Eat or Be Eaten [Open!]

[snowman]

"Hm, I see. Well I don't know if that is good or not, but it helps keep you clear headed more often on the bright side. Is that what you hoped for?" Wesley spoke after slight moment of thought before asking his question. Careful you are asking some bad questions she might think of you as weak for that one. You know she may think you see her as wea-. He drove those thoughts from his mind once more. He had to keep driving those thoughts out of mind else he might end up killing Ashe if his paranoia gets the better of him.

He was surprised at Ashe's question about his arm. "Hm, well my arm feels a lot better than it did a few weeks ago. Don't worry about it too much it should be better in another couple weeks, then I should be able to help out more than I have. Thanks for asking." Wesley spoke adding his own estimate.

He watched as Ashe first when she started with taking to get to work on the body before he turned his attention to their surroundings, his paranoia screaming out at him that there was something that wanted them dead in the trees. He doubted that there was something in the trees at all times that was actively hunting them, but he needed to keep alert in case that in the smallest of chances there was something that wanted them dead. An unknown amount of time passed it could have been three hours, but it had to be close to two. All the same he stayed alert until she was done. 'Voila' was the signal that they would be heading back home, once they got back he could let his level of alert slip a little bit.  "Got it."

[Deleted]

Ashe had hesitated for a second before answering his question. "No," she finally replied. "It wasn't." What a curious question. Then, later: At least he has a brain. But that might be a bad thing. She had pushed it out of her mind, as she so often did. It did not do to dwell on thoughts when actions were survival.

Was it relief she saw in his eyes when she announced that they were finished? Ashe noticed his eyes, scanning the trees around them. It's just his paranoia, she told herself. But the feeling that they were being watched was growing on her.

Impulsively, Ashe pulled him towards her, as if for a kiss. She painted a fake smile onto her lips and met his gaze. "Is there something out there?" she asked him quietly, expression unchanging. If there was, it would never know that they were on to it. Hopefully. 

It wasn't until after she had finished her question that Ashe realized what this meant for her. What she was doing was an act of subterfuge, of weakness. She had always been a predator, and now she was acting like prey. She had changed a lot for Wesley's sake, but this? This was survival. How could she afford to change?

[snowman]

"Ah, I see." Wesley spoke, learning a little bit more about Ashe. Would you look at that you asked a stupid question. I mean come on you know she likes her bloodthirsty side. What are you? Freaking brain dead, look it should have been clear as d-. Wesley pushed that thought out of his mind. 

He could feel Ashe's eyes on him as he scanned their surroundings. There was nothing out of the ordinary which put the knife in the back of his paranoia for the moment. But he would know something was coming if the birds suddenly went quiet.

Ashe suddenly pulled him towards her. He had an idea of what she was going to ask him. "I don't think anything is out there yet. The birds and nature is still loud, if it went deathly quiet then that would be a tell that something is bad is coming."

"If there is something that comes we lead them into a trap, turn predator into prey. Then we have more materials to work with or leave them to feed the predators out here. So if they somehow find us, lets hunt them. I can still handle a bow or a blade whatever I can to help." He spoke incase she had some form of worry if his paranoia. He doubted that his paranoia spooked her, but he had to reassure her that she isn't feeling weak. That may cause sometime own the line.

[Deleted]

Ashe listened carefully to his words. She didn't entirely discount his opinion---after all, he had been a soldier. Maintaining such instincts had been his only way of survival. He might be onto something, she told herself. But he also might not be. After all, she hadn't felt anything out of the ordinary, and she had lived here for far longer than he had. 

Releasing him from her embrace, she shook back her hair casually and smiled again, as if nothing had happened. She scanned the forest carefully---making sure to be inconspicuous---but there was nothing. Either there was nothing there in the first place, or whatever was there was very good at concealing themselves. 

"Good idea," she replied after a while, ensuring that her tone was even. Her hand unconsciously slipped down to the knife at her side, fingers lightly brushing the blade. Don't be weak, she told herself condescendingly. You could take whatever's out there. It's probably just some stupid rabbit. She bagged the meat and the relevant bones. "Let's go," Ashe told him, setting off determinedly in the direction of their lean-to. Our lean-to, she repeated to herself. Why? 

Paranoia aside, the sounds of the forest never failed to relax her. The gentle babbling of the brook, the serene bird calls, the wind whispering through the needle-like leaves on the trees---the sounds seeped into the very fiber of her being, soothing her very core. It was difficult to maintain a sense of alert when the forest was calling you to relax. An unseemly trap, she thought. 

On a whim, Ashe fell into step with Wesley. Striving to move her mouth as little as possible, she whispered to him, "Let me know if you feel anything suspicious."

[snowman]

Wesley did not think he was exactly insane, but it was just paranoia. He could brush it off just like that if he felt like it, but that could very lead to death if he was wrong. It was his instincts going out of control. He had not exactly been living here his entire life like Ashe has. It was something criminals, soldiers, and hunters may have.

He noticed that his paranoia was contagious and had infected Ashe as she started to watch their surroundings as well after she released him. "Sorry, looks like my paranoia had infected you." He said to Ashe as he checked the woods behind them. Maybe in time his mind would heal and his paranoia would take it down a notch.

"Got it." He spoke, watching Ashe's hand coming to rest on her weapon. In response his hand unconsciously came to rest on his weapon in turn, looks like her action was infectious as well. It was well past time for them to get back to her home, their home. He was determined to make sure nothing got the drop on them. But would he be quick enough to react if something did attack them? No you idiot don't let doubts cloud your mind now. A new voice had entered his mind. It perplexed him, how many more voices were going to make their home in his head. Was it the voice of the remnants of sanity in his instincts?

The sounds of the forest calmed his heart bit by bit, helping him to think a bit more clearly. But he could not let himself become too calm, it might dull his senses a bit too much. Ashe fell into step with him before speaking. "That is the plan." He spoke keeping what he said short and to the point. He started to focus his senses hoping it would let him notice something, anything that he may not have noticed.



 

[Deleted]

It seems like it has, Ashe acknowledged silently. He was rubbing off on her too much.

They walked together in silence for a while, her every hair on edge. It wouldn't have been wise to dismiss his instincts, but if he was wrong about this, then she would know that his war had traumatized him and that his instincts were no longer trustworthy. 

Trust, she scoffed to herself. Since when did trust play into your decision-making? She didn't like it, but he had his uses. One side of her kept urging her to kill him, to rid herself of any trace of humanity left in her system. But the other side reminded her of how he made her feel, how he could give her that fuzzy warmness. Weak. You're weak. 

Ashe sighed softly. She was confident in her physical ability to kill him. But are you emotionally strong enough? 

It didn't matter if whatever was watching them heard them talk. She didn't care. "Wesley, I think I want to kill you," she told him as they walked. "You're a detriment to my survival." He would probably run away. She didn't care. She just wanted this to be over before he could remind her that she had feelings, too. That she was human.

[snowman]

Wesley silently kicked himself, he did not want Ashe to get anything else that could be... troublesome from him. He did not want her to become a mirror image of himself, he had plenty of downsides. 

As they walked in silence he hoped that his instincts were not firing off in false alarm. If his instincts were wrong that would ruin Ashe's trust in him. Which would result in his chances to survive becoming very dismal. He was not weak by any standards, but he had to sleep sometime.

You sure she is not trying to think up a good way to kill you instead? You know you have not fully healed up. She find some difficulty, but the end results would be your death. Wesley heard his otherside speak to him. Wesley filed it inside his mind under the category of shit he already knew.

Wesley chuckled at Ashe's reveal to him. "You know what is sad? I have a another side in my mind saying that your a liability and that I should kill you before you kill me. As annoying tha-" Wesley spoke before he heard a snapping of a stick or branch. Wesley stepped his pace before spinning Ashe around, drawing her closer to him like she did earlier. "Is there any animals around this area at this time of day? Should we act like we having a argument?" He asked Ashe, his body tensed and ready to spring.