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 Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 8:40 pm
Veyes yawned as he walked into the busy kitchen. It was another early morning and he knew that he'd be back in the meat locker. He waved at the women and grabbed the bowl of spiced porridge that they always had ready for him bright and early. The porridge was tastly but quickly devoured because he knew that if he didn't get started quickly, he might not be done early enough to bath before candidate lessons in the afternoon.
So once he finished he grabbed his heavy coveralls and other protective gear that were important while working in the meat locker to avoid all the blood spatter and gore that usually ended up everywhere. As he was about to head out, one of the kitchen women caught him by the shoulder to get his attention.
"Oh, Veyes...your going to be working with another candidate named Bevan today. He will help you with the skinning...gutting...etc. We have twice the amount of herd beasts today but some of them are rather scrawny looking. Bevan should be here shortly and if he doesn't know how to do something, I'm sure you can show him how. I'll send him to the meat locker when he's comes." she said as she turned him around and redid the long braid in his hair just a bit tighter then clipped it to the back of head with his mother's hair clip.
Veyes nodded at her words but he would have rather have done the work alone. Although, he wouldn't complain to her about it - it wasn't his place - so instead went straight to the meat locker to survey the bodies and prepare his tools and knives.
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:57 am
Bevan had been directed for chores that were not his norm this day. He made his way in the direction of the kitchens, only getting lost twice on his way over in the tunnels, finding them all to be almost too confusing for him to follow. But he eventually sound his way, shuffling into the dining hall and huffing unhappily at the grounds lingering around, chatting and being chummy -- annoying lot. He snorted and made his way into the kitchens, now, looking for the woman who said she would direct him.
Soon enough, he was finding his way back into the meat locker, having snapped at the woman and another person when they offered to show him the way towards the locker. He could find it himself, and didn't need their stupid help. He growled quietly and hunched his wide shoulders as he moved into the locker, looking around for whoever he was supposed to work with. "Oi. You here?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:36 pm
Veyes surveyed the herd beasts that had been brought in. The woman was right; the meat sure wasn't that substantial. In fact, he wasn't sure they'd have much meat on them; not like the one he raised at the farm. He wondered why the Weyr put up with this sort of treatment but when he asked the opinions ranged from greed to Holders thinking that Riders weren't doing real work. That really didn't seem fair as far as he was concerned considering what the Riders did for their world as a whole.
However, until he made himself a place in this world, he'd have to Just listen and offer little position on the matters because he didn't have anything to back it up with. So, he picked up the skinning tools and looked each one of them over making sure that they were sharp and still in good shape. Bad tools meant bad cuts and in this he wasn't afraid to go to the kitchen to get them sharpened on the whetstone. The Weyr couldn't afford to waste a single scrap.
Kneeling down beside the corspe, he felt the beast over planning out his cuts so he could skin off much of the future leather in big sheets rather than small cuts, however, these herd beast had several issues from scaring and other flaws that was going to make this job much more difficult.
He sighed as he prepared to make his first slice in preparation to skin but then stopped as he heard another's voice call out. "Yeah, I'm over here."
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:36 pm
Bevan wrinkled his nose as he made his way back into the room, irritated by the smell of blood and herdbeast. But he weaved around and made his way to the only other person he saw nearby, figuring this to be the one he would be working with this day. And of all places to work... It was disgusting back here. He stared down at Veyes for a long moment, wrinkling his nose in distaste. This boy looked comfortable here, casual... like this was what he normally did. What a filthy job... He grunted unhappily, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Well, I'm here to help, I guess. What should I do?" he asked flatly, looking around a little, clearly not all that interested in actually doing any work -- especially not this sort of work. The dead herdbeast was irksome and gross -- he'd much rather just have the skin given to him and not have to see the dead beast at all.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:13 pm
Veyes glanced up from the beast and immediately noted the other boy's disgust. It wasn't hard to tell considering the wrinkle upon the nose of an other wise attractive face. Just his luck! Well, there was nothing he could do about it except use those brawny muscles given to the other for as much as he could get out of him. Why did the kitchen send him help like this?!
"I'm guessing you haven't worked in a meat locker before...so...right now, I'm skinning meat then it will be hung over there." He pointed to a table where other skins were laying. The Tanners will take them from there, if they aren't here to skin up the meet themselves. Some of them like to skin them before I get here but these beasts aren't as good today."
He paused and looked the boy over and tried not to sigh when he spoke, "Well, do you want to learn how to do the butchery job? It's good for knowing how to cut meat for your dragon later if you impress. Or you can just start dragging the next beasts over so I can skin them as I go. But whichever you decide, go put on the protective coveralls and gloves in the chest outside the door. You don't want to get your day clothes dirty." Not sure what to expect from the boy, he started to skin the first beast uncertain that he'd trust the other with the job.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:35 pm
Bevan stared down at Veyes still, gaze full of distaste, though he was beginning to feel a touch of interest in the job. To be honest, as much as he disliked the idea of skinning up an animal himself, he would have to do it sometime, when he had his dragon or his own Tanning name. He sighed heavily, rolling his shoulders, before moving to put on the gear that the other told him to. He yanked on the coveralls and the gloves, making sure his clothes were properly covered, then stalked back out into the main room to grab onto the next dead beast to bring it over to the other.
"You weren't kidding," he said flatly as he dragged it closer to Veyes, letting go of it with a thud and standing up with a wrinkle in his nose again. "These are measly, and all marked up... they aren't gonna make good meals, let alone good leather. Why the hell does the Weyr have such pathetic beasts?" He flicked his gaze in Veyes' direction, watching him work.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:06 pm
Veyes had to wonder if that look was directed towards him...or the work in general and was thankful when the frowning boy had wandered off to get on the protective gear. Finally able to sigh, he leaned into his work and started to make the appropriate cuts figuring if anything he could hurry along if the other kept out of his way and by the time the boy got back he had moved to the hind quarters and was peeling away the skin in a sheet.
As the other dragged over the next scrawny beast, Veyes at least could agree with him on one thing. This batch was terrible. "I think the Holders don't think riders don't deserve the better beasts or maybe the riders don't know how to bargain for better. I'm not sure but from what I've been told, Holders change their tune when thread starts to fall. But...It doesn't seem right to be honest." Heck he was from a hold but only raised and butchered...he never sold the meat, however, although the good beasts did seem to always end up close at hand rather than given up to the riders. If he had to think about it, a man like his father had been probably wouldn't have given the riders the best choices.
"Mmm...well there's nothing I can do about the skin. The tanner has to figure that out but as for the meat. We're going to tenderize it with the mallets over there as best we can once we get all of it cut. It's the only way to make this meat useful since the Weyr doesn't waste anything from these beasts." He yanked the rest of the skin off and tossed it on the table.
"So do you know how to skin? It will take me a bit to skin all of these myself before gutting and blooding them all. I like to work with one set of tools at a time to make this go faster. You up to taking a go at it?" he said as he walked over to the next beast and started to figure out with a deft eye where he was going to cut. This one had more scars and marks on it than the previous and he was afraid that things might even be worse in the rest of the pile.
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Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 3:05 pm
Bevan returned and watched with a curled lip as Veyes peeled away the skin. Some part of him felt ill. He had deal more than enough with the skin and had no problem with that, but seeing what was beneath was a different, and not necessarily good experience. Shifting awkwardly, the bulky boy waited until he was told what to do next. When asked if he could skin the herdbeast, he snorted in distaste, shifting back a step.
"Are you a deadglow? There's no way in hell I'm doing a filthy job like that," he huffed, rolling his eyes and looking aside, upper lip curled still. He should have asked for another job... this was just disgusting. "You stick to the messy job, and I'll do some other stuff... I'll take the skin somewhere, or... I dunno, deal with the meat. You can deal with the blood, and stink of death."
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Posted: Sun May 03, 2009 6:54 pm
Veyes paused and stared at Bevan as the boy's mouth let loose with a curse at him and then a string of crap that only made Veyes want to spit. This was the attitude of a holder, who only wished to be pampered in life; that disgusted the farm boy who worked most of his life!
His eyes narrowed as he dragged the skin the rest of the way off with a sloshing rip that oozed blood all over his gloves. "This whole dang job is a messy one because we have to take the guts out before we can butcher the meat. What did you expect in a meat locker? Ya think I'm a deadglow??"
That caused Veyes temper to simmer some, being a son of a man with a temper; he sometimes could be provoked but his hand was upon a knife and he didn't want to do anything stupid or rash so he tossed the skin over to Bevan and walked over to the next beast, "How the hell you going to feed a hatchling dragonet if you can't stomach this?! Shards, you're a big guy and you can't handle stripping and gutting?"
What a lazy worthless holder! He thought to himself as he knelt beside the beast and stretch out the legs of the animal trying to figure out how he'd handle the rest of the day with this guy, "Put it over on the table then. Geesh." Restraining himself from saying something even worse, he grabbed up the next scrawny beast and started to plot his cuts keeping one eye on the beast and one eye on the brat.
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Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 9:31 am
Some part of Bevan's mind was aware of how spoiled he sounded and acted, but the rest of him just did not care. He'd always received what he wanted and only done what he wanted, coddled by his mother to the point of being a downright brat. He sneered at the blood that oozed onto Veyes' gloves, stepping back just slightly and snorting. "I never asked to help you with your chores. I was just put here," he snapped defensively, before quickly catching the skin that was tossed at him.
It made his stomach flip a little. He wrinkled his nose, but moved to put the skin on the table, watching Veyes with an irritated expression. "It's never been my issue before, and I didn't plan on it being my issue," he growled out, crossing his arms over his chest and watching Veyes work with a disgusted expression. This was not how he wanted to spend his day.
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Posted: Mon May 04, 2009 10:57 am
Veyes start slicing along the scrawny beast's flesh with a deft hand as if the labor had been a natural part of his life. He huffed just a bit as he worked along the body making sure not to puncture too deep so he would reach the guts. He couldn't imagine how this boy was going to handle the gutting process - He'd probably puke then leave him another mess to clean. That had already happened once before so Veyes wouldn't be surprised if it happened with this lummox.
"Yeah, Ok...so you didn't want to be here but what the heck ya going to do for a baby dragon if you happen to impress? Expect the meat delivered to you? They make you do this in Weyrling practice and you get to do this several times a day." Stripping away half the skin he flipped the beast to the other side and started cutting and peeling it down. As he tossed the next skin over, he hoped the other would end up puking when he got to gutting. At least, then the boy would have a good excuse for running off. Although it would mean another mess for him to clean up. He sighed at the thought then walked to the next beast.
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