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Solo



Shukri frowned as he leaned over the edge of a rocky outcropping and surveyed the scene below. The watering hole he'd planned to use was currently occupied by a host of Sauti's more gentle native creatures. Normally this was not a huge problem for the wind tribe boy but he could see off in the distance, at the other edge of the valley a group of dark furred predatory beasts slowly making their way over. While Shukri was fine to walk amongst some creatures and even get a bit pushy with some to acquire water he was not going to fight predators for prime access to it. The wind tribe boy was not a particularly good fighter and carried nothing more complex than a sling for defense. While the weapon was usually proficient for keeping him safe it was in no way going to help against some of the apex predators of Sauti. Shukri would have to wait until they left to fetch the water.

Not that waiting was a horrible hardship Shukri thought as he leaned back against the side of a dark purple cliff, it was nice to rest in the shadow of the valley wall. It had been a bit of a journey getting to the valley from camp and then climbing down to rest on the ledge he now occupied so the rest was welcome. This was Shukri's second water duty trip this week what with an early birth and some unexpected hunting injuries taking up more of the band's water than initially planned. While they had a few healers that could conjure the precious resource their energy had been focused elsewhere which meant sending Prentices like himself out to fill large leather canteens with water that would later be purified and distributed to everyone.

Until he settled on and got promoted to an official position in the tribe that made him more valuable Shukri was amongst those who would often be sent out on basic fetch quests to bring things back to camp. The young leaf tribe male didn't mind it horribly though, he thought as he continued to watch the creatures below while a cool breeze playing with his bangs. It seemed the predators had been spotted and smelt now and many of them were vacating the area, also unwilling to fight them over the water or be hunted.

No, Shrukri did not mind at all the long walks and climbs often involved in the more menial tasks he regularly did, he enjoyed the possibility of adventure around every bend or over ever peak. Added to that was the fact that he had time to think to himself, usually uninterrupted. That and on occasion he found the rare interesting item on his little treks, unexpected but always welcome compensation in Shukri's mind.

Life was never boring, Shukri mused, pale blue eyes trained on the feline beasts now lapping up water without a care in the world. Part of a nomadic band he had been all over Sauti in his lifetime and never setting up camp for more than a couple of weeks meant that there was always new stuff to explore or re-explore as the case might be. Even the traveling itself was enjoyable and Shukri had fond memories of being a youngling and spending the days singing and chasing his siblings and friends around as they made their way along rocky paths or through vast valleys lined with purple and grey mountains.

The time for nostalgia and contemplation ended though as the predators moved on, likely to hunt now that their thirst had been quenched. Shukri began to shimmy his way over the edge of the legs and climb down to ground level. He wanted to get to the small lake and fill the canteens before the area got crowded again, water sources like this one weren't going to remain unoccupied for very long.

~~~
Eventually Shukri made it back to camp and quickly relived himself of the half dozen heavy waterskins he'd carried back from the lake. Miura, a prentice girl just slightly younger than himself took the precious cargo off to be made safe to drink and freed Shukri to do as he pleased for the rest of the day.

It took only a few moments for the boy to find his mother, she sat outside a tent humming softly to herself as she worked on sewing up a shirt one of his younger siblings had torn. Eyes a touch paler than his own looked up at Shukri as his mother grinned " I see nothing ate you out in the wilds," she teased.

Shukri rolled his eyes, his mother was never going to let it go. He'd only been a youngling back then, when a story from his father of how misbehaving little boys who wandered out of bounds got eaten had finally scared him enough to stop wandering away from the band to check out a particularly interesting hued rock or a pretty bird or whatever had caught his attention at the time.

Looking back he supposed it had been effective, what with the serious telling of the story complete with grave nods from aunts and uncles reminiscing about poor little leaf tribe younglings who'd been eaten up. That story and soon after seeing a hunter bring in a strange carnivorous beast twice what was then Shukri's size had properly mellowed him.

" Yes I still have all my fingers and toes, no sewing them back on needed," he grudgingly teased back wiggling his fingers at her as she chuckled. It was hard to stay mad at his mother, especially about something that had become so routine that he couldn't help but respond every time.

After a few short exchanges about the general state of his siblings and a promise to be on time for dinner Shukri fled to a a quiet space within the camp and and relaxed with his back against a boulder.

~~

"Shukri, shuuuuuuuukri, I know something you don't!"

The young man sighed softly and raised his head, watching as Faiza , one of the band's younglings bounded towards him, a huge grin upon her face. Normally he liked Faiza, she was helpful, smart and nearly as good as him at discovering secrets because no one paid attention to the youngling playing near by when they talked. Right now though he was a little tired and wanted to rest in silence while
recuperating from his trek.

Shukri couldn't resist the desire for new knowledge though and he couldn't actually make Faiza go away either. "What do you know?"

"There's strangers here!" the pale haired girl shifted from foot to foot as she spoke, unable to keep still.

Shruki frowned, it didn't look like they'd crossed paths with another band, he didn't even see any unfamiliar faces about. " I don't see anyone Fai"

Fai shook her head, long strands of wavy hair flying this way and that as she did so. "Not here in camp, here in Sauti. There's all kinds of weird strangers came in yesterday, they've got funny skin some of em even green with thingies on their heads and everything. " The youngling's eyes were wide and she was breathless as she relayed the information. " They're supposed to be friendly or something according to the man who came to tell us, he's gone now though, to tell more people."

Shukri was in shock. Fai wasn't a liar and even if she were prone to fables this was not the sort of thing one jokes about. Strangers.. other people not of the wind tribe here in Sauti, people with green skin? That they didn't seem hostile was less his concern at the moment then the fact that these people existed at all. Who were they, what did they want and a million other questions bubbled up in the young man's mind.

Suddenly rejuvenated Shukri climbed to his feet and reached out to ruffle Fai's hair "Thanks for telling me, do you know where the strangers are?" Shukri's words were shaky with excitement and nervousness, he knew he had to go meet some of these strangers, get to know these people who had come to Sauti from who knows where. Knowing and perhaps understanding them might be important in the future,

Fai shrugged and pointed to where a small quartet of the band's youth were gathered " They're going to go look for them, so you can join them... but you have to promise to tell me everything when you get back"

Shukri nodded still jittery as he tried to adjust to this new information "Of course"
ruffling the girl's hair again he walked over to join his peers who were in the process of gearing up to go on a trek. Packs were being stuffed with canteens of water and dried meet, some older youth who'd been granted permission to use proper weapons were tending to them although they would most likely be used purely for show and defense Shukri learned. They were certainly not looking to start a fight or be intimidating in this venture. Shukri was quickly got up to date, talking with his peers as he filled his own bags and pouches with supplies. The group of 5 would head out together and then fan out in search of where the strange new tribes might have wandered to by the time they found them.

The sun had barely moved in the sky by the time the fair haired boy set out once again to trek across Sauti. At some point weariness might catch up to him but for now the thrill of adventure and the desire to learn all he could about the newcomers was keeping Shukri energized. He did not know what lay ahead in the meetings he would hopefully make but the wind tribe boy was looking forward to the them nonetheless.





Words: 1646

solo


Shukri lay stretched out on the ground head resting upon his arms as he stared up at the sky. It was night and the stars had just begun to come out of hiding, bright dots on a purplish blue background they lit up the cloudless sky and in some cases made interesting pictures. It was these strange outlines or shapes and the stories behind them that had young shifter male occupied right now. Every once in a while he would take the time to tell his siblings the stories behind the stars just as his parents had told him when Shukri was but a youngling. It was a simple thing but it helped Shurkri feel closer to Yasir and Isra, he was no teacher but he could share traditional stories with his little brother and sister.

Yasir sat to his left, the younger male chewing on a dried out piece of meat, head titled upwards. Usually he was the more impatient one waiting for all the stars to come out so that the stories could start. Giving him a snack this time though seemed to have stemmed the usual tide of "are they all there yet?" It was a small price to pay for a bit of peace of mind while the sky continued to darken and the stars appeared.

Yawning quietly on Shukri's right was Isra, his sister and the youngest of the three siblings. She almost never made it through a whole story and often had to be carried to the sleeping tent by Shukri. Still, story time excited her and she always seemed to remember the bits of the tales that she had been awake for. Of course this usually meant that Shukri ended up repeating the end of the story to her while they did chores which wasn't that bad and gave him something to think about while working anyways.


A few minutes later the stars had all emerged and Shukri was ready to begin. He sat up, stretched and the pointed up at the sky, outlining a group of stars until his siblings could see the location and shape he was mentioning. "Those stars make up the great jewel," he explained. " A long long time ago the great jewel rested atop the tallest mountain in Sauti. It was taller than a person and very big around. The sun's light shone so brightly off it that you could always see it even through the clouds." The story continued and Shukri explained how many people of the wind tribe tried to climb the mountain to touch the great jewel for everyone was sure it held great magic and was said to be the source of all the life in Sauti. Of course eventually the people began to fight over the jewel, it's meaning and who should be allowed to climb the mountain to receive it's blessings.


"Then one day the mountain rumbled and the great jewel cracked into many pieces, the breaking apart was so strong that four pieces of the jewel flew into the sky and became the star shape we know as the great jewel. The rest fell down onto Sauti, falling into the land and onto the wind tribe forever marking us with jewels of of our own so that we would never have to fight each other again."

As he finished the story Shukri grinned, it was one of his favorites even if he was pretty sure that like most of the star tales it was untrue. Then again no one could explain why his people or any of the other tribes had the stones that they did, perhaps once upon a time a great magical jewel had existed. After all a great many myths and legend were based around and exaggerated truth.

Yasir thanked Shukri for the story and then scurried off to the family tent. Shukri laughed quietly and stood, scooping up a fast asleep and lightly snoring Isra in the process. Though he kept these story nights were infrequent Shukri found them to always be memorable and important to him.



Words: 680

Solo


The past few days had been pretty hectic for Shukri, he'd been traveling to and fro meeting all sorts of strangers and getting himself into the odd mess. Now though he had a chance to relax for a little while, to just let all of his recent experiences sink in. It was in quiet moments like these, when Shukri had no duties and his siblings and Fai were busy in group lessons that the young prentice found time for a hobby.

Sprawled out on a mat in his tent Shukri rubbing a fish skin cloth over a stone carving he'd been working on for the past few months. Though fish were rare in Sauti there were a few different species to be found in the the lakes that were scattered about the land. One type in particular had strange scales that were incredibly abrasive. Made into squares of cloth these sections of fish skin were quite useful for wearing down stone amongst other things. Shukri used the few he had managed to acquire to add the finishing touches to stone and gem carvings as well as to polish them.

Shukri was not artisan but he could make simple flowers and some of the native fauna with a great deal of time and effort. Gems were harder to make things out of being rare, oddly shaped and usually incredibly hard. Regular stone was easier to work with, there were more kinds of it, some softer and easier to shape than others. Even then Shukri was only so good at shaping and polishing stone and unless he were to fully dedicate himself to the art he would never be able to create pieces at the level a master carver could.

It was a possibility and yet Shukri was not sold on the idea. Most of the artisans he knew spent all their time working, and the acquired all their materials via trade instead of going out and fetching them. There was just a bit too much adventurousness and wanderlust in the boy to be happy spending all day etching out individual strands of hair. Shukri was moderately good at what he did and for now that was enough for the prentice.

Usually he kept his finished treasures, proud of his hard work and not wanting to part with the stones or gems he had used to make them.From time to time though he would trade a piece in order to get access to some other thing he wanted, be it a special food, another fancy item or just interesting things from areas in Sauti his band had not traveled to for a while. While he did not have the silver tongue or charm his mother did Shukri did enjoy bartering. It was as much a game to him as it was a form of conducting business and the prentice found that every person had to be played differently which kept it from ever getting boring.

Nimble fingers moved in small circles using only a small corner of the cloth to polish the wings of the bird sculpture. When Shukri was done the unusually mostly grey rock would be smooth to the touch and half a slight shine in the sunlight. Not that he would finish his months long project today, no he would be lucky to finish this wing by the time his hands grew sore. This was a slow process and to get the best results Shukri would need to go carefully inching his way along the stone to avoid accidentally leaving behind rough spots. Even then after rinsing and checking the wing he might need to do another attempt to get it right or switch to a different cloth to get just the right texture. These things could be trial and error for someone like Shukri who knew what he was doing but was not in constant practice.

Still it was Shukri's hobby of choice and one he wasn't about to give up on. Of course according to his father Shukri had always been all about the rocks, often being found inexplicably chewing or sucking on one as a youngling, thankfully he'd always had the good sense to not swallow any. Bones might have been easier to work with and Faiza certainly found them more fascinating but they did nothing for Shukri, well other than get him in trouble when he fetching them from dedicated dying places. Rocks and gems though, they were one of Shukri's great interests and upon learning that with time and patience he could turn them into things he'd been hooked. Certainly there'd been incidents where he'd hurt himself or messed up and broken something or simply gave up on a project for weeks due to frustration but eventually Shukri always came back and got started again.

It certainly helped that acquiring the right stones or gems meant adventuring, Shukri thought as he blew rock dust off the wing and ran his fingers along one section to test the smoothness. Trekking across Sauti, climbing all over hills and mounts, investigating the odd cave or dried up lake bed. All of these things made Shurki smile and were things he needed to do in order to keep a good supply of materials to work with. The fact that he could also stumble across a nice chunk of ore or the like while searching for other rare valuables didn't hurt either. For Shukri so much of what he enjoyed doing was connected meaning that he never really had to sacrifice one interest for another.

The blonde let his mind go blank for a while and simply listened to the sound of the cloth rasping over the stone while his fingers continued the same simple motions until they began to cramp. Switching which hand held the cloth and which one the sculpture rested upon Shukri carried on. He was making slow but steady progress and by the looks of things this could be one of his best works yet.

Wordcount: 1001

Summary: Shukri heeds the call to adventure as he joins with many strangers and friends to investigate some disappearances in an odd mountain of legend. A great creature of Myth appears and the group does battle with it, Shukri doing quite well for himself. The monster is defeated but the group is too late to have saved the missing wind tribe members. On a bright note there is Treasure!

- posts 14 ( now qualifies 2 full rps)

reserved just in case.

x - Shukri discovers a mysterious treasure and joins a member of the ice tribe in retrieving it.

*backdated

For the first time in months Shukri had been able to sleep in and his body seemed intent on taking advantage of that fact. Even as tiredness fully faded and the sound of the busy camp became impossible to ignore Shukri found he couldn't convince himself to come out from under the covers. Getting acknowledged by the tribe as being more than mere Prentice granted him a day of rest for his efforts and it was a luxury to be able to lay like this all cozy and without a care in the world. To be honest Shukri didn't really have a plan for how to spend today and was just go-

" Shukri if you sleep all day you're not getting any presents." Faiza's voice, loud and filled with a sharp irritated tone interrupted the young man's thoughts. The sun was on the wrong side to show him her shadow but it seemed that his friend was only a few feet from the entrance to his tent.

Ah right presents, it wasn't uncommon for the promoted to receive gifts shortly afterwards but he hadn't expected anything from Faiza. She was undoubtedly his closest friend within the band but she was also younger than him and didn't have a lot of avenues for obtaining gifts.

" If he doesn't come out can I have it instead?"

Shukri snorted in amusement at Isra's question, his sister would ask something like that.

"I'll be out in a minute ok," he called out as he sat up, there was no way those two were going to let him get anymore rest. Truth be told though Shukri was excited about getting a gift, he'd always been sort of materialistic and wasn't ashamed of that fact.

As the girls giggled and shuffled away Shukri rolled his eyes and stood, letting his blanket fall off of him and onto the sleeping mat. He stood there, in the middle of his tent for a moment one hand slowly rubbing the crust out of the corners of his eyes and the other detangling his strawberry blonde hair. It always took him a moment after getting up to center himself and focus.

Once his head was cleared Shukri set about making himself look presentable while thinking about who would be waiting for him outside once he was ready.
As he slipped a simple thin sleeveless shirt on he mused over the fact that Isra had still been within the family circle of tents. Clearly she and their brother Yasir had been granted permission to miss today's youngling lessons so they could help Shukri celebrate his recent promotion. The young man flushed a little, feeling a bit bad that he'd been wasting their time by sleeping in.

Isra wouldn't mind much though, she was the youngest of the three siblings and was usually all chubby cheeked smiles and big green eyes staring up at him. Isra would probbaly rather be at home doing nothing than be attending lessons which she increasingly claimed were boring especially when she had to work with numbers.

Then there was Yasir, his younger brother and the middle child of the family. It surprised Shukri a little that the younger male hadn't been the one to bother him into getting up. Yasir was at the age where he had boundless energy and little patience, someone or something had clearly been keeping him distracted while Shukri indulged in dozing.

His parents of course would also be out there, each released from their day's duties as well but probably more understanding on his reluctance to get up before he had to, having gone through this before several times each. They were nice enough parents and Shukri had never really had any complaints growing up with them or their rules, he was certainly better off in that regard than some of his peers.

Last but not not least was Faiza who was his best friend. Though there were several years between them Shukri simply found that he got along better with Faiza than he did the rest of his peers. The young grey eyed girl had the same desire he did to ferret secrets out of people and collect random information and gossip that might be useful later. Younglings had more freedom to wander unnoticed in the camp than someone like Shukri so Faiza often offered him information she'd picked up while being ignored in return for recollections of his adventures outside the camp, somewhere she was not permitted to go.

Eventually Shukri found himself dressed and his sleep tangled hair tamed into something passable for public viewing. He pushed aside one of the front flaps of his tent and walked blinking out into the sunlight soaked world. It took a moment for his pale blues eyes to adjust to the light difference but soon he could see his family and Faiza sitting over by the remains of the family fire pit where some embers still flowed a faint red , the remnants of a breakfast cook fire no doubt.

The young man grinned and strode over towards the small group that had gathered just to celebrate with him.
word count: 857

*backdated

Once Shukri was done with the gifts from his family and had stowed them safely away in his tent he began to follow Faiza through the camp towards whatever surprise she had in store for him. It had to be pretty big or heavy if she hadn't just brought it herself, although why she hadn't thought to have her parents do it then he didn't know.

The current camp lay upon plain open plain protected alone it's borders defined by guard outpost tents and the presence of sentries themselves. Group of family tents were scattered about in a pre determined pattern towards the center of the camp was the elder's council tent, the healer's and the study tent where the camps younglings received general lessons as a group and then were split up into small batches to be given more individual lessons as appropriate.

At this hour the camp was fairly quiet, hunters had already left for the day, Prentices were off on their assigned tasks, the younglings were listening to their current lecture and most of the craftspeople within the tribe didn't make a lot of noise in their work. People were settled at their various work stations or moving about quietly, giving the camp a calm but productive feel to it.

As they neared the northeastern perimeter of the camp Shukri suddenly had an idea of what was about to happen. Faiza's father was one of the camp shepherds and partially responsible for the herd of capramels the band kept. The cloven hoofed beasts were slightly larger than the mountain felines that tended to hunt them. They had ridged horns that circled back on their heads and a hump in the middle of their backs. They could be ridden by an adult wind tribe member but were more commonly used as mounts for younglings and to carry heavy loads or pull carts when the band was traveling from one camp location to the next. Capramels also provided meat, hides and milk for the band to use and were fairly easy to care for. They were the only livestock in Sauti that could be raised on the move, a necessity for most of the wind tribe.

Shukri's parent's owned a pair of Capramel, they were kept with the rest of the herd when not being used for travel purposes. With limited money of his own Shukri had never been able to purchase one of the animals and he had always wanted one. For someone as adventurous and fond of collecting things as he was it'd be nice to have a pack animals to go with him and allow him to bring back more things to keep, trade or sell. It looked as though he'd be getting his wish.

Glad as he was of that Shukri remained a bit confused on just how all of this made sense. Faiza had even less money than he did and capramels were not cheap. A section of the herd were considered band animals, general purpose capramels owned the everyone as a whole and utilized as the elders saw fit. Of course as the herd had increased in size individuals had been able to purchase offspring for their own uses and people like Faiza's fathered who tended to them were given some animals as part of their pay.

Still there were only perhaps 60 or so of the creatures in the herd at a time, it was all the various lands they moved to could sustain, and that made each one valuable. If you lost one to old age or something even adults might have to wait a season or two before there was a kid available for purchase to replace it and the price was beyond something like Faiza could afford.

Thus it was a quite bewildered Shukri who followed after the young girl who's every step held a bit of bounce to it. They reached the area where the herd was grazing and began to wade through the mass of animals towards where Faiza's father was waving at them. Kaelan was tall for a wind tribe member and some suggested he had a bit of ice tribe in his background somewhere. He towered over the creatures he tended and was quite intimidating looking with grey eyes just a shade darker than Faiza's and a full head of wavy salt and pepper hair that betrayed his age. Like most shepherds Kaelan was physically fit and had a physique that showed the result of hours spent walking back and forth across fields, breaking up fights and restraining animals so they could be marked or treated by healers.

It was only after getting to know the man through his friendship with Faiza that Shukri stopped feeling overwhelmed in his presence.

" Morning Shukri, I see Faiza got bored of waiting for you to wake up." Kaelan called out jovially, the man's gaze shifting between the two children and the section of the herd he was keeping an eye on.

" I didn't realize I was making people wait for me," Shukri murmured apologetically. He hated having his own time wasted and felt guilty about doing the same thing to others, especially people who were working today like Kaelan.

The older male shrugged and gave a soft laugh. "Most of us like to sleep in on days like today, it's practically tradition."

" I'm not going to sleep in" Faiza boasted although she was looking at neither male, instead her eyes seemed to be scanning the herd for something in particular.

Kaelan rolled his eyes at his daughter " You're not going to sleep for a whole week after knowing you." There was quite a bit of fondness evident in the man's voice as he teased his child.

Faiza stuck her tongue out at her father before giving an excited squeal and darting off into the middle of the herd startling some of the younger animals , but with most of the older ones continuing to graze unphased. They, like Shukri, had become used to Faiza's sudden bursts of energy over the years.

It only took a moment before the young girl was making her way back to the men leading a young capramel by the marked leather collar around it's neck. The creature's hide was covered in sandy brown hair and it had the tiniest nubbly beginnings of horns starting to sprout from the stop of it's head.

"Pava had twins and dad said I could give this one to you." Faiza declared gleefully and she pulled the fluffy and non enthused looking kid up, front and center, to be presented before Shukri.

" That, .. its a wonderful gift Faiza, , um, thank you." Shukri was still in a bit of shock. He knew Pava was one of the female capramels born a few years back that Kaelan owned, she was one Faiza could spot on sight due to a bit of her left ear missing and was the young girl's favourite in the flock. It made sense then that she'd want Shukri to have one of her kids but for Kaelan to allow it,!

Twins weren't particularly common among the species and when they were born they were usually sold for a tidy profit. This kid was too young yet to have been available for sale as it was common practice to wait until they were old enough to be weaned for that in case the purchaser wanted them separated from the flock for some reason or they were to be sold to members of another band met during their travels.

" Faiza insisted she be allowed to get you something special and this was the best gift she could think of. You've been a good friend to her so it's good to see you happy." There was no regret or resignation in Kaelan's voice when he spoke, clearly he had no problem with giving the kid up to Shukri. It was nice, to be approved of like this, he'd always known her parents hadn't minded him hanging out with Faiza but they'd never made any special effort to express any special sentiment about it. Much like the pride he'd felt at being promoted this made Shukri feel oddly warm and pleased about himself in a way he couldn't quite describe.

"She's too small to be away from Pava for long" Faiza warned as she rubbed the spot between the kids' horn nubs making the little beasts tiny stub of a tail wiggle back and forth with pleasure. "And you have to be nice to her and not make her carry too much heavy stuff when she's bigger and you can't give her a weird name."

Shukri nodded along as Faiza spoke, he had no issues with the rules and was amused by the amount of care and attention she'd put into this. He'd made an excellent choice in friends . " Hmm is ridwan an acceptable name to you?" he had always wanted to give that name to a female pet if he could ever afford to care for a companion animal.

Faiza scrunched up her face in her "I'm thinking' way for a minute before nodding. "Yeah Ridwan is okay and I'll show you have to brush her and train her when she's bigger. For now you mostly just get to cuddle her sometimes."
Shukri laughed and crouched down to be on the right level to easily pet the young capramel and give her a quick hug for Faiza's sake. It wasn't that he didn't believe in giving animals affection but Ridwan looked like she was more than ready to head back to her mother soon for a meal and a nap, she probably wouldn't appreciate him clinging to her or smothering her. In his own defense Shukri didn't like it either and also didn't want to risk being bit regardless of how young she was.

Ridwan was easily the most impressive gift he had gotten today and while it would be some time before he could put her to proper use Shukri didn't mind waiting. Besides he had a feeling that training her himself .. well along with Faiza would only make the time pass more quickly and memorably.

The day wasn't even half over yet, Shukri was still fresh from being a Prentice and already his life was looking better and better with each passing moment.

Words: 1725
grand total: 2582
(will be edited to add in part 2 later)