--Summer 10th--
As they moved into more densely packed forests, Spirit began to get an itch. Sure, riding through the beautiful scenery was amazing, and could easily take up hours of her time, but still. She wanted something... to do. She wanted to create something! Like... the artists in the Skyglow hold. All of their pieces were... beautiful. All she could do was carve, and not too well. And most of the time, she didn't have anything to carve. There'd been that time... almost a season ago now, where she'd done something to her staff. Maybe she could try again? It would be interesting! It would provide some entertainment to her day.
Deciding this would be an excellent idea, the Frostfawn leaned back to Silver's saddle packs, in an attempt to grab her staff from where is was tied. Her seat became unsteady, and she quickly stopped the motion, afraid of falling from her mare's back. "Can we stop for a sec? I need to grab something?" She called out ahead of her, before slightly tumbling out of her saddle. She quickly took her staff, and began climbing up the stirrups. But wait... she needed a knife. She reversed her movements and returned to the saddle packs, grabbing the knife she'd bought late in Spring along with the other supplies. It had never really been intended for fighting... maybe defending against a wolf or something, but... it would be useful. As proven now.
Double checking that this time she did have all the necessary supplies, she heaved herself back onto the saddle of a slightly confused Silver, before riding off again. It required several seat adjustments to find a comfortable way to ride and hold the staff, but she eventually figured it out. Luckily the path was in a... relatively straight line, so the Vantha didn't have to worry too much about steering. Now everything was ready... time to carve!
She gazed down at her wooden stick, and... blank. What in the world could she carve into it? She sort of wanted to etch a design into it, but... what? She gazed at Ruby's horse before her, brainstorming for possibilities. The animal itself was tattooed with various floral designs... but she didn't feel like that. Squiggles were too boring, and actually to hard to make appear nice. She'd tried that before... it took a lot of artistic talent to create something pretty and abstract like that. Artistic talent she just didn't have... Looking for more inspiration, she watched the scenery around her. She was surrounded by trees, lots of them. Maybe she could do something nature themed? One of the massive plants was covered in vines... aha! She could cover her staff with vines! With leaves... and stems... with no apparent start or end. This was amazing! A wide grin on her face, she began to mentally plan out her design.
It would be more an indented design than a sticky-outy one, and slightly challenging in close quarters, but it would work! Now... time to carve! Spirit stuck her knife to the wood and slowly began to carve a curing line that twisted in a wide spiral down the staff. She outlined a few leaves along that stem, lightly, with slightly varying sizes. The variation was not, in fact, planned, but more of a mistake on the carvers part, though luckily it didn't turn out too bad. She outlined a few more stems filling in the gaps, and stuck leaves on them too. It had awkward empty and cramped patches, but otherwise... looked pretty cool! The Frostfawn smiled widely at her work, and mentally prepared herself for the next stage: Making the carvings deeper. They were just outlined at the moment, more of a plan than anything else, and were pretty hard to spot from a few feet away. She wanted to make it obvious... maybe when they arrived at the Spires, she could buy some green paint and try and paint the indents... that would look pretty cool! She mused about the possibilities, and how to actually do something so fine for a bit, losing focus on her current project. But she quickly snapped back to reality after a moment.
Readying her blade once again, Spirit deepened the main vine, adding a bit of width by carving in from the outside and down. It created a kind of miniature gully in the wood, which looked nice. She planned on using that technique for most of the other lines as well, widening it and thinning it depending on importance. The centre stem, for example, would be the widest of them all, slightly under half a centimeter in width. Sadly, since is was done in chunks, it made the stem slightly squared, with obvious corners. Shyke... hopefully it wouldn't ruin the design too much though, and maybe she could smooth it afterwards, right? There was probably a better way to do this, but the Vantha didn't know it, and so continued her pattern.
She slowly grew better at the technique, though she could see inconsistencies and mistakes all around. They were more common near where she'd started however, and were few in number around the end. She could still always fix things, right? Probably... One thing she didn't want to do was seriously ruin the staff, since it would be pretty hard to get a new one without buying it... and then it wouldn't really feel as much like 'hers'.
Spirit attempted to touch up the rough parts, but discovered she had to be very careful not to make the gullies extra deep because of it. Several times, she made the mistake worse, or created another one just as bad by trying to fix it. In the end, she gave up on the more complicated, and minor problems, and tried to focus on the more obvious ones. One in particular was a vine sticking quite a bit into the handle, which she'd left clear on purpose. It was annoying her, poking into that blank space. True, it didn't look to bad, but still... Since the handle was already deeper than the rest of the pattern, she wasn't quite sure how to fix this one. Making it deeper would probably weaken the wood, make it too thin, but... agh! She couldn't stand seeing it sitting there, practically mocking her! The Frostfawn glared at her piece, trying to wish that little vine into oblivious. But she couldn't fix it. She just didn't know how. With an exasperated sigh, she decided to finish up for the day, and they were stopping for the evening. Maybe she'd work on that tomorrow...
--Summer 11th, 513AV—
The next morning, Spirit awoke with a smile. They only had around six days of travel left! Though she enjoyed the exploration… she wanted to settle down for a bit somewhere. She didn’t know how long for… but still planned on it. She wanted to reach the Spires, and see what they were like! Then maybe think about the future. Their distance wasn’t the only thing to grin about that morning. She was going to start carving today! She’d awoken a little early, so decided to get a head start on fixing up her staff. There was a lot to do. She just had to grab her knife and the stick… but she didn’t have the motivation. She’d lost all motivation to work on that project. There wasn’t really anything left to do, and she didn’t feel like touching up. It was too tedious… and not creative in the slightest. And the Frostfawn felt creative that day. Maybe… maybe she’d start something new! Less… practical. Just a work of art! Her first full blown piece. This would be exciting! She ran around their camp looking for some wood to work with. She quickly found a nice and strangely convenient chunk near their makeshift fire pit. Someone had probably planned on burning it… good thing they didn’t!
This time… she wanted to work off something more real, rather than coming up with a design. It would make a different feel to the work… she slumped cross-legged to the ground staring at her log from all angles, trying to decide what to make it. It was too funny for an animal… sad, since she could have carved Wind. Or…. Wait. She looked at it from another side, and found inspiration! If she cut it in half, she could carve two slightly thin animal models… it would be a challenge, but she could try! She could make one of Wind, and another of Silver. Perfect! Her expression turned into a wide grin as her mind went rampant with ideas. She could barely focus as they packed up, and nearly fell off her mare when mounting. She was holding the knife and wood most of the time, probably looking sort of funny, but she didn’t really care. This would be amazing!
She settled herself into a similar position as the day before, and began the first step of sawing the block in half. She wanted on half for Wind, and the other for Silver, and so this part was necessary. Necessary, but annoying. It became incredibly tedious sawing through the chunk of wood. Sure, it wasn’t that thick, but was still irritating. It was just back and forth and back and forth… At least she got to watch her progress as the gap slowly got larger and larger… it was slightly entertaining, despite how long it took. At least it was better than gazing at the trees… Finally though, it broke apart, and the Frostfawn gave a quiet cheer in happiness. She quickly and slightly awkwardly stowed one of the halves, before turning to the other.
This one was going to be Wind. So… a dog. He needed four legs, a head and a tail. That was a lot of bits sticking out… maybe there was another way? What if she carved him lying down…. It would save a lot on the limb factor. Though… he wasn’t exactly sitting right now. Hmm… Well, she’d seen him often enough in that position, so it wouldn’t be too hard. With an image of what she wanted to create in her mind, she turned to the next step: carving!
She slowly peeled off chunks of wood with her knife, delighting at the simple but slightly entertaining task. Things would get complicated later, but for now… she was good. After a while, she began to see an oval shape forming, pointy at on end for the head, and with a flat bottom that widened for the legs and tail. Ok, it wasn’t actually an oval, but it was… rounded. Spirit cut at an awkward angle down the sides, trying to make the legs point out, so they were next to the main mass of body. It looked pretty rough, and somehow she doubted she could smooth it in such a strange and annoying place… it would be way too hard. With a small sigh, she carved out a similar niche for the neck as well. She made the nose part smaller, then stared at her creation.
This work was much harder than the day before, but she still wanted to do it. Almost to honor Wind, really. But now it was time for details… paws, fur, eyes and the like. She etched small lines on the ‘feet’ to imitate her hound’s toes, like in a child’s drawing. The fur was light lines all over the chunk of wood, since he was covered in the stuff, wasn’t he? The hardest part, however… was the eyes. Like she’d heard many artists say, they were the main center piece, the ‘windows to the soul’. How could she make them look alive? Or… should she just not add eyes? It was a possibility, since it was her artwork, no? She could make what she wanted. It would be so much easier to just… leave it like this. No eyes. She stared at it irritably, trying to decide, but eventually came to a conclusion: no.
Overall, the piece was… not so good. It was rough, and in fact, she’d missed several crucial details. As in very crucial. The carving had no tails, no forepaws, and no ears. Looking back on it… it didn’t look much like a dog. Let alone Wind. The surface was also rough and uneven, and even sharp in a few places. The Frostfawn’s face drooped as she saw this, and to avoid the sad scene, stowed it away in her packs. She didn’t feel like carving anymore, let down by the failure she’d just created, so placed the knife back in too. She wasn’t going to use it anymore… It was pointless really, since she didn’t want to ruin Silver as much as she did her canine. Carving animals was a lot harder than she’d expected… Maybe she’d try again tomorrow!
As they moved into more densely packed forests, Spirit began to get an itch. Sure, riding through the beautiful scenery was amazing, and could easily take up hours of her time, but still. She wanted something... to do. She wanted to create something! Like... the artists in the Skyglow hold. All of their pieces were... beautiful. All she could do was carve, and not too well. And most of the time, she didn't have anything to carve. There'd been that time... almost a season ago now, where she'd done something to her staff. Maybe she could try again? It would be interesting! It would provide some entertainment to her day.
Deciding this would be an excellent idea, the Frostfawn leaned back to Silver's saddle packs, in an attempt to grab her staff from where is was tied. Her seat became unsteady, and she quickly stopped the motion, afraid of falling from her mare's back. "Can we stop for a sec? I need to grab something?" She called out ahead of her, before slightly tumbling out of her saddle. She quickly took her staff, and began climbing up the stirrups. But wait... she needed a knife. She reversed her movements and returned to the saddle packs, grabbing the knife she'd bought late in Spring along with the other supplies. It had never really been intended for fighting... maybe defending against a wolf or something, but... it would be useful. As proven now.
Double checking that this time she did have all the necessary supplies, she heaved herself back onto the saddle of a slightly confused Silver, before riding off again. It required several seat adjustments to find a comfortable way to ride and hold the staff, but she eventually figured it out. Luckily the path was in a... relatively straight line, so the Vantha didn't have to worry too much about steering. Now everything was ready... time to carve!
She gazed down at her wooden stick, and... blank. What in the world could she carve into it? She sort of wanted to etch a design into it, but... what? She gazed at Ruby's horse before her, brainstorming for possibilities. The animal itself was tattooed with various floral designs... but she didn't feel like that. Squiggles were too boring, and actually to hard to make appear nice. She'd tried that before... it took a lot of artistic talent to create something pretty and abstract like that. Artistic talent she just didn't have... Looking for more inspiration, she watched the scenery around her. She was surrounded by trees, lots of them. Maybe she could do something nature themed? One of the massive plants was covered in vines... aha! She could cover her staff with vines! With leaves... and stems... with no apparent start or end. This was amazing! A wide grin on her face, she began to mentally plan out her design.
It would be more an indented design than a sticky-outy one, and slightly challenging in close quarters, but it would work! Now... time to carve! Spirit stuck her knife to the wood and slowly began to carve a curing line that twisted in a wide spiral down the staff. She outlined a few leaves along that stem, lightly, with slightly varying sizes. The variation was not, in fact, planned, but more of a mistake on the carvers part, though luckily it didn't turn out too bad. She outlined a few more stems filling in the gaps, and stuck leaves on them too. It had awkward empty and cramped patches, but otherwise... looked pretty cool! The Frostfawn smiled widely at her work, and mentally prepared herself for the next stage: Making the carvings deeper. They were just outlined at the moment, more of a plan than anything else, and were pretty hard to spot from a few feet away. She wanted to make it obvious... maybe when they arrived at the Spires, she could buy some green paint and try and paint the indents... that would look pretty cool! She mused about the possibilities, and how to actually do something so fine for a bit, losing focus on her current project. But she quickly snapped back to reality after a moment.
Readying her blade once again, Spirit deepened the main vine, adding a bit of width by carving in from the outside and down. It created a kind of miniature gully in the wood, which looked nice. She planned on using that technique for most of the other lines as well, widening it and thinning it depending on importance. The centre stem, for example, would be the widest of them all, slightly under half a centimeter in width. Sadly, since is was done in chunks, it made the stem slightly squared, with obvious corners. Shyke... hopefully it wouldn't ruin the design too much though, and maybe she could smooth it afterwards, right? There was probably a better way to do this, but the Vantha didn't know it, and so continued her pattern.
She slowly grew better at the technique, though she could see inconsistencies and mistakes all around. They were more common near where she'd started however, and were few in number around the end. She could still always fix things, right? Probably... One thing she didn't want to do was seriously ruin the staff, since it would be pretty hard to get a new one without buying it... and then it wouldn't really feel as much like 'hers'.
Spirit attempted to touch up the rough parts, but discovered she had to be very careful not to make the gullies extra deep because of it. Several times, she made the mistake worse, or created another one just as bad by trying to fix it. In the end, she gave up on the more complicated, and minor problems, and tried to focus on the more obvious ones. One in particular was a vine sticking quite a bit into the handle, which she'd left clear on purpose. It was annoying her, poking into that blank space. True, it didn't look to bad, but still... Since the handle was already deeper than the rest of the pattern, she wasn't quite sure how to fix this one. Making it deeper would probably weaken the wood, make it too thin, but... agh! She couldn't stand seeing it sitting there, practically mocking her! The Frostfawn glared at her piece, trying to wish that little vine into oblivious. But she couldn't fix it. She just didn't know how. With an exasperated sigh, she decided to finish up for the day, and they were stopping for the evening. Maybe she'd work on that tomorrow...
--Summer 11th, 513AV—
The next morning, Spirit awoke with a smile. They only had around six days of travel left! Though she enjoyed the exploration… she wanted to settle down for a bit somewhere. She didn’t know how long for… but still planned on it. She wanted to reach the Spires, and see what they were like! Then maybe think about the future. Their distance wasn’t the only thing to grin about that morning. She was going to start carving today! She’d awoken a little early, so decided to get a head start on fixing up her staff. There was a lot to do. She just had to grab her knife and the stick… but she didn’t have the motivation. She’d lost all motivation to work on that project. There wasn’t really anything left to do, and she didn’t feel like touching up. It was too tedious… and not creative in the slightest. And the Frostfawn felt creative that day. Maybe… maybe she’d start something new! Less… practical. Just a work of art! Her first full blown piece. This would be exciting! She ran around their camp looking for some wood to work with. She quickly found a nice and strangely convenient chunk near their makeshift fire pit. Someone had probably planned on burning it… good thing they didn’t!
This time… she wanted to work off something more real, rather than coming up with a design. It would make a different feel to the work… she slumped cross-legged to the ground staring at her log from all angles, trying to decide what to make it. It was too funny for an animal… sad, since she could have carved Wind. Or…. Wait. She looked at it from another side, and found inspiration! If she cut it in half, she could carve two slightly thin animal models… it would be a challenge, but she could try! She could make one of Wind, and another of Silver. Perfect! Her expression turned into a wide grin as her mind went rampant with ideas. She could barely focus as they packed up, and nearly fell off her mare when mounting. She was holding the knife and wood most of the time, probably looking sort of funny, but she didn’t really care. This would be amazing!
She settled herself into a similar position as the day before, and began the first step of sawing the block in half. She wanted on half for Wind, and the other for Silver, and so this part was necessary. Necessary, but annoying. It became incredibly tedious sawing through the chunk of wood. Sure, it wasn’t that thick, but was still irritating. It was just back and forth and back and forth… At least she got to watch her progress as the gap slowly got larger and larger… it was slightly entertaining, despite how long it took. At least it was better than gazing at the trees… Finally though, it broke apart, and the Frostfawn gave a quiet cheer in happiness. She quickly and slightly awkwardly stowed one of the halves, before turning to the other.
This one was going to be Wind. So… a dog. He needed four legs, a head and a tail. That was a lot of bits sticking out… maybe there was another way? What if she carved him lying down…. It would save a lot on the limb factor. Though… he wasn’t exactly sitting right now. Hmm… Well, she’d seen him often enough in that position, so it wouldn’t be too hard. With an image of what she wanted to create in her mind, she turned to the next step: carving!
She slowly peeled off chunks of wood with her knife, delighting at the simple but slightly entertaining task. Things would get complicated later, but for now… she was good. After a while, she began to see an oval shape forming, pointy at on end for the head, and with a flat bottom that widened for the legs and tail. Ok, it wasn’t actually an oval, but it was… rounded. Spirit cut at an awkward angle down the sides, trying to make the legs point out, so they were next to the main mass of body. It looked pretty rough, and somehow she doubted she could smooth it in such a strange and annoying place… it would be way too hard. With a small sigh, she carved out a similar niche for the neck as well. She made the nose part smaller, then stared at her creation.
This work was much harder than the day before, but she still wanted to do it. Almost to honor Wind, really. But now it was time for details… paws, fur, eyes and the like. She etched small lines on the ‘feet’ to imitate her hound’s toes, like in a child’s drawing. The fur was light lines all over the chunk of wood, since he was covered in the stuff, wasn’t he? The hardest part, however… was the eyes. Like she’d heard many artists say, they were the main center piece, the ‘windows to the soul’. How could she make them look alive? Or… should she just not add eyes? It was a possibility, since it was her artwork, no? She could make what she wanted. It would be so much easier to just… leave it like this. No eyes. She stared at it irritably, trying to decide, but eventually came to a conclusion: no.
Overall, the piece was… not so good. It was rough, and in fact, she’d missed several crucial details. As in very crucial. The carving had no tails, no forepaws, and no ears. Looking back on it… it didn’t look much like a dog. Let alone Wind. The surface was also rough and uneven, and even sharp in a few places. The Frostfawn’s face drooped as she saw this, and to avoid the sad scene, stowed it away in her packs. She didn’t feel like carving anymore, let down by the failure she’d just created, so placed the knife back in too. She wasn’t going to use it anymore… It was pointless really, since she didn’t want to ruin Silver as much as she did her canine. Carving animals was a lot harder than she’d expected… Maybe she’d try again tomorrow!
