Foolish Mistake (Closed)

[Talhar]

Talhar stared in disbelief at the courage, or insanity, of the woman as she faced the boar head-on with only a small knife in her hands. The boar's tusks easily outmatched that knife in every aspect yet she stood there, seemingly fearless.

Talhar realized he had to do something, as the boar charged her Talhar readied his shot. Afraid he might her he waited for the right moment. Dodging the attack of the boar, Iris jumped to the weak side of the boar. Perhaps deliberatly, perhaps not, and shrieked at him to shoot it.

Talhar's free arm was already stretched out and aiming for the centered area of the boar's head, so he had a little wiggleroom in case the javelin flew slightly out of bull's eye. Luckily for him the boar raged and stomped his hoof repeatedly into the ground, which was intimidating, sure, but foolish nonetheless. Giving Talhar the perfect situation to fire his javelin at this range would prove to be fatal.

Talhar threw the javelin with all his might and roared as it flew from his hand and sunk itself into the boar's righteye, the entire metal spike and a small portion of the bamboo handle aswell was lodged inside the boar's brain. It stood frozen still for a second before collapsing on it's leftside with a loud thump. It had been dead before it had hit the ground.

[Iris Dove]

Iris sat up on the cold ground, her hands behind her body, supporting her, her heart beating through her chest, he breath coming in shallowly. She watched as Talhar took aim, and pierced the boar yet again. This time, it sank to the ground, dead. That was close, too close, she thought to herself, as she got up and walked over to it, brushing some dirt that had clung to her white dress away from it. She nudged it with her left foot, yup, it was dead alright.

Iris placed her left hand above the boar's right eye, and grabbed the bottom of the javelin with her left, and slowly pulled it out. It was dripping with blood, when she dropped it on the ground next to the boar. Then she walked over to the javelin which had pierced the boar's leg, and pulled that out as well. It also, was dripping with blood. She tossed it next to the other one she had pulled from the carcass before walking over to the pond to rinse her hands, and drink some water, hoping that it would help her calm down. It didn't all it managed to do was make her feel colder.

As she knelt by the side of the pond, she turned to look behind her again. Talhar was standing behind her, staring, "something wrong?" she asked, as she slowly got to her feet so that they were level with one another.

[Talhar]

His heart was still racing through his chest and adam's apple seemed lodged inside his throat. He hadn't been in such a close combat with a wild animal for a long time and it seemed the sensation was all new to him.

He turned to face Iris to respond to her question but his mind was still dazed and unable to think clearly.

' Euh, yeah...yeah! I'm fine, just a bit dazed from the adrenaline you see. '

His throat was sore and his voice scratchy, it took him a while to realize Iris just drank from the pond, which seemed like a mighty good idea to him right about now. He approached Priskil's Pond and drank from its water once again, following with dipping his head into the small lake.

He let out a weary and heavy sigh as he resurfaced and shook his head slowly.
Standing back up he retrieved the two javelins from next to the boar's body and placed them inside the large quiver on his back.

" Do you want to use the body for anything? Like skinning or stripping its meat to sell? Or rather go back to Syliras right away? "

[Iris Dove]

Iris stared at Talhar as he answered her question, saying he was fine, it was just the adrenaline, as though she truly needed to be told. She could just make out the sound of his heart pounding in his chest. After hearing the scratchy nature of his voice, she watched as he took a drink of water, and then dipped his face in the pond, in order to refresh himself.

Iris was surprised, surely the encounter with the boar wasn't affecting him that much? After all, it didn't even come close to killing him.

Iris then watched him retrieve his two javelins, and put them back in his quiver. He then asked her if she wanted to head to Syliras right away, or use the boar's body for something useful.

Iris looked up at Talhar, her black eyes never leaving his own. They seemed slightly haunted. She could hear his stomach emitting loud rumbling noises. "You seem hungry," she began, "perhaps we should eat a bit before heading to Syliras, we wouldn't get too far on empty stomachs, now would we?" she asked, as she walked back over to the tree line and began to collect more kindling, forming a large pile by their old fire.

[Talhar]

" Aye, I am. I'll skin the boar and cut out some meat so we have something to eat. Or perhaps you're better at that than I am? I have never learned to skin or butcher an animal myself actually. "

He looked at Iris who was busy gathering the right branches to build a fire. She was a Kelvic and seemingly at ease and at peace in the wilds he thought. It could very realisticly be that she was the better hunter and survivalist amongst the two.

[Iris Dove]

Iris looked up from her work. She held a few branches in her hands, as she stood before her pile, she dropped them and stared at Talhar as he told her that he'd never learned how to skin an animal. How on earth didn't he know how to do that? Well, not that she was particularly good at it either, but she did have some idea, she'd watched some of her masters skin various animals, and scale fish often enough.

Since she didn't have the proper tools, she was going to have to improvise. She walked over to the tree line, and picked up two long branches, which had a fork on one end, and dug each into the ground, as close to the boar as she could, as deep as they would go. Then she walked back over to the tree line, and picked out a large sturdy branch, she placed it into the forked side of each of the branches she had dug into the ground, so that they formed a sort of square shape, if you counted the ground. Then she walked over to another tree which was covered in strong, green vines, and tugged them off. When they had fallen to the ground, she asked Talhar to help her pick off the leaves, before she tightly tied one end of the vine to the foundation she had created. She started to wind the other portion through the boar's nostrils, and when it was wound tightly and tied down, she asked Talhar to help her move the boar under the structure they had made.

When that was done, she started to turn the branch that the boar hung from, so that the extra bits of vine would wrap around it, and eventually allow the boar to hover slightly off the ground. Perhaps noticing how much it tired her, Talhar switched for a moment with her and finished the job. Iris thanked him, as she took out her eating knife, and cut a ring that started beneath the boar's right ear, and continuing all the way around the neck, and keeping underneath the left ear. The effect was a sort of bloody necklace.

Next, Iris used her knife to cut rings around the top of each leg, where it met the body. She held the knife at an angle, to make sure she wouldn't hit the boar meat, as she then cut a similar ring just above the each of the boar's knees. She then connected these rings with a shallow straight cut. After that, Iris began to peel off the skin using the knife to cut our all of the boar's fat, ripping it away from the boar's body with her bare right hand, and allowing it to fall to the ground next to her. Using her knife, she cut the hide into one and a half inch strips down the body, having begun from the blood necklace she created earlier.

Iris held the top of each of the skin strips, and delicately peeled them down. She was sweating slightly, due to her increased level of concentration, and was biting her bottom lip. She didn't seem to be blinking. She peeled each of the strips off as carefully as she could. Pulling off any more fat that she spotted along the way. She kept going until she had skinned the entire boar.

When she had finished, she ran her finger along the blade of her eating knife, it had gone dull, it didn't even make a cut. Great, she thought, she'd have to sharpen it. "Think you can do the rest?" she asked Talhar as she looked around on the ground for a rock that she could sharpen her knife on. When she did, she drew the blade over it, over and over, testing the blade with her finger every few minutes. She stopped when it could draw blood again, and rinsed everything off in the pond water.

[Talhar]

Talhar applauded Iris accompanied by a genuine smile. He was impressed with the little Kelvic dove. After she finished stripping the boar of it's furr and skin she asked whether Talhar could do the rest or not. Not sure if he would do it properly but eager to try it out he took out his own knife out of his belt and walked around the boar to inspect it and decide what pieces of meat looked best to carve out and roast.

He decided he'd cut meat from the boar's fat thighs, carefully slashing thick plaques of meat from the boar he smiled slightly as the work he was doing pleased him. New to him and with a fast, and hopefully juicy, result he enjoyed it. He didn't feel emotion towards the boar's gruesome fate for he was merely doing what needed to be done to survive.

Nonetheless he stared for a moment when his eyes met the boar's black eyes. Quickly shrugging it off he continued with his work 'till he had enough food to fill both their stomaches for sure.

" Done, we can use my javelins to pierce some meat on it and hang it above a fire to cook it. "

[Iris Dove]

"Sounds good," Iris said as she got up from the pond, a few droplets of water dripping off her fingertips as she placed her eating knife back in its rightful place. She walked over to the remnants of their last fire, and realized that they were going to need more than kindling to get another one going.

Frustrated by her long blonde hair, consistently relentless when it came to getting in her way, she flipped it behind her head and ducked into the forest, calling over her shoulder, "out to get some more fire wood," in the hopes that Talhar may actually hear her.

As she walked, she heard a few fallen leaves crunch beneath her feet as she scanned the ground with her black eyes looking for fire wood. It took her a while, but she found a few branches that had fallen from a maple tree. They had small twigs growing off them, which held a few leaves each, hence her knowing it was a maple tree. She bent down and pulled all the twigs and leaves away from the main branch, before picking them up in, and cradling them in her good arm, she felt so useless now that she couldn't use her other arm as much. Oh well, that's what she gets for flying into a javelin, she thought as she sighed and headed back to where Talhar was busy carving up the beast.

Iris couldn't help but smile, and giggle slightly as she dropped the firewood next to the collection of kindling she had gathered earlier, the man was a mess. At least he could kind of cut the meat ok, she thought.

[Talhar]

' Out to get some more wood. ' was the last thing he heard of Iris before she vanished between the trees and bushes. Not really knowing what to be doing now he started piercing the slices of meat on javelins, after finishing the little chore he pressed the buttend of the javelins into the relatively soft soil. It was only after doing that that he realized he was pretty much covered in blood.

Before he had the chance to go wash up and cleanse his clothes in the pond Iris had returned, if it wasn't for her giggling he wouldn't even had noticed. Making a mental memo to train his hearing somehow he smiled at the cheerful, and probably mocking, Iris. She was alot prettier when she smiled Talhar thought as he watched her drop the wood on the pile of kindling from before.

Lowering his gaze he was reminded of the way he looked and quickly took off his brown vest and shirt before announcing to Iris that he was going to wash up for a bit.

Slowly wading into the cold water with only his pants and belt on he started to cleanse himself of the blood on his hands and arms. The water was cold but refreshing, and the temperature grew on him after a while so he stayed in the pond for longer than was actually needed.

Coming out from the water he lowered his head and shook it to get most of the water out of his hair and face before picking up his clothes and dipping them in the water to get some of the blood out of the vest.

" Aaahhh, that was great. " He exclaimed as he walked back.

[Iris Dove]

Iris simply stared at Talhar after she had finished putting down the firewood, he was simply covered in blood. Surely, he could have done a better job, she kept thinking to herself, as he said that he was going for a little swim in the pond to clean himself off.

Iris watched Talhar wade into the water, in just his pants and his belt, scrubbing the blood from his body with his hands. Wasn't that heavy? She thought to herself. Don't clothes get heavier in water? I'm surprised they don't simply drag him down, she kept thinking as she sat beside the pile of wood. When Talhar had finished scrubbing his body, he walked back out of the pond, shook himself off like a dog, which made a smile run across her face for just an instant, before he made sure to clean his clothes. The water droplets that had collected on his back were shimmering in the sunlight as he bent over the pond, and scrubbed them clean to the best of his ability, his wet clothes clung tightly to his skin, as some of the excess water dripped off of them and onto the soil.

Iris just watched him, knowing that she wouldn't be able to make the fire herself. Besides, he'd done a decent job before, surely he could manage that. When it looked like he had finished with everything, she called, "think you can get a fire going?" as she got up and started to pick up some more kindling, to make it look like she was actually being useful, as opposed to as useless as she felt.