Willows
05-13-2020, 09:53 PM
She listened as he explained how to use the bracer to cut the strips. She pursed her lips, but nodded as she slipped it over her own left foreleg. It was big, and definitely didn't fit as snugly as the steel claws back at home. Malalia twisted her head to follow him as he left to grab some willow branches, then turned back around to the task at hand. She struggled to make a clean cut, the lines a little wobbly on her first attempt. Her second wasn't much better.
Ear pinned flatly to her head as she tried, slower and more carefully, the third incision, which was a lot neater. Her tail wagged at her progress, and soon she found her own rhythm, cutting the meat into even, thin strips about a bear claw thick, as Cairo had instructed, and placing them alongside the others.
Her ears twitched as he shared the moment of fighting the cougar with her, and she paused from her work to look up at him, chuckling lightly at the bison bit, and going silent for the rest. It did sound terrifying as hell... but even with that fear, Cairo had faced the threat without hesitation. She'd never heard courage defined in that way. In all her time at the Armada, she hadn't been afraid when she'd thrown herself at a threat. Not that she knew it herself, but there was a sort of recklessness about the way she faced dangers.
She had run away, though. Before.
"...I guess it is easier to face something when you aren't afraid," she added quietly, clearing her throat and shifting her focus back to cutting strips. "And for the record, I'm glad you lived to tell the tale."
She huffed in disbelief, though, when he relayed his second encounter to her. "You seem to get a lot of lions coming your way," she deadpanned. "I can't even imagine dealing with them on what seems to be a regular basis."
She paused when he did, watching as the mean weaved the willow branches together, and eventually make the fire. In the meantime she ate a bit of her own portion of the carcass, and visited one of the streams to wash away the blood that had long stained her fur from the hunt. She was dozing lightly when an exclamation from her companion made one eye pop open, her tail swishing behind her.