Around the Flames that Burn Bright

Manochka came back from the hunt with a stag over her shoulder. She simply tossed it to the side and went to sit down by the fire. Sighing, she sat down on one of the logs and rested her hand on her knee, staring into the flames. As she continued to stare into the fire, memories of her childhood of being back in Haiti came flowing back. She could faintly here the chants and laughter that happened during different celebrations.

With a huff, Ellie stretched her arms as she walked back from the training grounds, feeling stiff and tense from all the repetitive exercises she had forced herself to go through with her knife. She was much better with her bow and arrows, as all Hunters were, but she knew when it came to it she was on the weak side with close-ranged combat. It probably would have saved her a lot of panic back when she'd gotten her eye scar from that hellhound in '34, that had left her shaken for weeks.

To the fire pit she went to warm herself in the slightly chilly weather; her jacket was zipped up, her beanie pulled over her ears and her hair slightly frizzy from the haphazard way she had put it on. Sniffling slightly, she plopped herself down on the first log with a fire she came across: right across from another one of the Hunters, who was sitting by a stag and looking a bit... forlorn? Was that the word? She blinked slowly, and spoke up: "Hey there. You okay?"

The huntress was too caught up in her the flames to answer her the first time. Manouchka was wearing a long white dress that stopped at her ankles. Her head was dressed with a African styled head wrap that was decorated with yellows, oranges, and reds. She looked up and saw a girl across from her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm fine." She gave her a warm smile before sitting up straight. [color:edad=993300]"How are you doing on this fine evening?" She asked her in her semi thick, French-Haitan accent. Even after all these centuries she still had her accent.

"Oh, I'm fine too, I suppose. Just got back from training. And how about you? I suppose your, ah, hunting went well?" A quick inquistive glance back at the stag, only for Ellie to return her gaze to the other girl. What was her name again? Manou... Manouchka? Yes, that seemed to be it. Ellie didn't talk to her very much, rarely talked to many of the other girls very much: a good plenty of them were older than her and seemed, sometimes, to be stuck in the time period they had come from. Ellie sometimes found it a little odd, but they couldn't help it, could they?

She nodded and crossed her legs under the white dress, repositioning herself so that she would be more comfortable. "Ah yes, hunting went quite well actually. That's for asking." Manouchka fixed her wrap with the tips of her fingers before gently putting them back down, placing them gracefully on her lap. "And how did your training go today, fellow huntress?" She asked her as the sounds of the wilderness coming to life as the night went on.

Ellie paused to look at her arms: they hadn't fallen off, so she seemed to be fine. "Aah, well, that went fine. I just sort of tired myself out, s'all. I'm sort of bad at close-range combat, but still -- my archery still works well. Had to concentrate on the first one so I don't get something like this again." She tapped her scarred eye lid, barely visible in the flickering camp light. She picked up a small split log and pushed it into the fire, hearing it crackle as it burned.

The knife she had used was strapped to her calf again, hidden under her pant leg as it always was in case she needed it; her bow she had left in her tent, both knowing that she didn't need to practice that so much and that nobody in the camp would dare steal it. They all had their own bows and arrows, they wouldn't need to steal it anyway.

"Close combat? Chil' I can help you out with that." She perked up a bit. Manouchka picked up the ends of her dress and walked over to her. The flames illumination her Hersey kiss complexion. "I have trained for a while so I can aid you if you want, Ellie." She asked with a slight smile before sitting beside her. She had brass knuckles already on her hands since she never knew when she might use them. Plus they looked a bit fashionable.

"Sounds pleasant enough, but maybe tomorrow or the day after. I might be sent off to go hunt or guard or such." Such duties were tiresome, but Ellie couldn't complain; almost a century of this had desensitized her to feeling the boredom that was normally associated with routine. She felt the dull throb of her arms, stretched and tired after a long day's training: normally a day off among the Hunters was spent repairing and cleaning their weaponry and the camp site, keeping it in top condition. Ellie supposed she should go restring her bow, but -- eh.

Manouchka agreed and placed near the flames of the fire."Guarding is always fun. Never knowing when someone, or something, might come roaming along." She stated, remembering once back in 1837 when some type of monster had come too close to the campsite and had the beast had to taken care of. Back then, Manouchka was still fairy new to the idea of being led by a Greek goddess that she had never heard of.

Ellie tapped her chin, remembering back through the years all the times something interesting had happened while she was on guard duty: very frequent, if what she remembered was correct. "I think last week there were a couple of wandering hellhounds trying to play with our wolves -- very far off, but they didn't do much damage to us. Cute little things they were, barely bigger than my own dog." It had been quite the sight; her partner on that shift was a bit less appreciative of the interactions than she was, but that was no matter. They hadn't killed the babies on sight for fear of accidentally shooting one of the wolves, and for the fact that they thought it'd be a little too extreme to kill them if they weren't causing trouble.

Manouchka smiled warmly as she heard the story about the two Hellhounds  playing with the wolves. Chuckling, the huntress smoothed her dress out before stating. "Well if it's one thing that is allows interesting it's guard duty." Manouchka looked up at the stars and smiled, enjoying the view. She always did this in her free time, just staring up at the stars, trying to count each and everyone of them. After a while she turned her attention back to Ellie and said, "Do you sometimes just go out to hunt monsters? Like for fun?"

Ellie frowned for a second into the flames, feeling the warmth on her face on that mildly chilly night. "It depends on my mood that week. Sometimes it's swell and I feel like I can go -- sometimes I'm just sort of tired and won't. Monsters are... difficult to predict. Sort of get scared I'll almost die again." But she couldn't complain: she was told the risks of becoming a Hunter back when she joined in the '20s, and she had willingly accepted them. Still, Ellie could be tired, being immortal hadn't erased that from her entire being.

"That's understandable, Ellie. I know that feeling of tiredness..." The daughter of Strength sighed some, staring back into the hot flames of the fire. "Do you ever miss your family?" She asked, wondering if she was the only one who did. Manouchka suspected that the other huntresses of Aretmis did, some showing it more than others. For her, she sometimes wanted to go back three centries just to see her beloved mother again. Just to see her warm brown eyes and short thick hair..

The younger Hunter ran a hand through her hair as she thought for a moment; the fire flickered and the shadows seemed to grow longer and more menacing around them.

Did she miss her uncles and grandparents? Of course. Not so much her mother and stepfather, but they did have a few, if fleeting, pleasant moments all together back in that big mansion and their apartment in New York. It hurt her heart to remember when she had found out her uncles had died -- so much so that she had avoided finding their descendants ever since. She knew she had to have at least a few cousins, perhaps great-cousins now, because her uncles definitely would have gotten married (at least once). Ellie smiled ruefully. "Oh, always. I don't miss the time period, but my family -- at least, those I knew -- they're all dead now. Descendants probably still alive -- I might have a few cousins or great-cousins running around. Do you?"

Manouchka listened to Ellie before answering her. "I miss my mother, definitely not the time period I was born into." She turned to face the other huntress. "I'm proud to see how far the nation has come..." The daughter of Kratos turned her attention back to the flames and sighed. "I can almost hear the songs my gramma used to sing while she worked. Apparently the song my grandmother sung was the same one her grandmama sang to her back in Africa...Matter of fact, I sing that same song was the same one to remind me where my roots lie."She answered, clicking her tongue a bit before straightening her back.

"The nation has come far," Ellie agreed, "but it could go much farther, if only people wouldn't dwell on the past so much, wouldn't be so set in their ways that they're willing to hurt others to keep themselves comfortable. You can remember your roots but not use it as an excuse against change." The 1920s had been a wonderful time for such flagrant ignorance of old traditions, old values in those countries that flourished during that beautiful period -- but of course, they hadn't destroyed everything from old times such as racism and sexism.

And even today it was still present. Ellie had acquired a few newspapers from the past few months whenever they were close to a town: Ferguson, Syria and Russia, gay marriage fights in the courts, anti-Semitism in Europe and Islamophobia basically in every western country. She found it disgusting that people would be so judgmental of others and adhere to classical stereotypes instead of learning; they had the resources but never chose to learn.

Manouchka turned to Ellie, smiling. [color=red]"You are very wise..."[color=undefined] She said before looking at her hands, the on back at the fire. [color=red]"I guess that comes with 'old age', huh?"[color=undefined] Manouchka chuckled lightly and cracked her knuckles. The daughter of Strength stood up, brushing her dress off before turning toward Ellie. "Well I'm going to go braid my hair in my tent, then I'm going cook up that stag over there for dinner."

"You want me to help? With the cooking, I mean, I'm no good with hair." Exhibit A: Ellie's own hair, which was sort of choppy in some places. She had taken it upon herself for many years to cutting it herself using a mirror she kept stowed away safely in her tent. She didn't usually look into it, no, she didn't care much for makeup or admiring herself in the mirror -- but Ellie did need to see where she was cutting so she wouldn't accidentally poke her eye out with the knife or scissors.

She was, however, a bit better at basic cooking. She could skin animals or gut fish well, after years of being in the Hunt helping prepare meals.

"Sure, Ellie! I would love that."She smiled kindly at the fellow Huntress and fixed her head dress. "Do you mind skinning it while I'm away?" Manoucka asked her as before heading toward her tent. "I promise that'll help once I return."She called over her shoulder as she went off down the path of the camp.

Ellie waved at Manouchka as she left before turning back to the stag, laying in a heap nearby. Such a majestic creature -- such a shame. She flexed her arms and found they had loosened up a bit since she had sat down by the fire, which would make her work much easier.

From the inside of her jacket, she pulled out a silver knife especially sharp -- not the one she had used for training, of course, that was rather larger. Ellie liked the precision of this smaller one, like a doctor's scalpel; this was light and easier to use, but at the same time that made it easier for her to slip up and get cut. An unfortunate consequence, but the ends slurp justify the means.

Rolling up her sleeves, She went over and knelt beside the body, turning it over gently to find the belly: and so she began to make incisions in the body, carefully avoiding the meat as best she could in the slightly dim lighting.

[ooc: how does one describe that]

After the huntress left Ellie with the stag carcas, Manouchka went intonher tent to braid her hair as well as prepare for dinner. She went in front of a medium sized mirror she had purchased and took off her white headress, revealing thick, natural hair that seemed to stick out in every which way. Manouchka smoothed her hair back and slowly started to do microbraids. For some reason she liked this style of hair, made her look way more modern.

Manouchka finished up in about an hours 's worth of time before walking out and heading back to Ellie. The daughter of Kratos decided to change her outfit all togther, now wearing a sleeves dark red shirt and black jeans. "I'm sorry I took so to get back." Her newly styled hair came down to her lower back, moving as she took each step.

"Perfectly fine." Ellie had finished just twenty minutes ago, the carcass laying on its skin to keep it from being messed up by the dirt. Normally she would have strung it up to skin it, but without the aid of another Hunter and how much her arms ached from practice she was unable to do that -- so she had to awkwardly skin it on the floor.

She had done a decent job of it, at least; her knife did most of the effort, gliding smoothly thanks to its sharp blade. Her hands still smelt of blood, even though she had rinsed them off with the water in the bucket nearby; the smell of iron permeated through the area, mixed with the smoke from the fire that Ellie had only begun to refuel. "Shall we get started? Stew or roast?"

Manouchka flipped her hair over her shoulder and squatted down beside the skinned stag and looked at Ellie with a smile. "Yes, let's." She had grabbed a few spices to flavor the meet that they were about to cook. Ideas started to go through her head as she thought about her fellow Huntress' question. "Let's roast it over the fire, but first there are some oils and herbs that I would like to put on it first." She stated, looking back at Ellie.

"Oh yeah, that sounds swell. You want help with that, too?" Ellie nodded at her as she used an old, small cloth she had torn off long ago from an old shirt of hers to wipe the stag blood off her knife, leaving the cotton material stained with dark red gore. Her arms didn't feel too bad anymore -- if anything, preparing the carcass for cooking had been therapeutic for them. Not too much effort that it would strain her, but enough to keep her active.

Manouchka laid out her spices and oils that she had brought along, making sure she had everything she needed to make the stag meat taste good. "Yes, some help would be great." She smiled some and took the bottle of oil, pouring over the meat. She then started to message the oil into the skinned carcass. It had a light smell to it, like olives and wine mixed together.

"Do you mind getting the Rosemary and thyme, combining them, and sprinkling them on the places that are oiled?" Manouchka asked Ellie while she oiled it down.