[seasonal event] Fake smiles and happy never after

If Maea didn’t know it, the happy sounds coming from Auni meant that she was his new best friend. As Maea hands him the other slice of the apple, he realizes there might be more and instead of being careful with the first half she’d given him he devours the second like a starving animal. Kiada’s attention is glued to Maea, however, so she doesn’t notice when his tongue slips out and he attempts to get the remnants off the ground. Kiada, meanwhile, nods to Maea while she’s following her inside to the kitchen where it appeared there was a lot of work to do. Kiada also had no idea what a Magna was, but she watches while the other woman pulls out a giant worm and begins to chop it up. Her head tilts curiously, perhaps a smidge close to an avian way as she nods once again. “Interesting.” She comments, not about how much work there was for it, but the choice of food. It isn’t a disinterested, surprised comment, but more of an intrigued sense of the word. “I can do that.” She offers to Maea, listening while she speaks of the inventory to take as well. But Kiada was far better with dealing with game, hunting, and fighting, than she ever was with holding a quill and writing. “Do you do this every year?” She asks with an actual amount of interest in her words that she hasn’t felt in a long time. It feels good to have something else to think about, something to do with her hands that she can say she’s accomplished a task that day. With it in mind, she listens to Maea’s answer and reaches into the bag to pull out another huge worm and finds a knife to follow the pale woman’s example. First, slicing down the center, removing the skin and innards, and cutting the rest of the meat up. While she’s not as expert at it as Maea, there’s a way that she holds the knife that suggests she’s familiar with them and has used them before. She reaches for another one, aiming to help the woman the best she could, but thinks that conversation might help make the time go by. “Are you from here?” She asks as well – imagining that the woman had to have been Native to know so much of this. Or at least, been here longer than she has. KiadA and here you come, with a shield for a heart, and a sword for a tongue.

coding