24th step: Quiet

[favorthebold]

[The feed switches on to a shadowy scene, a small room lit by a strong, crackling fire in a central pit. Saul is crouched close to the fire, poking at some fish that are spitted and roasting over it. He's telling a story, so it sounds: his voice is low, yet rich, calling back old memories.]

- by the time we pulled him out, he was as cold and stiff as the ice around us, and very much dead. As dead as you've ever seen a man. Not a scrape on him, of course, just cold, and gray, so gold and gray that his skin cracked if you pressed it too hard. I thought they'd leave him there, why go to the trouble and drag a heavy body back to camp? But the Northern savages, their ways are different from anyone else's. Hunger makes them less than human, or it makes them more.

Their Guardian gave him last rites - but not like you'd give a man. He thanked his soul like they thank the seals they hunt. And I still didn't guess. I was very young... well. You probably do guess, don't you?

Yes. They did have meat that night, even though that man got no seal. They call it compensation, the Northmen. They are like no other men on earth.

[He pulls a fish from the fire, and hands the spit to his companion on the other side of the firepit - Carmen.

He gives her a faint smile along with it, maybe even an apologetic one.]

Not most my appetizing tale, I'm afraid.

[The feed continues to run, cheerfully oblivious.]


((OOC: Coordinated with Jackie <3. in ur city romancin ur villainz.)

Comments

[stars-reject.livejournal.com]

Ain't that cute.

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

Mm?

[He peers at the PCD.]

Now why doesn't this surprise me...

[Offline since, well, she's there...] Is it still broadcasting? I'm fine with that so far, hee.

[vile-queen.livejournal.com]

I have heard more unappetizing ones. Though none so close to dinner.

[Carmen smiles wryly.]

But I did ask. And you did answer. Therefore I have no right to complain.

[She accepts the fish with a bow of her head.]

Thank you. I traveled far too much to have many stories of harsh winters, though I once almost lost a man to the depth of the season in one of the coldest cities of my world. Harbin was celebrating its usual snow and ice festival, and he went to scout the river they traditionally carve the ice from for me.

Apparently my order to scout from the riverbank was misinterpreted as scouting from the river itself and he fell in, where they had cut away. It is a very good thing that the city is so cold; the water was entirely frozen. All the same, I did not locate him for three hours.

[Offline] I think it is? Although at some point they'd notice from other comments I guess ^^

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

[Unfazed by his own gory tale - he has much worse - Saul picks out his own roasted fish and eats away. Not gourmet cooking but better than what some folks have to subsist on.]

I might say that he was not very wise, your man, but winter is one of these things - you can't truly know its dangers till you've lived them. And he was luckier than the boy in my tale, after all. I take it he lived? Ah - but your world must have ways to treat cold wounds that mine does not.

[Offline] Aye, if others comment, hee.

[vile-queen.livejournal.com]

[After a moment Carmen begins eating as well, tale notwithstanding. She's not heard much worse, but hunger is hunger, and Saul can cook even when supplies are low.]

Indeed. We did not often stay in places with harsher climates. That required us to, for the Snow and Ice Festival can only be held in the winter. He did indeed live. I have not lost any of my men when I have been in the same country as them.

[Offline]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

Not one? Mm, but it's not battle that you go into... still, it's an impressive track record.

[No comment on the number of men he'd lost in his days - he hardly bothers to count. Men come and go.]

And what were you out for, in that festival?

[Offline]

[vile-queen.livejournal.com]

I thank you. It is true, our fields are different.

[She doesn't expect him to have a number. Not in his business. Carmen smiles, thinking back.]

The Festival itself. It has gained worldwide awareness and draws hundred of thousands yearly. It is the reason Harbin is no longer a struggling city near the northern border with Russia. And in a country that is struggling with deciding to remain in the past or move into the future, it is a tie to both.

[Offline]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

[He listens with great interest. As always, her world sounds reasonably like his, but all the names are different, all the places. It's eerie.]

And you've come to steal hundreds of thousands, and the deliberations of a country. [He's teasing, though as usual, not without admiration.] And the country - what is its name?

[umbrellapirate.livejournal.com]

Humans do that often, do they?

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

Do what, dome?

[umbrellapirate.livejournal.com]

Pull the dead from the rubble, treat them like there's still something left in their corpses, eat them.

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

Well, you eat what you must. But I left their special brand of meat to the Northerners, myself.

[umbrellapirate.livejournal.com]

It didn't taste good enough?

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, dome, I didn't touch it. They may be less or more than men, but I am not.

[Voice]

[followstheflame]

I would make sure your PCD was hidden away before telling stories of that caliber. I would hate for any of the children to get scared.

[Video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

[Saul just laughs.]

Look around you, doma. what's an old war story to the terrors that surround us?

[Voice]

[followstheflame]

Stories are strange things, much like ghosts. Just because you can see some things, doesn't mean the unseen are any less mysterious or frightening.

[video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

A child that is frightened by a story won't last long here, I think.

[Voice]

[followstheflame]

It is not their choice to be here in the first place.

[video]

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

No. But they are here, and had better be quick about their growing.

[bunny_flower]

That is an interesting story, Saul-san.

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

I didn't think you'd like it, doma.

[bunny_flower]

Really ? Why not, Saul-san ?

[favorthebold.livejournal.com]

It's not a very heartening tale.

[bunny_flower]

It is a tale of life and death.