PM to join [hunt]Hunting for Amateurs Part 2

[Taylani]

Time Stamp 83 Fall 513

Syna rides its course across the sky, not quite climbing yet to noontide heights, but lending its glow and faint warmth across the Sea of Grasses. The breeze that blows had a chill but it was by no means frigid as it might be further north. Instead, out here, the warmth of fall lingers and persists though nights grow cooler still. All is quiet in the grasses in this area, other then the noise of the various insects, a call of a bird and the unmistakable sound of breathing that bordered heavy and a sharp if muted feminine cry and an echo of a masculine voice before things grew quiet again.

Afterward Taylani lay for a little while cradled against her lover's body, only slightly worried that someone might come upon them and see their naked forms. She was slightly more concerned about wildlife that might find them, then people for she was finally starting to grasp just how huge the grasses were. Even though she didn't worry about being discovered it doesn't take Taylani too long before she gives Fallan a smile and moves away. Unlike the last time he had managed to get her out into the grasses, this time when she moved away it was reluctantly rather then desperately.

She still didn't move with abandon in her nudity, but that was not because of shame for what they had done this time. This time it was simple awkwardness of being fully unclothed and exposed that caused her to hurriedly fix her clothing. The breeches were turned right side in once more and her sleeves pulled from within the blouse out. She was still very slim and trim, and surely someone who did not know her body as well as she might miss the extremely slight swell that was only noticeable thanks to her rigid muscle tone that did not allow for any stored fat.

As it was the swell was only evident to even Taylani when her hand was ran along her stomach. The tautness in the lower abdomen a stark difference then the solid wall in the upper. Quickly her hands pull on her clothing, even when putting her breeches on and standing on one leg for a moment she did not sway or falter. Quick efficient movements. Her red braid had been executed poorly anyway, and now was so messy and lopsided Taylani pulled the tie out and worked her fingers so that the locks fell apart and spread down across her back.

With a smile toward the man with her, Taylani quirks her brow "Now, perhaps we can get what we came for?" her words were amused and even light. The two horses, his strider and her smaller regular horse continued to ignore the humans as they stood together grazing at the grasses.

[Fallan Windchaser]

His casual introspection of the events of the day was disturbed as Tay shifted and moved to get up. He remained where he was, the now weaker sun still warm on his back, protected as they were from the breeze which carried with it the hints of winter. He rested his head on his arms and watched her out of the corner of his eye as she struggled to dress.

He watched her move with precision and dexterity, foiled only slightly by the clothes which had tangled in the hurry to remove them. He wasn’t quite sure why she was in such a hurry, nor why she felt the need to cover up so quickly especially since he was now no longer able to admire her naked form, and that was something that he rarely had the chance to do in the bright light that Syna cast rather than the concealing light of lamps inside a tent. He had noticed that city dwellers seemed a bit obsessed by the concept of nudity compared to the slightly more free views of the Drykas and had wondered if that was in part due to the difference in the way that they lived for in a pavilion nothing was really private.

It seemed however that she was not going to be satisfied with lying here with him and that her act of dressing was not merely to cover up but instead a prelude to a return to their previous purpose. Her words took away the final hope that she might lie down next to him again so that they could enjoy simply being together and it was also a sign that she did not intend another round of play together, not just yet in any case. That saddened him a little but it was a momentary thing because for now she was still here and with her hair newly unbound and tumbling around her.

He propped himself up on his elbow and returned her smile, comfortable in his nudity. [color=#ffffff]”Fallan know how dig tubers. Tay need learn. Only one digging stick.” He grinned at the simple logic even if he meant none of the words. He was tempted to tease her, to suggest that a slave would be more useful here for he could have intercourse when he wanted and would have dug the tubers for him, but he sensed that she might or might not get the joke and it almost certainly might raise questions in her mind about what he thought about them and about her. One day he might well be able to joke with her about it, but not just yet.

Still he waited a moment to see how she might rise to the bait and then rolled easily to his feet and wandered over to her, the grass cool under his bare feet. He moved close and leaned in, [color=#ffffff]”Tay beautiful,” he whispered into her ear and kissed her just the once on her neck.

[Taylani]

Pulling the lavender colored blouse over her head, allowing the scalloped neckline to settle around her shoulders causing to her to casually slip a hand beneath the weight of her hair and flip it out to pull it free from the back. His words on the tubers simply caused her to look over her shoulder at him with a quirk of the brow. She had to actively try to stop the thoughts that ran into her brain, trying to find hidden meaning in his words. That defensive reaction a by product of her time here, one that would take time for her to feel safe enough to break that habit.

To cover the fact that it took a few seconds longer to respond to his words, she smiled a little widely and bends to pull on her shoes as she responded in what she hopes is a light manner. "Hmm Tay's mother taught her how to share. I am sure we can share the ..digging stick."

When she raised again, starting to turn back to him but was stopped by a wall of muscle as he had managed to come up behind her without her hearing his steps. She didn't even notice that her body did not tense, it didn't stiffen when he leans in to whisper into her ear, or when his lips found her neck once more. "Fallan." His name on her lips at once both soft, but stern and she completed the turn towards him and to her credit there was only a brief pause as she realized he still hadn't dressed.

For her his body was something forbidden and best left as unexplored as possible -at least until recently- and that included with eyes and hand. But here in the open, with nothing but the wind between them she could not help but give an appreciative glance over him. Which of course, with her fair coloring caused a blush to rise but she ignored it to smile. "Your not going to distract me from the work again." Speaking such she raised light, to give him a shy kiss on the lips, a little brush before backing up quickly.

She moved to where his clothing lay, equally hastily discarded in a pile, and picked through it until she found the bone digging stick. She raised with it in one hand, and primly said "I will get started, while you..." She trailed off but gave him a very pointed once over glance and a look back to his clothing.

She then moved to the patch of green leaves that she had pointed out to him before they had gotten distracted. It felt still odd and a little out of place, joking with him, almost forced though it really wasn't on her part. Blue eyes flicked to him once more as she settled on her knees in front of a plant that had the broad leaves, next to a plant whose greenery was long and skinny.

The stick was held in he right hand, and she bends over the plant to hesitantly start scraping the top layer of soil away.

[Fallan Windchaser]

Her reaction made him smile, and the kiss made him smile more but though he was tempted to challenge her words he resisted the urge else they would not get anything done. He didn’t even have the excuse that they should have a child together, for that had been already taken care of with Semeles blessing and he prayed for Her blessing on the continued health of the child. Without any excuse other than his pleasure and with responsibilities to meet he could not quite justify the dalliance, tempting though it was for her body was still fresh in his minds eye.

He shook his head when she retrieved the stick from his gear and sighed for the inevitability of it, though in a good natured way. Was this how his parents had been when the were young? He couldn’t quite imagine that smile on his mothers face but perhaps that had been washed away by time and the pressures of a family. He hoped that it would not happen to Tay and him and he made a promise to himself that he would not allow it.

With that he dressed, not hurrying too much as they did have only the one stick, which was something of an oversight and there seemed little just where they were that he could fashion into one, and in any case she might need the practice. Dressing did not take long and with the small sack collected from Stormdancers gear he made his way over to where Tay was digging so that he could clean off the tubers and put them into the sack.

Having knelt down near her where he wouldn’t be in the way of her elbows he watched her work. He liked her hair down more than he liked it in that braid, but he knew that it was in large part because he associated her hair being down with her being naked and vulnerable. He imagined how it might look up in braids and with beads as the women he knew did. Somehow the image seemed more serious and certainly less vulnerable, but all the same he still felt drawn to her and even like that… He realised where his thoughts were leading and the temptations that wanting to break through the barriers of her seriousness would present and cut them short. When would they be truly open to each other? When would the last barriers fall? It would take a while he suspected, and worried that he might drop his too fast and blurt out a truth that she was not ready to hear and perhaps never would be.

”Tay work hard,”he commented, glancing around them to see how far this patch of tubers had spread. ”Should not dig all.”He pursed his lips and wondered about how much they shared in knowledge and beliefs. ”We show respect for Caiyha. She provide all,” he cast his arm wide to indicate all that lay around them, and tried to not make his tone one of lecturing. ”Before take, ask, thank. Give back gift. Live in balance, take and give. Not take all so can harvest next year.”

He wondered if she had as yet followed through the chain of logic and applied it to their arrival here and grinned, giving her a moment to absorb it. ”Dig tuber when arrive, offer gift new life in return. Dedicated Caiyha, need to do. ” He attempted to keep a serious face and glanced around them. ”Lot tuber, need good gift.” Despite his efforts at control his lips twitched and in any case his eyes danced in response to the way that he teased her.

[Taylani]

Once the top soil was removed from the first tuber, the white flesh of the root shining through the rich dirt, Taylani readjusted the bone in her hand pushing it into her palm rather then on her fingers. This freed up the fingers on both hands so that she could position them around the root and pull it upwards. It took just a little bit of effort but finally it pulled free with a 'plop' and the rain of soil back down.

As he returned, she set the tuber aside for she did not grab his dagger to remove the leafy tops. The crown of the root, however, had grooves where her bone digger scraped along due to inexperienced hands digging too deep. However she moved on to the next, ignoring the tall thin blade of leaf for the moment. From her foraging foray with the group of women she knew that would be a spring onion..and she knew what it had did to her stomach before. While there was no signs of the very light and very rare spasms of nausea, she did not want to run the risk of the smell triggering it. Not when she was enjoying the day ..in his company. She had already humiliated herself once by being sick in front of him, on a horse no less, she had no desire to do so again.

She felt his eyes on her, and she paused in her digging to look up at him moving the curtain of red that dangled over one side of her body to the other so that she had a clear view. At times she wondered what he was thinking, and other times she almost didn't want to know. This was one of the former, but he kept silent and she could appreciate the need to keep ones' thoughts to oneself.

When he did speak she listened, nodding her head as she laid the second tuber down beside where she laid the first. It's crown not quite so gouged. His words made sense, though she had never thought to think of it in that terms. The women before had talked about ensuring that they did not completely ravage the plants that held the berries that they had picked. Though they hadn't told her about giving thanks or gifts. "I have never had much traffic with gods Fallan. I don't even know how one would give thanks..."

Yet he continued on, and at first Taylani watched him blankly, trying to understand...the moment she understood what he was saying it became obvious. It was so much like a sudden light blooming when realization hit and she couldn't help the snort of laughter that was quick and short, and her hand immediately raised to cover her mouth in surprise at how quickly the sound came. This left an unfortunate smear of dirt on her cheek, but she either didn't realize or didn't care because when she dropped her hand it was not to find anything to wipe it with. Instead she picked up the latest tuber she had dug, and in a manner that could almost be called playful she tossed it at him.
"Behave." She admonished, and though her features quickly settled back into her serious expression her blue eyes continued to dance a little behind her lashes. "How am I suppose to learn what is right, if I am constantly distracted by you?"

[Fallan Windchaser]

Her snort of laughter caused him to grin, breaking at last the serious look that he had attempted to keep on his face. He caught the tuber awkwardly with his left hand in a reflexive move and dropped the bag at the same time.

It was good to see her laugh and to relax. He eased his knife free from his belt sheathe and sliced off the green top of the root but did not immediately place it in the bag, though he absent mindedly wiped the blade clean with his finger. Instead he was watching her, noting how different her face was when it was relaxed and it was much the same as when he watched her sleeping or when she was busy and off guard so that the stiffness and the slight scowl which just crinkled her brow between her eyes and which was so often a feature of her expression were no longer there.

He was surprised to realise just how much he liked it when she smiled and just how much it meant to him. He liked the way that her lips curved just so and how it changed her eyes. He shifted a little so that he could pick up the bag and the next root which she had dug up, and squatted down close to her so that he could do the same with the others.

If he could have got away with just sitting there and staring at her then he would have, but he knew that it wasn’t likely that she would tolerate it and it might make her uncomfortable so he attempted to do it discretely, and decided that this day was turning out to be one of the best that he could recall for all the drama of earlier.

With one root now in the bag and the second in his hand he inspected it before slicing the top off. He noted the scars from the digging stick where she had dug too closely, but it wasn’t something that he hadn’t done himself from time to time. It brought to mind what he had said earlier about giving gifts in return for this bounty. Of course he had been partly joking in his comment to Tay, in truth most would have been content with the giving up of the first tuber. That it had been then eaten by Stormdancer who was not one to miss out on an opportunity like that was fine on this occasion as it ensured that the tuber was not wasted.

It was the work of but a few moments to catch up with Tay and store the roots away. Whilst he could have then taken over the digging he decided that it might be worth while to have a quick look around and see if there was anything else growing around here.

”Fallan look more plants,” he said rising, his hands automatically adding in the signs for search and for emphasis when he spoke. ”back soon and help dig.” He was sure that she would assume he was going for a stroll while she worked so he held off leaving in case she objected, perhaps at being left alone, though since both horses were there she wouldn’t exactly be alone.

[Taylani]

Taylani continued to dig, mostly unaware of his interest in her face though occasionally she would glance up to catch him looking away. She still mostly believed his interest in her, at least the physical attraction, was because of her hair so she simply wrote off his glances as watching the reds in the light of Syna. She had never thought of herself has pretty, her face being too narrow for her liking, eyes a little too far apart. However she came close to believing him whenever he told her she was pretty, very close.

She ran across a tuber that was fairly deep into the ground, having skipped one or two to ensure continued growth of the plants, and her lips turned to a frown of concentration briefly until she worried it free. It was a rather large one, and she held it up proudly in her fingers, not even minding that her knuckles were smeared with dirt and her fingernails needed a good cleaning now.

Yet when he speaks of looking for more plants, her head raises and worry creases her brow. She cast her eyes across the grasses quickly, her heart beat just a little more quickly. She didn't mind digging the tubers, didn't think at all that he was leaving her to dig while ran off. Her issues with her enslavement was not physical labor, she probably would not have been so hurt if that was all that had been expected of her. Hurt, but not as much as she had been but she thought perhaps that was simply because she was a woman. Women tended to think differently of intimacy then men, of course that was purely conjecture on Taylani's part.

Though she didn't want to be left alone out here, and the concern in her blue eyes spoke this completely she doesn't protest. "Hurry please?" Was all that she said. For all that she had been prepared to die not too many days, prepared to come out here much further away from Endrykas and the relative 'safety' of the Tent City, much had changed since then.

It was these changes that she thought of as she watched him walk away. Yes she admired his form as he walked, he was not the only one that appreciated the way a body moved but she couldn't help but just admire him. He was not perfect, and there was still the knowledge -suspicion- that if she hadn't ran or hadn't been willful and stubborn that he might have truly and permanently enslaved her for his bedroom desires. She didn't even consider that if she hadn't been willful or stubborn then he might not have wanted her in the first place.

However, without the undeniable hate and rage that were her ever present friends since her capture, she was able to see so much more. Her hands continue to dig at a tuber even as she tried to analyze her thoughts on him. Fingers falling into a routine, even as her eyes swept the grasses often. She had never seen his teasing side before, not that he had never teased or joked with her, she just had never responded to it or really even realized some of his comments were made in jest.

When he was safely at a distance she turned to the thinner bladed plants. She knew these were the wild onions, she knew that they were especially good in soups and salads..and she used to enjoy when her mother would bring some home and let her nibble on one. However she also knew what they did to her last time she picked them just a few days before. Thus why she began to pull them while he was gone. She held her breath, so that the smell did not come to her, for they had a strong onion smell the first time they were pulled from the ground. The long thin leaf ended in a small white bulb at the end. Smiling she put it ..very far to the side and finished pulling most -but not all- of the wild onions looking very silly holding her breath and standing every time to walk the onions far enough away to where she didn't smell the harsh smell.

[Fallan Windchaser]

He was relieved that she was brave enough to continue to work here on her own and that pleased him too. They should spend more time together out foraging, just walking the plains or riding them even, both with an eye out for things and by that he meant not just plants but the signs for things such as where things might be found, the signs of animals and so forth. Fallan was not a hunter nor a tracker but he knew enough to be able to stay alive out in the grasslands for at least a few days before he needed to return to the Pavilion or find some other outpost of civilisation to restock with additional food and such.

Before they could really do that he wanted for her to be able to at least be able to spot some of the more common things which would mean that she would feel a part of the process and would not merely be tagging along. The next time too he, he reminded himself, he would ensure that she had her own digging stick and the trip would be more productive as a result. He needed her to be able to survive out here at least as well as he could and that meant she would need to learn all of this and more, otherwise she would remain merely someone who was forced to stay with the tents.

”Fallan back soon,”he promised her when she asked and smiled reassuringly. His gaze ran over the horizons first in an automatic check for movement before he brought his focus in closer and watched how the hills lay, noting the places which were dead ground from where he stood and which held potential threats, even if they just appeared to be folds in the ground and he knew from experience that he needed to readjust his assumptions about these for there was more dead ground when down here on his feet than there was when he was mounted. With the safety check completed he came in closer to the colours of the vegetation and where it was likely that the water lay. The land that they had crossed coming from the camp had been relatively barren but here it seemed much more fertile which got his hopes up that they would be able to find food, but with food came animals that ate it and the predators which at them, so it was a mixed blessing.

Having chosen his route he set off at a deliberate walk. For all of his intention to hurry in his quick survey he knew that one of the things that attracted attention was movement and the faster the movement, the greater the attention it drew to it. When he travelled in the grasslands he did so in a manner which had been drilled into him by his family, not so much in a series of lessons, but in the way that they moved. All of it added up though to a way of moving that minimised the attention that it drew and that included the clothes that he wore as much as the way he moved.

He headed away from Tay and moved downslope as he thought he’d seen some darker foliage in that direction, cutting across the slight incline and as he did a new section of the terrain opened up in front of him including some bushes on which he could see a scatter of colour. It was good enough for him and so he reversed his course, pleased that it had been that easy and returned to Tay.

”Fallan dig,” he offered her on his return and slipped his knife free from his belt and offered it to her if she wanted to exchange it for the digging stick.

”Berries that way,” he said pointing where he’d been, and then took closer note of what she had been digging. It made him smile to see that she had been both busy and productive, digging the onions as well. They would make a welcome addition to the meals in the time to come and would dry well too.

[Taylani]

Taylani continued to dig in that fashion, looking up to scan her surroundings frequently, but also looking for Fallan's familiar figure. One hand raises to shove her hair back behind her hair before settling back with her hands on her things looking at what she had accomplished. It wasn't really much, not in terms of pounds of food or really what a child Drykas could have dug, but she was pleased with the progress. Before in her foraging sessions that never went far enough away from the tents with the women that had been so eager to teach her Drykas living even before she was eager to learn it, she had only retrieved minimal results. Probably because they were so close to the city itself.

So when she finally spotted him coming up over the rise, it really hadn't been too long since he went to scout out new plants but it seemed twice as long to Taylani. She did not like these wide open grasses, especially when she was alone. That thought, of course, reminded her that she had actually managed to lay down out here to nap on her run, when she had half ran half walked most of the night to get away. That thought sent a shiver through her that she masked as she rose to a standing position when he approached.

When he offered to exchange the knife for the digging stick she hesitated only briefly before accepting the knife and giving him the bone. The knife felt different in her hand, but no different then perhaps a chopping knife that her mother used to have in her kitchens. Moving to the pile that she had placed a decent distance away from where she had been digging at, with her breath held quietly trying to be unobtrusive about that fact, she separated the wild onions from the tubers then scooped up a large handful of the dug tubers to move back closer to where he was. It wasn't too far but it was far enough so that the smell of the onion did not reach her, though by now they might have lessened in aroma since the smell fades quickly.

"Did you want me to go pick them?" She questioned, as she began to slice the top greens off of the root in her hand. Hers weren't the quick sure gestures that he used but they got the job done, and her fingers didn't get in the way of the blade, which was a plus. "Or did you want us to wait until these were finished being dug?" She continued to pick up roots, enjoying working in the dirt which surprised her a little. Of course, when she was in Syliras she didn't explore anything that her mother had not forced her too if it was outside of the realm of Dance. Perhaps if she had done so then it wouldn't have been so hard to acclimate herself out here.

Now half of the tubers she had dug were trimmed of their foliage, though the cuts are uneven she didn't waste too much of the root in doing this. If he wanted her to go pick berries while he dug she decided she would do so after she had finished this. For why else would he have given her a knife, surely the berries aren't so hard to pick that she would have to cut them free. That got her thinking about other uses for the knife, such as protection from animals perhaps. She almost snorts in a laugh at herself, thinking she would be more apt to stab herself then any animal with it.

"You don't talk much about yourself, or your family." She comments idly, while she worked.

[Fallan Windchaser]

Taking the stick in hand he began work, carefully choosing where he placed each stroke. The stick wasn’t an idea digging instrument but it was easily made and easily replaced while still remaining reasonably efficient. He smiled at her when she asked the question and shook his head.

”We go look, Tay and Fallan,” he answered using the plural for them for perhaps the first time. ”Take horses, see what can find.” He paused in his digging to watch her attack the tubers with his knife and it made him smile to think that they were both out here sharing this task. This area seemed unusually bountiful and that was good, but he didn’t want her to think that it was always like this, as though the Sea of Grass were like a garden or some market in the city where you could wander the aisles and decide exactly what you wanted and choose only the best that was available. Here the landscape dictated what grew and chance dictacted what of it you might find. What you found decided what you ate in general and rare it was that you got to choose what you wanted. It was one of the advantages of being with Endrykas where there was a plethora of hunters and gatherers covering large swathes of ground and you could trade for what you wanted. That choice did not exist for much of the year and certainly would not last through the winter ahead of them.

His efforts and he focused on the tubers for now slowly added to the pile for her to trim, but not fast enough to slow down her progress through the small pile by very much. As he worked he considered the question which she had posed to him and wondered what it was that she would have wanted to hear from him. She had made it clear before that she was not interested in stirring the memories of what had been for her in Syliras and he thought that he could understand that, but equally it seemed to him now that those reasons did not hold any more and some time she should consider that part of her future again. Not in the sense of her returning there, for he did not wish that any more now than he ever had, but because now there was no bar on it.

”Fallan not sure what say,” he answered eventually with a small shrug. ”Tay know family, carry child for Fallan, what more need to know?” This last was said with something of a smile for even he knew that such an answer would never be acceptable and it also suggested the wrong thing for it suggested that he was only interested in her as a woman to carry his child. No, it wouldn’t do so he shook his head.

”Fallan joke,” he thought it necessary to add. ”Not sure what Tay want know. Fallan barbarian from horse clan, live in wild, in tents. Not proper husband for Lady from city. Not provide life Tay want. Not allow Tay soul dance.” This saddened him though it was the first time that he had said so to her, but then what choices did they have? ”What Tay want know?”