Season of Fall, Day 46, 513 AV
Jorin grinned slightly when he noticed Rinya's slightly dazed look, and her cute little shake of her head, after he had whispered in her ear. He'd only done that because he liked hugging her, and her smell was almost intoxicating, but he hadn't realized that his action could have such an effect on her. He made a note to do it more often in the future.
Cutting with the grain of the meat. Right. Jorin picked up the fish and examined it, then positioned the knife, sinking first the tip in and then slowly carving the flesh off. It was slow going, and the cut was uneven. Jorin figured this probably came with practice. On occasion he'd chop too thin, and end up slicing off a little bit of skin but leaving the rest intact, forcing him to start over, other times he gouged a bit too deep, and taking off some meat with it.
Jorin was very careful to keep his other hand away from the sharp edge of the knife. He had no problems handling blades when it came to preparation of food; he only disliked edged weapons when it came to combat because of their potential to kill people. But the fish was already long-dead, so there was no reason for him not to use the right tool for the job. Nonetheless blades were, by nature, quite dangerous, and he didn't want to risk injuring himself.
Jorin grumbled under his breath as he cut off the last of the skin from one half of the fish. The cut was anything but clean; he had to scrape with the edge of the knife to get some of the bits of the skin off, and there were indentations here and there where his cut hadn't been the straightest. He'd done his best to cut with the grain of the flesh and as close to the skin as possible, but the end-result was uneven. Sighing, he turned the fish over.
Determined to do better the second time, Jorin concentrated a bit, this time sinking the tip into the skin nearing where the head would have been, at a corner where he could "flip over" the skin above the knife. Then he tried an almost sawing motion with the knife, slowly peeling the skin back. It took several chimes of this, but it was certainly much more efficient, as the skin peeled off in a much more even fashion. Jorin was about to rejoice when his hand slipped, the blade of the knife slicing into the flesh of the fish and the skin of the fish tore.
"Shyke!" Jorin swore, before giving Rinya an apologetic smile.
"Sorry, didn't mean to swear there," he apologized, and growled at the fish. This was such slow going! He was sure if Rinya had been doing this they'd be eating already, and he could swear their stomachs were growling in anticipation already.
Jorin glared at the knife for its impertinence, before carefully wrenching it free of the fish, and trying to find a good angle to resume his cut. The angle he found wasn't the best, much steeper than he would've liked, and it took off half an inch of perfectly good fish, but at least he was able to finish removing the skin. Tossing the skin into the bag with the rest of the remains, Jorin sighed and grimaced at the result. It did not resemble a fish in the least, with uneven cuts all over it, sliced in two places, and missing a head and tail, the poor fish looked more like a murder victim.
Jorin chuckled a bit, looking at the result of his handiwork. He could imagine Rinya probably saw this entire thing as an exercise in futility, since Jorin was fairly certain as an osprey she likely just ate the whole fish, skin and all. But Jorin was sure his technique at de-skinning a fish would get better with time and practice. And besides, if this became a regular thing for them, they'd be able to save a little money by not always going to the butcher's for food.
"Ok, so the next thing is to skewer them on a couple of sticks..." Jorin looked around. No sticks in sight.
"I'm sure we probably have a few lying around in the garden," he mused. Jorin kissed Rinya on the cheek before dashing out to their small garden, puttering around until he found a few stray twigs that looked long and straight enough. He came back, displaying his finds proudly, and picked up his knife and started whittling the twigs, letting the shavings fall into the cooking fire.
Jorin remembered Kirsi doing something somewhat similar when she was carving her small comb, and he made sure to whittle away from his fingers so as not to repeat what Kirsi had done and "practice on his finger". He also remembered Kirsi saying that it was best to do this sort of thing on a flat surface but he didn't want random twig pieces in his fish, so he decided to take a small risk and do it over the fire where the shavings could be consumed.
After he got the ends of his twigs sufficiently sharp, Jorin went back to where Rinya was standing and handed her all but one of the twigs.
"Well, let's see if this works!" Jorin took a tiny handful of salt, sprinkled it onto one of the fish pieces, and then skewered it lengthwise on the stick. The fish didn't skewer all the way, and he had to basically skewer it again before it would stay on the stick, but eventually he got it mostly on. Then he walked over to the fire and used a few of the fireplace stones to prop the stick up so that the fish was hanging over it.
"I guess... now we wait?" Jorin shrugged. He didn't want to risk the rest of Rinya's fish until he knew this would work, so he walked back over the bucket and rinsed his hands again, indicating with his head that Rinya could do the same if she wished. He'd probably have to replace that water soon if this kept up, as it was starting to get a bit discolored.
"So how was your day today, Rinya?" Jorin asked, as the fire crackled cheerfully below him. He'd taken to leaning up against the wall near it, but his eyes were focused on Rinya. He always did like this dress of hers, it really accentuated her features nicely and made her look both innocent and sensual at the same time.
But it really didn't matter what she wore. Even in her normal work clothes, Jorin was always struck by how beautiful she was, how strong she was, physically and mentally and emotionally. There were at least two occasions when Jorin was sure he wouldn't have been able to handle himself if she hadn't been there next to him. Her very presence was an enormous comfort, and it astonished him that no other man had snatched her up before he managed to get to know her.
"I really am a lucky guy," he murmured to himself as he continued to look at her, not realizing that he'd said it out loud.
