Love and Bounty

Chapter Five: Things Fall Apart

As soon as Hrolf's eyes cracked open, fading from his slumber, his senses were assaulted by the blinding glow of morning sunshine upon the snow. Even amongst the pines, the sheer amount of white outside the cave entrance made looking directly at it impossible, even with his blurry vision. He couldn't help but scrunch up his face and rub the sleep from his eyes harshly. That was, until some soft, whistling birdsong got his attention. Not from outside the cave, but just across the remains of the fire.

Iscraah was the source. He wouldn't have believed it if he didn't watch her whistle like a bird a second time.

"Good morning," the Bosmer said, popping something with an amber sheen in her mouth.

It made an unseemly crunch when she bit into it. When she reached into her palm, Hrolf's skin crawled as he noticed the writhing mound of amber-hued beetles in her hand. She plucked another from the pile, its legs thrashing as she held it out to him.

"Cave beetle?"

Hrolf shook his head a little too fast. Not wanting to seem rude, he caught himself and cleared his throat. "No thank you."

Iscraah shrugged and promptly bisected the beetle with her teeth.

The others were still asleep. Sharai snoozed soundly at Iscraah's side, and Deeja was fully enveloped in her bedroll. Had it not been for the person-shaped lump where her body should be, he would have thought her missing.

"It must still be early in the morning," Hrolf muttered, his voice hushed so as to not disturb the others.

Iscraah nodded. Another crunch, another dead beetle. "I just returned from foraging."

The way the pile of insects moved was unsettling. "I see..." he mumbled. "Why not eat some snowberries?"

The Wood Elf shook her head vehemently. "I cannot. The Green Pact forbids it."

Hrolf cocked his brow. "The Green Pact?"

Iscraah nodded, tightening her grip on her crawling breakfast. "Y'ffre, the Spinner of the Great Story and patron of my people, forbids us from eating the plants of the Green," she explained. "But that is one of many tenets—some of which I cannot openly follow in these lands."

"Like what?" he pried, his curiosity swelling by the second.

She warily grinded another amber exoskeleton between her teeth and tentatively swallowed. "Sharai said I should not say," she murmured. "Skyrim is more lenient, but Hammerfell..." Iscraah's expression darkened, and before a beetle could escape from her clutches, she swiftly popped it into her mouth and consumed it like the rest. "I am more free to follow my Pact in these lands, is all I will say."

Hrolf straightened his posture, not a fan of the vague response. "Right, right..."

The silence, interrupted only by the light breeze and crushing of beetles, went on for too long. Soon enough, Sharai stirred and sat upright in her bedroll.

"Good morning," Iscraah said to the Redguard, extending a furious beetle to her. "Cave beetle?"

Astoundingly, Sharai actually pondered the question. More astoundingly, she replied: "Just one."

The Redguard took the beetle and crushed it with her molars, just as Iscraah had done many times. The Bosmer grinned, as if expecting a remark from Sharai. Sure enough, she had one:

"Not bad." She ground the exoskeleton between her teeth, her brow slightly furrowed with discomfort. "Each time I try it, it gets a little easier, but it's still not exactly easy."

Iscraah tittered with her free hand hiding her beetle-deathtrap of a maw. "You have a leg stuck in your teeth."

Sharai groaned up at the cave ceiling. "Morwha's tits, this always happens."