Xander winced as the sound of the gun firing pierced his sensitive ears leaving them ringing for a moment. The ramblings of Meko were dull and sounded far more like ocean waves beating on a shore than words themselves. He lifted up his hand and stuck his finger in his ear and wiggled it around trying to clear the roaring sound out of his head. Of course, that action never really helped but it was habit.<br/><br/>Taylorâ€™s lips curled up into a grin as he walked over to the deer and produced his hunting knife. He crouched down to study the deer and sighed as he saw the fading panic in the animalâ€™s eyes. â€œIâ€™m sorry buddy.â€ He was a firm believer in one shot one kill. It was without further hesitation that he pushed the blade through the deerâ€™s chest cavity and into the beating heart bringing darkness to one of the earths creatures.<br/><br/>â€œYou killed it for two reasons Mek, practice and dinner.â€ Taylor explained the first portion in hopes that it would ease his friendâ€™s jiminy cricket. That was a nickname Xander had come up with for the warrior-to-be. Jiminy Cricket, the conscious of this misfit group they had made, albeit reluctantly. The glare he received from Xander was enough to make Taylorâ€™s entire day. It was far too easy to get under the supposed emotionless animalâ€™s skin. He had never taken the time to study his enemy as a human instead of prey and now that he had Taylor could say with complete confidence that when the time came he could finally best his brother.<br/><br/>â€œCome on.â€ Xander sighed as he took the gun from Meko and tossed it down to Taylor before pushing himself off the branch and landing on the ground in a crouch. He stood almost like that several foot fall hadnâ€™t fazed him in the least bit and shoved past Taylor. He didnâ€™t completely understand why Meko refused to see the usefulness in these skills. His best guess was that his baby brother was babying the poor kid. There was so much potential in Meko that it was a shame that Taylor was letting it go to waste. He could still hear Taylor snarling out something about keeping Mekoâ€™s innocence intact.<br/><br/>He lifted the dead animal up onto his shoulder and hauled it back to the tree, tying it up so it was hanging by its feet and starting to carve the skin off the animal. â€œItâ€™s the circle of life, kid.â€ Xander finally spoke up in hopes of dragging the boyâ€™s attention from Taylor back to himself. Heâ€™d attempt to explain everything in lemans terms instead of military lingo, as Meko so elegantly called his normal way of talking.<br/><br/>Taylor looked up at Xander as he spoke, he honestly expected his brother to retreat into himself as he did the first day when his experiment with Meko had resulted in complete failure. Gloom and doom. It was something Meko had said off handedly a couple of days ago and Taylor was hard pressed not to firmly agree with said statement.  He finally jerked his head in Xanderâ€™s direction to silently tell Meko to listen, because Xander was trying and the least Taylor could do was get Meko to listen with an open mindâ€¦.hopefully.