Solo Fawn or Thorn?

[Dravite]

38 Summer, 515 AV
5th Bell, Early Morning
Endrykas, Blackwater Pavilion

Dravite started awake, a cold, wet nose to the ear would do that to a man. It was still dark inside the tent, the first fingers of light pointed skyward outside on the horizon as Syna smiled her good mornings to the world and Leth bid them all goodnight. The two lovers stared at each other from across the world and slowly exchanged watch of the plain. The Drykas man lay awake, yawning and rubbing his watery eyes as the young, doe eyed fawn leapt about at his left, his wife Belkaia fast asleep to the right with their son tucked up safely in her arms.

Every time the horse lord felt his eyes grow heavy and fall closed again, Fawn would skip over to him and lick his face, chew a knot of hair or stick her nose somewhere that got his attention quickly, usually on a warm bit of skin. He yawned and pushed her away, drying his eyes on the back of his hand, clearly tired. "Why?" He scolded lightly, fearful of waking Belkaia at this hour.

The fawn stood staring, small and helpless, "rude," he called her and got up from the bed of furs to leave the tent before it got too warm, or at least that's the reason he used to convince himself that it was time to get up.

Fawn followed Dravite from the tent like a lost puppy and as soon as they were outside she ran and skipped about excitably. He took a bucket and wandered over to Kimba before setting it down and filling it full of water to keep the goat occupied long enough to find a jar. When he found one, Dravite retrained and kneeled to begin milking the goat. He pulled her udders down gently and squeezed, just as he had read in the book, careful not to bend or twice anything. Kimba stood chewing grass comically and the man smiled when he looked up to see her keeping an eye on him.

When the task was done, Dravite looked around to find that Fawn was nowhere to be seen. He got to his feet quickly and rushed into the tent only to discover she wasn't there. The horse lord ran outside again and called for the animal to return and when she did not, he turned to the web, slipping into a trance that was difficult to hold due to the panic he felt. The man traversed the web quickly, circling the camp before extending his search down either end of the makeshift street they were camped beside. She couldn't have gone far, he convinced himself before retracing his steps back to his physical form to go in search on foot. Just as he picked up his belt and fastened it about his hips to go in search of the animal, Roan stepped out of his tent half dressed with the young creature tucked under his arm and smiled, "missing something?"

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[Dravite]

"Roan, I'm so sorry!" Dravite admitted, "I only took my eye off of her for a second.
"Its fine, I planned to get up any anyway," the boy lied.
"I looked for her in the web; I didn't think to check any tents."
"Why don't you tie her to the web?" Roan asked, "That way if she goes missing again, she'll be a lot easier to find."
"I don't know why I didn't think of that?" Dravite smiled.
"I'll hold her still," Roan offered.
"I don't think still is something she is capable of," the watchman laughed and sat down to return to the web.

Inside the web Dravite could see Fawn and Roan as if he looked upon them with his own eyes. He pooled his djed to the centre of his chest and drew it forth in long, tightly wound bits of thread to fashion into a signature knot that marked him as the web Mage in charge of the animal before tying the invisible strands about the Fawn's neck, just like he would to anything else of value. He set down the knot in the existing webbing to signify her presence in the web and returned to himself, opening his eyes slowly to find that Fawn and Roan were exactly as he had seen them from the other side.
"Thank you, Roan," that was long overdue.
"My pleasure," the young man smiled and set Fawn down.

She leapt about and skipped around the two men excitedly before following Dravite over to the glass jar of milk. He lifted it in offering and the fawn stuck her head into the jar to drink the milk slowly.
"She likes it?" Roan inquired.
Dravite smiled, "Seems to and it hasn't upset her stomach so it can't be too bad."
"She's still alive, how long has she been drinking it?"
"Fifteen days or so now," Dravite explained.
Roan smiled, "I think she will be just fine in that case."
"Me too."

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[Dravite]

Outside of camp Dravite approached Cree and Bones to offer the horses water from the bucket. Cree drank deeply before moving over for Bones to take her fill and Dravite presented a carrot to the playful stallion, "no," he smiled, holding the carrot behind his back to switch it back and forth between his hands and break it in half, "one side is bigger than the other," he teased, "which is it going to be?"

The buckskin stallion stretched his neck out to touch the man's right elbow and Dravite presented the bigger half of the carrot to him before offering the other end to Bones quickly. Fawn stayed close for the most part but seemed drawn to Dravite's strider, the two animals stood sniffing one another. While Dravite stood brushing the horse, Fawn ducked under Cree’s belly and in between his legs playfully, skipping as she went. The horse bowed his head to watch her and snorted whenever she moved out of sight.

When the watchman moved on to brush the knots from Bones' mane and tail, he kept an eye on Fawn, watching her try to pluck up the odd bit of grass alongside Cree, as if he had taught her how. He smiled glad to see the two of them were getting along so well, before lifting the mare's feet. Carefully but quickly he mucked out the animal’s hooves before moving onto the back feet which proved a little more difficult with Bones, who was a lot more likely to kick the man if she pleased. After twice struggling to keep her feet raised, Dravite decided it was best not to aggravate his broken rib and picked up the empty bucket to start making his way back to camp, though it seemed Fawn was not interested in following.

"Come here!" He snatched at the young doe and felt the hairs on her hind legs pass over his fingers as she made a narrow escape. She ducked under Cree and stood in his shadow, watching and awaiting the man's next move. "Fawn!" The horse lord growled impatiently and dove between Cree’s legs to try and snatch at her again.

Cree looked back, shook his mane and carried on with his grazing, unamused by the shenanigans of the pair that ducked and ran around him until Dravite finally managed to get his hands on the fawn, "you're such a pain," he hissed, irritated, "and you're no help," he shouldered Cree and smiled as the Strider snorted at him. With Fawn under one arm and the bucket in the next, he then made his way back to camp.
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[Dravite]

Once there, Dravite set the bucket down with the rest of his things and set about cleaning the glass jar he had used to feed the fawn before sneaking into the mouth of the tent to see whether or not anyone else was up. Kyanite sat up on the furs watching Fawn tiptoe into the dim light towards him and smiled when he caught sight of his father not far behind.
Good morning, Dravite signed wordlessly and grinned as the boy mirrored his actions.

The horse lord removed his tool belt and hung it up out of the boy's reach before joining them on the bed again. He had brought in a small cup of goats milk for Kyanite and held it up to the boy's mouth to drink slowly.
"Is your mother awake?"
"No," Belkaia answered for her son.
Dravite smiled, "we best let her sleep then."
"Where have you been?" His wife inquired.
"Out watering the horses and milking Kimba," he explained.
"Are they all alright?"
"Everything's well, my love."
Belkaia turned to face them both and stroked her son's hair down gently, "it's early, are you returning to bed or will you be off to work soon?"
"Returning to bed," he smiled and set the cup aside which Kyanite was now finished with.

Dravite put his arms around the pair and lay down as Belkaia wriggled closer to him, their son sandwiched comfortably between the two of them. Just as he was getting comfortable, Fawn stepped on a snake-like tendril of hair and caused the man to hiss, "She’s been a pain in the backside this whole morning."
"She has a lot of energy," Belkaia agreed, "you need to tire her out before bed, like we do with this one," the woman smiled and kissed the top of Kyanite's head.

It seemed as soon as Kyanite closed his eyes he had fallen asleep again and Dravite envied the boy for such a skill as it often took him a long time to shut down and get to sleep. However, this morning seemed to be an exception for as soon as the man let his eyes fall closed, there was barely time for two chimes to pass before he was snoring again, despite Fawn’s best attempts at trying to keep him awake.

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[Pearl]

DRAVITE

Experience

• Animal Husbandry 3
• Webbing 2
• Grooming 1
• Acrobatics 1
• Cleaning 1
• Childcare 1
• Stealth 1

Lore

• Fawn: Cold nosed and persistent
• Fawn: The Escape Artist
• Always tie your belongings to the web
• Fawn: Full of Energy

Comments:
Thank you for allowing me to grade your thread. This was such a cute one. I truly enjoyed reading it. Fawn is so adorable, I just want to hold her and love on her for days! If you think I might have missed something, please so let me know. Happy writing!



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