraid of some ken beyond his own. He had been working djed onto bone since he'd walked into Mayla's hut with his mother, many years ago. One boar would not defeat him.
But what if it could harm her? She will be the wearer, not you.
"If was bone like human or Zith, it would be too much risk .Too much djed." He said, free hand starting to bunch up fur so the skin along the stomach would be nice and tight for his blade, "But for animal? Not too hard." He flicked a glance it, gladius wavering just above the skin already gaining the blue tinge of Dira. "And... is gift. Way to say I... appreciate. Worth risk."
A smile curled up his lips and he turned to their meal for many, many nights to come. Arm taut, he aimed the razor-sharp tip at the nape of the boar's neck, felt his muscles tighten and ready to-
"Wouldn't it be easier-"
-pause, as a matter of fact. He turned at her words, blinking back his surprise, and found Edreina rapidly turning the color of the blood soaking around them. Finally she found her voice, Myrian paused ridiculously with his gladius a riamm's hair from the boar's flesh.
"I- I mean on the Anchorage... When a shark is killed we hang it up by the tail so that the guts pretty much fall out... A-and then you can just... peel the skin down... It seems like that would be a lot easier..."
"I... saw that. Once."
He did, too. He remembered, far from dirt and trees and hairy hooved beasts, a place that was an island but not an island. Ships but the hundred tethered together, from canoes to galleys, and countless thousands of wild-haired Svefra scuttling over each one. Anchorage. The beating (or, rather, floating) heart of the Sea People.
No, he thought wryly, that would be the Suvan itself. Vast and eternal as their God.
"Saw men bring big shark from boat," he said, lowering his gladius minutely, lips moving but eyes almost glaze, remembering and planning at the same time, "They tied tope to tail... five men, pull him over mast... then..."
He mimed slitting his own stomach open, throat to groin, and the tumbling of guts and half-digested fish and stinking effluence. He'd smelled that for days afterwards, no matter how much he scrubbed. But, Razkar had to admit, it was a good method...
And he had rope.
Razkar bounded away back to their impromptu little tent, tanned legs gliding over the swaying shrubbery around them. He was a flurry of movement now, Edreina's head twisting as she followed his progress, first there, then jumping, now rummaging through his rucksack, striding back... with a length of rope ten feet long in his hands.
"OK..." He said, half to himself, seeming to enjoy using that strange barbarian expression (Does it qualify as one? It's only two letters...). "Now for funt part..."
Razkar tied a noose in one end and looped it tight around the boar's back legs at the ankles. Then he threw the end over a nearby low-hanging branch, pulling it taut and straight... then dug his damn heels in.
"One... two... three-!"
The Myrian heaved and his arms rippled, biceps and triceps suddenly stark and pumped like balloons as he jerked back. The boars legs swung into the air, along with half its body... and then it slowed... progress stopped...
Razkar let out a shuddering breath a between teeth biting into his gums, sheer bloody-minded determination on his face alongside a mask of sweat. He stepped back... and back... and back... one... after... another...
Until the whole boar was swinging, a chime or two later, front paws just barely scraping the ground, blood dripping down the fur on them to pool on the ground. Razkar let himself go down to his knees, eyes scrambling through the dirt for a root, finding one, trying to strain with one arm-
-until cool, confident pale hands took the other end of the rope, letting him use two hands to keep the boar suspended. His breaths came out harsh and ragged, arms already on fire as acid started to seep into his veins, almost as much sweat on him as blood on the boar...
But he didn't look away as he watched able, nimble fingers tie a classic seaman's knot to a half-buried root as thick as his arm, then patting his forearm as a silent signal-
-for him to let go-
-rope going tight, branch creaking, boar jiggling-
-but staying up. Vertical at last.
The Svefra and the Myrian exchanged a surprised look and then the shock became breathless giggles until they fell against each other, her forehead on his shoulder as he breathed the fire from his own body. So tired... Goddess, but he was still enough of himself to notice her warmth, the smoothness of her...
Damn. Fucking pig still needs gutting.
"OK..." He said again, rising with a minor roar and a smile and a trembling in his aching legs, gladius singing a querulous song as he unsheathed it. "Now we try messy part again."
He stood before the boar, steadied it with one hand, and plunged the gladius into it just below its shriveled penis. Silently begging a fellow male's apology, Razkar gripped it with both hands now, feet ready to move and move fast-
-as he jerked down hard with all his strength, tearing a thick gash straight down until he hit the boar's jaw-
-sliding to the side fast-
-as a familiar stinking tide exploded from the disemboweled carcass.
The stench hammered his senses like a palpable fist, wave of nausea threatening to bring forth stinging bile to his throat. The Myrian coughed it back and stood his ground, glaring at the lumps of organs and ropes of intestines that were soon piled on the ground, coated and accompanied by gallons of blood. He heard retching from behind him and cast a sympathetic glance to Edreina... but let her be.
"I know, I know," he said with familiar weariness, sighing and stepping closer, "Messy. But worth it."
From then on, it was silent, bloody and tedious work that we will not over-burden the record with. Imagine, if you will, the Myrian's dagger - a thinner, more delicate blade - slicing under the thick fur, sliding it in the layer of fat that fixed it to muscle. It was long, careful work, as he did not wish to mar the fur. Within half a bell, most of the pelt was laid out, flesh-and-fat smeared underside glistening in the sun.
Then came the meat, the real crux and objective of their bells and bells of tracking, hiding, stalking...
Petch it. Razkar was already licking his lips. Grilled and seasoned properly, boar was...
"You are in for a treat, Edri," he mumbled, slicing off hunks of meat from the ribs and stomach of the swinging boar, then hacking off the legs, now shorn of fur. "This is fine meat. Much better than fish..."
A bells after making that first long gash, a sweating, smelling Razkar crouched before something that could be liberally described as a dead pig. Without fur and legs, though, it was just a massive, scavenged hulk. Only the relatively pristine head showed it for what it was... and that was about to change.
"One more thing..."
His dagger ground and worked in the snout, and part of Razkar was glad the beast was dead, spared this agony. His dagger dug deeper around each tusk until the firm spikes of bone came looser in his hands... he gripped each one in turn and twisted... twisted-
CRACK!
-until they came off, bottom of each glistening and mounted with a tuft of fur and dead muscle. He tucked them into his rucksack, then stood, breathless satisfaction jarring on that face that was so dirtied with the interior of the carcass.
"OK..." He said, wiping a filthy brow with an even filthier forearm, and nodding to his partner. "Wrap meat, wrap fur... and find petching place to wash, I think..."
