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Ruelash planned on meeting that husband of Iroia, his dearest partner and friend, later, but for the time being, he was alone. He had no idea why Iroia was with the man she was with, but he supposed that there had to be something going for his cousin of the anennae and green stripes. He'd heard that the guy had fought bandits with that annoying alkidike lady - clearly he could hold his own.

Ruelash hoped he could fight him soon and see just how worthy this man was of being his young friend Volkarosh's father. In the meantime, though, again, he was alone, lingering in a village. It was not where he would rather be - that would be high up in the lonely mountains, looking out over chill-wrought Sauti and enjoying the stark power of Chi's wilderness. Maybe he could even catch a sunset from the slopes before he had to return to the sunless twilight of Jahuar, and to his family.

But no, he was here, bearing furs and other items he hoped to trade... if he could only find some sort of merchant. Idiots. Why did they have to hide themselves so, in their villages.

Direk huffed unhappily, trotting next to him in her cloak. She didn't particularly like anything in this place, or most places really. She leaned in to drag out some of her feed from Ruelash's pack, delicately chewing as she scorned the world.

Oh hey - there was a person. Maybe they would know. More than a person, it was a child. Children were sometimes aggravating, but their annoyingness was born of youth and innocence, not stupidity. It was far better than adult annoyingness. Adults sucked.

"Hey, kid." Ruelash said, approaching the little girl, "You know where I can find a merchant or trader or somethin'? I've got furs and stuff, and... Oh!" His interest was caught by the wood and string she had in her hands. "What're you doing? Is that a bow? Are you making a bow?!"

"Yeah. This kid I know, she had to try a coupla' times to get it right." He said, trying to smile reassuringly. He managed something not altogether resembling a snarl. He tried.

"Looks like yer doing pretty good there, though." he said, if she was strong enough to bend it, then she'd have a pretty decent one for training.

"I'm Ruelash." He said. He just felt like giving it; even he knew that the name would mean nothing, neither synonymous with banditry or war, or Chi's icy 'mercy'. "I just have a lot of stuff. Pelts, claws, bone... stuff. I wan' to trade it for other stuff." he explained, "Smaller stuff."

"'kay." Ruelash replied. The kid's dad was a merchant, and that was good enough. That he might not be interested in pelts had the potential to be very disappointing, and he was a little offended at the idea - his pelts were good! Still, there wasn't much Ruelash could do about it, and at least he'd have something to show for it to Iroia's husband, right?

"Hey, y' want some help with that bow, there?" he asked, "She got it eventually, that kid I knew."

"Sounds good." Most of all, it sounded reasonable. A reasonable trade - bow for merchant. See, that was why he liked kids - they weren't obnoxious like their elders. They didn't give him funny looks right off the bat, or distrust him because their aunt's cousin's whatever had heard that he was something or other.

Ruelash knew how to make a basic bow that could shoot. Between his sister, his interest in weapons and hunting, and helping Volka out, he knew what to do. "This ain't a bad piece of wood, here." he commented. He knew that the better bows were cut out of small trees, but he and Volka had made their bow out of something that had already fallen. They'd had no proper axe at the time, after all. "And you've already got the places for the string." The kid had done a good job, up to there.

"Should probably get rid of a few of these burrs, though." That would probably help it work better. It made sense if it did. He sat down on the rock nearby and took out his knife. "Gonna do that for you. he started to carve it carefully, smoothing out the lines of the bow and narrowing the center piece somewhat - he remembered seeing that on undrawn bow staves before.

"Gonna be a hunter?" he asked.

"Sort of." Ruelash said, "I hunt, but it ain't what I do all the time."

He was always very careful with his blades - they were his livelihood and treasured (insofar as treasure meant to the wild man) posessions. However, as he tried to maneuver them around the last little nubby bump and spur, it slipped. The edge sliced into his thumb, staining the snow red with droplets of his blood.

"Damn!" he snarled, glaring at the cut in embarrassment.