Wild Desperation

Chapter 48

                                                Jess

I was in a hurry to take a treat to the goats but passing by the dining hall I was drawn in by the smell of food. "Hey Jess, give this a try." Kota smiled as he handed me a skewer of meat, I didn't have to be told twice as I happily devoured the tasty morsels provided. "Pretty good isn't it, Sang has been feeding us like that for over a week. She really is amazing." He sighed out and although it creeped me out that he was talking about my friend all lovey dovey, it was nice to see him happy after such a long time of him being closed off from the world. "You really love her don't you?" I shook my head at him pitifully. 

"That obvious huh, little sis?" He chuckled on a blush. "She likes you guys too so don't give up on her just yet, even if I think it's a bit gross she is good for you. She might not see it herself yet but she will, after all you are MY brother." I smiled back as I teased him. "Oh just take some kabobs and go." He shooed me as I grabbed three more skewers of meat and headed for the barn. I was happy to see Sang outside but was a bit confused as to what she was doing. "Um, what are you doing?" I frowned as she smiled up at me, before nodding to the meat in my hand. "Fixing up the hides of what you just so happen to be eating." She stated as I handed her the two skewers I'd grabbed for her and Arrow.

 "What do you mean by fixing, are they messed up or something?" I asked curiously as she pulled a few pieces of meat from the skewer and tossed them to a waiting Arrow before eating the rest herself. "Not exactly messed up, just not the way I need them to be yet. See I'm tanning the hides to make things out of later, they can be good for clothes, shoes, hats, gloves, anything really. The little collar around Arrow's neck even has a strip of hide for his name, I even made his harnes out of a bear hide." I gape at her in awe. "You hunt bears?" I can't help my curiosity. 

"Well, sometimes. I try to avoid them normally but I don't like them hanging around my camp and if they act aggressive towards me I defend myself, so I have killed a few of them." She chuckles out as she wipes some sweat from her forehead. "So how do you tan hides?" I ask, more than willing to learn a new skill. With so much free time on my hands outside of working it might be nice to have something else to do. "Well the first bit is getting the meat off the fleshy side, then comes the part of soaking them to loosen the fur. I tend to soak them in hot water with some herbs to loosen the fur before scraping it out, like this one." She gestures at the mat of fur and skin she was working on when I showed up. 

"Can I help?" I asked shyly and was relieved to see her nod. I gave the animals their garden treat before Sang showed me what to do and gave me a pelt to work on. I messed up a few times with it but Sang showed me how to fix my mistake and then I slowly got the hang of it. I was a lot slower than she was though since she was already done with the second hide by the time I finished mine. "Now what?" I asked eagerly. 

"I've already scraped out the membrane on them so we have to wring them out and then comes the messy part." She shrugged. "What's the messy part?" I asked curiously. "Let me put it this way, you're probably going to wish you hadn't asked to help out." She snickered as I frowned. "Why?" Now I was determined to show her that getting a little messy wasn't going to bother me. "How squeamish are you?" She asked with raised brows as she picked up a nearby bucket, well I guess we were about to find out.

                                             Sang