❅ Reflections Solo - Ranger Path ❅
The cool air of fall was always a welcomed feeling for Anahita. While Anahita enjoyed the freedoms that summer brought them, the teen tagging along more and more with her father as the rangers helped merchants move across the country in the warm months, the girl also adored the harvest season. The promise of winter always made her spirits brighten up as she enjoyed the thought of nights spent under furs by the crackling fireplace and then the harvest months right before always ended up with a lot of food and festivities. Others would complain because they didn’t like the cold and she knew that her own mother preferred the heat of Matori to the bitter cold of winters in the forest, but Anahita had inherited her love of winter from her father. There was just something about how the winter months touched the ancient forest, the evergreens standing tall while the crystal leaves on other trees continued chiming throughout the colder nights. Even the other trees bare of their leaves in the winter months seemed beautiful with their pale bark shining against the dark background of the deeper forest. Anahita definitely enjoyed the thought of the winter scenery which would greet them once the harvest months were finally finished.
Other than the bitterness of winter she knew that others in the village also hated the idea of working for the harvest, many preferring to play around instead of work hard to gather supplies and materials that would help the rangers throughout the winter months when the rangers mostly trained instead of working with merchants and the like. Unlike some of her lazier relatives though, Anahita enjoyed working since she despised being idle for too long. So while others grumbled about having so much work before the harvest feasts, Anahita instead jumped into the middle of things to help with whatever she could. “There’s so much to do today.” Anahita stretched her arms above her head as she started downstairs, the girl basically skipping her way down to the kitchen. While others in her family were either already out and about or sleeping still, Anahita did not mind as she already had a game plan and simply grabbed a warm roll before heading out towards the village. Their hidden village nestled deep within the ancient forest spreading between Tale and Sauti was not exactly normal with rangers living there who guided merchants through the forest and along other trade routes throughout the main continent. Their rangers were notorious for their fighting skills, their survival instincts honed and sharpened by living within the depths of the forest. They were not farmers so there was not the normal type of harvest though over the last decade there had been changes as less fighting occurred and several rangers started to take care of things back in the village. There was a community garden in an area where the trees were open enough for sunlight and even a herd of roati right across the stream that cut around their village! Others were still out escorting merchants, several also taking the chance to stock up on goods from the nearby villages where farmers would gladly give part of their crops for any helping hands in the fields and others were trading their crafted materials with other artisans who took the chance to trade before the winter season shut down a lot of travelers. Anahita did not despise the fact that they did not have the traditional fields or open roads for merchants to visit their village and instead enjoyed the cozy feeling of the forest, their home seemingly nestled safely within the ancient woods instead of being scorned by the giant trees surrounding them.
Today Anahita was helping with the roati by gathering their wool and making certain they had plenty of feed gathered for the winter months. “Minxy, come here!” She whistled for a particular roati with dark gray fur that was dappled with black spots. The heavy wire brush was in Anahita’s hands as she worked to take care of any tangles before the others came around to shear the little guy. She wasn’t exactly the best with a razor, but at least Anahita knew how to handle this. “One, two and three. Done! Sprinx next.” She laughed as she let the roati bounce away to freedom for the time being before chasing down another and another to brush out their wool. It didn’t take long for the morning to slip into the afternoon hours and by that time Anahita had handed over her grooming tools to instead grab a basket. While they did not exactly have fields like the farmers there were still plenty of harvestable things that grew within the forest. The juicy blackberries were Anahita’s favorites and she wanted to gather enough to help bake a cobbler for the upcoming festival. Apparently her mother had not always been a good baker, but thankfully Kyril had learned how to make a delicious cobbler which Anahita picked up quickly so that she could make it every fall with the other desserts shared throughout the village. It was that cobbler which she kept in mind while going from bush to bush gathering the little blackberries that stained her fingertips purple and tore at her leggings with their thorny branches.
“Three more baskets and I would think that should be plenty for cobbler and jams to last us through the winter.” She mused quietly as she watched a few other younglings coming out to explore the bushes near the village. While Anahita had gone further into the woods she had specifically come back towards the edge of the village to keep an eye out on the younglings, another duty that she had taken up during the harvest preparations since so many of the rangers were busy with everything else going on. And then after this I can help prepare breads for the week, gather a few more wild nuts and berries before the sun goes away for the evening and then work on my own arrows… Yeah, Anahita was definitely determined to fill up every hour that she had with some sort of work in anticipation of the lazy days of winter. If one could even consider her being lazy during those colder months since the girl also was notorious for training more than even the other apprentices working to become rangers in the near future.
It was no surprise that Anahita wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps by becoming a ranger and the girl worked especially hard to prove herself to those who may think that her father’s role as the head ranger could easily get her a position. Anahita had always struggled with that growing up, always getting into fights with other younglings and then later teens her age who wanted to poke fun at her and look down on her like she couldn’t hold her own without relying upon her father’s influence. Despite so many bruises, cracked ribs, shorn hair and ruined clothing there were still spats happening between Anahita and others her age who didn’t want to get along with the nosey girl who acted like everyone’s older sister. Anahita was also very aware that other rangers kept an eye out for her since they didn’t want anything to happen to Jhin’s more reckless daughter, the one who refused to stay down and who always went charging off into danger in some crazy desire to prove herself. Instead of feeling relieved that she had support though Anahita felt babied and despised it. That was another reason she continued pushing herself to prepare for the harvest, the girl not even skipping a beat as she prepared the cobbler on her own now that she knew the recipe. By the next morning the cobbler was in the metal oven in their kitchen, the berries bubbling from the sweet concoction that she had prepared to go within the cobbler with a brown sugar streusel on top. She woke before dawn so that she could prepare the dough by the flickering light of the fireplace and by the early rays of sunlight, the teen working so that she could quickly place the cobbler in the oven and then leave to go shoot at some targets. “Three more months and then training truly begins.” She mused with a small smile, her fingers touching the engraved wood of her bow. The design of traditional beasts from Matori that her mother had carved into the bow with a kinfa flying at the top always comforted Anahita since she knew her family fully supported her decision to become an archer and join the rangers. While her siblings were still figuring out their lives, Anahita knew that her path was here within the forest. She would become a ranger, maybe even take a few years to explore the world and then one day hopefully take over her father’s position as head ranger and protect the home that she cherished the most in the world. Matori was beautiful with its oceans and Oba had exciting activity within the cities, but there was something about the depths of the ancient forest that just called to Anahita’s soul. She would forever love and cherish this place that she called home, no matter what.
[1550 wc]
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