Roleplay

"Maybe a bit of both," Jorn suggested. "We can cut some of it into thin strips, put them on a rack and smoke them, though that'd still take some time. We might not make it to the Light region by tonight, in that case."

Ciar finished cleaning himself of blood while they spoke, not really paying attention to their conversation in favor of listening for anything coming their way. He didn't understand much of what they were discussing anyway, only that it was about preparing food, which he understood as requiring fire.

"We weren't going to, anyway, unless we had set out by dawn," Aeira said softly, "the winds are not in our favor this time of year." She flicked her tail, neglecting to elaborate on the subject.

Ren pinched the bridge of his nose, "I don't know what those Skydancers taught her, but so far she's been right on all of this. Let us hang what we can to be smoked, and if the dragons are hungry after they can have what's left."

"How can you tell?" Ciar asked, both impressed and curious. He glanced up at the sky as if expecting to see something, but found nothing. He snorted, feeling a little irritated.

"It's a useful thing to know," Jorn said. "Ciar can find a good wind, but it takes him time. We used to work with Skydrancers, they'd always get it right in a few minutes at most."

Jorn walked over to his saddlebags, pulling out some ropes. Unfortunately, he had used the wood he carried to fuel the fire, though there should still be enough from the stash Aeira pulled out earlier.

"I'm afraid I don't have any sticks left, but we can use this rope to tie a rack together," Jorn explained, walking back over with the rope in hand.

"Huh? The wind tends to blow counterclockwise around the Sea, the opposite of the Twisting Crescendo, and its ferocity ebbs and flows throughout the seasons," she explained.

With some of the larger branches, Ren began to construct a stand for the rack, making a base for a raised platform. "That rope will work well, I'm sure. Aeira, see if you can look for good smoke material, anything wet ought to do," he said. With the smaller, slender pieces he laid them across, forming the platform.

With the rope Jorn produced, they were able to lash the small apparatus together. "That looks pretty good," Ren said, patting his hands.

Ciar gave her a blank look, not at all understanding what she explained. At Ren's statement, he glanced at Jorn. He was, admittedly, rather bored, but he would not leave without permission.

"You can go with her if you like, Ciar," Jorn said, nodding at the dragon. Once they were done preparing the rack, he nodded in agreement with Ren's statement. Pulling out his knife, he over to the carcass. Doing the best he could with one good arm, he began separating what was left of the skin from the meat.

Aeira smiled, "I'll see if I can explain it better later, c'mon!" She seemed rather cheerful as she trudged along down towards the flats and tidal pools, remembering seeing a good amount of biomass around the polluted water.

"I'll be collecting nearby, if you need my help, just holler," Ren said as he walked out. Around their shelter there was not much to pick at, but he did find small puddles left over from the rain, and wet some of the firewood in them.

"Okay," Ciar answered, trotting slowly after the cheery Imperial. He paused and stared curiously into one of the smaller tidal pools, idly wondering what it would look like full of water. Snorting, he bounded after Aeira, not wanting to be left behind during her search.

"Alright. I'll see if I can finish this up," Jorn responded, doing a fairly decent job of skinning the leftover bear. After a few more minutes, he managed to remove quite a lot of the remaining skin and began to cut thin strips of meat to hang on the rack.

The Imperial hummed softly as she began uprooting the shrubbery and plant life, but making sure to stay away from the tarry pits. Seeing the decimated ecosystem made her heart ache, though, and she forced herself to turn away after gathering some green wood.

Ren returned shortly with an armful of wet wood. "This ought to be enough to start us off. I'm sure they'll be back with plenty more." Setting the wood down, he took a seat and helped Jorn slice the meat into strips. After a quaint silence, he spoke, "I think Aeira's been quite happy since we met you two. She's been rather lonely since...since the war ended, pretty much."

"What are you looking for?" Ciar asked, staring puzzledly at the green wood she had gathered. He wasn't quite sure what it was for, as he had only seen his rider gather dry wood for a fire.

"That looks good, for now," Jorn agreed, continuing to cut strips of meat. "You think so?" he wondered out loud at Ren's statement, adding, "I think it's good for Ciar too. During the war, most of the other dragons were... well, like him. I don't think I've heard him talk so much before."

"Something to smoke with, you dummy," she laughed softly, tapping his side with her tail, "unless you want the meat to cook, which might not preserve it."

"Really? That's...sad. I thought it was important to foster relations between dragons," he said, his smile fading. "Can't imagine what it'd be like..."