Book of Brutality

Chapter 2

Léon woke before the sunrise when the world was still dark. The shadows blended together and covered everything he knew. The forest was changed, it was a dark and cavernous place full of unexpected dangers and unseen threats just underfoot, or over dale. The winding path he traveled each day with his own bare feet, grounds which were familiar to him, turned foreign. It was a thrilling time to hunt.

He moved from his bed in silence and crept out into the night to feel it. He felt the chill of the sunless hours when the damp of the ground turned to dew on the leaves and fronds of grass. It was all part of nature, blindly accepting of him. The dark didn't scorn his clan's mark like the light did. He preferred it that way, but the world he grew to care about only moved during the light. The people, and Calliope, were part of the gray-tinted world.

He returned and dressed himself when the light first lifted across the horizon. Calliope stayed asleep for an hour or more after he awoke. He cleared out the ashes from the firepit and stored them in the same place as the rest. He nearly had enough to use again. Everything had a purpose, even after it was already used. The ashes of wood could make lacquer, glaze, simple salves and mortar to strengthen the layers of protection in his walls.

Léon started up a new fire and took out one of the rabbit carcasses. He was committed to finishing the rest off that morning before the flesh turned. He moved away part of the fur rug around the stone rim of the firepit and built the firewood out toward the side. That would heat the stone and allow him to cook even more at once. He managed to section out two of the rabbits, legs and arms and flanks and backs, and cooked them both together. One on the rack, one on the stone, both sizzled away and filled the hut with the smell of crackling wood and rendered meat.

Calliope finally stirred and lifted herself out of bed. She saw Léon at work cooking and tread lightly behind him to redress herself. She had an underdress, a thin and wavy long tunic, cinched with a rope belt which her daily green dress went over. Léon heard her rustling while he turned the meat.

"Will you wear what I brought you?" she asked.

"I will," he replied.

"I'll prepare it outside," she offered. "It must be covered in dust and ash."

"That's normal."

She picked up a bundle of cloth in the corner of the hut. It was an old, handed down tunic with trousers she gave him when they first met. It was her show of good faith to the straggler who entered town as a vagrant and was holed up outside in nothing but a branch and leaf tent. She was the only one to extend any kindness to the wanderer. He was a stranger, come from the woods where all sorts of dangers hid in the trees. Caligo spurned him, but she did not. And in time she warmed up to him like the smallest ember creates a hot fire.

They ate together as before. Léon stood up and left to dress himself where there was more space in the open. He had thick, wide arms that could swing out and hit the walls of his home if he wasn't careful. The pants were always restrictive, as was the shirt. It was tight around his chest. The man who used to own it was much smaller in stature, but it fit in a plain and gasic way. It was simple and gray, undyed wool sewed together with sleeves of a compacted cloth. He went without shoes. His feet were already hardened leather, soot black with a shielding of calloused skin from years of life in the wild.

Calliope brought the furs out to his workshop. She cleaned them, pressed them and combed the fur clean of all the dirt, ash, soot and tiniest insects that were still left inside. The pelts were mostly clean already, rabbits in good health and in good groom. While she did that, he cleaned up his station and prepared a mixture in a baked clay pot. He took wood ash, twice-baked charcoal and burnt clay balls which were spotty and white. When he added the clay, which was cold to the touch, the water bubbled and boiled. He used a long elk bone with a flattened end as a paddle to stir it together.