Closed The Hunt

[Loda]

LODA
Denizen of Black Rock
-----------------------------------

Gauging the reaction of the fox as it seemed to tense, he guessed it was fast, and not stupid. When it retreated back, he considered just what he was dealing with here. Furry, cute, but perhaps something very bad and deadly. He didn't rush into Dhani dens for the same reason he didn't particularly want to rush into here. That reasoning presented itself as more foxes showed up. In the jungles of Taloba he could go ask an elder, yet this was Black Rock. Who could he ask? He tactically withdrew, slowly, so as not to show weakness or fear and began to backtrack.

He kept mind to watch behind him for the foxes to ensure he was not being followed, but at the very least he realized where they lived. He could perhaps skewer one as they came out of the ravine, or perhaps he could sit above on the ledge and wait for them to come below and pierce one from there. Once he backed away and was to the fork, he continued down to the area where it opened up to the beach. It was there he saw through the very few trees, Svefra merchants in the distance.

Heading toward them at a slight jog, made the crabs angry and start pinching the bag. It was tough though and they didn't manage to pierce it. It was designed to hold snakes and all sorts of creatures in it and when dealing with them, you don't want any fangs or scorpion tails getting through it. Still, just to be careful they didn't snag his skin he held the bag in his hand away from his skin as he jogged. Upon approaching them he slowed down and came from a different angle as to where he was hunting at and moved in ways that he tried to cover his tracks a little bit. They were foolish humans though and likely wouldn't even know how to track on land. As he approached them he would try to deduce who was the best to talk to about selling his crabs, and upon finding him he would approach.

"Heyo", he said, announcing himself to them as he came forth. His voice sounded strange after such a long nice silence in hunting. He held up the bag, undoing it from it's spot at his side, it squirming with life.

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Other's Words - My Words - My Thoughts

[Traverse]

One Svefra was male, a teen by the looks of him, and the other was female, obviously older with greying hair tied up into thick trailing dreadlocks. They both turned at Loda's greeting, the boy raising a hand and a smile, the woman quirking her head curiously to the side as she examined the first of the crabs Loda caught emerging cautiously from the edge of his bag.

"Found yourself some of the rocky fella's aye? Those one's are pretty big, though not the biggest I've seen."

The boy continued dragging a canoe made for ocean travel packed with a few fishing nets, poles, and what looked like a few boxes where they probably had their catches stowed away. "We saw one once that was the size of a dolphin! Only trouble with that is you can't even get it in your boat, they get so heavy."

The woman waved a hand. "Stop telling tall tales and help me with these."

The boy opened his mouth to protest and she shushed him, lifting up the largest of what looked like some kind of woven basket, a bit of water sloshing out of it. The boy grabbed an oiled bag and a much smaller basket, then glanced at Loda.

"You heading to Ocean's Harvest too to sell those fellas? Come with us!" The older woman didn't proffer an opinion on this matter, merely started walking, the boy trailing back to wait for Loda to join them or not.

[Loda]

LODA
Denizen of Black Rock
-----------------------------------

Calmly Loda approached the two Svefra. As he did, the woman seemed receptive to him.

"Yeah found a few." He said, after she had seen them, shaking the ones trying to crawl out back into the bag and retying it so they couldn't get out.

Loda looked at the boy to see how able bodied he was as he spoke of tall tales. He smirked at the story, wondering if it had a grain of truth to it. He deduced that the woman either shut him up because she didn't want to give him a secret of the ocean, or because the kid was telling tall tales and she wasn't up for it. The boy seemed strong enough to raise a boat up from the water at least, which was commendable to him in the realm of strength, though he was no Myrian. Loda was then inquired about as to what he wanted to do with his catch.

"Yeah, I'm probably going to head off heading there. I might as well come with you." he gestured vaguely toward the inner part of the island and said, "I wanted to bag one of those small foxes with the dusty white fur and that have black marks here and here." he indicated the spots where the black fur was and then continued saying, "I wanted to learn a bit more about them first though. I figured perhaps you, being up more on this portion of the island would know about them more than I would."

He looked to the old woman as she evidently wanted to carry the heaviest load. If she was Myrian, he would have taken it for her, but first of all she was an outsider, secondly, he didn't really feel like helping her, and lastly he had a spear in one hand and a bag in the other. She didn't seem much like the type to accept his help anyways so he was content in his decision. If the woman struggled however, he may consider helping her, as they were possibly able to show him where the Ocean's Harvest was and possibly with information that he sought. He wasn't sure, but he thought the Ocean's Harvest might be that place that people went to buy fish. He hunted for himself or used rations, but knowing a place with fresh food might not be so bad to know of.


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Other's Words - My Words - My Thoughts

[Traverse]

oocSincerest apologies for the delay in response Loda

"Those are Ashl Foxes." The boy chimed in immediately after Loda had finished. "Some people hunt them I think, but most don't because of the stories surrounding them. They say that a fox will remember the hunter that killed its family, and hunt them the rest of their days." He shrugged, glancing sidelong at his female companion as if waiting for her to interject that this story too was nonsense, and instead beating her to such a line. "It's probably not true, but they are really smart, some people keep them as pets, but not a lot of people hunt them."

After that a companionable silence fell over the three as they plodded along the rocky shoreline towards the Ocean's Harvest. It took about a half bell to reach the sturdy looking wooden building on the edge of the Northern Docks. When they took the small set of steps up to the large open area that held the fish they were met by a hardy looking younger man, dragging a net full of fish with two Svefra into the shop. He glanced at the three of them giving a smile to the woman.

"Got a nice haul today Remi?" She shrugged, and Laurent laughed, then gestured with the only available portion of his body, head and neck, for them to go inside. "Coria can take care of you folks, figure out what we owe you."

And inside they went. The woman that must have been Coria stood behind a high, dark wood counter top filleting a massive fish. She was poised and obviously concentrating, but it seemed to require no effort for her thin blade to cleaning sweep the most of the meat she could off of thin fish bones, depositing it on waxed paper before glancing up at her new arrivals with a smile. "Hey oh, Remi, Challa..." She paused when her eyes fell upon Loda. ...and unidentified Myrian." Her smile turned to a grin, and she gestured for Loda to bring his sack over, setting down her knife and wiping her hands on a fish gut stained apron. "Come on, let's see what you got."

[Loda]

LODA
Denizen of Black Rock
-----------------------------------

“Ashl Foxes hmm?” Loda mused to himself.

The tale was a tall one, but based on what he had seen, not only on this island, but in of the creature itself, it made him wonder if it was true. He wouldn’t call himself overly superstitious of things that weren’t observable, but this was. Rarely had he met a beast that acted like this one, and so he considered carefully what he should do to proceed as he walked with the two of them.

Silence fell upon the group as they walked, which was pleasing to Loda, not being one to overly enjoy talking, especially when it came to savages. As their footfalls brought them closer and closer to the Ocean’s Harvest he observed it was made of wood and raised up at the edge of the Northern Docks. He climbed up the steps looking to the young man who met them. Evidently the old woman he was with was called Remi and they were going to met with Coria. He didn’t know if these names would be important later on, but if he was going to be doing any business, he should probably remember them.

As they all went inside, he spied out Coria and her massive fish. The stench of the building was heavy with its smell and he considered what exactly it would take to have brought that fish up from the depths. It was impressive to say the least, and he took note on how she filleted it. He let the others approach the counter first and learned the young boy’s name, but when she spoke to him, he approached speedily without fear.

“Nice catch there. Loda is my name...Here is what I have. Be careful...”

He said as he put the bag up on the counter, gave it a somewhat hard shake, doing so to make sure whatever escape attempts the crabs had tried in reaching the top of the bag failed, causing them to fall back to the bottom. He was nice and warned her, sure that if one of his catch got a lucky hold on the lady, it would not quickly let go and may in fact take a good chunk of skin off of her. He then opened it for Coria to look inside. He was silent, letting her quote a price. He didn't know if she was even interested at all, but he wanted to establish a good relationship with her, so this was the best way he figured. Whatever she named, he would take. Later would come negotiations.

OOCDon't worry about it.

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Other's Words - My Words - My Thoughts

[Traverse]

Though Coria had dealt with more fish than Loda could perhaps even imagine, she did take his warning seriously, cautiously opening the top of the bag and peering in to find the four large crabs he brought back with him from the beach. Upon identifying them she smirked, and let the bag top fall down around the crabs, picking each one out by its dominant claw and depositing them into a large wooden barrel filled with water where they could wait their turn. As she lifted each one she inspected their size and state, and once she had arrived at the bottom of the bag with the mussels, gave a nod.

"Those are some nicely sized ones. I'll give you an ashl for each and a few copper mizas for the mussels."

If Loda didn't try to barter, as she seemed to sense he wasn't, she would place four ashls and 3 CM on the table for the new fisher-hunter to take, giving him a smile and a polite goodbye before turning to Remi and Challa's baskets.

[Loda]

LODA
Denizen of Black Rock
-----------------------------------

Loda watched in silence as she opened the bag, and seeing her smirk, he smiled lightly. It was a bit painful for him to catch them, but watching her work, he could tell she was quite proficient in what she was doing. Swiftly she picked them up and deposited them where they needed to go, and without any incident, she gave him an offer.

"I think that is fair." He calmly said to her.

As she slid the money across the counter, he would take it and his sack back. She turned her attention to the other two, and without goodbyes, he headed out and down the stairs. He figured if she was the chatty type she would have said something to him. Instead all the parting she would get is him raising his money pouch in thanks and then began to head out. It was a long day hunting, and he had many more before him, but it was a decent wage to get by on the island. Perhaps if he learned a way to train animals, he also could train an Ashl Fox, but he didn't know what he would need one for in the jungles of Taloba.

Moving down the steps he came up, the clouds above rolled about the gloomy island and he considered if he should break for the day or keep hunting. His shoulder told him he had done enough, and he was inclined to agree.

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Other's Words - My Words - My Thoughts

[Traverse]

Loda

Experience:

• Deduction 2
• Endurance 1
• Foraging 1
• Hunting 4
• Investigation 3
• Observation 5
• Socialization 2
• Stealth 1
• Tactics 2
• Tracking 5
• Wilderness Survival 2

Lores:

• The Difficulty of Tracking Open Terrain After Rainfall
• Never Underestimating Hunting Territory and the Dangers it May Contain
• Tidal Pools: Good Opportunity for Aquatic Prey
• Black Rock Species: Large Dark Rocky Crabs
• Black Rock Species: Ashl Fox
• Ocean's Harvest: Fish Shop for Buying and Selling catches
• Tale of the Ashl Fox
• Svefra Acquaintances: Remi and Challa
• Coria: Fishmonger at Ocean's Harvest

Loot:

+ 4 Ashl, 3 Copper Mizas

Additional Notes :

Alright Loda's job should Black Rock re-open has been added to his SS thread. I really enjoyed this thread, Loda's cautious nature may be a bit overzealous for Black Rock, but struck me as very realistic coming from Falyndar's jungles which are filled with dangers at every turn. I will be very interested to see if he every expands his knowledge and relationship witht he Ashl Foxes of the island. If there's any specific lores you were looking for, or XP you thought I missed let me know!