Completed Dawn Patrol

[Jehu]

Jehu

40th of Summer, 519 AV

It had been a practice strongly suggested by Mathias upon Jehu's arrival to Skya. Buraga Shamzen conducted regular patrols around the settlement daily, and Jehu was to accompany the guardian and bring down some game as he learned about the jungle. Buraga was less than pleased with the company of a stranger who's eye he could not read. But since then every few days, Jehu would accompany Buraga on patrol.

That day it was a patrol to begin at dawn. Since the circuit Buraga usually took went a ways into the jungle as well as the coast, Jehu wore his usual jungle gear. Long pants, high boots and a shirt with long sleeves, rolled up until they entered the jungle. His pack was ready with a standard load of survival equipment, the kopis knife strapped to its side. the only thing that he would leave behind was a water skin. He had drunk his fill a day or so previous, and they were not trekking far. After applying insect repellent, he chose his two lighter throwing spears to hunt with along the way.

Uta, his neighbor, had brought him some soursop fruit the day before. Sophia had first shown him the spiky green fruit and taught him how to eat it. Jehu took a liking to them, and the fresh soursop served as Jehu's breakfast. He looked out over the sea, the sun beginning to peer over the horizon. A soft breeze blew in over the beach, causing the feathers hanging in the tent to dance and the carved bones to clatter together. The hot desert air had never felt that good.

His arrival at the docks was roughly on time. He liked that about Syka, it was like the desert people, time was not precise. Buraga had been standing at the end of the docks, looking out. The swordsman liked to start at the docks, to see if any ships had arrived or were waiting off shore for sunrise to approach. There usually wasn't, but if there were, he wanted to know. Buraga walked back to meet Jehu, his trademark longsword strapped across his broad back. jehu thought the strong, older man always walked like a bear. Buraga passed by the Chaktawe and chimed, "Come along."

That morning they would do the north patrol. It was longer, running from the Commons around to Maw the sawmill, while the southern patrol went down to Stairstep Falls. The first stop would be the Banana Grove, just a short way into the jungle from the Commons. It was a ready source of food for the settlement. Jehu took the lead, following the fairly clear trail into the jungle that lead to the grove.

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[Jehu]

Jehu

Keeping his eyes on the regular circuit of 'ahead, down, around', Jehu used one of the spears to brush aside longer leaves and branches that hung in the path to the banana grove. He cleared his throat as the recent persistent itching returned. In the silence between the two men, Jehu's thoughts had been driven again to a single subject.

"Have you seen Kamilla today?" Jehu tossed back at Baruga as they arrived among the banana trees. A startled troop of monkeys protested the intrusion loudly and scattered higher into the canopy. Jehu had readied a spear to take one, but they were spider monkeys, small and hard to hit among the tangled branches of the taller trees.

"No, Jehu, I haven't." Bauraga replied with a tone of exasperation. Starting six days prior, just after the storm, the Chaktawe has asked about Kamilla and talked about Kamilla more and more often. The man had a fixation with the woman and Bagara was getting annoyed. During their patrols, the guard had purposefully not shown Jehu where Kamilla lived near Treasure Point, to spare the mage the desert man's persistent attention.

"Hmm..." Jehu responded, hearing the irritation in the older man's voice. He would keep his wonderings to himself. The men examined the broad-leafed banana plants, most of which had bunches of bananas in some stage of maturity. When green they were good for cooking, while those that yellowed with ripeness were sweeter and usually eaten right out of the peel.

Baruga was no tracker, but he had familiarized himself with the prints of local predators, to help identify if any had lingered closer to the settlement than was comfortable. The broad-shouldered man crouched beneath one of the large banana plants, brushing aside some fallen plant debris. Baruga harrumphed. Jehu drew near, crouching to see what the man had found. It looked like a smallish clawed hand.

"It's nothing, just paca." Baruga dismissed as he stood and hitched at the harness that held his sword to his back. Jehu stood, his gaze swinging around. Paca were small game, giant rodents really, but suitable meat. He would keep alert for the creatures along the way.

The patrol continued through the jungle towards the Community pool, behind the bungalows and further east past the ranchos. There was no sign of paca's or other game, nor indication of predators, though avian calls and the skittering of smaller creatures were a constant sound. Baruga had taken the lead, following a course with which both were familiar, until a large fallen tree had forced them to divert, perhaps one that had been weakened during the wind storm and only recently succumbed to its weakened state.

As they rounded the end of the tree, something dropped near Jehu's foot. He froze and looked down. it was a fruit. The Chaktawe prodded it with the butt of a spear. It appeared like small pineapple. Jehu looked up. Unlike pineapple, the fruit were growing on a small tree overhead.

"What?" Buraga asked, noticing Jehu had stopped. The man backtracked to where his companion stood. Jehu prodded it again, seeing no dangerous defenses on the skin or small leaves of the thing. He bent to pick up the fruit, both men examining it.

"What is it?" Jehu asked the veteran Sykan. "It smells good."

"I don't know." Buraga replied, brow furrowed as he reached to feel the strange fruit. I have been through this part of the jungle countless times, and have never seen this tree or this fruit before. "Lets take it back and see if Uta or Sophia know what it is."

Jehu pulled a sack out of his backpack and placed the fruit in it, and plucked another from the tree. Reaching into his pack, Jehu pulled out his hunting knife and cut through the skin to get to the juicy pulp inside.

"What are you doing?" The guard asked. "We don't know anything about that. Just a taste, Jehu." Baruga warned, seeing Jehu was determined to investigate.

"I know." The Chaktawe replied. He had been taught a risky but quick way to check a plant for toxin by getting a bit on your skin, then take a small taste. If it irritated the skin, or had a bitter taste, or smelled like almonds, there was a good chance it was poisonous. He lifted the exposed flesh to his nose. It smelled appetizing. Next, Jehu pressed the pad of his finger against the exposed pulp, rubbing the juice between his fingers. No itching or numbing. With the tip of the knife, Jehu picked out a tiny piece of the pulp and placed it on the tip of his tongue. It wasn't bitter, but sweet. "It tastes like...a pear."

Just to be safe, Jehu spit out the contents of his mouth. Then he placed a couple more of the fruit into his sack and returned it and the hunting knife to his pack. Baruga looked again up at the tree and curious fruit. Shaking his head. He knew that tree was not there two days ago.

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[Jehu]

Jehu

halfway between Sharktooth Point and the sawmill they found two more of the strange fruit trees, both appearing along the patrol route where they had not been a few days before. "I don't get it." Buraga exclaimed, pausing again to inspect the third unfamiliar plant of that sort they found. "No plant I have ever seen can grow so fast, especially without any parent seed. I know this plant does not grow in the Maw, or around Syka."

Jehu thought to take more of the fruit, but a boa lingered in the branches. He saw no reason to disturb the serpent. Baruga simply grumbled and set out again, pounding his walking stick on the ground before they began. He said it was to warn snakes and lizards under the ground foliage of their approach.

Coming out onto the cobblestone path near the sawmill, they encountered Lars with two ashta laden with lumber for repairs near the Commons. The creatures waited patiently as Baruga and Lars spoke. One reached with his trunk and wrapped it around one of Jehu's spear shaft. "Give me that." He protested with a laugh as he wrestled with the beast for the weapon. A gentle smack on its thick hide from Lars coaxed the ashta to release the spear.

Baruga asked Jehu to show Lars the fruit they had found. Jehu obliged, pulling out the small, pineapple like fruit. Lars denied ever seeing such a thing before, and agreed that one of the botanists should be sought out for help. Then he and the ashta moved on.

A circuit around the sawmill divulged nothing that alerted Baruga, and they headed back down the cobblestone path, overtaking Lars and passing him. On the return route, Baruga usually stopped at Sharktooth Point, where he could look out on the greater Suvan for signs of ships. But he had something specific he was looking for, something that spurred him to include Jehu on the morning patrol.

Following the path down the small peninsula that jutted from the tip of the Maw, Jehu suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck, as if he were jabbed or bitten. "Agh, what in Makutsi's halter..." The Chaktawe cursed, struggling with a suitable expletive in Common. He halted and reached under his hair at the back of his neck. Where the piercing pain persisted, he felt a hard smooth object about the size of a thumbnail attached to his skin.

"For the gods' sake, what is it?" Baruga complained, turning and stepping back to where Jehu stood. The desert man pulled back his hair so the swordsman could see. "Hmmm." Baruga hummed. He found a red stripped beetle fastened to Jehu. "Red Biting Beetle. Hurt's like sin, doesn't it?"

"Yes." Jehu replied bluntly.

"Well, It ain't gonna let go until its done feeding on you. I could cut around it, but that's gonna hurt worse. Best to let it have its fill then it will drop off." Baruga advised, walking away to resume the trek to the point. Jehu grumbled and followed.

They reached Sharktooth Point, a rocky outcropping that stretched out into the sea. Baruga climbed over the rocks, finding a patch of sand between them that ran down into the water. It looked as if something had been dragged down the sandy crevice into the surfe. Broad, reptilian paw prints lined either side of the long depression in the sand.

"Boy, how good are you with those spears?" He turned to Jehu with a feral grin. Jehu stood on a rock overlooking Baruga, a quizzical look on his face. "Some spearfisherman reported seeing something hunting in the water off the point, not a fish, a reptile. Got pretty close to them and gave them a scare. You ever heard of a whiptail?" The burly man asked.

Jehu reached back to feel if the beetle was still there. He knew it was, its mandibles were still dug painfully into his flesh. "Yes, on the last expedition I worked. The traders called it a Whiptail, but the guides called it Karkula. We only saw part of a skeleton on some rocks, but the traders were happy as goats to get the tail bones. Said they were worth some coin." The Chaktawe pieced together the scenario. Baruga wanted to hunt the dangerous lizard.

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[Jehu]

Jehu

Though Jehu had never seen a live whiptail, what he saw of the skeleton was razor-like teeth and claws. Hunting the big lizard would be different than taking down a nandhai with Indigo. Only moderately confident he could take down a predatory lizard he had never really seen before, Jehu nodded. "Sure."

"You'll be fine. Just watch out for the tail, it'll take your knees out and once you are down, you're shredded. Just need to find it. Its a water hunter, so if it's not swimming, it will be lurking just a bit in the water, waiting for prey." Baruga explained, an excitement in his voice that Jehu had never heard before. The swordsman climbed up onto a rock to look out over the water around them. "I shoulda brought by bow." He grumbled.

They both moved along the edge of the point, trying to keep on rocks from which they could look down into the shallow water, hoping to spot the whiptail. Finally, Baruga reached back and grabbed Jehu's wrist to get his attention. There was a pool between some rocks, like a tiny lagoon. In it, a dark shape could be seen lurking in the shallow water, almost six feet long. The ridges of the reptile rose above the water. "There it is." Baruga said quietly.

They worked their way closer, carefully clambering over the rocks. They paused to shed their back packs, leaving them where they would stay dry. Jehu untied the sheathed kopis from the pack and hung it from his belt. Then they jockeyed for a position where they could get the drop on the whiptail and hopefully kill it before it can fight back. Baruga would drop near the opening of the pool, Jehu behind the creature. With a glance between them, the two men jumped down.

Jehu hit the water, which was calf deep. Baruga landed with a splash a ways ahead, a distance from the creatures head, sword drawn. The whiptail came to life with a thrashing that cast water everywhere, making spotting it harder. The thing lunged towards Baruga and Jehu threw his first spear at it. The steel-headed weapon plunged into the water, exactly where the whiptail had been a split second before. It fell into the water.

Baruga swung with his heavy sword, but the agile creature moved quicker than expected, the sharp blade only grazing it atop its skull. It spun around to whip its long, heavy tail at the swordsman, who staggered back and deflected it with his sword, but lost his footing and fell backwards. The beast then saw Jehu.

Holding his remaining spear in both hands, the Chaktawe jabbed at the whiptail to keep it at bay until he could get a better position to strike a vital spot. The angry creature spun around, this time aiming its tail at Jehu. There was little space for Jehu to maneuver. He jumped, hoping to clear the lightning fast strike. The thick appendage caught one ankle, sweeping Jehu sideways in the air to fall into the water. It was on him instantly. Holding the spear shaft across his body, he tried to keep the gnashing fangs from tearing into him. While he was able to fend off the bite for a moment, the claws rent at his forearms, tearing at the flesh. Then the whiptail suddenly flew sideways, Baruga's heavy boot sending it across the alcove.

In the moment of reprieve, Jehu quickly climbed to his feet as Baruga resumed searching in the water for his fallen sword. The whiptail recovered, angrier than ever. Blood ran down Jehu's forearms, salt-water soaked open wounds causing searing pain. He focused quickly on the reptile, its mid-section, and threw the spear. Cornered by Jehu and now Baruga with recovered sword in hand, the whiptail was boxed in. The spear plunged into the creatures side. It thrashed all the more, six feet of flailing claw, tooth and deadly tail in a tumult of splashing water.

Baruga attempted to get close enough to strike with the sword, and nearly got his shins crushed by the tail. Jehu found his second spear and reached in to thrust it through the body just above the shoulder. The writhing beast wrenched the shaft from Jehu's hands as it screamed and struck out in blind panic and rage, the spears waving around as they jutted from its body, the men having to avoid getting struck by the weaving wooden shafts as well as the beast itself.

Finally, the whiptail began to lose strength, and Baruga leaped in and skillfully hacked off it's head. Jehu had already fallen to his knees in the water, clutching his bleeding arms against his body, his brain foggy. But he watched the headless reptile flop in the water until it finally stilled.

Taking time to bind Jehu's arms, Baruga was able to staunch the blood as well as tend to several gashes he earned as well. Using the kopis, the went inland to hack down a sapling and using Jehu's rope, tied the whiptail carcass to the pole. Slinging it between them so they could carry it back to the Commons. The going was slow, Jehu's ankle was badly bruised as well, and he leaned on his spears as he walked, still carrying one end of the pole on his shoulder. They stuck to the cobblestone path until they reached the fish cleaning station, where Jehu could sit on a stool and help show Baruga how to skin the giant lizard. Only after the whiptail skin was secure and Shoal was recruited to cut up the meat, Jehu sought out Jansen at the Panacea to tend to his wounds. The meat would be shared.

Words: 736

Wounds: Lacerations to forearms

[Ennisa]

Grades Awarded

Please edit your grade request, thanks!

Jehu

Skills

Observation: +3
Organisation: +1
Wilderness Survival: +3
Socialisation: +2
Foraging: +1
Land Navigation: +1
Hunting: +1
Weapon: Spear: +1
Acrobatics: +1
Endurance: +1

Lores

Buraga Shamzen: Patrols Syka daily
Wilderness Survival: Clothing preparation for entering the jungle
Soursop Fruit: General appearance and method of eating
Syka Location: The Banana Grove
Socialisation: Recognising voice tone clues
Foraging: Colour as an indicator of ripeness in bananas
Hunting: Paca: Small game, giant rodents
Observation: Listening to the jungle
Wilderness Survival: Checking new plants for edibility
Syka: Appearance of the strange new fruit trees (Summer 519)
Wilderness Survival: Bang on the ground to warn reptiles
Syka Location: The Sawmill
WS: Effect and appearance of the Red Biting Beetle
Syka Location: Sharktooth Point
Hunting: Whiptail: General mannerisms
WS: Creating a makeshift spit

Penalties/Awards

Ledger:
Item(s):
Health: As this thread was a few seasons ago now, I won't 'award' injuries, as they would have surely healed by now.

Notes

This was a good read, and the first I've read of someone from Syka going into the jungle and doing hunting. Wilderness survival is also a new skill to me, so if I've missed anything please please let me know. Otherwise, keep at it!

I also wanted to say that your skills need to be accounted for, whether that's hyperlinking each skill to the thread where you gained it (good example: Quzon), or putting a log next to each completed grade of the skills you received for that thread (good example: Nya).

Character 2

Skills

Skill
Skill
Skill

Lores

Lore
Lore
Lore

Penalties/Awards

Ledger:
Item(s):
Health:

Notes

points about the thread go here