Flake analyzed the girl’s movement as she swayed to either side, but could only tell that she was tired as she nodded at him. He thought to tell her to be careful with the fire, but imagined that the assassin would only respond by taking it as an insult to her skill instead of as concern, and abandoned the thought. Flake imagined that the food could not possibly have been finished cooking by the time Raine pulled the food out from the fire, but was surprised to find that, once she placed a few of the meat cubes on a broken plate, that it was crunchy on the outside and not dry on the inside.

He took a bite of one of the pieces of meat, then nodded at her and gently commented, “it’s the best food I’ve had in months…” then stoically continued to eat the other pieces of food on the plate, feeling as if his comment wasn’t actually saying anything. After a few more bites, he re-stated his comment by continuing, “better than tavern food, even.”

He continued to watch her cook the last few pieces of meat, then stood up and walked over to the table in the kitchen and placed the empty broken dish on the table. He ensured to get out of Raine’s way when she walked around, and occasionally looked over at the door with nervousness. After the food was finally ready, he dropped the stoic expression and grinned. He quickly shoved a few pieces of meat into his face, but slowed down after this in an attempt to be courteous to the lady. Whilst he slowed down, he declared, “I’ll bring back a gutted carcass tomorrow…we’ll need the sinew and bone for scaling equipment if we’re going to break into the castle, and we can smoke and dry some of the meat so that we don’t have to cook more every day.”