Holla, my peeps! Jimmy10.0 here, cruisin' on her holidaaaaay! Well, not really. I've become the designated house maid. :P But at least I get paid!
Anyhoo, next chapter's up. Read, review, enjoy, and if you are willing to Beta me, PLEASE let me know!
And thanks to my adoring readers and your reviews! They are always lovely and welcomed!
Onwards!
A small herd of deer where gracefully grazing on what has left of the grass, settling to chew the bark on the trees as well with some effort to bulk up some more before the first snow came. There were three does and one buck sprouting proud antlers for the world to see. They were gently and noiselessly moving about, nibbling here and there on what little vegetation they could find.
Two dull thuds graced the air with their presence before the two does fled, startled immensely by the sound of the buck and other doe collapsing to the ground. The two hunters ran forward, each towards their fallen animal.
"Really? You went for the buck? That thing weighs twice as much as a doe does." Arabella stated as she expertly slit a gash into the doe.
"Means it carries more meat." Will stated in reply. Arabella sighed.
"Fine, but you are dragging the carcass back, not me." And drag he did. She was skipping quite happily with her load of meat, showing off the lighter load and the fact that the extra training she did with Will had been paying off. He was glaring daggers into the back of her head.
It had been the third time they had been hunting, and the first time Will FUBAR'ed the deer he managed to snag. Arabelle had to step in and stop him before he ended up looking like a murderer, but at the rate they were going, they were going to make it for winter. Will still had pain every now and then, but it was not as bad as it used to be.
They were in a frenzy to prepare for winter. They had large barrels of food in the storeroom. She taught him how to make beeswax candles and they sat and did that at night. One half of the meat they smoked, and the other got turned into stew. She tried to be careful with the gas. Sure, there was a single room dedicated to the large bottles, but it didn't change the fact that once that was finished, it was finished.
Earlier that year she had tanned the hides of two wolves that had attacked her and was using them to make a winter coat for Will. She was using an antique sewing machine that was paddle powered. It was a rare find and was great because she didn't need to use the strained electricity supply to power it. Will would sit and read from the books while she worked on the coat, getting up occasionally to be fitted.
"'Belle, why are we stocking up so much for winter? Can't we just go out and hunt whenever we wanted to?" He interrupted her thoughts as they were still carrying the meat home. She sighed a little at his lack of understanding.
"Because there is so much snow up here that it completely covers the entrances. We will be locked in, quite literally, and there will be fewer animals as most of them will have migrated to warmer areas. It will also burn calories we can't afford to lose running around in snow and besides," She shifted the meat to look over at Will with a smile, "it's niiiiiiiiice and snuuuuug and waaaarm…"
"I GET IT! Just stop!" Arabelle laughed. She found out Will hated it when someone baby talked him. She did it periodically just to work on his nerves. They were starting to get close to the side entrance.
"Now shift those lazy bones! We're almost there! Then big boy Will can have his afternoon nap!" She shouted to him in a baby voice, before sprinting off laughing as an enraged Will shouted, giving chase.
xxxxxPCxxxxx
"Will, have you decided what you are going to be doing for winter?"
It was late evening, and the pair had just had supper. Will looked up from the book he had been reading and looked at her with a frown.
"Sorry, what?"
"What are you going to do to keep you busy? You have to do something to keep yourself occupied, or else you kinda go CRA-HAZY!" She shouted, splaying her arms out with a twisted expression on her face to get her point across. Will stared at her like with a look of mock horror before relaxing into the answer.
"I didn't really think of that. What do you get up to?" He asked, eyes raised in a searching manner as he scratched his chin. Arabelle just pointed into random directions.
"Knitting, crotchet, crotchet, wood work, drawing and read. A little bit of whittling, but that didn't turn out to well." She winced internally at the memory of the horribly misshapen figures that died merciful deaths as fire kindling. "Other than that, exercise and sleep." She gasped excitedly. "WE HAVE BOARD GAMES!" She was hopping in her seat. "Now I have someone to play against!" Her smile was rather wide. Will laughed.
"Sure thing, kiddo, but just remember: They do get boring after a while." She shrugged.
"Eh, that's something I can live with. Tell you what, I'll teach you a bit of woodworking so you can learn to carve your own bows." Will scowled a little.
"Your bow is a carbon fibre bow with elastic string. Are you going to tell me you made that too?" He asked a little miffed.
"Nope. My bow was a lucky find, and before I found it I had to hand carve them. THUS, YOU SHALL LEARN TO CARVE YOUR OWN BEAUTIFUL BOW!" She stated dramatically. "Even though I already taught you how to." Will smiled slightly.
"Ok, fine. But what am I going to do after that?"
"Heck, I don't know. Whatcha wanna do?"
"I don't know. Whatcha wanna do?"
"I dunno. No' don't sta' tha' again!" She shouted in a mock cockney accent. They burst out laughing. "Jungle book, for the win!" They sat for a moment more.
"If you want, you could clean all my guns. I have no idea how to." She shrugged, pointing over her shoulder at the neatly displayed weapons.
"Seriously? You have all these and you don't know how to use 'em?" She shrugged.
"James and I just grabbed the guns and ammo. We didn't have a cooking clue about how to use them."
"Tell you what: you teach me how to make a proper bow, and I'll teach you everything you need to know about these bad boys." He held out his hand. She smirked.
"Deal." She leaned forward and slapped his open palm. She turned back to the blanket that she had started crocheting as he turned back to the book. "How'd you meet Sarah?" He leaned back, smile on his face as he placed the book on his chest.
"Party at a club. It was one of my best friends 21st, and we were planning on getting sloshed." Arabella snuggled into a more comfortable position. "The music was loud, and I was nearly getting blinded by the strobe lights. And I look across the floor, and there's this beautiful girl. Gorgeous blonde. Leggy too. So I've already had a few, and I decided to try my luck with this babe. But instead of walking around the crowded dance floor, I decided to beeline through it, drink still in my hand." She started giggling. This could not end well.
"So I'm swimming my way through, barely not spilling everything everywhere when this brunette slams into me, and the drink goes flying…" He paused as Arabella gasped "and landed all over her hair and her dress and ruined her makeup…" Arabella started giggling. "And the first thing out of my mouth was, 'I see I got you wet.'" Arabella started howling with laughter.
"You didn't!" She shouted, still laughing.
"You bet I did!" he laughed "The look on her face was priceless, and then I realised what I had said. I was sputtering apologies left, right and centre. Turns out she had also been invited to the party, so as an apology, I asked her out to coffee, and the rest is history." Arabella's laughs finally calmed down.
"That's actually quite sweet. I hope for your sake she's still alive."
"Yeah, me too." He paused, and looked straight at her. "What about you? Any boyfriends in your history?" She paused briefly before returning to her work, not looking at him as she talked.
"There was this one guy. Definition of hot. Tall, dark hair, blue eyes, hot as heck. Just as sweet too, the perfect gentleman. Always so polite, too. I couldn't believe the catch I had gotten with him. We were together for months. Months! And boy, my heart went wild." She frowned as she continued.
"We were going to get married, get a beautiful house, have four kids and a cat. I don't really like dogs." She related in a wistful voice before pausing again, rethinking everything. "We were going to be stable financially and grow old together, sitting on some porch somewhere where we could watch the sun set each evening. I told my heart no, to not think like that, but it did, anyway. And then one day, I got the shock of my life." She set her work down on her lap as she stared off into the distance, lost in the memory.
"I had come for a surprise visit. It had been our eighth month anniversary that day and his mom let me go upstairs. I quietly opened the door, and lo and behold! There was my best friend!"
"No…" Will said softly. She continued.
"She was nearly only in her underwear, he was on top of her, and they were playing tonsil hockey like it was the finals."
"Ouch. What did you do?"
"Popped a cap in his ass." She stated in a gangster voice. He stared at her, dumbstruck. "Nah, just kidding," she laughed "But I did go ape on them. Turns out they had been going at it for five months already. Needless to say, I didn't talk to them again. I was never the same. Neither was his truck. Or his reputation." She started giggling "Or her designer clothes, or their school careers." She was laughing out loud now. "Assembly was never that much fun ever again!" Will laughed.
"Do I want to know?"
An odd pause hung in the air.
"Nope."
'Kay guys. I'm going to be initiating a bit of a time shift, because really, hibernation is BOOOORING! As always, RnR, please! :3