“You know, this might not be as bad as we might think it is. It’s kinda pretty here, and we might see some forest animals,” Clare chatted, looking around as she walked, occasionally looking down to watch for things she could trip on.
"I admit, it is kind of pretty compared to the copy-paste, boring crap I've had to live in all my life. And it's in another country, which is a huge bonus," Connor said as they walked
(And cue dead hanging deer lmao)
“Mhm,” Clare hummed, nodding her head slowly. After walking for a moment longer, a foul smell came to her nose. But when she looked up, she just about screamed and grabbed onto Conner, seeing a deer hanging from the tree with its stomach slit open. “Oh my fucking god!” she shouted with horror.
(lmao)
Connor jumped when Clare shouted, though their yelp was more of a garbled string of swears as they nearly smacked Clare in the face. "Don't fucking-it's just a-oh. Well, that's attractive," they said as they looked up at the dead deer
“How the fuck did that get up there?” Clare exclaimed with wide eyes as she continued to cling to Conners arm. She just about gagged when she looked at it, so she looked at anywhere but the deer.
"I'm just gonna say it. I told you so. We're probably headed straight for Satan's asshole or something, and it was your idea to go straight inside," Connor said, laughing nervously at their own joke
“That’s what she said,” Clare snickered before switching back to smacking Connor’s arm and letting go. “This is not the time to be joking, that is a dead animal! Oh god, I think I’m going to cry.”
"Wait, no, don't cry, I don't do well when people cry," Connor said quickly, suddenly concerned for Clare. "Look, I'll use my tallness to block the dead thing," they said before standing on their tip toes in front of the deer so that they blocked it
“Okay, but here’s the thing,” Clare said after composing herself of a bit of laughter. “Only certain things make me cry, like anything with animals dying or something makes me cry. Like hey, if we see a dead human body next, I can promise you I won’t even blink,” she said before a look of realization crossed over her face. “Oh my god, I sound like a psycho.”
"Nah, you sound like a writer," Connor joked. "Look, let's just…walk around the dead animal and pray we aren't headed straight for Satan's ass."
Clare snickered and gave a nod, doing her best to avoid looking at the animal as she walked around it. “Why do you keep bringing up Satan’s ass? You in a cult or something?” She joked.
"No, it's just my default explanation for weird shit," Connor said with a small laugh. They glanced over at the deer before continuing to walk around the dead animal
“That’s wild,” Clare commented, a smile forming in her lips now that the mutilated animal was out of sight. “What do you think could have done that to a deer, anyways? It was just strung up. Could it have been a bear?”
"Well it was strung up, so it was probably a person. Maybe a hunter killed it and hung it up to keep it from bears but something else got it," Connor said with a shrug
“But it didn’t even look like it was eaten, just ripped open,” Clare pointed out, adjusting her grip on her backpack as she now watched the trees for more dead animals.
"Okay, in the process of being gutted for the meat. That would make sense, wouldn't it?" Connor said, trying not to jump to conclusions about the dead animal
“Yeah, I guess. It just kinda weirds me out, I guess,” Clare said, reaching up to pull her thick, curly hair into a ponytail to keep it out of her face.
"What are you, vegan?" Connor teased. "You know, my grandpa made me gut a fish once. I was like, five, but I still thought it was pretty rad. I was one of those weird 'guts and gore' children."
“Of course I’m not a vegan, I just don’t like seeing dead animals,” Clare huffed, shaking her head slowly. “I don’t know about you, but I like animals more than people.”
"Aw, what am I? Chopped deer?" Connor asked, snickering as they pushed their glasses further up the bridge of their nose. They looked back at Clare while they talked, causing them to nearly trip over a stray branch in the process
“Ah, shut up,” Clare laughed, her laughter only increasing when Connor tripped. She had to reach up to be able to smack the back of their head in a playful manner. “Hey, how many times are you going to trip?”
"Shut up, I have long legs and a short body. Being an ostrich is difficult," Connor said indignantly, sticking their tongue out at Clare for a moment before adjusting their glasses again
Clare snickered and shrugged her shoulders. Glancing up at the sky, she saw dale clouds forming above them. “Fuck, it looks like it’s going to storm soon,” she groaned.
"I am totally okay with that as long as we brought tents," Connor said before pausing. "We have tents, right? Please tell me we brought tents," they asked before turning to look at Clare
“I don’t know, I didn’t think it would rain,” Clare said before huffing sharply. “We are such idiots. Maybe there’s some sort of cover nearby.”