Solo Ravok: The Journey Continues (Part 4)

[Maria Talwa]

18, Summer, 517

As the others went to collect their kills, Maria stood there looking down at at the deer she'd shot. It was the first animal she'd ever killed with a bow. Removing the arrow she wiped it off in the grass and placed it back in the quiver over her shoulder. The buck was about the size of a young adult, and would no doubt provide a good bit of meat for the people back at camp. Maria also made a mental note of this. She remembered the first person she killed, now she made a memory of the first animal she killed while hunting with a bow.

“Need some help with that?” One of Dakar's friends said.

“Nope,” Maria said. Kneeling down she shouldered the kill, and started to walk back to camp with the others. These deer weren't enormous, and from the feel of it, hers was close to a hundred pounds. The others were larger, and together they likely had around 500 pounds of meat or more. As per normal, Maria remained silent on the way back to camp, but followed the others when they arrived to drop off the deer. She laid the deer on a ground and watched as Dakar and the others went about skinning and gutting them.

“Here you go,” Dakar said, holding a knife up to Maria.

“Yeah, about that,” Maria said. “I'm not really good at this sort of thing, and I don't want to waste the meat and skin.”

“Would you like me to show you how after I finish with mine?” Dakar said.

“Sure,” Maria said. Kneeling down beside Dakar, she watched carefully as she went about skinning the deer, and looked up to notice Deena and come running up with another woman in tow. The woman was young, and had long brown and a fairly plain looking face. Dressed like the others she wasn't particularly attractive or ugly.

“Yay, dad got a deer,” Deena said. That was a little surprising as for Maria to learn that Dakar was the girl's father. It also followed suit the woman was his wife when she leaned down and they exchanged a small kiss. Almost immediately Maria thought of taking the woman out in the woods, stabbing her repeatedly, and stealing Dakar. That was of course a fleeting thought she had no real intention of acting on, but it was still annoying to know that he was married. Returning her attention to the matter of skinning the deer, she watched as Dakar went to work, and as Deena helped dispose of the entrails. The girl didn't seem to have a problem getting her hands dirty.

Maria paid close attention at the deer was butchered, and took mental notes. Dakar was also fast and it before long it was ready to turn into cuts. This was where the process got really involved, and it took a little over four hours before the deer was reduced to bones and meat. When it came time to deal with Maria's deer, he was a little slower, letting her do most of the work.

Word Count: 516

[Maria Talwa]

Dressing the deer, as Dakar called it, was hard work, but with his help she managed to avoid turning the processes into a disaster. This, like fish, was something that Maria would need practice at, but it was satisfying to learn something useful. It was past dark when they were finished with the deer, and the next step to in the process was preserving the meat. However this was slightly different from salting fish. Instead of plain salt, Dakar brought out a second white granulated substance.

“What is that?” Maria said.

“Sodium nitrate,” Dakar said. “You have to cure red meat a little differently than fish.” He provided Maria with the same materials, and together they went about curing the deer meat, but some of it was also set aside for seasoning in order to be cooking for a meal the following evening. She also listened carefully as Dakar explained that the nitrate had to be applied with very careful measurements, otherwise it could reach toxic levels and make the meat unsafe to eat. Maria diligently listened to everything and followed his example. The last step of the process involved using small barrels to store the meat.

“And there you go,” Dakar said. “Give it about thirty days and the meat will be cured.”

“Thirty days?” Maria said. “That's a while.”

“Yes, but once the meat cures, and is properly stored, it'll last for years,” Dakar said. “Not that meat lasts that long around here anyway.” With everything taken care of, Maria was about to leave when Dakar handed her one of the small barrels.

“What's this for?” Maria said.

“You made the kill, you get an extra share of the meat,” Dakar said. “By the way, my name's Dakar”

“Name's Maria, thanks for the meat and the help,” Maria said. After helping to clean up the mess, she took the barrel to the wagon normally rode in, and set it in the back. With all the blood and guts on both person and clothing, now would also be a good time for a bath. There was a small river nearby, so Maria took out a change of clothing, bar of soap, comb, and decided to head in that direction. By now it was getting late and she was also sore. All of the activity and work was started to to wear her down, but Maria also believed that a hard day's work never killed anyone.

By the riverbank, she stripped down to trousers and went about quickly washing off what was left of the deer, and before long she was smelling like a normal person again. To become squeaky clean like she preferred, it would require getting into the water, but this wasn't a bad start. Maria no longer smelled like blood and entrails. Still tired from a day of hunting and dressing game, she took a seat on a large rock nearby and tried to relax a little. The constant go, go, go, pace of the caravan life wasn't something she was used to, and now muscles were even starting to become tense.

Word Count: 515

[Maria Talwa]

The constant travel was starting to wear on the young woman and she was becoming rather fatigued, and even before the nightly meal she was ready to sack out. Never the less Maria forced herself to stay wake, if anything she would at least wait for a full stomach before passing out, lest an empty one wake her up later. As the caravan often traveled by, or stopped near sources of fresh water, they had stopped by a small river, and Maria was seated on a rock, still trying to work up the energy for a proper bath. With a bar of soap sitting on top of a fresh change of clothes, she took a minute to rest. Following a powerful stretch Maria popped several joints and managed to relieve some stress, but accomplished little else. She was just glad this little section of the river had a lot of bushes and trees to offer a bit of privacy. While not shy about nudity, she usually didn't try to advertise either.

Maria was sitting on the rock with only a pair of trousers on when she heard a rustling in the bushes. Reacting on instinct she reached down and had a sword pointed in the direction of the noise when a young woman appeared, startled by the sight of a weapon pointed at her. With long blond hair pulled into a loose ponytail, and wearing a plain travel dress, her slightly attractive features were familiar. It was Dora the apprentice of Vecka, and the one who had stitched Maria's arrow wound. She also noticed the woman was carrying some bandages and ointment in her hands.

“I was suppose to drop by your wagon yesterday wasn't I?” Maria said.

“Yes, I need to clean and change the dressing on your stitches,” Dora said. “When you didn't come by I decided to look for you. You're not going to be a stubborn patient are you?”

“No, I just forget,” Maria said, placing the sword back in the sheath. “Doctor away... or whatever.” Still sitting on the rock and resting elbows on knees, she let Dora tend to the dressing on the wound, while thinking about how a nice cold bath might wake her up enough to eat dinner before playing dead. While this was going on Maria happened to look over and noticed Dora staring at her chest.

“Enjoying the view?” Maria said. That caused Dora to look down and blush, realizing she'd been seen.

“No, I mean yes, I mean... didn't that hurt?” Dora said.

“What these?” Maria said, looking down at her nipple rings. “I was stone cold drunk when I got these pierced. And yes, it still hurt.”

“I'd never even considered getting piercings... there,” Dora said. With a bit of a smile, Maria turned around to face Dora, who immediately looked away.

“You think that's out there?” Maria said. “I wear five earrings, but normally you can only see two of them. Think about that one for a minute.”

Word Count: 501

[Maria Talwa]

Hearing that, Dora seemed a little puzzled. She looked at the rings in Maria's ears, her chest, then looked around some more before finally focusing her gaze between the woman's legs. When the little light bulb finally went off, she let out a small gasp and looked up, to which Maria gave a small wink. It was obvious to her that Dora had lived a fairly sheltered life, and not been exposed to some of the more exotic tastes one might experience. After that she sat up and stretched a little more, still suffering from a fair amount of muscle tension.

“Sore muscles?” Dora said.

“Yeah, the constant traveling's starting to catch up with me I guess,” Maria said.

“Turn around,” Dora said. Though not sure what the young woman had in mind, Maria didn't perceive her as a threat, otherwise turning her back on someone this close would have been out of the question. Doing as requested, she looked back to see Dora scoot closer on her knees, then stop and look down. It was almost an odd sensation to feel a finger trace its way over one of her larger scars.

“My gods, what happened?” Dora said.

“Growing up in Sunberth is what happened,” Maria said.

“That must have hurt,” Dora said.

“Not as much as the dirt bag who left me with that,” Maria said. “Fool's taking a dirt nap.” When Dora placed her hands on Maria's shoulders and began to massage, the tension started to melt away and it was everything she could do to just to stay awake. She had to blink several times and look up to avoid dozing off. It would seem that tending wounds wasn't the only thing that Dora was good at, and the massage went a long way to relieve the muscle tension. It was also the first massage Maria had even received, and might as well have been putty in the other woman's hands. The rubbing continued down to her arms, then sides, though Dora did avoid the general area of her wound during the process.

“All those scars, you must have lived a pretty rough life,” Dora said.

“Yeah, but I'm still here,” Maria said.

“And to have survived all that, you must be very... strong,” Dora said. The way Dora drew out the last part of that sentence, she looked over a shoulder curiously. Now Maria could feel her shoulders being massaged very slowly, and the young woman's head was close to hers. Dora was blushing again and smiling ever so shyly. Without a word Maria turned around to tilted her head to one side, looking the young woman over carefully. Even though her clothing was plain, and she wore no make-up, there was a rugged beauty to Dora. She wasn't drop dead gorgeous, but the gentle oval of a face set by deep brown eyes had a certain allure to it. Her slender mouth was drawn in a smile that only added to her appearance.

“You like strength?” Maria said.

“I like strong women,” Dora said.

“And I like gentle women,” Maria said. “Are you gentle?”

“I can be,” Dora said. Placing a hand under her chin, Maria brought the young woman's face up to meet hers. Feeling the warmth of Dora's breath on her face, and the anticipation in her eyes, Maria leaned forward, and their lips met in a soft kiss.

Word Count: 566

[Maria Talwa]

When Maria awoke the next morning, she didn't immediately get up. Instead laying there and enjoying the feeling of being relaxed for what was probably the first time since this trip began. The massage, bath, a good night of oversleeping, and Dora, made for what was truly rare with Maria, a good mood. Where most people stayed up a few hours after the evening meal, she ate after returning from the river and turned in early. Without a stitch of clothing on, Maria tossed the top of the bedroll aside due to the morning heat, and dozed off for about another half hour.

“Hey Maria, thought you might- uh...” Dakar said. Laying there with both arms stretched above the head, she looked up to see his head poking through the tent flap. Still not wearing anything and uncovered, Maria gave the young man a coy smile.

“Enjoying the view?” Maria said. The response from Dakar was to quickly stand up outside the tent and clear his throat. That proved to be something of a let down as well. While Maria didn't have a problem sleeping with people who were married, if they wished to remain loyal to their spouse, she wouldn't push the matter. After getting dressed, she walked out to talk with Dakar who was still standing by the tent, but also changed to the tone of the conversation.

“You wanted to talk to me about something?” Maria said.

“Oh yeah, right, Hogar's holding a little training session for the other guards,” Dakar said. “Thought you might be interested to know.”

With a bit of a shrug, Maria walked in that direction to see what this little training session was about, if anything she did enjoy a good fight. Before they even got to the other side of the circled wagons, she could hear the sound of wooden weapons cracking against one another, and soon the training area came into view. Counting Maria, there were a total of nineteen guards in the caravan. They were gathered into a loose semicircle and Hogar, along with the others, watched as two of them had at one another with wooden swords.

The match appeared to be regulated to weapons only, as one of the guards, the better of the two, drew back to punch his opponent twice, but refrained from such after realizing what he was doing. Along with Dakar she watched as the two young men fought, with one of them fairly well outmatched, and the round ended shortly when the blunted end of the sword was jabbed into the chest of the loser over where the heart was, to signify a lethal blow. Despite losing, the smaller of the two men was a a good sport about it, and they placed the their weapons back on a nearby rack and cleared the way for the next match. Hogar pointed to two of the other guards and they both walked to the rack choosing weapons, then met one another in the circle and readied themselves for the coming match.

Word Count: 508

[Shaqira]

G R A D E

xp

Observation +3
Rhetoric +1
Butchering +1
Food Preservation +1
Cleaning +1
Socialization +2
Flirting +2
Seduction +1


lores

Maria’s first hunt kill
Dakar: Father of Deena
Dakar: A married man
Maria: Vicious with jealousy
Butchering: How to field dress a deer
Food Preservation: Curing meat with sodium nitrate
Food Preservation: Too much sodium nitrate can toxify meat
Food Preservation: After curing for 30 days meat lasts arcs
Nomad way of life is physically gruelling
A massage is heaven for weary muscles
Dora: Shy, gentle, ruggedly beautiful
Seduction: A soft kiss
Maria: Not averse to sleeping with married individuals


rewards

+4lbs cured deer meat

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