Daniel returned to the fire with the cut rabbit meat and the branches he was going to put by the fire to cook the roast. He took it all out of the cart and drowned the cart, for there were still pieces of meat in it and the wood itself was soaked with blood. He felt a little sorry for drowning his goods, but if he didn't get rid of the source of the smell, the predators would come here at night and not leave until the morning.
He didn't know which species ruled the area, but if they smelled a bloody corpse in their territory, they would find out which predator had done it, so Daniel couldn't leave the wagon in the woods. He would have to drive it very far away, and there wasn't enough time for that. It was a good thing that the source of the smell was buried in the water, where it would rot slowly without causing any unnecessary trouble here.
He hadn't come up with it on his own, but had picked it up when he'd gone into the forest on a mission a few months ago and seen a cheetah finish off a rabbit in an unfamiliar lake and drown it before the nightly fight for territory began. What surprised him more was that the predator had come out of hibernation earlier and had still managed to find the rabbit and mow it down at night by its own kind. But the hierarchy of the animals and their rules were strict, even for their own kind.
Daniel quickly cleared the branches by the fire and threaded the meat onto one of the three branches, using the other two for support. Melissa was still outside at this time, she spotted a cute gecko off to the side and tried to catch it, but she never did. And when the gecko smelled fried meat, it began to approach him.
The boy was a little surprised by the gecko's behaviour. Usually they came out at night to catch different insects in their mouths and then just eat them, but Daniel had never seen geckos wanting to eat animal flesh, so he didn't know what to do.
He had to try giving the gecko some of the cooked meat from the skewer and holding it out to it, but it immediately snatched the piece from his fingers with its mouth and ate it, then looked at him with pitying eyes and begged for more.
"All right, all right, Melissa, come here, I've already fried the meat."
Melissa came quickly, but the whole time she stood looking at the small orange animal with black spots on its head and torso, licking every time the man gave it a piece of meat.
"Hey, can I feed it?" Melissa looked at Daniel with the same pitiful look the gecko had given her a few moments before.
"Don't ask me, you'd better ask Deviant himself." Then he pointed at the reptile.
"Who is Deviant? You're so bad with names, so I'd better take care of him!" The girl gave him a slightly condescending look and then walked over to the gecko.
The gecko himself, noticing her approach, simply climbed onto the boy's shoulders and then ran away from the hyperactive girl's hands. He had already grown to dislike her from her advances towards him.
"HEY! STOP!" the boy took it all in stride when the girl couldn't get the gecko off his body, then added, "See, he doesn't like it, so leave Deviant alone before you leave me all bruised up!"
"Well, go away with that rascal, I'll find another pet and love it, not some reptile," Melissa snorted when she saw that the gecko wasn't happy with her either, standing up with her arms at her sides and turning her head away from the couple.