[Job Thread] The Basics

by **Rinya** on February 15th, 2014, 6:12 pm

Day 82, Season Winter, 513 AV

10th Bell

The day hadn’t started out so different than any other. It was cold outside, and Jorin had already scooted from the bed, kissed her good-bye and was out the door at hours she still deemed far too early. Eventually she had dragged herself from the bed, eaten a small breakfast of dried fish and made her way to the Warren. Only when she had arrived, Trynmal had been assigned to another Akalak guard for the day. Rinya wasn’t sure if she was comfortable with this idea or not. It was rare that patrol partners were separated. Trynmal had just shot her a shrug and followed after his partner for the day as Rinya pursed her lips.

And that had been a bell ago - at least. Her nerves had nothing to do with the passage of time… Raistren had insisted that she remain in his office and her temporary schedule would begin shortly, there would be another Akalak coming to fetch her shortly. That had to of been at least a bell ago, she was sure of it. Raistren had left for other duties and left her alone in his office. At least he could be confident that she wasn’t bound to get into anything - she still couldn’t read entirely all that well. All she could do was simply identify the letters at this point.

As she sat in one of the spare chairs, jiggling her foot that was crossed over one of her legs, she nearly fell out of the chair in shock as the door opened and revealed the head of the Warren himtself - Kavalor. The first things that went through her head was that she had done something wrong. She rarely saw him even during patrol, and the only thing she could think of was that someone had tattled about her little lip locking session with her husband. Not that she could actually bring herself to regret it, but regardless - the Akalak before her had never acknowledged her before.

"Rinya?" He stared intensely at her, almost in a scrutinizing kind of way, and the most Rinya could do was nod her head.He grunted before turning in the doorway. "Follow me." It wasn’t a request and she had no intention of actually telling him of all people no. There was something very… intimidating about Kavalor. Perhaps it was the rumors of his intensity over security with the guards, or the fact he tended to be extremely over cautious in his attempts at keeping the Warren secrets just that - secret. But honestly Rinya could respect the man… he did his job with pride and devotion.

The first thing Rinya noticed however, was that Kavalor did not walk in a straight line. Where ever he was leading her, he did not intend to take her there straight off. They went down several floors, twisting through connecting rooms, went up a floor, and then down another three. If she hadn’t been a guard in the first place she would have been utterly lost. The silence between them hung heavily on her… she still wasn’t sure if she was in trouble, or if Kavalor had actual intentions for her at some point. Eventually Rinya could no longer take the silence. "What’s going on?" She couldn’t help the slight nerves that peeled through her voice.

"I’ve chosen you. Now quiet." Rinya couldn’t help but wince. The tone of his own voice wasn’t particularly harsh, but the demand was clearly not a request - much like earlier. Rinya bit her tongue in order to keep her mouth in check. She really hated it when she was ordered around, but one did not pick a fight with Kavalor and expect to keep their job. After at least half a bell of just winding their way through the Warren, they finally came to a floor - she had kind of lost track - and Kavalor pulled out a set of keys to open a door she had never been through.

As he stepped through the door and she followed, Rinya could feel her jaw drop slightly. The room was kind of obvious, despite the fact she had never been in such a room before. There were barrels of salt against the walls, barrels filled with water along the other side of the room. Slices of what appeared to be freshly butchered meats on a several tables, and a few different kinds of fruit in sacks next to the barrels of water. Another table had jars, but Rinya had no idea what they were filled with. Snapping out of her daze, Rinya let her eyes wander to Kavalor. He had brought her to a food preparation room. And they were not alone, as there were a few Akalak and even Konti rushing about the room.

"Uhm…?"

by **Rinya** on February 16th, 2014, 5:41 pm

Rinya had no idea what to say honestly. Kavalor had pulled her from guard duty to… food preparation? There was a small frown that lined her face as she took a second look at the room before turning back to face Kavalor. It didn’t make any sense honestly… there had to be a mistake made or something. She couldn’t even cook and… well at the moment it was hard to tell what the Akalak was thinking. He was staring right back at her, the scrutinizing look had come back to his face as if he couldn’t decide if she was worth the trouble. Silence seemed to stretch forever, save for the few working around the tables in a quick silent kind of fashion.

"I don’t understand." Rinya finally managed to get the words out. It really didn’t either, but Kavalor seem unphased by her words. Resisting the urge to huff, Rinya glanced back out at the room as if it would hold the answers instead. "I don’t have any training in this..." Rinya made a vague gesture with her hands to emphasize the point. She was useless in this, but her words didn’t surprise Kavalor either. He seemed to make up his mind about something before shaking his head slightly. "I know that. That is why I brought you here."

Well that just made all kinds of sense didn’t it? Rinya bit down on the tip of her tongue, feeling frustration rising inside. If he noticed, he certainly didn’t say anything, he just moved to the table that held fresh meat readied to be cut. He shooed away the Konti that had been occupying the table and she took her leave without a word to move to another station. Rinya didn’t have to take a guess that he intended for her to follow, so she hesitantly stepped up next to him. She had considered standing behind him just slightly, but if Kavalor knew she didn’t know anything about food prep then…

"I will personally be training you in this. I want you to fill in here a few days a week as an assistant." Well… that certainly didn’t sound as bad as she thought it might. And while it wasn’t something she was generally considering being interested in, she could see uses in learning food preparation. After all, during summer she could catch fish and she could preserve them for the winter months instead of constantly having to buy food on a constant basis. If she ever got out into hunting in the Sea of Grass, that could prove to be even more useful. So Rinya did her best to settle into a space next to her boss. He pulled a slab of meat from the side table and handed her a rather sharp looking knife.

"You will be doing this with me. Best way to learn is to do." His tone again wasn’t harsh, but left no room for argument. Rinya had the feeling there were going to be days where she would end up with endless cuts by the looks of the blade, but she kept that to herself. As it was she didn’t even know how to handle her dagger beyond flailing with it. Kavalor proceeded to twist the meat around and Rinya frowned. Was there something wrong with it’s previous position? Kavalor took his own knife, pointing to her cut of meat. "First things first… with meat you cut with the grain." Rinya blinked and looked down at the meat in front of her. Meat had a ‘grain’?

With closer examination she could see that the meat did indeed seem to have a linear focus to it. "What if I cut it against the ‘grain’?" Rinya couldn’t help the question before it came tumbling out and Kavalor looked at her, another assessing look before he turned back to the table. "It becomes tough. We want the meat to be decent despite being dried." Rinya did sigh this time, putting the knife down and carefully twisting the meat until the grain was vertical. Kavalor had already begun to shave what appeared to be fat - though not all of it - from the meat and Rinya picked up her knife in an attempt to follow his example.

Grasping the blade carefully in her left hand, she tried to mirror his simple motion with her hand. Her right hand laid across the fat and Rinya did her best to cut close to the meat - but not quite to it- as she tried to slice the fat off. Only it wasn’t as easy as it looked… considering the blade despite it’s sharpness did not just slip through the fat as Kavalor made it look. He made a steady, side sawing motion - capable of twisting the knife ever so slightly to curve with the meat to remove large portions of fat at once. Rinya could not replicate the motion so easily, and she found herself hunking large pieces of fat with slight bits of meat still attached to it at a time. Compared to his work, hers looked rather messy, but he didn’t seem to notice much. Every once and awhile he reached over and adjusted her wrist or warned her to be careful not to slip the knife upwards and catch her fingers instead.

"It’s decent enough for now. You’ll learn."

by **Rinya** on February 17th, 2014, 12:21 am

Kavalor moved on with an obvious easy. Rinya knew he would have to be skilled to be left in charge of the Warren, but honestly she had expected that most of the food that arrived was already finished in preparation. The food she had always stored away had always been so, but now she was beginning to realize that perhaps the food she put away was finished in this room first and put away later. In fact now that she thought about it, it seemed like there were many doors on this level that were often locked and Rinya was beginning to understand why. Kavalor only trusted a few to handle the food prep to ensure that quality was stored. Perhaps that was why he was always so elusive… he spent his days in these very rooms.

"Proceed to cut the meat into thin strips." Rinya snapped out of her thoughts as he twisted the knife to slice the meat from top to bottom. Less than an inch thick, about an inch wide, and several inches long. Rinya pursed her lips slightly as she lifted her knife to try and replicate the cut. As she carefully tried to saw through the meat, she realized like cutting the fat, it wasn’t so easy to just cut downward in a straight line. The grain of the meat caused the knife to slip deeper than she intended, leaving the slice of meat thicker in some sections than others. But it wasn’t a total loss, and once the meat was cut into a thinner slab, it was much easier to cut into strips like he wanted. "Normally we would cut the rest of the meat, but we will finish this process first." Rinya nodded silently, gathering the strips into her hand as Kavalor did.

At the far end of the table were small barrels and as Rinya approached, she could see the bottom of one of the barrels was lined with salt… lots of it. In some aspect she knew one of the ways to preserve food was salt, but honestly she never had any idea how it worked. A sack on the floor next to the barrel contained even more salt and she seriously began to wonder just how much salt was needed to keep meat from rotting. Kavalor took the few strips of meat he had carved and began to strategically lay them out flat across the salt, ensuring none of the pieces touched before he reached over and quickly washed his hands in a bucket of clean water on the edge of the table.

"This form of preserving meat is usually only useful in cold months. The cold keeps the meat from spoiling faster than normal while the salt dries the meat." Rinya tilted her head as she watched Kavalor reach down to the sack of salt and begin to lift a bowl full of salt and pour it across the meat generously until she could no longer see the meat itself. He then proceeded to use his hands to press the salt downward until the salt was packed as firmly as possible with no vision of the meat whatsoever… no wonder meat dried this way was so… strongly flavored.

"So if you use this process in the winter, how do you do it in the summer? Doesn’t the meat go bad before that?" Rinya questioned and Kavalor didn’t seem so surprised that she questioned him this time. "We salt the meat far more lightly and hang it to try in the hottest of the summer months, or we use a brine. However brine does not last as long… this type of packing meat can actually last years so we do our best to pack meat during winter." Kavalor motioned her forward, and Rinya laid her strips out into the salt he had just packed down in a similar fashion to his, making sure that the meat did not touch.

"There is of course smoking the meat as well, but we do that in a different room. We also preserve the fruit as best we can, but I hear you often go through the stores looking for food that didn’t take to the process as well as we hoped despite our best efforts." Rinya wasn’t sure how he knew that, but then like everything else - it was his job to know what went on in the Warren. Who was on patrol duty and who was doing what when. "We usually don’t find much that didn’t take actually. You do a very good job, but that’s the point isn’t it?" Rinya tilted her head slightly in question as she rinsed her fingers off and reaching down to lift a bowl of salt, carefully dropping it across the top of the meat thoroughly, before spreading it out and pressing it down firmly. This was much easier than cutting the actual meat at least, and Kavalor watched her intently, but seemed pleased with her progress.

"We will repeat until the barrel is full."

by **Rinya** on March 7th, 2014, 3:46 am

Rinya sighed as she pressed the last layer of salt down on the sliced meat until it was no longer visible. The barrel was full, and she could feel the slight ache in her left wrist from the slicing of the meat. It was a pressure her muscles weren’t used to, but she had kept the complaints to herself as Kavalor had yet to really leave her side. There had been times where he had stood behind her just watching her technique, and others where he cut the meat himself. For the most part he had been silent - the whole room was despite there several other workers in the room. He had corrected her slicing technique, or ensuring she covered the meat with salt well enough to preserve it properly, but those were the only times he spoke directly to her.

Luckily Rinya didn’t mind the silence much. This was something she had to focus on in the first place, seeing as she didn’t need to end up in the medical center - again. Once was enough and she didn’t need worry Jorin more than he probably already did. That might have been why it took her bells to finish off the barrel, where as someone more experienced with the knife could have done it much quicker. Kavalor didn’t seem to notice - or mind - that she was taking her time. As she finished pressing the salt into the meat however, one of the Konti stepped up next to Kavalor, whispering to him in a low tone. Obviously she was trying to avoid being overheard, but the near silence of the room seemed to make the words echo.

"Sir we have a problem. It looks as though foxes might have gotten into the meat storage." Kavalor glanced at the Konti for a moment before she felt his eyes land on her. It didn’t take a genius to guess what exactly he was thinking. "Take Rinya to the meat storage, she can sniff them out." For a moment Rinya was about to deny the fact that she couldn't sniff anything out, but it seemed like a moot point - Kavalor probably didn’t care what kind of Kelvic she was, so long as she did the job. The Konti nodded, motioning for Rinya to follow her. With a sigh, Rinya quickly dipped her fingers back into the clean water, before following her, snagging her bow and arrows next to the door. She had pulled them off since she hadn’t thought she’d need them… apparently she had been wrong.

Sliding her quiver over her head and settling on her shoulders, Rinya followed the Konti out the door and down the hall. She was fiddling with the keys in an almost nervous fashion, though she wasn’t sure if it was the possibility of annoying Kavalor that bothered her, or just her own presence. Either way it didn’t really matter, unless it was Jorin she was still terrible with people, trying to relax the woman seemed pointless to her. Rinya shifted her bow into her left hand as the woman unlocked another door, and pushed it open - and then proceeded to motion to Rinya to enter first. It was tempting to make a comment, but she decided against it. Rinya made her way through the door, and after a moment of waiting for the Konti - who didn’t appear to want to follow her, she closed the door behind her with her foot.

Hunting wasn’t actually her strong suit. Her father had taught her very little basics that she had only ever really used one winter. She was a fisher by nature, and considering the low light of the room it meant it would be difficult to shoot - even in a short range distance. There were only a few torches lit in the room, and it looked to be another room she recognized downstairs - a store room. However she had the feeling the meat itself wasn’t finished ‘curing’ as Kavalor called it. All things considered the room itself was quite chilly and there were now familiar barrels everywhere along the room. But honestly she saw no sign of a fox... at least not a first.

Rinya made her footsteps as light as possible as she slowly made her way around the room looking for signs of this apparent fox… or foxes as the Konti had put it. But as she let her eyes wander the room, she picked up a small movement to right, and with it came the sounds of small claws against wood. Rinya shifted, her right hand coming up behind her to draw an arrow from the quiver. As the barrel in question came into full view, she could make out the body of a small fox, front legs clinging to the inside of the barrel while it’s back legs attempted to find purchase in the wood to work its body the rest of the way up. In the right lighting this would be the perfect shot - easy and without thought.

However the light barely lit the red fur of the fox. Her eyes already were having a hard time judging distance, and she couldn’t exactly take the chance to get any closer. Foxes were clever, and it wouldn’t take much for this one to realize it wasn’t alone. So Rinya ran her thumb along the notch in the arrow, using her index finger to find the fletching she knew would be white if she bothered to glance down. Slowly Rinya lifted the bow, pulling the string back carefully in hopes that the wood of her bow wouldn’t creak nearly as badly as it flexed with the weight of the string. The arrow had barely made it to her mouth before the fox’s head shot up, eyes glowing in her direction as it spotted her. Rinya didn’t have the time to take proper aim before she let the arrow fly, missing the fox by just inches and burying itself in the wood.

The fox took no time to release it’s weight from the barrel, hitting the ground in a scamper and immediately disappearing behind another barrel. "Petch!" Rinya growled. She really needed to practice her archery in a lower light… it was amazing she had hit that Glassbeak at all in the summer. Rinya was beginning to chalk that up to pure luck at the time. Stalking over to her arrow, she carefully wiggled it from the wood. She would have to examine it later for damage, so she placed it on top of the barrel instead. In some ways she was glad the Konti had not followed her in - that shot was incredibly embarrassing on her part.

by **Rinya** on March 8th, 2014, 6:06 pm

It took Rinya a moment to gather herself up. She wasn’t going to leave until she got the fox… or foxes at that rate. Thus far she had only seen - or heard - the one fox and it had gone quiet since the fox had disappeared behind the barrel. If there was more than one… that meant they had gotten in somewhere. Her best bet was to find the where first, and maybe she would get lucky with spotting the fox. Rinya adjust her grip on her bow, and made her way to the closest wall, doing her best to spot anything that look like a hole or missing rock that was big enough for a fox to slide through. Her eyes were doing the best they could, but honestly she needed more light than there was.

As she reached out for a torch on the wall however, the slippery fox jumped from between two barrels in front of her. Rinya could make out the tell tale sound of a growl, but she was already on the move herself. Her right hand abandoned it’s reach for the torch and instantly reached back to snag another arrow from her quiver. The fox was weaving itself in and out from tables, barrels, and crates… seemingly refusing to hold still long enough for her to even make proper aim. Rinya stalked off after the fox, eyes straining to keep track of the flashes of red fur through the dark. Her arrow however slid up against the bow string, ready to be drawn back.

The fox finally made it’s mistake. It leaped up onto a crate rather than sliding behind it and sat for just a moment, trying to catch its breath. It looked wild and lost and Rinya felt a little bad for the poor creature - but she had a job to do. Drawing back the bowstring, Rinya felt the fletchings brush up against the corner of her mouth, her arms straining under the pressure of the bow. This time however she predicted that the fox wouldn’t sit still long. She aimed just slightly in front of the fox, and the moment the creature made its move to bolt she released the arrow, letting her fingers slide gently from the bowstring.

This time the arrow found the target. The force of the arrow knocked the smaller creature to the ground with a yelp… and the sound of what was probably broken ribs. Rinya winced slightly, but made her way over to the fox. Her arrow protruded from it’s chest like she thought, and it appeared to be taking it’s last breaths. Sighing softly, Rinya shook her head. Behind her she heard the scampering of more claws and she whirled around to see another fox just barely squeezing itself into a small hole in the nearest corner of the room. There was no time to try and shoot, but at least she knew where they were getting in from. Carefully, Rinya shoved one of the heavier crates into the corner of the room in hopes to at least temporarily keep the fox from returning.

Returning to the now dead fox, she carefully lifted it by the tail and carried it to the door. As she opened the door, the Konti that had lead her to the door was leaning up against the wall. The moment her eyes landed on the fox, they went huge and her jaw dropped. Rinya sighed inwardly and glanced up at the ceiling for a moment.

"They got in through the far left corner of the room. Someone will need to repair it. I think the second fox got out however. If he returns just come find me.” Rinya didn’t give the woman a chance to respond before she started off down the hallway. All she wanted at this point was to clean up and go home.

by **Catastrophe** on May 20th, 2014, 9:34 pm

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Rinya :

Notes :

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Completed [Job Thread] The Basics