Mine are Better than Yours (Sade)

[Camriska]

7th day of Spring Courtyard of the Sky It was the 7th day of Spring and Camriska was hard at work. She had a bushel of wood, recently gathered in return for a choice pick of the arrows that she formed with them, next to her. Looking up at the midday sky she took a deep breath of the still cool air that blew through the Courtyard. She was glad she decided to get some air that day. Working in the Arms Gallery can sometimes feel a little... claustrophobic. She smiled again and then continued her work. She took one of the bits of wood and began to gently carve at it forming it in her hands, willing the wood to bend to her will and blade. As a few of the people passed her she nodded in recognition with a few of her neighbors, even a few people who should have been friends. But she quickly pushed that thought from her mind and continued what she knew, her work. She pulled a small bag from her side filled with pre-readied feathers and began to fletch properly. She began to sing as she worked, the practice of it bringing her a sort of peace that only truly focusing on something brought. She smiled at the first few of the arrows she was planning on making. She thought about how many she needed to repay the Endal that brought them to her, then how many to give to the other Endal and their partners, before finally remembering she needed to have some extra to show Vala the next day how to shoot and a touch of fletching. She quickly began to work a bit of a faster pace, not focusing on anything but her arrows, practically ignoring those that passed her by.

[Sade]

Sade was walking from the Eagle's Aeries to the gates, where she fully intended on going out into the Sanikas Valley to collect some wood. It had been a while since Sade had sat down and fletched for a good solid hour or two. It was a shame, for fletching was truly something that Sade loved. It was the aggressive and the artistic combined - the creative of making something through your own hands but the aggressive nature of the steel of the blade and the arrowhead. There was a vicious danger but still a loving aspect to the craft. The craft perfectly summed up Sade herself. It was as she walked alone through the Courtyard of the Sky that she saw a different opportunity. Sure, she could go out of the city and labour intensively to get a few measly scraps of wood from cracking dry trees - or she could take from the pile that the girl who was sitting in the Courtyard was using. She was very much the typical Inarta with flaming red hair and fair skin - she was in all senses beautiful, but wholly unremarkable. Sade began to walk straight for her - they were both fletchers, they should share what little resources they had. Sade was fully entitled to the woman's wood. As she neared the girl, she heard her soft voice singing, murmuring, humming as she whittled away on the wood. Sade whipped out her fletching knife as she walked, from where it hung at the edge of her Bryda. She tapped the blade against the underside of her wrist in a rhythmic motion as she walked, a dangerous habit that she couldn't shake. As she neared, she hesitated, wondering the best way she could go about this. Distract the woman and get the wood, she thought. "What are you, some kind of insane woman? Smiling at half formed arrows and crooning tunelessly at them?" Sade grinned widely, almost predatorally, as she flashed out her hand and grabbed a block of wood. She would get an arrow out of this long thin stick. "Thanks for the wood. Fletchers gotta share." Plonking herself down, she began to carve away the wood at the thicker areas of the block, moving her blade quickly and viciously. It was as if Sade could not see in any way that she had insulted the other Inarta, and, in Sade's mind, she certainly hadn't.

[Camriska]

She wasn't aware of anyone approaching, though the sound of metal hitting skin caught her attention somewhere in the back of her mind. She was pulled harshly out of her comfortable area when the fletcher came up and pulled a bit of wood from her. "Excuse me?" She had been deeply offended by what the other woman had said and her anger flared, esspecually as the other fletcher was carving her wood. "That is mine. You could at least ask first." Her voice was flat and eyes sparkling with a bit of anger. "And who are you to mock my style of fletching when you hack away at the wood like a madwoman. How do you get any kind of quality from the wood when all you do is chop? All you'll make is firewood, at best." she said with a bit of venom in her tone, before turning back to her own work carving into her wood in slow long streaks, just as she had been taught by her former Master. "I wouldn't have minded sharing if you weren't so rude about it." she muttered as she tried to get back to the comfortable state she had been in.

[Sade]

She raised her eyebrows at the woman's indignance. In Wind Reach, everyone shared so much. Housing, food... Particularly if they were a part of the same caste. And yet this woman, who was in the same caste as her, the Avora - in the same PROFESSION - as her, cared if she took a few pieces of wood? It was ironic and slightly depressing how unwilling people were to share amongst others who would also benefit from that which these people hoarded. Sade sighed despairingly, overdramatically. "We're both Avora, both fletchers, I'm assuming both bowyers. Learn to share, okay?" Sade continued to quickly and viciously hack away at her block of wood, getting rid of the excess wood so that she could get started on the actual formative and artistic work. A thin arrow with a decorative vine wrapping around the wood this time. Decorative, of course. But still with a hint of danger. Sade was entirely focused on her work - up until the point where the woman interrupted her. She made a grunt of anger, and slammed down both the knife and the wood. "Look, lady, calm down. We're sharing, it's what nice people do. And how am I in anyway mocking your style? If you want to finish that arrow sometime next year, go at your speed, that's fine. I'm just going to continue stripping away the excess wood at my own speed. Not firewood. Just getting quickly to the point where I can actually do creative work." Picking up the wood and her knife again, she harshly sliced off yet another piece of wood, looking pointedly at the crooning woman. "We all have different styles, okay? Get used to it. Not everyone is out to get you." Sighing she quickly whittled away the rest of the wood, until a block of wood remained two inches across. Here, she would go slower to whittle it into the shape of an arrow. Some people really were unfeeling and impatient. Self centered too. Sade had not sat down to argue with the woman. She was clearly paranoid about everything. Sade had never once pointed out that the other woman's working style was stupid. Sighing, she shook her head, despairing for the hotheaded irrationality of the Inarta people.