Yesterday, 12:06 AM
Cecil figured she had no need to bait a hook. Unlike them and Nate, who'd been clueless about it (and on their own end of the measure, still were)- hell, even unlike Nat, who'd taken to the wolf fur much better than they had if judgment was true- Elk Charm knew what she was doing.
They sat, and watched her strip fish with an ease that spoke of someone who'd done it a thousand times before and found themself impressed. She could use teeth and claw like a man could use fingers and thumb, and here they'd spent these last months fumbling like a newborn lamb trying to figure out how to use its legs.
But they supposed they should be gentler. Three-dozen years walking on two legs taught you to do things a certain way, and to suddenly have four was too jarring for the span of a few windswept months where they were too busy trying not to freeze to learn much else.
"I'd like that," Cecil said, with a wag of tail instead of a smile. If there were anyone they could tell were born to this skin, it would be her. "How did you learn?"
Hadn't been fish themself, but they remembered learning to hunt. Their uncle had let them track, let them pull the bow back for the final shot, showed them how to skin and bleed the body- a memory as ingrained as name or clan. But none of it had meant much here, missing everything but their own mind.
There was a sort of precision in Elk Charm that made them wonder if she knew how to do that too.
They sat, and watched her strip fish with an ease that spoke of someone who'd done it a thousand times before and found themself impressed. She could use teeth and claw like a man could use fingers and thumb, and here they'd spent these last months fumbling like a newborn lamb trying to figure out how to use its legs.
But they supposed they should be gentler. Three-dozen years walking on two legs taught you to do things a certain way, and to suddenly have four was too jarring for the span of a few windswept months where they were too busy trying not to freeze to learn much else.
"I'd like that," Cecil said, with a wag of tail instead of a smile. If there were anyone they could tell were born to this skin, it would be her. "How did you learn?"
Hadn't been fish themself, but they remembered learning to hunt. Their uncle had let them track, let them pull the bow back for the final shot, showed them how to skin and bleed the body- a memory as ingrained as name or clan. But none of it had meant much here, missing everything but their own mind.
There was a sort of precision in Elk Charm that made them wonder if she knew how to do that too.
english | navajo
