Closed Providing for Pets

[Alea Davenport]

44 Winter, 512

Alea sat rigidly on Beast's back, gently urging the Gilding forward through the forest. She wasn't entirely sure why she brought him everywhere if she hardly ever rode him... but he had a history of making riding...difficult. Still, if she was going to continue to keep him and feed him, it was time he made himself useful. She imagined she could keep him under control if she did not let him go to fast.

She could feel him fidgeting under her, which she took to be indicative of him being about to throw her. So she clung more tightly with her legs, and gripped the reins tighter, determined to stay on the stubborn horse. This only caused Beast to go faster, which she knew was another danger sign. She tugged back on the reins in an effort to slow him down and keep him at a pace she could control, which seemed to work at first, but then he stopped completely, and even took a step backwards.

Alea could feel herself becoming more and more tense. She simply did not know how to control this monster! And quite frankly...it frightened her. She was about to lose her own self-control and violently shake the reigns and dig her heels into his flank, but before she could carry out such actions, the Gilding abruptly sat down.

Alea instinctively squeeze her legs around the horse in an effort to not slide off his back. But with every tick she slipped a bit, and slowly she slid down his back until her rump gently landed on the forest floor behind him.

She had to let go of the reigns in order to stand, and as soon as she did so, Beast stood up as well and placidly walked onward into the forest. She dashed to his head where she could take hold of the reigns. He looked at her with indifferent eyes, and when she tried to pull him to a stop so she could mount him again, he merely snorted and shook his head, continuing to pick his way leisurely through the underbrush.

Alea debated the rewards and costs of fighting with him, and in the end decided that she had also had enough riding for a day. It was much safer on her own two feet, though eventually she would get this animal to listen to her.

After walking about half a bell through the apparent tranquility of the forest, Alea hear the sound of running water. Since something of the sort was just what she had been looking for, she guided Beast toward the sound. Soon, a modest creek came into view. In a few moments, she had spotted a large nearby rock which would make a pleasant place to sit while she did what she came here to do. Beast immediately and implacably headed for the stream, where he bent his head and began to quench his thirst.

Shrugging, Alea moved toward the saddlebags he carried and fetched her fishing pole and other gear she would need. Taking her supplies over to the rock, and leaving her horse to his own devices, she situated herself in a comfortable sitting position, with her supplies within easy access around her. Putting a bit of bait on the hook, she cast it into the water. Then she drove the pole into the dirt at her feet, leaned back, and closed her eyes, relaxing until something disturbed her.

[Auni]

"Disturbance is my middle name..." It was all the spying Kelvic could do to keep her building laughter from leaking into the surrounding forestry. Fortunate enough for her, the one giggling hiccup that did manage to break through her carefully crafted shield of silence was covered by the sound of water as it streamed along in a strip of azure. The overall atmosphere, at least from her point of view, was one of amusing quality. Auni had recently developed a habit of strolling through the woodlands bordering the areas dictated as property of The Spires. Not only did she find that it was a quiet patrol but it gave her a chance to exercise her animal form in a way that was as natural as the environment she marched within. Usually it was an uneventful activity where she simply practiced her hunting or lazed about in patches of dim sunlight that was common at this time of year. However, today seemed destined to be different. As the interruption of a rather rowdy Gilding and his owner pulled her attention to a scenario that she had experienced often enough to know the tell tale signs that preceded. For a while she stayed put in her previous position in the canopy, the shifting branches and solid shadows doing a splendid job of covering her presence. It started with a bit of restless antics but soon grew to an outright display of stubbornness. The steed making it clear that he needed no direction. After a bit more misbehaving the distant pairing came closer, approaching her without noticing they were doing so. Oddly enough the woman accompanying the muscled horse did not appear aggressive in her handling. A fact Auni found slightly endearing. After all, not everyone was as gentle as they needed to be. Especially when it came down to an insubordinate animal. With a tilt of her feline cranium she continued to gaze down upon the duo. By now she was not surprised to see the woman leave her companion to idle near the meager creek in order to attend to her own desires. It was, however, unforeseen that the lady was intending to do some relaxing as she fished. It was probably not the best of Auni's morality that was anticipating an easy meal. But it was far too tempting to have the maiden inattentive to her pole as it bobbed ever so lightly due to the pull of the water's current. Therefore, it was with a quick paw that the medium sized ocelot slipped down from the tree tops. Her eager eyes remained locked on the thin line as she waited on the opposite side from the girl. A specific sway carried her tail back and forth in a slow path behind her as Auni crouched on a similar rock. A movement from beneath the surface made her act instantly. She jumped, her teeth meeting nothing but emptiness despite her effort. It took her but a moment to recover, shamefully crawling back onto the nearby shore in a disgruntled fit of wet fur.

[Alea Davenport]

A loud splash forced Alea's eyes wide open. For an instant, she was convinced her horse was deliberately scaring the fish away just to make her angry. But no, Beast was a little ways downstream, messing about with the fish at a distance that would not disturb Alea... yet. Beast was picking his way nonchalantly upstream toward Alea, no doubt to hinder her in countless ways. But the splash had been caused by something else.

She stood up, and caught sight of the drenched cat slinking out of the river. She was torn between being concerned about the local wildlife taking exception to her presence, and taking exception to the presence of local wildlife scaring her fish away. (The voice that found the cat adorable and wanted to take it home was quickly lost among the fighting between the other two.) Since the cat really looked quite small and pathetic with how drenched it was, especially by Talderan standards, she decided on the latter. Getting enough fish to feed her menagerie of a household would already take all day without distractions from unwelcome animals.

"Oy!" she shouted, hoping her loud voice would scare the cat off without affecting the fish, "This is my fishing spot! Get your scrawny butt away from my fish!" For good measure, she picked up a smooth round pebble from the river bank and tossed it with all of her inconsiderable strength at the wretched and interfering animal. The pebble landed with a sad plop in the creek not far from the end of Alea's fishing line.

Ignoring her throwing skills and hoping she had the creek to herself now, she focused her eyes on the fishing line. She kept glancing at the opposite bank, ready to take more aggressive action should the beast interfere again. When she caught sight of the cat again, she stared straight into its eyes, a snarl on her face, almost daring the cat to try anything. She did not notice that beside her, Beast was also eyeing the cat uncomfortably.

Suddenly, her focus was distracted by a distinct twitch of the pole. A bite! All else faded into the background as she snatched up her pole and began reeling it in. It was a struggle; the fish in Taldera were bigger than what she was used to. A few times, she almost thought the fish would get away, but she had gotten stronger as well in recent times. After a few chimes of struggle, she finally pulled the fish out of the water. She quickly tossed it onto land so that it would suffocate to death before it could get away.

She picked up the heavy, still slightly wriggling fish with a morbid sense of pleasure. She carefully and gently removed the hook (he was already suffocating, no need to make death more painful than it had to be), which she then re-baited and cast back into the water. Only then did she take the time to examine her catch.

She recognized it as a trout of some kind, and it must have weighed at least ten pounds. This would certainly feed Tom, and possibly herself as well for a day. She would have to clean and gut the fish herself, never a pleasant prospect, but if it was just one or two fish that she was eating herself, she could muster up the will to do it if necessary.

[Auni]

The barely audible sound of a sigh was all the evidence generated by the ocelot's heavily exhaled breath. At the current time she refused to face the woman who was furiously scolding her. The exotic pattern of interlocking spirals on her back weaving into the appearance of multiple obsidian chains outlined by a smooth tawny background. Upon hearing the noise her rounded ears flickered in recognition. It was as if something had plummeted into the water's depths. Auni was startled by the assumption that the woman might have indeed found her intrusion to be worthy of a chase and the moderately sized feline swiftly changed her position, swiveling around until her crystal orbs were steadily focused on target. For the moment Auni was satisfied that there was no danger, at least not immediately, of the woman racing after her. However it did not escape her notice that the Gilding was acting oddly. The combination of rider and horse was probably as good a fit as possible considering what she had seen thus far of the two's interaction. Perhaps not the best, but certainly an understandable relationship. Especially for one such as Auni, who had a rather unyielding steed of her own. Now though, the kittenish Kelvic was at a loss for what to do. Her pride had been dealt a minor blow from the earlier failure but she was too zealous to even acknowledge the option of meandering away without some reward. Perhaps a different technique would give way to the productivity she wished for. A bit of thought and she found herself recalling a saying her Mother often used to explain situations such as this. The basic gist being that people got farther if they acted nicely. Worth a shot in her opinion. So she would reveal her less...abrasive side. Not without a bit of fun first though. A couple skips had her on the same bank as the female. Maintaining a minimum distance between herself and the freshly caught fish, just in case the lady went insane with suspicion. As she tiptoed around, Auni got herself acquainted with smell and body language of the still unfamiliar person. No need rushing her advance in this game. A game where either both players would lose or win. After all, the Kelvic was known for her sore sense of disappointment. Auni made her move. Not towards the fish; she was on the other side of the woman. No, her motions brought her closer to the stranger with each paw step. She would diminish the space between them by inches at a time, carefully carving her way. If she anticipated a glance from the woman Auni would halt her progress, pretending to clean her face of any clinging droplet of water from her previous dip. She would continue this for approximately fifteen chimes. Until she was close enough to start purring, the rumbling deep within her chest starting softly and building until it was almost deafening in the otherwise quiet surroundings.

[Alea Davenport]

She set the fish aside, where she would be able to keep an eye on it until it was time to go home. She was aware now that there was competition for fish out here, and she was not about to let some sneaky creature steal a meal meant for her own pets. However, the coast seemed clear, so she settled back against her rock and once again let her eyes rest on her fishing pole.

Beast still hadn't settled down, snorting and prancing around in the shallows, not far at all from Alea. She tried to ignore him; his antics were just there to try to mess with her as far as she could tell. Any closer and he'd be scaring the fish though, and then she'd have to do something drastic to get him to move. But for now it was too relaxing to bother getting up, so she let him be for now.

In fact, it was so relaxing, she started to doze off, and the sound of Beast splashing around was almost like a comfortingly familiar lullaby. Because of this, she didn't notice the purring at first, not even when it began growing louder. What she did notice was a whinny that could wake the dead. At the sound like that of a thousand screams, Alea sat bolt upright, her adrenaline pumping her into a single-minded alertness. She looked first to Beast, wondering, as her thoughts began to collect, what could have POSSIBLY possessed him to scare her like that. It was then that she became aware of the sound coming from the woods.

She couldn't figure out what it was at first. It sounded like an army of woodpeckers descending on her position. And army of Talderan woodpeckers. As she looked around, her eyes passed over the culprit twice before she noticed a splotch of color that was slightly yellower than the rest of the forest. Upon closer inspection, she saw, through the foliage of a bush, a cat-shaped face surrounding some piercing yellow-brown eyes.

She wasn't sure how to react at first. Should she threaten this cat? It was probably after her fish, and potentially hostile. On the other hand, it was making the sound (albeit a deafening version) that Tom made after she had fed him and he allowed her to scratch his ears. In the end, she did not have to decide, since Beast took a flying leap toward the cat, bellowing in an alarming way that Alea had never heard from him before.

Alea didn't have time to think before she reacted. Jumping two steps to Beast's head, she grabbed his reins before he tried to maim or possibly kill the poor kitten. Who was, admittedly a predator, but on closer look, it was so cute, and pathetic-looking with its wet messy hair sticking out at matted angles. Alea just couldn't help finding the cat adorable, though she still retained enough sense to remember that this was a wild animal, and it might just try to kill her if it got spooked. Though at the moment, it was all she could do to keep Beast in check.

[Alea Davenport]

By the time she got Beast settled down, the cat was nowhere to be seen. It must have been scared off by Beast after all. Alea felt a slight pang of disappointment, but, she reasoned, she already had enough animals to feed, which was why she was out here in the first place, so she could certainly do without adding to the list.

Just as she was about to sit back down at her rock, her pole began twitching. It must have been a big one! In a flustered panic, still slightly distracted from the cat from before, she grabbed the rod and began reeling. The fish had been caught, but it was struggling wildly. She pulled the rod this way and that, trying to prevent the fish from slipping off the hook. She thought she might have a decent chance of bringing this one in, and if she succeeded, she could go home earily!

She had the fish about half-way reeled in when suddenly, Beast bumped her arm. She lost her grip on the reel, and it was only through wild flailing and grabbing that the entire rod did not fly out of her hands. The fish, that beautiful monster of a fish, had sadly escaped.

Alea turned a glare on Beast, who was now prancing about in the shallows, splashing merrily, and giving Alea the most mischievous look. Alea was fed up. She didn't know why she'd bothered to bring him along, except that she did not feel like having to carry the fish back herself if she caught anything. And she had no idea what he wanted. All she could think of was that he was hungry (because animals usually were). And so she picked up the trout (which had long-since suffocated to death), and rubbed it on the Gilding's nose, saying angrily, "This is all the food I have. Is this what you want do you like fish? I didn't think so. Now go find something else to do and let me fish!"

The Gilding had backed up and scrunched his nose at the terrible fishy smell assaulting him. But, alas for poor Alea, the Beast was undeterred. He jumped up onto the bank and shoved his nose into her hair, which both made her hair smell like fish, and made her worry that he had mistaken her hair for hay again and was going to take a bite out of it. She reflexively whirled out of his reach, dropping the useless fish on the ground next to her fishing gear.

Beast followed her, grunting insistently in a manner that she couldn't understand. He wasn't trying to show her something, because when she gave him her attention he just stared back at her. After she decided to make it a staring contest, Beast pranced back into the water, splashed about a bit, and then looked back at Alea, almost...expectantly.

Alea had to stand and process this for several chimes before the absurd idea would even be allowed to register in her consciousness. "Are you...trying to... help?" She asked quietly with no small amount of incredulity. Even saying the words out loud made her feel like a lunatic.

[Alea Davenport]

Beast was never going to leave her be, and nothing was going to bite with him prancing about in the water like that. She sighed, realizing she was never going to out-stubborn the Gilding. After a bit, she decided she might as well play along. She removed her boots and rolled out the legs of her trousers before wading carefully into the cool water.

She wasted almost a bell messing around with Beast, dancing around each other and splashing. Her precaution of rolling up her trouser legs turned out to have been completely pointless, as the horse knocked her over into the water more than once. She tried to be annoyed that Beast was making this completely useless fishing time. No way anything worth eating would get anywhere near all this activity. Still, she was surprised to find that she was having too much fun to really mind.

Eventually, Beast grew bored with the horseplay, and wandered off to find something green to chew on. Alea took the chance to get back to her fishing rod. It might be a few chimes before the fish got comfortable hanging around this area again, so she decided she might as well gut the fist she already had. She had to get it over with at some point, leaving the guts in would only encourage the dead fish to spoil faster, and there was no point watching the water for a while now anyway.

She used her knife to scrape the scales off the trout. She actually didn't mind this part; it was kind of fun watching the scales come out. The unpleasant part was what came next. She talked herself into it by reminding herself that the alternative was the whole fish starting to smell bad. So, she took a deep breath and stabbed her knife into the fish, slicing it open inexpertly. She tried not to squeal as she pulled out the entrails, tossing them back into the stream. Something would probably eat them, right? She dunked the fish into the stream, rinsing away the remaining entrails and scales (and washing her hands in the process).

As she grimaced at the red trail of fish blood wind its way downstream, her eye caught a rather more unusual trail not too far off. It was closer to the center of the stream, and it was a bright, vivid blue. Alea almost dove for the shore to get back to her fishing rod, but some instinct make her go quietly instead. She waded gently through the stream, trying not to make any sudden movements or splashes. If she were careful enough, her movements might be indistinguishable from the general flowing of the current.

When she reached her fishing pole, she nudged it just the tiniest bit, to encourage the hook to drift a bit closer to the blue trail. She honestly wasn't sure what would happen; she had never encountered anything that left a trail like that in the water. But sure enough, before long she felt the gentle tug of something biting at her hook. As she reeled the fish in, she noticed that it felt about half the weight of the trout she'd caught earlier.

As she took the fish in her hands, examining the strange specimen, she noticed the blue oil covering it. She made a face, feeling more squeamish at being covered by an unknown substance than she had at eviscerating the trout a few chimes earlier. She laid out her spare cloak and set the blue fish and the trout on top of it, mostly to prevent the blue oil from staining anything else. As amusing as it would be to see Beast's tawny coat marred by streaks of bright blue, she was too tired by the long day of fishing to really get much enjoyment out of such a prank. She just wanted to get home and get everyone fed.

[Alea Davenport]

Upon arriving home, she dropped the two fish on the floor in the center of her house. She stretched her arms, breathing heavily. It wasn't often she had to carry an extra couple dozen pounds around, and all the way up the stairs to the Spires no less! She was too exhausted to care that the blue fish was getting its oil everywhere, staining her nice wood floor. Her clothes were already irreparably streaked with bright blue.

Tom was the first to come running at the smell of fish. Alea watched eagerly, wanting to see him get his smug face as blue as everything else. Sadly for her, Tom took on dainty sniff at the blue fish and disdainfully tiptoed around it to get at the trout. Alea barely had time to feel disappointed before she heard a skittering sound above her. She smiled as she watched Zed, the crystal spider, scurry down the wall to investigate his dinner.

Zed stepped warily around Tom. Despite Zed being several times the cat's size, Tom's mean disposition intimidated the gentle spider terribly. Since Tom had so obviously scorned the blue fish, Zed knew that one was fair game, so he dug into it furiously. Not much later, the once-white spider emerged to find that his entire front half was now a brilliant blue color. Alea couldn't help giggling out loud at the sight, and at Zed's frantic reaction.

Zed sought refuge from the horrible blue color in Alea's lap (not the brightest of moves since her clothes were almost as blue as he was). Alea wrapped her arms around the fuzzy creature in sympathy. She wasn't sure whether the blue color was permanent, but she assured Zed that she would love him all the same, no matter what.

[Caelum]

Thread Award Name: Alea. Skills: Riding +1 Fishing +3 Intimidation +1 Detection +1 Animal Husbandry +1 Notes: Auni, you did not receive a grade because your ledger needs updating with seasonal living expenses noted. Should you return to game and perform these updates, please PM me and I will be happy to provide you with a grade. Alea, lovely as ever. Please delete or edit your post with this thread link in the grade request thread if able and, as ever, don't hesitate to contact me with any questions, concerns, or cobbler.