Chapter Nine: Don't say this outside .
Not long later, Wang walked through the entrance with a large hollow gourd of water in one hand and a cut of fresh meat in the other.
Lin Wan reached for the gourd before he even set it down. She drank deeply, grateful for the cool clean taste of it. After everything today, water had never felt so good.
Wang settled on the cave floor across from her with his back against the wall, watching the entrance. Always watching the entrance.
The cave was quiet.
"Are you hungry," Wang said, without looking at her.
"Very hungry," Lin Wan said.
Wang stood and placed the meat on the floor in front of her, then looked at her with the expression of someone who had just done something right and was waiting for her to acknowledge and praise him.
Lin Wan looked at the meat.
It was raw. Completely and thoroughly raw. Fresh, she believed him on that,
What did he want her to do with it, was the question.
She looked up at Wang.
Wang looked at the meat. Then at Lin Wan. Then back at the meat again.
"I cannot eat this," Lin Wan said.
Wang frowned. "It is freshly hunted."
"I know it is fresh. I still cannot eat it like this. My body does not work the way yours does. If I. . . I eat raw meat I will get sick." She paused, choosing her next words carefully. "I need to apply heat to it before I eat it. Where do I roast it, like where you cook, nevermind. Two flat stones and something dry will do, can you get that for me?"
Wang's body went still, at the words she said
"What you are describing is forbidden here," Wang said slowly. "You cannot say that word near this settlement or any beastmen. Not where others can hear it. It has caused damage before and the tribe does not permit it. If someone hears you there will be consequences that even I won't be spared ."
"I understand," Lin Wan said. "And I hear you. But I cannot eat raw meat. I will get sick and a sick mate helps nobody." She kept her voice steady. This was not a fight. "I know how to do it safely. I have been doing it my whole life. I just need the stones and something dry and I promise you, it will not get out of control."
Wang looked at her for a long moment.
Then he walked outside without a word.
He came back with two flat stones and a small bundle of dry bark and set them down in front of her, then stepped back and crossed his arms and said nothing.
Lin Wan took that as a go ahead sign from him.
She quickly cleared a small space on the cave floor, arranged the bark the way her mother taught her as a child, and struck the stones together. A spark jumped. She struck again. Third time the bark caught and Lin Wan bent low and blew gently until the flame steadied and held and warm light spread across the cave walls.
She looked up.
Wang had moved to the far wall. His jaw was set and his eyes were fixed slightly above the flame, not directly at it. Like looking straight at it was asking too much of him right now. But he was still there. Still in the cave with her, because he wanted to be close enough, in case of an accident.
Lin Wan turned back to the fire.
She washed the meat with the remaining water from the gourd, found a flat wide rock near the wall and positioned it over the flame. She pressed the meat down onto the surface and the sound it made was satisfying and the smell that came after was something this cave had never known before. Warm and rich and very tantalising.
She heard Wang gulp more.than once behind her.
Lin Wan smiled at the flat rock and said nothing about it.
She turned the meat. Waited for a while so it could cook. Turned it again.
When she looked back Wang had moved closer. Not to the fire. To her. Standing in the space between her and the cave entrance, the same spot he was standing previously. Between her and the door. He was afraid of the fire and he was standing next to it anyway.
Lin Wan felt something warm in her chest that had nothing to do with the flames.
She did not say anything about that either.
Outside the cave the settlement had gone quiet. Not the usual evening quiet. The other kind. The kind that meant people had stopped what they were doing because something had caught their attention and they were trying to figure out what it was.
The aroma of the roasted meat was traveling.
Not long later, footsteps. One set. Light and hesitant, coming from the direction of the settlement and stopping just short of the entrance. Different from the footsteps earlier. These were curious, not careful. Like whoever it was curious but not daring enough to intrude, but still came close anyways, obviously the person had been pulled close by the aroma emanating from inside the dwelling.
Lin Wan looked at Wang.
Wang had already turned toward the entrance.
A voice came from outside. A young female. Trying to sound casual and not quite managing it.
"That smell," the voice said. "What is that smell."
Wang said nothing and looked at Lin Wan, leaving the decision to her.
Lin Wan picked up a small piece of the cooked meat and held it toward the entrance.
"Come in and find out," Lin Wan called out.