In the dull, limited light of the shambled forest cabin, Saki's thoughts were running down a dangerous tangent.

The acrid, unpleasant concoction of wolf repellent hung like an unpleasant smog in the air, making the otherwise sickening haze of death worse to stomach. The paws of starved, ravenous wolves sounded their faint retreat back to the line of trees surrounding the cabin, though beyond that, Saki knew they weren't about to leave when an untainted food source was just on the other side of a large sheet of wood.

Saki held her breath as she foraged through her hip pack for two of the small jars of pressed tallow she kept on hand, with her gaze shifting briefly back to the nameless girl who had let her inside to safety from the wolves. She swiped the necessary items from her packed reserves, pouring a generous helping of rosemary oil into the jars and lit the twisted wicks of twine within to set them aflame.

It was there, that the presence of another living form within the cabin came to Saki's notice.

Wriggling out from within the closest wad of bedding was the telltale, ginger hue of fur belonging to a red fox kit, scarcely old enough to be away from its mother by the look of it. Its large eyes promptly fell upon Saki's unfamiliar form, with its ears flicking backwards apprehensively within an instance. Before Saki had even blinked, it then buried itself back within the blankets quickly to escape her gaze.

'So it's just you and the fox?' Saki questioned as she turned her head back towards the nameless girl, who had closed up the canteen of wolf repellent with a little difficulty, and was in the process of setting it down next to the door.

'Grandpa is here, too...' The girl mumbled.

Who was likely quite a few days past his expiry, if the smell was anything to go by.

Saki was honestly surprised the smell alone hadn't bumped either the girl or her furry companion off, yet.

The tallow candles gleamed to life, catching merrily as the faint wisps of rosemary began to slowly permeate through the suffocating stench of death. Saki merely set one of the candles down on the floor next to the door, straightening up as she turned her attention upon the sheets of material forming the makeshift walls of the two meter space.

There was no point in putting it off. The pungent stench wouldn't allow it, even if Saki were adamant about ignoring it.

'Where is your grandpa?' Saki asked as she deposited her rucksack and bow down on the grimy floor, earning a startled look from the nameless girl as she dragged her gaze away from the tallow candle.

Saki could see the tears beginning to brim, the way the girl's bottom lip seemed to tremble as she pulled herself to her legs and began to edge towards one of the hanging sheets in particular. It brought Saki to piece together a few things.

The girl didn't really believe her grandfather was just "sleeping", and she likely understood what death actually was. It was all denial, a facade to likely make being trapped in the house with her grandfather's corpse at least a tiny more tolerable. And even if the girl's father was alive, Saki doubted the girl even expected him to come back.

The stench of death was worse on the other side of the wall of material, and there was nothing Saki could do but bury more of her face into the thick scarf she was using as a breathing mask and try to push the unpleasant taint from her mind.

The little girl did not follow, nor did she watch Saki disappear into the darkness that expanded beyond the makeshift barrier. She stood with her head turned away as tears spilled over, allowing Saki to peruse as she wished without interruption.

And as Saki stepped through a doorway leading into a large living room, she found herself noticing that there probably was no other person left in the girl's family. There were no signs of belongings to a so called mother, or brothers or sisters. There were leather coats, hatchets, bear traps among other things that were undoubtedly owned by the girl's father and grandfather respectively, and the framed paintings on the walls held no depictions of anything other than three generations, a grandfather, father and daughter. However, as Saki gazed at the various belongings just as she had in the abandoned villages and cabins she had already happened upon, she found herself suddenly becoming oddly suspicious.

Saki's brow furrowed as a thought occurred to her, and she began to carefully open up cupboards, drawers and inspect the thick carpet of dust that lined the cabin's interior. With every drawer and door opened, Saki's brow furrowed just a little more, repetitively until a disgusted sneer had appeared, and she found herself virtually convinced that the girl's father hadn't "left to get help". There was not a single coin in the house, nor were there any belongings of monetary value. There were no well-kept tools of priced belonging, nothing that an opportune thief would immediately pluck from a house, and there was no single coin left at all. But from the wells in the dust carpets, there used to be.

And Saki did not like the conclusion that left her with as she abandoned her secondary investigation to follow the stench of decay once more.

Needless to say, it didn't take long for Saki to locate where the grandfather's remains were in the cabin, and her eyes watered as the stench of decay grew so strong, she could barely contain the bile threatening to rise in her throat. In a room strewn in empty pitchers of what had been water, paper packets of used medicines and broken wishes was what Saki immediately recognized to be a corpse far older than what even Saki had begun to expect.

In just the same way as the various carcasses she had encountered in the forest, the body of the little girl's grandfather was in a great state of decay. Unlike the bodies left to the elements and to nature to clean up the process, the sight Saki was met with was possibly one of the worst instances she had encountered. But she could depict just by sight alone that her estimate of a few days was a great undershoot. It had gone past the stage of bloating, staining the bed it lay upon as the internals of the body began to liquefy without the aid of the usual insects, just like everything else in this hellish mess of a forest.

It had been nine days since the father "left to find help", and yet he took everything of monetary and sentimental value in the house.

It did not take nine days to get to Wistal, or any other populated locale to ask for emergency help.

And it did not take only nine days to reach this state of decomposition in a controlled environment.

A heavy breath escaped Saki as she shifted to stand at the foot of the bed as she glanced upon a time-worn ornament hanging upon the wall above the head of the bed. A crucifix carved intricately with Gothic bordering and a depiction of a hanging form brought a rather cynical grimace across the woman's face.

Her breaths felt like she was trying to swallow tacks and nails as she reluctantly lifted her right hand and placed it over her chest where her heart beat within her chest. For even though she abhorred these beliefs, these traditions, that did not mean she held no respect for the departed, in any shape or form.

She did not pray on the behalf of another. She was not conceited and foolish enough to offer prayer to a soul who undoubtedly held their own world in life. Instead, all she did was whisper a promise.

And as the candle in her hand flickered as if it were about to go out, Saki turned and left to figure out exactly what she was going to do about this cursed situation she found herself within.

The nameless girl was silent as Saki returned from the darkness of the rest of the cabin, propped up in the corner of the space between the door and right hand wall. She neither looked up at Saki's return, nor seemed to notice her return, at least until the fox kit rolling in her lap let out a panicked squeak and leaped off to hide behind her.

It was a silence that was better left intact, Saki knew that as she set herself down against the wall next to her rucksack and set the candle aside with the other. Her fingers began to loosen buckles, peruse through pockets and lift variable contents as she felt two pairs of eyes remain upon her. A faint, far off growling from the pack of wolves still roaming the outside of the cabin was a reminder to Saki that she had many more matters to deal with, and right now, she should make some careful decisions.

However, Saki could put the subject of wolves aside for now. And she did so by tugging out a few packets of her rations she had stowed away in her bag. Dried venison strips wrapped in wax-treated paper and the jar of honeyed nuts Shirayuki had gifted her with were the first that Saki had lifted from her rucksack, and without so much as casting the items a glance, she tossed them over to the girl in the corner of the two meter space.

A startled gasp had left the girl, however as soon as the smell of the dried meat came to her notice, Saki heard one of the loudest stomach growls in existence escape the girl, and an excited yip actually came from the fox kit as it tried to scratch at the wax paper frantically.

'Th-thank you Missus Hunter!' The nameless girl practically squealed.

Saki practically rolled her eyes at the title and lifted one of the dried venison strips from her bag for herself.

'It's Saki.' The woman responded, earning a rather owlish look from the girl in response. 'No Missus or anything. Just Saki.'

The girl's eyes widened as she looked back to Saki with a strip of venison hanging from her mouth. But then a beaming grin spread across her face, all the while her furry companion managed to grab a strip from the wax paper and tug it free.

'My name's Lirae!' The girl chattered happily before she grabbed her fox and lifted the startled creature up. 'And this is Tok!'

Said "Tok" let out a feeble growl as its venison strip began to slip from its teeth, though the girl named Lirae had quickly set her pet down so she could resume eating what appeared to be her first meal in a couple days.

Saki paid the starving duo little mind as they gorged on the venison and honeyed nuts, forcing herself to eat her own in spite of the unpleasant lurching that had become constant ever since she had set foot in the cabin. Her unoccupied hand dragged her parchment stack from within her rucksack along with her writing implements, and began to jot down all the information that was fresh in her mind.

A girl and her kit, trapped alone with a decaying corpse. A father she was convinced had abandoned them to save himself. The scarce remaining inhabitants of the forest, and the effect that the strange residue had on the now-otherworldly forest.

And as Saki cast Lirae a fleeting glance and tossed another ration pack to the girl, she spotted a kind of blemish across the soles of the girl's feet that tugged at her thoughts. She paid no heed to the excited squeal of thanks the girl had given her, even the curious look then after as she leaned forward and brought one of the candles towards her feet to take a closer look.

There were many healing cuts and scratches that marred the soles of Lirae's feet and up the sides of her ankles, which were telltale signs of wandering outside without anything protecting her feet. However, there was an unnatural and rather sickly purple taint to the cuts, one that looked alarmingly familiar to Saki and her investigation.

'How long have your feet looked like this?' Saki questioned as she carefully shifted the candle closer so she could get a better look.

'I don't know...' Lirae offered thoughtfully, with her brow furrowing greatly as she pondered the question further. 'It's itchy but...'

Saki's brow furrowed ever so slightly as she leaned back against the wall.

She was going to have to take the girl to see Garak, then. That was if she could even get through the damn gate since she'd been fired.

But either which way, as Saki then tossed a flask of water to the girl a few minutes later, she found herself coming to a decision.

She had to deal with those wolves soon, because it was getting late in the day, and she wanted to get at least a good portion of the way towards Wistal before finding somewhere to camp for the night.

She gazed upon her rucksack briefly, the bow still propped against the wall as she ran over numbers and conditions. She had to deal with the wolves, and while she didn't want to end their lives, unfortunately, their persistence was making it very difficult to avoid that.

Once the girl and the fox were suitably fed and belongings were gathered, they were leaving.

--=[Submitted 19th August 2018]=--