Making a... Legacy?

[Ixzo]

11th of Spring, 516AV

She balanced the skull of the wolf on her knees, looking at the yellow bone. She didn't kill this wolf, she hadn't hoped to have the skill, but that was why she had taken the bones. She couldn't kill a wolf, maybe a lone wolf, but that had not been the case. She had seen the hunter who brought him in, a thick Drykas. Beard to his stomach and braids longer than that, they didn't hide the muscle or the scars of a serious hunter. She had not seen him before, which made her think he was one of those Drykas who lived far away from his kind.

She had tried times before. The unlucky bones of a rabbit she had killed had gone to waste. To her immense disappointment, even with all the work she had put into it, the bones yielded no results. She had waited six days, even using them while she hunted just to see results, but found none.

A sigh erupted from her lips as she cradled the skull, when she breathed back in her nose wrinkled in disgust at the smell. Steeling these from the bone pile had of course not given her the cleanest pick of bones. She didn't exactly want to buy them, who would want a skull that they did not kill themselves? She didn't particularly need the curious eyes. She wasn't sure about the Drykas, but even among the Myrians, this magic was not always accepted.

"Time to get to work." She knew a general idea about Malediction. Even though she was not one that was officially taught back home, she had picked up a few techniques. She was, after all, one of the main providers of bones. The first step, she had down pat. Gather the bones you want, specifically what kind. This is why she chose the skull of the wolf, particularly the teeth.

Although she did not kill the creature herself, wolves were known for one thing: Their survival. Protection was the thing they were good at. The benefit of non-sentient creatures, is there was only so much variation from their instinctual drive to survive that they could achieve. It is exactly what she needed.

[Ixzo]

So she has the first step down, two more to go. And that was simplifying it. Step one, collect the bones. Step two, make your item. Step three… make the legacy. She knew step three would be the hardest, but what was she going to make out of a wolf's skull? She wanted the instinct it had, to give it to Iollu, to protect the child. What? Was she going to hand Iollu a skull and tell her to keep it on her at all times? Iollu may be a child, but she was one of the most practical young minds Ixzo ever met. She'd never give the child a tailsman like this without her knowing.

Flipping the skull in her hand, she eyed the thing for a few moments. She wanted the instinct… Carefully, she picked at a residual chunk of meat between the teeth of the skull. Perhaps it was the remaining gum of the creature, not completely cleaned. Or a tough bit of meat from its last meal.

After pulling the rotten meat from the teeth, she realized she'd have to clean the skull. It may have been sitting out for several days after being cleaned, but the rotting meat that was left on it was nowhere near clean. Setting the skull on the ground, Ixzo pulled the bucket of drinking water from the end of the tent. She would have to really clean this one.

Setting the bone into the skull, she wiped her hands on her pants and looked at it. She wasn't really sure what she was doing, but the Kelvic was certain that letting it soak for a bit would be beneficial. Stepping out of her tent, she glared at the midday sun, and sat down. What was she going to do for a couple hours while it soaked? Did it need a couple hours?

Leaning back against the tent, she moved her eyed back under the shade so she could relax. It was only noon, but she decided that she would make dinner. Getting started early, especially now that she was skipping her afternoon nap, meant an easier cook. Perhaps a stew.

Ducking back into the tent, Ixzo snagged the basket of food. Pulling out the heavy bag of rice, her staple with food, Ixzo proceeded to dump what remained of the food out as well. Three onions, a bag of the flatbread her current neighbor made. Wrapped in cloth, her mouth watered a bit at remembering the heavy garlic taste. It was so good. Two half-ginger roots. And a bundle of carrots that were beginning to grow soft. Iollu didn't like them, and Ixzo always got too much before they rotted. Those would be good in the stew. These eastern foods were becoming more familiar to her, and while she missed her spices and chick peas, she was learning to cook the Drykas way as well.

Picking up the basket, Ixzo sought out her coin purse which was always in a different place nowadays. She didn't trust the winter, and it carried over into spring. Placing it in her bag, she grimaced at the bucket one more time before leaving the tent.

[Ixzo]

By the time she reached the market place, Ixzo was beginning to doubt her idea to soak the bones? What if they fell apart? That seemed like something they should do, didn't it? She had no idea. The various scents of smoking meat was the first to hit her when she turned the corner to the market place. A stall was selling meats in front of her, all smoked thought. She needed something raw, although what kind of meat, she didn't particularly care.

Stopping to let two horses pass, Ixzo craned her neck to find a chicken stall. They sold other animals as well, but the chicken was the easiest to skin. And if she bought it live, prepping it herself, she would get the best price. Nearly a bell later, she was making it out of the market. A dead chicken hung on the bottom of the basket and a few vegetables inside. She remembered why she let the food get so low before she went shopping. Ixzo was mentally exhausted and very confused about Pavi by the time she returned to her tent.

But at least she had food. Before doing anything else, Ixzo stepped into her tent, grimacing at the smell of the bones. Perhaps that wasn't the best idea. Picking up the pail, she moved it out of the tent to set it in the fresh air beside the campfire, which she still needed to get started.

Although wood was scarce around here, Ixzo had quickly found how the Drykas did their fires. One thing that was not scarce was dung. Cow dung, horse dung, all sorts of flammable garbage laid around, and once they dried it was hardly smelly, the blessing of being an herbivore. So, like everyone else, she had collected her out pile of cow patties, pressed them into bricks, and now uses them for her fire. Picking up two of those, she tossed them into the shallow pit that served as her designated campfire place.

Her tinder, simply small bundles of dried grass collected on the plains, was next to her flint and steel, and Ixzo grabbed those. IT took a few hits on the flint to get a spark on the tinder, Ixzo immediately picked it up, letting a small breath add air to the fire. As it grew, she gave it a little more air before setting it in between the dung bricks. For a moment, she watch it catch before turning away. Those would burn down nicely now.

Shuffling back from the fire, Ixzo set to work preparing the food. The first thing she did was soak the peas so they would be somewhat soft before she dropped them in the crock. She didn't want them taking up all the water she put in. She didn't want to touch the stew at all really, she was sure that once she was working with the bones she wouldn't want to.

[Ixzo]

So while the peas soaked, Ixzo set to work chopping the carrots. Small cylindrical cubes came quickly out from under her game knife, and Ixzo scooped them up, tossing them in the crock. She may not be the best cook, but a stew was relatively simple. Next she went to the onions, peeling them and chopping them up as well. Those quickly followed the carrots and then Ixzo checked the peas to see if they were a little mushy yet. No such luck.

Cubing the potatoes was next, which took a little longer, since she liked to peel them first. The skin didn't taste very good. While she carefully slid her knife under the skin, pulling of the brown and digging out the black spots. Once the potato chunks were about the size of the carrots and onions, she tossed them in as well. Deciding to let the peas soak a little longer, Ixzo picked up the chicken. This would be the best part. Laying it down on the ground before her, Ixzo set to work pulling out the feathers. She knew from experience how to properly do this. Pull gently, but firmly, with the grain instead of against it. Still, she tore the skin in places as she plucked. That was fine, she didn't want the skin anyway. Once all the feathers had been pulled, and the down seperated for actual use.

Once the chicken was cleaned, the skin with a few holes from her terribly plucking, Ixzo took her hatchet and pulled off the legs as well. They would have been nice to roast if there was not a wound on them. She wasn't going to try that. So she tossed those aside, she'd have to get rid of these scraps before night fall, she didn't want dogs snooping around.

Once the extra bits of the chicken were taken off, Ixzo brought her game knife out once more. Careful, because the meat was realtively easy to cut trhough, Ixzo started chopping off pieces of the chicken. She tried not to make them too big, since she wanted them to cook through. But she didn't care about how little they were, since she knew well cooked chicken would fall apart anyway. Once the big chunks were done, Ixzo stripped off what was left, tossing it in the crock as well.

Once she had disposed of the brittle chicken bones and rinsed her hands off in the stream, as well as filled another bucket with fresh water, Ixzo returned to the crock. Salt and garlic went into the crock, but she didn't have much more spices than that. Pouring in enough water to nearly fill the crock, she put the top on it. Grabbing the handles on each end, Ixzo carefully placed the pot in the center of the fire, using the blade of her hatchet to pile the crumbling bricks around the pot a bit to keep it cooking.

Now that dinner was cooking, and since Iollu was still off playing, Ixzo turned back to the bucket of bones, her earlier worry back on her brain.

[Ixzo]

When she picked it up, the muted rattling at the bottom of the pail, concerned her. Glancing into the murky water,
Ixzo's eyebrows immediately furrowed and she nearly growled in frustration. Without hesitating, she reached into the bucket, pulling out the skull. Whatever meat had been left on it had fallen off, but most of the teeth were missing. Angry, she wiggled the last three out of the skull, watching them plop in the bucket. What was she going to do now? Broken bones were no good for malediction!

Or were they? Stepped just outside her tent, dumping the bucket in the lane between the tents. With nimble fingers, she plucked all the teeth out of the grass, piling them in her hand. They were a similar pale yellow to the skull, but a little more yellow. But they were still bones weren't they? And it was whole…

The skull was quickly tossed in with the other things to dispose of, because now the teeth were to be her bones. The idea of what to make out of them was simply now, she would make a bracelet! It was simple, right?

Sort of.

The issue was figuring out how she wanted to do this. If she was making jewelry out of this, then each tooth would need its own circle and they would all have to be connected, right?

Unless… The bracelet was the circle. It might work. Ixzo allowed herself. She hadn't eavesdropped on many of the old woman's Malediction lessons, although she had an idea that the circle didn't matter did it? After all, she had done a circle on the rabbit bones and it had done nothing. A failure.

Trying to work as fast as she was thinking now, the lioness darted into her tent, pulling out one of Iollu's needles and her thread, returning to the bones, which were drying in the packed earth by the fire now. She was not a woman who had ever learned to write. Even in this new language, there was no written form. Although she knew one language that was written. The common tongue. Specifically the word 'protection'.

She knew the word by how often… he had said it. At the time the idea of being his protector was all she wanted to do. Being labelled 'protection' was honoring. Looking back she didn't much like the idea of it. But at least she knew the word.

[Ixzo]

Setting the thread and needle aside, Ixzo picked out the four canines, followed by six incisors. She had to count the letters of the word on her fingers and hope she spelled it right, but what was the worst that could happen if it didn’t? The tailsman wouldn't work. She'd fail again? Likely. But she had to try. She had worked this magic once before, she only needed to do it again.

Pulling the string out, she snapped off a length and began wrapping it around one of the canines. She ended up using a lot of thread, wrapping it over in a crisscross pattern so it held tight. She knew it would be more secure to poke holes in the teeth and string the thread through, although she neither had the tools to do so, nor the certainty that poking holes in the teeth would end the process.

Instead Ixzo embarked on the lengthy process, attaching each tooth together once it was secured on the string. But the time she was done, with raw fingers and a crude looking bracelet. Taking a moment, Ixzo stretched her clenched her fingers repetitively. The soreness didn't go away right away, but the bracelet remained. Tentatively, she tugged at one of the teeth. She had wrapped the thin string very tightly and on all sides, leaving only the space on the inside of the tooth open for carving or painting, or however she'd go about doing this. She had done the first step: Gathering and prepping the bones. She had done the second step: Making the desired object. Now it only left the third, and hardest, step: Maledicting the remains.

It would be hard, because it had to be precise. That much she knew. For such a wildly unpredictable magic, why did she have to be so precise? Pulling her game knife from her belt, Ixzo flipped the bracelet over, exposing the inside of one of the teeth. She was about to press the knife to the bone, when she second-guessed herself. The common tongue was always weird about how they spelled things, so she carefully set the bracelet back down, sitting back on her haunches. Glancing up at the sun, she realized it had been hours. The sun had been just past noon last time she looked, and now it rested just above the top of the western tents. It wasn't very dark yet, but it was clear the day was going by as the shadows grew longer.

With a hesitant finger, Ixzo plunged it into the packed earth by the fire. Carefully, and with the worst handwriting she'd ever seen, the word 'protection' began to form in the dirt. After staring at it for a while she started to doubt her ability to spell in the Common Tongue. She knew a bit, this word being one of the largest, but not much else. Deciding that staring at it would not help her confidence, Ixzo began on the teeth. Trying not to scrape the bone, Ixzo carefully ran a single line down one of the teeth with her knife. She had to go over the first mark two or three times before it was deep enough to be legible, and then she continued on.

[Ixzo]

When she finished the last letter, 'n', Ixzo was weary. She realized she had been squinting at this point, the sun had set and she had missed it in her concentration. While the sky was still decorated with the streaks of pink and orange, there was not enough light for her to easily see. The Kelvic hated this time of night. When her human day vision and her lion night vision were split, confused. Dawn and dusk were the worst times for that.

She was distracted by the sudden pressure of footsteps. Doing her best not to seem away, Ixzo flipped the bracelet over, but kept listening. Immediately her hackles rose when the sounds seemed near the tent. Whoever was sneaking around where touching the canvas, which is too noisy to help with the approacher's stealth.

It wasn't until she saw the shadow of her stalker, that she realized who it was. Now, for Iollu's entertainment, Ixzo put a little more concentration into pretending not to notice. She could still hear the tent wavering under the child's hand, and saw the shadow stop to watch, presumably now that she could see Ixzo. But the Kelvic was still waiting for the spring. In the meantime, she set the bracelet aside, raking her hands through the word in the dirt before her and padding it down. Before she could finish though, she heard the running. Swiveling on her knees, she reached her arms out for the child who squealed when she realized she was caught.

"You turned around too soon!" The child accused, but was cut off by giggles when Ixzo started tickling her, pulling her away from the fire.

"You must be greater quiet," Ixzo told her. "I see you have shadow." Iollu frowned and then groaned, which made Ixzo laugh.

"What's for dinner?"

"Stew." Ixzo answered quickly.

"Go clean," First. "Then bring bowls." Ixzo told her, letting the child go. She wanted to finish up without Iollu noticing what she was doing. Given there was only one more thing to do to finalize the malediction, she figured she would have time by the time Iollu returned from the tent. Iollu was torn between complaining about having to do work and eating dinner, so Ixzo shooed her away.

[Ixzo]

"Fast done, fast eat." She tried to tell the child, who was already disappearing into the tent. Glancing to make sure Iollu wasn't peaking out, Ixzo picked up her knife quickly. Without hesitating, she dug the tip of the blade into the skin on the inside of her pinky. Cringing at the sting, Ixzo saw the blood well quickly against the pink of her palm. Picking up the bracelet quickly, Ixzo let the drop fall on the first letter. Nothing happened, and worried as she was, Ixzo painstaking squeezed out nine more drops for each other tooth. Still nothing.

Surely, it would have bonded already? Ixzo sucked on the wound, putting pressure on it with her tongue while she eyed the bracelet. Perhaps she wouldn't see the results immediately? Did she fail again?

"What are you making?"

"A bracelet." She answered automatically, taking her finger from her mouth.

"Can I see?"

"No--" Ixzo looked up, seeing Iollu with the bowls and utensils. "We eat before." Ixzo said, knowing the food was more interesting to Iollu than the weird looking bracelet.

"Yeah!" Iollu agreed to easily. Hooking the bracelet on the hilt of the knife in her belt, Ixzo turned to grab the rag, wrapping her hands in it before reaching into the nearly dead fire to pull the crock out. With the spoon that Iollu provided, Ixzo slowly stirred the things together, breaking a soft piece of chicken apart to make sure it was done. Given that the potatoes were practically mush, easily giving off pieces as she stirred, the stew may have been overdone. At least it was not the worst dish to overdo.

Ixzo shrugged, a common sight with her cooking, and scooped out a spoonful for Iollu who held her bowl out. Afterwards, she gave herself a scoop as well and dug in, despite burning her tong. She would have to see if her bracelet worked another day.

[Prophet]

I love this thread, Ixzo! It gave me a chance to see Malediction in action as the tedious discipline that it truly is. Well done and as always, your story was a gret read. Enjoy the rewards.

 

Ixzo

XP

• Planning: +2
• Cleaning: +1
• Wilderness Survival: +1
• Cooking: +2
• Malediction: +2
• Carving: +1
• Childcare: +1
• Socialization: +2

Lores

• Lore: Malediction: Gather the bones
• Cleaning: Soak the tough messes
• Wilderness Survival: Dried dung makes good fires
• Cooking: Chicken soup for the soul
• Malediction: Make the object
• Carving: Bone requires multiple passes
• Childcare: Tickling required
• Malediction: Blood makes the magic go ‘round

Miscellaneous

• Wolf Teeth Bracelet: The wearer will be less noticeable to predators when there are other people around. If the wearer is alone when confronted, the amount of fear he/she feels will be reduced by a moderate amount.