[Flashback] The Road to Endrykas (Baku)

[Dymphna]

Dymphna sort of paused from her struggles with making the fire – There was a lot less grass, dung, and more wood to be had, which kind of seemed to muck up her abilities. She turned her head to look down at the beak and talons before smiling like Syna herself at Olevar. “Thank you.” And though the fire was little and pathetic, it was still a fire… If she just added more wood to it… She was trying to remember how wood fires worked. Cautiously she put another log onto it, and then she started poking it into place with a stick she found. It seemed she was rather determined. Or maybe she was just stubborn. “My pavilion will be Endrykas, or if not my clansmen will take care of me until my family returns. But…” She looked to his gift, seeming to consider. “I will use them to get home. Somehow.” She shrugged, screwing up her face at her fire. She turned to look at Olevar, hands going to her hips. “Wood is worthless. Where is your horse? I need more shit for this fire.”

[Baku]

“I don’t own a horse,” Olevar said as the sounds of his knife slicing through the tissue of the Glassbeak could be heard, “I’d just up end eating it during the winter time when food was scarce.” “I’ve a small bundle to keep it going along the back of my pack,” Olevar said before pausing for a moment and stepping over to his pack. Perhaps it was the fact that her words of burning a horse to keep the fire going had just hit him, but he grabbed Woodland Wrath and dragged it back with him towards he cleaning. “Use about half of them, and then strip the branches from that shrub over there,” Olevar said, motioning towards a small shrub growing not far off from the creek bank Dymphna had bathed in a short time ago. “When you get the fire to a decent height, come over to the Glassbeak, I want to show you have to clean an animal. If we get separated, for some odd reason, I figure I should teach you a couple of things to help you along your way until you’re picked up by your family or pavilion.”

[Dymphna]

Dymphna hadn’t had much contact with humans who weren’t Drykas, and that fact showed when Olevar admitted he didn’t have a horse. Her face screwed up into a half-horrified, half-confused expression, and it was likely somewhere along the lines of someone’s reaction the first time they stumbled across mating… Well, anything. People who didn’t have horses? People that… Would eat them? He may as well have just told her that he’d killed and ate his mother one particularly hard winter… She had, after all, meant that she needed more horse dung for the fire. Not more horse in general. She shook her head a little, feeling to make sure she had the sickles still on her person. She was wondering if maybe she’d need them… What with him eating horses. Maybe he was actually a mixed breed, and he had his human mother’s looks and his Zith father’s taste of nubile Ankal’s daughter… She was really sick of having to worry if people were going to eat her or not. Finding his bundle of kindling, she tucked it under her arm before going to strip bark from the shrub. Of course, she wasn’t happy with it. The plant, as far as she could tell, was one of the few of its kind. She said her apologies to it before taking what she needed, mumbling under her breath that she rather liked living a non-eaten life. Eventually she got the fire to the height she wanted it to be at. She moved then to the glassbeak, crouching down next to it. There was a tiny little scowl on her face, because despite it being necessity to skin and clean something… Well, it was still gross. “Would you really eat a horse?”

[Baku]

Dymphna would find the Glassbeak itself laid out over a long leather tarp, it’s blood slowly spilling out over the surface. Olevar soon finished cutting open the beast’s stomach before giving a subtle shrug to her question. “Not all of us share the kind of bond your culture does with horses kiddo.” Olevar then replied before he shifted around and began yanking feathers clean from the Glassbeak itself, tossing handfuls into an empty hemp woven sack. “As well, some don’t have or can’t be a part of a pavilion. Life is harsh, as you well know from your captivity. I like to think that I’m a good enough survivalist that it wouldn’t come to that, but if push came to shove and it meant life or death? Yes, I would.” Olevar then turned his green gaze towards Dymphna, leaning slightly along the Glassbeak’s body. “Start yanking out the guts and organs if you could. Just leave them along the leather tarp, the feathers have already been plucked that side.” Olevar then requested before holding up the sack. “Should make for a good pillow for you to rest your head on tonight, and you can trade the feathers off when you get back to the tent city. I think they use them for decorating or other such things. Don’t know for sure, haven’t set foot in Endrykas for close to thirty years.”

[Dymphna]

Her face screwed up again, as she couldn’t figure out why anyone wouldn’t be able to have a pavilion. After all, it only took a Strider picking you to be a Drykas. She thought about what he said then, sitting down next to the bird. As her eyes went over it, she glanced at him. “That doesn’t make any sense then. If the winter gets harsh enough and you’re without a horse, then you’ll starve to death. So you should have a horse…” She stared at the bird for a long moment. Then with a little shrug she leaned over to do as asked. Both her hands went in, she hooked her fingers around something inside the bird and started pulling. A slow glance was taken to the feathers; she gave him a little nod. “Yes… Glassbeak feathers are popular decoration. The smaller ones look pretty in the hair…” Her face screwed up, and she seemed to heave just a little as she looked at the fistful of intestines in hand. Stubborn, though, she didn’t throw up, or maybe she was used to having this sort of reaction. “Thirty years? You’re old.”

[Baku]

Olevar gave a small roll of his eyes to Dymphna as she called him old, pulling his sword free once all the feathers hand been yanked free. As soon as Dymphna had finished pulling out all of the organs, Olevar slowly raised his longsword and took a single swipe, severing the Glassbeak’s head and feet from the body. “Yes, I’m old. Let’s not make a religion out of it.” Olevar simply said as he crouched down, grabbing a long pole, likely a spare one from his tent, before skewering it through the Glassbeak entirely. “Cut some meat from it’s breasts that we can cook more quickly, the rest will be slowly cooking overnight.” Olevar then made his way over towards the fire, and before long he was plunging long poles into the ground on both sides, crossing them over into an ‘X’ shape before securing them together with some small twine. The other poles were likely the rest that would have been used for his tent, so apparently the two them would be sleeping out under the stars tonight. “How much you learn about wilderness survival before you were taken Kiddo?” Olevar then asked, slowly making his way back to Dymphna after his tasks had been finished.

[Dymphna]

For a moment she sat there staring at Olevar, trying to figure out exactly why she would make a religion out of his age… Did people do that? Granted, his age was impressive to a young Drykas woman. It meant he knew how to stay alive, which couldn’t always be said about some of the brasher people who claimed her heritage. And given her limited scope of the world, she figured everyone was like that. But still… … He was weird. Even if his age commanded respect in her opinion. She shrugged it off. She eyed the great bird’s body for a moment, trying to decide where the breast started and ended. In the end, she just leaned over feeling over the muscle with thought until she found the end of it. She neatly started to cut it out, taking her time so that she wouldn’t somehow mess up. “My father would tell you that I likely ignored my lessons on wilderness survival. I can tell you about plants. I know not to eat those berries over there,” she said without looking up, instead pointing to a bush she’d seen earlier. “I hadn’t thought about surviving past escaping. Other than I’d rather die by glassbeak than by Zith, because at least they wouldn’t…” She trailed off. She didn’t want to think about what had happened to her. “If you take me to Endrykas, my father will pay you. We can find you wives. Likely many of them. You know, since you’re so old…” Her head was bowed, so it was impossible to see if she was smirking or not.

[Baku]

“I told you kiddo, I don’t do cities, even a big tent city.” Olevar said as he took the filets Dymphna had cut off, sticking them along simple skewers and leaving them hang at an angle over the fire. “I don’t like large crowds of people. They make me edgy, and the promise of a lot of wives nagging me to be a good husband doesn’t encourage that either.” Olevar then slowly began cleaning his hands off along the legging of his pants, slowly standing up. “I’m not even sure if I’m still welcomed in Endrykas. Last time I was there I showed up one of the Diamond Clan archers and then knocked him out when he said using my bow was cheating. Well, he claimed his wife was cheating rather, which she was, but that‘s besides the point.“ Olevar explained further. “Best I can do is get you to someone who can at least get you close.” “Whether he’ll get you within a days travel or a week is another matter though.” Olevar said then as he suddenly dropped another pile of sticks next to Dymphna, all of them at least five feet long. “That being the case, I can at least teach you some skills that will make your travels a little less a pain the ass.” Olevar slowly folded his arms across his chest as he looked at Dymphna. “Considering you just escaped, we’ll save any fighting lessons for after you’ve had some rest and gotten some food in you. Tomorrow perhaps.” Olevar explained, looking out towards the horizon as Syna began her decent. “It’ll still be about a four day hike until we can finally catch the guy I’m taking you to. So we’ll start with building yourself a shelter when there are no caves around for you to crawl into.” “You got this bundle here, start with forming a long steeple with them.” Olevar explained, nudging the bundle with his foot. “Make sure each of them are stuck into the ground a little bit and not too far apart. There should be enough there to make one long enough for you, short stack. I’ll go over the next part after I’ve seen you accomplish the first.”