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 Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 7:48 am
The morning was warm and bright, the light glittering off puddles of water in Rahujo's yard left by yesterday's rain. Everything was coated in a light sheen of water, and the sunlight highlighted each object with a shimmering golden halo.
Rahujo emerged from the forge with two buckets, which she sloshed out onto the already sodden ground. The rain last night had been heavy, and the thatched roof of her sleeping quarters had developed a couple of small but persistent leaks.
She tossed the buckets down next to the water butt, where they landed with a hollow thunk, and stretched widely, spreading her wings to their full extent. She could feel the sun's warmth caught by her black feathers and the layer of coarse dark-brown hair that coated her body, warming her tired muscles.
The last few days had been spent hard at work in the forge, and her muscles were reminding her of that fact. She snapped her wings back into their normal position, tucked tight against her back, and leant forward, letting her arms dangle loosely. Straightened up, then leant backwards, feeling her spine crick pleasurably. Ahhh...
After a quick detour to her kitchen to pick up some dried fish, Rahujo made her way back into the forge, her eyes adjusting to the darkness inside the large building. She picked up the blade she'd finished yesterday night, absent-mindedly chewing on a strip of salty fish, and examined it.
It was a hunting knife, slim and slightly curved. She'd been working on instinct as usual, watching the metal under her hammer evolve into a shape she had neither planned nor expected. She looked at the small pile of bone and wood knife handles lying on a workbench. Picking up a couple, she tried them on the blade. None seemed to fit - all of them were too straight, or too bulky.
Rahujo frowned and set the blade back on the workbench, thought for a second, then picked up a slim leather sheath from a shelf, slipped the blade into it, then tucked the sheath into her belt. Inspiration would probably strike when she was out doing something totally different - that was usually the way with her.
She walked out of the forge back into the bright sunshine. It was a beautiful day.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 8:57 am
Fae had woken early and had gotten a morning bath when no one was up; she stick lacked a shower or bath within her house. She grew to know how to expect Cetalu's weather and dressed approperatly today; cut off jeans ending above her knees, wooden thong sandles, a simple white t-shirt to reflect the heat, and her hair pulled back intoa pony tail. Her think rimmed glasses glimmered in the sun as she stepped outside along with Pueblo. Having everyone tag along with her was too much work and she knew Pueblo was the only calm one really. Today they'd make a trip to Rahujo's.
Fae had no idea where her home was, in all honestly, and ended up wandering around town. Pueblo quickly begun to get boredof walking and spread her wings into the cool-after rain breeze, circling Fae every now and then wondering where they were going.
Fae scanned around for the familiar figure of the taller Aerandir, and just before her eyes were to look elsewhere, she saw movement near the trees. It was the Aerandir she was looking for, the answer clear as she walked quickly over and waved. "Afternoon, Rahujo," Fae called out. Pueblo hooted and swiveled down upon Fae's shoulder, wobbling slightly, she stared at the larger Aerandir somewhat shyly. She hadn't really grew any relation with this adult, but she already admired things about her that was seen in the little gryphon's eyes.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:06 am
"Good morning, Fae," Rahujo called in return, smiling. She put down the large blackened pot that she'd been scraping at - last night's rice had been something of a disaster. Rahujo was perhaps not the most experienced cook at the best of times, and when distracted by heavy rain, sore muscles and several works in progress sitting on her anvil, even less so.
"Here about the fireplace?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:16 am
Fae nodded, her shoulder supporting Pueblo's weight. "Sure am," she said, looking around. She watched the pot Rahujo scraped at then looked up again. "I was thinking some more about cooking. Like you said, it would be odd to have a fireplace in such a warm place like Cetalu. It would also be pointless to have a fireplace and a stove in the same room, and I most certainly need a stove." She paused to let Rahujo register al this information.
Pueblo shifted around before she nibbled on Fae's ear, distracting the girl and making her grin and flinch. She giggled quietly and scratched between Pueblo's ears to let her know Fae knew she was there.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:37 am
Rahujo nodded, thinking. "What type of stove? My own is relatively simple, but I know that Alyosha brought his from the mainland. A monstrous thing, it is - but it bakes excellent bread.
"To be perfectly honest, I doubt that I am equipped to produce anything more than a basic clay stove, or perhaps one of stone or brick, with the facilities I have at the moment. A metal stove requires either a large amount of metal and the equipment to cast it in a few large pieces, or thick metal plates, neither of which I can produce in large quantities."
She smiled suddenly at the gryphon on Fae's shoulder as Pueblo fidgeted. "If I had a supply of metal plates to work with, I might be able to experiment and figure something out, mind you. Perhaps I could talk to Alyosha next time he goes over to the mainland."
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:47 am
Fae furrowed her brows, thinking. She really would have liked something uniquely built by an Aerandir in her own home, but perhaps it would just be faster and easier for her to pick one up off from the main land. "Hm.."
Pueblo noticed Rahujo looking at her and blinked, cocking her head. Dare she step closer? She ruffled out her neck feathers and pawed at the air in a sort of wave. She had a good feeling around Rah and she quickly spread her wings to fly around Rahujo's head, then spiraled down her body to the adult's feet. Pueblo seemed to examine her, testing her. This is what she had to look forward to? She cocked her head again at her heel, then nibbled on Rahujo's tail fluff.
"A clay stove wouldn't be so bad and would probably even look nice in my home," she thought aloud, considering she didn't want to come here all the way for nothing. "Perhaps you could build a simple body and then I could have it added to. I'm just throwing ideas out." She wondered if this was troubling the other Aerandir and began to grow a bit excited.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:59 am
Rahujo grinned at Pueblo, then raised her eyebrow as she felt her tail being tugged upon. "Hoi." She twitched her tail upwards, just out of the little gryphon's reach, then turned her attention back to Fae's questions.
"Well, a clay stove is not really an indoor thing," she said, pointing to the little lean-to canopy under which hers was housed. "With the design I used, there isn't much of a chimney - it's not really all that much more than an enclosed cookfire. Your house would get awfully smoky."
She continued swishing her tail back and forth near to Pueblo, giving her a tempting target to play with.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 10:12 am
Pueblo watched as the tail went up, looking at it hungerly as if it was a toy. More or less, Pueblo didn't know it was her tail, but she heard a sound! She jumped at it, loving her hind canine legs and pawed at the fluff. "Hoop!"
Fae, feeling rather dumb, froze at the thought and grimaced at herself. Of course it'd fill her house with smoke. "Well, that's what I'm saying," she wittidly spoke. Rahujo probably didn't know so much about human equipment. "A clay body and then a chimney stack upon it. But clay probably is used more for outdoors..." Cetalu was hot. If she were too cook inside, itwould bake her house. Outside, it would probably be less stuffy. She could learn a lot from this Aerandir. She now stood there, erasing all her ideas before. "Now I'm just confused," Fae sighed and idly looked around, almost defeated. "Perhaps a stove outside would prove better outdoors," she glanced at Rahujo, then noticed Pueblo's antics. "Pueblo, please don't annoy Rahujo."
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 10:34 am
Rahujo laughed at the little gryphon bouncing up and down behind her. "Ah, she isn't annoying me, worry you not."
She continued to twitch her tail as she listened to Fae thinking aloud.
"Well, indoor fires are definately possible. It all depends on the chimney. The forge can have an indoor hearth because it has a massive stone chimney, around which the forge was built. Alyosha's stove has a cast-iron chimney which exits through the wall rather than going straight up. And as for the heat - well, a tolerance for heat is certainly useful on Cetalu.
"Of course, you could always have both: a small stove inside for rainy days and making soup, and a big hearth outside for heavy-duty cookery."
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:01 am
Fae smiled and nodded, letting Pueblo carry on.
And carry on she did! Rather giving up, she sperad her wings and dove at the tail fluff and nibbled it, but without being able to hover for so long, she floated back down and rubbed her head against Rahujo's anklet, giving her a nuzzle. She smelled like smoke, but it was a pleasing smell and Rah's fur was plush, too.
"This is true," she thought, an idea sparkling in her mind and suddenly took a step closer with insight. "Then perhaps you could build me a large clay one against my house for the outside? I could get something smaller inside," she grinned.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:43 am
"That sounds like a plan," Rahujo grinned. "There is a good bank of clay by one of the streams on this island, and stone if I need it for reinforcing."
She laughed as she felt Pueblo nibbling at her tail. The young Aerandir was already a good flyer, she thought with a slight jealous pang, which disappeared as the little gryphon nuzzled gently at her ankle.
"It will take me a few days to procure materials and work out a plan."
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:50 am
Fae grinned excitedly. "That sounds great. In the meantime, I can go ahead and ship some things over from the mainland and hook them up," she said, not like Rahujo really needed to know.
Pueblo cooed, sounding like a birdly-purr, as she nuzzled Rahujo's anklet. She then padded between the two and stretched her wings, showing her colors off and stretched her beak wide in a yawn. She then laid down between Fae and Rahujo, looking up between them, then blinking tiredly. She really didn't enjoy the day as much as the night.
Fae pondered. "Is there anything I can do for you in exchnage?" It was only fair, she thought. She was already honored in having a good cooking stove outside.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:56 am
With Freya pointing the way, Foenix soon reached the forge. "Fae!" she waved in greeting, and ran to meet up with her friend.
"Rahujo, it's nice to see you again," she nodded to the tall Aerandir. "I hope you don't mind my interfering, but i was pretty intent on picking up my kids!" She glanced around, looking for Nehanda and Nahda. "Are they around?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 11:59 am
Rahujo nodded. "Well ... I'm not in need of anything at the moment." She grinned. "Do something good for another of the tribe instead, and eventually the good will come back to me. That seems to be how we usually work."
She bent down and stroked the downy feathers on Pueblo's head as the wolf-owl blinked tiredly up at her.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2005 12:03 pm
Rahujo straightened up and nodded to the new arrival. "Good day, Foenix." She smiled. "I mind not at all... welcome back to Cetalu."
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