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 Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 4:50 pm
~ Pennath? I do believe we are ready to return home.~
Aioth lay still under the cover of the sparse forest edge, watching with calm eyes as her bonded struggled vainly to re-light his small fire with a flint rock he'd filched from the weyr. It had been a rough couple of days since Dianno got it in his head for the pair of them to take off on their own. They'd nearly completed weyrling training after all and with the weapons and fighting skills taught by the weyrlingmaster of High Reaches, Dianno felt more confident than he'd had previously in their ability to live away from the weyr. He didn't want to be tied down to a Wing and made to follow even more rules and restrictions. He was a trader by blood! He was born to travel and be free! What better freedom than the ability to fly and live anywhere he wanted with Aioth?
"Fardles!" Dianno stuck the end of his thumb in his mouth, sucking on the small black spot forming on the soft tip. He stared resentfully down at the smoking, soaked remains of what had bee last nights fire. Curled asleep on Aioth's arms, protected by the span of one of her wings he hadn't noticed the heat go out nor the steady drizzle that had drowned the rest of it. He sat on his heels and scowled. He was cold, tired and hungry all of which he'd thought he'd known how to handle (and still believed he did). It was just other things kept getting in his way! He could have caught that small wherry if Aioth hadn't scared it off. SHE could have caught it if the undergrowth hadn't been so dense to prevent even her small form from venturing further into the woods. He could have a shelter if the stupid branches he'd found had just stood upright like he wanted. He could have a fire if it hadn't rained!
Aioth didn't tell him that she had contacted Pennath the first evening of their absense. She'd known it wasn't a wise idea to go off on their own but it was better to let Dianno come to that realization himself than to prevent him from even trying. She could have hunted for them of course, but she would much rather return to High Reaches where it was warm, dry and the food was carefully tended and provided. She could and did survive off of minor amounts of raw meat (compared to what the current times dragons ate) but Dianno needed grains and vegetables. Neither of which where available here in the forest in the middle of winter. She was only glad it was rain that had put out their fire and not snow.
With a wordless gesture, Aioth rolled to her side and unfurled her exposed wing, welcoming Dianno to climb onto her side and warm himself from her own body heat. ~ It is not so easy as we assumed is it?~
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:09 pm
Pennath reassured, her voice kinder then usual, picking up some of her rider’s kindness towards the young and foolish. Indeed, it only took maybe five minutes for the green rider to gear up and come to find her wayward charge. Indeed, the woman wandered out of the forest maybe ten minutes after that, having found a circumspect place to land.
“How’s being a rogue rider treating you, kid?” she enquired genially, meandering over to poke at the remains of the fire. “Doesn’t seem like you’re doing too well for yourself, looks to me. Now, I’d'a chosen some time that wasn’t practically turns end to run off, less chance of freezing yourself to death, and fatter animals. Or headed south somewhere it never gets this cold, y’know? Reckon you could live off the jungles far better then these terrible cold climes. Help me get the fire up, we can have some breakfast”
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:24 pm
With that reassurance Aioth settled in to wait the few minutes it would take them to arrive. When L'ris just casually walked out of the forest Dianno scrambled to his feet, small belt knife in hand at the noise. Brown eyes wide with alarm narrowed and his signature frown fixed itself upon his face as she shoved the blade roughly back into it's sheath and folded his arms tight across his chest, fighting back the urge to shiver. "How'd you find us?" He shot a glare at Aioth who just whuffed a breath of hot air over him.
In truth they weren't too far from the weyr. Dianno had demanded they go out deep into the middle of nowhere but Aioth had stuck close to home. She'd let him think they were far from High Reaches because what was the harm there. He'd be satisfied and she would know he was safe.
"Fine. The rain put out my fire is all. I was gonna take care of it. It's not that cold." He stomped over to the fire and crouched back down with his striker in hand. His thumb throbbed as he slapped the rocks together aggressively, getting a couple wild sparks flying here and there, but not the clever spray that would ignite the small mess of twigs that were stuffed under the half burned remains.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:36 pm
“Stop that” L’ris said briskly, kneeling beside the fire with a frown. What she didn’t know about building fires wasn’t worth the knowing, having been on one too many long-term wilderness campaigns. “Clean this out first - get rid of the stuff that’s no use, it’ll clag up the air coming to your kindling. Actually, no, I’ll do it. Go and find me some more little twigs and things, as dry as you can, and anything bigger besides that's fallen and doesn't seem too wet”
She didn’t bother answering his questions: they could talk about what he thought he was doing when he was fed and warm, which was for her own comfort as much as his. She had set the leather bag containing various goods down casually by the fire - it could be sorted in a while.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 5:47 pm
~This is why we left! So I wouldn't have to be bossed around by her and the others!~
She has a point. It's terribly cold out here.
~I got it going the first time didn't I?!~
Barely, but yes you did. Now do it again so you can get some food in you. You are making me hungry and I ate my fill two days ago.
Dianno sulked off into the forest, the snapping of twigs and branches could be heard as he ripped the needles off of a couple trees just because he could. Scavenging around the base of a couple of the larger trees eventually saw him back at his camp with am armload of branches and a couple handfuls of twig and bark scraps which he dropped unceremoniously beside the cold fire pit. "What'd you bring to eat?" He asked, a little less rudely than his previous questions as his stomach growled.
Thank you to you and yours Pennath for coming so promptly. Aioth of course meant now when she was called. She was perfectly content with the fact that they had been left out on their own for a while beforehand. L'ris may take amusement from it but Aioth saw it as the best way to handle the situation that was her darling rider.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:01 pm
“I think porridge sounds good” L’ris didn’t snap back at the rudeness - what was the point? and you caught more flitterbugs with honey then vinegar - but began to carefully build the fire, layering the wood before producing her own flint from a belt pouch. “I’ve got some bacon and vegetables we can cook in it. Nutritious, that’s the ticket”
She sparked and caught the kindling, sword-calloused fingers working to carefully protect the little flame.
“Good for the fire, that is. Good work, Dianno. Now, I want a couple of long'uns I can brace to hang the cauldron from. Y’ever used a leather cauldron before? All the rage when I was young, so much less expense and weight”
She wasn’t above praise where necessary or warranted, and her tone was one of praise.
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:21 pm
It was a amazing what fire, even a small flame such as the one L'ris was nursing, could do for the mood. Well, that and the mention of food! Dianno was still put out by the fact that Aioth had ratted on him and fully intended to tell L'ris to bug off... after he'd ate.
He shook his head at her question. He'd only ever used cast iron. Every wagon had had their own set of cookware in addition to the large cauldron used to create a sort of workman's stew of whatever came to hand that day. It was ever-changing and somehow always delicious. Dianno missed those days. Since then he'd never even had to worry about what his food was made in as it was served to him hot and ready every mealtime at the weyr.
He missed that too, though he was stubbornly pretending he didn't. "Don't it burn?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:36 pm
“Not if you do it right. There’s a secret to it. Summat I can teach you there, if you’ve got the time to learn” L’ris said, nursing the flame as it sprang up and into life, beginning to crackle as it hit the damp wood. “There we go. That’ll burn fine, I reckon, and we won’t be setting the rest of the woods alight”
She liked the kid, despite his best efforts. For all his bolshy bravado, he was a good boy, and at least he’d tried something rather then sitting around the Weyr waiting for things to happen to him like some of his people seemed to be doing.
“You sit there, tend that fire and keep yourself warm, and I’ll show you"
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 4:38 pm
Aioth rolled back onto her stomach, tucking her wings and tail closer around herself now that she didn't need to shelter Dianno any longer. Her forelegs crossed and she rested her head on them to watch the pair work. She may not remember the lessons Dianno learned a month from now but it didn't change the fact that she found them interesting in the moment. She could also help Dianno go over them while they were still in her own memory.
Dianno crouched by the fire and picked up another stick that lay beside the fire, using it to shove some kindling back into the middle while it still burned. He hadn't realized how cold it was until the heat of the fire sank through his outer layers of clothing. He shivered. "Do most people use leather ones now?" He asked after some thought.
It was hard to imagine L'ris as young. To him she was an old woman on an old green dragon, albeit one who is no where near as dotty as he'd initially expected. No, if he'd been less determined not to, he'd have a very healthy dose of respect for the mature rider. In fact he probably did, but he wasn't about to let her know. He'd a reputation of his own to uphold and all that. He wasn't about to go soft just because he might like her.
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 4:58 pm
“I don’t think so” L’ris said thoughtfully, wedging a rough square of leather she had produced from her bag between four long poles, so that a dip was formed in the middle. “But we weren’t very wealthy, where I was brought up. Five of us children, and that’s a lot of mouths to feed. It’s all very well having a nice iron cauldron, but that’s marks could be paying rent or for food, and that sort of thing’s the first to go in a bad season, as I'm sure you know, being a trader sort”
Of course, of those five children, there were… two, left, now? She’d lost two siblings to the war, and another sister to childbed, and that left she and her last sister out of all of them, and Faranth knew where that woman was now.
“Trick is” she added, pouring water into the dip in the centre. “To make sure it doesn’t scorch. The heat just goes straight on through into the water if you do it right”
She would have been irritated to be thought of as old - shards, she was only fifty three, and she had no intention of retiring before she had to - so it was perhaps just as well that Dianno hadn’t voiced that.
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 5:34 pm
Dianno hadn't had actual siblings, just a caravan full of traders that were basically all family. He'd told L'ris the basics, quite likely embellishing both the best and the worst parts while keeping the details of his personal family, his mother, his father and the wagon they rode with mostly under wraps. Not that it really mattered when they were long gone those 500 turns ago but he was still more of the habit to ask more than he told.
He did know what she meant though. While they'd always had their pot, his mother often sold what furniture they'd gathered and any leather goods they owned before giving up her cookware. He wondered now why she'd never used a leather cauldron? Being a tanner, leather she could come by easily when she didn't have to pay for an already tanned hide. Even the cheap stuff she could salvage. If she bought an ill-tanned hide she could take the best parts and make something work a few marks out off, even if it was only an 1/8 or 1/4. Maybe they hadn't even been invented in his time? Or maybe he just hadn't paid attention.
"I thought the Holds were supposed to take care of their people?" The charter stated they were to be able to provide the basic needs to their holders and workers and that surely meant food even when times were lean?
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 5:53 pm
L’ris laughed, dropping oatmeal, vegetables and meat into the water, ready to boil. It wouldn’t be too long - a good sort of filling food, and nice and quick. Campfire cooking at it’s finest.
“You weren’t a farmer, were you? Probably grew up in nice fat times as well, which is lucky for you. Most turns, a staple’s going to fail, at least one. That’s bad luck, but you’ll get by if it’s only the one turn and you’ve got something else t’eat. Most people’ll survive that. Two turns, you’re shaffed, kids and old folk’re going to die, but three’s a killer - lot of people, not enough food, and definitely not enough to replant the next turn” She was happy enough to talk if he was happy to ask questions. “A Holder can have his duty to his people all he likes, but if there isn’t enough to go around, there isn’t enough. ‘bout thirty turns back, we had a real bad couple of seasons, people got really desperate. Cannibalism, infanticide, all that sort of messed up stuff people do when they’re starving”
That had been a bad few turns. She’d been a young rider then, in her prime and innocent to what people could do when they were desperate.
“That was a bad one, but it happens maybe every… decade? Five turns? on a smaller scale. Lot of folk don't have much margin between eating and not. Riders do their best, but it's a bigger problem then we can fix without more power"
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Posted: Sun Jan 04, 2015 6:07 pm
Dianno watched the leather cauldron as L'ris filled it with water and food. He still wasn't positive it would hold as the weight pulled the center closer to the flames beneath it. The appearance of the meal she'd brought was more than enough to keep him complacent for now.
"Nope. Traders between Igen and Benden... but there wasn't Thread that long ago was there?" Thread hadn't been around back in his time. (and what a surprise THAT had been when the time riders were released from quarantine to see the fabled spores were in fact VERY real.) Crops grew well, Holds supplied for their people and Traders grew fat off of the excess. Traveling under the sun and stars when the weather was fine held little dangers that couldn't be handled by the adults of the caravan.
His dark skin turned grey as she described the famine. "You ate people?!" Horrified, his eyes flicked from their meal to L'ris and back again. "That's disgusting."
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 2:38 am
“I personally ate two weyrlings who dropped their sword during drills as unfit to be riders” L’ris said dryly, though she was grinning. Her eyes gleamed unsettlingly in the dawn light, and it was not hard to remember her size and strength. “And look where we are now - no-one but me knowing where you are and everyone thinking you’ve run off! Maybe I’ve got a taste for human flesh”
There was a crack of branches as Pennath pushed her way into the clearing, her wings tucked tight to her body to avoid them being snagged and ripped.
L’ris retorted, despite it usually being Pennath who did exactly that.
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Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:02 pm
There was a whole new wariness in Dianno's posture as he ruefully thought of his sword. It was not on his belt where it might have done him some good but instead tucked into his small bundle of belongings he'd brought with him. Not that he honestly could have fought off L'ris if she decided to eat him out here in the wilderness. His only option would be to run and in that, he might have the edge. Aioth...Tell Regulith, Venaith... and Sereth where we are. I think L'ris might want eat me.
Aioth of course did no such thing.
Dianno jumped, stumbling backwards out of his crouch when Pennath crashed through the undergrowth. The whites shone bright around his eyes as he tried to cover the blunder by crossing his arms over his chest (one hand hovering over the hilt of his small beltknife just in case). He jutted his chin forward even as his heart hammered in his chest. "You even try and Aioth could have Sereth and the rest of them here before you got one bite."
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