Laying the foundations II

[Conrad]

58th of summer 506 Conrad was laying on one of the benches in the shadow this time, well out of the sun as he waited for his teacher to arrive again, glad to be out of sight of the burning ray's of syna this time around, he really didn't want a repeat of last time when he almost got a nasty sunburn. His father had a fit when he got wind of him sitting in the blazing summer sun that long. Luckily for him he saw his teacher coming towards him, a still dripping bag filled with something heavy in his hand and a carving kit and a small knife in his other hand. Conrad quickly pulled in his legs and sat up straight allowing his teacher to sit next to him, looking with curiosity to the bag in his teachers hands. “What did you bring for me to practice on this time?” conrad asked curiosity clear in his voice. His teacher let out a small chuckle at his eagerness as he handed the child the carving kit and the knife, putting the bag down on the ground in between them. “Well last time I just handed you some clean bones and you could get started immediately with carving, but that ain't going to happen a lot of the time in this art.” He reached into the bag and pulled out a dripping wet lifeless kitten and threw it towards conrad, who hapzardly caught the thing at the last moment. “First advice on working with full animals is to kill them with as less damage to the bones and organs as possible, so choking by clamping down the nose and mouth shut so that they don't get any air or drowning them, like I did here, are both good ways to keep most of it intact. Now just think what treats of the animal you want to bring out and get to it, if you screw up I still got quite a few kittens of all sizes and ages that I found in the bag so just start over again and wake me up from my nap when you are done with your first try okay?” His teacher let out a loud yawn as he leaned back on the bench and left conrad to his own devices. Conrad gave one unsure look towards the dead and lifeless kitten in his hand before looking back towards his teacher, the way he just talked about killing things with such cassuality didn't really sit well in the young boy's mind. Pushing the uneasiness to the back of his mind however he took a firm grip on the handle of the knife he got and clumsily began to try and skin the little thing to the best of his ability.

[Conrad]

Conrad grumbled as he looked at the bloodied mess that he made of the little kitten with his clumsy attempts at trying to skin it, his underarms splattered with blood organs and some gun he didn't know what it was and didn't want to know most honestly. He took a good look at the mutilated body of the kitten, the truth dawned on him that he was in no way able to get out all the bones intact with his skill, even now he already screwed up the spinal cord and the broke the ribs into pieces with his clumsy cuts. Conrad noted as he looked it over, feeling a bit queasy in his stomach. Taking a deep breath as he forced the feeling back down and tried to think what parts he was going to need for his project. Cats where graceful creatures as far as he knew and always landed on their feet when dropped from a height, so maybe he could try to capture some of that grace in the magic? He frowned as he looked at the mess of bone and flesh in his hand, he probably should use the legs for that then, maybe even the head, he was sure his dad said something about the ears having to do something with balance a while back. Taking his decision he poked around the kitten's shoulder a bit with the point of his knife trying to find the place where the joint was, before wriggling the knife in between the bones, after a few moments of cutting and pulling he finally ripped one of the kitten's front legs of its body, dropping the severed leg besides him he went to work to cut of the other 3 and the head. It took him almost 15 more chimes to get all the legs and the head of the kitten's body holding what was left of the torso, shortly contemplating what to do with it before just dropping it in front of him, he would clean up the mess later, or just shove that chore on his teacher if he got the chance. Taking one of the bloodied legs and slowly began to strip away the flesh still hanging on the bone with his knife.

[Conrad]

Letting out a sigh of relief as he threw the last bit of waste on the grass in front of him finally finished stripping the meat and skin of the kittens head and legs, getting the brains out of the skull was way more work then he had thought at first. He took a look at the bones in front of him as he thought about how he could make something out of it. Picking up one of the bones of the kitten he thought for a while before inspiration struck. If he drilled a hole through the end of each foreleg and through the eye sockets of the skull, it was possible to scratch a circle big enough to put a single letter in it and since he had 5 things he could squeeze 1 letter on every leg and one on the skull, put the extra room on the skull to use by adding a few other circles, string them all up in the right order and it would probably work..at least he thought so. Grabbing his toolkit and taking out a pick he started on the long and painfully precise task of scratching out the neccesary circles on the bones, making them small enough to fit on the rather smallish bones made the entire task even more difficult, while he worked his master woke up from his slumber, questioned him on his plan's for the necklace and just shook his head on his plan to make holes in the small bones, pointing out that would most likely ruin the bones. He did however mention that it wouldn't be to much of a difference if he would just tie the bones to the string directly, he also said that he was going back to the inn since it was late and that he should test out his item tommorow when he was back there to supervise, took his bag filled with death kitties and left. Now quite a bit of hours later, the sun slowly dipping towards the horizon, Conrad was laying the final hand on his necklace. The 5 circles that where carved into the bones, spelled out GRACE, while another circle located on the back of the kitten's scull had the world BALANCE. Pulling out a small knife he made a small cut in his thumb, putting a small drop in the circles and thus activating the item. Ignoring the small wound on his thumb he gave the item a look over, he didn't really want to go against his masters orders so he just stored away the rather macabre looking necklace in his pocket. Before picking up all his tools and quickly left before somebody noticed that he didn't clean up the mess he made. There wasn't anybody around to see it was him so why would care anyway?

[Baku]

Thou has written, and thou has completed, so I award thee the following.... Conrad: +2 Observation, +1 Rhetoric, +1 Skinning, +1 Field Dressing, +1 Carving, +1 Malediction Lore: Kitten Corpses(that’s like a totally buzz kill), Malediction: Kill with as little Damage to the Material As Possible, Moral Conflicts of Killing, The Travesty of Conrad Skinning an Animal, Taking apart a Kitten Skeleton, The Tales of Cats ~By Conrad’s Dad, Planning out the Item With Parts Available, Stringing Bones Together, Careful Scratches Additional Item: Kitten’s Curiosity - While a success in bringing out the properties of the bones of a kitten, the effects are not entirely expected. The Good: A partial increase in acrobatics skills. While by no means can a character wearing this item do flips and summersaults with ease, they can tumble and roll, even jump to the side slightly more gracefully than the average person without training. The Bad: The insatiable curiosity and playfulness of a kitten. While wearing this object, the wearer will often be struck with an awe at things that dangle or fly. Often feeling the need to bat at them as a form of entertainment. The plant also known as cat nip will often drive the wearer to feel euphoria, causing them to want to roll around in it and take a nap even at the slightest scent of the plant. Additional Notes: Every little bit helps in the end, but remember, Malediction is as much about knowing the history of the creature who’s parts you are working on as it is what you carve into it for the effects. Knowing what the creature is really capable of by observing it for a while will better allow you to succeed at drawing out the abilities that you are aiming for. Keep at it.