Closed [Smokey Waters] Whether to Weather the Weather(Alori)

[Lavira]

When asked if she'd been hurt, Vira shook her head firmly. "No, I...er, I took a fall last season. Still healing; it probably will never fully recover, though."

After they got moving again and Alori answered her question, the teen stopped and looked curiously back at the woman, brows raised. "Things never go as we plan them, Alori. We have to be able to improvise; I mean...I sure didn't expect to get chased by a bear back there, did you?" Vira laughed, grasping the others shoulders for a squeeze. "Besides, we know where the cow went, not where the calf disappeared to. The smart choice would be to catch up to her and try and get a bead on her before she does get to a point where we can't catch her."

Turning away, Vira softened her voice. "I couldn't kill a whelp if my life depended on it anyways..." The thought made her somber. "I worked as a nesting attendant before Mohya bonded with me, Alori. I was one of her caretakers when the storm hit last year and wiped out the nesting aeries and all the eggs and hatchlings. She lost a brood of three; kind of held it against all of us in the city that we couldn't save her hatchlings. I've been working with her since then in an effort to make her realize there was nothing we could have done. It took my fall and...and struggle...late last season for her to finally open up enough. Working so closely with the young Wind Eagles previously, I have a really hard time with the concept of killing any creatures young." It was a curious glimpse into the young Endal and her abnormal maternal instinct. It was exceedingly rare for an Inartan to have that sort of nature given the way Wind Reach residents were commonly reared, Endal or not.

[Alori Sai]

"Well I was improvising..Vira." Alori said slightly sticking her tongue out at the woman. The mood seemed to lighten, and she was no longer panicking or thinking too much about the bear that tried to eat them. But there was something that the woman said that bothered her, did she really feel that way? To think that things never went her way? Alori couldn't do that, she had to believe that with hard work and a lot of heart that goals and dreams could be realized, even on a small scale.

"No, I really wasn't expecting to be chased by a petchin bear, that was crazy. And you did it, you put us down here, you trying to kill me Vira? How could you?" she laughed and hugged the woman back. This was the reason she enjoyed hunting with friends, being able to share the experience with another had it's own rewards. As much as she loved Skye, he was a falcon, and as much time as they spent together she didn't have a clue of what he chirped about half the time.

"Fine, fine, we'll go for the cow. You make it sound like I wanted to kill a baby or something."

Alori shook her head, she had never killed a calf before, but she had gotten over the hesitation to do so. Life in the Unforgiving for over a season had taught her the meaning of kill or die. Still, she found the tiny animals to be cute and adorable and wouldn't try to kill one unless she had no other option. "How do you feel now, can you move better?"

Alori was surprised to hear the woman's thoughts on killing the young. It was even more surprising given her field of work. Suddenly the teen wasn't so sure how her companion would fair as an Endal. It wasn't easy to hunt, if it was then Dek and Yasi and everyone else would do it. She recalled times when she went to turn in her game to the market and she saw others with game taken from small and weaker animals. It wasn't easy to look at, but it was a part of life, and she now worried that her friend might take it too personally for her own good.

"Oh Vira, you're gonna have to get passed that. The young die just like the old do, it's a part of life. We won't always have a choice, and..sometimes you might see things and well...I just hope you're ready."

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[Lavira]

Scoffing, Vira frowned back at Alori in reply. "I know that, but it doesn't mean I must like it. I just have a hard time necessitating killing young." The endal would leave it at that, not wishing to continue on the subject that left a slightly embarassed taste in her mouth.

Vira would continue through the undergrowth, moving carefully should a drop appear unseen from the shrubs and fern that littered the forest floor. The wind above the trees had picked up, the foremost cloud line hanging low and threatening over the mountains and filling the air with the smell of moisture. It had to be over Wind Reach by now. As if the assumptions weren't enough, the 'sight' of the north eastern horizon seen above the mountains filled her mind.

The clouds roiled and rubbed at the peaks, the first sheets of rain dumped on the volcano while the distant rumble of thunder echoed across the mountains.

Then came the eagles voice as Vira stopped, shuddering and rubbing at her temple. "Looks like the storms hit...how do the others handle communicating like that?" She winced and looked sidelong at Alori should she question with look or voice. "It's kind of strange, you know, hearing her and feeling her, sensing her mind just as she can sense mine. They're so much more strong at it, kind of overwhelming sometimes."

She nodded down along the path. "There should be a game trail down there in that wash if I recall the day I scouted right. It'll take us down to a clearing. Mohya will be waiting. She's been looking for somewhere we can shelter until the weather breaks over the city so let's hurry, I think it's just a few chimes downhill."

OOCBlargh, my thoughts derailed...had to rescue the mayor; I think he suffered some ingenuity damage

[Alori Sai]

Alori stared back at the woman and for the short time, her voice was silenced. She felt for the young Endal, she truly did. But her time alone had also hardened her to the twisted circle of life that surrounded them. Still, what her companion said was true, they didn't have to like it..and maybe they didn't have to do it either. "Okay so..we won't kill any young...ever. You and me, promise?" she offered Lavira a warm smile and held out her hand.

The little huntress walked on through the forest, eyes searching for more predators or elk that might be near by.

She wasn't so inexperienced to think that the one bear was the only threat they might encounter on their trip, and she wanted to be sure they weren't caught unaware a second time. More winds followed through, bringing with it a cool and chilling breeze. The storm was on it's way, or rather it was already upon them. The teen held her bow lower, eyes still searching for any sign of animals big or small.

"It's getting cooler, I hope this storm isn't as bad as those clouds look."

Alori started to comment on something, but Lavira seemed lost in her own world. She watched the woman for a tick, until she caught her eye but still said nothing. It turned out the Endal was speaking with her Wind Eagle again, and she did look a bit uncomfortable doing so. "Oh, so that happens all the time right? I mean, you spend a lot of time with her." Looking away, Alori continued, her own thoughts on what it must be like tugging at her mind. "I can't imagine what that must be like all the time. They've spoken to me before and it was really intense, not something I can forget you know?"

Nodding to the new location they were heading, the girl headed off, taking the trail downward and making her way towards the game trail where she hoped more than a Wind Eagle was waiting. "So what's the new home like? It's huge I bet."

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[Lavira]

When Alori offered the agreement, Vira considered her a long moment, trying to see if she was joshing her or in some way making fun of her. But the others face suggested sincerity, and slowly, she agreed. "I mean, I won't if I don't have to...if we're starving that's another thing."

Alori's thoughts on the telepathy were again shrugged to. "More or less. It's...different, I'll say that. I've always been somewhat attuned to the birds; like, with Tulaj? He's completely psychotic-" If the other showed disbelief, she quickly went on. "No, I'm serious! I think his parents threw him from his nest. I found him outside the gates one day before my fifteenth birthday; he wasn't hurt, surprisingly, but he was acting really strange then, too. He's never really acted right, but I've worked hard with him and he's good on a hunt. With Mohya, though, taking him out is harder. He doesn't, eh, take to flying in a cage very well and Mohya flies much quicker than he could to reach our destinations. There've been a number of times I've got that bird staring at me from his perch when we were in the Darniva Common rooms....it was unsettling, like something evil was in that bird and wanted to take out my other eye. He's gone after an Avora I know several times too, but I think he's just jealous. Tulaj, I mean."

"Gods, it's enormous. The previous Endal to have it was a falconer too so I kind of inherited all of their old stuffs. The walls are really white, kind of like ivory, and one of the spare rooms has three old mews in it. I've thought about getting a new bird for one of them, perhaps another raven or something." She shrugged a little at this before continuing. "I like the washroom, though. I don't have to go to Tisuma now...kind of self-conscious, heh, and the waters are soooo nice, Alori." It was easy talking with the Avora now, the other teen making Vira feel more secure. "The previous inhabitant had one side look out on the mountains by having some of the glassworkers replace one of the walls with this really pretty stained glass piece. But gosh, the bedroom is huge. I'm so used to the small comforts of Darniva; the Ivory Aerie's way bigger and far too open. To be honest, I've slept in the spare room a few times already."

The trail took a sharp descent and slowed the girls down now, bringing the conversation to a grinding halt as they were forced to navigate jutting rocks and old trees that had fallen during the summer storms. Vira took care on these, sliding on her butt over them and slipping a few times on the stones as they walked. Once they reached an easier part and she'd caught her breath, she continued.

"I've...I've kind of thought about asking someone to share it with me. It's so big I get a little nervous in there, like I'm not really supposed to be there, you know. But I don't know if they'd say yes, and I really do not want to pressure him." She let the annotation slip and colored as she wove around a bend in the trail and called out in hushed surprise. "Oh!"

The Endal threw a hand back to Alori to stop her and quickly took a knee. The bow which had somehow stayed with her this entire time was unslung again and an arrow from the quiver hastily grabbed. The teen nodded her head in the direction she'd indicated and there, in the shade of a wary old paper birch whose bark curled from its trunk, stood the very elk cow they'd shot the first time around. What luck that the undulate would have come close to the wash they'd been heading for.

Vira took a moment to study the ground between them and the deer, her single orb moving methodically in an effort to judge the distance by pace this time. Whispering, she spoke to Alori again, "What do you think? Thirty? Forty paces?" The elk looked haggard, her wounded haunch raised off the ground and soaked in blood. She had to be close to collapsing; it would only take one good shot to bring her down, the elk's stamina likely depleted at this point.

[Alori Sai]

"Ha, so first you make me out to be an evil baby killer, and now we only do it if we're starving? Hello, that's what I was saying before." The teen rolled her eyes, but she smiled as the same time. She was being very chatty that day and being rather silly as well, but it was all because of the company she kept and how she liked spending time with the woman. "Honestly Vira, I think you say things just to poke at me."

Alori had already figured it was difficult having telepathy with a Wind Eagle. It didn't seem like the kind of thing a person would be used to, but perhaps that was because she wasn't used to it. Lavira was a new addition to the Endal caste, but she too found it difficult, though Alori didn't know how much she had spoken with the Wind Eagles since she did spent a lot of time around them. "Your raptor's parents threw them out of the nest? That's crazy, no wonder the poor baby is like that." The tiny Avora listened to the Endal's story and laughed. Her own gyrfalcon was trouble, but Skye was more a big baby than anything else. "I can understand that, I know Skye hates being in his cage too. He makes a big deal about it."

She listened in awe and surprise as Lavira described her new home. She had only been to Aidara and Sira's home a few times, and it was also huge. Much bigger than her tiny apartment. But Lavira's place sounded like a dream home, in fact it was. The teen marveled at the descriptions as if she were actually there and seeing it all herself. The bath waters were one of the many things that stood out to her, and she could imagine swimming in them all the time. Another thing that stood out was the huge bedroom. Her bedroom and everything else was basically in the same room. But what Lavira had was enough to train or do whatever else she wanted to do in the same room. "You know Vira, if that place is too big for you, you could invite me to come over some time. We'll make it fun."

Alori's mind started to wander off, her thoughts on the huge place that her new friend had and how much fun it would be to stay there. In truth, the Endal might have to kick her out in the end. The sudden downward shift brought her mind back to the present, and the Avora had to watch her step to make sure that she didn't fall or twist her ankles. Hands reached out to grab vines and limbs to help her ease her way down as she went.

They reached an easier walking path next and after taking a moment to breathe the Endal continued to speak. She revealed that she already had a roommate in mind and it was a HE. Alori's eyes widen, and a bright smile rose across her lips as she gave a light squeak. "Oh, who is this he? Come on, tell me?" Love in the city excited her, and to see her friends finding people, made her hopeful for her own life. "So.....?"

Alori wasn't going to let it go until the woman spilled and told her everything. It was what friends did after all. But suddenly The Endal took a sharp turn and hid, motioning for Alori too as well. The teen felt her heart jump, hoping that it wasn't another bear or something else trying to eat them. "What is it?" she asked in a hushed tone. She saw it then, first by the end of the arrow that she had fired what seemed like bells ago.

"We found her.." she whispered with a bit of surprise. Tracking wasn't a strong point with her, but she was finding that she was getting better with each hunt. "Maybe twenty, or thirty." A hand lifted her bow from her shoulder and holding it against her raised thigh as the other pulled around arrow from her quiver and notched it. "Alright, I'm going for it." she said to let Lavira know what she was planning. Taking a few careful steps forward, and moving only on the tips of her toes, the little huntress raised her bow and aimed at the body of the cow. It was easier to hit then something smaller and waving like the neck.

"Okay, here goes..." She added and pulled the arrow back into the string til the feathers almost brushed her cheek. "One...two..." She fired, and with the suddenly shriek and jump of the cow, she wasn't sure that she had hit anything, until it limped a few feet and fell to the ground.

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[Lavira]

It was a far cleaner shot than the first one, a good puncture through the shoulder of the already dying undulate. Within a breath, the cow was down and dead and Vira chirped in delight as she got to her feet and turned to Alori to offer a raised hand in high-five. "Nice shot; we'll have a good meal tonight for sure! I mean, it doesn't look like we'll be getting back to the city tonight anyways. Let's hurry and get it quartered. We can meet Mohya at the clearing after. I'm going to get some branches and vines together; we can use them for a gurney of sorts to haul the pieces and hide; why don't you start gutting her?" She directed, hurrying across the short divide, her single eye peeled around ofr long enough branches to make as a tote they could carry between them.

Neither woman was exceptionally tall, but then, what Inarta was? Average height in the women were just under five feet. Vira was right at that mark and Alori was just under it. It would be a hard haul, but both should be accustomed to hard work and Vira's time in the nesting aeries hauling food and baths for the birds had toned her enough to make that kind of manual labor easy (if not a little painful now, though). Leaving Alori to it, the teen veered off and began collecting said materials. She would return every few chimes to drop a load of mid-height branches onto the ground nearby and until she had enough to form the tote/gurney and then go back into the wood again to gather more supplies, including vines and fern.

Once enough had been collected, the young Endal set to work stripping the bark for better pieces of rope and weaving bits together for stronger strips. Then came working the wood into a basket large enough to tote the quarters. She was basing this practice off when she and that curious fish-creature called a Charoda had needed something to walk to the mountain in. They had used the wood from a paper birch by the Sanikas river to make a pair of reed shoes. It worked fairly well, to tell the truth, though they looked fairly ugly. The time it took to get the tote finished would have been more than enough time for Alori to gut the cow and begin loosening the hide from the body.They'd need to strip her down before quartering her.

Assuming the guts were out of the elk by now, Vira would take over at that point and pick out the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, sweetbreads, and stomach. The ivory handled hunting knife was drawn from her gear and she went to the head of the elk to cut the tongue out. The brains would have to wait until Alori was finished with skinning the hide. They wouldn't be able to do much to prepare the hide for tanning, but they could still use it until they returned to the city in the morning (or that's what she assumed). All of these parts were set carefully to one side.

Mohya, we found that elk we shot earlier and have been momentarily delayed to prep her; we'll be there in half a bell or so. How are the skies looking?

~Worse, child. You two hurry up now. If you must leave some, do so, but get to the clearing quickly. We will be rushing to reach the cave that will shelter us. The heat from the steam field should help protect us if it gets too cool. If either of you can manage, gather more wood for a fire.~

It was like talking to your mother, but then Mohya had a very powerful maternal instinct. It was part of why she and Vira had bonded, though only a small part.

Aloud, Vira said, "Alori we need to hurry up. Mohya says it's getting bad and we'll be lucky to reach the shelter she's found in time if we don't leave now. Leave a quarter if we have to but take the hide; I bet we could use that to keep warm if we had to."

[Alori Sai]

Alori bounced to her feet and raised her hand to meet Lavira's in a triumphant high-five. The teen was excited, and the shot was nicely done for the time it took her to get it off. She never killed game with a single shot, and even though they had to chase this one half way over the mountain, while out running a bear, she was still happy with the outcome. The little huntress nodded in agreement with the Endal, they would eat well that night, and if they had the same luck the following day would be the same. "For a moment I wasn't sure if I could get her. It looked like she was about to run off and I just fired!" Alori gave a youthful chirp and lifted her hand to high-five Lavira's a second time.

Sadly the moment of celebration was over the moment Lavira told her that she had to skin the cow. "Wait...me?" Alori stared, wide almond brown eyes and puffy cheeks that pouted.

But it was too late, after the Endal issued her orders, she was off to do her part. "Oh Vira.." she huffed and stumped off to find the cow. Gutting meat was one thing that she hated doing. It was easier to cut and scale fish, but this was messy and smelly on a whole new level. She found the cow easily, though she had hoped that it had jumped up and ran off again just so she wouldn't have to gut the thing herself.

Alori sat down beside the body, and first pulled her arrow from it's shoulder. The arrow had sunk in deeply and she had to take it slow just to make sure that she didn't snap the shaft in too. Placing the arrow back into her quiver, the huntress removed it from her shoulder and put her bow down beside it. With another irritated huff, the Avora took out her hunting Knife and turned the cow's legs up so that she could see where to cut.

"Ugh..eww..." she winced as the blade cut into the flesh expelling all the heat and fluids from the body along with a very strong odor. "Holy petchin..." she squealed, turning away to shield her nose. Tears welled up in her eyes and her nose burned with a smell she knew would take hours to get rid of.

By the time the Endal returned, she would find a red faced Avora who looked like she would be sick. The teen had removed the guts and a jagged separation had been created in the flesh where the hide could be removed easier once the time was right. "Did you get everything?" she asked, and continued to breathe away from the body. She waited another few chimes, then rejoined Lavira and restarted her work to skin the hide.

It was a lot harder to do than something small such as a squirrel or a rabbit. This thing was bigger than she was, and her tiny arms were already tired. It looked like it would take forever to be done, then Lavira said they needed to hurry up. "Ha! come on, this isn't easy. Help me out." she protested, pulling at a thick piece of skin that just refused to be cut.

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[Lavira]

All the wretching noises and disgusted sounds coming from Alori and the work she did made Vira cackle in amusement. The whole thing was just silly! It was hard work, yes, but the job wasn't as bad as Alori seemed to make it out to be. At least, Vira wasn't offended by it. But when Alori punctured the stomach (thus the gassy expulsion), the younger Endal frowned in brief disapproval. Still, it was a job that needed doing.

With the stick-basket ready, though, Vira stepped up to give Alori a hand, holding the legs of the elk so that she could finish gutting it as well as skinning it. It was a task they needed to finish quickly as another frigid gust blew down over them, pulling hard at the branches of the trees and making their crowns bend dangerously before snapping back to attention with a loud twang. With the gust came the bitter bite of snow and ice, particles bashing against the girls as they worked. It was unpleasant and ominous, the roiling clouds that had already claimed Mt. Skyinarta and Wind Reach now hovering about the Endal and Avora like an evil omen.

As soon as Alori was able to get the hide off, Vira took her place, letting the other finish prepping the skin if she was able while the younger falconer set to work cutting into the shoulders, hips, and neck of the cow. The urgency in her mind from the wind eagle was making her antsy and every so often, she hollered at Alori to work faster. If she finished with the hide sooner than Vira could with the meat, the Endal would point her to hold open that part or stretch that so she could get at the gristle.

"Okay, okay, we're coming!" It had taken nearly a bell for the two women to get it all finished, a lot longer than it should have to tell the truth, but the time it took to weave the basket for the meat had eaten a huge chunk of time.

"Alori, it's time to go. We'll have to leave the neck and head but help me get these sections-" she indicated the four sides they'd butchered, "-into the basket then grab the back end and I'll take the lead."

The winds were coming steady now and both women would have to shout to be heard as flecks of snow littered the ground, icy particles already starting to cling to the trees around them. The once distance rumble of thunder had now become a resonating boom above, constant and heavy, baring all the rage of the heavens with each snare crash. One would think Zulrav had come a-calling on the region for how absolutely angry that storm felt!

[Alori Sai]

Alori sighed in relief when Lavira came over to help her. They could work a lot faster as a team and they needed the extra speed. The wind only got worse, and she had to bundle up tighter in her coat and pull the hood over her head to shield herself from it. The sound of the branches snapping back into place caused the teen to glance up and she realized just how bad things might get that night. "I didn't think it would reach us so fast.."

Hard work was one thing, but having to speed through was another. She hated having to work that way, it made the job sloppy and given that she wasn't an expert at skinning hides, the teen knew that she would miss things. But she did her best to peel away what meat and gook she could and to make the hide into something manageable they could use to cover themselves with. Lavira's cries for faster work didn't help the situation and Alori snapped back quickly. "I'm going, I'm going.."

She unrolled the furred skin, allowing her companion to get into every crevices and removed everything that would attract bugs and the like. It took a lot of time to finish it all, though it was a lesson for the two women in time management. "Alright I'm with you." Alori stood up and helped to place all the pieces into the basket to be taken with them. It was a different tactic to haling the meat, once she had went with an older, crabby huntress who lugged the full elk on the back of her horse and returned to the city with it.

Alori/Aela at the time, was even more green in the field than she was at the current time, but it did seem a lot easier to do it that way. Getting to the back end of the handle from the basket, Alori lifted with it upward and steadied her pace as she moved behind Lavira. The winds were howling now and she could barely hear her own voice causing her to scream out into the air. "Hey! How much further?"

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