Bodybuild, baby. (Naiya)

[Quzon]

35th Day of Spring, 517 AV.
Noon/12th bell

Quzon smiled as he gsaped the wists of a small baby, soft and gentle. He lifted the boys arms up into the air to let the child slowly stand upright onto its own two feet. “Everything we do or achieve is a victory, no matter how small.” The pale spoke in his native language as he sat cross-legged on the grass out in front of his tent. As usual, he'd parked his wagon and tent on the inner boarder of the Dawnwhisper territory, then left his Bodybuilding equipment spread out near his wagon that turned the area into a makeshift training area.

He lowered the child back to the ground, to let the boy lay against the ground. All of his words were spoken in Myrian, trying to get the child used to it in hopes of getting the child to learn the language later in his life. He had no bedside manner for the baby, but spoke in a soothing tone that served to make the baby smile at him as he spoke to it. He held one hand up over his eyes, then slowly opened his fingers to peer between them at the small child beyond. “That is what my own mother told me long ago. That is the reason why laziness is not tolerated where I'm from, even by children. A lazy person finds no victory. So, your duty to your clan is to learn how to walk. And what better way to build strong legs than to perform squats?”

Despite the fact that he was now trying to teach a toddler bodybuilding, Quzon had started this whole endeavor after having simply taken Shai from where Naiya left the boy in a woven basket lined with a fox pelt, to watch over the child himself. Quzon was used to the 'it takes a village to raise a child' approach to things, so found no issue with simply absconding with Shai to help him walk.

In his own way, it was also how he offered to give the mother a break.

Kabek, one of the Dawnwhisper hunting cats drew his attention after it jumped out from the back of his wagon. Click. He clicked his teeth at the cat to get its attention and now do that again. Shai started to laugh at the clicking, so he turned his attention back to the baby to hold him by the wrists and lift him up to a full stand once more. "Kabek protects you. It has not stopped following me since I got you. He laughed as he lowered his arms to lower the boy into a squat position, then lifted him back up into a stand.

"Did you know that I worship the god of cats? His name is Navre. I like cats more than dogs or horses. But, don't tell your family or my horse that I said that." Letting a chuckle slip from his mouth as he continued to speak in Myrian.

[Naiya]

Mornings started slowly still, sometimes earlier than others, and Naiya often spent the early morning holding Shai while she performed the simple tasks of making breakfast or brewing tea to help wake herself up. It was time for Shai's first feeding of the day, and time for the leisure she needed as a new mother.

Sometimes, when Shai had slept fitfully, or woken many times in the night, that slow drag of morning reached late into her day.

Still, she didn't sit idle, cooking, making cheese, grinding grain into flour. Working at anything that she could manage with Shai still wrapped in her arms rather than tied to her chest. It was especially helpful that Diani was here, taking on the task of minding the herd alone on days like today.

Still, she needed both hands to make bread, and the grain wouldn't last much longer as it was, so under many watchful eyes, she tucked Shai into his basket, close but not-too-near the fire.

With hands freed she lifted a second kettle of water from the fire - more tea to chase away exhaustion - and moved the pot of water off the coals to sit near the fire instead. She ducked inside then, meant to fetch the sling so she could tie Shai to her chest and then get down into making bread.

When she returned to an empty basket, she was not quite worried. There were many hands in the pavilion now that may have picked him up, and - she told herself firmly - if he had rolled over and crawled off, the basket would have tipped.

She scanned the ground by the fire, and the fire itself first, reassuring herself. Then she looked around the pavilion, finding, in almost no time at all, that Shai was in the hands of Quzon. They were not far removed from the fire, only so far away that the man could spread his home out from the wagon that carried his belongings.

There was a moment of concern and she listened to him speak in his foreign tongue, the large man with his hands on Shai's little ones. It wasn't bad, however, Shai was laughing, standing up and down with the help of the myrian, and Naiya was left to take that interaction away, or leave things as they were.

Gratitude finally won out over her posture and took shape on her hands as she gave a little wave to the man. "Thank you." She called softly, wondering if she should offer to take Shai back. "I have...tie." She held up the sling, knowing she lacked the proper word, "I can carry him while I work if you are tired of his company?" She shaped offering on her hands and in her posture.

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Naiya space Pavi | Common | Tukant
other space Pavi | Common | Tukant