PM to join Midwinter Blues (Taylani)

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius mostly missed any undertone from the woman's response, taking the request without any particular inference. "A stew sounds good, I guess. I really don't know the first thing about cooking. I haven't had a pavilion in...years, I guess. Why don't we cook right outside my tent, we're really almost there." They were. He had only been about twenty meters from his tent when she ran into him, and he pointed where he was camped out to the redhead. It was small, for Endrykas, though easily big enough to sleep two or three people, perhaps even four if it were tight. Even if he had wanted to go inside, it would be uncomfortably tight to have two people walking around inside. She asked him about his family, and he was silent for a while. "No, they don't live outside Endrykas. My family's pavilion was burned down in a fire about ten years ago. We couldn't afford another, so we just scattered for a while. My parents and I went to my father's pad out in the Suvan Sea but," he felt a little uncomfortable talking about it without wallowing in his misery. He had mostly gotten over that part of the grieving process while in Kenash. "well, our ship sank and I was the only survivor. When I got back here, most of my former pavilion had been killed by the plague...I'm kind of alone now. Part of why it would be a good reason to learn cooking."

[Taylani]

Moving in the direction that he indicated, Taylani moves with an ease that spoke of her long season within Endrykas. For though she is still considered a stranger, her feet neatly side step tent stakes and lines with ease. Her body sways in time with her steps to maneuver easily around pavilions that might be between he and her.

His words on all of his misfortune caused a frown to tug on her lips, sure there were many times when people were orphaned. Such as the world since the destruction that happened so long ago that they lived in. However the just constant trouble this one seemed to have, it made her wonder a little internally if he had some how incurred the wrath of the gods.

"I am sorry to hear about your loss." She murmured, and tried to keep a respectful element in her voice. "Perhaps you will make a new family, build a new pavilion." As she spoke her hands went directly to the ever so slight swell of her belly. "We will need a large pot to cook in, some roots or vegetables, water, meat if you have any if not we can work with just vegetables, and if you have any salt and pepper. "

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius was grateful for the redhead's sympathy. However, he shook his head slightly when she suggested that he could start a new pavilion. That wasn't his place. While he would have loved to stay here in Endrykas and build a new place, he was only here to pick up some skills to help him survive his journey across the rest of Mizahar. That was why, in fact, he had most of the materials to cook with--a pot, a bit of beef, and some vegetables. He had had some notion to try and cook, but was too wary of wasting the the meat by ruining whatever he did. He ducked into his tent and grabbed the pot, already full of his vegetables and his chunk of smoked game, grabbing his water skin on the way out. "Will this be fine? I was thinking about learning to cook on my own, but I didn't want to waste the money if I screwed something up." He looked a little embarrassed at his hesitance. "I haven't got any pepper, I wasn't really sure what spices I should get, since I've never really done this before." He looked down at the ground. "I'll probably need a fire right? Here let me start this." He kept a small pile of wood in front of his tent for his fire, to keep him warm generally. Keeping his back to her, and his hands deep in the wood pile to hide exactly what he was doing, he created a tiny ball of res and pressed it against the wood and some kindling, transmuting it into fire to start it. Much easier than messing with flint and steel or something. He turned back to the redhead as his fire began to actually catch in the little campfire. "Okay, what now?".

[Taylani]

Taylani pulled her cloak more tightly around herself, waiting patiently while he went in to retrieve the items she had said she would need. It wasn't until he brought it all out before she groaned softly to herself, and hung her head for a second.. She couldn't believe she forgot something so obvious, "Oh I forgot to tell you that we will need a knife to cut the vegetables. If you have two we can both cut and safe time?"

She took the pot from him as he began to build the fire, she hadn't expected to see what she did though. Her brows raised and she watched with open curiosity as he lit the fire with no small amount of ease. The last time she had been exposed to the use of Reimancy was when the wolf had attacked her and her Dhani friend Aka had used lava to literally cook it from the inside out. It had been a rather traumatic experience for her and she never felt the desire to learn how to manipulate...whatever it was that they did to do the things that they do.

She moves closer to the fire., so that she wouldn't get too cold when she took off her cloak to cover the ground beside the fire. She sits easily on the cloak, with little sign of trouble, and begins to sort through the vegetables and the meat. She then pours water three quarters of the way up in the pot before setting it on the fire to begin to warm. "Next we use the knives to chop the vegetables up and put them in. It doesn't need a lot of spice, it just adds flavor. You will have to eat it sooner though with no salt to preserve it."

[Darius Twoseas]

He smiled at her next comment. While he hadn't thought about how he would cut his vegetables and meat, he generally kept a knife on him at all times. He pulled it out of a small pocket. It was wrapped in cloth to keep it from cutting his leg, so he unwrapped it and set in on the ground by him. "Sorry, I've only got this one." She took the pot from his hands. He watched her fill the pot most of the way and put it near the fire to warm. He began to cut the carrots up into small, circular segments before stopping suddenly. "There isn't a special way I'm supposed to do this, is there? The way I cut these vegetables doesn't matter, does it?" He doubted it really, did, but then, he was absolutely new to this, so he couldn't really be sure of anything.

[Taylani]

Taylani shakes her head and reaches to lay a hand on his wrist, the one holding the knife. "That is how you slice them yes, but you must first peel them. Otherwise they do not get as fully cooked as the tubers do and you have a crunchy carrot." She smiled at him, pointing to the carrot at the top near where the green stalk would have been. "Start here, and just shave a little off, you will know you have it when you see the orange becoming brighter rather then dull."

She didn't mention that laying the knife on the ground probably wasn't the thing that a chef at the Rearing Stallion Inn in Syliras would do. Or if he did, he would at least wash it before he started to slice through the roots. However he was Drykas, and perhaps they liked having that little bit extra that might have been added to the knife. However, for herself, she picked up some tubers and used the top of her cloak that she was sitting on to gently wipe them down, though they didn't look like they had any dirt on them. "The tubers are cut length ways," Again she used her fingers to show him, not having a knife "And then one cut in half on both sections. The meat is added last."

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius stopped cutting, a little embarrassed that he had managed to screw up such a simple task as chopping vegetables. He listened to her instructions and immediately got to work shaving off the outer layer of the carrot. His knife slipped a few times off the root. Perhaps he should be keeping his knife sharper than he had been. He started at the very top, taking small shavings off, but when he got to the long sides of the carrot, it came off in long strips. When the carrot was bright orange, no trace of the dullish color it was originally, he returned to cutting it into the small circles. When he finished the first, he peeled and cut up a second, reasoning that even if they didn't need it now, he could get some work out of the way for tomorrow's meal. While he sliced, Taylani explained how to cut the onions. He took it as an instruction to move on to those. He grabbed the tuber and cut it down the length, creating thinner slices. He was pretty focused on the task. It took only a minute or so, and then he cut carefully down the middle. He put the slices of vegetables in the pot. He was about to just throw the smoked game into the water before he stopped. "How exactly do I cut this?"

[Taylani]

She watched as he chopped the vegetables, wrapping her arms around her knees and mentally noted that already it was a little more difficult to do this though her belly was not that much bigger. The thought made her frown a little but she quickly brushed it away with a smile and leaned forward when he asked about the meat.

"The meat should be cut into cubes. Really the chunks are as big as you want. The bigger they are the fewer portions you get, the smaller the more plentiful portions." She moved over to look into the pot, and eyed the vegetables sitting at the bottom of the pot. "The amount of vegetables you have, you might want to make them medium to large so that you don't get just a mouthful of vegetables. Since it is just you then you don't have to worry about portions."

Her hand raised to brush back the loose strands of red hair that had fallen forward over her face, forgetting at first that perhaps she shouldn't bring up the loss of his family. "Have you thought of joining another pavilion? So that you are not alone? I guess if they take captives and force them into pavilions and call them 'family' then they could take in a Drykas orphan."

[Darius Twoseas]

Darius felt a little bad about asking her something, as he seemed to be interrupting her thoughts. Her answer was interesting though. He had never thought about cooking for portioning. It hadn't ever even crossed his mind that that the way he cut his meat could change how many portions there were. That was an interesting tidbit he'd have to remember. He started cutting up the meat I to chunks, each about the size of a flint arrowhead. The game gave easily and compared to the vegetables, was a lot easier to cut, but at the same time, it was harder to cut right. He paused and looked up when she asked about him joining a pavilion. He looked wistfully away for a moment before answering her, but when he did speak, it was confident. "No, I can't join another pavilion." He thought about what he had just said, and then snapped back to the present, rushing to correct himself. "I mean, I can--I'm sure they would be happy to take me, it isn't anything like that--but I won't. I'm not planning to stay here in Endrykas. I have this plan, you see..." he trailed off, a bit embarrassed. He felt sure that, spoken aloud, his resolution would just sound silly.

[Taylani]

Taylani looked over at him strangely when he spoke. He was the very first person, bonded to a strider, that spoke as if they were simply using Endrykas as a way point. Every other bonded Drykas were all about the Drykas, every other goal or opportunity came second to the culture. Sure some left, but they all planned on returning. The family was first. But perhaps because this one wasn't raised in Endrykas it was different.

"A plan?" Taylani asked, taking the stirring implement to stir the contents of the pot. "This will have to simmer most of the night over the fire, but in the morning the stew will be thick and hearty. And it will last for a little while. It doesn't need much tending, other then making sure that the fire doesn't spread."

She settles back onto her cloak, raising her knees to wrap her arms around her legs. "Why would plans be waylaid by joining another pavilion? Being part of a family wouldn't that work with your plan too?" Taylani was here, she had Fallan but he was the man who had purchased her and forced a child upon her. Sure she had a little warmer feelings for him, but she missed her real family sorely. She would love to be able to simply adopt a new family, to feel that love and warmth again.