Enoch Crosslin (crossedwire) wrote in thefield, @ 2009-08-21 00:26:00 |
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Current mood: | shocked |
Entry tags: | cross, helena, z - 1st tribe - day 33 |
Seaweed
Who: Cross and Helena
When: Late afternoon
Where: A part of the beach where lots of lake seaweed grows
What: They make a discovery while preparing a clam bake.
Status: Incomplete
Helena had a high fire stoked on the beach and a wide basin of clams already standing by for the hot stones and the clam bake. She was tired of grazer for the time being and had decided to quit being lazy and see about doing something useful with the day. She wasn't entirely sure where her honey had run off to, as she was still dreamily thinking of him since the day before. She amused herself as she worked by thoughts that he was avoiding her so that he wouldn't have to perform any more. Or that he felt guilty about the lack of work getting done the past few days.
They'd parted ways at breakfast and though she'd spotted him once or twice, he'd yet to come her way. Helena thought what when she was younger, she might have been upset by that kind of avoidance but now? She was more than aware that yesterday had been anomalous. It started with Analiese's tearful confessions and progressed through others. Her advice had been the same to everyone who'd come to her, uncomfortable about the things they had done. Just focus on something non-taxing and useful for the day. Braid rope, gather eggs or clams. Cart clay back and forth from the clay flats. Anything! Just don't dwell and forgive thy neighbour his or her trespasses or something. Maybe she'd been spending too much time with Alex?
Actually, Cross had been trying to get himself back into a productive frame of mind. It wasn't that he would have been adverse to spending more time with Helena, more that he figured she could use a break after how intense the day before had been. He was well aware of their size disparities. So he'd spent the day finding ways to make himself useful, nodding to people when he saw them but otherwise keeping to himself. He'd been idly looking for Helena during the afternoon, and he located her by following the smoke of a second fire that had been started somewhere away from camp. He moved into her sightline, dressed in his khakis and work shoes, the only clothing he had now, and said, "Here you are."
Helena looked up as she fed some more thin logs onto her fire. The sound of his voice squeezed her heart but she smiled with casual ease. "Hey. Where've you been?" Brushing some sand from her hands on the seat of her boxers she skirted the fire to meet him with a hug. "I've been pretty lazy most of the day. Just talking to people for the most part." She wouldn't divulge what she'd been conversing about. Most people wouldn't have liked their confidences shared. Still, she felt like she'd been doing her job as a council member by being available to talk to people. "Mostly just vegging out on the beach," she chuckled at the confession.
"I've been around," Cross said, just as casual. "Tryin' to get myself back in work mode." He hadn't felt quite up to going logging-- not to mention that he didn't think any of the men with whom he'd been working had gone-- but he'd wanted to get started on even the smallest tasks again. Now that his head had cleared from the pollen infestation, he felt a renewed sense of urgency about what needed to be accomplished. His solid arms moved around her when she embraced him, and he literally lifted her off her feet. She was so tiny that it was easy to do. "Need any help?" he asked, setting her back down again.
Helena laughed a little as he pulled her up and off of her feet. It was easier to wrap her arms around his neck that way and she did so, giving him a squeeze in return until he set her back on her feet. "Yeah, I was about to head out into the water to cut some seaweed. Want to help?" He had a knife which was much faster than her chipped stone. "I'm doing a huge batch for dinner this evening. I'm getting sort of sick of grazer." She flipped her dark hair back over her shoulder as she looked up at him.
"Sure." Cross smiled, his expression much softer than it generally was. For the most part, he didn't seem to feel the need for the same defenses he employed with everyone else. Helena had managed to breach his outer reserve, something that still surprised him a bit when he thought about it. "Might as well. Somethin' besides grazer'd go down real well." It seemed as if it had been a while since they'd baked clams, something they'd done with regularity as soon as everyone else had arrived here.
Helena was seeing that look on his face more often these days and she had to admit it just attracted her to him all the more. It was as though little by little his stoic mask was slipping and she could feel the warmth of his regard beneath it. Cross might be a mystery to everyone and even mostly so to her, but he was a man with a heart. She was starting to really believe she may have somehow stolen that heart without meaning to. "Did you bring your knife?" she asked with a slight cock to her head. It was hard not to flirt with him today, she had decided, even if it was only with her body language.
The only time Cross didn't have his knife with him was when he was in the water washing and his pants were on the bank, and he nodded to her. "Always," he said, patting one of the numerous pockets on his pants. He remembered how hard that seaweed could be to cut, and he was glad he'd just sharpened it. His eyes seemed to follow the curve of her neck and the tilt of her head, and he watched her as he kicked his shoes off. He didn't mind getting wet, but his shoes felt more comfortable on his feet dry. "Ready?"
Helena nodded and took a moment to wrap her long hair up into a knot at the back of her head. Her sandals with their pillowcase straps lay in the sand along with her t-shirt. Even with the periodic chill of the scattered showers, Helena wasn't too cool to make use of her own knitted bikini top. It meant she didn't have to wear her warmer garment all of the time and hopefully it would last longer. "Yeah, the sooner we get this going the better," she said as she squinted up at the sun. It was moving into its downward arc and she was worried that such a large batch wouldn't be done steaming in time for dinner. Hand in his (the damaged one), Helena headed for the tiny waves.
They began to wade out into the bracingly cool water toward the seaweed, not wasting any time; it was nice to have a task to focus on once again. Cross had become accustomed to filling his days with productive work, and while he certainly didn't regret the past couple of days, he preferred an ordinary pattern to fall into for the most part. Once they'd reached the first grouping of seaweed, he pulled out his knife and flipped it open, ready for a mighty battle to get it separated from the bed of the lake. "How much you think we need?" he asked.
"A lot. I'm making a huge bake tonight. Enough for everyone." There were still well over a dozen people left living on the island, closer to two. Grazer meat lasted them a while and didn't necessitate that they kill one often. However, the clams were small but plentiful. The shells worked for Thorne sorting and making his medicines and administering sips to those who needed a little bit of his wares. They made good dipper utensils for eating the stews they occasionally made. She was pretty sure they had more than they would ever need, but one never knew.
Helena walked through the water as quickly as she could, soaking all of the way to her upper arms before she reached the large patch of lake seaweed that floated on the surface of the water. It had an unpleasant slimy feel, as always. She reached for the first tough stem, hauling it toward her unmercifully. She wasn't strong enough to uproot this tough plant but she could at least hold it taut for Cross to cut.
"Guess I better get to work, then," Cross remarked. He never minded a difficult task, and he didn't this time. It was helpful to have Helena pulling the stems and holding them so he could cut them. He figured they were able to get the task done in half the time that way. He wasn't fond of the slick and slimy feel of the plant, either, but he'd certainly seen and felt things more disgusting than that since he'd been here, so he didn't let that stop him. They'd been cutting at a reasonably fast clip when he pulled up a cut stem and found something soft and black wrapped around it; it looked as if he'd cut off the black stuff along with the plant matter. He held it up close to his face, squinting as he tried to figure out what it could be.
"What is it?" Helena asked, leaning in to look at it. Reaching up, she pinched some of the black stuff between her fingers and pulled away a lock of human hair. Eyes wide, and as much as she absolutely did not want to, she slowly dropped her eyes down to the water. Where they stood was choked with lakeweed but the water itself was clear as ever. They were not moving around enough to stir up a lot of the sandy bed out this far. Unerringly, her eyes fell on a ruin that might have one time been a face she knew, bobbing in time with the movements of the plantlife it was tangled in. Helena issued a sound that was sort of a strangled yelp and stumbled back from it. She lost her footing and sunk under the water for a moment which only forced her closer to panic. She sucked in a mouthful of water and sprung up choking and coughing.
Cross didn't make a sound, although the sight of the girl who was barely recognizable, swollen and putrefying, was one of the most dreadful things he'd ever seen. He took hold of Helena with one strong arm, helping to keep her upright. "I gotta get her out," he said. It wasn't so much that he felt the need for the girl to have a decent burial, although he knew Alex would. It was more that it was unsanitary to leave her in the water, and it could make them all sick. "You wanna go back on shore and wait for me?" He knew it would be an unpleasant job to hack her out of the seaweed with his pocket knife, and he didn't see the need for Helena to experience that along with him.