Knowledge Hunting(Aleksi & Tebridiar)

[Jarhal Treeshadow]

3rd of Winter, 510AV


A short walk from Endrykas there was one creek, identical to thousands of others, running like a snake through the mighty leagues of the grasslands. It's water was low now, but further on it would drain into a muddy crater growing with all strange manner of scummy grass and teeming with slimy little creatures. Beside one muddy bank of the creek sat Jarhal mounted upon his strider, Topher. Chural was nowhere to be seen, but a keen eye could observe the stalks of tall grass shifting minutely even when the cold wind died down.

Today he was dressed in a heavier winter cloak, still green as ever even though the land around was more yellow or brown now, with the hood fringed by thin brown fur. Topher's speckled mane was braided into long swinging lines every few inches down his neck, and Jarhal's composite bow hung snugly from one of the antler-carved handles on the sides of his yvas saddle. They both looked cold, but stubbornly trying to ignore it.

The reason he was seated here was to await the woman that would, apparently, be a student. Thinking of her as a student was rather difficult though, Aleksi was not someone he expected to be diligent at silently taking instruction. Especially from a boy only a year older than her. But then, he'd been surprised before. Usually they were bad surprises.

[Aleksi]

Aleksi stretched inside of her tent and yawned quietly, putting her leather top and pants on, tying the fur boots and picking up her fur cloak, wrapping it around as she stepped out. Scratching Luc's head lightly, she added "Let's go see how Nott is doing, before we meet Jarhal"

It was quite early, so Aleksi thought Jarhal wouldn't wait for long if she walked towards the stables and gave her amazing, new friend a pat. After she was done with that, as usual, she thought of Tebridiar, smiling wide and whistling her way to the girl's tent. She peeked in and whispered softly "I'll meet you just outside the city, we need to go for a ride love". If one would look carefully, one would see that Aleksi had brought Nott with her and walked outside, waiting for Tebridiar to join her.

Once the girl was there, she helped her up on the horse with a loving grin "Slept well?", whispering through the cold air. Aleksi knew this would be new for Tebridiar, and that is why she loved it so much. "Hold tight, my dear... You are going to meet a Drykas man today, and see how we hunt"

The horse picked up pace as soon as they left the Tent City, making them feel the wind a bit more, but Aleksi loved it. She loved the way muscles were moving on Nott's back, the way Luc was running next to them and growling happily and the way Tebridiar was holding to Aleksi behind her back. Once Aleksi noticed a very familiar green cloak, she made the horse slow down, and with a wide grin, it practically walked to Jarhal "Early morning Jarhal... Hope you've slept well"

[Tebridiar]

Tebridiar was happy to swept away early in the morning. She was trying out a new outfit today. Kind of strange, she looked like a falconer. She had her heavy cloak, but she had a baggy blouse with her leather gloves on, a blue cloth tank top and some high waisted dark grey trousers. It sounded a little strange, but somehow she found it to suit her. She had her hair long, and a few bits were pleated.

She was excited to be having a bit of an adventure today, and she would see Jarhal again! She hadn’t seen him in a while, it would be nice to talk ot the man who taught her to ride.

They were soon in the vast expanse of grass, where Tebridiar felt at home. She wore a large grin on her face as Aleksi pulled up near the familiar figure.

“Jarhal!” Tebridiar cried, rushing forward and enveloping him in a large hug. Meeting old friends felt great.

“Well, its good to be out here, isn’t it?” She breathed in deeply, feeling rejuvenated by the cool air rushing into her lungs. She felt quite hyper early in the morning. “I’m planning on taming a little friend, or at least looking into it. You can see my clothes are a little, well…hardy looking.”

[Jarhal Treeshadow]

As always, he inclined his head slightly as a manner of greeting to the both of the women. It was a little surprising to see Tebridiar, but it wasn't an unwelcome one. It was interesting to him to watch the process of making a web of friends, of connecting the dots so to speak. He had little experience with it. A strange coincidence they all happened to be women, too. Strange women for the most part.

"Hello Aleksi and hello Tebridiar." After greeting them, he drew back his hood and took a moment to inspect all of them in turn, including Aleksi's new horse. Tilting his head to the side just so, unknowingly in much the same way his dog Chural did when curious, he then gave a little nod. "Interesting. That's a fine horse you have there, Aleksi."

As he said it, he swung out of his own saddle and down to the ground. Taming a little friend, she said? Well, he certainly couldn't help with that. Domestication was never his strong point.

"Well, I hope both you enjoy this as much as I did when my father taught me..." He paused a bit, then added, "It was summer when I learned, though. But anyhow! Before we get started, I just want you both to look around yourselves... go ahead, just look around."

He motioned his hands for them to go ahead, with an encouraging smile and nod. When he was satisfied, he continued.

"Look at how the river bends and the grass sways. Breathe the cold air that is untainted by any stink of civilization." He took a deep breathe himself, held it, and then exhaled. "To learn about nature, you must be able to love it. There are sights more beautiful hidden away in these grasslands than anything mankind, Isur-kind, or any creature has created by hand. I dream every night of exploring these sights, of storing them in my mind and passing them onto the minds of others that deserve their beauty."

The entire bit of monologue was from his father, said word-for-word many years ago when Jarhal was the student along with his two brothers. It used to be a very happy memory, but now it was tinged with sadness. It was a shame.

"Now, unless either of you have a question about that, we can move on to the real stuff."

[Aleksi]

Aleksi just grinned and sighed happily, looking around and noticing little things she usually wouldn't, even though she was practically in love with nature. Her arms stretched and her hands moved like they were touching air. She couldn't help herself, not when something this beautiful is talked about. Especially early in the winter morning. She was one of the rare people who actually loved winter and was hoping that it will start snowing at some point soon.

She reached down and picked a strand of grass while listening to Jarhal talk. His face changed slightly while talking about it and she guessed it had something to do with his past so she didn't ask too many questions.

"I don't have any questions Jarhal... But I want to thank you for reminding me in which beauty do we actually live in.... I guess all the mushy talk made me a bit careless lately", winking at Tebridiar she just smiled and went back to focusing on Jarhal, since they came here to study, not to fool around.
It was an honor for Aleksi to be taught more things about nature, hunting, stealth and all the other stuff only the Emerald Clan knew. She didn't really know why was she the one picked to learn all that, but she loved every bit of it.

[Tebridiar]

Tebridiar sat on the grass, feeling it tickle her as she plucked a few strands, twisting them round her fingers. She had an annoying habit of doing that, she felt she had to stop. Tearing out grass just made her hungry.

The wind was a little less forcefull down here, more of a gentle breeze than anything, just softly lifting her hair. It was itching to get free from its ponytail, but it had to remain.

“So, what are we doing today? Tracking, hunting, catching, cooking?” She asked, smiling up at them. Tebridiar was itching to learn. Juts from examining a little patch of dirt in front of her, she realised a hooved creature had passed this spot earlier this day. She stroked it gently with her fingers, picking a pinch of the dirt and crumbling it between her fingers. It was probably a horse.

She was happy to see Aleksi so enamoured with the world around her. It was beautiful to see. She was glad she had friends with a respect for the wild, happy to harness it and help it, but never to hinder it. The Drykas were close to animals, so they were never going to harm one out of spite.

[Jarhal Treeshadow]

"Well miss Tebridiar, today we're going to work on my favorite." He waited a moment, almost as if expecting them to guess out loud, before going on himself. "Tracking, of course! With the help of my dirty flea-bitten assistant, we can see what I can teach."

He gave a short high whistle, and Chural burst from the grass to his left carrying a furry dead rodent in his mouth.

"Chural Treeshadow the Fifth, I thought I told you -no- hunting until -after- we were done!?" Jarhal turned to yell like an angry mother, shaking a fist at the dog. After a few seconds of glaring, he sighed and turned back toward the women. Clearing his throat into his hand and adjusting his cloak, he continued. Chural sat with the rodent still in his mouth, his eyes suddenly big and round and sad between the gruesome scar arcing across his face.

"Well, I just can't stay mad at that face. Lets just begin ourselves." Chural's tail began to wag, as he laid down in the grass to gnaw on whatever he had caught. "The reason I came out here was because I found a bit of an interesting trail earlier. It's faded somewhat now, but that just makes it more fun to follow."

He waved an arm for them to follow as he turned and walked to the muddy edge of the creek.

"Now, the first thing is pretty simple. Don't make more work for yourself than you have to." He held up a finger as he talked, his tone short of being instructing but still quite confident. "Tracking on a busy trail or road, for instance, makes for difficulty in finding precisely what you're looking for. Mud, however, keeps it's shape for a while if left alone. Go to where you know is easiest to find what you're looking for, and then go forward from there. Aleksi, find a clear print in the mud around here."

There was a good choice of different tracks for her to choose from here, from light-footed bush rodents to heavier elk... there was even the peculiar three-toed print of an errant glassbeak, which Jarhal had made sure was -quite- old before he decided upon choosing here to teach. Even then, he felt like he was tempting fate by trying to use it for some simple lesson. This glassbeak was the 'interesting trail' he had been talking about. It was important to teach someone precisely which signs to look out for, which ones meant you should run the other way.

[Aleksi]

Aleksi laughed as Chural came out with the dead rodent in his mouth and even more so when Jarhal started yelling at him. Even though it shouldn't have been a beautiful thing, for Aleksi it was so. The bond between the dog and it's owner was obvious, so obvious that it warmed Aleksi's heart up even more and she had to let her hand wander through Luc's fur.

Her eyes moved over the nature again, then towards Jarhal. As he started talking about trails, she crunched down and let her eyes wander, touching the ground around the prints lightly. Pointing at the print of an elk, she added These are heavy... and they've been here not long ago.... this here..", she moved to the other, smaller prints "That'd be something like Chural has in his mouth... and this...", she sighed and tilted her head since she wasn't quite sure what it was... the trail wasn't quite clear, but it was rather interesting "This here I can't really see what it is, but it got my attention, so if you ask me, I'd go after this one... even though I know elk is a safe catch.."

She looked up at Jarhal and smiled, not being sure why was he asking about the prints nor how would this end up, but she was quite sure he knew this female would go after everything she wasn't sure about, just to learn of find a thrill of hunting something a bit more tricky.

[Tebridiar]

Elk? Hunting Elk?

She wouldn’t want to take part in… in killing one. She sympathised with herbivores, she knew the anguish of being a prey animal… always looking over your shoulder, every tiny noise would make your heart skip a beat, possibly even make you jump in the air.

But she could see the tracks in the dust, they were quite obvious. The animal had maybe been running. But wait… there were a few. Like a group had ran here. She bent down the the ground, stroking it lightly, not trying to make any other marks but just trying to feel it a little better.

She recognised one of the tracks as an adult male, some others looked like females, and possibly even some young ones were with them.

She didn’t want the elk to end up as dinner, so she decided not to warn them about the group. She just nervously shifted on her feet, looking at the tracks with pity.

[Jarhal Treeshadow]

Scratching one of his untidy fuzzed cheek, he smiled but shook his head to Aleksi. She had found about what he expected, about what he had found the first time he had been posed with this same challenge many years ago. He glanced to Tebridiar to give her a chance to speak up for what she'd found, but she seemed to be keeping to herself for now.

"That's very good, you've got sharp enough eyes to make a fine tracker with time! However, curiosity sometimes kills the cat, as the foreigners say." He bent down to point out the glassbeak's faint imprint,large oval toes each with a gruesome talon. No other track put more fear into Jarhal's heart. "The weird track you found is a glassbeak, and you should always go the other way when you see it. Many men get themselves killed because they found the elk's print but not the glassbeak's, so I'm happy you did. Normally it's quite easy to spot where glassbeaks have come and gone because they roam in rowdy packs tearing up the place, but sometimes..."

He trailed off and then shrugged, content to let that sentence finish itself. This was a very personal lesson to him, since he was fairly sure glassbeaks had killed one of his brothers. The emotion only showed through in how adamant he was on the importance of knowing to avoid them. Truth be told, if he could drive the glassbeak to complete extinction by himself then he would. They were a terrible menace to all Drykas. There were very few things Jarhal truly hated, but they were enemy #1.

"However, I've went ahead and made sure this one is long gone so we don't need to worry this time. What do the two of you know of glassbeaks?" He asked with a smile that didn't touch his eyes, shifting his gaze back-and-forth from Aleksi and Tebridiar. He didn't want to drag down the mood, but he -had- to make sure they knew all he could teach them about this especially. "Don't be shy now, just spit out whatever pops to mind."