Flashback Jagged Edges

[Venser Rush]

15 Summer, 503 AV There was a sort of strength that stemmed from action. Though Venser preferred to take information from literature, feeling it to be more apt to listen to and then heed the whispers of the Masters who lived and learned far before his time, to take action was necessary for the crafts that Venser had taken an interest in. Oh, how his brother was so much better than him at the kinetic sort of knowledge. Both more active and sociable than the younger twin, Venser had taken advantage of his own pensive nature, boring into books that his brother lent him, picking up a smattering of the language of the Ancients, which he knew would become useful to him at some later point in his life. But, now. The trial awaited him. The act of committing oneself to the unwritten, venturing into what was essentially the unknown. To him, the unknown was to learn the craft of carving shape into raw material. Or, as close to the unknown as could be. It was only his second time trying to rend material from its source, attempting to both give it shape and structure beyond what nature itself could bestow. The first time, he had simply carved a rectangular piece of wood into a smaller, and what he had initially hoped to be sleeker, design. He was mistaken. The end result was crooked, even jagged in parts, Venser unable to afford the tools necessary to buff and polish the surface into an even shape. But, he had not lost faith! He had managed to complete the form to, at the least, some extent. Now, Venser would try to push himself further with the craft. In front of him was a short, cylindrical log, charred at the edges for it had been the remainder of some fire, left to rot in a heap of discarded wood. "One man's trash is another man's treasure, I suppose," Venser thought to himself as he placed the block on a nearby table, the boy sitting himself down. For an age, it seemed, Venser would simply stare at the material, holding the carving knife in his palm as he envisioned the process, imagining the resistance of the wood as he sliced into the skin, slivers falling onto the table, revealing the naked flesh of the wood. He imagined the segments of the rings that would become visible, indicating the age of the material, and the variety, if Venser had bothered to learn enough about trees. Without him being fully conscious of it, his fist had clenched around the knife, vice-like in its strength, the pressure impacting upon the joints of his fingers as he finally raised the edge to the surface of the wood, a slow, steady movement rending a sliver of rough, thick skin from what was once a branch. The boy would cut into the material again, taking his time to carefully remove the entirety of the skin. Several small cuts would result from minors errors in his technique, small droplets of blood congealing upon the skin of his weaker right hand. For a bell, he had done the slow work, beads of sweat permeating his brow before he pushed the skinned wood forward, collecting the slivers and bunching them together before stepping away from the work in order to both collect his thoughts and cleanse his hand. In doing so, he'd hopefully raise his spirits. "This is far more difficult than it should be." A melancholy sigh escaped his lips as he neared the washroom. Several chimes later, he would return, the fingers of his right hand bandaged together, the boy returning to the table as he began the process anew, his resolve unchanged, his hopes for the work before him diminished as the small cuts in his hand protested each involuntary twitch that stemmed from his fingers being forced together. "Oi, stop it," he thought to himself, his lips curling downward into a frown as he reprimanded himself, "You're just proving Father right. If you can't carve a petching piece of wood, you definitely won't be able to learn anything. Much less be of any importance." He nodded, his fingers curling into a fist, the bandages unraveling as a result, pain registering in the boy's mind, yet he paid no mind to it. "Father beats you far worse than this, Venser. You don't even cry anymore, do you?" He nodded resolutely, the fingers of his left hand, now rife with callouses, coiled around the handle of his knife, the force great enough that if it had been a living creature, it would not remain so for longer than a couple of chimes. The bulk of his effort began, Venser positioning the knife into a natural wedge in the wood, rending far larger slivers than before. He would work to slowly curve the material, taking advantage of the wood's naturally cylindrical shape to guide his efforts. Another bell's worth of effort would yield results, one end of what was once a log now a curved, if flawed, surface. It would likely have trouble rolling, though with enough force applied, anything could become possible. Another bell would yield his finished product, the dead, burnt chunk of tree yielding a ball of sorts, the surface neither smooth nor even, though the form was recognizable as what it was intended to be. He rolled it on the table, noting snag as it caught onto the wood of the table, but someday, he'd fix it when he could afford to purchase the materials required to smooth the surface. Satisfied, or as satisfied as he would be with his creation, he gathered the slivers of wood once again, dropping them into a small, paper bag, and tossing them outside of the house before moving to his room. He'd place the ball on his brother's bed, intent on passing it to him as a gift before he reached for his coat. He'd been in the house for far too long, it was a couple of chimes before sunset, and his father was sure to arrive soon, Verin with him. He would see his brother later on in the evening, wishing to avoid the space of time when he was in the house, for to share space with his father was to tread close to the knife's edge. The door would slam behind him as Venser left his room, the incident repeating with the main door of the house as Venser Rush journeyed into the city.

[Abstract]

Grade Awarded!

Venser

Skills

~ Observation - 1
~ Carving - 2

Lores

~ Carving: Go With the Grain

Other

N/A

Notes

Lovely writing! Your descriptions were great, earning you two points in carving. Note that if you want more xp next time, try adding more posts to your solo - usually I can only give one point per skill per post.

Otherwise, a great way to start!