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He heard Addison's stomach growl, and he realized that his stomach was maybe a little empty as well. If he didn't think about food he didn't usually realize that he was hungry, and he had gone for a while now without a snack. Eating was not something he did that often, as he couldn't kill something without a little twinge of guilt. Anyway, he didn't have much muscle to sustain and he didn't get too much exercise, so he didn't really need to eat that much. If someone else was eating, though, he would be pleased to join them. It was almost as much a social event as it was a source of energy.
At her statement he chuckled a little, still staring at the whale bones, and replied, "Well, something had to have killed it." Hemming looked up to her with a grin. Her hunger was voiced, and he nodded a little. "Sure," he said, nodding, "I'm a little peckish myself. And that sounds like a grand idea!" The male had intended to dig up some of the bones, but without her statement he simply would have come back later by himself. The two of them together could make good work on it, probably, but despite his excitement he wouldn't let Addison's hunger linger for too long. "Now, what should we eat?"
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Besides watching Haku, she didn't get very many lessons in how to be social or be around others. She'd grown up with Jefferson and Geneva, yes, but there hadn't been any other puppies for her to play with or hang out with when she had been young. She had grown up thinking that whatever the adults were doing was what she ought to be doing, too. She'd had a lot of failures, trying to hunt or scout the borders as a puppy. She hadn't played much, unless it was by herself in the cabin with her toys or with one of the adults. But they'd always let her win.
"Peckish?" She questioned, never having heard that word before. "Like a bird?" Addi looked along the shoreline. They'd be able to find lots of food in the tidepools, if they looked in them. The pools were all the way up and down the beach. She thought for a moment, then answered. "I can go start to look for some wood over there" She pointed, "While you look in the tide pools for food? We could cook it in the fire."
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He hadn't pondered the origins of that word, instead simply picked it up from some book or another that he had read and learned how to use it in context. Now that she voiced her question the strangeness of the word became immediately obvious to him. He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment as he thought, his amber eyes drifting upwards. Hemming could picture birds pecking at their lunch, and it seemed to be about how he was feeling. "Hm, maybe!" A laugh escaped him, and he lifted a hand above his eyes as he peered down the shoreline.
"Sounds good," the wolf replied as he started to walk closer to the ocean, the salty waves starting to lick at his feet as he drew closer. There were little critters all about, including crabs like the one that had chased them down the beach, but now that the excitement had died down Hemming paid them little mind. He moved further and further into the water, eyes scanning the pool in front of him for anything that they could eat. Fish were delicious, and now that he was finished his fast they'd be an even more delectable treat.
Just as he spotted an admittedly tiny fish, the male put his foot down onto something hard. It gave a great crack beneath him, and he lifted his foot up immediately with a little startled gasp. As he put it down carefully, he bent closer to the water, reached in, and pulled out a very finished crab. Frowning a little, as killing something was sad especially when it was by accident, he placed the thing on top of his head for safe keeping. Ever since Dagrun had taken up residence there (today she had other business to attend to, apparently), it seemed like a rather convenient place to store things.
Crab seemed like a good idea, and they were easier to catch with one's bare hands than were fish. The wolf grabbed another one, dispatching it with a good bop of a rock, and headed back to the beach. He couldn't remember the last time he had eaten crab, but surely it would be delicious.
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She started off for the firewood as soon as he went toward the tide pools. There were a few pieces of driftwood laying around, wood that had been in the ocean water for a while, and she picked those up. She started back for the fire before turning to go back and get some more, tail waving back and forth in a genial matter. She hadn't had a nice conversation and dinner with someone in a while...it was kind of nice. Maybe she could use this dinner to practice for things she would say or do the next time she saw Haku. She wanted him to have the same kind of interest in her that she had in him...but she didn't know how to approach him with these things.
Or how to talk to men in general, really, besides family members. Hemming seemed a little odd to her, yes, with his appreciation of life and everything...but they were all the same, weren't they? Addison picked a few more pieces up, putting them down in the pile that she already had and looking for two smaller sticks. She began to rub them together in a way that she had learned might start a fire, exerting pressure on them to try and heat them up.
She looked up as he came back, giving him a nice, big smile. She would have to see, with this one, what the way to a man's heart was. "I got us some good wood." She noticed the crab on top of his head and raised an eyebrow. "But...what's that on your head?" She asked, looking at him quizzically.
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He meandered back to her, clutching the one crab in his hand while the other remained on his head. The weight seemed so familiar that he had quite forgotten that it was there. As he drew closer he reflected her wide smile, and sat down across the fire from her cross-legged. "Good," Hemming replied to a statement, but her question surprised him a little. "Oh!" he said, reaching up to grab the crab off of his head. "I'd forgotten that I put it there." He grinned and balanced a crab on each knee. "Don't worry, they're dead. They won't eat you." The wolf winked as he fiddled with a claw.
Hemming didn't really know how to cook crab, but surely just roasting it would work fine. Grabbing a stick from the pile, the gray wolf pulled some bark off the end and chewed on it a little to get a smaller point. Once he was satisfied, he picked up the more mangled crab and skewered it, carefully and slowly. It seemed to stay on quite well, and Hemming smiled at it. Should he peel the shell off? If it didn't cook right, he would, but for now he would experiment. Holding the stick at ninety degrees and doing a little wave of it to Addison, he asked, "Want me to do yours?"
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She had heard about Aniwaya and their wolves, how they had those spirit animal things...but she didn't believe in it. It was like believing in a higher power, wasn't it? She didn't think spirits really existed. She was always a skeptic when it came to something she couldn't see. Besides--she wouldn't want some animal following her around all the time telling her what to do. That would suck. It would be like having her father there or something...
He sat down across the fire from her as she got it going. She eyed the crabs with a little nervousness until he mentioned that they were dead, then relaxed. Good. Those were pretty big ones...she didn't want them deciding to come after her. It would be fun to roast crabs after that one had scared her earlier. Haha! She'd get the crab population back.
"How could you forget you had something on your head? She asked curiously, getting up from her spot and plopping herself down next to him. She looked at the way that he had skewered his crab and nodded. "Yeah, you can do me. I mean. Do mine."
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Hemming had been a wolf of reason and evidence, and the idea of Spirit Guides befuddled him completely. There were some things in life that perhaps he would never understand, despite continuing to try to. Since meeting Dagrun he had learned a lot about her, but his trying to understand where she was coming from continued to invoke supernatural explanations. Indeed, his tribe was filled with spiritual ideas, and since joining he had started to warm up to them. He could be a man of reason and still appreciate the AniWayan traditions, of course, and he certainly did.
He had a good excuse for forgetting something on his head, but instead of explaining it he cast his gaze to the side and shrugged sheepishly. "It happens," he replied, turning his eyes back. The male didn't notice her verbal fumble, and he sharpened another stick with his teeth before plucking the second crab off of his leg and easing it on. "There we go," he said with a smile as he handed her the end of the stick. Now clutching his own with two hands, he lowered the skewered crab over the fire, the salt water sizzling away as it was licked by flame.
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The only thing that she knew about animals was that it was possible for wolves to speak with them. Addison didn't know how to do this herself but she was interested in learning it. She wanted to be able to lure them to her to make the hunt easier. She was an alright hunter, but had missed out on valuable experience-time when she had been attacked by Halo and her rats. The girl had been forced to sit down and allow the rats to bite her; the coyote had threatened her life with a gun if she hadn't submitted.
That was one of the reasons why she was so independent now. She wanted what she wanted, and knew what she would have to do to get it. To sharpen her skills of deceit and trickery she had joined the Dahlia pack and had left her father. She believed that learning those skills would eventually benifit her in her life. "Thank you." She said, as he lowered the stick over the fire.
The female had collected some strips of seaweed and had unburied a few clams while getting wood and she reached for one of them, smashing it into the ground. She took the meat from the inside, scooping it out with clawed fingers, and placed it on top of some of the strips of seaweed. She did the same with the other and reached for another stick, putting them onto the ground and prodding both packages forward into the fire with the stick. They could slow-cook as the crab did.
Just as she was pushing the clam meat in something began to happen; the fire sparked with different colors, blues and greens shooting through the flames. Her blue and gold eyes widened and she looked to Hemming, surprised. "It's beautiful!"
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He smiled at her thanks and gave a quick nod. As the crabs started to heat up, Hemming watched the girl pull the fleshy bits of a clam onto some seaweed. It was a rather clever cooking method, and he smiled some more. The wolf was quite curious about what it might taste like, as he had never eaten clams before, and stared at them for a second as if that would give him some clues. They looked kind of slimy. Not all that appetizing at all, really. But he would try them anyway, because obviously Addison liked them if she had taken time to dig them up. The wolf was rather adventurous in his tolerance for strange food, and since the ocean was such a rich source of potential meals he figured he may as well learn something about the tastiness of these odd creatures.
Hemming's attention was quickly yanked from the funny looking clams, his eyes darting toward the lovely colors - almost like the aurora - that flickered through the orange flame. He tilted his head a little, mystified. What could that possibly be, and what was causing it? Oblivious to any pain it might cause him, he reached out a finger and prodded the end of one of the larger pieces of wood in the fire, as if the gesture would cause it to spark some more. His own wide eyes turned to the girl's for a second before he looked back to the fire. "How-- Why is it doing that?" he asked rather breathlessly.
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[html] ooc: I'm gonna turn addison into a chef o.o too. XD
She did like the taste of clam, overall. She had tried many different foods from different lands; she hadn't known what lay north of Phoenix Valley, and had discovered over time that Dahlia de Mai sat right on the shoreline. Did that mean that the pack owned that patch of ocean, too? She had hunted for clams and sea urchins there. Ever since Geneva had taught her how to read she had been looking at cookbooks, but most of the dishes that she had found in them didn't seem like they could be made. She didn't have many of the ingredients.
The colors that the flames had turned had surprised her. She didn't think that it was something that Hemming had done that had made it like that, and she definitely hadn't done anything. Was there something different about this wood that they were using? It was driftwood, wood that had been submerged in salt water. Maybe it burned different colors than normal wood! "There was salt-water in this wood before...it's driftwood. Maybe it's supposed to do this. I'd never made a fire before with this kind of wood before. It's definitely hot...but just a different color" She reached a hand toward the flames as well, as he had, feeling the heat.
Before long the edges of the clam pieces were beginning to brown and she put her hand forward again to pick them out without thinking. Addison immediately pulled it back again at the sudden burst of pain, gritting her teeth. Hot! "Ahhhh! Oh, owch. I think I burned my hand"
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On a day-to-day level, it seemed to the wolf as if he had forgotten everything that he had learned in his years of obsessive reading. In reality, it must have been there lurking just beneath the surface, because Addison's attempt to explain the phenomenon pulled an idea or two up. There was something about different elements of matter, the way they were affected by the energy from the fire. Hemming didn't have time to voice his thought, though, because almost immediately his mind went to the girl's burnt hand. He could understand that in her eagerness to get the clams out she had forgotten that they might be very hot. The older wolf had hurt himself in much stupider ways, curiosity getting the best of him. He was, perhaps, the proverbial cat.
Transferring the crab into his other hand, Hemming reached out and clutched the wrist of Addison's burnt hand lightly, inspecting her palm and fingers. It was a good idea to get water on burns, but was salt water okay? Looking back up to the girl, he let his fingers drift away from her hand and asked, "Is it alright?"
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She had been raised in Phoenix Valley away from the rest of the world, having been encouraged to stay inside the packlands where it was safe rather than exploring and learning different lessons. She didn't have much knowlege on a vast number of things, and was inexperienced...but she did have the power to pretend. She could pretend that she knew what she was talking about and hope that it worked out for the best, rather than admitting that she didn't know. Hemming seemed really weird to her, but he had a sort of odd, goofy charm about him that made her want to stick around anyway.
She tried to pull her hand back away from him and failed; she slid it from his grasp slightly, but pain shot through her hand and arm, making her stop. She didn't know exactly where she'd been burned at, and she could hurt herself by trying to pull it away from him. Did he have medical knowlege, though? Maybe he'd know what to do. "Be careful, you're gonna make it worse! Ahh...look, the skin's all peeling off. Gross. It really hurts." Gold and blue eyes fixed on the burned area, scrutinizing it."I've never gotten burned before...I have no idea."
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Hemming did not really think that much about the others around him. He had a general impression of them all, what they liked and their general air, but he never considered how they worked. Oddness, perhaps because he was rather odd, was a map that had no scale, and he had no means nor intention to actually consider someone strange. Wolves were as they were, and any variation was just that: variation. Every conceivable personality quirk, unless it was something gruesome or cruel, was just considered the way it was. It was out of simpleness that Hemming did this, the fact that he had grown up without a true gauge of someone's oddity. The characters in books had been his companions, and they spanned all types of weirdness, the plane of difference so vast that Hemming didn't know where he - or anyone else - stood.
While he lived alone he had learned a bit about medicine, or at least had developed something of a first aid kit for himself, just out of necessity. He found the history of human medicine quite intriguing, and perhaps that was the reason he learned any of it at all, though that was hardly useful now. The wolf winced a little as flashes of the gruesome tools the humans had used before they had the capacity to develop more humane tools passed through his mind. Letting go as soon as she cried out, he continued to stare. "I've heard you can put a potato on it," he said, really out of lack of any other useful suggestions. It was true, a potato was a good thing to have around.
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"A potato." She repeated, her tone dark. Where the hell was she supposed to get a potato in a time like this?! The burn hurt, making her whole entire hand throb. She got up, running back over to the tide pools, and stuck it into the water there. It wasn't instant relief, but she soon felt something in the water beginning to work on it a little bit. It burned in a new, different way, but she tried to ignore the feeling. The main burning sensation was beginning to go away.
Something brushed her hand and her eyes widened, looking down into the pool. Holy cow! That had to be the biggest crab she'd ever seen. She didn't let it grab her, putting her non-burnt hand in and wrapping it around his big claw. Haha! Oh, this was great. It did creep her out a little bit to be touching a crab that was as big as her hand was, but she wanted to show it to Hemming. Burn now forgotten, she pulled the crab up out of the water by its claw. "hey! Look what I found!!"
She waved it around in the air a little bit, the crab's small legs moving around. She wiggled the crab to-and-fro in the air, but wiggled it a bit too hard; the whole entire leg snapped off, leaving her holding one big claw. The crab, stunned, lay on the ground on its back. "Uh...oopsies. We should put it in the fire, don't you think? As a second course?" She picked it back up, bringing it over to him.
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Apparently his suggestion was not well received. To be honest, he hadn't been all that optimistic about it anyway. Hemming looked away rather sheepishly, staring out across the ocean. The girl was quickly up and running to the water, and the older wolf watched her for a moment before plunging the end of the sticks he was holding, crabs stuck on top, into the sand. Carefully, he pulled the seaweed the clams were on out of the fire, so that they didn't burn. He did want to eat them, after all.
Hemming merely watched as Addison stuck her hand into the water, not sure if he should get up and go over there too. When she held up the crab, he merely stared, gasping when it fell to the ground. It seemed she was over her initial fear of crabs, which was... good. Perhaps.
The two seemed to be on the same wavelength, and the male nodded when she suggested they eat the poor clawless guy. Without that weapon he probably wouldn't do too well, anyway, and the gray wolf was feeling hungrier and hungrier. "Wow, he's big," he mentioned as the crab was brought back. The ones on the stick were probably done by now, and he eased one off, putting it on its back on the sand. "Here, stick him on here," he said, passing her the stick.
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She was glad that he'd pulled the other stuff out of the fire; the girl was a little ADHD, herself, and easily forgot about things, even things that she'd just been doing or had just been involved in. She came back to the fire and sat down by him again. She felt oddly comfortable around him; usually adults made her nervous and she didn't care much for them. Pups, either. She was good with wolves around her own age...but pups freaked her out and adults usually made her feel stupid.
She took the stick from him. "Thanks. For pulling the stuff out of the fire. I'm kind of absent-minded...I forget stuff a lot." In he next moment she was looking at the crab. Her bangs fell into her face and she put them behind one ear, focusing on the shelled creature. "Die, crab!" She shoved the stick through it, then held it in the fire.
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He smiled at her gratitude, but shrugged it off. "Your hand was on fire. You tend to forget some other things when that happens." The wolf chuckled a little. Her hand hadn't quite been on fire, but it was at least a fairly accurate description. It had the same effect, at least. Too bad they didn't have a potato, as that would have helped. Potatoes were tasty, too, and they could have cooked it up after and eaten it.
Hemming inhaled deeply, smelling the clam and the cooking giant crab. Remembering that he had placed one of the finished crabs beside him, he picked it up and put it beside the girl. It was a little hot, too, if one was to hold it for too long. After easing the second one off the stick, he cracked it's upper shell, releasing steam with a little sizzle.
With a grin, he looked to the girl and said, "Bon apetite!" Pulling some of the crab's flesh out carefully, using his nails so he didn't burn his fingertips, he popped some it his mouth. He was quiet for a moment as he savoured it. It had been a long time since he had eaten anything so delicious!
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He didn't seem to mind that she had forgotten the food. Hemming was really interesting to her--she wasn't used to someone who was so cheerful and who had such opinions and feelings. He seemed to really appreciate things in his life, appreciate the beauty of his surroundings. The food that was now set out before them looked delicious and by the time she had made her way through it the big crab was done cooking. Addison took a bit of that as well, licking her lips. Mmm!
"It's so good!!" She licked her fingers off, letting out a small moan of contentedness. She scooted a bit closer to him, staring at the fire, while he ate as well. "You know, I'm really glad we ran into each other today." Mismatched eyes looked up at him, and she set her hand down on the sand between them.
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The crab was absolutely delicious. Hemming picked tiny pieces off of it, pulling them loose from the hard outer shell, and put them into his mouth one by one. He wondered why he didn't eat this marvellous beast more often. It cooked up deliciously, and as a bonus it was rather easy to catch. They did have those massive claws, but one could do their killing with a spear. The wolf was much more accustomed to hunting with tools, anyway. He would have to come here more often to get lunch or dinner, especially since Beast's Grin Peninsula was wonderfully close to home. At some point in the near future he needed to come and dig up some of the whale bones, as well. The Gatlvska was sure he could make something of them.
The wolf beamed at his new friend's statement, nodding as he swallowed a chunk of meat. "Oh, me too!" he exclaimed with a grin, completely oblivious to whatever type of advance she was making, "I've had a lot of fun today." It had been a remarkably silly day, and Hemming liked those. There was a day for everything, including running away from giant hungry crabs. And they got their retribution, too. As he reflected on the day he remembered the clams. They were probably cool enough to eat by now, and so he suggested excitedly, "How about those clams?"
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[html] Oh my what a smexy new table I have :o and hehe. Nothing works on him
He obviously didn't understand what she had meant. She meant that she'd had a good time with -him-...that yeah she'd had fun running around and discovering the whale bones and crap...but that the reason she'd had that much fun was because he was here. He had made her laugh and smile, something she hadn't done in a while. But it was, of course, more than just that to her. She wanted some kind of a reaction out of him. More.
"The clams are good." She said in a mono-tone, staring him down, a slight crease on her forehead. "We should dig up some of those bones...but maybe we ought to go and get a wagon or something. I have a wagon back home. If you walk me home, you could borrow it" She offered, her small frown immediately disappearing.
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