The Killing Grounds (Peregrine x PavellumPendulum)

Her eyes tracing a pine cone that was laying on the ground at the edge of the clearing due to her reluctance to look at the other woman, Lareina completely missed the look of disgust that flashed across Shiori's features. However, that was probably for the best, as, if she had seen it, there was no doubt that Ray would have immediately begun to backtrack from her suggestion, apologizing for even mentioning it in the first place.

Instead, the first thing she heard was Shiori's slightly tremulous voice. Lareina's eyes immediately flashed up to Shiori, an unconscious expression of relief crossing her face that the other woman didn't think she was sick for making the suggestion. However, a second later and her eyes went wide. "N-no," Lareina stuttered, before quickly recollecting herself. "I'm the one who suggested it. You don't have to—" However, her words were abruptly cut off with a groan of pain as she tried to push herself upright again.

"Fuck!" Ray cursed through clenched teeth, before pressing her lips tight and squeezing the back of her throat, unaware of the deep wrinkle that had formed between her brows. She didn't want to let Shiori know exactly how hurt she was. It was one of the most basic things she'd learned when fucking around with her younger brothers. As the eldest, she'd always had to be responsible for them, and that meant not letting them know when something was wrong.
 
Shiori most certainly felt bad when the disappointment soaked through her body, seeing that Ray was in no way in a decent enough state to butcher the monkey herself. Part of her wished that she hadn't, that the other woman would grit her teeth and bear it for her... But she knew that that was a selfish thought. She scolded herself mentally, watching Ray's expression tighten in pain, though she was obviously trying to hide it. It was embarrassing how much of a coward Shiori could be, but she supposed Ray didn't have to know that. She owed it to her to try, so she would.

Trying her best to sustain that she wasn't absolutely horrified of what she was about to do, Shiori looked over her shoulder to the crumpled up body a few feet away. It had been a few hours and the thing had leaked a lot of blood into the ground from all the metal that was no doubt embedded deep into it's flesh. Her gaze lingered for a good minute longer, as if to prolong the agonizing wait until she started an agonizing task, but eventually, she turned back to Ray.

"Lay back down." she coaxed, gently placing a hand on the other girl's arm, "Could you make me a knife or something? I'll get to work. You need to rest."
 
Pausing for a second to take a deep breath, Lareina allowed her eyes to briefly close as Shiori looked away. She knew she couldn't rest for long, because Shiori would doubtless turn back around in just a moment, but she needed to steel her heart. Both to try and suppress the pain that was arcing through her like lightning, but also so that she wouldn't show any shameful sights when it actually came time for her to stab the dead monkey.

Even from here, she could smell it, like some combination of sweat, spit, and blood. It was already causing her stomach to roll, but she could only pray that it would smell a little better once she'd cooked it.

God, she hoped it didn't have any parasites, or viruses, or whatever. She was certain her metal would be able to get hot enough to fry it into ash, let alone cook it enough to kill most bacteria, but there were strange, magic-flinging, mutant monsters here. Who knew if the illnesses were also worse. Of course, if that was the case, they were probably fucked anyways.

God, she didn't want to die.

Shiori's voice and a gentle touch on her arm caused Ray to physically flinch back into focus, realizing abruptly that she'd somehow got lost in her own thoughts. "Are you sure?" she asked reflexively, before seeing the traces of determination in the other woman's eyes. Gradually, she allowed herself to sink back down to her horizontal resting position. "...Thank you."

Her thoughts flashed back to her brothers, and how much easier it was for her to take care of them when she was able to see exactly how much they needed her in that moment. How they were depending on her to do better. If she had to leave that horrible task to Shiori, could she at least somehow help that way?

"I... don't have much metal left. Could I have your pipe? I'll try and re-gather some of the shards in the area before we leave, but right now... I don't think I can move."

Well, that was an absolutely pathetic attempt at acting weak.
 
She had to steel herself. It was funny to have that thought, considering the fact that she could literally spit steel out from her stomach, but the humour was a bit lost on her at the moment. Though her hands were still bandaged and her body was still sore from the constant stress and movement, she wasn't the one who was hurt here. Not as much as Ray was. So she'd have to suck it up. For the both of them... Of course, that was easier said than done. The idea of cutting through some previously sentient monkey meat wasn't exactly an appealing one. She smiled awkwardly at Ray's word of thanks. Ray needed her strength and getting some food in her was the best way to do it.

Shiori nodded when she was asked for her pipe, quickly picking it up off the ground where she'd laid it down, forgotten during her onslaught of tears. Carefully, the woman placed it in Ray's hands, only letting go when she was sure that the other woman had enough strength in her to actually hold it up.

"I can pick up some shards and bring them to you once we're ready to start moving again. Hopefully having them back in you will help you feel better..." her tone held a trace of hope in it, though it wasn't very strong, "I'll try to be quick. You need to eat something."
 
Still laying sideways on the ground, Lareina received the pipe carefully. Its weight was comfortable in her hands, although Ray had the nagging suspicion that had more to do with the fact that it was metal than because she enjoyed holding heavy iron pipes.

Under the careful prompting of her thoughts, the metal near her skin began to liquefy, flowing into her body. A second later, and the pipe was gone, leaving behind nothing but a faint silver gleam on her hands that looked like a light coating of grey dust. A second later, and the metal was flowing back out of her hands, forming into a narrow and long carving knife. Its tip was incredibly sharp, its back slightly thick. The handle was long, rounded, and covered in crisscrossing groves that would hopefully help Shiori grip the bare metal a bit better.

Spinning it around briefly in her hand, Lareina passed it to Shiori hilt first. "I tried to make it as sharp as I could," she said, voice still slightly low. "Be ca... Don't cut yourself with it." Upon realizing that she was unconsciously trying to avoid eye contact with Shiori, either out of guilt or worry or some other indeterminable emotion, Ray forced herself to look up, meeting the other's gaze. "Don't worry too much about the shards. The pipe helped a lot."
 
She had stalled long enough. The longer they waited here, the more time other creatures had to find them... And it was only a matter of time. Helping Ray get her strength back was her priority now, since they couldn't keep exploring without each other. Shiori watched as the other woman effortlessly reabsorbed the entire pipe, only taking another few seconds to pop it back out as a long carving knife. It crossed Shiori's mind that the knife would be a bit hard to hold without a handle, but it seemed that Ray had already thought of that. The woman only smiled a bit fondly as she watched the handle be created, with crisscrossed groves in order to give her better grip.

"It's fine. Thank you." she replied, nodding when the other woman handed it to her with a certain... Guilt? Anxiousness? Or maybe she was just tired. The aching soreness of overexertion was pulling at her muscles, but she forced herself through it, standing up and stretching herself out for just a moment, before making her way over to the cadaver.

There were shards of metal embedded in it, with dried blood oozed on the ground under it's furry mass, but it no longer seemed to be bleeding much. It's eyes were glassy, lifeless, with it's limbs contorted in ways that Shiori could only describe as disturbing. She hesitated, standing over it, her heart rate ridiculously high for approaching something that she knew to be dead... But she couldn't help herself. Her anxiety was through the roof and even as she forced herself to kneel down, she was having a hard time forcing her hands to reach out. She sat on her legs, awkwardly pulling the body close to her, before haphazardly choosing one of it's arms as her place to begin cutting.

Honestly, she knew nothing about butchering animals.

"Um... Let's see..." she muttered to herself, pressing the arm against the ground and leaning over carefully to align the blade of the knife with the shoulder joint... Or at least where she assumed it would be.
 
Still laying carefully on her side, it was no longer quite possible for Ray to see Shiori as she moved over towards the dead creature. At the very least, it wasn't laying straight in front of her, and Lareina would have to tilt her head down quite a ways in order to get a clear look at the other woman. Despite that... she didn't move her head. She told herself it was because she didn't want to strain the skin on her back, which had finally stopped feeling like there was a needle stabbing into her flesh and settled into a dull burn. But in truth, Ray knew it was because seeing Shiori at that moment would just worsen the guilt inside her.

Ray's identity had always been intimately tied to the concept of "older sister". She was a protector, a caretaker, the responsible one who was supposed to shoulder all the burdens so that her little brothers could live the best life they could. Yet, here she was, laying on the ground without a care while she allowed someone else to do an unpleasant, uncomfortable task. And she'd even been the one to suggest it.

Everything inside Ray told her that she should be getting up right now, that she should somehow be helping. Even if she wasn't the one with the knife in her hand, she had to share the burden. Somehow. Yet the pain on her back that almost caused her to gasp even with just a small movement gave different instructions. They were in a dangerous place, where things were constantly hunting them. If she couldn't move when the moment came, there was no way she'd be able to survive.

Although it somehow felt worse than the actual fight, right now Lareina had to rest.

She'd done her share. She'd protected Shiori when they were under attack, and, even though it had been more coincidence than intentional, she'd killed the monster that had been threatening their lives. Now she had to rest, and, when Shiori was done, she'd use her new ability to heat up metal to help cook the food, hopefully killing anything in the meat that might harm them. She was doing her part.

It didn't really make her feel much better.
 
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