We headed down the road away from Gro's home of Ez Groshne and he held his head high. Even though he basicaly kicked out and now homeless. "Hey Gro. How old are you boy?" Morlin looked over the massive Orc as he walked beside the cart. The rhythmic clanking of his armor was actualy sort of soothing, i think? Anyway he grunted a number at the merchant, "20" then was silent once more. "Well then. Anyone hungry? Im starving!" Morlin shook his head the nudged me with his elbow. I got the hint and jumped off the cart and almost collapsed under the weight of the new quiver of arrows and bow. I quickly righted myself and took to the grass fumbling to knock an arrow. Gro shook his head and changed direction to follow me, as Morlin gently turned the cart into the grass.
We had been on the road for a good few hours before food was mentioned. Morlin started unpacking his camping supplies which was really nothing more then a few bed rolls he was intending on selling but had to use instead. It was already late afternoon by now almost evening when he finished cutting a small clearing in the grass. All he cut was tossed in the middle of the clearing then he went back to his cart for a small bundle of logs he kept just for this situation. When he returned to the small clearing he saw Me and Gro dragging a couple of wild deer behind us. One of which had an arrow embedded just behind the shoulder blade with the head of the arrow poking out the other side and the deer that Gro carried was completely missing its head. Morlins jaw dropped at the site and just watched me walk by towards the cart.
"Master is very quiet when hunting" Gro spoke to Morlin then focused on his kill and clumsily started hacking at the deer. I came back and saw the sad sight and grabbed Gros' helmet and removed it, "Clear vision, clear movements. Here." I surprised him with my actions because he might as well have had blinders on because of the helmet. I handed him my new Orcish dagger and pulled out my own Iron dagger i took back from Cassa and proceeded to expertly work the skin of my kill. I noticed that Gro would glance over at me a few times then started to mimic what i was doing. I had my dear field dressed and parted out while Gro was only a step or two behind me, but no where near as neat and clean. 'A true Orc i guess' I thought then i handed the pieces of meat to Morlin to fix for the fire he built while we worked.
"Keep those skins for later, boys. The wind feels cooler at night now." Morlin turned a piece of deer meat he had on a wooden spit he made. Gro grunted at him as he sat by the fire with his arms crossed against his chest plate, "Thin blooded halfling." i started to laugh then Morlin chuckled along with me. I heard a high pitched squeal from the cart and shot straight up from my spot beside the fire and saw Cassa stretching as she stood up in the cart. I sat down in relief 'only a yawn' then leaned back in the soft grass with my hands behind my head and sighed. Morlin and Gro glanced at each other then lightly chuckled. A few moments later i was completely relaxed in the comfortable grass. The smell of the cooking meat reminded me of me and father went hunting together.
"Gah!" i jumped when i felt teeth on the soft underside of my arm and the others burst out in laughter when Cassa bit me! "What you do that for!?" i scowled at her and she shrugged it off with a smile then sat on my chest pushing me down into the grass again. "Cassa grateful for Ered. Healed my ears." She smiled wide at me and all my aggravation just melted away and i completely relaxed again seeing the expression on her cute little face. "you're welcome Princess." and that made the smile disappear from her face being replaced with a scowl. Morlin saw the small exchange between the two and cleared his throat,"Meat's done. Lets eat!" and he portioned out some for himself as did Gro. I grabbed the biggest piece and used my new dagger to carve a good chunk for Cassa. I thought her eyes had gotten brighter when i handed it to her and the cute little smile that i liked was right back where it belonged.
We ate our fill and i noticed Gro had taken a few small bones from the deer he skinned and a striped out some sinue and made a necklace from it then tied it around his neck. "Why did you do that?" I asked and he grunted at me, "A trophy, Master." I could hear the contempt in his gruff voice when he said the word 'master' and i shook my head at him, "Don't call me that again, please." and the Orc just nodded to me. We sat and chatted for the rest of the evening as the sun set and the moon was shining high over head. Gro had fallen asleep with his head resting against his helmet and Morin was lightly snoring under One of the deer skins. I was just about asleep when Cassa came up to me out of the grass. She stood up with her head just over the grass and sniffed the air, "No life near us. We safe for now." then she crawled under the deer skin that covered me and laied down beside me. Her movement half rousted me and i remembered, "I got you something. I rolled away from her and fell asleep. She saw, on the grass where my back was, the Orcish dagger. I lied down on it to hide it to surprise her but i got to sleepy before she got back from her scouting.
Cassa slowly reached for the dagger and picked it up in her hands. She hend it tight against her chest and visibly shook in restrained excitement. she jumped with a back flip into the tall grass and thrust the dagger in front of her. It would be just shy of a short sword in her small hands and she swung the dagger around as if it was just that. wildly swinging and jumping as she cuts small swaths of grass s she got used to the weight. When she finally calmed down enough do to exhaustion she walked over to me and wiggled her way under the deer skin with her back against my chest. She squeezed the her new dagger against her chest and nuzzled down further under the skin and closed her eyes. Her eyes popped open when i put my arm around her and pulled her tight against me in my sleep. She shivered just a little then closed her eyes with a big smile on her little face.