(I just had a flashback of a Wikihow article I read one time, we forgot to drain the blood from the carcass lol. Oh well, we can pretend we did everything perfectly XD)
Rick bobbed his head, carefully filling a kettle with water and adding the desirable organs to keep them clean. "We'd better salt and dry most of this, There's no way we're eatin' it all tonight. Here, Slash, you can have the ribs and shanks if you want 'em."
Slash pounced on the cuts of meat without hesitation. "Why would you add salt to meat?" he asked between mouthfuls. "That's gross."
(Good to know for the next time I'll have to skin a deer!)
"Us humans don't have the same refined taste, apparently. We like to cook and season our meat instead of devouring it as is," Charlotte explained in a lightly mocking tone, reaching over to pull the sack of salt from her bag.
(lol yeah same)
"Pff. Weird." Slash snorted derisively, cracking open a rib to get at the marrow inside. "Salt is okay I guess, but I don't like it that much."
Rick put the kettle full of meat onto the fire and started cutting the rest into strips so they would dry quicker, handing them to Charlotte for salting. "I know some traders that make their whole livin' off the salt trade. It's a big thing, and salt has plenty of uses. My advice, Miss Jessie, is that you always carry salt when you're travelin' because you just never know when it might come in handy. Why, one time I managed to escape a group of Florida cannibals with nothing but a little salt."
( XD )
Jessie looked over at Rick perfectly calmly. "Cannibals? Do tell."
Charlotte smiled to herself, rubbing and coating each slice of meat with a generous layer of salt.
"Well, now," Rick said, taking out a packet of spices and sprinkling a tiny amount into the cooking stew, "I was just leavin' home on my own for the first time, on an errand trip to the Mississippi. I was only a little older than you, Jessie. Not a real major trip, I thought at the time. I just had to go through the bayous and get to the trading village on the other side, at the bank of the river. And acourse on the way there, I had no trouble, because I only had my horse and my gun and I moved pretty quick. But on the way back I was loaded down by food 'n supplies, so I looked much more tempting, y'see. Anyhow, there's a clan like mine that lives in the bayou down there, called the Pikes. They're mostly a bunch of voodoo witches and half-Deorns, and they know the swamp like the backs of their hands. I got jumped by 'em and they took all my stuff, and me too. Now at this point I didn't know they were cannibals. And I couldn't understand their lingo for beans. But when I saw the way those folks were starin' at me, I sorta started to get the idea." He grinned ruefully. "Now here's where the salt comes in. I had just bought some, but only a tiny little bottle because it was expensive back then. I had it hidden in my pocket. So what I did was, just as they were about to eat me 'n my horse, I took out the salt and I said, 'hold up! You can't eat us until we're good 'n seasoned or you'll get malaria!' And when they left us alone to give us some privacy while we…I dunno….salted ourselves, I hopped on my horse and got the heck outta there. Somehow, I doubt the same trick would work twice, but I'm sure glad I had some salt that day."
(I feel like you're a great storyteller irl)
Jessie's mouth opened and closed as the tried to formulate an answer, until finally she let out a shrill cackle. "Cannibals are idiots," she gasped through her laughter.
"Wouldn't call them that to their face unless you want to end up like this deer here," Charlotte suggested mildly, stretching out the last bit of meat to set it to dry out.
(aww ty XD)
Rick chuckled. "They weren't the brightest bunch, naw. Although I never did get the nerve to go shoppin' alone after that." He sat back, staring into the fire as he waited for the meat to cook. "The Pikes did have some pretty impressive skills, though. Their witch-doctors knew how to cure just about every sickness, and how to use any plant in the swamp for food or medicine. They say some could even talk to spirits. Another time, my little brother Finn got a real bad fever, and our pa took him to the Pikes to get cured. He was fine in just a week or two. Pa gave those doctors a whole herd of pigs and some nice guns for that. So, they weren't all bad."
(I gtg for a bit)
(Sure)
"Everyone's redeemable," Jessie said whimsically. Charlotte sighed and, having set up some spiced cuts to cook, she leaned back on her hands and looked up at the stars. "You know, I've had time to learn every variation of the sky there is."
"Yeah?" Rick admired the stars as well, smiling. "I know what you mean. That's what I like about the middle of the country. All that open space really shows off the sky and what's in it."
“It’s like… the sky is the most welcoming part of the world. Always beautiful and always interesting. I’m never disappointed with what the sky has to offer me.” Charlotte’s voice had taken on a soft, dreamlike quality, as she stared up at the dark sky with the stars echoed in her eyes. “I often forget that the world can actually be beautiful.”
"It sure can be." Rick glanced over at her, realizing how content and peaceful she looked. It warmed his heart to see her this way, and for a minute he just silently admired her, not wanting to disturb the tranquil moment.
Slash eyed the two of them, slowly gnawing on a bone, then coughed loudly and stood up. "I'm gonna go keep watch."
Rick jumped, hurriedly looking away from Charlotte. "Uh, sure son, thanks." He returned his gaze to the stars, hoping no one had noticed him staring at his friend like a fool.
Undisturbed by the exchange, Charlotte kept staring at the sky as Jessie slowly started drifting off to sleep next to Rick.
Charlotte was freefalling into her spiral of thoughts. They started poetic and mainly unintelligible, but soon morphed into an analysis of her current situation. She was calmly sat by a fire with one of the only two people in the world that she loved, letting her fall asleep only a mile out from one of the most dangerous places Charlotte had ever set foot in. She didn’t quite understand what she becoming, this trusting happy person, and she didn’t know how to react to herself. If she was honest with herself, Rick was a very special person. He’d earned her trust in only… about a week. That had never, ever happened before… she’d never let it happen before. What about Rick had been the exception?
Though this bothered her, she knew her instinct was reliable. And if her subconscious had allowed for such a connection to develop then she’d let it, for once.
She smiled to herself and, zoning back in, she looked over at Rick. He was staring up at the sky as well, looking troubled.
“You alright?” she asked him quietly, still with a trace of a smile.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. Just…..thinkin', is all." Rick shrugged a little, not sure what to say. He understood that his favorable status in Charlotte's eyes was very new and tentative, and the last thing he wanted was to disrespect that by saying or doing the wrong thing. "Just thinkin' about…..the plan for tomorrow, I guess. I feel like I'm as ready as I can be at this point."
She nodded, letting her gaze linger on Rick's face. "I understand. And… I have to thank you for coming all the way here with us. I wouldn't be here, with Jessie, without you. So, thank you." It felt liberating to swallow her pride, and tell Rick what she was thinking. Or at least, a part of it.
Rick looked over and smiled, his discomfort vanishing. "It's no trouble, don't you worry. I'm just glad I can help. I actually have to thank you for giving me the chance. I know you didn't think much of me when we first met, and I can understand why."
"I–" Was she going to keep talking? "I'm hard to read. You'd be surprised what I thought," she teased.
"I guess," he chuckled back. "But I could tell from the start you were a good person, and that's what matters. I'd always rather spend my time with good folks, even if the bad ones think they can offer me more."
Charlotte blinked. "Really? You think I'm a good person?"
Her heart stopped. She hadn't heard that said to her… ever. The most basic of compliments, and yet one of the rarest.
"Well….'course I do." Rick tilted his head. "You care about your family, and the well-being of strangers, and you don't do somethin' if you think it's wrong. Heck, you even made friends with a Deorn, and that ain't common. In my book, those all add up to a good moral character. Don't you agree?"
"I… haven't really thought about it that way. But if I'm a good person, then you're a damn angel, Rick," Charlotte said forcefully.
Rick laughed at that, but quietly so he didn't wake Jessie. "If you say so. I've made some pretty bad mistakes in my life, but I guess we all do sometimes. I think what's important is that we always keep tryin' to be better." Rick sighed, then shook his head. "Sorry, didn't mean to get all philosophical. Looks like supper's ready." Taking the kettle off the fire, he started dishing out the stew inside. "Hungry?"
"It's okay, it always makes for a quality conversation." She reached out her hand for a bowl. "I am, yes, please. And you?"
"Me? Very." Rick handed Charlotte a serving of stew and ladled himself a healthy portion as well. "You think we should wake Jessie too, or let her sleep and give her some of this for breakfast?"
« Let her sleep for now, she’s a bit of an insomniac, » Charlotte told him. She started on her dinner, staring into the fire. « This is good, actually, » she noted. « The soup . »
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