(Rose)
Without a witch from this time to help us, hunger has become a real issue.
Because it's winter and I can't expect to find much the abandoned cities anymore. Years have passed and what remained edible has been depleted by the survivors.
Nonetheless, we get by.
Bleue quickly built up her stamina, always happy and quite cheerful.
Since we eat a lot to live and walk, we eventually begun hunting.
Zeslinry and Myls taught me what I needed to know.
But I don't expect everything to go smooth on the first real try.
There are not many animals left to prey upon, except snakes.
So we eat snakes most of the time. They're not hard to come by around here.
It doesn't make them our enemies though, as they still gather around our fire when we make camp in an open place, and sleep with us like puppies.
The bigger snakes sometimes eat the smaller ones, and on morning we gather the ones who died during the night.
Bleue was a little scared at first, when being surrounded by a variety of snakes.
I don't know how to say this, but it's normal in winter on this island now.
But after a few weeks, she's using the bigger and friendlier ones as pillows to sleep when they join our camp. Here goes innocence. And the snakes don't care, it keeps them warm. Everybody wins, but the picture is amusing for me.
Some of them are warm blooded even, we notice when petting them. Times sure have changed.
The animals that look like hybrids of rabbits and spiders we see dormant here and there. They mark their territory with colours, and we're careful to stay out of it. They have fur, but they seem to suffer the cold more than the snakes do.
We stay carefully away from their territory still.
~
Then we end up running low on food and without having found any dead snake for a while.
We were walking through frozen woods, with odd deep holes here and there.
We met a few boars, a family. We both stopped moving, as did they. They went on their own way, away from us.
I considered hunting one for food. Bleue agreed rather easily.
So we began walking more slowly and more cautiously, searching through the woods for the right prey.
After a few hours, in another part of the woods, we saw something alone in the distance. Through my scope, I recognised a boar, rummaging for roots.
I got slowly closer, taking my rifle and readying myself.
I aimed. Bleue covered her ears and I shot.
The sound is deafening and my shoulder hurt. But it's not the first time.
I run after my prey, not especially bloodlust or excited, but my pulse is beating fast obviously.
It escaped. I missed fully.
Bleue is still smiling greatly as we stopped running. She's amused.
I unload the rifle and put it back, given the prey escaped unharmed.
We'll have to walk a little longer with hunger...
~
By a half frozen lake or swamp the next day, Bleue is gathering wood. As she does, she's also telling a tale she's imagining on the moment, about a lake mermaid snatching bad children at night, but not to eat them. To turn them into tadpoles instead.
And sometimes, the frogs they grew to become would try to return home.
And maybe the ones whom had learn their lesson, and were recognised by their family, could be turned back into children.
When she can invent nonsensical tales like that at will, my mind still goes blank. I'm still as unimaginative as one can go, and yet I've made so much progress over the years. I don't have much to show for it.
That aside, I end up noticing something over the lake.
I swallow, but it's not a mermaid. Not this time at least. I left the one I met and nicknamed Mir in France. I wonder what she became.
Anyway, here, it's a duck. Three normal looking ducks even. I haven't seen a bird in this lifetime.
Unfortunately for it, hunger beats beauty today. I load my rifle and take careful aim.
I shoot. Two birds leave. Bleue is shocked behind me.
I go grab branches and pull the wounded bird ashore.
Then it gets messy.
Some bad memories flash inside of my skull, when I see the blood over my hands and shining fresh on my shoes.
It's not a dog, nor a man, nor a monster. And there was no hate.
I begin the butchery by killing it for good. I can't manage to snap its neck. How on Earth can you?
Bleue hands me her knife over and I cut the head of the suffering animal.
I breathe as it's dripping more blood everywhere.
R - Sorry... I didn't mean it to suffer this long.
B - You did as best you could.
After that, I begin working really.
Plucking the feathers close to the fire Bleue prepared.
Then taking the guts out. I keep the liver and the heart to cook separately.
I wash the empty and prepared duck. It took me hours. We roast all of that while night already falls. I'm cleaning my hands in the bucket of water Bleue warmed by the fire for me.
The meat we eat for this dinner is rather hard to chew on. But we eat it nonetheless because it's edible. We're grateful to that duck.
~
It's rather nice.
We survive.
Eating what we can along the way.
Mostly snakes still. We're not picky.
Big snakes dead by dawn are the most prevalent source of our food nowadays though.
Kindly enough, they're not hostile. They still don't mind us despite us eating them.
We're not really good huntresses yet.
I miss another boar again. I sigh. I'm hungry.
As I turn around, Bleue is again smiling at me with some abstract happy pride expressed.
We'll manage.
And we leave a trail of footprints on the frozen ground as we continue our travel.
~