The Bracken Woods [m] ivory ice

two days. a two day break from the hell that surely awaited her the further away they got from home. red leaf swallows hoarsely and nods. he hasn't commented on her hard work, and she tries to pretend that it doesn't feel like a dull knife is lodged between her ribs.
she waits for him to finish before she blesses her own meal, thanking the caribou for her life before she begins to peck at what remains. her stomach hurts, but she needs to eat, and she knows this.
his gaze is famished, and for a moment it reminds her of how things felt only a moon ago. has it been a moon yet? has it been longer? my parents gave me to you because you are a good man, her breath rattles in her throat; her accent is jumbled, incomplete. they know me. you know me.
didn't he?