Of Meat and Minds (Sharth)

[Larina]

Spring 67, 511 AV Windward Boardwalk When was it that she began to eat her meat raw again? And as a human, no less. She could not remember, and frankly, at this point, she did not care. A look of extreme satisfaction spread across the face of the Kelvic woman while she strode through the quiet and empty wooded corridors of the Windward Boardwalk. Yellowed eyes glowed with an almost ferocious happiness that only came after a successful hunt. It had been a good day. The limp body of a small rabbit dangled from the mouth of the girl, an edible trophy of her victory over Taldera’s wilderness. Sure, the rabbit had been one of the youth from a new Spring litter and had not yet begun to reach its mammoth dire size, but that was a trivial detail! Larina had gone out, hunted, and killed; therefore her day was a complete success and would be celebrated in a good meal. While her body still pumped with the excitement of a kill, Larina was prudent enough to know that she made a rather grotesque spectacle for the peaceful Vantha people. A human girl with a dead creature clamped between her jaws is not exactly the most civil of sights. This is why she retreated to the sanctuary of the boardwalk. It was a safe place in the confines of the city to eat, and normally she could find a secluded little place under the boughs of some tree to satiate her hunger without offending the locals. Ah, over there. A friendly looking aspen tree seemed to call her name, and Larina bounded through the snow to feast under its protective branches. But not so hasty! This was a moment to revel and enjoy. Taldera was perpetually cruel towards her; its permafrost always hindering her expeditions and its huge creatures always getting a leg up on her small wolf form. And today she had beaten it. Without removing the rabbit from her mouth, Larina carefully unclasped the buckles securing her gauntlets and lined them up in the snow to her right. She set the satchel strapped across her chest down into the powder beside her and gingerly opened its clasp to reveal the contents within. With surprising grace, she removed a single hunting knife, a coil of rope, sheets of paper, and preserving salts, lining them up beside her gauntlets. Finally, she pulled out a simple pad of drawing paper and a fistful of colored pencils, handling them as though they were precious and placing them away from the other items. For later use. There. All settled. A smile, muffled by the fur of the rabbit, inched across the girl’s face: it was time to eat.