20th of Summer, 517 A.V.
10th Bell
10th Bell
Starting a fire was never as easy as her brother had made it appear. It didn’t seem to matter how she held the flint and steel her fingers felt clumsy and uncoordinated. Alek tried to remember what angle her brother held the tools, how close they needed to be to the tinder to catch the spark—but all she could remember was how he smelled, and the goofy grin that he always had on his face. Any other day it might have been painful to remember such a memory, but at the moment it was just annoying. Not due to her brother’s smile, but because the Kelvic considered herself fairly good at remembering the small facts when being taught something.
Just off to her right the ox—which she still had refused to name—was lying in the grass watching her. The creature was completely unafraid of her, in either form, but it seemed he found her a fascinating thing to behold. The wolf refused to acknowledge the beast’s gaze even though she could practically feel it. Despite her attempts to learn how to work with the ox, things hadn't improved much between them. The two of them seemed to be stuck on some type of stubborn loop that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.
Sighing, the Kelvic dropped the flint and steel to dig into her backpack lying next to her to find her hair pin. The heat from Syna had already caused sweat to build on the back of her neck. With a quick twist of her wrist, she gathered all her hair up in one go and stuck the hairpin through the middle. It was a haphazard mess, but it would do. Alek pressed the fingertips of her right hand to her left palm, pressing them backward until she could feel the strain of muscles telling her to stop. She repeated the process with her left hand before wiggling the fingers repeatedly. Her hands felt cramped and unskilled—something she couldn’t have if she was going to butcher the fat off the meat she had purchased.
Picking up the flint and steel again, the wolf leaned forward once again and got the steel as close as she dared. The first several strikes of the steel against the flint rendered no results, not even a spark. Shifting the steel's angle seemed to yield better results however and the Kelvic managed to strike several sparks from the flint, just too far from the tinder. Carefully she pressed the flint even closer and repeated the strikes until she swore she saw a faint red glow in the tinder. Small and barely present, but the light from Syna also made it more difficult to see. Regardless the girl leaned forward to gently blow at the tinder in hopes there was an ember that might catch.
Just as the tinder began to smoke the beast next to her let out a snort. Lifting her gaze for a moment from the hopeful beginnings of a fire, the wolf glared at the ox. Maybe it was the lack of social grace for the past two seasons, or maybe the beast was one of her sisters reincarnated—either way, it felt as if the animal was judging her. “Keep your opinions to yourself would you?” Alek never considered herself crazy, but talking to the ox as if it understood her made her feel like it at times. Outside of her new bond, he was the only thing that kept her company. Talking to him, or rather having a one-sided argument, made her feel better nonetheless.
Going back to blowing on the tinder, the redhead actually had her thoughts focus from the ox to her bondmate. She had given the girl a bit of space after their first meeting. It wasn’t so much that she doubted Taurina would back out on her—rather the opposite actually. The two of them needed a little time to absorb what had come about so quickly. In the light of day, there was no hint of regret, which was a good sign. Now it was the rest of it—everything that followed that was the difficult part. Alek wasn’t sure how to get to know her new bondmate… something that wouldn’t have been a problem before Morwen’s choice.
The she-wolf had to find a way to make it back to herself.
The idea was a little hard to swallow, though not impossible. Having someone to focus on other than herself would likely help the process if she was honest with. For far too long she had felt like a lost little girl hiding under a table while the world moved around her—a feeling that hadn’t entirely faded either. But now she had to focus on becoming someone else, someone better. And that started with the tiny fire that spread across the tinder.
“Yes!” The excitement of her small victory filled her, startling the ox next to her at the outburst. Without thinking she crawled across the grass the short distance to grab the snout of the animal and pointed to the smoke and tiny flame. The creature didn’t resist her grip, just snorted once again and went back to chewing. “Okay fine. It doesn’t need to impress you. But it does me.”
OOC :
Common | Vani | Pavi