Heavenfall

Knowing that supplies are running thinner than is comfortable, Dawei, having left a message with a closer-growing friend, strikes out to see what can be found.

It is likely that he finds something of interest (Hunting 46).

Kaze follows, picking his way through the underbrush. The foliage was thicker even than the Shinomen, but Kaze didn't seem put off by it, though he did keep close to Dawei.

Dawei motions to his companion, common hunting gestures asking him to keep watch as he gathers up some roots that seem edible, some fruits that, after a quick test of the knife against their flesh, cut true, and some cane stalks that seemed to give a sweet juice.

Grabbing up a sample of the last, he comes over to Kaze, offers it with a hushed "Try this; it's surprisingly sweet."

Kaze smiled as he accepted the cane from Dawei. He brought the cane to his lips and his eyes widened. "…that's amazing, Dawei-kun! The others will adore it. Let's get some more."

Dawei nods, thumbs a little bit of juice from Kaze's lip, sucks it off of the digit.

"I'll watch this time; see what you can find," he replies, his player expecting that one foraging roll is likely all that will be given each of them. "I'll be happy to share it with you, too."

Kaze blinked at the gesture, his eyes tracking the thumb back to Dawei's mouth.

"RIght...ah, just a moment." And he disappeared into the underbrush with his spear slung across his back and shovel in hand.

Traps roll=30

After a short while, he returns empty-handed but with a light sheen of sweat across his forehead.

"We need to wait a few moments, but I think the reward will be worth it."

Dawei nods, hides himself to see what will come.

This is good, he thinks, even amid such ruin and ill. It is good.

Kaze crouched next to Dawei, just enjoying the proximity for a moment as he waited for the...

Crash

He then sprung forward, keeping low, until he came to the edge of the pit he had dug. Sure enough, the deer was down in there, as, soon, were two arrows from Kaze's bow. Kaze looked over at Dawei with a grin.

"When one is alone, one rarely needs to hunt big game, but I observed this method among the Chinsei when they moved through the Shinomen. Useful, no?"

Dawei nods.

"I can see it. Never have done traps like this, just snares for smaller game. Something to keep in mind, I think, perhaps something that can be done around camp."

He smiles.

"So clever, you."

"I suppose I am." Kaze beamed at the praise. "We shall have to consider the applications to camp defense. That is very clever as well, Dawei-kun." He gave Dawei a bump with his hip before moving to slip down into the hole and boost the deer out.

Dawei grabs the animal to help haul it out.

And something occurs to him.

"We probably ought to jade-check what we've gathered," he says. "Seems a prudent thing."

And he touches his jade finger to the deer.

When nothing happens for several moments, Kaze nods in satisfaction. "Then it appears we are successful. Good thinking to test it. Now it is just a matter of carrying the beast back to camp. And then the messy part."

"We could do some of that out here, rather than in camp. Might help to keep some of the nastier things afoot farther away from us."

He shrugs.

"And, of course, it lets me be alone with you for longer, which is also nice."

Dawei smiles at that.

Kaze's smile appears to match Dawei's.

"Hai...Hai, it is nice to be alone with you, Dawei-kun." He kneels next to the deer, tugging his knife free from his belt to begin the skinning process. As he works, a little color rises in his cheeks. "It is nice to know you think so, though," he adds quietly.

Dawei kneels to assist, his knife carving flesh as easily as wood, his hands moving deftly from practice.

"You said you wanted to learn more about me, Kaze-kun. It's a good enough time. What all did you want to know?"

From Dawei, it's positively garrulous.

"Um..." Kaze wasn't sure how to ask for everything, which was what he really wanted, so he stalled for a few seconds' thinking space, his knife going to work. Then came the question: "What is a family...I'm sorry, your family...What is your family like?"

Dawei nods as his hands continue to work on the deer.

"Not a lot to tell in that regard. My mother died in childbirth, I am told. Not uncommon, unfortunately. My father fell to the Noriaki," and his voice twists and hardens, so that he almost spits the word, "in one of the many raids before the Kami came. Most of my cousins did, as well. Grandmother, though, lived longer than many; she remembered the youth of Seppun Satoka."

He pauses, looking away northeast.

"For the most part, they were farmers. Fighters when they had to be. Not many of us went in for hunting, at least not the kind that works in the woods. Snares and patrolling fields did for most of it."

He shrugs, returns to the work.

"But what of you, my dear?"

Kaze was silent for a time, and when he finally spoke it was quickly and quietly.

"I...don't have a family. My mother died having me, and my father took me into the Shinomen to die. I did not, through the kindness of some dogs and, when I could, stealing from the tribe. They would beat me when they caught me, but in the end I stole a bow and lived on my own until the Lady found me."

Dawei looks at Kaze when he finishes, tears in his eyes.

He only does so for a moment, though. The deer still needs attention, and though Dawei sorrows, he knows well that some work needs doing now.

But I wish I could just hold you.

Kaze absorbed the silence stoically. He was used to it; the horror of his youth often brought this response.

"Things are different now, of course," he said, trying to comfort Dawei. "Better. Lady Doji has made a home for me, given me a purpose. And I have learned that others have families that are warm, and not filled with tragedy as ours have been. I would like a family like that, I think, and there does not seem to be a way to get one other than to make one."