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 Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2015 4:09 pm
 The land was different but similar; for which Rayolun was rather grateful for. It wasn't similar to the deep jungles of Jauhur, but instead to the beach areas he's made his home in for a few years. His time there had served as good practice in trying to find food and water in Matori. Not, though, for hunting Matori's creatures. He was used to insects, some mammals, and more insects interspersed with weird crystalline creatures. Here there were reptiles and amphibians... some with rather eye watering colors. He knew bright colors often indicated that the creature was poisonous. Did this mean they were dangerous to eat? Or just dangerous to get bitten by? He sat perched in a tree (far too small if you asked him but it was tall enough by other earthling standards) watching one such reptile move around below him. Maybe I should try for some of those weird furred beasts with the long tails, he thought to himself. Less chance of poison for all that it'll be harder to catch.... But he disliked skinning furred creatures; it seemed a waste and a lot more work compared simply stripping off scales! Mind made up he quietly slunk out of the tree and into the patched shadows of the thick leafy bushes that filled spaces where he was used to trees being. Stereochrome never quoted you in here O.o There, now it has notified you 8D !
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Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2015 9:29 am
Vodyanoi travelled in high spirits; his belly was empty but his heart was full of songs and rhythms, which was more than enough to distract him from his hunger (for the time-being, at least). After spending some time walking by the shore, he had found a long, winding path that skirted through rocky stretches. It took him some distance away from the ocean, so the ever-present sound of waves and howling wind was somewhat muted here -- it was nice and quiet.
Or, well, it would have been quiet, if he hadn’t been around.
But he was. And he wasn’t just walking in a straight line; he was meandering, hop-skipping and clapping his hands together to some invented beat. His bracelets and anklets jingled together as he walked, and on top of it all he was singing. Singing anything that came to mind -- sea shanties and work-songs, Oban songs from his life as a slave, and little things he had made up himself, about waves and rocks and big green leaves in the sun.
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Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2015 5:42 pm
Rayolun heard the approaching boy just as the animal did. It fled deeper into the brush leaving a rather annoyed Rayolun behind. He sat back and waited for the noise to leave or approach; either would work fine for him. If it left he could get back to hunting.. if it approached he'd tell the other to go make noise elsewhere! He sighed and ran a hand over the bear that was growing as he heard the sounds become clearer. Someone singing and jingling.... Clapping too.... Rayolun waited, half hidden in the shadowy underbrush as the young water boy meandered his way about. He took the time to examine his first Water Tribe up close. They had a rather unique dual coloration; one that made him think of the ocean in the shallower beach areas. "Your noise," Rayolun said softly when the other got close enough; "is scaring off all the animals."Rownin, his pet roati, wriggled out of the brush now that his master had stopped his hunting movements and went over to sniff at the new figure. Speech meant that this was friendly! Pets maybe? His small tail wagged back and forth furiously as he approached and gave a gruff bark.
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Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:36 am
“Your noise,” A voice spoke from the underbrush, soft and rumbling-low, “is scaring off all the animals.”
“Who was that?!” Vodyanoi jumped back, once again jingling with the motion. His hands stopped in mid-clap, then moved to clench somewhat nervously in front of his chest. Who was that? They sounded big.
He had to squint into the shadows to find the source of the sound (the bright sea-side light turned every shade into a patch of almost solid darkness), and before he could really pin down the stranger’s shape the leaves on a nearby bush bust aside. One extremely furry… thing was bouncing straight at him, sniffing and wiggling and making sounds. Vodyanoi made to back away but it only followed him happily, and after a few moments of hesitation it seemed pretty apparent that it was not going to hurt him.
It was tiny, anyway. And fuzzy. Very, very fuzzy.
He reached out, tentatively, to touch its dusty-pink nose.
“Hello, little thing.” He said to the creature, then looked back up into the shadows, squinting again. “Umm…”
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 1:56 pm
Rayolun waited a bit before following Rownin out into the sunshine with a sigh. His skin was in it's daytime black and while it helped him to blend into the shadows, he stood out everywhere else. He held his trident loosely, ready to brig it up should danger present itself but not threatening anything at the moment. "That was me." He said, his voice still quiet. But then he was always quiet... Except when out at sea.... Rownin eagerly sniffed at the matori boy, bumping the outstretched hand with is damp nose and giving another hoarse bark to demand pets. "I was about to make a kill... until your noise scared it off." He was a bit miffed about that; it was a lot quieter out here compared to Jauhur racket so he'd had to be extra quiet! And the beast had still gotten away... Why was it quieter out here? Probably because it was so long and stretched out, bordered by empty ocean and towering cliffs. He looked around but saw no signs of animals following the noisy boy; guess there were less predators? Sounds like this lad had been making often attracted predators in jauhur... but maybe this land was less dangerous? "Do you always make such sounds when traveling?" Rayolun was a bit weirded out by it... who wandered about singing in the wilderness? Didn't that just attract danger?
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Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2015 9:21 am
A man stepped forward from the shadows; he was broad, strong and… unusually dark. Not dark like some of the Obans were, though -- this one was gray-dark, like wet rocks. His hair was silver, and his shoulders were decorated with blue crystals and decorative tattoos.
Vodyanoi stood, stunned for a while. He had never seen anything like this man, but he had heard rumours about gray-skinned people from the jungles. Shifters, they were called, because sometimes they changed the colour of their skins -- but most importantly, it was them and their allies had defeated the Obans in their conquest. Could this really be a shifter?
Before he could ask, though, the man was questioning him, his words snapping the prentice out of his daze. The little furry thing was making more rough (but apparently friendly) sounds, butting into his hand and practically coercing him into petting it’s head. Vodyanoi complied, because it was quite cute, and the long fur felt nice on his hand.
“Umm, I guess?” He answered the stranger sheepishly. “I mean, it’s just kind of boring to just… walk along, you know? Especially when I don’t know where I’m going. If I stop singing, I get to thinking about how my feet hurt and how I’m hungry.”
Not wanting to make the man angry at his excuses, though (for he had a weapon, and looked like he knew how to use it), he smiled apologetically. “I didn’t know anyone was here, though. I would have kept quiet if I knew you were hunting!”
The rattle of bracelets that followed his each of his gestures hinted otherwise.
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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 5:15 pm
Stereochrome The Ray has revived! Now I can tag his stuff and write his solos 8D Boring to just walk along? Rayolun did not understand this at all; but perhaps that was because he preferred to more with a purpose and enjoyed watching the scenery. He shrugged and let it go. He was not really here to argue or lecture. "To be silent you would need less jewelry." He said, a half smile twitching at his lips. The other was certainly decked out! "But no matter.... You said you were hungry? Then why not hunt? Other that the fact your noise drives away the animals." After having been silent for so long, his only conversation having been with Chalcedony and Kelina in over a month; talking this long felt weird. The other did not look at all like the slaves he'd freed from the Oban ship months ago... this one had a bounce to his step, a spark about him. Like he was happy and enjoyed life; quite unlike the sullen, beaten backs of the others. He is what they should be like, Rayolun couldn't help but thinking.
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Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 9:40 am
Vodyanoi grinned sheepishly. There was no denying that he made a lot of noise just moving; since coming to Matori he had only added to his collection of ornaments, including his new prized possession -- two anklets made out of beads and painted seed-husks, still filled with dry rattling seeds. They made a really nice, rhythmic shaking noise when he walked or danced, and reminded him a little of the hiss of waves against the shoreline.
“Hunt?” He tilted his head questioningly. He knew the meaning of the word, of course (he wasn’t stupid) but was surprised to hear the question.
“Euh… I don’t know how. Or what to hunt, really. See, I never spend much time here when I was little, I’ve been in Oba most of my life. I’ve seen men hunting fish with spears and things, but I don’t have a spear. I tried to use a stick once, but the fish are fast! And then I’ve seen some use traps, but they look complicated, like funny baskets made out of rope.”
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Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:49 pm
Never hunted? He realized that he'd thought that the Obans would expect to provide for their slaves... but now that he thought about it; that meant giving them weapons.. and teaching them skills that could be used to kill their masters. "Ah... had not quite thought of it like that." He muttered to himself, hand rubbing his bearded chin. Then he looked at the younger boy and offered a small smile. More of a hint at a smile than anything.. He wasn't in the smiling mood these days so that was the best he could do. "Would you like.. instruction on some traps and hunting?" He refrained from mentioning a stick was in no way useful for catching fish unless it was long, had a sharp tip, and was hard or had a string attached to it for the slow and lazy way of fishing.
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Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2015 8:57 am
Frankly, Vodyanoi wasn’t sure what to make of the man. He seemed… friendly, but not altogether happy. Then again, maybe that only seemed strange because he had grown so used to seeing the beaming faces of the Matori; the last few months here had been a non-stop celebration of sorts, with long-lost family members returning every day.
At the man’s offer of instruction, he looked thoughtful. Was it odd to get hunting lessons from a stranger? Maybe a little. But then again, he had been learning plenty of things from strangers. And if he could hunt, he could get food. And if he could get his own food, he could travel anywhere he liked. That seemed like a pretty good idea!
“Ok, then. If you help me hunt, I’ll help you cook whatever we catch. I’ve been learning a thing or two about cooking like they do here.”
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Posted: Tue Mar 31, 2015 3:18 pm
Rayolun gave a brief smile; "Sounds like a fair trade..... Do you know how to dress a kill?" It did not go hand in hand with cooking... but everyone who hunted needed to be able to dress and clean a kill... otherwise you carried around extra weight back home and then had to dispose of the inedible stuff near your home... which would just attract predators. He found it odd that the matori boy referred to his home land as 'like they do here' almost as if he wasn't a part of it Maybe he doesn't see himself as part of it yet? "First off, for hunting you need silence." He eyed the jiggling jewelry. "You'll need to wrap those in something and stash them in a pocket or pouch."
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Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 9:29 am
“Well, I did learn how to scale and gut fish!” He responded eagerly, even though it wasn’t really the right answer to the man’s question. It was a better answer than shrugging and looking clueless, though. In the Oban household where he had worked, meat had always come already prepared by the butcher… not fuzzy or scaly or bleeding. But if he had figured out the fish, surely he could figure out other things as well? He didn’t want this stranger to think that he was completely useless.
“Oh.” He grinned sheepishly on the subject of his jewelry, looking down at his ornamented hands and ankles. “Ok. I can be quiet.”
He had a simple bag with him -- really just a square of matori cloth, with the edges knotted cleverly to make a satchel one could wear around the shoulder. He laid this down on the ground, then sat down beside it; apparently, taking off his trinkets was too much of a job to be done standing.
When he was finally done, he stood up and jumped a few times, hopping from foot to foot like a dancer. He felt lighter, and duller, and… strange. But there was almost no noise, save for a muffled rattle in his bag.
“See? Quiet!”
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Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2015 4:20 pm
Rayolun smiled a bit; fish ehh? The one thing that wouldn't be startled away by the jangling of the boy's items. "Sounds okay. If you're hunting at night even that amount of sound is dangerous... but for daytime it's fine." He Moved over and pushed up a leaf, revealing the tracks of the animal he had bee hunting. "First thing to hunting is finding tracks. Fresh ones preferably. Of course if you stumble upon something that's always nice as well if you can kill it before it escapes. Are you any good with a sling, bow, or javelin? I can make those fairly easily." It occurred to him then that perhaps hunting with a weapon was not what this boy would need to know. Noise and all that. Perhaps setting traps would be better... "Hmm.. how are you on setting traps? I know how to trap within my home land but.. I am unfamiliar as to the types of animals in your lands... Traps are a way of hunting, one that requires skill in creating and planning more than skill at stalking or killing."
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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2015 9:15 am
When the man asked him about weapons, Vodyanoi cringed uncertainly. He had nothing against weapons -- but he’d never even held one, except perhaps that time he’d found a broken spear on the beach. But the shifter seemed to predict this answer, and asked him about traps instead.
Not that Vodyanoi was any sort of trap expert either.
“Well, I’ve seen traps.” He shrugged. “Mostly for the fish, but some for other things too. They’re made like a small basket, or even bigger, like the shape of a drum, and they’ve got one small hole the critters can get into. But most of them can’t seem to find their way back out after that, so they’re stuck inside. It’s quite clever -- the traps, I mean, not the critters.”
He laughed at that, flicking back a braid of hair that had fallen out of place.
“What kind of traps do they use where you come from?”
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2015 3:56 pm
Rayolun saw the cringe and knew his guess had been correct. But then if the boy had been a slave than he'd probably never been taught weaponry at all... So he started reviewing his known traps and decided to see if the simpler ones would be useful here. He'd seen some birds, and some smaller animals.. but frankly he'd seen more large tracks than small; so pit traps would probably be the easiest way. Though annoying to make... "Next time you should ask if they can teach you, I don't know that type and I wouldn't mind learning how it works;" he said with a small smile as he climbed up a tree to cut off some vines before jumping back down. "From what I've seen, the smaller game lives mostly in trees... haven't been here long to know if the bigger game's edible but we'll stick with the small game for now. I know of some simple snares you can easily make from vines if you don't have rope." He said as he handed the long stringy vines to Vodanyoi. "I grew up in the jungles of Juahur. The trees there are so large we live inside the canopy for the ground of the jungle is dark except for the crystals that grow everywhere. Lots of large insects that we tend to eat. Some mammals but mostly bugs. So our traps tend to be for flying creatures or pit traps on the ground for the more dangerous beasts. Pit traps are easy except for hiding them. Then you have to make sure it's cover matches the ground and is in a place animals actually walk through." He headed deeper into the growth. "Follow along... we'll find better pickings on trees with fruit on them and I passed by one on the way here."
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