Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 5)

Ky hesitated, shifting. Yes, she was still scared. She was never going to stop being scared. There was the threat of Aleth hanging over her every moment of every day. She had to deal with the weight of the knowledge of her name being in the mouth of literal assassins that were coming for her. She was out in the middle of nowhere in the dead of night -- in the cold -- with the bogey man. She'd almost killed herself. Again. And now she wasn't sure if she wanted to die anymore, which just made her that much uneasier. Had he wanted to talk her down so she wouldn't be scared when he killed her, so her flesh wouldn't taste bad? She supposed sitting in the wilderness with a half-man half-beast she didn't know wasn't a particularly smart move.

"I'm always scared," she murmured. She hesitated. "But I guess it'd be better for the assassins to take me out so they have proof... I don't want them torturing them... I'll just have to try to make sure they have a clear path to me without anyone else in the way, when they come."

"Smart," the Marrow Man said approvingly. "But love life more. It short, not like my life. I can want die because I can't have. It wait for you at end; why rush what going to happen anyway?" He looked back over at the bear and pointed. "You want her skin? She not using it. It just freeze then rot." The fire crackled, and he looked back down and took the second chunk of cooked meat off the fire for Ky.

Ky still hadn't eaten the first but she took the second with a nod. "Thank you."

What if her death wouldn't be waiting for her, if she ate food from him? She was uneasy about the thought. Uneasier, even, than the thought of offending him. If she offended him, he may kill her. If she ate the food, she may relegate herself to an eternity of wandering. She didn't think she'd be able to bear the thought of harming a child. Of eating a child.

"I don't think I'd be able to explain where I got it," Ky mused. "If they knew I wandered off again, they'd give me an even more overbearing babysitter. It's best if I just quietly slip back in... perhaps you should take it? Your clothes don't look warm at all."

"This?" The Marrow Man patted the ragged half-cloak under him. "This cloak was gift, for when I turn twenty year. I keep. Maybe I make warm blanket out of bear skin, but it not special like cloak. You take, they think maybe a good spirit give to you for protect. Maybe you kill bear, maybe you secret big and strong."

Ky laughed at that, but it felt out of place. She sobered, but there was still a half-smirk on her face as she shook her head. "They all know I'm a coward."

Imagine, her taking down a bear with nothing but a steak knife. She wouldn't even be able to do that in her own dreams. With how over-active her imagination was, especially when she was sleeping, even then her brain wouldn't think she had that kind of audacity. Because she didn't.

"You don't look like coward. You thick in head a little, but only because you scared. Scared isn't coward." He rose, staggering a bit on his painful hooves, and approached the bear to begin cutting away her hide. "You say you hungry but you not eat," he added. "You see me pull meat off bear; how I poison?"

Spoiler

Everyone:


Also this came up when I was looking for that react meme, and if it's not perfect I don't know what is xD

"I don't think you poisoned it," she said, flushing as she felt very, very stupid at the thought of trying to explain herself. Explain her mistrust. Still, she couldn't quite shake the thought of what if he was trying to bait her? She didn't think he would try to kill her like the poisoned apple; but he did seem rather lonely. What if this was his way of forcing her to stay with him for all eternity, so he wouldn't be by himself anymore?

(Those are absolutely fantastic XD)

"Then why scared? Why smelling so scared when it just meat?" He sawed at the hide with Ky's knife, stripping skin from muscle expertly. It would make for a very soft material once it had been scraped and the blood had been cleaned from it.

(Gaius: can read her brain
Marrow Man: can smell her fear
Poor Ky xD This lowkey reminds me of when I had to get a surgery and they had me hooked up to a heart rate monitor and nurses kept walking up and asking me if I was nervous and I was playing it all cool and was like nah, and then they'd glance over my head at the monitor and told me it was okay to be nervous. And then the anesthesiologist walked up and asked if I was nervous and I denied it and he looked over my head went "well your heart rate says otherwise, lemme give you something for that' xD highkey got called on my bullshit hahaha)

"I heard a story, once," she murmured. "Of a girl getting trapped in the Underworld, because she accepted food when she went to visit. She used to come and go, but then she couldn't go anymore after she ate."

(Ha! Allseeing doctors catching you on your charisma checks.)

The Marrow Man stopped skinning the bear for a moment, tilting his head. Then he let out a hearty chuckle. It was far too loud and halting; it was obvious he hadn't laughed in a long time, and it sounded more like grief-stricken sobs than anything.
"You think I trapping you?" he asked incredulously, still chortling. "Girl my curse from gods. Gods sleeping, they not curse my foods too! This food safe, safe as can be. Go eating Builder's goats and then you cursed like me, see if I wrong. He wake up just to spite you. He never care about bear, though. Bear meat just bear meat." He shook his head in disbelief and amusement. "Is new story to my ears, maybe you tell this new story with my story and then I scarier to all. This what you thinking?"

(Ky: 2 for 2 making grumpy old men laugh at her xD)

She flushed, feeling even stupider now that she'd said it aloud, getting flashbacks to calling Gaius a mindreader... in front of Gaius.

"I wouldn't tell falsehoods about you," she murmured, looking down at the meat and deciding to risk it. Maybe he was an expert liar. But it seemed more likely that he was telling the truth. He didn't seem practiced in deception -- his language was very gruff and to the point. She took a deep breath and then decided to risk it, and took a tiny nibble of the first chunk of now-cool meat, hesitating just after she swallowed and trying to assess if she felt any different now.

(She's on a roll!)

The Marrow Man had gone back to his work, still chuckling to himself. "You not first if you do," he said. "Much tales I hear: part true, part false. Never stone birds, just eat them. Blizzards not follow me. Never steal unless it food." He paused. "Truth, I come from Two Stone tribe and had son and wife. All from before I was Marrow Man is truth, as I remember. I tell someone my story long, long, long ago and he twist it up in some way."

"I'm sorry to hear that," she said sympathetically, meaning it. "... what's your name?"

The Marrow Man stopped again, staring at her. He looked completely caught off guard by the question, so much so that he had to steady himself on the carcass so he wouldn't lose his balance.
"I....." He swallowed, nostrils flaring. "I think about that for awhile," he said finally, voice tight. "I tell you when I know."

"I'm sorry!" she said hastily, fear surging through her that she'd offended him. "I-I just thought -- I didn't mean -- it's not any of my business, I'm sorry."