The Beast That is Humanity

"you're welcome to make them" he said. "you gotta get them out of the meat though" he said as he kept cleaning the skin and treating it to make it so it wouldn't stink so bad. "the tail is another thing i don't know what to do with" he said.

"I'm sure you could come up with something." Aiden assured him, "How do you plan on getting all this back?"

"carrying it. may take a few trips but i'll get it done' he said simply. he finished with the blanket and let it out to dry as he examined the rest of the body.

"Need help?" Aiden offered.

"yeah if you can get the head, paws, tail and our new blanket i can carry the rest" he said picking up the huge carcass.

Aiden nodded, picking up what was left and following Jason back to camp.

Jason set the carcass down. "so who wants to carve this thing up?" he asked holding up his knife. he didn't want to do it.

Ava, who was now awake, had her hand over her mouth and nose as if she could smell death on the body. She grabbed onto Aiden's arm in a death grip that looked almost like she would soon cut the circulation off in his arm.

Jason glanced at ava. "dont' be scared of it now. it was eyeing you before though" he said turning the front paws into gloves for him to wear. they would allow him to handle anything without tearing up his hands. plus the claws could prove helpfull. he looked at ava again. he wondered how he could make her a little less scared of everything.

Ava didn't change the horrified expression on her face. Aiden held her head against his chest, humming something softly until she loosened her grip on his arm, "It's alright, Ava." he said, trying to soothe her.

Jason tried to think of anything that could make her calm down. he had never been seen as threatening before, and he didn't like it one bit.

Ava calmed down, but couldn't bring herself to look at the dead creature before her. Aiden sat her down on the beach and went over to Jason, "Don't take it personally, Ava is scared of most everything. She won't even talk to our parents. And besides," he chuckled, "she had it rough growing up. She has a right to be scared of most anything. If you knew what had happened..." Aiden shook his head, "Trust me, though, it's not something you want to know about."

"i can't imagine how rough she must have had it.. i had it rough too but i'm not like that' he said as he stared carving up the meat. he kept trying to figure out what had done this to her in his mind.

Aiden chuckled, "You seem like the type who's not going to give up until he knows what's going on. DO you want me to just tell you?"

"yeah that would be nice" he said looking up at aiden as he carved up the remains of the panther. it would make a good meal for a long time.

Aiden sat down, "When Ava and I were born, our parents had to put us up for adoption because they couldn't afford to take care of two babies and didn't want to have to pick one over the other. No one was willing to take both of us, so when we were adopted, we went to separate homes. I went to a good home in England, but Ava got sent to an abusive family in France." He started speaking softer, as if the next part of the story was not to be heard by anyone but Jason, "They were horrible to her. Anything they could find became something they could beat Ava with. They yelled at her a lot, telling her that she couldn't do anything at the house right, and sent her to work at a factory when she was seven. As soon as she got home, any money she made would immediately be taken from her, she would get beaten, and they sent her to her room. The one time she tried to run away, they poured boiling water over her head. She stayed with that family until she was 21 when I found her and got her out. We went to our biological parents, who had more money now, and we visited them a lot while we were in college, but Ava never really trusts anyone now. She only talks to me, and she still hasn't told me everything that has happened."

"i think i could relate to her story much better than you could" he said quietly. "my parents didn't live to raise me, so i was sent from foster home to foster home. It always seemed i wound up in some abusive home that did it just for the government check" he said quietly. "though at every home, i eventually snapped from the pain and put the people responsible into an intensive care unit" He said chuckling a bit. "you may have figured it out by now but i don't have a short fuse." he said. "so you can imagine what they did." he said. "eventually at 16 I had gotten my fill of foster homes, so i went on the run. pretty much lived that way ever since" he said. "at least until we came to this god-forsaken island."

Aiden nodded, "There are a lot of people who could probably relate to her better than I can. But, for some reason, she only speaks to me. If you want to try talking to her, you can, I'm just warning you, she's probably not going to say anything back."

Jason shrugged. "Can't say I blame her. But sometimes to people that have been through that, just to have someone who knows what it's like nearby helps more than it may appear" he said as he finished carving up the panther.

Aiden nodded, "I can get her to come here, and not run anywhere, but you might want to put that away." he gestured to the panther, "She hates dead things."

Jason nodded and stored everything someplace else that would be safe from wild animals. "I hate them too, but this is survival" he said watching ava. he hoped he could get her to open up, at least a little bit.

Aiden looked up at Ava, "Ava! Come here for a second." He called, waving her over. Ava came over a bit hesitantly, but stood next to her brother as she looked from him to Jason curiously.

Phoebe was sitting about 10 feet from Aiden and Jason and had heard their whole conversation. Damn. she though, My life's been a walk in the park compared to what these people have been through . She brushed away a piece of hair that had fallen loose from her ponytail, only to have it fall back in her face.

Jason looked up at her. "hello, i don't think we've been formally introduced yet. i'm Jason Amaroq" he said looking up at her. "I just want you to know, that you're not alone. I know all too well the kind of stuff you've been through" he said. there was some look in his eye, just something there, that showed he wasn't lying.

Ava nodded, as if to show an understanding without actually saying anything. However, where normally, she would shrink back, she seemed to sit a little more upright.