Black Morass upon restlessness;

"@Karpos. i need to go outside la muerte. will you take me?"

her eyes were earnest upon him.

there were things in the morass necessary. it was not an island, but a place of vastness which promised a restoration of riches she had once been promised.

first; beautification.

truthfully, he was pleased to be asked.

he hid this behind a simple look and a soft nod. the land in the morass was thick and the scents seemed only thicker. perhaps she came for clays for the fish. maybe the herbs, if they all had not already vanished.

i can carry things, he offered idly as he examined the dark bark of the trees here.

tiny white mushrooms; to eat, agrippina explained. the inner bark of a log so rotted that they both witnessed how its blackened bark slid off like gamy skin.

her eyes beheld morning glory and nightshade, but she did not point these out, nor gather them.

into his care was delivered a small pile of "raspberries. they are best eaten in the fall."

one burst to flavor on her tongue. she began to dirty herself gathering obsidian chunks of hard clay.

he learned from her.

a huntsman dealt in meat. her clay fish had been exotic but not so farfetched. yet she showed him mushrooms, showed him berries. he examined them closely. not with concern but with wonder.

one taken into his jaws. crushed between teeth, red stains but not from blood as he had grown used to.

she gathered clay.

he felt like some kind of king. not in a way that flattered, but that caused unease. it inspired him to come alongside her. strong paws scooping, gathering. he had no clue if he did any of it right!

agrippina did not expect karpos to help her, and chastised herself for it. of course he would. they belonged to the same class now; she must be grateful of the help she had learned to live without.

better bark formed little mats beneath the piles of clay. "when this is warm, not so frozen, i will put fruit to keep. when the snows come, the berries will be protected from decay."

so she hoped, not hazarding to look at him as she finished with the last pieces she wanted to gather.

you preserve many things.

it was a compliment, a shine of something in his voice even if it could not reach his face. the dark clay that caked along his legs did its best to attempt a hiding of his pale underside.

you could teach.

he knew it was not her role, he knew perhaps it was whimsy to suggest such to her.

"teach who?" agrippina asked, a bit more brusquely than intended. "the royal children have their own apartments and their own tutors. i am not needed in that world."

yes. she preserved many things: a cloudy jar with contaminants breathing against the glass.

many things.

"teach you, karpos?" she went on, flicking clay from her palms and at last straightening. "what would you do with my lessons?" her own tease as at last she let their eyes meet in fullness.

and he wondered if that meant she did not wish for that world.

what world did she dream of? a life of servitude to the nocturnal royals? he supposed someone had to do it. there would always be uppers and lowers.

he might have been content to be silent, to think himself a foolish man to have even asked! yet she graced him with something warmer. he dared to meet her eyes now. green and vibrant. so awfully different from all the red and orange the world around him had seemed to hold lately.

learn from them, i hope. a glimmer of humor from him now. say my hunting leaves me on a long trail of travel. if i know how to save things — or what berries are sweet — then i will not worry so much.

the idea that karpos would be gone for any length of time served to jar agrippina.

he was the only one she knew, if it was still only in part.

servant alone. she would bend her head and invite no interest from her betters.

"how often are you sent on such long trips where you must eat berries from clay?" she muttered, as much to know as to punish herself for ever caring.

by now, the woman's gaze had fallen away to her filthied paws.

maybe never.

he found he loathed that her gaze had gone away. yet what was he to do? order her to look at him? it would hold no weight and do nothing other than disrupt their tethers.

but if i find myself far away and in a dark hour, it would be a shame to think i snubbed the knowledge.

dramatic, that he knew. a sliver of a grin on his face for it, before he turned away to gather a few of the berries she had collected.

"well. then now you know."

not quite a smile as she ducked her head again, trying to work out how best the clay might be carried back. "we may need a skin," agrippina admitted at last, rocking back to weary haunches.

cold settled around her ears. "do you think we can be quick at hunting?"

even a bloody pelt was better than nothing, but she did not like how hungry the shadows seemed now. even with karpos nearby.

the quickness of a hunt depended on what they needed — and how desperate they were willing to be instead.

how big of a skin?

with her, he did not think hunting would take long. yet if she required anything bigger than a small pelt, they might very well simply use their own bodies to slog it back with them.

regardless he is already examining the area.

"enough to carry these things. perhaps a rabbit?" agrippina did not want to hunt. such things were in the natural order of wolf and life, but that period of desperation during which even the girl's best efforts could not save her mother — it turned the act of stalking prey into something miserable.

however, she let none of this cross her face and began to look around, trying to spot movement despite her deep revulsion around this deeply natural state.

consider it done.

besides, what kind of huntsman could not snag a quick rabbit? he deserved no title (nor clay fish or berries) if he could not do his simplest of duties.

his stride carried him further away from the robin woman.

he thinks he has discovered something that will be worth the effort. something that will make her tasks more bearable.

karpos went away and agrippina tried to still the immediate cantering of her heart.

she did not like to be alone, not even in the beautiful stillness of this place.

mind attempted to busy her with tasks, but her hands froze eventually, and she sat still as a dazed rabbit, concentrating only upon her breath.