Solo Childhood Pursuits

[Seirei Dawnwhisper]

Timestamp: 73rd Day of Spring, AV The weather was beautiful. Warm, and sunny, with just enough of a light breeze to keep things pleasant. The sky was a brilliant shade of blue, and there were a few fluffy white clouds soaring high above the world lazily. It was the perfect weather for just enjoying life. Everywhere, people were smiling as they greeted each other, before going about their business. The weather seemed to put people in a good mood, and Seirei was no different. She had just returned from a foray out into the Sea of Grass, the first she'd been on since she'd been abandoned. But this had been a very careful foray. Seirei had stayed within sight...and well within easy reach of Endrykas at all times. Most of the time, she never got more than a hundred feet at most from the tent city. But Seirei had heard that people could use grass for weaving, and she wanted to try her hand at it. So she had ventured out to gather some of the different types of grasses growing just outside the city. The people she'd overheard talking about weaving with grass had said that it was best to use dried grass, so Seirei carefully spread the grass she'd gathered out on the ground outside Lian's tent. If the weather continued to hold, it would hopefully be dry enough to use in a week or so. Or even in a couple of days. Seirei didn't know how long it took for grass to dry, so she planned to check on it at least once a day until it dried. I've seen people weave beautiful, elaborate baskets using thin strips of wood. I know that I can't make any of the patterns I've seen, but I might be able to make domething usable, at least. Possibly even something I could use as trading goods with the trade caravans if I practice enough. And since grass is free, I have an endless supply to practice with. All I need to do is go out and gather it. Seirei thought. Seirei was jolted from her thoughts by loud, enthused laughter. She looked up in time to see a group of kids run by. Every so often, they'd double back, or change directions. They were clearly caught up in some game, and having a lot of fun. People would stop to watch them and smile in amusement as they ran past. Seirei was no different. The sight of children playing was a happy one. Even better, watching them allowed her some respite from the fears plagued her so often now. "Did you hear about the nightlions?" "No, what about them?" Seirei turned to look at the couple who were talking quietly as they watched their children play. "Some were spotted stalking the bison calves yesterday. The hunters were called in to go kill them, or at least drvie them off." Seirei listened intently. Was that were Lian had gone off to this morning? Hunting nightlions? Nightlions were very dangerous creatures. Seirei had only seen one once, and that was from a great distance. Seirei had been watching the scenery as her caravan traveled through the Sea of Grass, and she'd spotted it on the very edge of the horizon. She'd never known anyone that had been attacked by one...but she knew that they were dangerous all the same. She'd heard many stories about the dangers of nightlions as a child. Both from her father when she saw him in Endrykas in the summer, and from the guards that worked for her caravan. Not everyone who goes off hunting nightlions comes back. Just how skilled of a hunter is Lian, anyway? It takes a very skilled hunter to take down something as dangerous as a nightlion...even I know that. What if...what if Lian doesn't come back? If he dies, would I be better off than I am now, or worse? Would I be allowed to stay in Endrykas, or would I be abandoned out in the Sea of Grass to die again? At the very least, Lian wouldn't be around to rape me every night. Maybe it would be better if... Seirei's eyes widened in horrified shock. Had she really been wishing that Lian had gone out on this nightlion hunt? And that he would die while out there? Was she really capable of wanting someone to die? Even someone as horrible as Lian was?

[Seirei Dawnwhisper]

The thought disturbed Seirei very deeply. She tried to banish the thought from her mind, but it lingered, poisoning her mood. I need something to do. Seirei decided. She looked around, and saw the five eggs that Lian had given her when he returned from hunting the day before. Seirei knew that she wasn't much of a cook, but surely she could manage a couple of eggs, right? Something that simple had to be easy. Knowing that she didn't have any pots or pans of her own, she looked around to see if she could find one in Lian's tent. Nothing. It didn't really surprise Seirei. She couldn't remember ever seeing Lian cook anything. She wasn't at all certain that he knew how to cook anything. Since Seirei couldn't cook the eggs without a pot, she walked over to a neighboring tent and asked the woman sitting outside it if she could borrow one. The woman was kind enough to allow her to borrow a two quart iron cooking pot, the only size she owned. As Seirei only wanted to cook some eggs, it was exactly what she needed. Seirei thanked the woman politely, and returned to Lian's tent. Once there, she set the pot on the ground outside the tent, and went in to get her waterskin, as well as her flint and steel, and the eggs. Then she went back outside. Seirei studied the eggs for a long moment. They were rather small as far as eggs went. While living with the caravan, they kept hens in cages, so she was used to seeing chicken eggs. So to Seirei, these eggs were considerably smaller than what she was used to. Four of the eggs could fit comfortably in the palm of her hand. They were smooth to the touch, and looked glossy. And they were a light greenish tinged brown in color. Hard boilling the eggs was probably the safest bet. Seirei figured that even she couldn't mess that up. So she placed all five of the small eggs into the pot, and poured the water from her water skin over them. Then she stared at the pot and blushed a deep shade of crimson. If I want to cook something, I need a fire to cook over. It might be nice if I actually knew how to build a fire... Seirei looked around to try and figure a way out of the mess she'd gotten herself into. She saw a young girl who looked to be about ten or so sitting outside a nearby tent twisting grass into a braid. "Do you like making bracelets?" Seirei asked as she walked over, an idea forming in her mind. The girl nodded slowly, eyeing Seirei consideringly. "I'd be willing to trade you a bead if you can help me with something. You'd need to get someone to wrap the bead with wire, though." "What do you want in exchange?" Seirei smiled. It was obvious that the girl was interested in getting the bead, though she tried not to show it. "I have something that I want to cook, but I...well...I never paid too much attention when my mother tried to show me how to build a fire. If you can start a cooking fire for me, I'll trade you one of my beads for your time." The girl considered the offer for a moment. Then she nodded, and the two walked back over to Lian's tent. "The first thing you need is a cooking pit. Otherwise, the wind might spread the fire, and that would be very bad." Seirei's eyes widened at the implication. Yes, a fire running wild in a tent city could be very bad. So she squatted down, and began digging with her hands. The dirt was packed down, so it was a difficult task, but not an impossible one. Especially once the girl knelt down, and helped her. Once they were done, the girl began gathering what she needed to build a cooking fire. Seirei tried to watch, but the girl moved too quickly and efficiently for her to learn much. What Seirei did see was that the girl made layers, with short bundles of braided dry grass lining the bottom, and bits of loose dried grass on the top. "The loose bits of grass catch on fire easier, so it's best to start with them. Then as the fire grows stronger, it can burn the denser bundles of grass so that it will stay lit longer. You'll need a supply of grass bundles if you're going to be cooking for long so you can keep the fire going. But this will be good enough for most things." Seirei nodded, trying to memorize what she'd been told. As she watched, the girl used Seirei's flint and steel, striking them together sharply several times over the loose bits of grass. Sparks flew from her attempts, and eventually a few caught. The girl blew on the sparks gently, fanning them with her breath until they were strong enough to ignite the denser grass bundles underneath. Once the fire was burning, Seirei thanked the girl sincerely. While the girl watched the fire, Seirei went inside, and got the pouch that contained the "failed" beads she'd made earlier in the season. Then she presented them to the girl, allowing her to choose any one she wanted as payment for her efforts. The girl chose one quickly, and left. Seirei set the pouch aside, and focused on the task at hand. She picked up the pot, and held it over the fire. It wasn't an ideal situation, but she didn't have anything to suspend the pot from so she wouldn't have to hold it. Seirei waited...and waited...and waited. Then she waited some more. Just how long does it take for water to boil, anyway? she wondered with growing irritation. Seirei knew that once the water was boiling, it only took a few minutes to hard boil an egg. But she couldn't remember how long it took for water to start boiling. Or if you started the countdown for cooking the eggs the moment the water started to bubble, or if you waited until it was bubbling violently. For that matter, she didn't know if it would take less time for a smaller egg to cook than a larger one. These eggs were roughly half the size of a chicken egg...so did that mean that it would only take half as long? In order to distract herself from the boredom of watching a pot of water do absolutely nothing at all, Seirei started thinking about what she wanted to try carving next. She had several potential projects in mind, so it was difficult to choose just one. Seirei quickly lost herself in her thoughts. It wasn't until she heard a strange sound that jolted her out of them that she remembered that she was supposed to be watching the pot. Seirei stared at the pot in horror. All of the water had boiled away, and the eggs were cracked. The sound of the shells cracking was likely what had brought her back to reality. Seiren yanked the pot away from the fire just as the eggs began to emit a smokey stench. For a single moment, Seirei entertained the idea of offering the eggs to Lian when he returned ro his tent. But as much as she hated what he was doing to her, she couldn't bring herself to truly want him dead. At least not at her own hands...and not at all, she vowed firmly. Seirei refused to become the type of person that wanted to see someone else robbed of their life. So since Seirei couldn't be sure that the eggs were safe to eat now, she'd have to take them to the edge of the city, and toss them out into the Sea of Grass to get rid of them. A quick glance at the pot told Seirei that she had been lucky enough to escape damaging it in her mishap. So she buried the fire with the dirt that had been dug up in making the pit, and set aside the pot. She'd clean it and return it after it cooled down.

[Seirei Dawnwhisper]

Seirei brought her waterskin, and her pouch of beads back into the tent, and put them away. Then she came back outside. She sat on the ground near the newly filled fire pit. The dirt in that area had been freshly disturbed, so it was perfect to draw in - loose enough that she'd be able to see the marks she made on the ground as she drew. She started out simply drawing lines in the churned up dirt with one finger. It wasn't the same as using charcoal and paper, but Seirei figured that if it couldn't hurt. If she could master drawing a straight line this way, it would be easier to do so in the proper way. That was her theory, anyway. So she drew line after line, after line. When she ran out of room, she would wipe the area clean with her hand, and begin again. Drawing a straight line was a lot harder than it sounded like it would be. Drawing one reliably was harder still. Every bump, every uneven place in the ground caused her finger to jump a little. That in turn caused the line to curve slightly. But repeated attempts began to pay off. After a while, one line out of every twenty she made was perfectly straight. With more practice, she narrowed it down to one in ten. Then one in five. When Seirei was usually able to get two out of every three lines mostly straight, she decided to practice something else. She drew more lines in the dirt. But these lines were parallel to each other. Some were horizontal. Others were vertical. Some were long, and others were short. The important factors here were threefold. One was that the lines were as straight as possible. That was the same goal as she'd had in her first exercise. Another that both lines in each set were the same length. That was easier said than done, but repeated practice made progress in that area as well. The third thing she was trying to do, and by far the hardest was make sure that the lines in each set were the same distance apart from each other. Gaging distance when drawing was important if one wanted the image they were drawing to come out looking balanced. But knowing that fact, and achieving it were two very different things. No matter how hard she tried, Seirei couldn't draw the lines one inch apart every time. Or even two times in a row. Frustrated, Seirei smoothed out the dirt with her hand, and gave up on that for the moment.

[Seirei Dawnwhisper]

Feeling very much like a child playing in the dirt, Seirei began to draw shapes on the ground. Triangles and squares, rectangles, and circles. Ovals, too. Any simple shape she could think of, she drew. Simple shapes make up more complicated pictures. she thought as she practiced. Seirei sang as she worked. The song she sang was a simple, sweet melody about a bard that fell in love with a star that guided her way as she traveled. Her voice rose and fell as the notes changed. Singing helped to pass the time as she drew. And although some found singing to be a distraction, Seirei found that it often helped her to concentrate on what she was doing. Especially when her heart or mind were troubled. After a while, Seirei changed what she was doing yet again. Now she connected the shapes that she drew to form simple pictures. Drawing a triangle on top of a square gave her a very basic image of a house. Adding a small rectangle, and a couple of smaller squares gave her a door and windows to add a bit of detail. The end result was lopsided. The door and windows were off center. And the roof was a bit off as well. But the lines were straight for the most part. With that picture complete, Seirei started a new one. A slightly off balance looking circle for the base. Two dots roughly a third down from the top. And a third dot in the center. A curved line near the bottom of the circle. Two narrow ovals attached to the outside of the circle. One on either side, and both near the top. Seirei stared at the picture for a long moment. It was a face...sort of. A very crude, basic drawing of a face. And even then it wasn't very good. But it was practice, right? If Seirei continued to work at it, she would eventually get better. It's not like I need to be perfect, anyway. I'm not an artist, I'm a woodcarver. So all I really need to be able to do is draw lines reliably when I want to cut something, and draw a picture of what I'm making if it's complicated enough that I need a reference to work from. Once again, Seirei wiped the dirt clear, erasing the pictures she had "drawn." Several small horizontal ovals with even smaller circles in the middle became an attempt at drawing eyes. After judging them critically, Seirei decided that they were better than dots, but not by much. They really didn't look anything like eyes. Still, it was an attempt all the same. A very elongated, narrow oval, which was really just two curvy lines connected at both ends was an attempt to draw the body of a snake Seirei had seen once as a child. She added a dot in the head for an eye, and a short line that ended in a partial triangle without the bottom line drawn in was supposed to be the snake's forked tongue. Fading light reminded Seirei that the day was coming to an end. She quickly ran her hand over the dirt, smoothing it out to erase her attempts. Seirei didn't want to leave any evidence behind for her captor to see. She didn't need to be ridiculed for playing around like a young child on top of the suffering she already endured at his hands. When Seirei was done, she went back inside to wait for her captor. Part of her wanted to take a walk, and enjoy the last of the beautiful day, but she knew that she would be punished if she wasn't in his tent when he got back. With the daylight starting to fail, he could be home at any time. The enjoyment a walk would bring wasn't worth the punishment she would be courting, so she refrained. Seirei hated the feeling of waiting for her captor to come back. It left her with a feeling of futility, and made her feel as though she was giving in to him in a way. But it was better than the alternative. I just hope that he doesn't ask me what happened to the eggs he brought me...

[Khida]

Seirei

Skill	Points
Bodybuilding	+1
Cooking	+1
Drawing	+2
Intelligence	+1
Negotiation	+1
Singing	+1
Wilderness Survival: Plains	+1

• Cooking: boiling a pan dry
• Cooking: the principle of boiling eggs
• Drawing: simple shapes as the foundation of complex images
• Drawing: the art of making a straight line
• Survival: building a fire with braided grass

Notes

Another nice 'day in the life' thread. I'm impressed Seirei stood there long enough to boil away water -- I am never that patient myself! As it is, she got Bodybuilding for holding the pot up all that while. Her arms will likely have been quite strained by this, and sore the next day; cast iron is heavy.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade. Also, please edit your request to show this thread has been graded.