Ripe for the Picking

The young woman gave her consent to share the meal, albeit warily, so Alfrun drifted closer in that dreamy, meandering way of hers to face the woman over the elk. She didn't lower her head to the carcass right away, though her stomach complained at her bitterly for the delay. "Young was I once, I walked alone, and bewildered seemed in the way; then I found me another and rich I thought me, for man is the joy of man," she quoted the words of the All-father softly, as they had been passed on to her in the oral tradition, then smiled her disfigured smile. "Heil ok sæll, stranger," she added in greeting, then gave in to her protesting stomach and bent her head to the elk.