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<Malic> ::After two days hard riding from the Gateway, Malic and Osprey declare they have reached the perfect spot for this introduction to the wilderness. For as far as the eye can see there is...shrub. Golden waves of grass dance in the wind, a few sparse trees dot the skyscape and a single cloud moves across the sky. A rhino, the normal sort, grazes nearby.::
<Arkadi> "...I was a solider...I've got the training...WHY did you force me to come along again?"
Gia looks around uncertainly.
Osprey looks sidelong at Arkadi.
<Gia> "Are you sure this is necessary?
<Gia> "
<Osprey> "The men of Lookshy, and other civilized lands, take to the wilderness as though it is a foe to be conquered and enslaved."
<Osprey> "Those who make their homes in the wild places of the Threshold have a different outlook, one you must learn if we are to be tolerated by the Chosen of Luna."
<Malic> "Right. That's why we're here."
Osprey nods to Malic; the wind pushes strands of unbound hair across his face, but he appears not to notice.
Arkadi scowls
Gia chews on the corner of her lip thoughtfully. "I trust your judgement in this, I suppose."
<Malic> "You should. Anyway, first thing you should notice is I only brought enough cooked food for lunch. And we're staying three days."
<Arkadi> "translation, we hunt or scrounge for food."
<Malic> "Basically."
Arkadi sighs and lights up a cigarette
<Gia> The left side of Gia's nose wrinkles slightly. "I don't suppose sandwich trees grow here?"
<Osprey> The nearby rhinoceros whuffles, and ambles ponderously away from the group.
<Arkadi> "And I've only got one pack of these things...I don't suppose there are any tobacco plants around here?"
Osprey smiles slightly at Gia's comment. "No, but there is more here than one might think."
<Malic> "No sandwhich plants, no tobacco."
Arkadi sighs
<Arkadi> "Crap."
Arkadi will have to ration his smokes
<Malic> "I also brought really *bad* food for lunch. Anyone want to get started finding something more edible then bean paste and flatbread?"
<Gia> "Ummm.. Yes." Gia looks around a bit helplessly, as if she's afraid seemingly normal-looking plants are going to jump into a salad formation and poison her.'
Arkadi sighs
<Arkadi> "I'll do it."
Arkadi scowls
<Malic> "Come on, Gia. The plants won't hurt you. Except the poisonous ones."
<Arkadi> "Wish I had a spear, though..."
Osprey gestures to Gia. "Follow me. Arkadi, you go with Malic."
Malic drops his pack on the ground and adjusts his daiklave at his hip. "Should have brought one."
Osprey starts off, after checking to see that Gia is following him.
Gia follows Osprey, her hand resting comfortably on her chakram. "So what are we looking for, exactly?"
Osprey glances at her weapon, and smiles. "Nothing that will require that."
Arkadi scratches the back of his neck
<Arkadi> "So, gathering, or hunting?"
<Osprey> "Unless we had a party of twenty men, hunting anything larger than rabbits would be wasteful." As he walks, Osprey keeps his eye cast downward, looking at the different kinds of leaves mixed in with the knee-high grass.
<Malic> "I'd prefer to have something besides a salad tonight. We can find a few smaller animals."
<Osprey> "Also, plants do not tend to run away."
Gia smirks wryly at Osprey. "You never know when you might run into a wyld-tainted radish or something."
Osprey nods to Malic. "Then you and Arkadi can look for something of that kind, while we look for less meaty things."
<Osprey> "You'll be much more likely to find prey in a smaller group, anyway." Osprey speaks to Arkadi, realizing that Malic probably already knows this.
<Osprey> "Shall we meet at the watering hole at sunset?"
<Malic> "Sure. Forge wants to take a nap."
Gia nods.
Malic waves at the sleepy metal rhinocerous and trots off, searching for small animals to kill
Arkadi tries to dredge up his field training...namely, the trapping parts
Osprey walks along, grass swishing about his legs. Gia follows in his wake.
Gia looks about curiously.
<Arkadi> "So, what's the small game in this area? Rats? Hares? "
<Arkadi> "snakes? Lizards?"
<Malic> "Prarie dogs, jackrabbits, jackolopes, snakes, lizards, lionettes. Maybe a tigerdog if we're lucky."
<Gia> "So.. do we set traps? Or just wander around looking for something edible and then kill it?
<Arkadi> "...figures, no mammoth."
Osprey shakes his head. "No, we aren't looking for animals at all."
Osprey points at a patch of grass.
<Malic> "Careful, Arkadi. I think there's a tigerdog up ahead..."
<Gia> "Hey, that looks like the servant's garden at my mother's home." She blinks in surprise. "Are those carrots?"
Osprey looks briefly surprised, then nods.
<Arkadi> "Er...crap"
<Osprey> "All the plants which are grown on farms were once wild."
<Gia> "And that grass.." she bends and plucks a piece of odd-looking grass. "I think these are scallions." She thrusts her find under Osprey's nose so he can smell."
Osprey sniffs. "Yes. You are better at this than you thought you would be, it seems."
<Arkadi> "Mal..."
<Malic> "What, Arkadi?"
<Arkadi> "I've totally forgotten what to do."
<Malic> "You move forward quietly and try to kill it before it bites off your arm."
<Arkadi> "..."
Arkadi sloooowly begins to slink forwards, unsheathing his blade as quietly as he can
Osprey takes the wild vegetables from Gia, shaking the dirt off them.
Malic stays back from Arkadi to let the Lookshyer do the work instead. For the experiance, of course.
Gia plucks some more vegetables from the ground. "Is this enough, do you think?"
<Osprey> He looks on in bemusement as she dashes about excitedly, pulling up more tubers.
Osprey looks at the sizeable bundle of vegetables which Gia has amassed.
Arkadi slinks up carefully behind the critter...sadly, he's forgotten about approaching form downwind
Gia unceremoniously dumps a good amount of the veggies into Osprey's arms with a grin. "This isn't so bad."
<Osprey> "This looks like enough to feed four people for a night." Osprey brushes some dirt off on his pants.
<Gia> "Are you sure? I think there might be more."
Malic mutters silently to himself as Arkadi lets the wind carry the scent of human sweat and unsheathed iron to the tigerdog. Hopefully it won't bolt or attack..
Malic inches forward, from upwind.
Osprey nods, shifting his bundle of vegetables so he holds it with one arm.
<Osprey> "Save some for tomorrow, and the night after that."
<Osprey> "Vegetables keep best when rooted in the ground... and as I said earlier, plants do not run away."
<Osprey> "We should not pick more than we need."
<Gia> "So what now?" Gia looks up at the sun. "We have a little more time than we need, as well."
Osprey looks at the sun; a few hours have passed since they parted ways with Arkadi and Malic, but sunset is still far off.
<willows> The tigerdog is pacing back and forth, but doesn't appear to be aware of anything yet.
Osprey turns back to Gia. "We could explore some more, and see what else there is to be found," he suggests.
<Osprey> "There is no need to hurry back to camp."
Arkadi creeps a little closer to the dog...takes a moment to gird himself...and goes for the throat (failing that, the entire neck)
Osprey unslings the satchel he brought along, and fills it with the vegetables.
Osprey brushes dirt off his arms.
<Gia> "Sounds like fun." Gia smiles and packs up the vegetables she has as well. "Let's go."
Arkadi deftly jumps out of the beast's snapping jaws...it's obviously on its last legs
Arkadi grimaces, then puts the poor thing out of its misery
Malic rises from his spot in the brush and joins Arkadi over the dead tigerdog. "Very good. Now let's get it back to camp. This'll be more then enough."
Arkadi ponders
<Arkadi> "We might want to find a way to keep from reeking of blood"
<Arkadi> "From what dredges I *can* remember...scavengers will be all over us..."
<Malic> "There's a type of root around here that has a nasty-smelling juice. It'll keep them away.
<Arkadi> "Works for me."
<Arkadi> "Well...I didn't fuck up *too* badly..."
<Malic> "Obviously, as you have all your limbs."
<Malic> "Carry that will you? I'll find some of the root. And then, lets head to the waterhole."
<Osprey> ----
<Malic> ::Back at camp..::
Osprey and Gia are already back at the campsite when Arkadi and Malic arrive.
Gia flashes a catlike grin. "What took you boys so long? Dinner run away from you?"
Osprey looks up from peeling wild carrots with one of his knives.
Malic keeps a good bit ahead of Arkadi, as the taller man fairly reeks of the pungent root used to keep insects and devilrats away. "Well, Arkadi had a few troubled moments killing it."
<Arkadi> "First hit didn't quite do it"
Arkadi sets the future dinner down
<Arkadi> "So things got a little messy. Better the smell than hyenas."
Osprey looks at Arkadi, and the dead animal he's carrying.
Gia wrinkles her nose. "I don't suppose you guys can find a place to bathe? I can cook while you guys clean up."
<Malic> "I don't smell bad."
<Gia> "You smell like dead animal, if not like Arkadi. And yes, for once, there IS a difference."
Malic sighs. "You're going to have to get used to smelly men. And smelly women."
<Malic> "They don't keep perfumes and colognes around here, you know."
<Arkadi> "Gia...stew over this...you're not bathing for 3 days."
<Malic> "There's a perfectly good water hole over there." Malic waves at it.
<Gia> Gia's eyes go wide, and her mouth gapes open slightly. It is obvious that this hasn't occured to her.
Osprey regards Arkadi mildly. "The absence of bathtubs does not mean an absence of bathing."
<Osprey> "Many tribes consider cleanliness very important."
<Malic> "She just doesn't have shampoo. Or any of that smelly stuff to rub on her."
Gia sighs in relief as Osprey corrects Arkadi's assertion.
<Arkadi> "I acknoqledge this, Osprey..."
<Gia> "Actually.." she rummages through her pack. "I smuggles this past Osprey." She winks and holds up a small jar of lotion. "It's not much, but it will do."
<Arkadi> "...women."
<Arkadi> "That said, Ossie...where do you propose she do so ?"
Osprey gives Malic a look of mild despair, and shrugs.
<Arkadi> "the watering hole is a little...small."
<Malic> "maybe compared to the underground lake that your manse has. It's quite large enough to bathe in."
<Gia> "At any rate, I smell delightful. You two, on the other hand, smell awful. Go bathe."
<Osprey> "Sister Gia is a resourceful woman. I am sure she can devise some way of cleaning herself without actually submerging her entire body."
Arkadi ponders for a few minutes
Malic sighs and strips off his vest, shirt, belt and weapons before walking towards the watering hole.
Arkadi sighs
<Arkadi> "I'll wait my turn."
Arkadi plunks down on a rock
<Arkadi> "I see we've got the makings of a stew."
<Gia> "Some carrots, some scallions.. It should be quite good."
Arkadi nods
<Osprey> "For one born and raised in the city, sister Gia has an excellent eye for foraging."
<Arkadi> "At least one of us two does...I'm a little rusty."
Osprey finishes slicing the carrots.
<Osprey> "Remember, nature is not an enemy nation to be conquered."
Malic returns several minutes later, dripping. "I don't suppose you remebered a towel or something, Osprey? I'd rather not sleep in wet pants." has his draped over himself to protect Gia's sensibilities.
Gia averts her eyes politely.
<Osprey> "I did not, but I am sure that sister Gia did not forget one."
Arkadi just shakes his head and heads off to the water hole
Arkadi grabs his bag on his way over...he ALWAYS knows where his towel is
<Malic> "Gia?"
<Gia> "Yes, Malic?"
Gia blinks innocently.
Osprey looks, and sees that there is, in fact, a corner of fluffy towel poking out of Gia's pack.
<Malic> "Do you happen to have smuggled in a towel? I smell clean now."
Osprey refrains from pointing the towel out.
<Gia> The woman's face is completely blank. "No, I'm sorry. Osprey was very certain about what I was and was not allowed to bring. It was all I could do to get the lotion past him-- he's quite perceptive, you know." She glances about the wilderness. "I think we're supposed to use leaves or something."
<Malic> "What's that fluffy thing in your pack?"
<Osprey> "You could lie down on Forge," suggests Osprey.
<Osprey> "Or you could use your clothes to dry yourself, and then place them on Forge."
<Osprey> "I am sure that sister Gia is old enough not be shocked by the sight of a naked man."
Arkadi returns, not smelling, shirtless, and drying his hair with his own towel
<Gia> "It's a big, fluffy towel, made by the finest seamstress in Yu-Shan, and my very favorite towel in the world. I'm just mean and not sharing because I'm selfish."
<Arkadi> "She will be if it's Malic."
<Arkadi> "No living being should be forced to witness him naked."
Malic eyes Gia with annoyance "Hmph. Don't have to get snippish about it. And which one of us is actually seeing another living being at the moment, Arkadi? Right."
Malic mutters to himself and he starts using his shirt to dry off.
<Arkadi> "she's a god...she doesn't count."
Arkadi sits down on his rock again
<Malic> "She counts extra, she's a god."
<Arkadi> "And likely bitches to you about leaving so many wet towels around the pagoda that you've obviously neglected to bring one with you."
<Malic> "I don't need towels at her pagoda. It hasn't got a pool."
Arkadi finishes up and tosses it to forge to dry off...it doubles as his blanket
Osprey nods in approval. Although he may be an inept hunter, at least Arkadi knows to pack light.
Arkadi pulls out his boot knife
<Arkadi> "You know what...this ain't so bad."
<Arkadi> "Fresh air...no idiot bosses lingering over your shoulder...'
Malic does lay his pants and shirt on Forge's back as the rhino sleeps, then settles himself cross-legged in front of a patch of dirt. "We might want to start a fire to cook the tigerdog."
Osprey wipes carrot juice off his knife and proffers it to Arkadi. The long, curved blade is much better suited to skinning than Arkadi's boot knife.
<Arkadi> "Thanks."
Arkadi looks at the cat...
<Malic> "Gia, could you put your vegetative skills to use and find some firewood?"
Arkadi seems to remember how to skin, and sets to work...if not expertly, at least semi-competantly
Gia stretches. "Sure, why not? I'll be back in a bit." Gia wanders off into the night, her earlier trepidation gone.
Malic digs around for some rocks and starts building a little fire-pit.
Gia returns in short order, her face obscured by the large pile of firewood she's carrying. "How's this?"
Arkadi looks up from his work
<Malic> "That's more then enough, Gia. Just pile it up in the pit." Malic snatches a stick and puts it in Forge's mouth. The rhino snorts, shuffles a bit in his sleep. When removed, the stick is burning cheerily.
<Arkadi> "...Gia...what unit did you serve in when you lived in Lookshy?"
<Arkadi> "'cause if it was anythign but the pathfinders...your skills were wasted."
Gia blinks. "I didn't serve in any unit. I was tutored daily by the instructors my mother hired." She dumps the firewood and grins. "I'm not as old as some," she comments, the emphasis on the word "old."
<Arkadi> "I'm 36."
<Arkadi> "and doesn't *everyone* serve back home?"
Arkadi scowls...36 doesn't make him old...
<Gia> "My mother was too busy reminding me I was a failure to really press me into service." Her tone is flat. "And anyway, 36 is plenty old. Let's start dinner."
Arkadi scowls
<Arkadi> "Oh."
Arkadi considers the subject dropped
Arkadi finishes up with the meat
<Malic> "I'm 52. He isn't old."
<Arkadi> "I'm sorry, but 36 isn't old..."
Arkadi then asks the most potentially letahl question in a lifetime of asking potentially lethal questions
<Arkadi> "How old are *you*, anyways?"
<Gia> "Twenty-three. Apparently the Bronze Faction was in a hurry with me."
<Arkadi> "Ah yes...the Old Boys' Club."
<Malic> "Youngsters, we need to put the meat OVER the fire."
Malic guestures to the happily burning fire, lit by furnance rhino saliva."
<Arkadi> "A little help, then?"
Arkadi sets up some sticks to use as an ad-hoc spit
Osprey helps him butcher the tigerdog, quickly removing the meat from the bones.
Gia watches the men butcher and spit the tigerdog with morbid curiousity.
Arkadi shows that he's not a total dunce for this kind of thing...the basics are returning to him now..."
<Osprey> After the last of the meat is cut away, Osprey picks up the carcass and walks out into the grasslands to dispose of it.
<Arkadi> "All we need now is a bottle of sake, and it'll be jsut like old times."
<Malic> "I have some rum."
<Arkadi> "not the same."
<Gia> "You drink entirely too much, Arkadi."
<Arkadi> "Occupational hazard."
<Malic> "Well, it seems we're doing alright. Gia found food and firewood, Arkadi killed dinner."
<Arkadi> "Ironic how the two least-skilled of the group did most of the work."
<Malic> "Osprey and I are planning on having you two learn the best way: doing it yourselves."
<Gia> "I'm plenty skilled, thank you."
Arkadi hides his expression with a sip from his canteen
Malic checks his clothes, still wet. "Well. While my clothes dry, how about dinner?"
Osprey returns, without the carcass.
<Arkadi> "give it a couple of minutes. It's doing somethign called 'cooking'"
<Osprey> He heads to the waterhole, and returns in short order, looking rather damp.
<Arkadi> "That messy?"
Osprey sits down cross-legged by the fire.
Malic idly swats at a bug that was getting a big too close to an embarassing place for a bugbite
<Osprey> The last traces of sunlight fade from the West; the stars twinkle brightly above.
Gia yawns luxeriously.
Malic stands and begins dressing himself, pulling his pants and vest on. His shirt is wrapped inside his spare blanket to give him an extra-soft pillow for the night. "Dinner's finished at this point. We can start eating."
<Gia> "Good good. The tigerdog looks delicious."
<Arkadi> "Thanks..."
Malic takes his portion "It doesn't smell bad either."
<Malic> "Do you want to roast some of the tubers, Gia?"
Gia has already cut the scallions into pieces for seasoning the meat, and passes them around. "The carrots? Why not?"
Arkadi shrugs and slices himself a piece of the meat, trying it exp4erimentally "Not bad."
Osprey accepts some tigerdog-on-a-stick.
Malic idly roasts a carrot.
<Malic> "Rather good tigergod, Arkadi. At least you didnt kill an old, sick one."
<Arkadi> "Even if it was, beggars can't be choosers."
<Malic> "We could have found that rhino again."
<Gia> "So, this is fun," Gia comments idly. "Friendship and togetherness, and whatnot."
<Gia> "Ugh. Rhinos seem entirely too tough for decent eating."
<Malic> "You haven't gone to sleep yet, Gia. You're sleeping on a rock, you realize."
Gia wrinkles her nose. "I'd rather sleep on the ground."
<Arkadi> "That's what we'll be doing."
<Arkadi> "More or less, anyways."
<Gia> "Yes, well, I've read books where the protagonist was sleeping on 'the soft ground.' Soft. I imagine it was a bit of poetic license, but I'd much rather sleep on earth than stone."
<Arkadi> "Um, yeah...more than a bit of one."
<Arkadi> "It's not like a mattress, let me tell you that."
<Gia> "I had assumed as much."
Osprey finishes his meal, and unrolls his blanket several paces away from the fire.
<Malic> "The ground can be soft. This ground isn't."
<Malic> "I've slept on soft ground. Silk Sand Pit. I lost a good bit of my thigh for my comfort. Blasted sandsnakes."
Gia just blinks.
Malic curls up next to Forge. "Good night, everyone."
Arkadi shrugs
Gia stays close to the fire, lying down bundled in a blanket. "Sleep well, everyone."
<Arkadi> "Will do."
Arkadi is on the ground, curled up, and asleep within 60 seconds
<Osprey> "They are doing better than I thought they might," Osprey quietly observes to Malic. "Hopefully it is a sign of things to come."
Malic nods to the Easterner "One hopes. Usually in vain, mind."
Osprey nods and wraps himself up in his blanket.
<Osprey> "We shall see what tomorrow brings. For now, good night."
Osprey makes himself comfortable, and closes his eyes.
Malic flips the blanket over himself and turns his back against Forge's warm flank, falling asleep in the shadow of the hulking god.
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