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He took the animal from me and set it on the ground at his feet. Taking out his knife, he cut around its feet to separate the fur from its skin in one swift motion. He then made long incisions across the rabbit’s chest and belly, removing the organs with practiced ease before wiping off the excess blood with a bit of snow.
With one last look over his work, Antonio finally pronounced his work finished and handed me back the meager carcass. It felt cold in my hands as I inspected the small animal. Guilt washed over me.
“You can’t get attached to it, Carmen. You eat meat all the time,” Antonio said after watching my peculiar expression. “Nature is beautiful, but brutal. There’s so much to know, so much to learn. Yet, if you are soft in the wilderness, then you will get crushed.”
My hands clenched. “I’m not soft.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Then do what you need to do to survive.”
I stood up with the rabbit before I got angrier at him, lecturing me once more. “You want to eat this now, I assume?”
Antonio nodded, but said nothing. We excavated a shallow pit, and Antonio withdrew a saw-tooth knife from his pack. He made quick work of sawing a fallen branch into a stout log.
“Help me split it in fourths.”
Too tired to rebel, I took my own knife and hacked at the top of the wood until I could use my bare strength to rip the rest apart along the grain. We positioned each fourth with a small amount of space between, filled the opening with brush, and set it on fire. The effective little thing was hot enough to be used for our makeshift oven in no time.
I carefully laid the rabbit down in our camping pan, and let the heat grill our meal until it was tender enough for us to pick at and enjoy with our bare hands.
I savored each bite of juicy protein while looking up the mountain. We had gotten further than I’d expected.
We definitely would be there before nightfall.
Feeling emboldened by the meal, I asked, “What is one of the most important things I should do while out here?”
After a moment of thinking, Antonio said, “Watch out for wolves. This isn’t the safest place.” He sucked on the bone in his hands, and then continued. “If you see them, be loud.”
Wolves?I shivered. Maestro Joaquin had told me about the danger they presented, but I hadn’t expected to be so close to them so soon.
“I didn’t hear them last night,” I said quietly.
He nodded. “You probably will one of these nights.”
I took a deep breath. “Are they as hostile as they will be during the tournament?”
“No. The frenzy gas won’t be sprayed for another month or so.”
Thoroughly terrified, even in the light of mid-morning, I hugged myself. Antonio wasn’t really my friend, and I didn’t owe him anything. But I had never been alone before. He was my friend because of the proximity, even if he didn’t feel the same.
I took a deep breath. “La verdad es que no soy tan fuerte como lo pensaba.”
Antonio looked startled. His head whipped around to look at me. “Was that a concession?”
I gritted my teeth. “I take it back.”
A small smile, the first one I’d seen since coming here with him, played across his lips. “You aren’t as strong as you thought, but you are still one of the strongest people I know.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Was that… a compliment?”
He stood up, threw his bones in the fire, and kicked snow over the embers. “I don’t give compliments, Carmen. I tell the truth.”
I tilted my head to the side. He had been honest with me every time I’d asked. It shouldn’t have endeared me to him, but it did. And that sort of disgusted me.
Following his lead, I did the same as him and slid my pack onto my back. Directions weren’t necessary, and I followed him as we started toward the top of the mountain.
Despite my sore muscles, I preferred to keep moving. Exercise made the ugly emotions inside of me more bearable.
The air grew colder and thinner as we ascended, and I had to slow my pace many times. However, Antonio always seemed unfazed by the energy and altitude needed for hiking on this terrain. He didn’t slide on patches of ice, or mind frozen rain falling from the sky like crystalized bullets heading straight for our faces.
