Solo An Unexpected Friend

[Ainyi]

54 Winter 513, Tenth Bell


Ainyi’s steps in the warrens were slower, but with a measured strength. A beat was in them that had been missing the past weeks - a resolve she did not expect to find in between dreary days and long nights, but a resolve that stuck with her a little more in every step. Her stomach may have grumbled, her father’s murder went unanswered, this winter and the Despised went yet rampant...but she focused, one foot in front of the other. Right, left, right, left.

Inhale, exhale.

In times like these, Ainyi found there was an ebb and flow to one’s spirit. Even in the worst of hunger, the coldest of winter, the loneliest of seasons, one found days where one could do things - where one could feel motivation. Winter’s Fatigue was real, and it took its toll - but despite all odds, the secret archer found joy in her life. Almost a full thirty days after Turrin offered her a position as a Second Rider, and she still found herself playing the memory over to find a smile on a hard day. As her days of sneaking came to a close, she found a sense of peace within herself that while she wasn’t sure what to do with, she was glad to grapple with. With full access to the archery range, she was steadily improving, even teaching Wingard a little!

Wingard. Her lips spread into a blushing smile at their last encounter, warming her face as red as her hair. Her empty stomach filled with nervous feathers as unsorted emotions ripped torridly in her mind about the supposed Endal. She sensed he hid something from her, but welcomed her simultaneously. She was not so horribly confused about someone’s intentions to her since her Yasi days – and she found herself strangely liking it. But as her steady feet found the entrance to the Processing Center, she sighed heavily. It was time to work; something she strangely looked forward to this day.

She pushed the door open and removed her pack as she entered, setting them by the tally board across the room, noting the eerie lack of people present. Bone employee tags marked most in the Food stores, most likely organizing rations for the coming weeks as hunts dwindled. Ainyi chewed her lip nervously, wondering how much food would be in tonight’s dinner, and how many would blame her and the other food processing workers for the ache in their bellies. Sighing, she donned a bloodstained apron, some blood stained gloves, and looked for the super’s tag, when her voice answered for her.

[Ainyi]

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[Ainyi]

“Ainyi! There you are!” She rang with a sharp joy as she entered the Processing Center from the Landings, Denmi in tow. The Chiet began pulling out her hair beads, wearing them as oversized rings as she braided her hair out of her face and nodded in greeting to the aging woman. Normally wild green eyes were wary of the happiness in her tone. There were many things one pictured the Super feeling emotionally, but happiness? It was like seeing a bird, then hearing it meow. The rarity of the occurrence made it so bizarre, it demanded one’s full attention. Though, even meek Denmi had a beam on her face, so whatever it was, it couldn’t have been so strange.

“Here I am,” Ainyi affirmed, finishing the braid with the last of her beads and throwing it over her shoulder to fall between her shoulder blades. “You sound…happy,” she politely observed, as colleagues often do when something feels off. The Super’s eyes glittered for a moment, and turned around as if to show something, before momentarily glowering at Denmi. “Get the door, girl! He’s burdened out there!” The young Chiet blushed at her mistake and scampered to the door to the landings; Ainyi’s eyes now tilted in genuine curiosity, a piece of her hoping that someone had done a real hunt, that someone had caught some real food.

As Denmi opened the door, and a hunter emerged with bloody fat buck draped over his shoulders, Ainyi just nearly burst into tears. She half sprinted across the Processing Center to look it over; this would add considerably to their rations, even more so to their meal tonight. The hunter’s grey eyes met hers for a moment; utterly exhausted, but satisfied. Impulsively, the Chiet kissed his cheek before letting out a shout of joy. As she pulled away and looked a bit sheepish, the hunter stared expectantly at the gutted head of the deer and his shaking legs, and Ainyi shook her head at her own stupidity.

“You and Denmi shall process this kill,” The Super called over her shoulder as she moved towards the door. “I need to go check on the others in the food stores. I’ll return to check on you later!” Ainyi opened her mouth to object to being left with a large kill being left with two of the less competent butchers in the Processing Center, but simply huffed out air when she realized the woman was already mostly out the door. Looking over at Denmi, she frowned. “Well, don’t just stand there, girl! Get a large meat hook, lead it along the ceiling!”

The hunter went to his knees, breathing deeply. Ainyi offered a small smile, kneeling on level with him. “Congratulations, hunter. You have done well. Tell us your name, so we may add this to the tally on the wall.” He looked up at her through half slitted eyes, fighting to stay awake. He must have been hunting for days, for how exhausted he looked. “Korti,” he said softly. “Only deer of the season…”

With a heave, Ainyi pressed her shoulders against his, giving him the hint to slip his shoulders below hers and move the carcass to her shoulders. It was easily twice her weight as her, without the entrails and extra blood most hunters spill before they bring the carcass back, so Korti slipped his hands under the carcass to prevent the weight from crushing her. He smirked gratefully at the gesture, rolling his shoulders now that they were free of their prey. “One deer is better than no deer in a Famine,” Ainyi found herself consoling him as Denmi approached with the meat hook. After a deep inhale, She pushed herself onto her feet, keeping her back flat to avoid damaging it with all the weight resting on her shoulders. As Denmi got on the tips of her toes to force the metal hook through the jaw cavity of the deer through it’s skull, sweat beaded on Ainyi’s brow.

Inhale. Exhale.

“Got it!” The girl piped up. Ainyi came out from under it and the deer’s body swung two inches from the floor, blood puddling neatly below it. Korti had to deep brown rivers of it that flowed from over his shoulders down his legs, where Ainyi had a single broad slash across her back and arms.

“I think, Korti, you have earned yourself a bath,” Ainyi jested at the man. He looked as though she could push him over and he would fall asleep on impact with the ground. “I will sing your praises to any who complain of their meals.” If the man liked her compliments, he didn’t seem to acknowledge them. He waved at her in acknowledgement of hearing words, before walking towards the exit, and most likely towards the baths.

Denmi was already scurrying up the Tally ladder, pushing herself about fifteen feet high and teen across to add a deer to his section of the board. Looking up at the buck, with medium sized antlers, Ainyi felt some apprehension. She had assisted some others in dressing and processing a deer before, but she had never fully processed a deer by herself before; her specialty was small game. Not to mention, her assistant was only just placed here about 30 days ago from her Yasi days. But a job was given, and a job must be done. And as Denmi scampered back down to her, and looked at her with expectant dark eyes, Ainyi found herself releasing a sigh.

[Ainyi]

“Have you skinned an animal before, Denmi?” She asked. “Dressed its cuts? Emptied entrails, pried sinews out of muscle?” The girl looked up at the woman meekly, finally replying, “Farva let me skin a rabbit the other day. It wasn’t very clean, though.” Heaving a heavy sigh, Ainyi pushed the deer towards the cutting tables. “Alrighty then,” The archer said reluctantly, “Just let me do most of the meat cutting this time, but I’ll give you your shot at it. First thing’s first though, we got to get our friend naked.”

Ainyi handed Denmi a skinning knife, and took one for herself. “Remember how it is, right? How when we’re preparing rabbit, we pry at the skin?” Ainyi asked, examining the cut the hunter left in the deer’s belly, before lengthening it all the way up the chest cavity to the neck,, and pulling it down into the genitals. “That’s what we’re doing here. Deer skin’s harder to pry off than rabbit skin, but everything can be pried off with a little coaxing. I’ll worry about the head and antlers; just start in the soft belly skin, and work on prying it off its back haunches.” Ainyi looked at the girl, cocking her head to side. Is that alright?”

Denmi looked up at her hesitantly, before nodding. Keeping an eye on Denmi’s work here and there, Ainyi focused on the slit around the rib cage, and tugged gently at the skin attached to the fur around the rib cage. This skin could be used for katinu, travel blankets – perhaps more. While she was unskilled with skinning deer, she hoped by approaching it slowly and gently, she could preserve most of it. Ainyi noticed Denmi left a few puncture wounds in the skin at the bottom, but they looked easily fixable with a few stiches. As she finished prying the skin away from the buck’s ribs, she worked up the throat, and slit the skin all the way down the front leg. “Make sure you do this on the inside of the legs, when you get to them,” She counseled idly to the young girl, who made a noise in acknowledgement.

A silence set in as they began to cut along the legs to fully strip the skin. It occurred to Ainyi that they hadn’t had much time to get to know one another. The girl was polite almost to a fault, though clearly out of her element at the Processing Center. Ainyi knew many were re-assigned to jobs that didn’t fit their talents once Famine hit in the winter, and recreational places closed.

“I never got a chance to congratulate you on your coming of age,” Ainyi finally broke the silence as she began to pull the fur from the deer’s right leg like a sleeve. “I know it can be a tight nest here, but I hope you’ve felt comfortable.”

“It’s –,” Denmi started, tugging at some stubborn deer skin as she spoke. It finally gave, and sprayed her in her face. The stench of it made her cough. “Well, it’s not what I expected to happen,” She admitted softly, as though admitting some dark betrayal. “But I try to make the most of it. I can’t do much about it, no?”

Ainyi heard a twinge of disappointment in her voice and frowned as she began peeling the left leg’s skin. It sounded as though she has resigned herself to a life in the Processing Center – a life she did not seem to be very happy about. “I’m sorry to hear you were not placed where you wanted,” Ainyi replied, pulling the skin back along the spine, once it was free of the limb. She checked to see that Denmi was on pace with her,and that they were both pulling the skin back together; it looked like a strange ragged rectangle, with off shapes made by each limb. As they pulled together, they ran the skinning knives along the spine of the deer, and it peeled off of it with a sick sucking sound. There were some obvious holes where the skinning knives were trying to pry the fur from the tight parts of the body, but most skilled tanners would be able to stitch over, or use smaller animal leathers to patch them. Overall, it was still a perfectly usable, worthwhile, giant slab of skin that Ainyi had to literally fold like laundry into the proper bin for sorting. She wiped her sweat-laden brown with a blood-covered hand, only noting the irony of it after she had a coat of war-paint on her forehead. Denmi was in similar condition, smiling at the older woman before offering a shrug.

“If I may ask,” Ainyi gently did a different kind of prying as she picked up a knife for separating sinews from muscles and bones. Denmi rose to assist her, but Ainyi waved her off. This was a hard enough job on small animals, and deer sinew meant bow strings. “Where did you want to work?”
Denmi took the knives for washing, trying to keep busy. She eyed Ainyi hesitantly as she held them over the bucket, running the wash rag over their edge gently. “I wanted to apprentice under the Avora musicians,” She admitted, as though it were some ashamed secret. “I write songs, I sing, and I was learning to play the flute in the Yasi years. But with – well, how things are…”

A chord struck in Ainyi as she found the sinew under the deer’s ankle, and cut it loose. It struck harder as she pulled along the sinew gently through the leg and up into the shoulder. It reminded her so painfully of when she wished to apprentice under an archer, and was given a job here. At the time, they did not think her archery was strong enough, and though she could develop better knife skills here.

[Sometimes I wonder], Ainyi found herself thinking as she pulled the sinew out of the leg and started on the other one. “Could you sing me something?” She asked politely, looking over at the girl as she began to dig in the muscle. Denmi looked up from brushing the blood on the table into a bucket and looked away nervously. “Something you’ve written perhaps?” Ainyi pressed.

“Well,” the girl started nervously as she took the sinew Ainyi pulled and placed them in their proper bin. “I did write something, I’m not sure though.” As Ainyi cut the next sinew loose, she blinked her eyes at the small Chiet. “I’m sure you’re very talented,” Ainyi flattered her, genuinely curious to hear what her voice sounded like.

[Ainyi]

Denmi looked left and right, as though unsure if others would suddenly pop out of the stone walls and steal her throat if she used it, before clearing it and finding at note. As Ainyi found the last sinew, a light, high voice echoed purely through the Processing Center, and she found herself pausing just to listen.

And as Eagles, they’ll rise
And as Eagles, they’ll rise
To soar up into the clouds
May wings grow from their skin
May they bond to their kin,
And watch us ever proud

The short verse had little embellishment, but required a large range to accomplish, which Denmi did well. There was a sweet clarity that emerged in notes on her voice that showed some great potential. It was lovely, in more ways than one. Ainyi found herself softening to the girl, empathizing with her more and more with each chime.

“You sang very well,” Ainyi complimented as she found the next knife. Now came the easier part. Grabbing a large cleaver, she ran along the lines of the muscles on the leg, stopping at the shoulder joint. While on most animals she could simply break the ball joint, this was not budging. After a heavy sigh, she slipped the knife over the shoulder bone, and cut away as much meat as she could, repeating the process best she could. Denmi joined her for the relatively painless chore of slicing major parts of meat.

“Thank you,” The girl accepted quietly. “I’m sad to only sing here, but it’s better than nothing I suppose.”

“Well, you never know, yes?” Ainyi offered, hooking the large haunches individually for dressing later. “Many are displaced right now in the Famine. Perhaps, when Spring comes, you’ll get reassigned. Don’t give up hope – not ever.”

“That’s easy for you to say, Second Rider,” The girl said with some exaggeration. Ainyi looked at her with relief when she saw she meant it in humor, and the two giggled. “I’m serious, though,” Ainyi persisted. “The caste you are given may not be the caste you die in. Just work hard at it, yes?”

For a moment, the two stared at each other in a sort of understanding that Ainyi doubted many others she worked with would be able to grasp. She smirked slightly, and took her bloody gloved hand in hers. A comfort coursed through them that in a rigid city with strict rules on who does what – dreamers did exist. And yes – sometimes, they did come true.

“How’s the deer?” The super called, with five employees in tow. The pair separated professionally and displayed their work so far. “It’s not much, but neither of us have done a lot with deer before,” Ainyi explained. “We at least got it skinned well, and I got the sinew out. We only just started cutting the meat.” The super looked at the sloppy cuts over the shoulder muscle with disapproval and huffed. “Farva!” She called, waving a wrinkled hand. “Come relieve Ainyi of her duty – she can clean the knives instead.”

Sighing heavily at the sign of failure, Ainyi picked up the knives, and plunged them in a bucket, grumbling about a lack of experience causing the bad cuts under her breath. Before she could complain much further, she heard a tune humming itself off to the side that caught her ear. Denmi turned to her with a sympathetic smile, and continued the work, humming a little prouder.

Ainyi smiled despite herself, and continued washing the knives.

[Estrellir Konrath]

Ainyi

Skills
Socialization +2
Butchery +1
Skinning +2

Lores
Ebb and flow of mind
One deer to end the famine
Skinning: How to skin a deer
Denmi: dreamy musician
Cutting deer meat takes skill

Comments

Thanks for the nice read. I got the feeling you portrayed the job very realistically and enjoyed reading about Denmi. As the thread was short, I couldn’t really give more xp. If you’ve any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!

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