Faolan nodded at Aurel's understanding, then watched as he turned to the snake by his side and began to converse with it. He had seen the boy do this several times, and though the only sound that issued from either of them was a quiet [i]hiss[/i], Faolan had decided they must be communicating in some way. He had never witnessed anyone speak to an animal this way. In his village as a boy, there was an old medicine woman that his mother called a "witch" who claimed to be able to speak with animals. He had seen her do this several times, but it always just consisted of the woman placing her forehead against the animals and closing her eyes. To this day, he didn't know if it was true or not, but he was inclined to believe in her abilities. She was the one who had helped him after he'd been attacked by the creature that had passed its virus to him, and he had seen her do things that he had not thought possible before then.

Once the boy was finished, he extended the fish to Faolan. The Irishman nodded again, then took it and released it from the line. He raised his eyebrows slightly at Aurel's last comment, [color=a36209]"Let's wait for any biting until it's cooked, hm?"[/color] Once he had the wriggling creature grasped in his large hand, he held the rod between his knees, and withdrew a knife from his pocket. He laid the fish on the rock between himself and the boy, and placed the knife right at the base of the creature's skull. He looked at Aurel to make sure that he was watching, [color=a36209]"You want to do this quickly, it takes a little bit of strength,"[/color] he said, before quickly pushing the knife down, severing the animal's spine. It stopped moving immediately, and Faolan finished the blow by removing the head entirely. After this, he tossed the fish down into a bucket that he had placed in the cold mud on the shore to keep it cool while they were still outside.

[color=a36209]"Well done. Now I've got to get one or I'll look bad."[/color] Faolan said, noticing that the child was not bothered at all by what he had seen. It was clear that he was a hunter, comfortably with killing when it was done for food. It reminded him of Lucien's first reaction to watching Faolan do this. Though, it had been a rabbit, which Faolan knew was a little harder to bare. Lucien had "watched" it done through his fingers, and the Irishman was not certain he had really seen anything at all. At first, he'd thought it was juvenile and even a little irritating, but after he had gotten to know Lucien he was happy to do it out of his sight.