Closed A Day of Gloom

[Khida]

Fall 56, 514 AV
dawn

A thin layer of clouds had moved in over the sky, casting a gray pall upon the earth below. Syna had just crested the horizon, but remained shrouded, providing little warmth to offset the chill morn. Khida almost wished she had brought the robe, with its longer sleeves and enveloping folds; her wrap shirt and trousers did only so much to offset the vulnerability of human skin. But there was only a small breeze, and it was not so cold as snow; so long as the Kelvic kept moving, she seemed to stay warm enough.

Certainly, there was plenty of moving to do. The Kelvic had laid many traps the night before, as the pavilions of Endrykas showed every sign of settling in to stay a while. That gave her the time to walk a long line of traps today... and hopefully fare better with their yields than she often did.

The downside of placing a long line of traps, though, was the whole long part. It was times like this that Khida wished she could perform this task effectively as falcon. But no. This was a human's job, needing human tools and human hands, not to mention the capability to carry more than one item of game. So she walked. She passed through a small herd of zibri, placidly cropping what green growth they could from the faded autumn grass. She was passed in turn by a pair of hunters, young Drykas males bantering at length over which of them would win the Great Hunt, their Striders loping easily across the plains. Or whatever it was horses did when they moved.

She walked up one rise and down the other side, keeping the sun on her left all the while, until the tents, the livestock, the people were all swallowed by the grass. Only Khida remained amidst the tall, dry, seed-bowed stalks, her ears stretched wide for any sound foreboding danger. She noticed only a crow, black silhouette sharp against the vague gray sky. It passed above a scrubby little tree, the landmark Khida made for. The tree was a sorry thing of stunted limbs and sparse leaves; the drought had clearly done it no favors, and she thought it might not survive to see the tent city come around again. She paused to look at the spindly thing for a moment, before turning towards where her trap had been placed.

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Dinah]

If Dinah was honest with herself, there were times when she missed the more calm lifestyle that the Ruby Clan had offered. Mornings used to be slow, casual conversations and warm beverages as work areas were prepped for the day's crafting. There wasn't an overwhelming demand for the pieces of pottery she had used to produce so time could be drawn out, care could be taken, excuses could be made in respects to needing the final product to be perfect. Those days were long behind her now, though. She could have kept up her craft, made a living from it, but when Dinah had severed her connection with her former pavilion, so too went everything associated with it. It meant no more easy mornings and days spent among others in idle conversation while your hands did most of the work. She was a hunter now and that meant mornings were about getting up and getting moving as fast as possible, it seemed. Among all the changes becoming part of the Emerald Clan had demanded of her, that was still somehow the hardest thing.

Still, Dinah was determined to make the most of the day. She hadn't been deemed ready to go after the larger game that others in her pavilion had been determined to bring in for the Great Hunt, and the excitement over it all left no one in a mind to take the novice along for anything lesser. So it was that Dinah - in a moment of infinite wisdom, of course - had determined that the day would be the perfect opportunity to teach herself how to finally use the snares she had purchased but had never gotten around to using. It was only after she had left the pavilions far behind that she realized the snags in her plan. Although she felt fairly confident that she would be able to spot game trails and rabbit runs in the tall grasses, the girl was forced to realize rather quickly that there was a reason she often went hunting with a partner who actually knew how to properly track animals.

Another question of her choices began in that she'd left Niamh behind that day. While she figured that it would probably be easier to spot what she wanted on foot, the mare often did have a way of nudging the Drykas girl towards what she actually needed. Dinah let a sigh leave her as she spotted a withering tree in the distance. It barely looked alive, but perhaps some sort of animal would still use it for cover. If nothing else it could possibly offer at least some sort of landmark to find her snare again once she set it. If I can set it.

As she approached the tree, Dinah removed the pack from her shoulder and pulled out the pieces that made up the larger of the three snares she had, brows furrowing in thought as she considered them. How can something simple be so petching complicated? The girl came to a stop and crouched down in the thinning grass near the tree as she looked over the pieces of the snare again. The noose was easy enough to understand, and she could assume the two smaller posts were meant to keep it from just laying on the ground but how that all worked in conjunction with the larger piece she hadn't any clue. Was it meant to anchor the noose? Was it there to cross over the other two and have the string hand from it? Another sigh left her, far louder than intended. Maybe I should have asked someone last night how these things are supposed to work.

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Tukant"

[Khida]

Her trap... wasn't.

There was rope, shredded, tufts of fur still caught on its weave. Crouching, Khida picked up a clump, rolling it between her fingers and sniffing at the hairs. It was short, coarser than rabbit fur. Smelled like dirt, not that that came as a surprise; most small critters burrowed, so far as she knew. Squirrel, Khida thought. Her trap had caught a ground squirrel. But the animal was nowhere to be found.

Nor had it escaped. The rope and grass told a different story. More tufts of fur lay scattered amidst the surrounding grasses, caught between stalks, suspended from seed-laden crowns. Rusty stains dotted a bit of rope here, a patch of dry earth there. No, the squirrel hadn't made good its own escape.

Something had stolen the Kelvic's prey right out of her trap.

This realization, the sense that she should do something about it, was brought up short by the whispering rustle of disturbed grass. Khida remained as perfectly still as she could manage, one hand braced against the earth, straining her ears to catch the nuances of sound. She lifted her gaze just enough to stare towards its origin, but saw only a veritable forest of vertical tawny lines. The tree itself offered no cover, and the grass a screen which became thinner with every step. Human steps, she surmised, even as they came to a halt, Khida herself presumably undiscovered.

Another sound, a rustling which suggested some change of position; it neither approached nor departed. Then a pause... followed by a clearly frustrated sigh, muffled not at all by the screen of dry foliage between them.

That struck Khida as odd. Curious, the Kelvic rose in a slow and careful motion, looking for the source of the sound. It wasn't until she was fully straightened -- up on her toes, even -- that she finally caught a glimpse of dark hair through the grasses. There was no sign of a horse anywhere, not that she could see. Perhaps not a Drykas, then?

Khida moved sideways a bit, trying for a better view of the presumed stranger. A sense of who it was, what they were doing... She did not try for stealth, now, not as close as they were to one another, but remained poised to shift and flee if the unknown proved a likely danger.

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Dinah]

The snare was maddening. It didn't matter how she tried to put the thing together, it never seemed to sit right, or fell over, or looked like it was about as likely to catch a rabbit as it would the wind itself. Her latest attempt looked better at least. Dinah had at least figured out through trial and error that the two smaller posts were meant to support the noose, though keeping anything in place had been a bit of a mystery at first. Now though, she had managed - barely - to wedge both smaller pieces into the ground at a slight angle towards each other. The noose she had carefully and painstakingly settled just barely across the top of them so the majority of it hung between the opening in the middle of the two. Which only left the mystery of the noose's tail and the larger post.

Dinah knew it had to keep everything in place somehow. Or, at least keep the animal from just running off with the noose around it's neck without the bit of string ever doing what it was actually meant to do. Oh goodie, a necklace for a squirrel. Think of how envious the others of it's kind will be. I bet death traps are all the rage in rodent fashion. The frustrated sigh that wanted to leave her was strangled somewhere along the line and instead the girl forced herself into taking a calm, measured breath before turning her attention back to the larger post in her hand. Maybe if she just tied the end of the noose to the post, then whatever came running through would snag on the string like it was supposed to, the slipknot would tighten around it's neck and then... What? The post kept everything from moving? The vision of the squirrel in her head changed from one of just having string around it's neck to now dragging the wooden dowel behind it.

At least you'd be able to see it easier, she thought as she brought a hand up to wipe down the front of her face, lingering over her mouth as if to hold back the scream that Dinah just knew was itching to come out of her at some point. It seemed like an okay plan, she guessed, she just needed to make sure that things in the ground were solidly so.

A small bit of dirt was dug out with her hands before she shoved the post into the earth with as much effort as she could manage. The remaining bit of the hole was patched up and a few rocks were plucked from nearby to be put around it, hopefully wedging the petching thing in place. A test shake of the piece of wood wasn't exactly encouraging, but it seemed like it might hold up against the frantic tugging of some dying animal. With any real luck - right, like she had any of that going for her - the animal would run into the snare at top speed and the sudden stop as the noose tightened down upon it would snap the thing's neck. Is that how it's actually supposed to work? It sounds like that's how it should work.

With far more care than she thought she was capable of the end of the noose was tied securely around the larger post. For a second she was almost afraid to breathe as she looked at the setup. It looked good, Dinah had to admit as she straightened herself up and looked down upon the small trap. "Okay," she whispered softly to herself. "Now to just wait for some unsuspecting thing to come along and-"

A chill breeze swept through the grass and one of the smaller pieces of wood fell over in it's wake, tugging the noose out of place and jostling the larger post somehow to where it suddenly sat at an awkward angle that didn't look nearly as secure as it had only a tick ago. For a moment she could only stare, mouth slightly agape at the insult that lay before her.

Dinah was normally fairly good with her temper. She held onto it for ages, let it cool to deep seated resentment int he back of her mind where she would slowly let it seep out of her and erode whatever wronged her. Other times, however...

A breath was drawn in through teeth that wanted nothing more in that moment than to bite her tongue. She could feel the rest happening before she fully acknowledged she was doing it. Dark lines formed along her veins, starting just below her elbow and traced downward to the palm of her hand where her res was finally collected as it seeped from her pours. What started as a beautiful ethereal blue gas as it left her congealed quickly to something far more dark and ink-like in nature as it pooled in the concave space of the flexed palm of her hand as fingers bent and pulled inward.

Her hand snapped forward, curving as the bit of res left her, hurling the substance towards the remaining bit of the trap before it suddenly transmuted into the clear liquid she had learned to create. The force of the sudden small splash of water as it impacted with the trap was just enough to knock the remaining posts down. Far from satisfying but it certainly felt like it had far more impact than the sudden "Petch!" that left her as it had happened.

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Tukant"

[Khida]

Khida's feet crunched through the grass... and the stranger remained utterly oblivious to that noise, to her approach. The girl didn't so much as look up. Instead, she fussed with the ground -- with something on the ground, but at the moment, the watcher couldn't quite make out what. Whatever it was, it evidently consumed the whole of the stranger's attention.

Curious, she moved closer. If nothing else, the stranger -- young as she was, and patently naive -- seemed to present no hazard. More steps, forward and aside, brought Khida to where she could see what the stranger straightened away from: pieces of wood, rocks, a length of rope. A trap. A trap more complicated than those the Kelvic herself used, but of much the same principle.

A trap that fell over when the mere touch of an autumn breeze hit it.

That was... almost amusing. But the girl's response was not amusing in the slightest -- not that splash of water flung from her hand, water which came from no container. Water which came from nothing at all, so far as Khida could discern, an event which halted the Kelvic in her steps and startled a sharp, loud hiss of air between her teeth. She stepped back first one, then two full paces, her chin raised and frame tensed, manner speaking her sudden wary caution louder than any words might have done.

Did this one summon fire, too?

Khida knew nothing about this magic, about this stranger who wielded it. The last one she had met who made something from nothing had nearly singed her feathers with his fire. But this one, this young-looking girl all alone with her furious frustration and even less able to set a trap than Khida herself... she did not give off the same sense of threat as that one had, back then.

But Khida didn't relax. She just didn't turn tail and flee right off, either.

Give fire? her hands asked, practically without conscious direction. That was, in any case, the question she wanted answered right now.

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Dinah]

The sudden noise snapped her attention away from the failed trap and for a moment Dinah had felt her entire body tense in anticipation of lashing out. The sudden realization of how foolish it probably was to set out into the tall grasses on her own hit her soon after, giving her full awareness of just how ill equipped she was in that moment to actually fend off any sort of predators. The sight of the woman was a relief, though, but Dinah couldn't help but let her eyes flit in search of anyone else who may have been accompanying her. The caution in the other's posture was echoed absentmindedly as Dinah tried to calm herself and stop the slight tremble in her left hand. And then it struck her: the woman had probably seen everything.

There was no shortage in embarrassment as Dinah realized her little outburst had probably been witnessed. Somehow it was that rather than her failed attempt at setting the trap, or the fact she hadn't actually noticed the other individual until the startled sound that left her, that got under Dinah's skin. She might have found that funny if not for the woman's state. People being agitated around her wasn't entirely unusual, but there was something in the other's eyes that couldn't be ignored. It was wild, not fear... and then the gesture came and Dinah felt as if her world had suddenly cracked along a fault line.

Her head shook first before any words managed to leave her, hands following suit in a forced apology as the girl steeled herself against the sudden torrent within her head. Fire, why did it have to be fire that the woman asked about? Obviously the stranger didn't have the slightest clue as to why that element would probably always elude the girl, all the reasons that went with it, all the memories that had to suddenly be shoved behind a cold wall within that she'd perfected within the last two years.

"No," Dinah finally spoke as she looked over the woman with distant eyes. Her gaze fell swiftly, hands flicking in a subtle finality of never.

The girl glanced towards the snare she had been attempting to set, inner grumblings of guilt at her overreaction surfaced quickly. She wasn't one to typically care how she was thought of, but this far from how Dinah wanted someone to meet her. Undisciplined and hotheaded? That wasn't her.

A sigh left her, another apology offered, far more sincerely as she attempted to look as nonthreatening as possible but still carry her typical level of emotional detachment. Dinah wasn't entirely convinced the effect was successful.

"I don't normally do that," she offered, entirely aware of how it sounded more like an excuse than an explanation. "It's just been..." A small hint of annoyance came as Dinah shifted how she stood before folding her arms in front of herself uncomfortably to prevent herself from unintentionally gesturing anything else. "A rough morning, I guess. I didn't mean to startle you."

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Tukant"

[Khida]

The girl responded with caution, belated but appropriate. She seemed... reserved in a way as well, perhaps embarrassed or ashamed at the situation. What Khida did not discern in the girl's manner was any sense of menace -- only the wariness one would expect of a stranger. She offered an apology that wasn't apologetic in the least, but the Kelvic didn't really care. The important answer was no, and a gesture that held some sense of finality.

Khida straightened a bit at that, a measure of tension leaching from her posture. Good, she signed, an almost emphatic approval at distinct odds with the girl's own demeanor.

The stranger went on to chatter in Pavi, words signifying far less to the Kelvic than her posture did. A more sincere apology, followed by exasperation returning in full force, framed in the set of her arms and tilt of her chin. She spoke something of negative, do not and morning, and something that may have been an echo of her earlier apologetic gesture.

To all of that, Khida simply sketched a more airy approval, her manner suggesting a total lack of interest in dwelling on the subject. The Drykas girl's troubles were no trouble of hers... except perhaps for the trap. Khida decided she would share her own trouble -- not for the girl's well-being, but to deny whatever had stolen her prey a second so-easy meal.

"Trap, not to do here. Hunter eats," she supplied, gesturing vaguely in the direction of her own destroyed trap.

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Dinah]

The way the woman quickly moved away from any sort of suggestion for elaboration on why the girl was so flustered was refreshing. Far too often did curiosity seem to weigh in on people's minds and they would need to pry into all your little problems. There was just an acceptance of what she'd been told and Dinah couldn't have been more thankful.

It left her to move on to more important things, like the trap. And the fact the other seemed to be having troubles as well, though far from the same type, it seemed. Dinah tried to look towards where the woman had motioned to for further explanation about the hunter, but the grasses blocked her view. Leave it to her to pick a place that was far from ideal to try learning to trap things. A quick gesture of thanks was managed as she let the last remaining bits of embarrassment leave her and she hurriedly picked up the pieces of her snare.

A questioning look formed as the girl considered the broken Pavi she had been spoken to. There weren't many who freely roamed so closely to Endrykas who didn't have a full grasp of the language. Maybe this woman was one of the captives that had been taken? She didn't seem to act like them, though. There was something they seemed to have in common though and she let her hands ask the question that was beginning to plague her. Danger?

A thought dawned on her as she waited for an answer. Her own mother hadn't been born among the Drykas, and while Dinah had no real reason to believe the language that had been passed down to her would be understood by the stranger, it was worth trying. There was only so much that a few words and signs would get you as far as an explanation if both parties weren't fluent, after all.

"What sort of hunter? Predator or thief?" She asked, the words sounding a bit strange as she hadn't had much use for Common in recent days. A breath was held as she waited for hopefully some sign of understanding rather than further confusion.

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Tukant"

[Khida]

Danger, the girl signed, and Khida's hands spoke nearly automatically in reply: no, followed by a more diffident maybe. After all, scavengers were often predators too; and one that raided traps might be an opportunist, or it might be desperate, unable to hunt enough food on its own.

The girl suddenly seemed to perk up, as one might from a sudden realization. She went on to speak in Common, with that accent typical of the Drykas, an accent Khida hardly even heard as such anymore. Predator or thief, she asked, as if the two were separate things. What predator was not also a thief at need? "A predator that steals, I think," Khida answered, her speech more fluid in her native tongue but still enunciated with some care, accustomed as she had become to speaking with the Drykas. Look not, she elaborated, reflexively signing the addendum.

"Come, see," she went on vocally, beckoning the girl over and leading her through the grasses towards the Kelvic's own snare. Or what was left of it. "Step carefully. Careful. I haven't looked for tracks yet."

Once she could distinguish the things she knew to look for, Khida halted the girl, leaning in close to point out the tufts of bloodied fur, the length of chewed-up rope. Then she crouched down to examine the ground around the snare's remnants, dry and thickly matted with grass roots though it was. She didn't really expect to find evidence of the thief's breed there, but she had to try. Accordingly, Khida combed slowly through the grasses, parting them with her fingers, scanning the earth for track or tuft of fur which might tell her what had poached the trap.

Common | Pavi | someone else

[Dinah]

It was strange how the mix of Common and Pavi that came from the woman seemed to help ease whatever lingering tensions the girl had, at least, in regards to the woman herself. The whole trap situation, however...

One look at the state of the snare that had been raided was more than enough give full credence to the earlier warning and Dinah found herself stowing the meager trap she had brought in her pack. The bloody evidence didn't seem the type that would have been caused by an animal trying to escape that was for certain. Predator that steals. Some sort of scavenger, maybe? Easy meals weren't something most animals would shy away from but if the trap had done it's work the animal that had been caught should have been dead before the thief ever showed up. Maybe, she thought to herself. It could have been just as likely that a struggling squeaking animal would attract a predator as well.

Taking cue from the other woman, Dinah lowered herself near the ground to get a better look. The grass in the area was certainly flatted down, but that was probably from the thief struggling to remove it's meal from the snare than anything else. The girl glanced over as the other began pushing through the grass in search of further signs and found a new hesitation drawing upon her. Dinah hadn't exactly been asked for her opinion, or advice, or help, but if something was poaching from traps, being rid of it certainly would be beneficial for any hunters in the area. Besides, it certainly sounded more productive than failing miserably at setting a snare time and time again that was only going to get raiding if it ever was successful at catching anything.

Gently she picked up the piece of shredded rope, trying to see if she could figure out what it was that had pulled it apart. Teeth marks would look different from damage done by a beak or similar, wouldn't it?

"Have you had any other traps in the area with the same problem?" She asked cautiously, keeping her voice low. Not that she expected the predator to be close by, but it wasn't a bad habit to have and if nothing else Dinah felt like she should at least try and make up for her earlier outburst somewhat.

Finding no hints from the rope itself, she placed it back to the ground when something else caught her eye among the flattened grass. Dinah squinted as if in disbelief as she plucked the whisker from the ground. Some type of cat, then? That didn't seem right. She certainly couldn't picture any of the hunting cats back in Endrykas settling for such a lazy meal. Half their interest seemed to always stem from the thrill of the chase, after all.

Curiously, she held the whisker up and quietly called to the other, "What do you make of this?"

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Tukant"