Hannah came back up out of cold storage, circles under her eyes, a little exasperated. There were happy crows in the forest , and hopefully the elk would feed Jar-hidda for a few more days. It was not the hunting trip that had worn her out. She was carrying with her the cold metal bracer and bandolier that belonged to the alien. Once she got to the living room, she set the bandolier over the back of the chair and handed him the bracer. He took it and attached it to his wrist, clenching his fist and ejecting out the long tribalistic wrist blades, which rang like crystal.
Hanna hadn't even flinched, nothing seemed to surprise her anymore about the alien. He rattled something and retracted the weapons, turning to the bandolier. These were the last of his things from downstairs. She figured if he was healthy enough to follow her outside and down the mountain, he would leave whenever he wanted. Better to give him his things rather than have him route for them downstairs; the shelving probably wouldn't survive.
Jar-hidda adjusted the bandolier across his chest, gently running his claws along the various metal triangles and circles that were strapped to it. Hannah could guess what they were. She had not realized, when she was hiding these things, just how heavily armed he was. But having carried them up, carefully by twos, she was now absolutely certain he was not here on friendly business, to establish relations between worlds. It made her really wonder what kind of creature she was harboring.
Sighing, she held up her hands and slapped her thighs before going back into the kitchen. It almost looked like a murder scene. The elk was nearly twice as large as any of the deer she had gotten, and the blood was running off the island.
"Come eat Jolly," she called from the kitchen as she picked up a knife. She began to cut meat from the bones and put it to the side. Jar-hidda could take his pick of the pile. She wasn't hungry. Jar-hidda didn't enter. Hannah paused after a few minutes of absence and looked at the entryway. Then the alien came in, carrying in his hand a very unhappy bearded dragon. The alien set Smaug on Hannah's shoulder, grunted, and then moved to the meat.
Hannah gently soothed the lizard, leaving bloody streaks down his scales, but didn't take her eyes off the alien wondering 'why?'
He seemed suddenly so out of place decked out as he was. He had three canon-like weapons mounted on his shoulders, folded on his back in a way that they were pointing at the ceiling. He had a weapon on his back that looked like a police baton, but was a very long blade rather than wood. These were in addition to his wristblades, the double-bladed knife thing, the dagger, the bandolier and another sort of kit that he had on the back left of his tasset. He definitely seemed ready for war.
She got back to cutting, passing by Jar-hidda to set down another piece of meat. She looked up sharply as his hand touched her arm and he rattled, "Hannah," he said.
"What Jolly?" she asked holding in a heavy sigh.
"Spice," he said, holding out a piece of meat to her. She looked at him, burying the emotion of anger at suddenly feeling like a servant. She blamed her foul mood on unrestful sleep and stress. She took the piece and moved around him to the other side of the counter. She rinsed off her hands, grabbed her usual spices and rubbed them into the piece.
"Do you want it cooked?" she asked and he tilted his head in that fashion so peculiar to him. She demonstrated by holding the meat over the pan, "cooked?" it would taste better that way, with the spices actually soaking into the meat, but he could have it any way he wanted really. He seemed to contemplate for a moment before grunting, which like his clicking could mean different things according to how it sounded. This one meant 'yes.'
Hannah lit the burner and cooked the steak. It didn't take long because she left it rare for him, quite sure that any other degree of cooking would ruin it for him. He ate the steak with his hands as usual and she went back to cutting.
Jar-hidda pointed at the carcass and she obliged with a half-hearted, "elk," answer. He repeated the word, then he indicated the missing head and made the 'where is' sign.
"Outside," she said, indicating the back of the cabin with a nonchalant point of her knife. He looked at the wall as if he could see where she had left the head and cape of the animal. Hanna grunted and flipped the carcass over, getting her clothes bloody. She cut the second backstrap off of the spine and looked up as the alien said her name. He was already finished with his meal and was indicating her to follow him.
She blinked as he walked around her towards the door. Looking at her unfinished work she sighed, set down the knife and followed, whipping on her parka. Jar-hidda walked around the cabin to the back and scanned the area. Hannah walked up to the head of the elk, figuring it was the reason he wanted to go outside. Following her, he knelt down to the large antlered head and removed the kit from his belt. A gentle claw-stroke opened it up and he set it on the ground, looking up at Hannah and grunting, making sure she was paying attention.
She cocked an eyebrow but bent down to the ground, soaking her knee, but watched obediently. He tilted his head at her, then turned his attention to the skull. He pulled a thing like a pen from the kit, and it produced a laser that he used to cut the underside of the jaw. With a show of strength, he simply peeled the skin away from the skull with a sickening tearing noise, splitting apart where he made the incision, leaving just the bone. The next thing he took from the kit was a liquid. He used this to simply clean away the remainder of the blood from the skull. He used something that looked like a needle and inserted it into the base of the skull, injecting just a small amount of glowing fluid into it then removing it. Then a small canister produced a misty smoke, encircling the bone. It was a short but complicated process, using nearly all of the instruments within.
When it was finished, Jar-hidda set down the skull with a single click and looked at Hannah. The woman couldn't help herself. The skull was not only perfectly cleaned and bleached, which would have taken her hours of boiling and stinking up her house, but it was also polished smooth with a soft sheen. She reached out and touched the skull, and Jar-hidda closed up his kit. Reattaching it to his belt.
Hannah lifted the skull and turned it over in her hands. She looked from it to Jar-hidda as something clicked in her head. What warrior would need a kit specifically for cleaning trophies? He was a hunter, like her. Was this what he was trying to convey to her? Jar-hidda tilted his head and gave a questioning rattle. She looked at the skull then back up at him, "thank you."
The alien tilted his head sharply and rattled again in the same manner. He then grunted and stood. She followed. He looked at the cape and pointed at it. She lifted and handed it to him, and he led the way back inside.
She left him in the living room as he began treating the cape and went back to cutting up the elk. Her mind was put to ease slightly, knowing now that he was a hunter. To him, Earth was probably just an exotic safari, just like if she would go to Africa and hunt the big five. She began to curiously wonder what sort of creature attracted him to this place. He wasn't equipped for something like antelope. Probably bigger, more vicious animals were what drew him, like bears, and from the looks of things, he preferred to hunt them with his hands. Montana had plenty of bears, but then she remembered: he crashed here.
Where and what was he hunting before coming here? Africa seemed likely, it would also make sense that he got shot up, coming across some of the military or rebels there. He was probably hunting hippo or lion before he got interrupted, attacked and was forced to flee. Maybe that's how his ship got damaged. And then Weyland surveillance caught sight of his ship and now here they were. What were the odds?
She was startled out of her thoughts by something heavy being dropped over her head around her shoulders. She looked up at Jar-hidda with wide eyes, pushing up what was covering her face. He laughed a human laugh. He must have heard it somewhere else, because she was sure she hadn't made that kind of noise around him. He said a word she heard him say often, 'cut'nry nicul' something she guessed probably meant something like 'servant,' since he always used it when calling her to do something for him when he was bed-ridden.
She looked down and looked at what she was now wearing. She was jealous. In a matter of mere minutes he had tanned the cape, fashioned it into, well, a cape, and stiffened the hide of the head so that it was like a hood, something that would have taken her weeks if she ever wanted to attempt the same thing. She felt very barbaric in the elk cloak.
"Thank you," she said again. He repeated in her voice and cocked his head, probably trying to figure it out, and she didn't really know how to explain. If she ever had children, they would not end up speaking English she was sure. So all she did was smile and put the elk hood down. He slowly tilted his head back to its natural position. He rattled and pointed at the carcass. She wasn't sure what he could do with it, she was going to just toss it in the same spot as the other bones and rib cages. If she had a dog she would have given them to it, but she had Smaug, Kali, a tarantula and a pygmy chameleon.
Keeping the bones near her home was going to just invite predators, and she'd rather avoid it. It seemed he was only inquiring about it, as he did nothing more and turned to walk out of the room. Hannah frowned slightly but didn't start anything. She grabbed the rib cage and carried it outside, away from the house a ways and deposited it where she left the others. This was followed by the leg bones. She bent down and inspected some of the prints in the snow: wolves. It was far enough away from her home that she wasn't concerned about them. Several of the bones were chewed on and dragged away from the pile. These weren't wolves. The teeth and prints told her a puma was stalking around.
Frowning deeply Hannah returned to her home, being attentive. Cougars attacked from behind.
She relaxed once the door was shut behind her. She heaved a sigh and looked over at Jar-hidda who was looking at her, still as stone, dreads settling on his shoulder. She put a hand to her chest to calm her heart down and walked in as if nothing had happened. The alien had helped himself to some more of the meat, and was sitting in her chair again. Blasted alien. She didn't bother him though, slipping into the bathroom to wash away the scent of blood, shutting the door behind her.
Well, if there was one nice thing about needed to go to the city for more gas to keep her guest warm, it was that she was enjoying plentiful warm showers that allowed her to relax and clear her mind.