Solo Horses Alike

[Spirit Frostfawn]

The White Elk Stables
Winter 1st, 513 AV

Spirit had a ‘date’ on hand… in light of the slightly warmer weather outside, Maroah had offered to take her out to the Wastes and give a little basic teaching on surviving out there. Since meeting Kaden, she’d become more interested in such things… and the tiger was off doing his own thing today, which she was leaving him to do. Personally… she had her own work to do. Despite the odd event of the day before… animals creepily ramming themselves into the gates… she still had to keep up her job as a groom. That had been a little disturbing when she’d first heard of it… she hadn’t gone near the place at first, but when she heard the stories… well, she’d had to go investigate. But… that was it. The sight of all the dead creatures had put her off her dinner that way, and she’d headed back to the Arvinta… and tried to forget the sight.

Now it was mostly out of her mind, and instead… she was trying to focus on work. She wondered vaguely if Wind was happy, surrounded by puppies, and what Kaden was doing that day…it sounded interesting, at least. She wished they could spend more time together, but twenty-or-so days of constant companionship and bonding left both of them needing a little space… in her opinion, at least. So today… she was going to finish up with the grooming…. Then head out into the Wastes. However, today’s work was a little different than usual. During the crazy events the day before, someone’s horse had been caught in the charge on their way back from a hunt. From what snatched she’d heard of a story… a wolf had run into it, in a panic, and done some decent damage to the gelding’s legs. The horse wasn’t permanently hurt, from what Lusina said… but the woman wanted help. Most of the vets they did have were conveniently out on other business, meaning that the horse mistress had taken anyone with medical and animal skills: which included Spirit.

Now they stood by a horse in pain… it had already been given sedative by Lusina, and was slowly lowering itself onto the ground, forelegs buckling under the effort of standing up. The gelding had been given a large, empty stall where it could lie down, and where the Vantha could work easily. The horse’s back legs were already down, and slowly… the creature was on its belly, then rolling onto its side. The dark red scratches on its right rear forelock were obvious and painful looking. The owner had apparently panicked at the sight of his horse, and only bothered to bring the gelding in for them to work on recently. Lusina ushered Spirit into the main stable area with a simple wave of her hand, kneeling beside the horse’s head. While the younger Frostfawn stood watching, feeling a little awkward, the woman double checked that the creature was indeed asleep. She grabbed a basket of medical tools, and shuffled over to the injured leg, with Spirit following.

The groom listened carefully as her boss explained the next course of action. ”I need you to clean up the wound. It’ll have scabbed over and healed a little overnight, but it still needs disinfecting. That’s your job. I’ll keep an eye on you… this will be a little side lesson, alright?” Lusina winked, before passing Spirit a clean cloth and a bottle of alcohol. The girl nodded and with practiced ease – if anything, the only healing she did was disinfecting and bandaging – soaked the cloth in alcohol, not caring that a bit dribbled onto her hand. She’d mostly been avoiding the injury, but now glanced down at it, gulping at the uneven slash that ran through the lower leg. ”See here?” Lusina commented, pointing and the cut. ”It didn’t go through any of the major tendons, meaning that no major damage was done… which is pretty lucky, considering.”The woman had a small frown on her face as she glanced over to check on their patient, whose large round eyes were closed.

The Frostfawn used the cloth and began wiping down the smooth leg, taking any scabs, blood, and dirt with her as she did so. The stuff that had originally been caked on began flaking, and the cloth was quickly stained with fresh blood from the new wound. She winced as the red liquid seeped onto her hands as the alcohol had done… she didn’t like the feel. Still, after a few slightly rough wipes the wound was clean and open, with a small trickle of blood going down the side. After discarding her current cloth, Spirit was passed a new one, re-dousing it with disinfectant. This time, she actually went in the wound… and though it wasn’t very deep, it certainly was a little… disturbing. With the large square of fabric firmly wrapped around her hand, she used her fingers to slightly pry open the wound and get the cleaning agent inside. The horse twitched a little, probably from the pain, but luckily didn’t wake up. Once that cloth was gotten rid of, and the job finished, Spirit straightened with a relieved sigh. She didn’t like going into things… nor did she like blood, but it was a big part of healing and helping people… so she would just have to stand it.

”Good… good…” Lusina muttered, bobbing her head a little. Her own hands stayed firmly rested on her thighs, still clean compared to the younger Vantha’s. Absently, the woman gave their patient a hearty pat on the side, though the horse probably couldn’t feel it. ”Now… do you know how to do stitches? Those are an important part of medicine.”As she said this, the Frostfawn woman pulled a delicate, thin, needle and thread out of her basket. Once Spirit replied with a short ”Nope”, Lusina nodded. ”Right then… I’ll just have to teach you myself! Wont that be fun… but you’ll appreciate the lesson.”

x
x

[Spirit Frostfawn]

Spirit was relieved when she was not handed the needle straight off. That, first off… would have been a disaster. Second, it meant she could see what she was supposed to be doing… though that was the lesson, technically. She’d tried stitching once before, but it had been more of a sewing lesson than anything. At least she knew what she was basically doing, before doing it. Lusina held the needle firmly between her fingers, and glanced up to see that the younger Frostfawn was watching. After a pair of nods in agreement, their attention moved to the injury that was being sewn up.

“You have a certain length of string that you have to deal with the cut. Now… the end is knotted, so it won’t slip through when this is done. Now, with the needle, you want to push through the flesh like you would leather.”The woman demonstrated, slowly and carefully slipping the pointy needle through the horse’s thick skin. It seemed to require quite a bit of force, but the woman went through one side of the wound, into the other, and out. The gelding’s leg twitched slightly, causing Lusina to pause in mid-poke, but nothing too major happened. Once the horse was calm and sleeping again, the master groom finished her stitch, slowly but carefully pulling the rest of the string through, until a small knot at the end stopped it. “You see”she asked, and Spirit nodded. “Good. Repeat it, like I will be doing, until you reach the end.”

The groom lifted her hand slightly to take the needle, feeling a little nervous, but realized Lusina was continuing. Good… she’d be able to see a few in a row. The woman slowly but smoothly slipped the needle in one side, out the other, switched hands, and pulled it up and through. This repeated a few more times, until the cut was about halfway stitched up. Then, finally, the needle was transferred into Spirit’s shaking hand. “Calm, it’ll be okay”Lusina chuckled quietly, patting the girl on the shoulder. She nodded absently, focusing more on the work that would be coming. Trying to stop the nervous (though vaguely excited) trembling in her fingers, she rested the needle point on the spot of entrance… and pushed. It went in, but it was harder and stiffer than she’d ever thought. She worried about breaking the needle, or messing up, twisting or bending the wrong way. However, it went through smoothly, though there was one jerk that had made her heart skip.

The Frostfawn took a pause for a few breaths and closed her eyes for a moment, letting her hand rest. She lifted her eyelids and glanced down, feeling quite pleased with her success. She moved the needle forward a bit, careful not to pull, and found another point to re-enter the skin. “A little to the left” Lusina muttered, pointing with a single finger. “Right..”Spirit angled the needle to point that way, and, once her mentor nodded again, began pushing… through… and out. She’d had to switch hands, letting go once her fingers touched the flesh (coupled with a small shudder) and grabbing the disturbingly bloody point with her other hand, and pulling it out. She tried to keep it horizontal, though it was tempting to lift her hand to a more comfortable position, and tilt the needle up.

Once that stitch was done, she carefully pulled the rest of the thread through, halting when it seemed stiff. “A little tighter – you still want it to pull the skin together.” The next instruction brought along another bob of the head, but Spirit was still focused on her work. She moved the needle and thread back to the starting side, keeping it tight, watching with a little amazement and horror as the skin closed together with the pressure. Still, she focused her mind on the next stitch, once again placing the needle next to the skin and pushing. Out the first flap, into the next, out and up… pull back, and start again. In that way, she completed another three stitches, never glancing back to see how terrible her work was. When she was about three-quarters of the way, Lusina stopped her, resting a gentle hand on the Frostfawn’s. “That’s good for now. I’ll finish it up.”

When the needle was taken away, the young groom relaxed with a sigh. That had been… stressful. She felt good about it, and seeing the rest of the stitches… it was kind of hard to tell the difference between hers and Lusina’s… her own were looser, not as evenly spaced, as the horse mistresses’. Remembering the work she was supposed to be watching, the girl eyed the final stitch, surprised at how quickly her boss had gone in such a short time. It was time to finish the stitching… which was something else she had to learn. Was there a certain kind of knot? Or did you just leave it there? Luckily, the next instructions came as the older Vantha halted in her work.

“When you get to the end, take off the needle…”the woman did just that, handing the tiny metal thing to Spirit to hold. “After you have the end of the thread, tie it in a knot, making sure it sits as close to the flesh as possible.” With delicate hands, Lusina slipped one end of the string in a loop she had created and pulled, using her other hand to slip the knot down as it was tightened, so it was right along the horse’s skin. “Then cut off the end!” A pair of scissors was produced from what seemed like nowhere, and used to easily snip off the thread’s extra tip. “And you’re done. I’ll pack up – thank you for the help though. I hope you continue in the veterinary field!”The head groom gave the Frostfawn a hearty pat on the hand, and both straightened.

“Thanks for the lesson!” Spirit mentioned, nodding to her boss thankfully. Now to get this blood off her hands, and find Maroah… more things to learn today!

x
x

[Spirit Frostfawn]

After cleaning off her hands, Spirit had moved to fetch Silver from the mare’s stable. “Hello” she whispered quietly to the horse, opening the stable door and grabbing the halter from within. She led Silver slowly out, before leaving the mare to stand while she grabbed the tack. She brought the saddle blanket first, laying it gently over the horse’s back so it sat comfortably in the middle. She then heaved the heavy leather saddle on top, though was careful not to drop it and hurt Silver. On came the bridle and off came the halter, the latter stored in the small stable. The Frostfawn finally pushed the bit between the mare’s teeth, and was finally finished tacking up. She led the horse out of the stables and into the snow, off to find Maroah… he’d planned on meeting her just by the Icewall Gates, and had recommended bringing Silver. She wasn’t going to say no to the extra riding practice.

When they were outside and had space around them, Spirit moved to the saddle and mounted, slipping one foot into the stirrups, pushed up while holding onto the saddle for balance, then swung her other leg over the side to get a comfortable seat. She tapped her heels lightly into the mare’s sides, sending the mount off at a slow walk. She didn’t feel like heading at a trot, and instead simply stayed at a slightly-faster-than-walking pace. The way to the gates was mostly quiet and empty, with few people around. She slightly dreaded going near the gates, hoping that all the animals had been cleared up… it would have been slightly depressing otherwise. Death and destruction had always made her so sad… she’d been lucky to avoid most of that in her life. Though from Kaden’s story… her bondmate hadn’t.

With a quiet sigh she stopped Silver with a “Woah” , spotting Maroah a little closer from the gates than normal. “Hey! Aren’t we going out of the city?” She frowned at the thought, wondering. Beside him was a pile of wood… not a lot, but enough to get some kind of a fire going. Wood was rare in Avanthal, and so was pretty expensive. However, unless you wanted to use stormgems to cook your food… wood was the only way to start a fire. “Nah, we’re going to work here. Easier that way.” Her cousin shrugged, before patiently waiting for the younger Frostafawn to slip her leg over Silver’s side and carefully hop down into the snow. “So… a fire?” she verified, but glanced up to see Maroah looking at her oddly.

“Before that, I wanted to mention something. You know your tiger Kelvic friend? Yea. Him. I found massive scratches on my door. Plus orange hair. Happen to be his? Youmin is refusing to come out of the room.” The man’s expression was slightly disturbed, though she could almost spot the twitch of a smile. However… she hadn’t been expecting that. Her jaw dropped, before snapping closed again to allow a wide grin to spread over her features. Youmin was Maroah’s new dog… actually one of her own puppies, who he’d decided to ‘pick up’ on a whim. Originally, both of them had been given Zypherian sled dog puppies on their seventh birthdays, but her cousin’s companion had died a little over a year back. Hopefully, Wind would stay with her for a little while longer… but she was always careful about the canine’s health.

”Really?”
“Yes”
“Nooo”
“The door is half ruined!”
“At least it still closes, right?” Maroah simply snorted indignantly at this, as if that wasn’t the point. Spirit could think of a number of sarcastic comments to add on top of this, but decided not to overdo it. Instead, she simply grinned widely, mentally wondering what had pushed Kaden to do something like that. Maybe it was because he didn’t like her cousin? He’d made that clear enough on the day of their bonding. But… wow…. Scratching his door? That must have meant something in cat… a language she was entirely unfamiliar with. Her bondmate seemed to be busy today. Though Maroah apparently seemed to want her to tell off the Kelvic… she decided she wasn’t. He was a cat, right? Probably… marking his territory, or something. Cats did that… at least, from what she knew.

“Anyways, you wanted to teach me how to build a fire?” Her cousin blinked in surprise, before nodding. “Right, right. Here… can you help me dig a hole for it?” He motioned towards an empty area of snow, before kneeling and beginning to scoop out large handfuls of snow. “Can’t we just melt it?” Spirit asked, as she kneeled down to join her cousin. She began sticking her hands into the deep snow, picking up as much as possible and throwing it aside easily, avoiding the wood. “Nope… then the ground would be wet, and so would the wood.” At the moment, their small wood pile was in another (smaller) ditch, and sitting on a leather pad or blanket or… something. Anyways, it was flat and waterproof, protecting the wood from getting soaked. Though she barely knew how to light a fire, she did know that wet wood didn’t burn.

She nodded in answer, and together, the two of them finished scooping out a large hollow that finally touched the ground. They widened it, after Maroah explained that if the walls were too close, the fire would melt them, and the wood would get wet and the fire would go out. Also, you needed a place to sit! Again, another nod, and she began the scooping motions again to widen their hole.

x
x

[Spirit Frostfawn]

When their pit was large and wide, surrounded by stacks of loosened snow, Maroah straightened with a slight groan. “Ouch” he muttered, rubbing his back irritably. Spirit did the same, though with slightly less pain… she’d kept her knees bent, rather than her back. And there wasn’t that much extra height to make things even more awkward. She had to hide a grin at his pain, however… he was always so funny when he grumbled and groaned. She still needed to rub her knees, since they were stiff from being bent for so long.

“Wood?” she asked, in a verbal prod. Her cousin glanced up, slightly surprised, before nodding. “Yep. Right.” He absently brushed off a thin layer of snow from their creation ‘ground’, before lifting up a few logs in one hand, and a bundle of thin stringy stuff in the other. Carefully, he set the larger objects on the snow-free ground and opened the other hand to display the stringy stuff. Inside was an odd mix of things, with a few twigs, bark, and pine needles. “This is tinder – it’s what you start every fire with. These things are really flammable. You light them with your flint and steel, and once they’re burning, hold it under – note, under, I’ll explain that later – the log stack or pile or whatever to catch the larger logs on fire. The fire from these isn’t that hot, and doesn’t last long, so try not to burn a full-blown log from tinder. You need to work your way up from small to large… make sense?” Once the younger Frostfawn nodded, he continued.

“Now, when I say under… fire burns upwards. So if you hold a flame over what you want to burn, nothing’s going to happen. However, when you hold it under, the flame will lick under and start lighting the thing on fire. As long as it’s not too big, of course. Or wet. Or rotting. Or green.” She frowned at the last part, not understanding. “Green? ” she asked, confused. What did ‘green’ exactly mean, and why did it matter? “Green wood is fresh wood, especially sticks and branches, that are sometimes green. You can tell when they’re like that when they are really hard to break, or have green needles. That means they were recently part of a tree, and are more resistant to damage. Like fire. They don’t burn easily, and it’s just a waste of energy to try and burn them.” He picked up one of the large sticks and passed it to Spirit for a good look.

It was brown (obviously) with rough bark, and a few places where it looked like it had been sawed off. One on either end, then a few on the general surface… probably where annoying twigs had been cut off. From those, she could get a good look inside. There were two ring-like sections, one inside the other… and one darker than the other. They were a paler brown than the bark, though the lightest was nearly beige. There were a few scratch marks along it, probably from the saw… but overall it was unremarkable. “Why?” she asked simply, still staring at the stick. Why had Maroah given this to her in the first place? Her cousin chuckled quietly for a moment, before answering the question. “That’s a good stick for burning. Though when in the Wastes, there will be little to no wood… you’ll want to look out for things like these. They require some burning to actually light, but they’re better than those quarter logs.” He gently removed the stick from her hands, placing it back in his small pile.

“So I’ve shown you the tinder, and I’ve shown you the main logs. The latter will help once the fire is built, and will keep it going for longer. Depending on how long you want to keep the fire going, you need a lot of these. But… I said you had to go from small to big, right? Well, there’s something in between that you also need to get. Small sticks, larger pieces of bark and the like. Maybe some chunks of wood like this, if you can get them.” He held up what looked like a sliver of wood… but on a much larger scale. It was about a foot long, with no bark or edging to speak of. “To get that, someone took an axe on a block of wood and just cut off a piece.” It looked really simple, and the cutting was quite rough, with even more parts sticking out of it. She handed it back to her cousin with a nod. [color=#8c8c55] “If you ever need those, take one of your larger logs and cut off chunks like that. It’ll make your life so much easier.

“Now let’s start with the basics of fire. It needs three things: fuel, heat, and air. The fuel is your wood. You start the heat with your flint and steel, striking them together… but I’ll explain that later. Lastly, you need air. Yes, I know you snuff out a candle by blowing on it… but that actually removes the oxygen from the area of a flame, and only works on small things. When building a fire, blowing on it –gently – will actually help it grow. Now, to build on this, you need to make sure never to smother a fire. Keep air able to circulate, so don’t just stuff everything in a pile and expect it to burn. There are a few key ways to build fires, which I’ll teach you later as well. They allow air to reach all the logs, and everything can burn more easily. Again, the smothering can also be used to your advantage, in putting out a fire. Just cover it with a lot of snow and you’re good!”

Maroah seemed to be finished for now… which was a blessing. Spirit let out a breath of air, simply from the bulk of knowledge. Building a fire was complicated, once you got down to it. But it made sense… there were just some technical things that she needed to do, or not do. She nodded a few times, trying to organize everything in her mind. Tinder, the medium stuff, and the logs. Don’t burn green, rotting, or wet wood. Right. And don’t smother a fire.

x
x

[Spirit Frostfawn]

Maroah picked up the various logs, taking about eight similarly size ones and putting them in the middle of their hollow. “There’s two basic, effective ways to build a fire. I prefer this one, since it requires less starting sticks and when you start the fire, the flames burn up to hit the big logs… but they can’t get that big, which is an annoying limitation. However, with a lack of wood like we have here… there’s not too much of a problem.” He took the sticks and began balancing two together, their points resting on each other, with bases firmly in the ground. Once they seemed to stand up easily, he added more to the pattern, so they stacked in some kind of triangle shape.

“This is a teepee” he explained, waving a stick at the construction. Vaguely, Spirit wondered what in the world a teepee was… but that didn’t matter. Probably some funny name a person came up with when this first started out. People had strange names like that, random jumbles of letters that stuck together nicely. Her cousin set down the last stick, finalizing the creation. “See… you can stuff tinder and the medium stuff in here, light a piece of tinder, and stick it inside to set all the other things on fire. Just be careful not to overfill it.” He stuck a few fingers in between some of the logs when he said that, wiggling them for the effect. He removed the hand, and knocked down the ‘teepee’ with a sharp flick. “You try.”

Spirit frowned at him, but collected all of the sticks into an organized pile. She took too that looked about a medium length, and carefully balanced them against each other. She let go…. And they fell down. She picked them up and tried again… and down they went. She grumbled quietly, and on the third try, dug the ends into the ground for support. Finally they stayed up. She took another stick and put it in at a right angle to the other two. The extra weight pushed on an unsupported side, and all three came clattering to the ground. “Oh come on!” she exclaimed, picking up her work and started again. This time, when she put on the second stick, she added one to the other side at the same time for balance. She repeated that in the same manner until all the sticks were used up in an odd kind of circle.

“Good! Now… again.” Maroah flicked down the construction just like he had his own, causing the groom to scowl irritably. “Hmph” she told him, pulling all of the logs towards her. The second construction went much better than the first, with the sticks only falling down once when she tried to balance them. When the second version was done, her cousin was nodding and smiling, before again pushing down her creation. “Oi! Can you not do that? I was actually kind of proud of that!” She pouted irritably, before sighing. Normally she wasn’t one to argue, but her cousin always set her off. There were rarely any bad feelings mixed in, just sibling-like bickering. Considering her Aunt and Uncle had practically been parents to her, Maroah had been like a brother… a very annoying, older brother.

“Don’t worry,” he said in mock sympathy, patting the girl’s shoulder. “I’m teaching you the next style! The log cabin!” At least this name made sense… though who would ever waste so much wood to build a house? Probably something from the south, where there was a lot more wood and trees than there were in Avanthal. She’d gotten (sort of) close to the Spires two seasons ago, and there had been an amazing number of trees… compared to her own home, at least. But she’d heard that the entire city was built in trees! The plants had to be massive to do that… as massive as the animals here. She grinned at the thought, and watched her relative create another mock building out of the sticks.

This time, he grabbed even more from their first pile. He took two and sat them parallel from each other, so they made two sides of a square. He put another two perpendicular to those, and on top, so they did make a square. He repeated the process a few times, until there was a hollow structure about four sticks thick… or three, depending on which side you counted. It was just confusing. “If fire burns up, and you put something in the middle of this… how would they burn?” she mused, poking it with an accusing finger. “Exactly why I like the other one. Fire does burn sideways, though not as effectively as it burns up. You could put a teepee in a log cabin, if you wanted, though that uses even more wood. Some people put a roof on theirs.” He mimicked this by laying the last three sticks over the top, closing it in a box. In a whimsical moment, Spirit wondered where the door was.

“Do I have to build this?” she wondered aloud, poking the construction harder than before, enough to push one of the sticks half off its perch. “Nah, they’re easy. And you really should be using the first one anyways.” Maroah shrugged, before taking this one down and setting aside over half the logs. “Rebuild the teepee one, so we can use it for our actual fire.” He passed the remaining sticks to Spirit, who placed them before her with a nod. Carefully and gently, she set up the triangular construction, this time managing it without any of the sticks falling down. That was mostly because she remembered to double check they were balanced before letting go, and to put sticks on the opposite sides on at the same times. When she was done, she leaned back with a content smile, balancing on the balls of her feet. “There” she stated, tapping the top to see if it fell down.

x
x

[Spirit Frostfawn]

With their little teepee construction before them, Maroah moved onto the next part of their lesson. “Time for the tinder! Here… stuff some inside.” He shoved his hand in Spirit’s face, palm up to cup the dry materials. She took a clump gently and inserted it between some off the larger cracks between the sticks. They sat there as a small clump of pine needles and stringy bark, looking vaguely flammable. Her cousin took out two long strips of the funny kind of bark, passing one to Spirit and handling the other himself. He drew a set of flint and steel from his pocket, before adjusting his position to sit cross-legged on the ground. He lay the bark on one of the larger, extra logs, before glancing up at the younger Frostfawn.

“Have you ever used flint and steel?” he asked, but was answered with a shake of Spirit’s head. Most of Avanthal was lit and warmed by Stormgems… since even though the Icestone wasn’t technically ice, it was very, very similar, and would melt with enough fire. She’d possibly tried to use her pair to create sparks once or twice, but always worried she’d set something on fire… though it probably wouldn’t happen, from what Maroah had explained. Little things couldn’t burn bigger things. A spark couldn’t light her bed on fire… but who knew about her sheets. Her cousin sighed at the answer… just another thing to teach.

“Right then… you take the two… cmon, take out your own!” The last was stuck in because the groom was just staring at Maroah’s flint in steel. However, she quickly glanced up with a startled look and nodded, pulling her own two out of her pocket. Normally they stayed in her Arvinta room, hidden in something or other, but today she’d brought them along at her the hunter’s request. When she was holding her own in the same position, he finally leaned back to his seat. Her hands felt awkward like this, holding the bar of steel over the chunk of dark stone that was the flint. “You want to strike them together like this.” Her cousin instructed, demonstrating by shoving the steel onto and across the flint with a high-pitched scraping sound. She spotted just a few centimeters away from the stone’s point… yes, a spark! He did it a few times over, creating similar flashes of light all but once.

Spirit frowned at it, before focusing on her own flint and steel. She pressed the metal hard on the stone in her hand, before sharply pushing it away. It felt hard and jerky, nothing like what Maroah’s movements had looked like. Though she was careful to check for a spark… there seemed to be nothing. Scowling, she tried again, faster. And again. And again. She ended up barely pushing, rushing the strikes in an attempt to create something. She only stopped when her cousin rested a gentle hand on your own. “Go slowly, push hard. Its forcing them together that creates the spark.” She nodded, and he removed the barrier. Again, the Frostfawn tried, pushing down hard and striking. After the second try… yes! A spark! She nearly giggled with glee. She tried a few more times until she managed to get it three times in a row. “Okay… I think I’ve got it…” she nodded, glancing up at her companion, who was smiling.

“Awesome! Now we can actually start trying to light stuff on fire. Now… when picking a bit of tinder to burn with a spark, you want something really, really thin. Thin and dry and burnable as possible. Sparks aren’t that flammable, so the easier you make it for the flame to get hold, the better.” He paused, lifting up his chosen piece of bark to show. “Before we get started, I want to go over what to do after you’ve gotten your tiny flame. Put it with some other, equally flammable tinder… and very gently blow on it, to help the flame grow. Like I mentioned at the beginning of our lesson, anything stronger will put the flame out. Once you’ve gotten a decent thing going, you can either build a teepee around it quickly, or try and move it into the teepee itself. This is all very delicate until you actually get some kind of fire going, then it’s quite resistant. In this instant, we’ll be doing the latter, since the teepee is already up. Anyways, you need to be pretty quick and certain to build the teepee around your little flame. “

Spirit nodded at this, understanding. Absently, she rubbed the flint and steel still in her hands together, though nowhere near hard enough to create a spark. She glanced down at the bark that had been given to her… was it thin enough? Maroah had given it to her, so it probably was. She pursed her lips and mused on this, before remembering their current goal. Her cousin was beginning to make his own thing, having procured some stone (Morwen knew where that came from) and piled a bunch of tinder on it. There were even some wood chips in this one. Gently placing his string of bark on one side, he held the flint and steel close to it. Pausing for a moment to ready it, he struck the two things together.

Nothing happened at the first try, but on the second… a tiny flame! The small piece of bark held a little point of light on it. The younger Frostfawn nearly squealed and clapped her hands, but controlled her excitement. They’d made fire! Well, her cousin had. Quickly and carefully, he took the opposite end and stuck it next to their pile of tinder. Within moments, a delicate flame was growing, licking at the wood shreds. It grew and grew until… Maroah blew it out. “Weren’t we going to use that?” Spirit questioned with a frown, feeling vaguely depressed. “Nope. It’s your turn to try, and we’ll use yours. You’re the one building the fire, after all.” With a wink, he passed another pile of tinder to her.

x
x

[Spirit Frostfawn]

Spirit winced at the thought of having to try doing this herself… but that was kind of the point, wasn’t it? To learn how to make a fire on her own. If she was in an emergency, there wouldn’t always be Maroah, or someone else around to help her learn this. She sighed and glanced at the thin strip of bark before her, wondering how in Morwen’s name this could light on fire with a simple spark. But her cousin had done it, so she could too! At least that was the general idea. Pursing her lips in concentration, she adjusted her position to be more comfortable, took note of where the rest of the tinder was, and readied her flint and steel. She probably wasn’t going to do it on the first go… but she could try, right?

She pushed the two stones (well one was metal) together, but before she could get any kind of speed, the top piece stopped on a groove in the lower. She scowled and tried again, this time heading a little faster… but no spark. Again, and again, then… a spark! Sadly it missed the bark, since she’d moved the flint and steel away from the tinder by then. She moved it closer and tried two more times before… yes! A tiny flame burst on the tip, and the groom almost squealed in delight. Slowly and carefully she lifted it up and moved it towards the tinder inside the teepee… and it went out. Spirit scowled irritably and tried again, getting another flame on the second one. This time, she managed to fit the bark inside the wood construction and finally light the other tinder on fire. A larger, flickering flame grew, while Maroah insisted on something else.

“Add sticks!” He himself stuffed a twig through the large logs, where the fire could just lick it. Remembering the middle kind of wood, the Frostfawn nodded and began poking larger twigs through, so the fire could burn those too. A larger flame grew and grew, touching the big logs and scorching them black. The pair waited in patient silence as it slowly began burning the bigger logs, creating a larger fire. “Well… I say you got it,” her cousin commented, giving the girl a hearty pat on the back. “Now… would you like some tea?” She frowned and glanced up at the man in confusion. “Tea?” she asked, bewildered. Maroah pulled out a few metal things from behind him, where she hadn’t seen them before. A cast iron kettle and a stand they could set it on.

He put up the stand carefully over the fire, before scooping up some snow in his pot. Quickly it was melted using Morwen’s mark, and hung from the stand to heat. “Huh” she muttered with a raised eyebrow. She hadn’t realized they were actually going to be doing something with this… so that sounded fun! “What are we going to make it out of, though?” she asked, trying to peek behind him to see if he had any tea leaves or something hidden there too. However, the material came out of his pocket rather than from behind him, and inside the man’s hand was a pile of very familiar green things. Pine needles. “Ohhh” Spirit breathed out, nodding. They had pine tea a lot, and though it was sometimes a little bitter…. It was nice to warm up with on a hot day.

“Yum.” Maroah nodded in agreement, before shoving the pine needles in the groom’s hands. “Errr…” she stuttered, not sure what to do with them. “Break them up and drop them in the pot. It can steep and boil at the same time… tea is good when you’re out in the Wastes, it keeps you warm and your morale up.” He gave a lopsided grin before holding his hands out over their growing fire. “Right…” Spirit muttered to herself, staring at the pile of needles cupped in her palms. “Break them up…” After a few moments of hesitation she remembered what that meant, and winced in embarrassment.

“Right,” she repeated, before taking a few and ripping them in thirds. These she added to the pot, before repeating it with another few, then another, until the surface of the steaming water was covered in short green pine needles. Her cousin double checked that they were all gone, before adding a lid to keep in the heat. “And now… we wait” he finalized, with a tiny smile. He settled back, pulling out two mugs from his pack as an afterthought. He stretched out his jacket over the snow and onto the little wall they’d unintentionally built, flattening it carefully. The man then lay down, fitted his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes.

The groom grumbled something about Maroah always wanting to sleep, glaring at his peaceful form, before staring back at the fire. The fire she’d built. Actually… she was quite pleased. She’d finally learned how to build a fire, as annoying as it had been. Though there was little wood in the Wastes… this would be useful. Oh so useful. She grinned at the thought, squirming a little in the snow. She was feeling a little childish in her glee, but didn’t care… she was learning to be an Icewatch guard! Though that wasn’t her official reason, it was what she wanted in the end… to be an Icewatch healer, Vet, and guard with Kaden at her back. Maybe they’d be a little funny, a little out of the norm… but they’d do it. She was sure of that.

Letting her grin widen, she leaned back on her hands, and waited….

x
x

[Una Tanta]

Spirit :

Experience:

Medicine +2
Acrobatics +1
Wilderness Survival +3

Lores:

Fire: Start with Tinder
Fire: Under is Important, Fire Burns Upward
Fire: Small to Large
Fire: Green means Living Wood
Fire: Fuel, Heat, Air
Fire: Don’t Smother
Fire: Tepee Method
Fire: Log Cabin Method
Tepee Method: Minimal Wood, Minimal Size
Log Cabin Method: Lots of Wood, Bigger in Size
Sparks: Not effective fire starters
Importance of Oxygen to a Fire
Survival in Cold: Hot Food
Cooking food over a fire
Medicine: Stitching Horse Leg Wounds
Medicine: Starting, Making, and Ending a Stitch
Fire: Wet Wood Won’t Work
Fire: Clear The Snow
Medicine: Clearing Away Scabs Takes Effort
Medicine: Cleaning Old Wounds Causes New Blood

Other:

Strained back from too much bending over between working on the horse and the fire - 1 day

Notes

You might know this already and just not have written it but here is some information as a side note: One thing in the future you might want to consider even with a little amount of wood you can make a cabin, making a cabin with a roof (as long as the roof has lots of holes) is great in windy environments (to keep the flame from being snuffed out) and the fire burns the roof and then along the walls which keeps the fire low and hot instead of high and hot like the tepee method.  In case you didn’t know this could be a great thing for her to discover IC, like in the quest! I loved how much detail you put into this. Building a fire can be really complicated. All the XP should be self explanatory. The acrobatics I gave you were for Spirit's awareness of her own body; knowing how to kneel, mounting the horse, etc. In general she seemed very competent in her own body.

Please don't be afraid to PM me with any questions ^-^ and please don't forget to remove your grading request from the list to keep Lullz Office spick and span.