Adele gave the young man a smile, no wonder the guy was so skinny. She failed to fully suppress her snorting laugh at Jason’s reaction to John. She probably shouldn’t have found it funny, but she did. She covered it with a cough and wandered back over to her work table. The woman busied herself with gathering up her materials and beginning to clean up the station, doing more busy work than anything else. She eyed the two men as she did so with a lingering smile.
Murphy was already half-asleep when Jason nudged his thigh,
interfering with his plans for a quick five-second nap. He huffed and dragged
himself to his feet, suppressing an eye roll. All things considered, dozing off
in a Grounder’s abode probably wasn’t a good idea in the first place. He took a few steps and bent down, opening his pack, and fetched his own blade. It had a satisfying heft to it: a weight in his
hand that was exactly right.
“Don’t worry,” said Murphy as crossing the threshold “I’ve done
this before.” The deer’s faces were oddly calm, its twin mouths soft and slack as its
dead eyes stared at the floor. It looked like it died with a sigh on its lips
instead of a scream. Jason had already cut
through the pelvis and up to the rib cage, and Murphy bent over and examined the exposed stomach cavity. It was a fat doe. It’d make for a good meal.
The delinquent’s hands were deceptively graceful as he cut
through the last binding strings of fat and sinew. He pulled the entrails out
in one swift movement, secretly enjoying the wet slide of blood against his
hands. Once the guts were put aside, he stood back and admired his handiwork. “You know…” he started slowly, following a moment of silence. “I’m surprised you nabbed a deer so close to Their territory.”
