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[Dravite]

73 Summer, 515 AV
1st Bell, Early Morning
The City Limits, Endrykas

"Blackwater?"
The horse lord sat up with a start on his bed of furs, the warm bodies of his wives tucked either side of him, Pearl with her back to him and Belkaia facing his right side, "that's me," he admitted.
"I'm sorry to disturb you so early, we need a Web Mage at the northern gate now," the young man said; Dravite knew his face from work with The Watch, but he couldn't put a name to it.
"All right," he agreed and slipped on his leather tabard, turning back to glance at his wives, or so it seemed to the on looker.

Dravite had slipped into the web and raced through the woven strands of djed that lit the ground this dark morning. Syna's light had not yet graced the sky where Leth currently ruled. Outside the Wind-Knotted Gates seven Watchmen stood, two of the pools of energy he knew as belonging to Bayon Thunder-roam and Trail Riverstone, Pearl's father. What surprised in, however, was the strange presence he felt amidst them, something he couldn't quite put his finger on.

"I'll be home later," he leaned down to kiss each of the women on the cheek and struggled to his feet, still suffering from the life-threatening injury that was slowly healing at his hip where blood poisoning had fought to take his life only twelve or so days ago.

The boy helped Dravite up onto Cree and slowly he steered the tall stallion out of camp. The Strider yawned as if to protest against being woken up so early, but after Dravite gave him and pat and drew a bare heel back against the animal's soft belly; they were off with the boy and his mare following closely behind at a controlled trot.

Outside the gates, Bayon helped Dravite down from his horse and led him to the three broken carcasses he smelt before he saw. The horse lord coughed and held his nose as the perfume of death permeated the air and attacked his senses. "Shyke," the man swore, which was rare for him.
Trail handed him a piece of cloth to tie over the lower part of his face like the rest of them had done before speaking up, "the rest of us arrived about ten chimes ago, Kite here found them on his way back from the lake."

Dravite cast his gaze on the yellow haired man who was introduced to him at Kite Wildwater and the two locked forearms, each gripping the others firmly in greeting, "did you see anything?" Dravite asked.
"None, not even a trail to follow."

To make sure, the group spread out in search of tracks, spending no more than a quarter bell surveying the surrounding grasslands. Dravite used his flint and steel to spark life to the head of a torch he was offered and slowly made his way out into the tall grass. He came across some expected tracks left by the hooves of horses and cattle, and then he spotted familiar goat tracks and even those of people, but nothing suspicious. After following the tracks in circles for a while, he headed back and held his torch up to shine some light on the kill site.

The three Glassbeaks looked to have been dead a long time; a good four or five days for them to smell this bad. He crouched down and plucked a feather from one of their wings, turning it in the light to watch it take on the colours and tones of his fingers, "fascinating," he mouthed as he heard Trail sidle up beside him.
"Do you think you can find out who or what did this?"
"I can try," Dravite admitted.
Trail closed his hand over Dravite's shoulder and squeezed gently, "I think this is some kind of message, a threat."
"We should move them before the rest if the city wakes."
"See what you can tell us first then we shall hitch them up to the Striders and drag them southeast of here."

Dravite sat down and prepared his mind for the web, meditating in an attempt to block out all sound and sense of smell, "Shh, let him focus,” was the last thing he heard one of the men whisper before his trance took him.

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[Dravite]

1st Bell, Early Morning
The Northern Gate, Endrykas

The glowing blue strands reached out to him like seaweed lazily swaying back and forth with the tide. Dravite took the spun djed with hands that were not his own and let them feed him information about the surrounding grasslands, sounds, movements, sites, and smells; the web was a vast connection of knowledge just waiting to be tapped. Show me, he thought, reaching out with his mind. Snippets of evidence regarding the appearance of the creatures came to him, they had not been dragged or carried into the area but dropped from above where the reaches of the Drykas web were powerless.

He concentrated then on the lifeless figures, perhaps he could find out more about where they had come from. Everything that moved through the Sea of Grass was subjected to passing through parts of the web that stretched from one side of the golden sea to the other and took with them traces of the Drykas Magic. Dravite studied the animals’ legs in particular and took anything that came to him as a sign of their history in the grasslands which seemed to stretch on forever. Streams, trees, sand-baths, kinship, ponds all came to him but nothing that tied them to any significant locations until a familiar part of a lake far north off the summer grounds flashed into his thoughts.

Dravite opened his eyes to find the Watchmen had gathered, holding their torches low as not to draw attention to the area. "I don't know who, only that they seemed to fall from the sky and came from the outskirts of the summer camping grounds of Endrykas."
"Where?" Bayon asked.
"What’s the river furthest north of here?" Dravite admitted he had no idea.
“The Vaspura River?” Kite piped up.
"Zith," Bayon said lowly.
"Castle Xy," Trail added, "it's the only logical explanation."
"You said they fell from the sky?" Kite asked.
Dravite nodded, "which explains why we can't find any tracks leading away from here."
"Come," Bayon said, "Bring your Striders, we have to move the bodies."

With rope and rags, tarps, and pure man power the men were able to roll the carcasses into position and strap them to the yvas' of their horses. Dravite gave one last push of the body Kite and Trail helped with and by the time they managed to roll them onto the tarps the muscles in their arms and legs were burning. The horse lord's healing wound protested but was fine when he lifted the edge of his black pants to check on it.

"On your horses’ men," Bayon commanded and Dravite paced over to Cree through the thick grass to climb up onto the stallion's back, this time without any help. Once up right, he urged the Strider forwards slowly, gently clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth just liked they practiced, "slow," he encouraged in Pavi and the horse did as he was asked, putting one hoof in front of the other beside the two others helping him and together they pulled.

The Watchmen rode out into the night slowly, quietly, careful not to draw any unwanted attention from the campsites at their backs. It took them at least a bell and three quarters before Bayon was happy with how far they had come and signalled for the men to stop. Cree rolled his tongue out against his lips as if to say that he was thirsty and Dravite got down from the animal's back to take his water-skin from the right saddlebag and hold it up to the stallion's mouth; even if he only got enough to wet his chops, it was better than working with a dry mouth.

They undid their fastenings, pushed the dead Glassbeaks from the tarps and untied the ropes before packing everything away. Dravite organised his length of rope carefully, winding it over his arm so that it would be easier to knot and stow over the hook of his yvas. "You can go home, men," Bayon waved.
"Would you mind if I stayed on and collected what I can?" Dravite asked.
"If you can stand the smell," the man smiled and led his companions back to the city of tents.

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[Dravite]

3rd Bell, Early Morning
The Sea of Grass

The torch was wedged into the soft earth and left to burn while Dravite collected his oil lamp that hung from the left side of the saddlebags strapped to Cree and lit it with the tongue of the flame dancing skyward above the torch. He held the lantern up with his left hand to study one of the corpses closely. Dravite noticed claw marks and deep bedded scratches under one of the heavy wings, which was stiff with death and contorted out of shape. He plucked away the feathers that came away with ease, the decomposing flesh giving way under little force. Once the area around the scratch marks was free of plumage, Dravite was able to sketch the wounds into his book under lamplight.

His ink pen was touched to the page tentatively as he attempted to sketch a soft outline as best he could before going over the parts he felt looked right. He shaded in the shapes on the page if his sketchbook and penned in the Pavi word for Zith, planting a question-mark just beyond the text. As he investigate further, Dravite also found teeth marks up the length of the bird's neck which looked similar to the markings left on his hip the night he had been bitten. This too was recorded into the pages of his book and when he was done drawing he set the book away in the safety of his yvas-bags and began plucking the feathers from the corpses.

"Everything has a use," he mouthed, "this Caiyha teaches."

The plumage was plucked and piled onto a rabbit pelt he kept in his bag, a leather the horse lord had come to find was a lot more malleable than most. He used it to transport the feathers into the empty saddlebag he usually kept his lantern in and packed the bag tightly, right to the brim, working well into the night to collect as many of the feathers as he could. Cree snorted and lowered his head to rip up some fresh grass, content to stay near even with the bad smell.

After a bell and then two more passed, Dravite's knees were starting to complain and he sat to take a rest in the tall grass, staring up at the sky, where night ebbed as Leth bowed to his queen, the first fingers of light stretched up in a lover's caress to touch the moon. The horse lord smiled and spoke to the gods, "good morning Syna, it's always good to see you. And thank you Leth for the light you have provided us this night on our mission."

Dravite looked to the rising sun on the east and knew exactly where he was, using the little trick of navigation Mayra had taught him, sketching a diamond that would always point him home as long as he knew where Syna had first greeted the sky.

"The king of storms is quiet,
No thunder roves the plain,
The grasses they are sighing,
Full of loathing and disdain.
O' where is all the water,
The rivers have run dry.
They weave like snakes,
Deceiving drakes under the midnight sky.
Beseech sang all the people,
Forgotten are the few.
Us working men,
Not foe nor friend;
Must preach for what have you?
But surely sang the wind,
You all forget too soon;
The power of the gods,
Will touch the grasslands soon."

The horse lord chuckled, "do you think he's listening?" He asked the moon, "Old Zulrav of Storms, I'm thankful for the rain we've seen but pray you send more before season's end."

The man fell quiet and looked ahead as if he sensed something move in the tall grass just beyond and when he turned his head to glance sidelong at Cree, it seemed the stallion had sensed it too. Dravite closed his eyes and moved into the web, stretching his 'feelers' out in order to detect anything that moved near. His search took him forwards, weaving slowly through the glowing maze until he stumbled upon the unfamiliar djed pool and froze; what in the world was that?

Slipping from his trance, Dravite slowly got to his feet and raised his spear; a lonely night in the grasslands had a way of playing tricks on a man's mind which made him more cautious regarding strangers. He pointed the weapon ahead of him and crept forwards ever so slowly, as not to make a sound that might draw this strange creature's attention before he had the chance to sneak up on it. Once he was able to get closer it charged at him; a flash of black and white rattling quills that rushed towards his feet. Dravite jumped back and slammed the point of his spear in the creature’s direction, missing narrowly. He stepped back slowly as the animal seemed to still from shock only to race at him again. This time the horse lord was ready and when he thrust his spear down with a mighty thump, he managed to pin the squealing porcupine on the end of his weapon which he held in place until the strange creature still and died.

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[Dravite]

6th Bell, Early Morning
The Sea of Grass

Dravite had never seen anything like the porcupine before. He circled it and crouched down to inspect the long, striped quills on its back; some of them had snapped and come loose around his spear. "Is it good for eating?" He wondered aloud before removing his weapon.

The horse lord turned the dead animal on its back with the end if his spear and touched the soft underbelly tentatively with his fingers before getting his rope to tie around its little legs and fasten it to the saddlebags. Perhaps someone could explain some of its uses back at camp, if it had any.

Dravite was still determined to make the most of the dead, abandoned Glassbeaks and took his hatchet from his belt to cut away the flesh from the glasslike, transparent beaks. After working one free he used his hunting knife to carve out the rotting flesh and repeated the process until all three beaks were cleaned and in his possession. They would need to be boiled at camp to make sure they were free of germs that might cause infection, something Dravite had only just come to know after suffering from blood poisoning at the hands of a Zith, the same winged creatures that had hunted and killed the Glassbeaks before dumping them just beyond the city gates as if they were trying to send some kind of message; you hunt us, we hunt you? Dravite speculated.

He set the beaks in his leather bound backpack and took to the powerful thigh of the biggest Glassbeak, one which had most of the bone already exploded. It would be useful for crafting even he could only take back one as Cree was already loaded up and the man only had two hands. It took him another bell to work the thigh bone free before he was able to start cleaning it up. His brow and underarms were wet with sweat and he was starting to wonder who smelt worse, him or the decaying grassland monsters?

Once he was back on his horse he felt bad about leaving so much waste but decided he would encourage some of the campsites that backed onto his to go out in search of the remains and take whatever they might find useful. He gave Cree a nudge with his bare heel and used the direction of the rising sun to point him home until he was able to pick up on the tracks left by the Watchmen’s horses which led him directly to the Wind-Knotted Gates.

Cree was excited to stretch his legs and Dravite encouraged the stallion to gallop, taking them through the tall grass at a manageable speed. When they neared the gates he signalled for Cree to slow and have him return to camp at a light trot. Once he was back inside the Blackwater camp he dismounted and started unpacking. It seemed everyone was still fast asleep and Dravite was surprised to find on closer observation that even his uncle Raven was yet to stir from his tent.

Nevertheless the man was determined to accomplish all he set out to do today and started a small fire in the burning pit set in the midst of camp. He watched the light grey smoke curl skyward and slowly added bits of wood he shaved from a log under the force if his hatchet, straining his already tired arms. Once the fire was a roar he put down his cooking pot and filled it with water to boil. The clear liquid soon started to simmer and Dravite placed the beaks down in the pot gently to boil. He set the thigh bone out of reach where his children would not be able to get a hold of it and then set to work plucking the long, sharp quills from the porcupine's back. Once this was complete, he heated his hunting knife and cut into the soft underbelly of the porcupine, skinning the underside up to the creature's short, little legs.

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[Dravite]

7th Bell, Morning
The Blackwater Pavilion, Endrykas

Raven finally crawled from the opening in his four man tent and joined Dravite beside the fire pit. "What's for breakfast?" The dark haired hunter inquired.
"Nothing eatable," Dravite laughed.
"You caught a porcupine?"
"So that's what this thing is?"
It was Raven's turn to laugh, "Aye, nasty little things, always injuring my dogs whenever I'm out hunting."
"They good eating?"
"You can eat them raw," Raven shrugged.
"What? Really?"
"I prefer to cook them, but they eat a meat free diet so they are fine raw."
"I think I'll roast him a bit just to be safe."
"Yeah, there must be about twenty pounds of good meat on those bones," Raven smiled.

Dravite got up and took his cooking pan from inside the tent. He washed it out and set it aside to use when he was ready. As he continued skinning the porcupine Raven helped pull out the remaining quills and piled them to one side. Dravite worked his knife under the hide carefully, tracing the legs and neck slowly, for he had no use for the head or feet. He cut strips of meat away from the carcass when he was done skinning it and lay them out in the cooking pan. When he was done taking all of the good flesh, he left the remains to his hunting dogs and removed the boiling pot from on top of the fire pit to set aside, using the last of the strength in his arms and legs to carry the pot across camp and set it down to cool.

The meat didn't take long to cook, but as the mean had never worked with porcupine before, he gave it a few more chimes than usual before tasting it. Raven watched him chew the meat slowly and laughed, "I promise it's not poisonous."
Dravite sniggered and chewed another mouthful before adding a pinch of salt to the pan, "it's different, but not too bad, try some."
"Told you!" Raven grinned, "you should have saved the liver, that's the best part!"
"Next time," Dravite mumbled, downing another chunk of meat to sate his empty belly.
"You've been busy this morning," Raven acknowledged as he tasted the meat.
The horse lord nodded, "what are these long hairs for?"
"The quills?" Raven asked.
"Yes."
"You boil them in water to clean the oils from them then they can be dyed and used to decorate punches fashioned from deer or cow bladders."
"Decorative, huh?"
"Mostly," Raven nodded, "some use them for vests and working with yarn."
"I would like a dyed quill vest," Dravite admitted, "for my sons."
"You have enough quills here for you and the boys," Raven smirked.
"Good, I will save them for this task when I find the time, it will be a nice surprise for Garrison's name day in early fall."

Dravite started rubbing salt into the hide in order to tan it and help preserve the pelt when he noticed one of the Ankal's sons' from next door rise from his sleeping roll. "Cole," the horse lord called the boy by his name, not really a boy but a young man who had just earned his wind marks the season before last.
"Good morning," Cole signed and stepped into the Blackwater camp in order to draw nearer the fire pit.
Dravite sketched down the instructions for a map onto a piece of paper from his drawing book and drew a tree he remembered passing on the way back to Endrykas as a landmark. "Tell your father if he is in need of any Glassbeak bones there are lots to be found here," he pointed to the X that marked the location of the beasts.
Cole nodded and took the piece of paper, "thank you."
"My pleasure."
"Waste not, want not," Raven chimed.

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[Pearl]

DRAVITE

Experience

• Webbing 3
• Intelligence 3
• Endurance 5
• Riding: Horse 2
• Horsemanship 3
• Rhetoric 3
• Wilderness Survival: Plains 4
• Tracking 1
• Scavenging 4
• Investigation 4
• Meditation 1
• Body Building 1
• Leadership 2
• Animal Husbandry 2
• Organization 3
• Drawing 2
• Writing 1
• Zoology 1
• Land Navigation 2
• Astronomy 1
• Singing 1
• Stealth 1
• Acrobatics 1
• Weapon: Spear 1
• Logic 2
• Cleaning 2
• Tracking 2
• Childcare 1
• Cooking 2
• Socialization 1
• Tanning 1

Lore

• The Watch: On duty night and day
• Dravite: Work as usual after a near death experience
• Observation: The Smell of decomposing flesh
• Kite Wildwater: A man of The Watch
• Glassbeak: Size, color and build
• Location: The Vaspura River
• Vaspura River: The Northern most river from Endrykas
• Investigation: Signs of a struggle
• Caiyha: Teaches us that everything has a use
• Astronomy: Syna will show you the way home
• Dravite: Killed a porcupine
• Zith: Are vengeful humanoids
• Logic: Waste not, want not
• Porcupines: Are able to be eaten raw
• Porcupines: Yield approximately twenty pounds of edible meat
• Kyanite and Garrison: Deserving of a quill vest

Seasonal Challenges Completed

• Pray for rain
• Spend a lonely night in the grasslands

Loot
1 x yvas bag full of Glassbeak feathers
3 x Glassbeak Beak
1 x Glassbeak Thigh Bone
1 x large bundle (approximately 30,000) Porcupine quills



Thank you for allowing me to grade your story. Your writing always inspires me. Please do let me know if you feel I have missed something.


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