Strange New Eyes

Chapter Five - Animal

It wasn't the cold, or the hunger, or the nightmares of her brother in the middle of a funeral fire that woke Aysel up. It was the pain.

She jolted out of sleep and clutched at her arm, which only made it worse. It felt like it was being scorched in a fire and being poked by knives at the same time. She hastily pulled up her sleeve, letting the cold air wash over her wounds. It stung, but felt better all the same. The wound was red and angry, but not infected. Enrick's ugly stitching across her skin looked terrible but had done its job of holding her torn flesh together.

Her legs were in a bad shape too, though not from the attack. Walking through the mountains all of yesterday would have been difficult enough, but trying to keep pace with a couple of animals born to climb up cliffs had taken its toll. She felt stretched apart at the joints and knotty as an old tree, and even after a night of sleep, her legs were dead tired. She massaged them gently, and as she did, noticed something else: her very, very empty stomach.

This was day three of no food, and her body was starting to resent it. Her stomach growled at her like a wolfbear, as though it was angry it wasn't getting its usual supply of rabbit stew and fresh roots from the garden. She stood up, intending to wake Dunyasha and explain that Letters needed food, even if Beasts didn't, when a roasted morsel of meat was shoved into her hands.

"Good morning." It was Dunyasha, looking annoyingly uninjured and well rested. "Hungry?" It held out the meat to her to her.

Aysel didn't waste any time before digging in. Her mouth watered so much when she first bit into the meat that it almost hurt, but she didn't mind. She leaned her head back, letting her eyes flicker closed as she let the smoky, savory goodness wash over her tongue.

"I guess you are hungry," Dunyasha laughed. "We have plenty more."

"Good," she mumbled, her mouth full of food. She swallowed, then asked, "Where did you get this?"

Dunyasha pointing at something over Aysel's shoulder. "An old friend donated it."

The wolfbear's skinned and partially carved-up carcass lay in front of a smoldering fire. Enrick, who was sitting staring at the flames with a piece of meat in its hand, waved when it saw her looking. "It died during the night, so I fished out out of the circle with my spear and started cooking. Might as well put it to use," Dunyasha explained. "Enjoy your breakfast."

Aysel had finished the first piece of roast wolfbear while Dunyasha was talking, but her stomach was still growling. "You said we had more?"

"Enough to have leftovers," Dunyasha said as it walked towards the fire. It reached one bare foot into the coals and kicked out a spray of embers, ashes, and a few chunks of meat. "The animals that live here will be happy, at least."

Aysel took the meat hesitantly, knowing it had just been touching Dunyasha's clawed, calloused, paw-like foot, but she was hungry, and it tasted as good as the first had. She tore into it, burnt crust and all, like a wild animal. "We're leaving it behind?" she asked once she came up for air.

"We have to. No way to keep it past a few days and no time to smoke it." It looked thoughtfully towards Enrick at the fire. "We're leaving as soon as he's done with this message."

Aysel watched as Enrick pulled a small leather packet from somewhere inside its elegant coat. It reached in and sprinkled the powdery contents on the fire, which sparked and crackled. The plume of smoke rising from it turned a yellowish brown, like the inside of a tree.

"What's it saying?" Aysel murmured.

"Ha. You think I'm going to tell you?" Dunyasha laughed. "Just eat your wolfbear."