Closed Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Kovac invites Vira on a hunting expedition in the western portions of Northern Kalea, continuing to help her cope.

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The vast mountain range of Kalea is home of secret valleys, dead-end canyons, and passes that lead to places long forgotten or yet to be discovered.

Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Postby Lavira on November 20th, 2013, 6:16 pm

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Once they reached the tree edge, Vira paused, admiring the pleasant view before her and shifting the carcass of the deer on her shoulders. The twenty or so chime walk to this point had begun to add weight to the dead deer and she could only imagine what it must be like for the bulky fur of the vecerem and offal Kovac was carrying. The brief few ticks allowed her to take in the scene:

It was the same little stream they had begun their tracking from, their shadows dancing over the ground where the trees broke the light. The cool water of the stream looked very appealing to rinse her throat in but they needed to finish up with the kills first. There was a lark on the branch of a hoary old oak tree that looked over a slower bend in the stream, the little bird watching them curiously before taking wing and leaving. The lark had a handsome crest that was unusual for the species, and a green-brown breast that made her wonder if perhaps it had been affected by the djed storm last spring. She dismissed the thought and continued on, picking her way over the mud and stones carefully before crossing a shallow portion of the waterway.

“Aidara seems like a good woman, I wish we could have encountered one another more; still feels weird that an Endal chose to hang around with me. Most of them are so…you know.” She shrugged some, the deer slipping and having to be quickly re-shouldered before she led them back to the camp. Once there, she dropped the kill beside the lean to and went to take the skin and organs from him so that the effort of getting it down would not cause him to lose his balance.

When he answered her query of his health, she nodded in understanding, “That’s alright. You said we were here for small game anyways; I can take Tulaj out later and we can flush some more muskrat and see if there’s any raccoon around. We’ll just stalk the coast here and a little ways in, don’t worry.” She gave him a reassuring smile, slipping in close to take his knife once more. “Go wash those cuts so they don’t get infected, though. I’ll take care of the deer.”

With dagger in hand, she moved to the deer to begin the arduous task of skinning it. It was very different from a rabbit hide but not as thick as the vecerems. Her novice skill at doing it in the first place remained apparent by the time she had finished; the carcass was fully stripped of its hide and it now lay draped over a log nearby, bits of meat still attached to it. It took around thirty chimes for her to finish the task, and once she had, she gathered up the animals head once more. She had wanted to examine the sinus-cavities to see about the odd swelling in its muzzle.

With the head on her knees, Vira turned it this way and that to help her see before sticking a finger up the nose of the animal and feeling around inside. The sight was somewhat nonsensical, but proved necessary when she pulled her finger back and examined something on it. It was hard and kind of a greyish yellow in color. She took the hunting knife up again and made a careful slid along one of the sinus’, opening it and then sticking her thumb and first finger inside and pulling something out. It had the same color as that which she’d grabbed, but had a harder structure, and what’s worse…it had legs.

“Okay, that’s disgusting…” She murmured, turning it over in her hand slightly and then yelping when it started to move. She gave whatever it had been a hurl across the camp and away from her, Kovac, and their temporary lodgings. “Ah!” It landed with a wet plop, wiggled a moment, and then rolled itself into an upright position and scampered under a rock. “What the hai was that?” Her eyes lowered to the deer, then, staring at it with a mix of emotions. What if there were more of those insi- “Ugh!” She shoved the deer off her lap when a dozen more of the six-inch long things came crawling out. They were narrow and slightly ridged with four legs and feet and a tail that looked a bit like a scorpions, but shorter.

The teen swung her legs over the log and pulled quickly away from the carcass and the scattering of creatures that slither-crawled their way over the rocks and away from the kill and the camp. “Hey, Kovac! I don’t think that deer’s any good!”
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WWhere flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Postby Kovac on November 21st, 2013, 5:34 pm

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Kovac was more relieved than Lavira knew when she lifted the heavy vecerem hide and its contents from his shoulder. A near stumble by the stream had torn at the clotting wounds, and fresh crimson stains were spreading across the makeshift bandage. He managed a smile as Lavira drew near, reaching to his waist to draw his knife from its sheath. Lavira commented that she and Tulaj could still hunt small game, but Kovac was especially wary after having watched the slavering vecerem chase down his lover in the woods. "You are not going anywhere out of my eyesight." His words were sincere, but flavored with a tenderness as he reached up and brushed the shoulder of the arm retrieving the blade. But when the Chiet instructed him to go wash his wounds, Kovac nodded obediently, took up a water skin and limped over to a log to plop down upon it.

As Lavira skinned the deer, Kovac peeled away the makeshift bandage. Pouring some of the cool water over the series of long claw marks on his thigh, he used a cleaner part of the bandage rage to gently clean the wounds. The process made the lacerations sting, but once the dried, caked blood and dirt was washed away, they did not look too bad. Keeping them clean would be most important. The Avora tore a fresh length of fabric from a leg of his own bryda, gingerly wrapping it around the injury and snugging it down.

Lavira was just finishing skinning the deer, and Kovac moved back near the lean-to to unstring his bow. He moved slow, not so much from pain but from a desire to keep the wounds from stretching too much and bleeding again. He glanced over at the falconer, the carcass in her lap, messing with its head again. Kovac turned back to storing his weapon, hearing her murmur something. Then she yelped, and Kovac's head snapped up in time to see Vira fling something away from her. Whatever she had found landed with a squishy sound, then started to crawl! The Avora's eyes narrowed as he watched curiously. Lavira made another startled noise, and Kovac watched her shove away the dear and scrambled over the log. More of the creepy critters slid out of the carcass, giving the Avora a shiver of disquiet down his spine. The things skittered away from them, to Kovac's relief. He hardly heard Lavira's comment.

"What the petch were those? Agh! Wish I could have stuck an arrow in one, to see if anyone back home had seen them before. You're right, I think we better leave that kill here. Maybe Tulaj can feast on it, if you think its safe for him. But I don't think we should take it, incase it has like..something else in it from those things."


Kovac stepped over to the carcass, stooping carefully to grab a back leg and limp/drag it away from their lean to. "That was just weird. The Djed Storm has messed up so much wildlife, you never know what you are going to run into out here anymore." He added, watching the deer as he moved to make sure no more of the parasites crawled out. Leaving the deer at the edge of camp, Kovac returned to Lavira's side. "At least you have the skin to prove your kill. And a creepy story to scare the Yasi." He grinned.
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Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Postby Lavira on November 21st, 2013, 6:40 pm

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The wriggling messes slowly disappeared into crevasses, beneath rocks, and even into the log she had been sitting on. Tulaj had spotted one crawling his way from where he perched on the branch of a tree on the edge of camp and zoomed in on it. He didn’t yet fly, however, as Kovac came in and agreed with his handler. The wounded man then grabbed the deer and began dragging it away from the camp.

At this point, Vira moved to help him, knowing it would be a struggle otherwise. She grabbed the other two legs and lifted it off the ground so that the friction of dragging it wouldn’t slow the Avora down. “Oh I know; in Winter, one of the new nesters had a really bad case of mites. Normally, they’re easy to deal with, but these things were mutants! They were the exact same species as the other ones from what I could tell, but a hundred times their size. One that I pulled off had to be a good nine inches across.” She was, of course, referring to the whip-mites that lived in the hot and humid niches throughout the city, though mostly around the birds. They fed on dead bird tissue and blood, typically gorging themselves before moving to a new vessel on the animal. Smaller birds would usually die if even a few of the originally inch or two creatures got on them; now, with these mutated versions, Vira had to take extra precautions with Tulaj and the chicks she cared for in the nesting aeries.

“Thankfully, I have never found one on Tulaj.”

They reached the edge of the camp and Vira helped him move it well away from even there, just in case a predator came nosing about. There had been a noticeable lack of arguing on the Chiets part regarding small game hunting, though it was clear in her face that she did not admittedly approve of being restrained from doing what she loved. Once the kill had been tossed away, the teen moved in beside the taller Avora and slid her arm around his waist, offering her smaller stature as a means of support for his hobbled momentum.

“Heh, well, the Yasi don’t talk to me much, unless it’s to tease me…” She said, her mind drifting some to what had happened last fall. There was a noticeable shift in her attitude as thoughts of that day went through her mind, the teen continuing on with him back to the camp. Once they had returned, Vira helped set him on the log, then sat beside him too, hips close, shoulders touching, her eye on her knees and feet. “Can I confide in you something?” She suddenly asked, glancing up briefly for his affirmative before continuing on.

“Nobody’s…nobody has given me this kind of chance since I lost my eye. I am sure most see it and my side and just shrug me off as a lost cause. That I would just be baggage for them to have to keep up with, when nine times out of ten, I’m more than capable of keeping up with them. Just because I can’t see on one side doesn’t mean I’m incapable. I proved that to you…” She paused. “…and you proved that to me. But, the truth is,” Her gaze rose to meet his olive features, flicking between his fern greens. “-the truth is, I’m terrified, Kovac. It’s like there’s this hook in my heart right now that tells me this-“ the young woman gestured between them and around the camp and Loch they were hunting at. “-all of this is just a dream. A really, really good dream that I couldn’t imagine waking from, but still just a dream. And that when I wake up, the reality of my predicament is going to bash my head in like so much other garbage that gets swept off the ledges.

“I’m terrified that when I wake up, there will just be this broken girl waiting for word from the Valintar that she is no longer needed where she’s at, or anywhere. That the chance I had has been lost, all because I was stupid enough to be near the edge when the earthquake happened.” Her eyes swam as she looked at him. “I keep waiting for him or one of his aides to show up in the aeries or at my door for reassignment. I know my work is slacking right now, but the labor which had been so simple feels so much more difficult now. Even preparing the dust baths is agony. I am trying to believe that this is real, but how can it be?” Her right hand reached to rest over his heart, her left lying on his thigh (away from his injury). She let the feel of his heart beat against her palm filter through her consciousness. “It is like I’m being tested by something, and I’m horrified that I think I’m failing in the worst way possible. Yet, if this is real, then why return me to the misery that waits back home. I keep hoping that maybe I will find some way to prove I am still worth it, if not to the system, then to myself; because right now, I don’t know if I could make it to season’s end, Kovac. I don’t know that I could have the courage to hang on to that edge I keep falling from in the dreams.”

It was the first time she’d brought up anything about what went on in those awful dreams, even if it was just a glimpse at them. The nightmares were hard to handle and Vira had been doing it virtually alone since they had begun. Sliding her hands off of him, she returned them to her lap and gave him a wan smile. “I’m sorry, we’re not here for this; you mentioned the yasi and it…it made me think on it, I guess.” She exhaled heavily and looked away, fearful of the judgment or rejection that might come.
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Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Postby Kovac on November 25th, 2013, 5:39 pm

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It was disappointing that the deer turned out to be a host for some gruesome parasites. It was a perfect kill for Lavira, and Kovac would have loved for her to be able to boast her first deer back home. But the Avora kept that to himself. The Chiet did not seem overly upset. At least about the ruined deer.

But a somber cast did seem to fall upon Lavira as they returned to the camp. Kovac did not push for an explanation, even when they sat down on the log, tucked in close together. Finally, she asked to confide in him. Kovac knew her about as well as anyone, and he already considered himself Lavira's confidant. Glancing down into her thoughtful eye, the half-vanthan nodded in agreement. "Of course, Vira."

Even with all of her successes since the tragedy, the falconer still questioned herself, her value, or more precisely, how others would value her. It still ate at the girl, the fact that she was imperfect, flawed physicially, in a society where the measure of a man or woman was how much work they could do to contribute to the survival of them all. It seems she still feared others would not believe she was able to pull her weight.

Kovac knew the dreams still haunted Lavira. When they slept together, he held her close, remembering the first night he witnessed the severity of the night terrors. She said they were not as bad when he was with her, but they never went away. Yet, she never shared what happened in those bad dreams, nor did Kovac dare pry. But, the Avora suspected that the ongoing torment, reminders of the tragic fall, had seeped into her waking life, whispering lies and discouragement into her mind, even in the face of her achievements.

When Lavira paused, withdrew after her confessions, Kovac did not turn his eyes from her. His hand reached out and slipped into hers, holding it gently but firmly. "Vira, sometimes its hard to see things as they are from the inside. I know your nightmares torment you, and it kills me that I can't make them go away. But I can tell you what I see from out here. I have watched you from that first night at the Inclement Weather. I have seen you climb and scratch out of that proverbial hole, even as the memory of it tries to bind you. I can tell you this," his other hand lifted to her check, tips of his fingers brushing the skin beneath her marred eye, "You have done more, with more motivation and success, than dozens of others I have seen who had never had to overcome what you have, Vira. The Valintar will not cast you away. You add value to Wind Reach, your work in the nesting aeries, and here, you have proven you can provide for the needs of our people. He would be a fool to turn you out, and I will not allow it, ever. I would take you as an apprentice before I let them take your caste."

Kovac leaned in and pressed his lips to her crimson hair. "You will make it Vira, this is not a dream, I am real, what we have accomplished here is real, your strength and success is real. The nightmares are a lie, you are no longer in that pit, you have climbed out and over come it. You are the strongest woman I know."
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Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Postby Lavira on November 25th, 2013, 6:56 pm

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Her fingers closed over the hand which had come to claim her own, squeezing it in return, if only to help root herself to the words he was saying. They were encouraging and helped blanket some of the struggling she felt, enough that she could breathe a small sigh of acceptance over the ordeal. "I hope so, Kovac. Because this is a really good dream." Her head leaned in against his, eyes closing for a moment to let the comfort his kiss brought seep through her hair and head and down into the rest of her body. She wanted it to bring a little peace where so little existed.

When he finished, the teen turned her head up to smile a little so that he would know she was trying, even pulling the hand that had taken hers up to her lips and kissing his knuckles lightly before lowering it and placing his hand into his own lap so that she could unwind her fingers. "I'll get some wood; we should get the hides ready in the meantime. If you feel up to doing that, I can get a fire going and maybe scrounge up some dinner from the low growth at the treeline." The mask was back, though her eyes still swam. She needed a little time alone to bring herself back into a balanced state and some labor would help with that.

Once her hand had been disentangled, she got back to her feet and headed to the woods once more, chirping Tulaj onto her sontav. She tried to hide the movement of her right hand when it went up and wiped at her eyes once again before the shade of the trees covered her and their stout trunks broke her shape. This time, Vira did not look back, not wanting him to see her cry. For all his kindness to her and the affections they now shared, she did not want him seeing her like that now.

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In the woods, Vira used the walk and search for material to burn as an opportunity to calm herself again, ferns brushing her legs and knees and a warm breeze tugging at the tangled tips of her hair. She needed to re-tie it. The scarf had come loose and much of the red mane had begun to come out of the bindings, but part of her said that she shouldn't just yet; maybe when she got back to camp, but not before then.

The chiet spotted a pile of broken limbs beneath an evergreen tree, the shoots of small needles on the limbs tangled about something underneath. She approached at a normal pace and knelt with one knee on the dead needles under the tree for balance to begin picking up the limbs. About three in, her fingers brushed something warm and she jumped back quickly, reaching for the knife, but only just remembering that it had been returned to Kovac after they'd disposed of the deer carcass. "Shoot..." she muttered under her breath, ready to hurry away if it turned out to be something dangerous.

But the pile of limbs only shifted a little before poking out from underneath, the large eyes upon a white face with mouse-like ears stared back at her. It had its teeth bared, long canines exposed. There was a bit of blood coming from the pink nose that wiggled at her; yet, the animal did not flee! Wary that more of those parasites may be on or in it, Vira approached more cautiously, grabbing a rock to bash its head in in case it turned aggressive.

The animals eyes were somewhat clouded and the bit of coat that she could see was dishevelled and in poor quality. There was a bit of blood on the neck, or what she could see of it, and for a moment the teen wondered if perhaps the animal had gotten into a scuffle with something a good deal bigger than it. Stepping nearer, she raised the rock, ready to strike still and crouched down.

The opossum (for that was what it looked like) gave a weak hissing growl at her before laying its head down. "Well...you're going to be food for something else anyways, mister possum, may as well be us." The stone was raised high for a brief moment before crashing down on the animals head four times. The first two times it gave a shrill cry, hissing its pain, then finally lay still. At this point, Vira swept aside the limbs, one hand on the scruff of the dead opossum while looking over it. Nothing about its behavior said it might have rabies (a very real danger with this particular species) though. It looked like it was an older animal and had probably been grabbed by some other predator or chased off its territory by another of its kind. The hide wasn't great quality and would likely not be kept, but the meat they could still eat.

During this venture, Tulaj had been cast off her arm and had sat in a tree nearby, his eyes everywhere but on Vira and the opossum. But it seemed his handler was finally ready to go. She'd tucked the tail of the dead animal into an improvised knot of her bryda and then gathered up the limbs it had been buried under. She continued through the undergrowth for a while longer, however, unsure if there was anything else that could be collected. Her flora expertise was pretty limited, unfortunately, and she worried that even berries she might pick could be deadly.

At least, that was until she saw a bush with tear drop shaped green leaves and light brown stems. From the stems hung clusters of berries, each bunch having split on the bottoms and having a midnight to seablue color. The other shade that could be associated with it was the one that she murmured with a grin. "Blueberries!" They would be the perfect addition to their dinner that night.

Dropping her load of sticks, Vira hurried away to one of the nearby fern bushes and broke several spades off the plant, weaving them as she walked, a trick she had learned from, of all people, a Charoda. Una had worked with her to get shoes on her feet to come see the eagles much earlier in Summer. They had used birch bark then, but it amounted to the same process. And the ferns could be used to smoke some of the opossum for them to eat tomorrow.

The basket that she made was really quite simple, a rolled blade used for the rim, and two more rolled blades for the cross beams with the rest being interwoven throughout. She returned to the four foot high bush and began picking berries from it, handfuls of the ripest bunches put into the basket until it was half full. Then, a layer of fern was placed above them and the kindling was put on top of that. She gathered the wood up once again, put the basket on top, and lifted it all evenly to head back to camp, the carcass of their dinner to be bouncing against her right knee.
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Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Postby Kovac on December 3rd, 2013, 2:22 pm

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A small smile adorned Kovac's lips as the emotional moment passed, the Avora noting the glistening of welling tears in Lavira's eyes. He nodded, consenting to her plan. "Be careful, Vira." Kovac instructed with more sincerity than usual. The half-breed watched the falconer walk away, the albino harrier on her arm. He never would have imagined being with Lavira, really being with her, back on that day at the archery range. She had been a one-day project, a challenge to help a one-eyed Chiet girl hit a target with an arrow. Then came the night in the club, after her accident, when Lavira fell apart, and, for some reason, he stayed with her, held her even as she cried and shivered and puked. Looking back, Kovac could see the progression of their relationship, it would make for a nice story. What the future held for the two of them, the Avora could not say.

As Vira moved into the forest, Kovac gingerly gathered up the vecerem and deer skins and carried them a small outcropping of rocks. Choosing one that was fairly flat, The hunter stretched out the vecerem hide, fur side down, over the rock. Finding four heavy stones, he placed one on each corner of the skin to keep it secured. Drawing the knife, Kovac did a more thorough removal of the flesh and fat from the skin, scraping it away with the blade. Once the hide was clean of tissue, the hunter took up a handful of dry dirt from around the rocks and rubbed it on the skin, allowing the dust to absorb excess grease. This too was scraped away, the residue then brushed off with his hand. The hunters would let the skin lay out in the sun as long as they could to begin the drying process.

Finding another large surface of rock, Kovac laid out the deer hide in the same manner. It had less fat and flesh than the vecerem, and with a good scraping and dust bath, the Avora had cleaned off and dried the deer skin as well.

Cleaning off the knife on his bryda, Kovac slipped it back into its sheath at his hip, and turned to see Lavira moving back towards camp through the trees, her arms laden. He limped back toward the fire pit to lean against the log, poking at the ashes with a stick and clearing away charred wood to make room for a fresh fire.
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Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Postby Lavira on December 4th, 2013, 9:05 pm

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Vira came to the fire as well and set the makeshift basket on the ground, Tulaj sweeping past her, his claws brushing her hair in passing before alighting in the tree over the lean-to. His handler, meanwhile, emptied the wood from the basket and helped build it up into a useful fire, though she let Kovac do the actual lighting.

"Caught an oppossum where I found the wood." She commented, pulling the dead "rat" from where it had been attached at her side and sidling over to take his knife from him. "The hide's junk, though. Something had injured it already and I just finished it off. We can finish the marmot for lunch and have this for dinner and breakfast." Moving away, the girl hunkered beside a stone and laid the kill across it. Just as with the vecerem and deer, she began the process of skinning it first, though the hide would not be recycled. She took enough care in its removal to not lose much meat this time, lopping off the tail and tossing it over to Tulaj as his treat, though he didn't actually do anything this time.

It took less than ten chimes for the animal, the offal placed on the inside of the skin along with the head after it had been cut off (the stone had done its number in crushing it, bits of skull and brain having been dispersed throughout the rest of it); the skin was then rolled and tied with the legs and set aside. She returned to Kovac afterwards, grabbing one of the longer, straighter sticks that had been collected and using the knife to strip it of bark to make a spit out of it. This would then be pushed through the oppossum's body until it came out the mouth and offered forth for roasting. "I got us some dessert, too." She commented after he would take it.

"There was a really big blueberry bush not far from where I found dinner at just filled with them." The teen moseyed back over to the fern-basket and pulled the top layer of fern off, revealing the plump blue clusters. Vira would take a handful now and then a second which she walked over and offered to him. From there, she would return to the stone the possum had been prepped on and grab the skin with the refuse in it.

The one eyed chiet headed for the loch's shoreline at this point, the skin in tow, and stop at the edge. She reared her arm back, muscles tightening, and then hurled it out as far as she could, watching it arc and arc before splashing into the water some ways out where it bobbed lazily on the surface. She crossed her arms and held her elbows, watching it silently while her mind passed over recent events.

It was strange the twist of fate she had been thrust into all by one bad occurrence and one bad association. Had things between Kovacn and her begun before the incident...No, that would never have happened. Whatever attraction Kovac had had of her before then didn't compare. Her reservations were not something she thought he would have pursued, and yet instead of leaving when things grew too serious that first date, when she had broken down, he had remained.

Just as he had came with her invitation to the flats.

And then now on this curious little trip that had set the wheels of their relationship truly rolling. They had entered a proper trot by the actions she had made yesterday afternoon, the horses of the relationship moving easy. His charm was undeniable and uncomparable; her attraction to his sincerity helped. She accepted his faults and he her troubled mentality; Vira was curious about some of the women he had been previously involved with, even the most recent ones, but she wasn't confident enough to press the matter yet, the trot steady but easily dissuaded into something less if the leads were struck too often or not enough. She feared if she pushed it, he might turn and gallop away, leaving her wondering and unsure what to do and likely even worse than before.

Is it too much to hope that he will stay with me? He was willing to do this... I don't know what I would have done if he did not come to the flats that day. I wouldn't want him to stay out of obligation but...He helps. I don't feel so afraid around him and the nightmares seem less smothering.

And if his feelings are purely for the body?

Then I'll end it myself. I would rather a friend to soften my own pain than the abuse of lust. He seems too genuine for it, in the end.


Vira turned her head slightly and looked with periphary over her left shoulder, peering at him for a moment before turning back to join him. She sat down heavily next to the Avora and leaned her shoulder against his, quiet for now, contemplative, but not displeased.
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Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Postby Kovac on December 10th, 2013, 4:47 pm

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Kovac knelt gingerly by the fire pit, arranging tinder and kindling against a log with practiced hands. He glanced over towards Lavira as she dressed the oppossum, laughing to himself. The Chiet falconer had managed to make three of the four kills they had so far, one by stabbing it to death with an arrow, and one by crushing its skull with a rock. Not bad for a petite teenage nestkeeper.

The Avora pulled out his starter kit, a chunk of flint rock and a small piece of steel bar. Holding the stone in one hand, he struck the steel against it with a glancing blow, shooting a few bright sparks towards the ball of dry grass and wood splinters. After several strikes, the tinder began to smolder, and Kovac leaned down to blow softly on the tiny embers, until encouraging flames erupted and began to lick at the kindling sticks propped over them. Larger sticks were added, arranged to create a 'hot box' where hot coals could form.

With the fire started, Kovac leaned against the large log seat until Lavira arrived with the opossum. He nodded in approval as she whittled a spit and shoved it through the carcass. In the mean time, the Avora moved to set up some branches upon which the spit could rest over the fire. Kovac took the meat skewer and carefully placed it over the flames.

The announcement of pending dessert pleased Kovac greatly, and when Lavira headed to the loch to cast away the opossum offal, the Avora reached down to seize a few berries and pop them in his mouth.

When Vira returned, a pensive cast to her tired features, Kovac patted on the log next to him, his hand curling around her shoulder as she leaned against him. It felt good to hold the petite inartan, and not simply for the pleasure of physical closeness. Kovac felt a comfort with Lavira, a curious combination of needing and being needed that the Avora had allowed himself to enjoy with her. The intimacy of the night before had been more than sexual satisfaction, it had been a form of opening door, it seemed, that allowed them to share the emotion that had been building between them.

The hunt had not turned out as he had planned. But then again, Kovac had no plan. He simply made the arrangements, and allowed fate to take he and Lavira where it may. The half-breed turned his head, pressing his lips against her crimson hair. In spite of his injury, Kovac certainly was not disappointed by the course of events.
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Kovac
Snarky Mongrel
 
Posts: 749
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Joined roleplay: March 1st, 2010, 7:19 pm
Location: Wind Reach
Race: Human, Mixed
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Where flies your arrow, dove? Where flies your heart?

Postby Skerry on December 21st, 2013, 6:06 pm

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Grades

Lavira

Skill XP
Bodybuilding 3
Butchering 5
Climbing 2
Cooking 1
Falconry 5
Flirting 4
Hunting 5
Medicine 1
Observation 5
Rhetoric 5
Seduction 3
Socialization 4
Teaching 1
Tracking 3
Weapon: Short bow 2
Wilderness Survival 5


LORES :
  • Kovac’s gift: a bow made by his father
  • Using an arrow to stab
  • The point to sever the spinal cord of a marmot
  • Tracking: Using scat as a track sign
  • Cooking meat on sticks
  • Making love to Kovac
  • Kovac’s heartbreak
  • Explanation for Kovac’s womanising
  • Falconry: Using a bird as a distraction
  • Medicine: Making makeshift bandages
  • Suspending a carcass without rope
  • Wilderness Survival: How to skin a vecerem
  • Butchery: The useful parts of a deer
  • Butchery: The unusable organs of a deer
  • Myth: Take strength from a kill by eating its heart
  • Working out how to carry organs
  • Foraging: Finding blueberries
  • How to weave a basket from ferns
  • Wilderness Survival: Building a fire



Kovac

Skill XP
Bodybuilding 2
Camouflage 1
Cooking 1
Falconry 1
Flirting 4
Hunting 3
Medicine 2
Observation 5
Persuasion 1
Rhetoric 5
Seduction 1
Socialization 5
Teaching 1
Tracking 1
Weapon: Short bow 3
Weapon: Talon Sword 1
Wilderness Survival 3


LORES :
  • Draining a kill of blood
  • Preparing a kill
  • Camouflage: Using urine to conceal the smell of blood
  • Falconry: Give birds some of their kill
  • Tracking: Spotting tracks of animal young
  • Making love to Lavira
  • Killing a vecerem
  • Medicine: Applying pressure to stop bleeding
  • Myth: Take strength from a kill by eating its heart
  • Medicine: Cleaning wounds
  • How to prepare a hide
  • Cooking using a spit


Consequences: –Lavira: A short bow and quiver from Kovac
-Kovac: torn bryda
-Kovac: lacerations from a vecerem which will heal in 21-23 days which will either lead to great scarring or light scarring depending on whether medical attention is sought
-A good vecerem hide
-A good deer hide

Notes:
A very eventful and captivating thread. The careful mix of action and romance elements holds the interest and makes up for the length. A massive amount of skills here; you really worked your butts off (in more ways than one). Lores galore as well, well done!
Just thought I’d let you guys know that between you, you two managed 32,000 words. Very impressive.
Remember if you have any questions or problems with your grade then feel free to PM me.

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Skerry
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