Rain Dance

"I'm a decent hunter" Kimi stated "I've had to be"

"I believe you," Voltaire replied. "How do you hunt, by the way? Do you use summons or do you do it yourself? I set traps or stalk down game, depending on the area."

"I summon either Trevor or Fiona. They can't track, but they can easily kill my target." Kimi explained

"I see," Voltaire answered, suspecting as much. He couldn't picture Kimi killing anything with her bare hands or even a weapon. "Are those two you only summons, or do you have others?"

"I have others. But they're the most well-behaved." Kimi smiled "So I tend to use them most often."

"Fair enough," said Voltaire, finishing up his meal. "Use what works best for you."

He glanced at Kimi, stared just a little too long, and felt his face flush as he turned away a bit abruptly. What was wrong with him? He couldn't even look at her without his heart starting to race.

"Well Trevor and Fiona are also the only ones that don't shred what they kill" Kimi stated. She slid off Ava's back and dusted herself off.

Voltaire just nodded quietly, his heart still pounding. Adair noticed the odd silence and smirked. The Hunter really did have it bad for her.

Kimi turned to smile at the two men. "I'm ready whenever you are, Taire, so just meet me outside." She turned and walked out to the entrance of the cave.

"Ah, okay," Voltaire replied, flushing at her smile. An amused chuckle slipped out of Adair, and Voltaire glared at him. "What?"

"Just the stupidly infatuated look on your face," Adair answered with a grin.

"Am not."

"I never said you were," Adair pointed out. "I just said you looked like you are."

Voltaire glared at him again.

Kimi sat down outside the cave and listened to the men bicker. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she knew they were bickering. She was just glad Voltaire was alright.

"Whatever," Voltaire growled, letting out a smoky snort. "It doesn't really matter. She wanted to help hunt, so she'll hunt with me. Otherwise she'll get all worried and crap." He didn't want to mention how it was more likely the other way around.

"She wouldn't be the only one," Adair replied, his expression growing more serious. "What happened last night? I think you apologized more than I did."

Voltaire looked away. That's right, Adair was still awake when he started crying all of the sudden. No, not crying, bawling. He bawled himself to sleep, it was so bad. God, they all must think he was pathetic now.

"I...I don't know what happened," Voltaire admitted. "I...Well, we came across this water demon that tried to drown me. Anyway...killed the thing, and a few minutes later everything started coming down on our heads. So..."

"So you think you caused the cave-in?" Adair asked. "I wouldn't blame yourself too much. How were you supposed to know that a random demon supported the whole cave? You would have died otherwise, right?"

"Yeah, guess so," Voltaire answered, though not looking too reconciled. He didn't think the Hero would be so forgiving if he knew the whole truth. "Anyway, then the whole cave started collapsing, and along the way me and Kimi got separated by falling rocks, and I didn't want to leave her, but I didn't know how I was going to get her out either. Thank God for Chiaroscuro for once. And then it turns out her leg was stuck under a rock, but she didn't tell me that earlier. And then I manage to free her, but her leg was bleeding pretty bad and I thought that her leg might have been broken too, so I was freaking out about that."

"Me attacking you probably didn't help," Adair added with guilt.

"No, but if you hadn't shown up I wouldn't have been able to get her out," Voltaire answered. "And I didn't know what I was going to do if I...I dunno, I guess everything's just hit me at once when we got out of cave, and I just...broke."

Adair gave Voltaire a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You're in love, 'Taire. That makes you more sensitive to stuff like this."

Voltaire almost gagged. "I-I don't think it's that bad. I mean, I don't want her to get hurt, but-"

"Ava told me of your little confession earlier," Adair said with a smirk.

Voltaire groaned. Blasted Ava with her excellent hearing and loose tongue. "...Whatever. I'm going to go hunt. You go...practice some heroic speech or something."

(sorry for the long post. I wanted to get all of that out of the way at once.)

(lol. its okay, I'm gunna be a tad slow replying though. getting ready to cook my supper. But I have my lappy next to the stove on the table.)

Kimi watched the white fluffy clouds drift by. On her home world, There were no soft whit clouds. Just dark and foreboding black ones that never shed their life-giving tears.

(as long as you don't accidentally cook your laptop we should be good :P)

Voltaire walked outside, still irritated with both himself and Adair. He was never going to live this down, was he? "Hey, you ready?"

Kimi looked up before smiling at him. "Yeah." She replied standing "Am I tracking and you killing? Or the other way around?"

(I would sooner die then cook Lappy, I was stressed enough when he crashed a month and a half ago. If Volty's gunna try to put the moves on her while they're out, it would be best for him if the summons weren't around.)

(agreed. He would get eaten/mauled/dead otherwise)

"Uh, yeah. You track, I'll kill," Voltaire answered. "Gunshots are cleaner and quicker."

"Alright" Kimi smiled. She started off, quickly picking up the tracks of some deer, large ones judging from the size and depth of the tracks.

Voltaire followed quietly, scanning the plains for both prey and threats. He would have carried his gun, but if he carried his gun too long then it got too hot from his fire powers and impossible to hold onto.

Finally, Kimi stopped. She silently motioned ahead of them and pointed out the deer, grazing under the sparse cover of trees a few yards in front of them. They were down-wind, which was why the deer hadn't run yet.

Carefully Voltaire brought out his gun and prepared to shoot. Thunder growled in the distance.

A cougar erupted from the grasses on the other side, tackling the deer to the ground. Its mouth clamped over the deer's throat to cut off the struggling animal's air supply. The Hunter stared in surprise for a moment, and then he sneered. Two for the price of one.

He first shot the cougar in the head, and then the flailing deer.

Kimi smiled. "Good luck huh?" She asked, echoing his thoughts "Two when we thought we had only one!"

Voltaire smiled and nodded, holstering his gun and bringing out his hunting knife. He went over to the two animals and began to skin them.

Kimi followed and watched him work. "So how do you cure the meat so it stays good during travel? Do you cook it then dry it? Or do you smoke it?" She asked

"Smoke it," Voltaire answered, beginning to prepare the meat. It would be easier to carry the prepared meat and furs back than the whole animals, and the open plain would made it easy to see if trouble was coming. "If you can't smoke it, salt it. A lot."

"Because the moisture is what causes it to rot and the salt pulls out the moisture, right?" Kimi asked, clarifying what she was assuming