Well, saying that Kalla and Vaien were 'scheming' would be a bit of a stretch. It was only that Zhang Han was going to try and convince him to return to Red Mane tribe. He and Kalla shared a look.
Zhang was had opened his mouth about to start on the issue, but Kalla said something before him,
"Vaien, you caught a tibbar!" she was pointing with awe at the fuzzy brown creature in his grasp. "I didn't think many of those lived in these parts. They're kind of sneaky, too."
Vaien shrugged, still slightly miffed and wondering if Zhang Han had been laughing without him or not. But the time to bring it up had gone.
"It tried to run," he said, "but I threw a rock at its head. It's pretty stupid now."
He set the creature called a 'tibbar' on the ground, and that was when Zhang Han realized the fuzzy thing was still alive. It had been limp in Vaien's hold, but when set on the ground it kind of flopped over, then rolled upright, then took a few steps on the ground before falling over again. It was lethargic with bleary eyes.
Kalla went over and started rubbing its floppy ears.
"So soft! The fur on these makes the best winter coats and pillow stuffing. How come you're wasting it on something like lunch? We've gotta preserve the skin!"
Vaien groaned with annoyance. "Yeah, yeah, we'll do that too. But we can also eat it."
The tibbar truly made no other movements, just sitting there as though the three people surrounding it weren't talking about having it for a meal. Being hit in the head with a rock surely had long-lasting effects, and Zhang Han believed that the animal had actually gone dumb.
And Kalla wasn't doing much for her own record of intelligence, either.
Zhang Han was about to bring up to topic of returning to Red Mane to Vaien, but it was as though Kalla had completely forgotten about it already, bringing up some other conversation topic right off the bat. Her attention span was like a mosquito, once she saw the prey Vaien caught, it was already too late.
A light sigh escaped Zhang Han's lips. Oh well, eat first, then deal with the rest later. After all, he wondered how delicious a 'tibbar' was.
Kalla suddenly asked Vaien, "I just realized, did you want the fur for Zhang Han? Awww, bro, when did you become so sweet?"
Vaien gave an awkward pause before marching over to Kalla and whacking her head with his fist. He said nothing more, so Zhang Han was beginning to suspect that what she said was true...another stuffy feeling clouded his heart.
Why is Vaien so...no, he shouldn't think about it. Zhang Han was tired for expecting more from the other party than he should. Just like his past partners on Gaojun, in the end, it was just a sexual relationship. Never was it worth investing his real emotions and feelings into. Zhang Han decided he was going to ignore any hint that the dynamic between him and Vaien was shifting towards something...strange.
Yes. Ignore it. It doesn't exist.
Vaien never stares at him like a dog in love. Nope. Zhang Han still felt awkward and wanted to change the subject.
"So, are tibbar hard to catch?"
"Not really," replied Vaien.
"Yeah they are! Don't make shit up," said Kalla, the exact opposite. "Tibbar have good camouflage and run really fast, and most of the time they live underground. So it's hard to find them and hard to catch them."
Zhang Han nodded. That was probably why these animals had such long fur, to keep warm during the winter underground.
Vaien lifted up the woozy tibbar and snapped its neck cleanly.
Well...at least it was a quick death.
Zhang Han's next question was naturally, "How do they taste?"
Vaien grinned. "Really good in a stew."
"Stew?" He'd never had such a thing before. What was kind of cooking was beyond grilling meats over a fire or eating random fruits and vegetables found in the forest? Wasn't that complex enough?
"Stew is closer to a liquid," explained Vaien. He'd taken out his knife and started to skin the fur off the tibbar. It was fluffy, long, and unimaginably soft...softer than anyone's wildest dreams. "You put the materials into the broth that acts as a base, for example meat, then simmer for a few hours to meld together the flavor."
"Why would food be in a liquid form?" That only increased the difficulty of eating.
His nutrient bars could be eaten anywhere, at any time, with next to no mess. They would last decades. One could throw a nutrient bar onto the ground and it would look exactly the same and be edible after an entire year of sitting outside.
That was the beauty of the nutrient bar, besides the fact they tasted like bland styrofoam.
"Obviously because it tastes good!" answered Vaien, rolling his eyes as though he knew exactly what Zhang Han was thinking about.
"..." Zhang Han felt as though he should have thought of that by himself.
Kalla had rolled over onto the ground, watching the tibbar being skinned with interest.
"Ehhh...why make stew? I thought we were gonna travel?"
Vaien paused. "Because tibbar is best in a stew, otherwise it's too stringy. I already caught one, so we might as well not rush and eat it here."
This was a hint. Vaien was still considering returning to the tribe, so he made up a reason not to travel any farther before making up his mind on what to do.
Zhang Han didn't either way. Like this, he could convince Vaien as soon as the timing seemed appropriate. He watched as Vaien cleaned and skinned the animal, removing bloody bones, then cut the meat into smaller chunks and added it into their deep pan. It was pretty much the only pan they had, too.
Vaien used his typical incomprehensible skills to add spices and flavors to the meat. He soon added water to the pot and let the bones boil over the flame for a bit, then threw them out.
In went the meat at a low simmer. He also added a tan grain.
Zhang Han thought that grain didn't have much flavor based on the other rare times he'd eaten it, but it was fairly wholesome. See, Vaien didn't eat grain often because he was mainly carnivorous but occasionally made some with food.
Kalla looked bored out of her mind as she watched the process, but also licked off her saliva once or twice. She was always hungry.
While the tabbir was simmering, the three of them had gone quiet. Even the two siblings were not bickering with each other for once. Zhang Han thought that the timing was appropriate.
"Vaien."
"Yeah?"
"I think we should go back to Red Mane."
Kalla made a hissing noise from alarm. "Zhang Han-! You just up and asked-"
Zhang Han was, indeed, used to diplomatic tendencies, decorum, the like. But in this case Vaien's way of thinking and making decisions was not extremely nuanced, but simple in many regards, so there was no point in Zhang Han using his fancy words and round-about meanings here. He could just openly talk about it.
Vaien turned the stick through the soup again, glancing at Zhang Han. His expression was colder, more warning than usual.
"...why do you say that?"
Zhang Han easily replied, "Because Kalla is going back there, and you don't want anything horrible to happen to her. Maybe you have mixed feelings about the other people there, but not her. Is there a reason to make this complicated? You're just being stubborn at this point."
Kalla blinked. "Eh...me?"
Vaien was silent for a few seconds, also dumbstuck by Zhang Han's words, then cursed before retorting, "We've talked about this before. Zhang Han, going there is too dangerous for you-"
"It's risky no matter where I go." Zhang Han shrugged. "It's fine if I stay close to you or Kalla. In the end, if you refuse to go back, that's just a petty kind of revenge, Vaien. You'll be punishing those who were not involved in your father's death. We should go there, and can always leave once things settle down."
Vaien stirred the pot of food furiously. He glared down into it with hatred, annoyance, and irritation prickling at him.
He didn't want to give in. He didn't want to return to Red Mane knowing that bastard who let his father out to wander and die could still be there, living peacefully.
But...Zhang Han was right.