Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sound of metal biting into wood caught Jericho's ear as he walked down the path back towards the river. It wasn't normal for him to be walking the path this time of day, as he normally stayed at the river from dawn to nearly dusk. Today, though, after setting his traps he had decided to do a little reel fishing, only to have a massive fish spool out his reel while he hadn't been looking, and then broke the line, leaving him with next to none. Irritated that he'd allowed himself to be distracted, he had walked back into the town and gotten himself another spool and was now on his way back to his spot in the river where he had left his nets and traps in the water to snare his daily catch to help feed the populace.

The bright afternoon sunshine warmed his tan skin, playing over his well muscled arms as he brushed aside a stray branch over the path. His golden curls were pulled back from his face by a hair tie at the back of his head, only just long enough to keep in place in this new style for him. Jericho paused and let his tropical sea blue eyes rove over the surrounding forest to find the source of the rythmic chopping sound. He knew there were foresters at Ghenza, but he hadn't run into many of them here in the woods as he tended to stick to the path or the river itself. The only time he ever really saw them was in the early morning and the evening when they were coming and going from work, just as he was.

There, just a little ways down the path, he spotted the source, A woman was working at removing some bushes from around a tree that already bore a few marks of her ax. As he approached, he almost spoke, but then realized that perhaps she didn't want to be interrupted, especially while handling something as sharp as that ax of hers.

Jericho waited for her to pause in her work before he said "Good afternoon." in his warm, low voice, giving her a slight wave as he approached. If she didn't want to talk, he could just keep going, if she did, he would be willing to stop. His traps were laid and mid-afternoon, as it was now, was usually the worst time of day for reel fishing, as the fish were sluggish and unlikely to take any bait tossed their way on a hook, so he had some time.

She was a well built woman, that was for certain. No doubt it came from all that ax swinging she did, Jericho thought. He rather liked her voice though, low and mellow, not high pitched like most womens.

"I'm just heading back, actually." Jericho said "A larger fish than I was expecting caught my hook, ran out all my line, and broke it." he explained with a slight grimace. River fish were normally on the smaller side, but this particular fish had been massive. It had snapped his line with ease. This time Jericho made sure he came back with stronger stuff.

Jericho smiled one of his winning grins, his bright white teeth flashing in contrast to his tanned skin as he stepped forward and offered a large, calloused hand in greeting "Name's Jericho, I'm one of the candidate transfers from High Reaches, former fishcrafter from Tillek."

"Hm, it is a shame, but what can I say? I guess I'm just used to working with a higher quality line." He said with an innocently helpless shrug, letting his little jab sink in. If she was going to be snarky about 'waste', then he wasn't going to go out of his way to be nice about it.

"Good to meet you, Ux." He said, dropping the hand he had been offering as she obviously had no intention of taking it. He wasn't horribly thrilled though. Was she going to be like ninety-five percent of the rest of the populace here and be ridiculously anti-outsider? This was starting to get old, that was for sure.

"Having some trouble cutting down your tree?" he asked, noting the hacking she'd had to do at the bushes around it "Such a shame to have to waste those perfectly good bushes..." another small jab from behind an innocent face.

"Oh, no worries," Jericho said smoothly "This won't break. I made it myself." he remarked as he looked it over once and then tucked it into his pocket.

Jericho turned his eyes to the tree in question, and shook his head "It is a shame. Looks sturdy enough to me." he said, agreeing with her sentiments on that point at least. It seemed like a waste of a perfectly good tree. He did, though, raise an eyebrow when she asked for his assistance, implying that he didn't have anything better to do back at the river.

"On the contrary, I normally use this time of day to mend my traps and nets...but I could spare a few minutes to lend you a hand since all your help ran out on you." He added the last bit as an afterthought, but meant it. She wasn't the most likable person, but he did have to give her points to be here finishing her work while her companions had cut out early to go to lunch.

His mind made up, the fisherman moved forward and held aside the bushes that she hand indicated, careful to keep any limbs out of the path of her swing so he didn't end up losing something he'd miss later.

"Ready when you are." he said.

"Ah, sorry." Jericho said and moved over to the place she pointed to and took up his position again. One thing he'd learned over the turns was to trust someone in their own craft, so if she said move, he'd certainly do so. Better than losing a limb.

His ears perked up when she mentioned that they would season the wood for use elsewhere, though "What do you think it'll be used for? I've been looking to build a small rivercraft to get to better fishing spots on the river, but I've been turned down repeatedly in my requests for lumber. No doubt because I"m a transfer." he said dryly, keeping his head turned as Ux let loose her axe on the tree. Jericho dearly wished the people here would stop being so stingy and just let him have his wood. It had been months since he had last worked on a boat.

"I'm a journeyman shipcrafter with no ships to craft." he mused aloud, mostly to himself, keeping his head turned so that he didn't get a bunch of wood chips in the mouth.

Jericho watched as the woman worked with quick, confident blows to the trunk of the unfortunate tree. Wood chips went flying and he turned his face away for the worst of it, listening as she spoke between strikes.

When a sharp crack rang out from the tree and it started to slant, Jericho stepped quickly away, moving in the same direction as Ux so he didn't end up getting crushed. He turned a blue eye to her and raised an eyebrow, snorting at her 'boy' comment. Boy indeed. He waited for the dust to settle to speak again so he didn't choke and look a fool.

"Well, hopefully your 'help' won't run out on you again and make my help necessary." he remarked, dusting wood bits off of his front and pants.

"As for waste, I wouldn't, but apparently you people don't trust our 'outsider' ranking system of how skilled someone is in a craft." Jericho said a little dryly as he finished dusting himself off. He'd been dangerously close to calling insult to the man who had denied him his lumber (understandable, Jericho thought, since they didn't know him), but insinuating that he'd completely waste so much wood because he didn't know what he was doing was something of a dire insult for the man, who had been working his craft for several years now.

Jericho's stormcloud of an expression lightened a bit when Ux abruptly asked what size a boat he was looking to build.

"Nothing too big, the river is wide, but it has several rather shallow points, so it would have to be a rather shallow boat. Probably not more than ten or fifteen feet." Jericho said thoughtfully, imagining such a craft now.

What would be in it for her though? What would interest such a woman in a boat? He thought it over for a moment and then said "Transport up and down the river for you and your work gear?" Jericho suggested. "Going by river to points further away from town than here would save you a lot of time, meaning you could get more done than everyone else?" he suggested "Depending on how many are on your work team, I could probably fit them in too." he suggested.

Jericho smiled a bit "Well that makes for a nice change." he said when she said she didn't care where he came from. There were more than a few people around who didn't share Ux's views, though he had learned to ignore it for the most part while he was here. It did chafe sometimes, though.

"Well I should be able to manage five plus equipment just fine." Jericho said thougtfully, already mulling over a few ideas for his river craft.

"Alright, I should be heading back to the river anyways." Jericho said, looking up at the sky and noting the angle of the sun. The fish would be starting to stir again now that their afternoon lethargy was over with, so he could get back to work.

"I'll see you soon, and I'll see what I can do about that fish." Jericho said with a grin.