I Once Saw the Past [Trebias]

[Trebias]

El fought down irritation when the kid bumped into him, not because the
startled reaction wasn't warranted, but because it was unexpected.
However, as the thought crossed his mind he brushed past an underground
root as he was saying, "So I stuck the sticks into the hippo's
AYEEEEEEEEE!" He jumped forward and to the side quite a bit.
"M(*$&#*&!" he said. "Stupid snakes," he grumbled, and walked in sullen
silence for a bit.

Back at the house, El set about the work of removing the skin and
pulling the meat apart from the organs. He wasn't a big organ fan, but
he knew a person that swore by them as medical aids. "Apparently, kid,
these organs from these snakes can produce all sorts of medical miracles
if you take them enough. I know a guy that swears by snake gall bladder
for some motility problems." He jerked, realized what he'd told the
kid, and quickly pressed on. "And then there's snake brain, which is
supposed to be good for arthritis. I usually tell that guy to rub some
tough on it and be done with it. He doesn't like that much. But he
still pays an armload for it, so I won't stop him."

[seraaches]

Rai startled again when Elias gave his little annoyed yell, and he got jabbed in the butt by a branch. The colt glowered behind him, and pushed on after El, feeling pretty bad when the canine stopped talking. He couldn't even really prod the man on the story, because he didn't remember wot had been said so far. Ah, well.

When they returned to the cabin, Rai sat near El and watched as the canine expertly went about removing the different bits of the snake. It was kind of gross to watch, and yet fascinating at the same time. El was very skilled at his work and even without hands worked quickly and with great precision. His eras came forward as he listened to the man's explanation of the different parts, tilting his head slightly when he didn't recognize one of the words. El pushed on swiftly, however, so the colt didn't have a chance to ask about it.

"Wot about the heart and other stuff?" the boy asked curiously, one of the few times he had initiated further conversation with the man.

[Trebias]

"Well, for most of the parts, it really depends on who you ask. Take
this here, the intestines." He pulled out a long squirmy organ that
could no doubt be the intestines if you knew what you were looking for.
"I've heard that it's good if your eyesight's failing you, that it helps
you concentrate, that it helps with allergies, and that it isn't
actually medicinal, just really tasty. I think what you run into with a
lot of stuff is a placebo effect, especially when you hear that it's
good for so much. Now, there might be something in the butt of a rat
that actually does what people say it does, I don't know, but I think
for the most part it just helps knowing they're taking something.

"The heart, though, that's different. You don't hear as many things
about the heart, but you hear it about a lot of animals. Or I have.
Some people thing that the heart contains the magic or power or essence
of the animal, and if you eat the heart, you can take that. I don't
know if it works personally. I've had some heart meat, though, and it
wasn't too bad," he added off-handedly.

[seraaches]

Rai gave something like a delicate shudder at that news; how creepy and strange! Well, the part about eating heart, at least. "I don't understand ever wanting to eat meat," he retorted with a stomp of a yellow hoof and a slight flick of his whip-like tail. Still, the myriad of uses for items was very interesting and Rai couldn't help but wonder if there were others. Wot about the skin and eyes? Was it limited to snake only, or were these thought o be universal among animals?

He hesitated for a long moment, wondering if it would be forward to ask for more information or if Elias would simply brush it off with a laugh. El seemed pretty good about feeding the desire for knowledge, though, so perhaps. . .

"Wot else can you use the snake bits for?" the colt asked softly, just a bit hesitantly, though he tried to pretend he wasn't in the least.

[Trebias]

El lauged a little at the meat comment. "No, I don't suppose you'd be
too fond of meat. Lucky for you there's plenty other things to eat,
huh?"

He paused for a moment, licking his bloody chops a bit. "Well, I
suppose it depends on what you mean. There's all sorts of uses people
come up with for the innards. I've heard of people using the parts as
magical focuses, especially the eyes. I saw one creepy son of a gun, he
managed to somehow get a snake's eye into a gem. He must have known a
card that can manipulate gems is what I figure, or learned to himself.
He had that thing set on an amulet, and people said it glowed when he
used magic. I never saw it myself, and didn't care to. That guy was
downright creepy.

"For the rest of the snake, like skin and the teeth, you can do the
obvious. You know, making the snake skin into boots or other clothes,
putting the teeth on necklaces, but that's not as popular as sharks
usually. I've heard of a dagger or two made from large fangs, as well.
It's not just snakes, but being from the Marsh ehre, I guess I've heard
the most about snakes. And snakes have this mystique about them."
Elias shuddered. "They're kind of creepy, so people like to think that
they're magical. I've heard the same thing about dragons. Never seen
one myself." He stepped back. "I think that's about it for taking the
bits and pieces out. Want to come with me to the trader when I haul off
what we're not using?"

[seraaches]

Rai's eyes were a bit wide as El matter-of-factly listed off quite a few different uses for the one dead snake. It was a large snake, yet, but still. Huh. Just imagine all of that! The creativity of other people was rather amazing at times, though he certainly didn't understand why one would necessarily want to focus spells or anything through a snake eye. Maybe it was just because it looked cool? Maybe.

The striped colt couldn't quite mask his surprise and pleasure at the invitation to go see the trader; his small, triangular ears shot up and towards Elias and his whole body seemed to thrum with untapped energy for a moment, before he tried to pass off being cool again and looked nonchalantly away.

"Uhm, yeah, that'd be cool." He couldn't fully hide his excitement, however, and grey-green eyes shone brightly.

[Trebias]

The canine chuckled to himself a little at Rai's response. "All right,
then, we'll go do that first thing in the morning. I want to be back by
this time tomorrow, though, so we won't dilly dally." Truth was, he
wanted to be able to lie down and sleep once his magic wore off. He
felt like dung for a while when that happened, and he didn't want any
surprises.

"You'll like old Tanner, he's a weird guy like me." El was pretty
unaware of Rai's rather teenage perspective of him, and just assumed
that anyone he liked the colt would like as well. "He was tough in the
day, too. I wouldn't put it past him to bite that old snake's head
right off back in the day. Of course, he would have been able to fly
over the water, so it might not have come up, unless he wanted a snake
that he could bite the head off of."

[seraaches]

Rai's ears tilted backwards in a speculative manner and he got a look that suggested he would disagree but it either wasn't worth the effort, or he didn't want to hurt Elias' feelings over the matter. The colt, instead, made a rather non-committal noise and instead turned his head to the excitement that would be the next day.

Since he'd been well enough to actually get up and walk around, they hadn't gone anywhere. Well, they'd gone gallivanting around the Marsh, but El never went into town and the doctor had always come to see them. Rai hadn't been near anything even remotely like civilization in quite a few months and he was justifiably excited over the prospect, even though it didn't occur to him that anyone El likes would probably be a real hermit just like the canine. Therefore, when Rai skipped off to rest for the afternoon-- he didn't want to take a chance that he'd be left here due to injury or fatigue-- it never once crossed his mind to wonder where exactly they would be meeting this trader.

[Trebias]

The next day found them walking through a nearby village on their way to the trader. Elias thought he caught a certain amount of excitement in the colt, so he said, “Tell you what. I’ve got some supplies to pick up and herbs to sell off. You run and have a look around, and meet me back here in half an hour. Do whatever you want, alrighty?”

So long as the boy didn’t get hurt, he didn’t really care if the lad followed. He went first to the local leatherworker. “I got some snake hide here for you. Good thick stuff. Slightly chewed. What are you offering?”

“For a chewed-up skin, Elias?” the craftsman said wryly.

“Partially chewed I said. We don’t all have hands to strangle snakes with, or whatever you do, Chauncy.”

“I’ve told you before, Elias, my name isn’t Chauncy, it’s Charles.” The bird seemed to be carrying out his part in a conversation he was tired of.

“Yeah, well you sound like a Chauncy. So do you want the skin or not? I’m on my way to see that old Skeeter, I’m sure he’ll find somebody that wants to use it to ramp up their sex life by-“

“Yes yes THANK you! Let me have a look at it, and we’ll see from there. Fair?”

The two discussed the price and came up with a figure both could live with.

“Pleasure doing business with you, Chauncy.” He walked off before the bird could say “Not Chauncy, not Neville, not Nigel!” He had an apothecary to see.

[seraaches]

Oh, that was a hard decision to make! Rai's ears were up, twitching all around to try and catch every new sound. His nostrils were flared and eyes wide, catching each scent and sight that caught his attention. Still. . . El was carefully lugging the remainder of the snake with him and the little colt really wanted to know about wot the villagers would want to do with it. So after a long, tense moment of absolute and utter hesitation-- easily evidenced by tense legs and a slightly rolling eye-- the Marsdweller colt bounded after Elias as he moved on to make his first stop.

At the leatherworker's, Rai's eyes were wide and his head would jerk from one side to the next as he tried to take in everything 'Chauncy' owned in one, long glance. He only briefly caught the exchange, though he tried to suppress a grin as Elias seemed to purposefully bait the other man. He did smile as they came to an agreement over price in a fast and furious battle of numbers, then they were moving on again.

"Does being chewed really matter that much?" he asked as they walked on. 'Wot's he going to use it for?"