She was a strange yearling but her offer had been fair, more than fair in some ways. She'd give him the parrot in exchange for a lesson on drying meat as well as a portion of the finished product. He'd already shown her how to start a fire and now it was time to prep the meat for drying. Áskell pulled the deer hindquarters over to the fire. He worked his jaws around the hide until he had it mostly pulled back. He licked the blood from his teeth. "Alright, first thing you need to do is expose the meat. Once you have you want to work your fangs under the muscle and start pulling back strips, try to keep them thin. If you need use your claws or your companion." He gestured to her crow before tearing a strip of meat off the thigh, having Ari use a knife to cut it off cleanly. He set it aside. "Try to pull with the grain."

Marrow

Marrow eagerly followed the older man who had promised to show her how to make the dried meat snacks he'd shared earlier. Having a supply of food readily available meant a lot to the yearling. She still hadn't found Wendigo yet and until she did she needed better ways to keep herself fed. Maybe after she was done here she could find Ghoul again and get some lessons on setting snares for larger prey.

Marrow trotted over to the haunch, working her teeth through the hide and trying very hard to resist just eating some more. She was full, but it was a strange experience to put teeth to something she did not intend to eat or harm. Taking a strip of the meat she began to pull with the grain, using her sharp claws to help loosen and cut the muscle.

Aka pulled off a few more strips of meat before looking over at Marrow to see how she was doing. The yearling's movements were pretty awkward but as she worked he saw her starting to get the hang of it, finishing with a decent chunk of meat to dry. It was a touch on the thick side but Aka had a feeling it wasn't going to last long. "Next we need a way to hold it up over the fire and smoke to dry. To do this we need to weave the meat onto one of these simple wooden spears. I can show you how to make the spears later after we get our meat drying. Thread it on like this."

Aka took a piece of meat in his jaws, holding the spear with his paws he threaded on one end before folding the meat to pierce another and then folding it back the other way to pierce it once more til he had it threaded on. He passed Marrow a spear to have her try.

Marrow

Marrow's tail wagged light as she held her strip of meat as though it were something terribly precious. She watched the man as he weaved the strand of meat onto one of the sticks and even offered to show her how to make one. She nodded eagerly. Anything she could learn about this she wanted to know. The man, Aka, tossed her a spear so that she could give it a try. Marrow propped the spear up part way on a rock, using her teeth to hold one end of the strip of meat before using her paws to try and push the end onto the spear, letting the point pierce the meat and slide harmlessly between her toes. Her crow companion hopped a little closer but a soft growl made it back up. She wanted to do this herself! After a bit more weaving she soon had the meat on the spear.

Aka set his spear aside, giving it to Ari to hang on to for the moment until the next step. In the mean time he watched the girl, noting that while her technique was different she still managed to succeed. He was glad she was eager to learn and not a disrespectful student. It made him feel better to agreeing to teach her about not only the wooden spears but also how to make her own fire. Perhaps it was because he felt a bit bad for her. It was clear she was struggling to get on alone.

Marrow finished then looked up at him. Aka nodded. "Alright, the final step is to set our spear up so that the meat is in the smoke, this and the heat rising from the fire will help to dry it as well as keep bugs out of it. We want it up higher so that it dries instead of getting overly cooked or burnt." Aka picked up his spear in his teeth then trotted over to the fire. At the outside of his makeshift fire ring he tipped his head and pushed, using his paws and a little help from Ari to press the spear into the dirt at an angle so the end with the meat hung up in the smoke.

Marrow

Marrow took in the information, soaking it in and try to commit it to memory so she could do this by herself. What the man said made sense and soon it was time to begin drying the meat. Already she was intrigued by the smells coming off the spear the man had placed and she couldn't wait to try it herself so she grabbed her spear and picked a position opposite the mans. It took some careful turning of her head to get the right angle and then she pushed the spear into the dirt, using her paws to try and keep the angle. One paw she set up higher, letting her toes catch the joint where an offshoot branch had been. This gave her the leverage she needed to push the spear into the ground and place her meat in the smoke.