章節 19: Field dressing

The group sat down to rip apart the beast without a care in the world. Seeing this, Grace stepped in. "You all! You all are about to ruin the meat! Do you have any idea of how to carve up a hunt?" They all looked at each other in confusion.

"Is it not enough to just.. You know, cut off a piece of meat?" Grace palmed her face in her hand so hard you could hear a smack. Looking at them through the gaps in her fingers, she said very lowly. "You all are grown ass adults and do not know how to prepare a hunt… Get out of my way, I'll do it. If you all want to help. Cut off those legs and do those." She said in an aggravated tone. She's just about had it with these idiots by now, none of them being even remotely adept at hunting. Thought.. They were useful in the melee. The men all look at eachother and shrug their shoulders, who are they to argue if someone wants to do the hard work? Smiling, they use an ax to cut off the legs, then leave her alone. Seeing this, the sole woman nods and sits down in front of the beast, ready to carve it open. She's surprised when a small silhouette with dark hair sits down beside her.

"What are you doing?" The child asks her. Looking at him through the corner of her eyes, she harrumphs.

"Fine, kid, I'll teach you how to cut open a hunt. Listen closely, this will be the one and only time I'll teach you." The child looks speculatively at her for a moment, before a grin split his features.

"Mm! You can count on me! I'll be more silent than a mouse!" The woman gives him a 'look', and he immediately puts his hands on top of his mouth in realization. A muffled 'Sorry' coming from his mouth. Grace nods in satisfaction at that, then puts all of her attention at the corpse in front of her. And what a corpse it is. Thick dark pelt covers the entirety of the corpse, though spotted with purple blood in places where the beast had been wounded by swords and arrows. Grace opens one of the beast's eyes and touches it gently, noting that it doesn't move at all. Lukas takes all of this in as she explains.

"You've probably heard that the eyes are the windows to our souls" The woman asks rhetorically. "In hunting, it is even more true. If the eyes of the animal are closed, it is most likely still alive. And if touching the eye causes any movement, it is definitely alive" The woman told him. "Though, I, for one, would never move close to a beast as big as this one if I thought it even remotely had a spark of life in it" She chuckles.

"Now, we're going to open it up. Watch closely as I explain what I do here…" The child looked on with fascination as she cut open the beast and all of its entrails fell out. It was at that moment that Lukas knew what he wanted to be in life. To be as cool and calm as Ragnar and Grace, they had both been absolute pillars of security through this whole mess, not once faltering from their roles. Lukas respected that.