Occult | JJK 🔞

14| Squabble

Jungkook opened an eye, suddenly very confused when all he saw above his head were tree branches and the sky. The air was fresh and biting, smelling of fir sap and earth. He sat up, looking around and seeing the remnants of a fire by his side, the coals still fuming.

Khepri was gone. The sword and her bow were gone.

An eerie silence surrounded the clearing, and he suddenly got the impression that he was the last human on the planet; so small and lost in this big forest, he might never find his way back home.

"Good morning!"

The boy jerked his head aside, blinded by the image of Khepri approaching in the dewy morning daylight. Her heavy black hair was braided in one thick ponytail, bronze skin illuminated by honey rays of sunshine. She looked tired, the tattoo on her forehead coming-out more scarlet than usual against her exhausted features.

"I thought you had abandoned me," the boy muttered, brushing a hand over his head to remove the dead leaves caught in it.

"Can't say I didn't think about it," she answered lightly, which immediately got her a lethal glare from the other, "Here, I got breakfast!"

She threw on Jungkook's lap two dead rabbits, which immediately got the boy to let out a disgusted grunt as he threw the bodies away from him.

"There is no way I'm eating that!"

"Don't throw them like that! You're going to damage them!"

Jungkook, watched with a certain disgust as Khepri, after reviving the fire, started skinning the rabbits, fingers deep inside the carcasses and pulling the fur off. Him, who had always bought his meat in individual plastic wraps in grocery stores, was repulsed by the sight. She twisted off the animals' heads, throwing them into the fire, then, using a knife, started to eviscerate them, making sure all their organs were gone to only leave the bones and meat. Finally, using two branches, she skewered them, positioning them above the fire.

"Here, for luck," Khepri chimed, then threw a rabbit's paw towards Jungkook, who caught it, then dropped it when he realized what it was.

"How did you learn how to do that?" he asked, then recognized half-way that it was a stupid question.

Of course she was a survivalist pro; she had lived way before the invention of electricity and grocery stores. Everyone back then had to know how to hunt to get by.

"I don't know," she answered truthfully, "I don't remember."

They stayed silent for a few minutes, just the crackling of the fire and Jungkook clutching the girl's cape around him to keep warm as the rabbit meat cooked. He had to admit that once it started to smell like actual food, his stomach began to rumble. It took some more minutes for the meat to be perfectly grilled, and by the time it was ready, the boy was pretty much drooling.

Khepri, finally satisfied, gave him one skewer, showing him how to avoid small bones that could pierce his windpipe. The savor was rather plain, as there was no seasoning at all, but Jungkook was so hungry he didn't care at all, devouring everything he could of the animal in minutes and sucking on the bones. After that, he borrowed a sweater from Khepri's bag to replace his ruined shirt and took a few gulps of water in her water bottle.

"How do you feel?" the girl asked after watching him standing up with a painful expression.

"Like I should be dead," he let out in a giggle.

The thought that if Khepri hadn't intervened, he would have been killed by hunters the night before was somehow so incongruous that it was amusing.

"No, but seriously, can you walk? We have a long way to go."