The last of the daylight was nearly gone when Anik stepped down to the water's edge, discarding his boots and rolling up his trousers. Ren watched him silently, sitting close to the warmth of the fire as Anik waded carefully into the water and positioned himself in the middle of the river, legs slightly bent and hands stretched out in front of himself. Ren frowned. About a minute passed. Then a sudden splash made Ren jump and he watched with wide eyes as Anik pulled a wiggling fish out of the water with both hands.

“Whoa, that was amazing,” Ren exclaimed, staring in awe as Anik waded out of the water and brought the fish back to the fire. He placed it on a rock, holding it still with one hand.

Anik kept his eyes on the fish and extended a hand towards Ren. “Your knife.”

Quickly, Ren drew it from his belt and handed it over. As he watched, Anik stabbed the knife into the fish with practised ease, severing its head. His lips moved with whispered words too quiet for Ren to hear. Then, he went about gutting and cleaning his catch, legs crossed and sleeves rolled up to expose the dark ink on his skin.

Ren watched him as he worked. Anik's hands were stained with the fish's blood and a few stray strands of hair had fallen loose from the leather tie and hung over his face. Like this, Anik certainly lived up to all the descriptions of Lowlanders Ren had ever heard.

“Here,” Anik said, grabbing the fish by the tail and slapping it down on the grass between Ren's feet.

Ren stared at it. “What am I supposed to do with it?” he asked, picking it up by the tail the same way Anik had done it.

“Well,” Anik said slowly, eyes narrowing at Ren as if he wasn't entirely sure if Ren was being serious. “My first suggestion would be to de-bone it.”

“De-...”

“Don't tell me you've never de-boned a fish?” Anik asked. His eyebrows shot up. When Ren said nothing, Anik let out an exasperated sigh. “Seriously?” He reached across the flames of the fire to snatch the fish from Ren's hand. Using Ren's knife, he sliced along the back of the fish, picked it apart and tugged on the spine with more force than Ren suspected was entirely necessary. Anik pulled the entire length of it free from the fish's flesh before turning his attention to the smaller bones.

“So,” Ren started, in attempt to kill the new, awkward, stony silence. “What was your life like before all this?”

Anik looked up from the fish, glaring at Ren with a pair of honey-brown eyes that Ren thought were far too pretty to belong in such a grumpy face, then turned his attention back to his work. “I don't want to talk.”

Ren raised an eyebrow. “You don't want to talk right now, or you don't want to talk at all?”