Enter the Witchwood

The woman nodded as she listened, then looked toward him. He seemed unwilling to say why he'd been out dealing with bears in the first place, so she let it drop. "What's your favorite dinner?" She asked after a few moments, cutting down more peaches than she needed-- they were easy to dry out or can, and would be wonderful in the winter, especially heated and mixed with cinnamon and sugar.

"How about treats?" Since that was on her mind too, she may as well ask. Her eyes drifted briefly to the inside of the forest, away from Sam. She'd have to gather mushrooms after this. She didn't expect it would be hard to hide certain unnatural strains from Sam if she just made a little effort.
 
A slight smile crept over his face at the question. Instantly awash with memories of warm tables on cold nights. "Anything with a thick broth. A hearty stew.." He mused for a moment. "Makin' me hungry already." Sam added with a chuckle, sarcastic since he was still loaded from breakfast.

"Anything sweet. Sugar isn't something we got often at home. Sweet bread was something special." Her drifting gaze drew his attention away from the thoughts of treats and sweets. It was almost ingrained in him to follow people's eyes. The life of protecting and upholding simple laws wasn't forgotten because he was injured.

"See something amiss?" Sam asked. His tone had fallen from casual to a serious snap he often used when actually serving the law. Now that he was looking at the wooded edge of the forest something seemed off. More than he had before. A brief struggle to rise up followed, as if the few inches would get him a better view somehow.
 
Stews and sweets. She smiled. So like her Belly. She shook his head at his question. "No, nothing. I was just thinking that I'd like to get some mushrooms later from the nearby cave." She looked back toward Sam and smiled brightly. "What else do you like to eat? I hope eggs are one of them, and fruits and veggies. We always have more than we need." Her nod was absent-minded, but pleasant as she pulled more peaches from the tree, leaving behind any that didn't separate easily.

"Are there any foods you can't eat at all?"
 
The tone and demeanor had dropped almost as quickly as they had risen in the first place. He wasn't in any position of authority. No position of protection or law either. Arms and armor was dented and battered inside as he sat in the grass like a geriatric elder, unable to do much on their own.

All he could manage was a huff as she seemed to ignore him. Samson assumed she was simply letting him vent at his predicament, something he'd done precious little of. "Anything fresh beats something from a can six months later.." Was his reply to her first question, the second one taking a margin longer.

"Too much beef gives me nasty cramps. That's about it.. Nothin' else really bothers me eatin' wise. Made for an easy to feed child 'ccording to my mother.."
 
Ellith smiled and nodded. "Well, it's fortunate then that our main meat lately is pork. Our cows are still giving milk, somehow." She smiled at him and briefly nodded. "So, you should be safe from those." Her nod was pleased as she pulled more peaches down, not cutting them.

"Do you like dried peaches?" She stuffed some of her wild strands behind an ear as she asked, and Beliam splashed about behind the house a bit more noisily. Her eyes shot up, and she craned to look for her son around the house. "Belly?" She began to descend the ladder, but stopped as she heard his voice answer.

"I'm cutting reeds, Mama!"

"Ok!" Her shoulders relaxed. "After that, don't forget to finish the field!" She climbed the ladder again and grabbed two more peaches before she returned to the ground.
 
"Porks fine by me. M'sure I said m'not too picky with food." He replied idly, having begun trying to move about a bit on his own power once more. The antsy feeling was beginning to creep back in like an itch he couldn't scratch. At best he could move his legs a few inches here and there and lean on his arms to feel his muscles tighten.

Even he had to turn his head to try and gleam some view of the boy beyond the house. Being so low to the ground he'd never have any luck, but the attempt made him feel better. "That'll be a treat.." For a moment he trailed off, ignoring a feeling in his gut and chalking the boy's reed cutting to childish and innocent destruction. Even he'd stepped on bugs or cut bushes as a youth.

"Really think 'e'll finish that field?" He asked with an amused tone and brows raised, watching the woman continue to work.
 
The woman nodded at his remark about the peaches being a treat. Perhaps she could even make a cobbler... That sounded nice. Maybe even some iced cream!

"He will if he wants his dinner." She laughed. "We have a rule here-- you do your chores before you eat. Breakfast is the exception, because... well, the boy would never eat if it applied then." She laughed and looked at the last tree she planned to harvest for the day-- a tree with no visible fruits. She pulled a tool from a basket and began to scrape at the orange-colored bark with it, peeling it away in strips. She stopped after a time and tossed the strips into a basket, then placed the tool in with.

"I'm done with the trees now. I'll come sit with you." She smiled at him and dragged over both baskets, then unfolded a piece of cloth from one, which she layed the strips of bark on, as well as a few peaches she wanted to dry out. She'd have to first remove the pits...
 
"Huh. Used to be had to beat me with a stick to keep me from the table.. Always said I'd eat'em out of house an' home." His tone was back to relaxed, a little subdued if he'd been laughing. Those ribs were still a little too tender to be jostled around.

In his mind he could only imagine what the bark was used for. Not too rare to use bark as kindling for a fire, but a unique tool to get it with such care? "What's that you peeled off the tree? Ain't seen something like that where I'm from."

All the sitting had begun to make him drowsy, but the return of active company drew him from any stupor he may have been falling into. "If ya' trust me with a knife I can help pit them for ya'?" Something to keep him occupied even if he wasn't sure how he'd manage it with his injuries.
 
"I'll be happy for the help." She smiled and handed him a peach, then a knife. "I'll show you how."

The woman's hands moved expertly, though slowly through the process of extracting the pit without harming the fruit or opening it too much to get to it. "We want to try to keep the skin whole as much as possible, so it keeps the flavor while it's drying out." The explanation was fairly simple as she showed him once more. "Once you're done, the pit can just go..." She pulled the basket where the more delicate fruits rested. "In here. They have some extracts that are helpful for me." Her bright, cheerful smile turned back towards the peaches as she continued to work free the pits. Ellith glanced now and then at the man beside her, checking his work and ensuring he wasn't struggling too badly-- with his broken arm, and all.

In the background, Beliam continued to harvest reeds for his mother, since she always seemed to need them more than crops from the field, based on how often she sent him to get them.
 
His head lifted and dropped slowly as he watched her work. Such a delicate hand that he was sure could lay a hurting on anyone as good as he can. Women were odd like that at times. Brief visions of the bear crossed his mind and it all fit too perfectly.

"A'ight.. See wha' I can do.." He replied with a smile attempting to match hers. To him it always felt so stern and cold, like a winter sea, no matter how gentle he struggled to be whereas she was likely that way naturally. More light-hearted blame upon women just being that way naturally.

With his broken arm secured snuggly against him it gave a good anchor to hold the peach in place as he did his work with the knife. A brief curse followed without the expected hiss of pain as he slipped with the blade more than once. Enough control to keep himself from accidentally goring himself as he finished a single peach.

"There we a--" Another contrite curse followed as it simply split in half. The pit was held between two fingers and the two halves lay on his palm. His expression something akin to a father who's just been handed the child with a soiled undergarment.
 
The woman looked over, then laughed at his expression as he held the ruined peach. "It's fine. We can use that for something else easily enough." She placed both sides on the cloth, then handed him another peach, this one slightly larger, and with a large bump on one side of its cleft. "Try again, that's all it asks for. We grow a lot, so it won't hurt any."

In the time he'd taken to mess up one, she had successfully pitted two of the soft fruits. Even with her careful, quick cuts, her left hand was covered in juice from the very ripe fruits. Now and then, she shamelessly licked a drip from the bottom of her hand.

Behind them, a clatter alerted the two to Beliam's presence. Ellith looked back, then smiled. "Thank you. Put them inside, and then get back to the field."

"Ok, Mama." The boy darted toward the house, hands full of long reeds. He was fully nude, and dripping wet.

Right before he went inside, Ellith remembered how wet he was. "No no! Just by the door! By the door! Dry off before you go inside!" She turned so quickly she nearly stabbed herself through the peach in her hand.
 
His look shifted to determination as he set about to the second peach given. This time he did his best to mimick the way her knife moved. "Still feels foolish to waste it." Now he recognized how a novice felt below their mentor.

The man's eyes had been on her knife for much of the time it sat buried in the peach. Old habits of a guard's life taught him to watch such a small blade closely. Though it could've been himself rationalizing looking at something other than her retrieving the juices with her mouth. Such a small action felt oddly seductive, even if it wasn't meant as such.

A smile cracked as she called back and forth with her son. No matter the circumstances it seems a mothers shout was commonplace in this universe. Only when her movement snapped back did his gut tighten like a vice.

The uninsured arm shot out, without conscious though and caught the woman by the wrist as if he'd fall if he let go, such was the strength. Only when her attention would return to avoid harming herself would he relax. The held breath in his lungs let out in a painful hiss. Such a sharp motion on his part had shifted something and brought considerable pain of the contortion of his face was an indicator.
 
She paused and looked at him, then at his hand gripping her, and her cheeks reddened. "Wha..?" Her word trailed off in the middle before she noticed the knife and realized what his intent was. "Oh."

Ellith was uncertain what to say, and behind her, her son could be heard dropping the reeds into the doorway of the house. They clattered noisily against the wooden floor before he ran along the hard dirt path back to the field, cheerful as any carefree child.

The rest of the morning went quickly, and soon the sun was overhead. Ellith finished her last peach and rose and stretched. "Would you like some lunch?" "We could have some fruit."

Her son, out of sight until now, darted into sight. "Food!" He crowed happily. "I'm hungry, Mama!"

Ellith laughed and grinned wide. "Perhaps peanut butter on some apple slices?"

The boy nodded and darted toward the house, presumably to get the ingredients.
 
Samson had released her and was steadily holding his chest with a pained look. Any help would've been waved off as he caught his breath. Whether he shifted a rib or had just moved too quickly was uncertain, but he was fine after a few moments and smiling again.

The noise of her boy was a welcome distraction as he tried to resume where he'd left off on the peach. The knife in his lap had fallen flat on its side thankfully. How foolish would it have been if he'd stabbed himself in trying to prevent Ellith from doing the same.

"Lunch sounds heavenly." The morning's meal had made it's course and he was beginning to remember what kind of eating routine he had. Grateful as he was for her hospitality.

Much of his pain had left after the little ordeal this morning. "He seems eager." The comment was made idly as he tried to lean back and look at the sky. Pushing through the dull ache of the slow motions. "Is it always so.. Simple a life out here? Is this how all days go?"
 
The woman nodded. "He always is." Her eyes traced over his body, as they had multiple times during the day already-- checking to see if she needed to worry about the prideful man. "Yes, everything is simple out here. I... actually enjoy it, after having my own active childhood." She laughed quietly to herself as she licked more peach juice from her hand, eyes on her digits now as she tried to get her hands less sticky. The woman wiped her hand with a cloth as her son returned, then offered the cloth to Sam. "Here, clean yourself up. It's easier if you lick your fingers first. It loosens up the juice that's started to dry on."

Beliam trotted out of the house, jar in hand. Inside the wide, short jar was something brown. As Ellith opened it, it smelled strongly of some sort of nut and oil. She cut an apple, then dipped it into the brown substance and held it out to Sam. "Here. No double-dipping is the only rule."
 
His own head bobbed with the gentle motions of a nod as the woman spoke, keenly aware of her eyes on him more than once. A little bit flattering the attention was from someone like her. Beauty was one thing she had but her strength was something he admired more, wishing he'd met someone like her in his younger years.

"So you weren't raised out here then." He didn't end it on a questioning tone, merely stating it as he dug out a piece of peach flesh from beneath his nail. "Sh'good fer' a boy though." Not that it was easy to speak with a finger in his mouth.

It didn't take long to clean the fingers he'd been using, somehow feeling the act a little futile given he'd used his own mouth to clean them before wiping it off. "What's this then?" He asked as he smelled the warm and earthy scent it carried. Only after plopping it into his mouth and enjoying the warmth and how it seemed to get stuck everywhere he tried to chew it.
 
She laughed as he enjoyed his first taste of peanut butter. "It's a recipe I found useful for the nuts I found in the ground. Peanut butter. It's just nuts and a little oil. Beliam loves it." She turned toward her son and smiled, eyes narrowing in pride and pleasure as the boy got a big wad of the brown substance on an apple slice and gobbled it up.

"And yes, I was raised in a small city about two weeks walk from here. It's also where we go when we need anything that we can't make ourselves-- sewing needles, nails, pot repairs..." She smiled. "The city would only cause trouble for Beliam at his age. He's more than a little like me, you can tell just by looking.

"Mm?" The boy looked up at his name, his third apple slice on its way to his still-full mouth.

"Just talking about you, eat your lunch." The boy nodded and shoved the fruit into his mouth, munching happily.
 
Samson found the sticky mess quite to his liking even as it stuck to everything in his mouth. Still he couldn't help but be a tiny bit jealous he hadn't tried this stuff as a boy like Beliam had likely grown up with.

"Never been that far south. But I've heard the merchants talk about it incessantly. Honestly can't blame ya'." He replied with a smile as he glanced between the boy and his mother. In the warm light of the day it was easier to see the small differences in them. Anything dissimilar he simply left to piece together what the boy's father would've looked like.

"Two weeks.." Was his murmured words to himself. The merchants ride was four. How far from home could he possibly be?
 
South? Ellith tilted her head at mention of that. Was there a city south of where Sam lived?

She shrugged. It didn't much matter now-- for the time, at least, he was with her.

"Mhm. It's a slow walk. We have to stop before sundown and find cover. It's fairly stressful, so I leave Beliam at home and go by myself."

Beliam grunted in protest as he tried to talk through the peanut butter.

"Eat with your mouth closed." Ellith chided before she finally dipped her own slice of apple to eat.
 
"Alone?" He asked with knitted brows before the next piece met its end in his stomach. "I'll not mean to look down on your independence but that's a long journey by yourself..." Concern streaked his voice like mud in a flowing creek.

The apple crunched between his teeth as he bit off the the peanut pasted end. Still holding the other half his head shook slowly.

"Sorry. That was rude of me.." The tone trailed as he tried to imagine her making such a trek. Surely she had to have a horse for it at least part of the journey. Even his short trek had lasted a few days and he had begun to feel fatigue setting in.
 
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