This is chapter 3 of Mystic Heart Odyssey, part one: Strangers in a Strange Land. Enjoy!

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The next morning, Lykou awoke to find Kuna again sitting at the entrance of the cave. This time, however, the sereva was clearly busy working on something. Lykou got up stiffly, feeling the ache of yet another night sleeping on a hard floor making itself known, and letting out slight grunting sounds as he did so. As he approached, Kuna looked back at him briefly, before returning to what he was doing. Lykou sat on the other side of the entrance and looked over at him, and was surprised to see the sereva using the needle he’d made to stitch something together. What he was using for thread, though, was a mystery. It looked dark greenish-brown, so he assumed he’d found some suitably large, fibrous plant he could do something with. Regardless, he was pleased to see he’d changed his mind.

For a few minutes, he considered commenting on it, but ultimately decided against it, worried about setting him off again. Instead he sat there quietly, trying to wake up and figure out what to do. Surprisingly, Kuna broke the silence in his place.

“Sorry about last night,” he said quietly. “In case it wasn’t obvious, I’m… not really good with, well, people. Or certain subjects.”

Lykou took a moment to think over how to respond and rubbed his neck. “It’s.. alright. I’m sure the situation doesn’t help, either,” he finally replied. “Yesterday was kind of a mess overall. We’re really no better prepared to start traveling than we started.”

“Heh, you don’t have to beat around the bush. I’m sorry for holding us back,” Kuna stated flatly.

“Wait, what? No, come on. My hunt didn’t go nearly as well as I’d hoped either. I basically fed myself for the night, probably overate, and I think there’s just enough left for breakfast, but that’s it. I’ve got plenty to figure out myself,” Lykou assured him, then sighed. “I’ve slept out in the wilderness plenty of times, but never more than a day away from home, at most. I’m not used to the idea of having to prep for a big journey, let alone with just my chaser gear and nothing else from the village.”

Kuna side-glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. “Village… that’s the place your tribe stays, right? I’ve seen it in the distance once or twice. Looks fancy.”

“Fancy? Heh… yeah, I guess it kind of is. We’ve been there for many generations now. Slowly building up. The Ridge really makes everything shine when the sun hits it just right, too,” Lykou responded with a content smile, which then faded a bit as something dawned on him. “Wait, you saw it?? When? How??”

Kuna gave him a slight smirk. “Going unnoticed is kind of a sereva specialty,” he replied, then his smirk dropped as he looked back down at what he was doing. “Usually.”

Lykou looked at him a bit incredulously for a moment. “We… never even knew you were there…”

“Not like it was often. I was only close enough to see it once or twice. Usually stay well away from pred territory. It was just a rough winter.”

“Huh…” Lykou mulled this over for a minute, before shrugging. “But yeah, it’s a nice place. All the more reason I want to get back.” He looked over and started to ask a question, but then hesitated. “What ab-… er, right, nevermind.”

Kuna tensed briefly, then frowned, but he had a feeling he knew what the canid wanted to ask. He supposed he owed him something after his behavior last night. “We move around a lot, rather than staying in one spot.”

Lykou looked surprised at that. “Really? Huh… so… sleeping in caves or what? I didn’t think there were that many around…”

“No, not caves,” Kuna replied in a slightly exasperated tone. “We have homes, they’re just… portable.”

“Oh… really? Huh,” Lykou rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “So… where was y-”

Kuna immediately tensed up and shot a mild glare at him.

“Right. Dropping it,” the canid said, smiling nervously and raising his hands in placating manner. “Different subject time. Understood.”

“…thank you.”

“So uh… what are you working on there?” Lykou asked, gesturing to the mass of meshweed and various other plant bits in his companion’s lap.

Kuna lifted it for a moment, as if he himself wasn’t quite sure, then dropped it again with a sigh. “A mess,” he replied sardonically, with the faintest ghost of a smirk. “Just.. something to wear. Maybe double as a blanket so I don’t have to keep half-stealing yours.”

“Oh I don’t mind sharing. It’s more than big enough. And,” Lykou said, then paused and sized the sereva up again. “Huh. I guess I’d just kind of assumed nudity was kind of normal for you. Like… a culture thing. Does seem like it’d get cold in the winter though, unless your fur gets longer. Uh, no offense.”

Kuna shrugged. “S’fine. And no. You just… caught me out at a bad time,” he said.

Lykou had a feeling there was more than a little weight behind that sentence, but he knew better than to pry at this point. “So… need any help? Like I said, I’m no weaver, but I can at least help hold things for you.”

At first Kuna seemed about to refuse, but then he took another look at the tangled mess he’d been making. He’d already had to redo things a few times as it was. With a sigh, he shrugged and passed Lykou one end of the big… thing, he was working on. “Sure. Thanks.”

Some time passed in a peaceful morning silence, interrupted only by the strange call of unfamiliar birds, and a light breeze rustling the treetops. “So… what is that you’re using to stitch with anyway?”

Kuna gave him a mildly annoyed stare. “You know what. The needle you made last night. No need to rub it in.”

“No, not that- I mean, I’m glad you’re using it, but that’s not what I meant.”

“Oh… oh, right, sorry,” Kuna apologized, immediately feeling bad for being overly defensive. “I lucked out and found a particularly big, long-rooted… thing, over there this morning,” he said, gesturing towards the stream with his head. “Dug it up, took a look at the roots, cleaned them off, and figured they’d work perfectly. They’re a lot more flexible and strong than you’d expect. And there’s a bunch of them.”

“Wow. That’s… great. Er,” Lykou gave him a somewhat concerned look. “How long have you been up?”

“…a while,” Kanu said, not looking up. “Didn’t sleep well.”

“Heh… yeah, that stone floor isn’t very comfortable. We should see about making some kind of mat while we’re at it. Although we need to make you some kind of bag or something first. I can’t carry all our supplies, you know.”

“Yeah, I know. I was going to try and work on that next,” Kuna said. “You can let go and eat your… er, breakfast, now. I’ve got it from here.”

Lykou shrugged and went to grab what was left of the fish from the previous night, only to find an unpleasant sight. He should have known better than to just leave it by where he was sitting by the fire overnight. Nature had… taken its course, with various bugs and things covering it. He groaned and kicked it off out of their little campsite. “Looks like I’m going to have to get to that next hunt a bit early. I guess you’ll be here, er, working with that stuff for a while?”

“Probably most of the day,” Kuna said with a shrug. “Got plenty of food myself. Have fun, killer boy.”

Lykou rolled his eyes, but smirked as he grabbed his spear and pack, then set off.

*****

Later, around noon, Lykou came trudging back through the underbrush. Kuna heard him coming and looked up, only to immediately regret it. His eyes went wide and he physically recoiled at the sight of a walking avatar of death. Well, really, Lykou was just returning with a collection of dead squirrel-like things hanging from a belt he was wearing, and carrying some dead, and presumably mammalian thing slung over his shoulder. It wasn’t huge, but definitely a lot bigger than the fish he’d previously caught. It looked like some kind of giant rodent, although it had an extra pair of limbs. And… a very large, bloody spot on the back of its neck. He was carrying the bloody-ended spear in the other hand.

Kuna quickly covered his eyes and tried to calm his nerves a bit, refusing to look when Lykou entered the camp area and dumped his prize near his usual fireside sitting spot. After a minute, he hazarded a peek and shuddered as he looked away again.

“Sorry, I know you’re sensitive about it, but I’m going to need the fire once I finish preparing this thing,” Lykou said, then took a sip from his waterskin. Then he nodded to his companion. “I see you finished the, er… thing.”

Kuna was wearing the poncho-like garment he’d been working on through the morning. It was a bit longer than he intended, but he figured that’d make it easier to double as a blanket. “And I see you’ve become an avatar of death and gore,” he replied, struggling between trying to avert his gaze and being fixated on the carcass. “What even is… or was that thing?”

“Heck if I know. But it looks big enough that it should have some decent meat on it. Hopefully enough to last me at least a couple days, if I eat light and prepare it the right way,” Lykou replied, then looked down at it uncertainly. “Which… I hope I remember how to do.” He’d helped out the butchers and cooks back in Lakefire when he was younger, but that was back before he became a spirit chaser. And with some annoyance, he realized he didn’t have a pot to cook the squirrel soup he was thinking about. “Be right back, I’m gonna need a lot more firewood.”

“Wait, don’t leave me with th-”

“Don’t worry, it won’t take long.”

Kuna frowned and glanced over at the dead creature on the far side of the firepit. He cringed and decided to turn away from it as he resumed working on the carrying bag he was trying to make. For the next thirty minutes or so, Lykou came and went, carrying back as many fallen branches and chunks of wood that he could find. Kuna was starting to grow mildly concerned, especially when the canid started expanding the firepit and adding more rocks. By the time he was done, Lykou collapsed in his usual spot and took another big swig from his waterskin, clearly worn out.

As he sat there, once he caught his breath, he took out his knife and started butchering the carcass as best he could. Every audible cut sent a shudder along Kuna’s spine, even as he was turned to face away from the source. He tried to mentally block out the sound, but it was making further progress on the nearly-finished bag very slow going.

Finally, after more than an hour, the sound stopped and Kuna looked over his shoulder when he heard Lykou piling up wood. “What in the world are you making such a big fire for? Trying to get your tribe to see us from here?” he asked, giving him a look.

“That little one from last night won’t be enough for cooking all this meat and I don’t feel like holding skewer-sticks for hours on end,” Lykou explained. Then, after he’d caught his breath for a minute, on top of some areas of the wood, he carefully started placing some thin, flat rocks he found. He wished he could have found more, or better yet, had some kind of proper cookware, but they’d have to do for the time being. Once he was done, he got the fire going, steadily working at getting it to spread across the entire pit. It took a while, and some creative language was uttered in the process, but he finally got it good and going. By that point, Kuna had stopped completely, and was just watching, somewhat fascinated and bewildered.

Again, Lykou sat back down heavily and just watched the fire for a bit. He looked over at Kuna and smiled. “How’s the bag coming?”

Kuna snapped out of his fixation and looked down at his handiwork. “Pretty much done I guess.”

“Mind making a second one? Unless you want to carry my food alongside yours, that is.”

The sereva boy cringed again. “I’ll get started on it.”

After a while, though, he paused his work on the second bag, and started munching on some of his own food, his appetite finally overriding his revulsion to Lykou’s little gore parade. This time he bit into some kind of exotic carrot, or at least something along those lines. It was one of a nice bunch he’d managed to find growing in a nearby clearing.

Lykou watched him for a minute, then sat up and rinsed his knife with water from his waterskin. “Hey, toss me one of those.”

Kuna paused in mid bite, looking surprised. After a short hesitation, he tossed one over to the canid, curious to see what he’d do. He didn’t think a predator would be interested in his food, but maybe he was more complicated than he thought.

Lykou proceeded to slice it into pieces. He then carefully set the pieces on the closest flat rock. Of course, it wasn’t nearly hot enough yet, so he let it sit there for a while. When their color started to darken, he carefully used one of his skewers to- with some difficulty- pull them off. It was awkward, to say the least, but then he passed one to Kuna, after letting it cool for a moment. “Try it now.”

With a raised eyebrow, Kuna took the skewer and looked over the little carrot piece awkwardly stuck on the end. After some hesitation, he popped it into his mouth and chewed it up. “…not bad, actually,” he responded after swallowing. “Tastes… slightly sweeter, somehow.”

“Told you,” Lykou said and handed the rest over to him- save one. He stared at the last one for a moment, then popped it into his mouth experimentally. He may have been a carnivore, but he wasn’t beyond a bit of experimenting. And it wasn’t like eating plant-stuff was entirely alien to him. His tribe basically farmed charnops, a kind of fruit that grew on the lake shore. And of course herbs had their uses, including for flavoring meat. He shrugged as he swallowed. “Hmm. Interesting. What are those things anyway?”

“Carrots. Or something like them, anyway,” Kuna replied, slightly bemused by the little experiment. “I… honestly didn’t even think you could eat something that didn’t bleed.”

Lykou rolled his eyes and smirked. “Funny. Yeah, we do eat some things besides meat. Not a lot, though.”

Some more time passed, and finally he began setting pieces of meat down on the now reasonably-hot stones. They immediately began to sizzle. Kuna recoiled a bit and shifted back from the fire as he resumed his needle-work. “Ugh… thanks for letting me eat first,” he mumbled.

“Had to let the stones get hot anyway,” Lykou responded, sitting back and relaxing a bit as the meat slowly cooked. Soon, the smell was wafting up from the chunks, and he couldn’t help but lick his chops a bit.

Meanwhile, Kuna screwed up his nose and tried to move upwind of the fire.

“Sorry, but you’ll have to get used to that since we’ll be traveling together,” Lykou pointed out. “But hey, at least I only have to do it every few days, if all goes right.” Finally, his appetite and impatience got the better of him, and he pulled a still reasonably juicy piece off with a skewer and immediately began hungrily munching down on it- though, after the first few bites, he gave the somewhat mortified Kuna an apologetic grin and slowed down a bit. “Sorry, been waiting all day for this.”

The strange meat was gamey and not as good as boar or turkey, as far as he was concerned. But with how hungry he was, it hardly mattered. All he cared about was that it was hot, juicy, and filling.

Kuna subconsciously rolled the stone around in the pocket he’d sewn into his poncho, his eye twitching a bit. “Well. Thanks for tonight’s nightmares I guess,” he snarked, before turning back to the second bag-in-progress.

After Lykou had his fill, he let the rest of the meat cook a bit longer, as the fire slowly died down. Soon it was low enough that it wasn’t so much cooking as staying warm and drying- like he’d hoped. It was far from perfect, of course- no replacement for a proper smoke-oven. But it’d at least hopefully help it keep better over the next couple days.

While Kuna worked away and the sun crawled down across the sky, Lykou looked over the rest of the unused bits of the carcass. He kept a few of the larger bones set aside, in case he thought of anything to do with them. He really wished he had a decent pot of some kind. The pelt, while hardly expertly skinned, had enough decent-sized pieces that he decided to save and dry them over the coals later, in case he thought of a use for them as well. And the squirrel remains- after having taken out what little tidbits of meat he could, were totally useless.

So as the meat continued to dry up on the stone rocks, he got up and started cleaning up a bit. “Might want to keep your head turned for a few minutes, Kuna,” he thoughtfully warned his companion. “Going to be getting rid of some mess even I don’t like looking at. I’ll let you know when its gone.”

Kuna paused and took a breath, not turning his head. “…thanks.”

After around half an hour of activity passed, with Lykou walking off into the distance on a couple of occasions, he finally sat back down, this time on the side closest to Kuna. “Okay, all done. Just don’t walk up that way any time soon,” he said with a smirk, gesturing off in the direction he’d hauled all the disgusting refuse.

The sereva looked over at him and gave a brief, half-smile. “Appreciate it.”

More time passed in relative quiet, as Kuna finished the second bag. As he did so, Lykou gratefully took it and collected the remaining meat into it, figuring it was as dry as it was going to get. The two then sat by the cave entrance together, watching the coals and embers glow in the shadows of dusk.

“Well, I think today went a lot better,” Lykou finally said, breaking the silence.

“…yeah.”

There was another extended pause.

“I’ll… try not to pry too much. Just… let me know before I cross a line, alright?”

Kuna glanced over at him briefly, then nodded. “I’ll try to be less prickly, too.”

“Hey, I get it. There’s some things you just don’t want to tell someone you just met,” Lykou said, placing a hand gently on Kuna’s shoulder. For a split second, he worried he’d crossed a line again, having done it without thinking. But this time the sereva didn’t really flinch. Either he was starting to feel less anxious, or he was getting too tired to care. Possibly both. “But just remember you don’t always have to be on guard around me. Okay?”

Kuna stared at him blankly for a minute, then took a deep breath and relaxed back against the rocky surface behind him. “I’ll try.”

They sat and listened to the strange forest’s nighttime sounds for a bit, before Lykou eventually spoke again. “Heh, you know, I don’t even really like hunting. I can do it, obviously. Some even say I’m pretty good at it. But they couldn’t convince me to be a regular hunter for the tribe.”

“Oh?” Kuna asked, turning and raising an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah. I mean, it’s part of life. The whole life and death thing. Predators and prey. But I don’t like seeing things in pain. S’why I always try to make kills as quick and clean as possible,” the konuul went on. “To be fair, that’s generally what we’re all taught, if only for practical reasons, too. Less mess, less waste.”

The subject made Kuna uncomfortable, but he also found it a bit reassuring in a way. A darker part of him always thought maybe predators just innately enjoyed violence. “That’s… good to know, I guess.”

“Sorry, awkward subject, I know. I just wanted you to know we’re not all a bunch of sadistic monsters,” Lykou finished.

“I…” Kuna said, then sighed. “I know you’re not. Just…” he floundered.

Lykou smiled and got up. “It’s alright. You don’t have to explain. Lets get some sleep. We’re going to need to be well rested before we head out tomorrow.”

Kuna was reluctant to get up from his spot, but he knew it’d be an even worse place to doze off than in the cave. He glanced down to his side briefly, looking at what still remained of the various things he’d collected the previous day. He’d packed away his own food and herbs into his new bag already. All that was left was a bit more meshweed and some odds and ends. He grabbed the meshweed and some large, broad leaves he’d been using to wrap it in. “Hey, at least we can have something to put our heads on.”

Lykou looked up from making sure the fire was fully banked for the night. “Oh, good thinking.” Assured that all was taken care of, he walked inside with the sereva, both of them making sure to bring their bags and everything with them, then laid down under their respective blankets, each resting their head on a very crude pillow made of meshgrass covered in thick, broad leaves. Before long, they were both fast asleep.