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It was a warm, clear morning in Ghenza without a cloud in the sky as Jericho finished setting the last of his fish traps in the section of the river he had staked out. Though it was still early in the day, the sun was quite warm on the river and Jericho had already been forced to divest himself of his shirt while he worked, wadding it up and tossing it back onto the river bank from where he stood, thigh deep in the water. The man had been relieved, shortly after arriving in Ghenza, to find that two months without practicing his craft at the Weyr, he had not lost his touch after all, something the journeman had been a little worried about.
Tying off one last float to mark where his final fish trap was, Jericho waded back out of the chill water, pausing to push still wet bare feet back into his boots and gather up the rest of his things. He then moved off further down the stream to a place he had marked where there was a pool of water along the river where fish would congregate to take a break from the current of the river, perfect for bait fishing with his new rod. Finding the fishing hole, Jericho settled himself on the bank with his bare back against an old tree and set about putting line on the new rod he had made himself in his spare time. Nothing like a little bait fishing to pass the morning...

Jericho nearly stabbed himself in the thumb with the sharpened fish hook he had been in the process of tying to the end of the line he had run through his fishing rod when someone suddenly spoke behind him. The man turned at the waist from where he sat so that he could see the person who had sneaked up behind him. Not that he would have to be particularly sneaky to do so, what with the noise of the burbling river all but filling the blond man's ears.

The fishcrafter regarded the newcomer with level eyes the color of a tropical sea, wondering what he was doing here, and how he had known his name. Jericho didn't remember ever meeting the man, though he did seem vaguely familiar. For all that little niggling feeling though, he just couldn't place the face, so he pushed the thought to the back of his mind for the time being. He'd figure it out soon enough, surely.

Putting his rod aside, making sure to loop the hook through one of the eyelets so that he wouldn't stab himself when he went to grab it again, Jericho got to his feet. He decided to leave the question as to how the man knew his name alone for a moment, and answered the question he'd been asked first "I was getting ready to do a bit of fishing." He explained as he approached B'shir, dusting off his hands and offering one of his large, calloused hands in greeting "You've an unfair advantage over me, knowing my name already." Jericho said with a friendly grin that flashed his white teeth.

"What can I do for you?"

Jericho shook the man's hand in a friendly fashion, and then crossed both arms over his chest out of habit and lack of other things to have his hands do, listening politely as he did so.

"Sister..." Jericho said, and it all clicked into place when the man said his name "Oh! You're Tanda's younger brother!" he said as he made the connection. Now he knew why the boy looked familiar, he looked like his sister. So this was the boy that had impressed a bronze, hm? Interesting.

"Well, you can tell her I'm doing fine, all things considered." Jericho said with a chuckle "How is she doing, did she say?" he asked, curious as to how his friend and one time lover was doing.

He was distracted by the other man's questions though, making him chuckle, though not meanly. Tanda hadn't known much about fishing, so it followed that her brother wouldn't either. The Weyr wasn't exactly close to a large body of water for fishing after all.

"This is just personal fishing." Jericho said, bending down a picking up the rod "only catches one fish at a time, though its a nice way to pass an afternoon, and quite exhilarating when you manage to hook one. For my daily catch for the town, though, I've set traps in the river that I'll leave there til later this afternoon. Those will catch several fish at once...if the fish are out of course." Jericho said with a wry grin. Baited fish traps were effective, but only if there were fish about to try for the bait.

"It's pretty obvious now that I think of it." Jericho said with a slight snort. B'shir was, after all, the only person here in Ghenza that had the distinct Igen features. "I suppose your looks just didn't stick out that much to me. We get a lot of Igen folk in Tillek on the boats." the man explained. Both Tillek and Igen had fishing ports after all, and while on trade routes, it was fairly common for an Igen ship to stop into Tillek to resupply. So, unlike people here in Ghenza, and even at High Reaches, the tall blond man was used to seeing people with Tanda and B'shir's features.

When B'shir spoke again, telling Jericho of how his sister was faring, Jericho started to laugh, but the sound died off rather quickly. Fat and happy? Achieved her life goal? Jericho had come to know Tanda well enough over the two months that he'd been at the Weyr that it was practically her life's dream to have kids of her own. Not that surprising considering how much she seemed to enjoy working int he creche. Whether or not a man figured into that didn't really seem to matter to her. In fact, he'd rather gotten the impression that she'd rather there not be one. Could the child be his? It must be or surely she wouldn't have gone through the trouble of sending her brother after him. For a moment, a feeling of dread welled up in him...but then quickly dissipated. Tanda wouldn't expect anything of him, she knew that it was quite likely he wouldn't return to High Reaches. No doubt that was why she had all but thrown herself at him that last night he had been there.

Jericho laughed then, and smiled, feeling of dread gone. He was happy for her. She had gotten what she had wanted for so long, and he was glad that he could have helped her out. It was an awful odd way of helping someone out, of course, but that was Weyr life for you.

"I'm glad." Jericho said aloud, smiling at her brother. He looked aghast when B'shir gave his summary of fishing though "Is that all??? Of course not! It's an epic battle between man and fish! You think that fish wants to be pulled ashore and eaten?" Jericho asked with a laugh.

"Unfortunately, I believe most fish lack your sense of nobility." Jericho said with an amused grin, turning the subject away from Tanda for the time being. Jericho had no siblings of his own, let alone sisters, but if he had had a sister, he rather thought he would definitely not want to hear anything in depth about her sex life. Especially not from some guy he just met.

The fishcrafter turned his sea blue eyes up towards the large bronze that came ambling into view. Jericho had thought he had heard some rumbling back their earlier, and now his suspicions that B'shir wasn't alone were confirmed. He certainly was a grand looking bronze, that was for certain. Jericho gave the bronze a courteous bow of the head in welcome, and then grinned.

"Oh really? I didn't know dragons liked to fish." Jericho answered "But I'd be more than happy to demonstrate." He said with a good natured smile, turning to collect his fishing rod from against a tree where he had left it. He took a moment to test the knot on the hook he had made when B'shir had shown up. Reaching into the sack he carried with him, he pulled out a bobber and deftly hooked it onto the line, and then baited the hook with one of the worms he had dug up earlier. Checking the reel, Jericho turned so that he was facing the pool of water and neatly cast so that the hook landed with a satisfying plop towards the other side near a tree that overhung the still part of the water, a good place for fish to be hiding out this time of day.

"And now we wait." Jericho said with a bemused smile over his shoulder. While he waited for a bite, he continued speaking "There are lots of ways to catch fish. Nets, traps, deep sea lines with shiny lures for the big fish, baited hooks like this one for calmer waters..." Jericho was distracted when the float gave an unexpected bob in the water. He was surprised, he had expected to have to wait more than a mere minute or two to get a bite, but the fish must be hungry, he supposed. The man gave the rod a good yank to set the hook in the fish's mouth.

"Now, you pull on the rod to set the hook in the fish's mouth," Jericho explained as he performed the motion, "And the fight begins!" he said with a fierce grin as the fish began to fight, stripping line out of the reel as it fled from the pond and towards the main body of the river. The man pulled on the rod, making it bend with the weight of the fish, keeping a firm hand on it, the muscles of his arms tensing as he worked, keeping the rod steady and slowly reeling in his prize. He shifted his stance back, turning his rod this way and that, still pulling back as the fish swam hither and thither. Once or twice it breached the water, silver scales flashing in the sun. It was quite large, at least three feet long and solid muscle. Jericho used the moments when it jumped to gain line on it, reeling like mad to take in the slack.

It was a good five minutes before he finally managed to land the fish, bringing it flopping onto the grassy bank. He deftly grabbed up the club he kept for just such occasions and gave it a solid smack to the skull. A few quivers and it was dead. Jericho had always been taught to kill a fish immediately. Not only was it cruel not to, considering the next step, but if a fish was stressed the meat became tough. With a deft move, Jericho slit the fish's gills and then ran a braided cord through them, tied the end of the chord off to a branch, and then stuck the fish back in the water so that it wouldn't go bad in the sun as the heat of the day increased.

Standing and shaking out his hands, grinning, Jericho said "And there you have it. What do you say, want to give it a go?" he asked the dragonrider with an inviting grin, white teeth flashing against his sun tanned skin. He turned his blue eyes to the dragon and asked "Well what do you think my bronze friend, better or worse than your own technique?"

"High praise indeed." Jericho said with a slight grin as the rider relayed his dragon's words "I'd be interested in seeing a demonstration sometime." he commented with an almost challenging grin at the bronze. Not that he didn't think a dragon couldn't fish, but somehow he had a doubt that Sakneth, for all his assurances, was as good as he seemed to think he was. Tanda had warned him that her brother's bronze had a bit of a superiority complex. At least his rider didn't seem to. Not towards men anyways.

"Well, my father was a ship captain, and just about everyone at Tillek is involved with fishing in some way or another, so really, I've been baiting hooks since I could walk." Jericho said with a laugh "I'm a journeyman that specializes in ship building, actually." He admitted, "But there's not exactly a big need for boats around here. I might build a small river craft one day if I ever end up in their good graces enough to merit getting my hands on some lumber." he mused, not entirely sure that would ever happen thanks to Ghenzans views on outsiders "But to answer your question, I've been an official apprentice since I was nine, and everyone learns the basics of fishing at that point, which is all this really is." He said with a wave of his hand, meaning his use of the rod and the fish traps, something he had learned how to make before he was even offically apprenticed. Most children did.

Jericho grimaced as B'shir was nearly sent flying by his dragon. The man didn't seem injured, though, so he didn't comment. Apparently Sakneth didn't like people doubting his abilities. Perhaps it was best of Jericho didn't jibe him about it any further lest he end up with a wallop from the creature's tail. He knew a dragon wouldn't intentionally harm a human, but that didn't mean they wouldn't give an impudent one a good smack.

"It is similar, yes." Jericho said with a nod as the conversation turned to ships "A captain is master of his ship and everything that happens on it." he explained "Many craft masters are also captains, though its not required. Fishcrafting is unique that way, I guess. It takes a lot of learning and work to become a captain, though." Jericho himself would have ended up following his father's footsteps to become a captain, actually, if it weren't for the fact that he got wretchedly seasick when on the deep ocean. Near the shore or on rivers and lakes he was fine, but when they got out to sea, he was completely useless. He deigned not to mention this though. He was quite happy building ships, actually, so he had no real bitterness towards his place in life.

The blond man gave a grin when B'shir offered to give him a hand in building a boat "Well, being able to build a boat didn't do me much good at the Weyr, they had no need for them, after all. If you're still interested though, i wouldn't mind showing you a few things. I like to think that ship building is more interesting than farming." He said, chuckling a bit. He definitely didn't envy those people from High Reaches that hadn't had a previous craft to fall back on, and had been stuck doing manual labor in the fields under the hot sun all day. Even ship building aside, at least Jericho got to be here by the nice cool river and fish all he liked all day long with no one to bother him.

"Yeah, I could definitely see some of the riders being less than thrilled if I were to interrupt their bath by paddling past in a boat in the middle of their time with their dragon." Jericho remarked, bemused by the idea, ridiculous as it was.

The fishcrafter nodded in agreement as B'shir spoke of his muscle development thanks to farming. He was about to make a crack about impressing the ladies, but he rather thought it might bring the other man's thoughts back to his sister and the fact that Jericho had effectively 'impressed' her.

"Maybe I will give it a try one day, though I have a feeling my host family would be less than pleased. Have you noticed that there is no real cross crafting here at all? A child always follows their father's craft, they have no chance to break out and try something else. Seems pretty unlucky to me if you happen to dislike your ancestors choice of craft." he said with a slight frown. Sure, there hadn't been a huge choice about what craft he entered while he lived at Tillek, but had he really wanted too, he could have entered another apprenticeship.

Jericho watched as Sakneth waded into the river, and wondered if that was a look of surprise he saw in the dragon's features. Could dragons look surprised, he wondered? How odd. He smiled slightly at the thought as he turned to look at B'shir again.

"Oh, no worries, he's fine where he is. All my traps are further up river, and everyone else is further down. If anything it'll chase the fish into my own traps, so I hardly mind."