Along We Go [OPEN]

[Del-Rah]

He really did not understand what others thought was terrible about The Rift. It was actually a quiet and nice place, and he was starting to like it quite a lot, too. There was plenty of forests, and plenty of game to hunt as well. He could have stayed there forever, however, being that he was here to hunt for both food and for hides of animals to sale, he couldn't stay here for long. He knew that he would be coming back here often, however, he knew that for sure.

Smoke rose up through the tall trees, blackened against the orange sky of the sunset. The clearing was nice, and, aside from a few birds chirping here and there and some squirrels looking for food. A rabbit dashed out of it's hiding place, seeming to try and find somewhere else to hide - as if previous place wasn't any better than the last - and it near carelessly dodged past a grazing stallion. It was almost home free, to another bush it could hide in - the rabbit stumbled, an iron arrow stuck in it's side as it collapsed to the ground, struggling for life before finally going limp in death. The black and white stallion barely raised it's dome when a scruffy dog barked happily pasted, retrieving the hare and jogging back to the other side of the fire, where a large, lizard-like man sat, cutting meat of a used be Elk off of one of it's leg. It's body lay, dead and skinned, next to him with it's hide and antlers next to his makeshift tent, and barely any hair was left on it, save from parts of the leg and the now cut off head, of which lay off to the side of the clearing with three of it's legs for anything that wanted to eat it. It was useless, anyway, and there was probably a fox or a wolf that wanted to eat it.

The dog happily trotted up next to his master, and the Argonian smiled when the dog offered it to him. "Good dog," he cooed, patting the dog before taking the rabbit, and thus exchanging it for the last Elk leg he had. The dog barked happily, taking the leg in his maw and jogging over next to the fire to lay down and gnaw on the leg.

The Argonian pulled the arrow from the rabbit, placing it next to the bow he had used to fire it not moments ago before going back to trying to cut up more of the meat. Some of it was roasting over the fire, on a makeshift roater of the sorts, and it looked to be almost finished, by the looks of the outside meat and sounds of sizzling.

'Well, at least I have one kill for the day,' the Argonian thought bitterly as he cut a chunk off of what he had and tossed it to the dog. Titan jumped slightly, looking up from the leg in his mouth, before letting go and barking gratefully. He gulped down the chunk rather quickly before going back to the leg. 'At least he's enjoying his time,' Del mused, now humming as he went about his work. Someone has to, right?'

[Felicia Greenwood]

Felicia had just finished reporting back from a mission, getting a new one before heading out to the woods. It had been a semi successful one and had allows her to gather some more septims than she was expecting. All the same, she’d pocketed the money and decided to hunt to celebrate. Not that she really needed it, she could easily buy some decent meet. But it would be a good way to practice her archery before going back to the guild. The woods would be teaming with life this early on and she still had time to be able to sell a few things before the market packed up. Anything that she couldn’t sell, she could take back to the Thieves Guild and share it with them. They would be happy to eat it. She sighed contently and looked around the edge of the forest, deciding which way to go. Obviously she would have to head away from the city itself. The animals would never want to come that close to it for various reasons. Taking another good look around, Felicia finally decided to go straight through the forest itself. It was better than in on the path and she could track some animals better.

Docking one of her arrows onto her bow, Felicia delicately made her way through the trees. She was careful as to not step on any leaves, twigs or anything that might cause a disturbance. Her dark brown thieves guild armour helped her blend in better with her surroundings. While it might just be brown, Felicia had noticed quite an improvement when hunting. Whether her skills had just improved or the animals were naïve enough to look over it, she didn’t care. The boots were quiet enough for her to be able to tread across the earth as silently as possible. Granted her sneaking wasn’t the greatest, but how ever good it was, certainly helped with hunting. Felicia stopped by a nearby stream of water, hiding behind a tree while she peered around it. Just her luck! There was a deer drinking the clear, cold water. It looked to be fully grown, if not near to being that. It would certainly fetch a septim or two at the market.

She eyed it carefully, trying to decide where the best place to shoot it was. Her skills were more suited to breaking and entering rather than anything that involved weapons, but her brothers had made sure she was skilled in a certain aspect. She had clicked with a bow and arrow rather than swords like her brothers and had used them more often than anything else. She wasn’t the best though. Oh no, she knew there were better out there. People had proven that to her on countless occasions, whether she accepted it or not. Shots like this usually took her too long if she dwindled. Her brothers had told to her to quickly choose the spot and fire. She could easily go in a kill it with a dagger if it was injured. Taking her brothers advice, Felicia fired the arrow in a spot where it was most likely to do the most damage. The buck let out a yelp and tried to bolt, but the arrow hindered its movements. It looked like she had hit the right place in some sense. Quickly pulled another arrow out, Felicia moved around the tree, aimed at the bucks head and fired. It hit near enough the right place and the buck went down.

Felicia smiled to herself and went to retrieve the arrows. While she was doing this, she inspected the buck up close. It had a fine pelt, which could also offer a few more septims along with the meat. It was a lucky catch, one that she wasn’t likely to get again any time soon. Depositing the arrows back into her quiver, she sized the buck up before squatting down and hauling the deer over her shoulder. It was heavy and she stumbled a bit, but she managed to carry it quite well. Over the course of the next few minutes, a whiff of something started to catch her attention. It didn’t seem to be coming from the direction of the city, nor the way she just came from and was somewhere in the woods itself. Her curiosity overwhelmed the desire to stay away and Felicia trundled through the woods, staggering every now and again. The smell got ever closer, as did a small trail of smoke. Someone had started up a fire, maybe they could help with the load she was carrying.

It took a while, but she finally got to the edge of where the fire was coming from. Spotting someone, Felicia walked a few paces forward before spotting the dog. It might not like strangers, so she halted her progress and stood still, her eye moving the male sitting on the ground. An Argonian to be precise. “Any chance…you could help me with this thing?” She asked, huffing a bit from the weight of the animal on her shoulder, her bow in the crook of her arm.

[Del-Rah]

The fire crackled and sizzled from the dripping meat, and Del was sure that if he left it on any longer. It wasn't burning, although he didn't fancy in it doing so, either. Titan was still gnawing away at the deer leg, a few small bones cracking under his jaws. At least he was enjoying himself; the stallion seemed rather recluse and unhappy about having to sleep outdoors, whereas they could be in a town, while he slept in a nice, cozy barn. It wasn't like he wasn't used to sleeping outdoors, however it was painfully obvious that he suited the life of having a barn - or, at the very least, some sort of makeshift hut or shelter - to sleep under. What with the weather in Skyrim, Del really couldn't blame him; they had lived a rather warm life down in Cyrodiil, and coming to Skyrim, they found a cold tundra with people who often resembled it. Not a nice transition, but it was worth it's weight in Septim.

The crunching of fallen leaves caught the Argonian's attention, and he looked up from his final pieces of meat to find a woman trying to carry a deer over her shoulder and into the clearing. Titan growling instantly, earning a fretful glance from the horse as he stood, teeth bared and hackles raised at the newcomer. Del debated weather or not to grab his steel sword, which was just a few feet away, inside the tent, but decided against it. She looked harmless enough. Albeit, a bit tired from carrying that deer perhaps a long ways, but harmless. He would just have to make sure to watch his back in case she had any harmful intentions.

“Any chance…you could help me with this thing?”

Again Del looked her over. She had armor on her that he hadn't seen before, or at least none he knew of, and she didn't look like much of a hand to hand fighter like he was. Then again, appearances could be deceiving. She needed help, though, and it was just a deer. What was the harm in that?

"Sure, bring it over," he said as he waved her over, standing up and dragging the meat he had along with him. He dumped it in a pile beside his tent for later use, knowing he would have to keep a sharp eye on it if it was not eaten tonight. Now turning to the still growling dog, he ordered, rather threateningly, "Titan, here!"

The dog lowered it's head, whimpering as it looked towards the man with a slightly saddened look. A glare towards him and a gruff point towards the inside of the lizard's tent said otherwise, and, picking up the deer leg, the dog quickly trotted towards the tend and disappeared inside. The horse, meanwhile, gave the Mer-folk an estranged glance before trotting away to the other side of the clearing, watching her wearily for a moment or two before continuing his grazing.

Walking back towards the fire and around to the side where the female was, the Argonian asked, in a rather joking manner, "I take it you don't skin animals often?"

[Felicia Greenwood]

Felicia waited, getting a little impatient with how long she had too. She felt the males eyes glance over her body and attire. But then again, in the Argonian’s position, she would’ve done the same. It took a few seconds, but the guy soon waved her over. She was a little hesitant because the dog didn’t look exactly friendly towards her and seemed to want to refuse to do what he was told. Felicia noted the name of the dog down in the mind for if she ever needed to use it in the future. It wasn’t likely, but there was always then chance that something could happen. The males horse didn’t seem too pleased at her turning up either. She kept her lips shut instead of letting the ‘hmph’ out in fear that it wouldn’t go down so well. She didn’t want to start an argument, let alone a fight with this guy, especially since she had a rather heavy deer on her shoulder. Though it would slow the guy down if she tried hurling it at him if he tried to attack, but Felicia dismissed the idea. Losing her prize wasn’t something she wanted to do either. She wanted the extra coin so that her family could get a few extra things for their home. It might not be much, but it was going to be something none the less.

After the dog had been dismissed to the Argonian’s tent, Felicia walked a few more paces forward. She carefully placed the deer down near the small fire that the male had made, making sure not to damage it in anyway. She dusted the deer off for no particular reason before looking up at the male with her eyebrows raised. “I do occasionally. Not as often as I’d like.” Felicia stated. It wasn’t exactly a lie, but there was a hint of truth in it. He had a point though; she wasn’t exactly used to skinning the animals she caught. Usually one of her brothers or her father did that, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t, she was just remarkably bad at it. Deer was no exception since she was better with smaller animals rather than large. “I’ll you what. You help me skin this thing, you get to keep the skin and antlers as well as all the coin you can make from selling it.” She wanted the meat to feed her family. She could easily catch other animals such as rabbits for skins, so that wasn’t really the problem. She could dissect the animal up into what she was going to sell and what to take back home and there wasn’t going to be any left to share with this guy. She knew the antlers weren’t worth all that much, but he could get a few coins out of it.

Removing the dagger that was strapped to the inside of the straps of her shoulder pads, Felicia knelt down besides the animal. It was such a majestic creature, she was almost sorry that she’d killed the thing. The thought quickly left her mind as she looked over the body, dissecting which parts to take where in her mind. “If you’re lucky, there might be some meat left for you and your dog to have.” It was an empty promise really and he would have to be incredibly lucky to be able to get a part of it. Felicia tended to try and use all the parts of the animal she could when she killed it. She wasn’t particularly keen on seeing bits going to waste.

[Del-Rah]

“I do occasionally. Not as often as I’d like.”

Made sense, otherwise she probably wouldn't have asked for help from him. Actually, he hadn't really had many people come and ask him for help before. He was used to doing everything by himself, and it seemed everyone else who went out and hunted seemed to know what they were doing, too. Everyone in the Companions did, at least, and rarely did anyone there ask for help in skinning an animal. It seemed that there were only certain people who actually hunted anymore, and fewer who actually did not know how to skin. Ah, well, it wasn't his place to judge others, anyhow. Besides, it was nice to help other people every once and a while.

“I’ll you what. You help me skin this thing, you get to keep the skin and antlers as well as all the coin you can make from selling it.”

"You're serious?" was the first thing that came out of the Argonian's mouth. Usually, people rarely gave bits of the animal that was uneatable to other people. They usually used it to make themselves a little bit more coin. But then again, he really wasn't going to complain. "Um, thanks," he finally said as he walked around the fire, to where portions of the meat still lay.

There came an almost sorrowed growl from inside the tent, and Del almost had to hold back a laugh when he looked over to see Titan giving him a rather pitiful look. The deer leg was nearly skinned and the meat almost gone, and, obviously, he wasn't liking the confinement that he was getting due to his growling. He probably would have said 'sorry' if he could have, and probably thought of fifty different things to say that would let him out. The Argonian merely shook his head, though, and began picking up some rather bloodied tools that he had used for his deer, causing the dog to let his head fall to the ground with a small thump. That dog was pitiful sometimes, and it was a wonder he even knew how to hunt and how to fight.

Standing up, Del made sure that he had everything before trotting back over to the deer. The Dunmer was knelt over it, obviously looking over what she had, and probably thinking of what to take first. Del rarely cared about what it was; if it was eatable, then it was useful. And if not, it could either be turned into something useful, like leather for armor and clothing, or it could be sold for money, which was usually even better.

“If you’re lucky, there might be some meat left for you and your dog to have.”

"Nah, it's fine, actually," the Argonian said as he knelt next to the deer's head and picked it up by the top antler. Well, at least it was a good sized deer, it seemed. "We got 'nough to last us a while, and it isn't like we can't hunt for more food."

Picking up an ax, he positioned the deer's head to the side. Raising up the ax, he came down with full force, and hit just above the head on the antler. It broke near instantly, although took a second swing to break it off. He then repeated this with the second antler, before setting both behind him for later use and began looking over the deer as well. At least there would be enough pelt to make some leather for whatever need he might have had.

"I'm Del-Rah, by the way," informed the Lizard after a moment or so of silence. "Del for short." He then glanced towards the woman with a curious eye. "And you are....?"

[Felicia Greenwood]

Looking up, Felicia nodded. “Deadly serious.” She wouldn’t joke about this sort of thing. It was lucky that she was offering this much in exchange for his help, she would’ve offered nothing if it was anyone else. The extra coin from the skin would’ve been useful, but partially unnecessary. There was more than enough coin in the meat alone for her to use. It wasn’t like she could hunt for more things anyway, there was plenty more game out there for her to find. Felicia looked back down at the deer, nodding ever so slightly. “You’re welcome.” She muttered, just loud enough for the Argonian to hear. She heard a sound of a dog again and flinched ever so slightly. She should still be aware of the animal, it didn’t seem all that friendly towards strangers. Felicia was tempted to ask about it, but determined it wasn’t really the time to ask about that sort of thing.

She relaxed a little bit more when the dog went back into the tent. Felicia wasn’t one to get nervous around animals easily since she hunted them on a number of occasions, but that dog was making her nervous. “If you’re sure. It might save you the trouble though.” She let a shrug roll off her shoulders as she finished making the dissections and noticed it move. She tensed slightly, hoping it wasn’t the dog. Her assumption was written off when she saw the Argonian move away from dropping it. Felicia didn’t know why she was so nervous, it wasn’t like the dog was going to attack her or anything. She it was practically harmless anyway. Watching the male pick up an axe, she moved back slightly, not wanting to get in the way of the sharp blade. Any bits that spun off the antlers, Felicia didn’t want getting stuck anywhere on her body. She moved back toward the deer after watching the male finish chopping the antlers. One part down, two to go.

“Nice to meet you Del.” Felicia looked up and smiled at the male Argonian. “I’m Felicia. Licia for short if you want.” People differed between the two names, not that she minded. As long as they stuck to her names, then she didn’t care much at all. She looked down at the deer and then back up at Del. “Fancy showing me how to skin something this large in large pieces instead of small ones?” It would be nice to learn something new, even if it took her a few tries in the future. She gripped the knife in hand, the eagerness inside her swelling a bit more than usual. She was eager to dice this thing up, sell the relevant pieces and get back to hunting. But she also wanted to learn a few things from this new person.

[Del-Rah]

Well, at least this woman seemed nice enough. There weren't many people with such nature in Skyrim anymore, it seemed. Del couldn't exactly blame them, as, if there had been dragon attacks on his home, he would more than likely be feeling the same way towards other people as well. That, and the High Elves seemed to have yet to take the pressure off of the Nords and their prayers and the likes. He kind of felt sorry for them. Sure, he really didn't believe in any sort of religion to begin with, although, with the ban of Talos, the Nordic population seemed rather upset, and h Del would have been, too, if a God he worshiped was banned from being worshiped simply because the government signed a peace treaty or whatever with another race. He would have spoke his mind by now, if he did worshiped any of the gods. He just figured that the would let the people who actually cared to fight for it, though. No use getting in the way of anything, right?

“I’m Felicia. Licia for short if you want.”

"Pleasure to meet you, too, Licia," the Argonian responded as he tried to move the deer a bit into his lap for better leverage. "Haven't met many elves here in Skyrim. Except for, ya know, the Altmer. Seems like they're all over the place now a days."

It wasn't like he hated High Elves or anything. Hell, his father was best friends with one, yet many that he had met - aside from his father's friend - seemed to think of themselves as higher up than all of the other races, and that wasn't something Del-Rah wholly liked. Sure, some races were better at some things compared to others, but to gloat over it, or to even think that you were truly higher on the totem pole than everyone else, well, that was rather rude, and such things made people so snobbish that it annoyed Del to no extent. Licia seemed to be a Wood Elf, as Del had guessed when he first saw her, and they seemed quite nice in nature. At least, she seemed nice. He hadn't had yet to meet any other kinds of elves personally, and he didn't know this woman very well, either, to say the least.

“Fancy showing me how to skin something this large in large pieces instead of small ones?”

"Sure thing," he said as he moved the animal over a bit towards her. He couldn't help but smirk at the way she seemed eager to learn how to do it. He hadn't met many women who would willingly skin an animal, however there were a few, such as Alea from Jorvaskar, and some women in Riverwood when he visited there once. Bending the neck a little and putting the blade of his current knife where the neck met the body, Del said, "I usually don't skin the head since there isn't much to skin, although I could try to teach you if you want."

With a grunt, he cut into the beast, and made a clean and sharp cut from his starting point to the middle of the animal, which was just about as far as he could reach. He had short but bulky arms, it seemed, and he just assumed that it was because he was short. But then again, he was three inches short of being six feet tall, and this beast was rather big. Ah, well, there was time to wonder about his height later. He was trying to teach this woman how to skin, wasn't he? He hadn't really taught anyone to do anything before, aside, perhaps, from teaching a kid how to use a dagger properly, but that was something that was easy to teach. Skinning, on the other hand, didn't seem as easy to teach.

"It's always good to get a clean cut to start with," the lizard stated. "And, ya know, not to get any meat stuck to the skin and fur while your skinning it. Doesn't make it look very nice if you're tryin' t' tell it, ya know?"

[Felicia Greenwood]

Felicia smiled slightly at the Argonian’s response. In a way, she was glad he hadn’t used her full name, it could annoying on the odd occasion. She noticed that the deer moved a little and she tensed ever so slightly. She hoped he wasn’t going to run off with it. From what she’d seen, he wouldn’t do that sort of thing because he’d already got enough to eat. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t sell the thing. She shook the idea off and didn’t bother remembering to think back to it later. It wasn’t worth the thought power. Felicia couldn’t help but frown ever so slightly at Del’s next statement. He wasn’t wrong there. There did seem to a lack of Bosmer around Skyrim. But then again, they were native to Valenwood and most of them seemed to prefer it there rather than Skyrim. Felicia knew why. There were no dragon attacks there and everything was practically safe there. Not that trouble hadn’t happened there in the past, but she had be safe when she’d lived there. She’d loved it there and she was rather sad that they moved to Skyrim. “Well the Bosmer are native to Valenwood, so most of them are there. It’s a rather nice place, so not many of them tend to move that much. I can’t say anything for the Altmer.” That’s from what she’d seen anyway.

Felicia watched as the male cut into the animal, making a clean strip of fur from it’s neck to roughly the length of his arm. From her point of view, it was a good start, but then again, she wasn’t an expert at this so she could easily be mistaken. She’d skinned smaller animals sure, but they were pretty easy to skin anyway. She figured that skinning a deer was pretty close to skinning a smaller animal. Obviously there were doing to be some differences in how it was done, which is what Felicia wanted to know. The deer’s fur was shorter than say a rabbit’s and looked like it was much tougher to try and skin as you had to be more precise. Which was her problem in the first place, along with the lack of knowledge. Felicia nodded again at the piece of information. “I guess it’s not much different to skinning something like a hare, apart from a few things obviously.” She stated back. “Is skinning a deer more or less difficult than skinning a hare?” It was an obvious answer, but she just wanted to make sure that her intuition was correct. Hare and rabbit fur was normally much longer than a deer’s anyway, but it could still be a little tricky. Birds were a whole different story which is why she hadn’t asked about them. She knew just how long birds took to pluck.

Jus then, a thought popped into her head. “What do we do with the feet? Surely they can’t be sold?” Felicia couldn’t think of anything that they could possibly be used for. They would probably have to throw them away after they were detached from the body. They were one of those useless body parts that nobody had found use for. She then knelt there for a few seconds trying to think of some way of using these feet for something. She sighed internally when she couldn’t think of anything. It pained her that they had to throw something away; she liked trying to find stuff to use the unneeded or unwanted parts for. It was fun in some ways, depending on what the item was. “Would be alright if I tried? Or would you rather finish it yourself?” She asked. Felicia wouldn’t have minded trying, but if Del wanted to sell it, he would probably want a cleaner cut.

[Del-Rah]

“Well the Bosmer are native to Valenwood, so most of them are there. It’s a rather nice place, so not many of them tend to move that much. I can’t say anything for the Altmer.”

That was true. If his father had had his way, Del would have never left his home back in Cyrodiil, and he would still be there today. But then again, if he had lived in a placed he had actually belonged in - such as the Black Marsh, where his people originated from - and he had hear of destruction in other countries, whereas his was rather peaceful, he would have stayed, too. It wasn't as if Cyrodiil wasn't safe. But, it seemed even more so in chaos than Skyrim was and has been for what seemed like a while now. Albeit, they hadn't had anything like the Oblivion Crisis happen happen in Skyrim, however Dragons were still a rather large threat around the northern country.

It was a wonder he hadn't run into any yet, really. Even seeing one from a distance would count as seeing one, right? But he had yet to even see one from afar. They were rather big and hard to miss, and it was still a wonder to him. Not that he actually wanted to run into one, of course. He sometimes wondered who this 'Dragonborn' was who had slayed all of the dragons - or, at least the 'bad' ones, as he was so kindly told by a Nordic child once - and where they had went after all of this. He had expected parades of some sorts, as well as glory, for this person. Hm. Kind of strange, really.

“I guess it’s not much different to skinning something like a hare, apart from a few things obviously.”

"Hm, not really, I guess," he shrugged. "I guess it depends on the animal you're skinning. Bears, I heard they could be hell to skin if you didn't know how to do it right. Then again, I never really plan on running into one."

Those things were rather big, and, although he didn't doubt that he could probably take one on, he didn't want to try unless he had no other choice. A bear outweighed him by more than one hundred pounds, and they actually put up a fight, whereas deer and hare seemed to turn tail and run at the sign of man in their vicinity. They ran rather quickly, of course, but, if one was a skilled hunter - or at least a good one - they could easily take down a deer in one shot if they didn't know they were there, or even two if the deer was big enough.

“Is skinning a deer more or less difficult than skinning a hare?”

"Ngh, I guess harder, if you don't know how to do it right," the Argonian replied, although sounding rather unsure of his answer. "I guess it just depends on good you are. My father taught me how to hunt when I was little, and then taught me how to skin a year or so after that. I kinda picked up on what he did before he even taught me how to skin, so I guess I never really thought about how difficult other animals are from one another to skin."

He really didn't know how his dad even knew how to hunt, really. He never really spoke of his childhood, although Del knew that he was born in Skyrim - which was rather ironic, to say the least - and that his mother died when he was young, which was also kind of odd. Then again, Del really never tried to snoop in other people's business, and his father was near really the one to tell him of his own childhood. At least he did a good job of raising him, right?

“What do we do with the feet? Surely they can’t be sold?”

"Well, I usually feed them to the dog over there, kinda as snacks," Del said as he gestured to Titan, who was now lying and panting quite happily in the tent, the remains of the leg scattered around his bed roll. Del couldn't help but scowl at the though of having to clean it later that evening. "Though," he went on, "I usually leave 'em out for animals to find 'em, if I'm far enough away from a town or city and all. Think I saw a wolf who looked like she might have been whelping right before I found this clearing, and I'm sure her and a few foxes and buzzards might enjoy those. Just as long as you leave 'em alone while they're eating, and ya keep your distance, animals like lone wolves'll usually leave ya alone 'till ya get outta the area if you give 'em scrapes."

While he wasn't some animal activist, Del kind of felt a tad bit sorry for the wolf. He hadn't heard or see any other around, and Titan hadn't acted like there might have been, so the lizard had simply assumed that she was a lone wolf, and that her mate had probably died for whatever reason after she had the pups. Or he was somewhere else, although Del didn't want to risk any chances to try and find out. Wolves, although some where nice to people, could be rather dangerous, more so in packs than alone, and if she wasn't alone, well, he would have been lucky to wake up in the morning if he had bothered her.

“Would be alright if I tried? Or would you rather finish it yourself?”

Shrugging, Del moved - or rather scooted - out of the way to let Licia get a better grip on the deer as he tried to pass it to her. "Skin away," he said, thinking that a hands on experience would be easier than her watching him do it. They always were for him, at least.

[Felicia Greenwood]

Whether Del agreed with her or not, he didn’t show it. Felicia didn’t make any sort of question about this and took his silence as a silent agreement of it. If she was wrong, well, she didn’t care. If he’d disagreed, he would’ve said something by now. She was unsure whether or not she missed her home back in Valenwood. She’d had a good life there, plenty of friends her own kind with none of the racial stereotypes she found here in Skyrim. There was always plenty to do when she was there and even though she used to go around stealing, it was better there than it was in Skyrim. There wasn’t much of a ‘guild’ so to speak in the part of Valenwood that she lived, by there was a small group of about 4 or 5 of them that went around to thief. Most times, she did it for fun, occasionally keeping the stuff so got to sell to someone. But when they’d moved to Skyrim, everything changed. Felicia knew somewhere deep inside of her that things would’ve had to have changed anyway, but she refused to believe it until the settled down. Now that she had become a part of the thieves guild as well as seen what had and could happen in Skyrim, she realized just how easy they’d had it back in Valenwood.

Her parents had a hard time finding work, not just because of the fact that they were Bosmer, but because their talents were near enough useless here. Few people favoured a bow and arrow over a sword and shield. Sure they were great hunters, but there was only a certain amount of meat they could sell before realizing it wouldn’t bring enough coin in. Her brothers helped too. One being in the Companions certainly did. The other worked at the forge. Felicia knew just how much she helped her parents and brothers get by because of the Thieves Guild. In a sense, she was glad that she had this talent. It had proven useful at the best of times, even if her parents didn’t like it. They stopped arguing with her about it once they realized she wasn’t going to stop, but that didn’t mean they still didn’t happen.

Felicia’s attention snapped back to Del. Nodding quickly, she quickly understood why. Though she already knew not to go near anything that would outrun and kill her before she could get away. Bears were just one of the few things she’d never hunted before. Not that she wanted to anyway. Bears weren’t the best thing to try and take on. Not alone anyway. A group of people could very well take it on and win, but one person on there own? Not a chance. Not unless luck was on their side. “It’s just unlucky to run into one. Trying to find one on the other hand is a completely different story.” It was just stupid to say the least. The person had to be as dumb as a post to go looking for a bear to try and kill it. They would have to be more than fortunate to be to kill it if it didn’t kill them first.

Felicia thought she heard a hint of unease in his answer. She asked a lot of questions, she knew that, some of them were often confusing or harder to answer than others. But she couldn’t really ask many other people and she might as well take advantage of the resources she had available. She frowned a bit as he answered the question in more depth. That was most likely the problem then. Her parents might have taught her how to hunt, but not so much on the skinning front. They or her brothers always did the skinning. She never bothered asking much about it since she only knew how to skin smaller animals and thought that was all she was going to need. She had learnt a few things as she went along, but the majority of the larger animals she had trouble with. “Well you seem to be pretty good, so your father must have taught you right. But maybe you should take that into consideration.” Felicia shrugged at her words. She had certainly seen how different skins could be in terms of how they could be done and how difficult they could be.

Glancing over at the dog, Felicia let out a small laugh. She let her gaze linger on the dog a little while longer. It was a little cute, when it wasn’t growling at his master or her. She’d never really had any pets. They’d got wild animals back in Valenwood wandering through the streets, those were friendly enough, but they never really kept them. They hadn’t really bothered to get any pets to keep in Skyrim anyway. It was a bit difficult to get the coin to feed themselves, let alone an animal as well. Feeding a family of five was no easy task without the appropriate coin. Felicia nodded along with what Del said next, only half listening to what he was saying. “We might as well leave them out of the animals then. Looks like your dog has had far too much fun for one day anyway.” She let out a small chuckle after speaking, looking back at the male Argonian. “Hopefully they’ll leave us alone long enough for us to finish up here.” Or rather until she left. She only wanted to stay here long enough to be able to skin the creature, carve the meat up and then go back into Riften. She didn’t want to overstay her welcome.

Felicia grinned at the male, taking a good grip on the deer as she inched closer to it. Placing her hands in roughly the same way as Del hand, she gripped her knife and placed it against the fur. She pressed down in the fur and dragged the knife along in a similar fashion to the way Del had. It wasn’t going to be perfect, she hoped he realized that. And it wasn’t when she finished. Her arms weren’t as long as Del’s were so she was only able to get a strip as long as her arm. That and it was a little wonky. She figured it would get better with time. “Well.” She stared down at her strip of fur. “That could have gone better.”

[Del-Rah]

“Well you seem to be pretty good, so your father must have taught you right. But maybe you should take that into consideration.”

He never really thought about how much his father taught him, really. He just went along with it and was glad that his father taught him something of the sorts in the first place. Being both an only child and living with only one parent, no one really needed to 'fight' for one's attention, and he really never thought any different of it as a child. Now, of course, he sometimes thought otherwise, like what it might have been like to have a sibling to play with instead of simply having to play by himself or being watched over by his father. Although, again, not that he was completely complaining about it. He kind of liked it some of the time, however being an only child probably wasn't as cracked up as everyone thought it to be.

“We might as well leave them out of the animals then. Looks like your dog has had far too much fun for one day anyway. Hopefully they’ll leave us alone long enough for us to finish up here.”

"Heh, well, like I said, they won't bother us as long as we leave them alone," the Argonian said patiently. "Well, at least, most animals leave me alone."

Although he liked nature and everything in it, sometimes, it could be a little too much. Like with the bears and the dragons, creatures that he surely did not plan on running into any time soon, if he had the say in doing so. He was pretty sure that he could take on a bear, however a Dragon would be another story, and, unless he happened to run into the Dragonborn while this was going on - which was highly unlikely, of course - he would surely be eaten by one. Or, be a nice appetizer, to say the least.

“That could have gone better.”

At the sight, Del really couldn't help but laugh at the Elf's misfortune. Although not a terrible screw up, it looked like she might need more practice in the art of skinning animals for their hides. Obviously, she was not experienced. Like he was really one to talk, of course. He was sure that a few times before, when he first started actually learning how to skin hands on, he did the occasional screw up like so, and his father would merely waver it off and try to help him finish it off without tearing it more. That usually resulted in the hide being turning into leather strips, of course, which in turn were sold for less, but at least his father was not strict on things such as that.

"No worries," Del merely said happily. "You can keep skinning if you want, and and I'm sure that the hide'll make great leather strips!"

[Felicia Greenwood]

Felicia got no reply back from what she said. Again. She very nearly frowned in frustration, but held the expression. It would draw up more questions that wouldn’t get a very good response. Whether it would result in some sort of a fight, depended on what Del was like. She really couldn’t tell what sort of guy he was right at this point. She didn’t particularly want to judge him on his appearance, since they could always be deceiving, but she didn’t have a solid opinion on what she’d seen so far. He seemed like a nice guy, but maybe there was more to him than meets the eye. At least, to Felicia it seemed like it. Maybe he was just a nice guy. There didn’t seem to be too many of them around lately. Especially after the dragons appeared. Everyone seemed to be squabbling with one another and they barely moved from the original point. Nothing ever seemed to get solved here. At least in Valenwood, everything got solved sooner or later, no matter how long it took. Felicia bit down on her lip ever so slightly. This whole mess started with the Dragons in the first place.

“I guess so. I’ve never really run into anything that can cause me much trouble. I don’t stray far from the outskirts of the city unless I’m travelling.” Felicia shrugged. “Well, maybe apart from one or two wolves, but I guess that’s natural.” Even when she was travelling, she always stuck to the road and made sure that no wolves would bother her. They could usually be heard by their howls anyway, so she could quickly escape if she heard one. Wolves were most certainly annoying. She was glad that they hadn’t encountered any at the moment. Hopefully they had something better to do then to annoy the duo. It wasn’t like they were going to get particularly much anyway. The pile of meat that Del had might be a bit of a problem, but Felicia could very well lug the dear away, even if it was a little heavy. How fast was a different story. Wolves could very well catch up to her if she was lumbering a deer carcase around. “All the same, lets hope nothing happens.” Felicia grinned at the male. While she didn’t want to jinx it, she felt it needed to be said all the same.

She heard the Argonian laugh at her failed attempt to skin. It was a pleasant sound to say the least. She definitely needed more practice. Felicia couldn’t remember the last time she skinned something, let alone successfully. Normally, she ended up doing something wrong and then getting it taken away from her for someone else to do it instead. How was she supposed to get better if she wasn’t allowed to practice these things? Maybe that’s why her magic wasn’t all that strong. Her parents weren’t all that skilled in it either and barely talked to her about the ways of using it, so Felicia had never really been taught how to do it. Hence why she wanted to try and get her skills up a bit in at least one area of magic. It could very well come in handy. She looked at the male and smiled at him gently. Not everyone would be as kind as he would, let alone allow her to continue on. Felicia looked down at the deer and moved her hands across the deer again, taking off another strip. It was better, but still wasn’t straight enough. She paused for a second before looking back up at Del. “Are you sure I don’t really want to make a mess of the stuff you’re going to sell?” He was of course, going to have to try and sell these and Felicia knew how much strips were worth compared to the hide itself. She was feeling a tad guilty already.

[Del-Rah]

“I guess so. I've never really run into anything that can cause me much trouble. I don’t stray far from the outskirts of the city unless I’m travelling. Well, maybe apart from one or two wolves, but I guess that’s natural.”

Wolves seemed like a common hunter in the wilderness. Since they traveled in packs and whelped four to five pups per spring, whereas bears only had one or two cubs per every two years or so, there was supposed to be more of them. Del tried his best to stay out of other pack's turf, although there were some lone wolves - like the one that was more than likely traveling around in this area - of which he couldn't really keep away from. Those wolves, however, seemed to tend to stray away from the two legged beings called man, and he was quite alright with that. That, and he was sure that if he had been in danger of anything, Titan would have already started whining by now. Speaking of whom.....

"Titan!" The dog instantly raised it's head at the sound of it's voice, cocking it to the side in confusion. "Are you gonna be good, boy?" Del went on as he raised an eyebrow towards the mutt. "If ya are, then ya can come out."

It took a moment, however the dog cautiously pulled itself off of the bedding and, after shaking, slowly veered around to it's owner. It still gave the Wood Elf a weary glance, obviously none too trusting of the woman yet, however gave the Argonian a bump to his arm with his long, pointed nose as a greeting. Del merely patted him on the head, before the dog plopped down behind him, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth as he panted and watched the two humans work. Although, he seemed a bit disinterested in the deer at the moment, and more so on the newcomer.

“Are you sure I don’t really want to make a mess of the stuff you’re going to sell?”

"Nah, it's alright," Del assured. "Besides, it's not as if I can't clean it off later and make better use of it, even if I'm selling it. Really, it's no problem."

Del was a rather tolerant person some times, and, like it said, it wasn't as if he couldn't clean it off and use it for later. Plus, she was willing to give him something that she hunted and killed, which was rare these days. Most people would have kept everything for themselves, and payed little coin for it. Sure, money and food was hard to get these days, but that didn't mean pay couldn't be good. Right?

[Felicia Greenwood]

Felicia let her mind wander about when she would have to start walking back to Whiterun and then to where her job was located. It would have to be within the next day or so if she wanted to get back here within the next seven days. Since it would take about a day and a half, maybe two, to get back to Whiterun, if she was quick, it would have to be soon. She hoped she wouldn’t run into anything that would slow her down during this time as she needed to get the job done as soon as possible. After a while, Felicia heard the Argonian call out and she jumped a tiny bit. Her head whipped round to look at the dog still laying in the tent. She had totally forgotten that the dog was there. He hadn’t made a sound since he started growling earlier. If anything, the dog still made her a little bit nervous. “He doesn’t bite much does he?” She asked after Del had finished speaking, weariness edging itself around her voice. She hadn’t realized she’d tensed up when he had called out to the animal and Felicia willed herself to relax. It didn’t work out that well, but she could feel herself relax a tiny bit. Which was better than nothing.

The dog eventually walked over and sat besides its master. Felicia kept a sharp eye on the dogs movements, making sure it wouldn’t suddenly make a lunge for her. While she knew she shouldn’t be wary of the dog, a bit of her was still on edge. She would never know what could happen, instead of lunging at her, it could lunge at the deer instead. But his interest didn’t seem to be focused on the deer at the moment. “Is he always like this around new people?” She asked, looking at the dog and then at Del. “Or is it just around me?” It was highly unlikely that it was just around her, but it was a small possibility. Despite the wariness between the two of them, Felicia noticed that he initially seemed like a very good dog to have as a companion. She started to wonder how long Del had had the animal for since she found it was rather loyal to its master. “How old is he?”

Felicia looked at the male Argonian for a few seconds after what he said before looking back down at the strips she’d already done. Did he really think it was alright for her to carry on? He hadn’t said anything bad about it per se, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t thinking it. Then again, he could’ve stopped her at any time when she was skinning the deer, so she must have been doing something right. “If you’re sure.” Felicia let a small shrug roll of her shoulders as she continued to skin the animal. It took her a while to be able to completely skin the first side of the animal to a decent standard. She had to move around the animal a few times to be able to get all sides of it skinned without having to reach over. At the end of it all, Felicia had made a pile of the deer skin by its head. She had made a little bit of progress when doing so. Some of the strips weren’t as wonky as others and some had bits of meat on them so she still had a little way to go yet. “You can skin the other side. It seems fair since you’re going to be selling them.” Felicia inched away from the deer after turning it over to the unskinned side. She needed to stretch her legs anyway, they were getting a bit stiff from kneeling down for so long.

She stood up, letting her legs stretch as she did so. One of her kneecaps clicked. Felicia took a few steps around, letting the blood flow down to her legs a little. She stooped near to the deer, looking down at Del and his dog.

[Del-Rah]

“He doesn't bite much does he?”

"Only if ya give 'im a reason to," the Argonian smirked, half joking.

That was partial truth, to say the least. Titan hadn't yet bitten anyone since Del had taken him in and the dog began traveling with him, aside from the few bandits who attacked him, and wild game such as deer, rabbits, and the rare cave or mountain bear. Sure, he was weary around newcomers and people he didn't know, aside from the few who acted friendly and didn't any weapons on them. Del had assumed that it was because he just wasn't good with people who seemed to know how to fight, and, truly, Del really didn't necessarily walk right up to people with swords, war hammers, or bows on their person that you could easily see. It was better to try and make sure the person was friendly and wouldn't suddenly attack you first, after all.

“Is he always like this around new people? Or is it just around me?”

"Eh, most people, usually," Del shrugged. "More so with adults then kids. I think it's 'cause you ran int' us in the wilderness, and he saw the bow on ya. Not very many nice people out here, and I think he already learned that most people with bows are hard to reach sometimes. I think he's starting to warm up to ya, though."

In response, there came a groan/growl of some sort from the dog, as well as the sound of his tail hitting the ground, as if he was understanding that he was being talked about. Del really didn't try to question that much. Titan seemed real smart, and acted such when he actually wanted to be. Usually learned quickly when he taught him things, although that just could have been due to the fact that he probably lived in the wilderness most of his life. He was a good dog, too, so Del rarely complained much about that. A good companion was just fine by him, as long as he had someone to try and have half a conversation with sometimes.

Although, in some cases, Del got rather lonely. Of course, he ran into people and talked with them often, however he rarely suck with people for very long, or vise versa, so the maximum constant company he had was a horse and a dog. Although nice, it rarely gave him the likeness of having human company, which was what he commonly liked over animal. But again, he rarely complained about it, so he was just fine with it.

“How old is he?”

"I dunno, maybe four or five," Del said, looking back to the mutt, of whom looked back at him expectantly. Finally, after a moment, he shrugged and looked back towards the Elf. "I dunno, really," he said again, sounding more sure of his answer this time. "When I found 'em, he was wondering around some part of the woods. When I tried to nab 'em, he ran and made me chase 'em to a little shack, where I found 'em sitting next to a bed with a man in it. He died 'a rock joint, I think.... Anyway, that was a year or so ago, and I haven't kept track of it, really."

“You can skin the other side. It seems fair since you’re going to be selling them.”

"He he, thanks," he said as he looked over the peices she already cut. Although she was new at this, she was doing a good job. Sure, he would have to fix a few pieces here and there, although he didn't mind. He was sure he could get it done in no time. "Thanks again for the deer hide," Del said, getting up to try to get some feeling back in his legs as he did so. He was sure that he hadn't sat down for so long in such a long time, that it actually felt strange to do so. He was used to moving around more in his waking hours.