Eli walked the short distance from the 'campsite' to where Rush was examining the stela by the ruined building.
"Have you worked anything out yet?" he asked animatedly.
"I'm not an archaeologist." Rush said witheringly over his shoulder.
"I know that," said Eli, "but it is in Ancient isn't it?"
"A form of it," Rush agreed reluctantly, "not one I'm particularly familiar with."
"I brought you dinner." Eli said.
He stepped forward and proferred the covered plate.
"It's not great, there weren't any decent sized meat animals but..."
He saw Rush sniff the air and paused then continued. "But one of the rivers was just full of..."
"Smoked fish." said Rush not taking his eyes off the plate.
"Well it didn't come out the river smoked, that was Varro."
"Hot smoked fish."
said Rush reaching for the plate.
"With steamed greens and some sort of baked starchy root that doesn't taste bad." added Eli.
Rush snatched the plate and instantly dropped to sit cross legged on the floor. He uncovered the plate and began eating with his fingers. His eyes were half closed and his expression almost orgasmic. Eli felt bad disturbing him, but interrupted anyway.
"Lieutenant Scott said to tell you we have an hour before we have to leave."
Rush scraped the last of the fish juice out of the bottom of the metal plate with the last baked root.
"Fine. There's nothing more I can do here."
He stood up and handed Eli the plate.
"Thank you." To Eli's surprise it actually sounded genuine.
Rush stood, licking each one of his fingers clean. Eli watched, a little fascinated.
"There's more to take back to the ship." he offered the older man. Rush obviously liked the fish a LOT more than he did. "Fresh fish, smoked fish and some drying."
"We have to take these little unexpected pleasures where we can." said Rush looking at the empty plate Eli was holding. "I think," he muttered, "I could begin to warm to Mr Varro."