Closed Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

[Lavira]

When Kovac joked about their entertainment the previous evening, Vira grinned back at him, the back of one hand wiping sweat from her brow as she at last pushed the hide off her lap and got to her feet. The wipe had left a bloody smear on her forehead, giving the one-eyed teen even more of a predators glean, as if she’d just finished feasting in the belly of something kind of prey. “Would you prefer I ask ‘is it in yet?’ “ She teased, grinning and grabbing the head of the inside-out hide to drag it to where the Avora now sat. She then fetched his knife and likewise sat down beside him so she could take a breather while he worked.

“Alright. I do want one of the claws, though. Maybe they’ll let you keep the hide as the trophy it is? Be some good bragging rights, if not make a fine new katinu.” She paused, smiling sweetly. “Maybe even two, it’s so big.” She settled back into silence again and leaned her head back against the tree, her eyes closing and her mind soaking up the sounds of the forest.

Now that the chaos had ended, the world began to continue on. Birds came back out and filled the morning air with their songs and small game writhed through the grasses, squirrels chattering noisily as they bounded between trees. A breeze brought the sweet scent of flowers to them and Vira smiled at the scent, wondering where the source was before a thought occurred to her. “I bet that thing is what we smelled yesterday. Smells almost like a skunk, heh.” Her eyes opened and she noticed Kovac had finished. That was good because it was high time they got a move on.

Getting to her feet, Vira offered him a hand so that he too could stand. “If you think you can manage, I would love to keep going, but if not, we can head back to camp and get that scrape cleaned up. The water in the loch might help; salt is good for cleaning wounds and all.” Vira grabbed the cleaned skin now and offered it back to the other hunter before hurrying to get the two bows and other gear from the log he had been at previously. “We can mark this trail as a dead end. It may take a few days for anything worth killing to show back up after a Vecerem was a-“

But the teen was cut off by the low feral snort of something moving through the grass and undergrowth. She looked up, scanning for the source and setting the other bow down to draw an arrow from the quiver and nock it properly, the shaft resting in the groove of the bow itself. From the grove the Vecerem had originally come from, a small buck came a sniffing, his nose too busy in the clover to even notice the two Inarta and dead mustelid. It pulled a mouthful of leafy greens from the ground and chewed contentedly. The deer had no antlers yet, only some velvet stubs that hinted at the coming fall. Its pelt was spotted and his tail longer than a white-tail’s, it wiggling fiercely against his flanks.

It shifted along its path until its back was to the pair, continuing to comfortably graze, blissfully and dangerously oblivious to the killers in his midst.

Such luck they had that the animal would come their way and Vira was determined that this would be her shot. She whispered such to Kovac and shifted her position so that her feet were more balanced and evenly spaced from her shoulders. Her toes were pointed forwards and not to the deer and the womans shoulders were even, creating the desired T for firing. Her chin was positioned directly over her left shoulder, and then adjusted so that her left eye could center better. She double-checked her grip and shifted her bowhand down a bit so that the hold was just between her thumb and index finger, in the meaty portion of her palm.

Vira did not, however, raise the bow, watching the animal and hoping it would change its direction again so that its side would be presented to the pair and not the back. Hitting it in the rump would only cause the animal to bolt and not be brought down, which meant that they would then need to track a wounded deer when one of them was already inhibited in some way. It was these thoughts that hesitated her shooting the animal. Whispering to her new lover, Vira asked, “Think we should? It’ll be a good haul and it looks small enough that we can carry it back. What do you think?”

She left the question open for him to respond, the bow relaxed but ready in case the animal did shift positions to see the pair. Why didn’t it smell all the blood, though? Or the reek of the vecerem? Most predators and prey alike tried to avoid them so why did this one not?

[Kovac]

Kovac laughed at Lavira's snarky comeback to his comment, the comfortable jests regarding his genitals resuming after their first night of lovemaking. He gave his new lover a wink as Lavira delivered the fresh skin, then began scraping any remaining flesh from the hide. He made quick work of it, the finer task of cleaning and tanning would come later.

Kovac allowed Lavira to help him stand, lifting the rolled hide with him. The Avora threw the skin over his shoulder, and started to look around for a stick that he could lean on. Lavira wanted go on, and though the wound was painful, it was not debilitating. She was doing so well, Kovac didn't want to cut short the hunt, they had come so far. The woman stopped mid-sentence, both hunters hearing the animalistic noise. Instinctively, Kovac froze, the knife he readied to sheath gripped tighter in his fist, his eyes seeking out the source of the noise.

A buck emerged, a young handsome creature, woefully immersed in his search for clover. Lavira was already nocking an arrow, and Kovac gave her a smile and a wink as she claimed it as hers. The Avora watched with some pride as the huntress set her stance, the techniques they had worked on together. All the qualities that made her successful in other arena's now played into the task of hunter. Lavira had a gift for patience, not taking the easy shot, knowing that the easy shot was rarely the best. Hers was a calculating mind, one that would make her a hunter that shot little, but made the arrows she released count.

The girl whispered to Kovac for his take on the buck. "You don't pass up a gift like this. Take him my darling." The wounded Avora encouraged his girl. He would not ready his bow, would not try to hit the deer if she missed. Kovac would show now lack of confidence in the teenager. She had earned this chance, and the veteran hunter knew Lavira was ready for it.

[Lavira]

Vira felt a peculiar flutter in her belly when he called her that. Darling. It was such a mature word, reserved for use by those who had spent a lifetime with one another, not just a single night (so far). It made a smile form on her world-weary face before she refocused and set the deer cleanly in her sights. Though small, it had the look of an animal fit and fully capable of bolting in an instant. The young woman prayed that the shot would fly true and the deer would fall. She would feel terrible if she wasted a second arrow for all of this.

The young buck took another step then raised its head as something cracked elsewhere in the quiet wood, something on a branch, perhaps, but not locatable otherwise. His head had turned to the left, large ears thrust towards the noise and nostrils flexing. She could just make out, from here, the animal chewing its cud. It stood there in that stance for several ticks, and in that moment, Vira drew the bow. Her fingers just barely touched her right cheek, the feather tickling her skin and a look of such intense concentration filling her features. She would bring this animal down.

Her muscles trembled at the effort (the Chiet not very used to drawing with the back and not the shoulders) and fingers slick with blood still threatened to release the shot prematurely. But she held steady, gritting her teeth against the discomfort and steadying her aim. She could clearly see the bucks face, silouheted, the throb of its heart beating along the carotid in his neck. She exhaled, her fingers releasing the string at the same time and everything seeming to slow in her calculating mind. She saw the deer begin to lower his head, saw her shot (drawn to its full strength) shoot across the space between them. She could feel the tickle of the feather as it passed her cheek, a hair-pin cut slicing through the skin from not having it anchored properly. The wind was in her favor, and carried the fetched missile straight and true.

Vira stood with bow raised and string still vibrating as the arrow rocketed and the deer flinched at the sound of the twanging bowstring before the shot collided with the skull. There was an bizarre moment where the young buck continued to stand there, an arrow protruding from its temple, before it simply collapsed downwards. It almost looked to have blinked, no less! Maybe it had in the half a tick before it died. Once the body hit the ground, Vira lowered the bow slowly and rhythmically, finishing the exhale. She stood there staring, enthralled for another instant, then turned to look at him, beaming in absolute delight.

"Whoa, did you see that? I was actually aiming for the neck but wow! Right in the skull!" She slung the bow over her shoulder and hurried away from Kovac, her feet light in the summer grass beneath the trees. She dropped down beside the deer and stared in wonder at it. The animal was very much dead, its body completely still and a little bit of blood oozing from its mouth where its tongue hung out onto the grass. "Man, clean kill too!" The teen laughed, taking the bent front legs and rotating the body to the other side to admire the spotted hide. "He's not too heavy either. I can carry him back to camp." Her body pumped full of endorphins, she got back to her feet and turned. The shot had been around twenty yards or so. Not too far, really, but a reasonable shot nonetheless. "Should we clean it here too or do we wanna do it there?"

[Kovac]

The hunters of Wind Reach fell silent, as much an element of the forest as the small deer Lavira targeted with her single vibrant eye. Kovac watched with pride as the girl carefully raised the bow, lean muscles cording up along her slim arms and shoulders to draw back the taut string. the stiff bow creaked softly in protest as the huntress bent the weapon to its full draw. Even when her bundled muscles began to quiver with the strain, she did not loosen the pull.

Kovac's eyes remained not on the prey, but on the Chiet. She was almost glorious at that moment, spattered with the blood of the slain vecerem, pale freckled face dirt stained, her petite body taut, crimson mane unruly, becoming one with the weapon she wielded, her head cocked oddly to set her cycloptic gaze upon her quarry. To the mongrel hunter, Lavira was more beautiful at that moment then all the scantily clad, made-up women of the Inclement Weather.

The bowstring twanged, the arrow whizzed, and ticks later the small buck collapsed into the undergrowth. The radiant smile she beamed at him said it all, and Kovac nodded vehemenly. "Yes, I saw it! Great shot!" Then the girl was gone, bounding herself like a faun over to the fallen game. The powerful bow he had given her had drilled the steel arrow head through the thick bone of the skull to wreck the brain. Lavira's voice was laced with excitement, which only broadened the Avora's own smile.

"Why don't we at least gut it, to make it lighter for you. Then we can finish it up back at camp." He encouraged her, limping over to her side.

[Lavira]

"Alright, sounds like a plan." She replied, standing and moving back to him once more to fetch the hunting knife from him. "That, I do know how to do." She'd gutted enough small game that the difference wasn't that much between those and this deer.

With weapon in hand, she rolled the animal onto its back, turning the body until the head was pointed uphill and the haunches were spread. The took the knife to the sheath and carefully cut the penis and scrotum, removing the shaft and glands and tossing them away for whatever animal might come along. There were only a few animals that Wind Reach hunted whose sexual organs were actually good to eat; the rest of the animals it was counted as offal.

Once the glands were removed, Vira carefully worked the knife around the rectum, turning her head once when some of the gas inside was released to cough against her arm. She held it between two fingers and looked around a moment, thinking. Badgers and coyotes tended to need it tied off, as well, but she had no string with which to do so, and guessed that it would probably be alright if left that way. She shrugged, and continued.

The knife was now cut through the flesh of the belly starting at the groin, flush over the rectum again, and dragged upwards towards the chest cavity, murmuring to herself as she went. "Through to the brisket...don't puncture the stomach..." She took extra care not to do that in particular, the blade slicing shallow through the hide and little belly meat to the gut itself, narrowly missing piercing one of the intestine by millimeters.

During this step, she used her left hand to hold the paunch as she sliced, eventually returning to the groin and laying the knife atop the exposed insides. Vira next dipped her hands carefully inside and took the bladder in palm, using extreme care to not damage the delicate membrane or otherwise spill urine into the cavity and thus spoil the meat. This, she would carefully set aside. They might be able to salvage it and contain it for the processing center too. They occasionally took urine from the kills they were brought for other hunters to use. The tricky part was containing it until they could reach the center.

Once the bladder was out, Vira reached inside the lower body cavity and grabbed the rectum, pulling it back through (a few pellets spilled from the exterior point in the process). Her hands were slick with blood and she paused to wipe them on the grass this time before continuing. She grabbed the deers legs and rolled it onto its side towards her. Then, the teen settled onto her rump, aimed her foot, and then slammed it into the solar plexus of the dead buck, breaking it and the sternum and weakening a few of the ribs in the process.

Rotating back onto her knees, she took the knife in hand again and cut through the tissue of the sternum to open the ribcage up more, giving her access to this. Mostly, it was to open the insides up so she could see more. Once done, Vira pulled up on the topside and used her hand to tear the fibers connecting the belly organs to the abdominal walls, effectively freeing the guts from the deer. She got to her feet after this, rolled the animal, and repeated the process with the opposite side of the deer.

Once all of this had been managed, Vira grabbed up her knife and reached inside the buck to feel along the interior, making certain that all the tissue had been torn free, especially from the backbone. Now that all the organs were free, Vira pulled the whole of the guts out, an heavy pile of offal now laying on the ground before her. She picked through the guts and began pulling out key pieces that she knew they could save, maybe even eat off of tonight.

From the pile, she pulled the heart, liver, both kidneys, thymus glands from the belly and heart, and stomach. Vira cut the stomach off the small intestine and rubbed it between her hands, concentrating. She was feeling for the tripe content, wondering if it would be worth taking with them. if not, she would leave it here with the rest of the offal. The brains, marrow, and tongue could all be carved out at camp.

With the deer now completely gutted, the Chiet grabbed the heart and turned to Kovac, her face stained with sweat and a streak of blood from when she'd wiped her brow dripping down the side of her face. "I heard that sometimes, if you eat the heart of your kill immediately, you gain some of its strengths. I don't know if it's true, but..." She wiggled her eyebrows in challenge. "I will if you will."

[Kovac]

Kovac handed the hunting knife once again to Lavira, watching her dance over the forest floor to her kill. The Avora hobbled behind, leaning against another tree. He looked down at the bandaged leg, adjusting the makeshift dressing with a small hiss of pain, before turning to watch Vira gut the young buck. With her usual diligence, the falconer-turned-hunter applied her experience with smaller game to the larger deer. Behind her back, Kovac beamed with pride. His friend was no longer the frail victim of a tragic fall and heart-wrenching betrayal. She was self-sufficient, deadly efficient, and, turns out, a damn good lover.

Lavira also proved to be a bit sassy. Once she gutted the animal, she picked up the warm heart and held it aloft. The petite ginger looked all the gruesome ghoul, smeared in blood and gore, bloody knife in one hand, the fresh organ in the other. Kovac loved it. But her next dare was truly a challenge. The Avora hunter had never eaten the raw organ of a kill. He had heard some say they had, most hunters knowing the old myth about gaining the strengths of a kill by dining on its still beating heart. But Kovac was not about to be outdone by the teenage girl, and with a huffing laugh and a nod, he agreed.

"OK, but this doesn't mean we are married or anything, right?" He teased, limping over to her. Leaning on the stick, he knelt down next to her. "Since you already have it, you go ahead. Like they say, ladies first!" Kovac shot her a wry grin.

[Lavira]

Vira would never have said she was a 'damn good lover'. She was still wading through virgin waters and her experience could not match the Avora mixed blood standing nearby watching her work. She understood the concept of the act and how the bodies went together, and in turn understood that what they had shared yesterday afternoon and then later that same night had been...very intimate. But lusty thoughts did not linger overlong in the young womans mind as she held the heart for him.

Vira's eyes went wide when he mentioned marriage, and immediately, the teen shook her head. "Uh no; we would definitely not be married. You're a sweet man, Kovac, but I'm about as far from ready for that kind of commitment as I can get right now. I barely make it day to day as it is!"

His inclination to let her go first made her laugh and without pause, she brought the still warm heart up to her mouth, wrinkled her nose a little at the smell of the blood that close, then took a sizable bite out of it. She chewed for several moments, the pace at which she did so slowing significantly until, with a wrinkle of distaste, she forced it down with a hard swallow and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Heh, I think I prefer it well done." She handed him the heart so he could do his part in the challenge, grinning somewhat before at last returning to the dead deer.

"So I guess we can just put the organs we'll be keeping back inside? Or could we wrap the interior of vecerem hide around it maybe?" She continued on this track of thinking out loud as she stood with hands upon her hips, one finger tapping thoughtfully against the bryda. It was during this study of the animal that she noticed something odd about its nose. Vira knelt back beside it and rotated the bucks head so that she could see into one of the nostrils. "Huh."

Her finger felt along the immediate interior of it but no further (not particularly interested in getting deer boogers on her hands) before sitting back. "Does his head look funny to you?" She asked him, holding the head up. The nostrils were broader than usual but could be attributed to any number of factors, none of which had much to do with the more obvious aspect. The deers sinus cavities looked swollen, protruding farther than they should against that slender face. "The lungs didn't look abnormal..."

[Kovac]

Kovac nodded and laughed at Lavira's response to his jibe about marriage. Neither of them seemed ready to mar their newfound affections by such sober talk of commitment, and the hunters quickly moved onto the challenge at hand, the raw heart in the girl's clutch. Vira didn't balk at the Avora's invitation to take the first bite, and the falconer sunk her teeth into the warm, bloody organ. Deep red rivulets ran down her chin, as she gnawed on the sizeable chunk she bit off. Kovac's smile increased in length as time went on, lips parting to show teeth when, with a grimace, Lavira swallowed the fresh flesh.

He took the heart from Vira, his smile waning as he looked at the organ, a hole rent in it by the girl's small mouth. Kovac's eyes darted to Lavira, then he tore off his own bite of the cooling flesh. It tasted very much like blood, which may or may not have been a blessing. The texture was tough, and he decided to chew on it only enough for it to be choked down. His head tilted back and the heartflesh was forced down his gullet, his own face and hands matched Lavira's in gory crimson stains. He too tried to wipe away the blood before answering the Chiet's question about the rest of the organs.

"We can carry them in the vecerem hide, easier that way I think." Kovac unrolled the skin and helped Lavira pack the rest of the useful organs into the center of the hide. Then they folded the ends in and rolled it up again, the treasures packed safely inside. Once the carcass was ready and Lavira bore the deer over her shoulders, Kovac took up the fur again, steadying himself with the stick he had found. "Now lets get back before something else shows up. We have run out of arms to carry dead things."

[Lavira]

He did not remark on the nostrils so Vira shrugged it aside and helped him get the organs into the vecerem hide. This didn't take all that long and once it had been secured and he had it up off the ground, Vira gathered the deer and draped it over her shoulders, her hands holding the haunches and front legs closed with the head bouncing against her collarbone.

With everything ready, Vira turned back towards where the vecerem had been left and was about to whistle Tulaj over when she saw the bird pecking at the bare meat of the kill; he had a little bit of meat on his beak and another piece gripped in his talons. "Oi!" She called out, the come command given; but the albino did not respond, peeling another strip of flesh off and tipping his head back to work it down his throat. "Stupid bird...OI! Tulaj!" The command was made again and the teen shifted her stance to balance the deer better and hold it with one hand. She extended the sontav-wrapped limb and called him one last time since the second still had not called him over.

Only then did the raptor bother looking up, a bit of blood on his snowy face. He swallowed this last scrap, walk-hopped to the head of the carcass and flagged his tail over it, relieving himself. The sight was so absurd that Vira could only thing to place her hand over her face in embarrassment. "Maybe he was a cock in a past life...or a rat." The whoosh of wings approaching quieted her and she hastily extended her arm once more, turning her head slightly when he beat at her face with his wings.

With the harrier now in tow and their kills ready for toting, Vira led the way back to camp, her single eye picking out a trail through the underbrush that would be easiest for her handicapped partner. During the walk, she brought up the story of a trip to the Suren Cliffs when the weather had been especially unbearable.

"I actually ran into Endal Aidara there; we got a couple of good dives in and were having such a blast when some lady started shouting at the shoreline." She ducked under a fallen tree that had wedged itself in the branches of another tree. "We swam to the rocks; come to find out, her kid was missing! I sent Tulaj up to look from above and for some reason, I dove in after to see if searching the water ourselves would help. I was glad Aidara was there and felt awful silly for having gone back in. I never would have saw the boy without her and Tulaj's help. For all his weird and crazy quirks, he is a very smart bird."

"We managed to get the boy back to the rocks together. I didn't know the Endal was a healer, or maybe it just never occurred to me. There'd been a lot to happen during that...those days." Referring to earlier in the season when the accident happened. "Maybe for the best, I guess, I haven't seen her since then, and I've only seen that kelvic-mount of hers a couple times. Endal Sira I think is her name."

The trees were thinning out and Vira could hear the low whisper of water on rocks, her head nodding in that direction. "Almost out; you doing okay? How's your leg?"

[Kovac]

Once they were loaded, and that ornery harrier was lured from the vecerem flesh, the pair headed out. Kovac plodded along behind Lavira, trying to keep balance while keeping weight off of his injured leg, shifting the vecerem hide on his shoulders to help keep equilibrium. He could see the Chiet carefully selecting her steps, knowing that the wounded Avora was walking in her footsteps. It was painful going, not only slowed by the pain in Kovac's bandaged lacerations, but both encumbered by the prizes they garnered on the hunt.

Gratefully, Lavira began to tell a story about the Suren Cliffs, and Kovac focused on her feminine voice to draw attention away from the sting of his wounds. But he did not expect the story to include Aidara. The mention of the healer's name opened a floodgate of emotions inside Kovac's chest. Aidara had been an ongoing episode with Kovac. They were friends, for sure. They fought like siblings. They flirted heavily, brazenly, such that Shayth had nearly beaten him to death after just a kiss between them. Aidara had warned him Shayth was no good for him, in the ended, she was proved right.

But, after the Djed Storm and his time away at Thunder Bay, Kovac had returned changed, and away from Shayth. He had sought out Aidara, finally ready to be with her like they had taunted each other for so long. Addy and Sira were very open, and the Endal and Kovac had finally consummated the desires they had shared, and fought over, for seasons. They confessed love. It wasn't like the love he had for Euthisa, or Lavira. It was profoundly Inartan, not the 'be with me forever' kind of love. It was a strange flex of deep friendship, one they could express physically. Then she disappeared. Kovac had been devastated, but was refused permission to seek her, as was Sira.

Kovac walked silently for a chime after Lavira finished. Then his voice lifted, more sullen. "Aidara was a good, good friend. She saved my life once, when I was bitten by a poisonous snake. I miss her."

The hunter too noticed the edge of the forest nearing. He nodded to Vira. "Yeah, it hurts, but I can make it." He replied. "But, I don't think I will be making any more ventures into the woods on this trip." He tried to brighten his voice. "You did great, Vira. No doubt you will be a good hunter."