Poetry in Motion [Sama'el]

[Raiha]

She listened to all of this as she went over the rabbit, digesting this information and adding it to what she already knew about the web from listening to Vanator when she had asked him in seasons past. So Watchmen guarded the moving Drykas capital and the Web itself. That seemed to be a tall order. How did they guard something that stretched the length and breadth of Cyphrus itself? Perhaps against tampering by other magic users. Leechers, maybe. She started gutting the rabbit with her hunting knife, having found nothing wrong with its innards, as Diallo looked on. She made whistled at Uzima, the knife slicing deliberately into the organs to cut them out, before throwing a gobbet of bloody offal at the hawk. She was off her perch immediately, swooping to catch it before it hit the ground, returning to the fence to eat her prize. The deerstalker’s patience was rewarded with some of the rabbit’s organs. He’d earned them.

Raiha understood their unwillingness to tell her. She couldn’t blame them. She, herself, was fond of secrets - she loved them, honestly, and kept them close to her chest. It was part of being a Nightwalker. She had a sixth sense for secrets, an instinctive drive to find them. But where she differed from others was the fact she never repeated them. She had yet to tell even Kavala about her meeting Akajia. And she did the best she could to keep that secret quiet - the Akontak didn’t mention it to anyone, didn’t discuss it with anyone, and did not engage the shadows in conversations when others were around or even close to being around. Even still... one way or another, she would get to the bottom of webbing, and find some way, some how, to learn it.

One way or another.

“I understand,” she nodded as he told her he could not initiate her. So that was out. Still, there hadn’t been any harm in raising the possibility. She finished cleaning out the rabbit, one eye on Uzima before chucking yet another piece of bloody meat in her general direction. Raiha “Sometimes, when foraging, I find concentrated points connected to the Web. What are those called? Is that part of what you guard? Does the Web take a lot of time and Djed to maintain?”

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el sighed, going back to work on the hedgehog with his hunting knife. He did it as neatly as he could, but he had never quite got the hang of it. Not the way Jaeden could, but then it was Jaeden's bread and butter. Well, that and rubbing ladies down at the Soothing Waters. But Sama'el didn't like saying no, didn't like disappointing pretty girls. "I guess if you and Kavala are close enough, she might ask her brother to bring you into the Denusk pavilion. Then..." Well, it was an option, but she would have to prove herself more than just a friend of the Drykas, but a Drykas indeed. Kavala was Konti, but Drykas, so he supposed one could be Akontak and Drykas too. They would likely welcome her strength and skill. Watching her feed treats to her animals, he held out several of the groundhog's organs and some entrails in his hand, half-offering. "May I share with your friends or do you want them to only eat from your hand?" he asked. It was a reasonable question. If someone tried to feed treats to one of his horses without his permission, he might have his scimitar in hand to dismember them before his reason caught up with his emotional reaction. It was a peace offering of sorts: treats for her beloved animals, a path to knowledge for her. She could take or leave both of them, but he hoped his adherence to his vows would not spoil their burgeoning friendship. He had found many things about it enriching.

[Raiha]

Mmn. Apparently, the questions had gone too far and come too close to what he was comfortable telling. Maybe she could harass Kavala...well... gently nudge her... about it. She didn’t seem too put out, though, by his refusal to tell her more. She understood better than most the bonds of secrecy and silence, of things that were not meant to be told to blue ears. But still... so much for going about it that way. “I know Vanator,” she nodded slightly, tidying up the hide with the knife as she worked. She wanted to tell him that that Drykas man had also talked to her about the Web, and had told her more about it, but to do so was a gamble when she had essentially sworn herself to secrecy that day when she and he had talked. Still, she had learned some more about the Web, so it wasn’t a complete and total loss. She would have to canvass the shadows, ask them what they knew from watching him, about this Web. Perhaps she could find out more that way. Perhaps when he spoke to Kavala, or if he spoke to anyone else...

You’re giving up, just like that? Kanikra scoffed at her.

When one door closes, another opens, Raiha defended her decision. We’ll bother Kavala about it, and see what -she- says. There’s bound to be more opportunity to learn from her. She we can wear down over time with questions, slip them in here and there... but she may just tell us. We will see.

Fair enough. Don’t forget to speak to the shadows later, her twin did approve of that methodology, at least.

She glanced back up at him from the hides and morsels in front of her when he asked about feeding her companions. “You can give some of it to Diallo, if you like, but I’m particular about Uzima,” she shook her head slightly, rolling a shoulder upwards to brush some of her snow-white hair from her forehead. She eyed the dog, then. “Gently,” she warned the big white Deerstalker at that as his tail went up and he stood at his full height, eyeballing Sama’el across the table. Food?

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sama'el nodded, glad at least that there seemed to be no hard feelings. He didn't like disappointing anyone, Drykas or no, and especially not a pretty woman, but some things were sacred. He would show kindness to her canine companion in recompense, and that was certainly acceptable within his moral code. With one final yank, he pulled the skin free from the corpse of the hedgehog in one piece, leaving fur at its paws and on its head. He peered at the spiny skin, wondering what he could make of it were he to cure and tan it as he had been taught by Utine Redpelt. But she was back with her pavilion in Endrykas, and since Raiha had caught it, she would have to keep it. His knife quickly went to work vivisecting the hedgehog, careful not to probe too deeply too quickly into the abdomen for fear of splitting one of the organs that would spoil the meat with bile and other noxious elements. A bloody thumb flipped the liver toward Diallo, and he grinned at the dog's instinct to snap it out of the air. "Good for the blood," he murmured, remembering what his grandmother had said to him and her many grandchildren.

[Raiha]

OOCJust want to point out that a groundhog is not a hedgehog... they’re two entirely different animals. Groundhogs are big and plump and good eating. They do not have quills.

Diallo opened his maw and caught the liver, his jaws closing on it with an almost surreal calmness. Raiha smiled at him, and gathered up the three skinned corpses. They weren’t as neat as they could be, really, and she would go over them later with a finer-bladed knife, bone them out and gut them, and see what could be done with the meat. Uzima was always hungry, the dogs could use food, and of course, the people who lived at the Sanctuary wouldn’t mind food. Put in a stew, no one would notice.

“You can keep the groundhog pelt if you like,” she told him, nodding at it. “A lure, maybe, should you decide to learn falconry after all, or part of a pouch.” He was the fledgling leatherworker, not she - she just used them for training the birds and the dogs, and to take to town to have tanned, and let them use it for something. She should eventually learn that herself, really. Maybe she should ask for pointers from the Akalak hunters in town. There had to be some way of doing it. It wasn’t like she was ever going to make a full suit of leather armor or something like that for herself - she just liked them for functional things. Most of them that had been taken to town and returned to her were piled up on her bed for when the weather turned cold. Until then, she liked them as additional pillow leverage. Nothing fancy. A master skinner she was not.

She rose, then, stretching and unfolding herself from where she had been seated. “Thank you for your company and assistance today,” she smiled at him. “But I need to get these out of the sunlight so that they do not spoil before they can be cooked. There is more work to be done. I will see you around, Sama’el of the Sapphire Clan.” She whistled at Diallo, who shook himself out and trotted after her as the strange blue-skinned woman threw a scrap of meat at the goshawk, who caught it in her beak, and seemed to disappear into the sunlight.

OOCThanks for a fun thread!

[Mist]

Thread Grading! Raiha XP/Skills: +1 Falconry, +2 Hunting, +2 Observation, +3 Socializing, +1 Teaching, +2 Skinning, +2 Interrogation, Lore: Groundhogs are the Enemy, Using dogs and birds in tandem, Meeting Sama'el of the Sapphire Clan, Quality animals over quantity, A pavilion-less Drykas, Holding ones tongue, Akontaks are mutts, What a Drykas Watchmen does, Knowing when to stop pressing. Item/ Consequences: rabbit pelt(poor), rabbit carcass, groundhog carcass, mole carcass Additional Notes: I would have given you a point in auristics, if you had described it a bit more in depth, and worked at the process a bit more. And since you are a master falconer, you don't get much xp for such simple uses of falconry, for your level. * *** * Sama'el XP/Skills: +3 Socializing, +1 Flirting, +2 Skinning Lore: Meeting Raiha, The beauty of a huntress using her beasts together, Quality animals over quantity, If only I could fly, How a hawk kills, Falconry: A kestrel is a good starting bird, Akontaks are mutts, Yakini the horse, knowing when to hold ones tongue. Item/ Consequences: -Nicked thumb(healed by Raiha), groundhog pelt(poor) Additional Notes: I could not give much xp, since you mainly watched, but you did get some useful lores, should you decide to study falconry. -If you have any questions about the grade, don’t hesitate to PM me.