Getting Ready For Winter
Characters: Aikuen, Kentar, Skuld, William,
Location: Mossflower Woods, Moledeep
Mossflower Woods
Kentar has been spending the last week or so making an ax. Yes, they already had one, but Kentar wanted one of his own. He made a trip somewhere to get the metal he needed, and then the proper wood for a handle before finishing the ax. He's pretty talented with weapons making, and this ax was no different then anything else he's made. Perfect for wood cutting. He attached a sling to it so he can carry it on his back, and now, the stoat is just cleaning out the wheelbarrow, getting ready to go woodcutting.
Aikuen comes from the direction of the shed, blowing on his paws as he walks. The battle axe is strapped to his back, with the large steel head near his own head, "Knew we shouldn't have put this off for so long... I hate the snow... with a passion..." as the snow crunches underpaw, "All set? I'm sure the wheelbarrow is clean enough!" he asks when he approaches.
Skuld is trying to watch the pair, mostly hidden behind a bare tree. Her tail flicks as she, rather nosily, snoops, staring at the wheelbarrow, the axes, and working out what they might be going to do. Her paws fidget with her pouch, and she chews gently on her upper lip.
Kentar laughs a little and nods. "Yeah. Oh, ow!" he pretends to have dropped something on his foot, bending over to make a snowball with whatever snow he can without being seen, thanks to the wheelbarrow before throwing it at the otter, laughing. "Yeah, its clean now." he grins. "Who's taking the barrow. You or me?"
Aikuen tilts his head as the stoat drops down, "What happened mat-..." Splat as the snowball hits the otter straight in the face. Aikuen blinks and wipes the snow of his face, "Well... I WAS... But i think you volunteered just now..." he chuckles lightly, "And no more snowballs! The evergreen is that way..." He points off toward the path in the woods.
Skuld leans forward, curious at the snowball thrown by the stoat. Her eye roves between the two, and then she sees the otter pointing. She turns her head and shifts around her tree, trying to see what he's pointing at, and tilting her ears forward to hear a little better.
Kentar laughs and grins, nodding. "Yeah, alright." he chuckles a little bit, leaning over and picking up the handles of the barrow, picking it up and wheeling it along the path. "Follow me. And I'll try not to hit you with anymore snow." He grins.
Aikuen shakes he head as we waits for the stoat to get ahead of him a little bit, before leaning down, to make a snowball as well. He chuckles and tosses it at the stoats back, "Watch it! The trees are dropping snow..." he chuckles as he catches up to the stoat.
Skuld darts from behind her tree, and trots after the pair, trying to make sure she can go from hiding spot to hiding spot, though the snow hampers her travel a little, and makes her footsteps crunch a little bit. Her muzzle twitches as she sees the otter throw snow now.
Kentar is hit in the back of the head, oofing a little. "Heeeey!" he frowns and grins. "That's not fair you." he turns with a smirk. Yeah, he knows it was Aik. The stoat just keeps walking along, hearing a bit of extra crunch but not paying any mind to it, thinking its just the barrow.
Aikuen makes a really stupid face when the stoat looks, "Wha? Twas not me! Tis the tree!" he chuckles and jogs along just a little bit ahead of the stoat, pointing away from the path toward the open woods, "Its just over there a little... Come on young'un! Try to keep up with your elder!" he laughs loudly before heading off in that direction. He is being too silly to be aware of more snow crunching.
Skuld continues to follow, carefully, tail flicking and ears pricked up. Her whiskers twitch at the cold, as her footpaws find a rather deep patch, and she finds she has to quicken her pace a little to keep up behind the otter and stoat.
Kentar laughs. "Yeah. An otter tree." he grins before speeding up a little bit, following Aik along the path, shaking his head slightly with a smile on his face. His ear flicks a little bit, listening but not showing it. "Its nothing." he mutters to himself, chuckling. "So. Firewood. How much do you think we'll need?"
Aikuen is too far ahead to hear the cat at all, "Okay! I'm an otter tree!" he chuckles as he gets to the evergreen. Its quite a monster of a tree, but not as big as the others around it. Aik leans against it, "I don't know. But i think this tree will get through the bulk of the winter... Hurry will yah? I'm freezing my rudder off!"
Skuld stares as they approach a tree. She tucks herself away behind another nearby tree, craning her head around, so she can watch with her one good eye. Her paws twitch, then her right reaches down, digging into her pouch.
Kentar stops the barrow and tilts his head a little bit at the tree. "I'll have to climb it to cut off the top then climb down to cut off the bottom. Will be easier that way." he nods, going over to the tree. Climbing trees is HORRIBLE, but he'll do it anyways. Just to make it easier for himself. But that's why he brought gloves. "You hack off some of the lower branches." he smirks. "That way, I'll have an easier time climb down."
Aikuen nods, as he wields the battle axe, "Righto Mate. Be Careful will yah..." he chuckles as he watch him climb up, "And try not to drop stuff on me..." he laughs as he hefts the axe and makes it seems like he is cutting butter with a hot iron knife. The lower branches just seem to fly off the tree. Its slow work, but Aik doesn't care. He then goes to put a few of the branches into a pile for later.
The cat pulls out a tile and a sparrow feather. She checks the tile she pulls out, mutters something to herself, then puts both it and the feather back, as she decides to move out into the open, standing a little way off to watch the two work at the tree. )
Kentar smirks. "I'll try not to." he nods, starting to climb up, foot kicking at a branch with a lot of snow, hoping to knock it off the branch and down onto the otter below. "Whoops! Lookout below!" he laughs before sitting on the best branch that he can, careful not to fall, starting to hack away at the top.
Aikuen is absolutely trounced by the snow, "UFF!" Knocking him to the ground, and seems completely buried by the white. He pops his head out of the pile and shivers, "I h-hate you Kentar... You d-do know that r-right..." he grumbles as he gets slowly out. He dusts the rest of the snow off him, "Im going away from here... until your done..." he shakes he head and goes over to the barrow, and he blinks, "Skuld... What are you doing here?" seems slightly surprised.
Skuld blinks. "I followed you." She says, simply. Completely unembarrassed. Her tail flicks, and her eye moves from Aikuen, up to where Kentar is. "What are you doing to the tree?" Her pouch is clutched, quite tightly between her paws, though still undrawn.
Kentar keeps hacking away until the tip is about to fall. He doesn't cut all the way through though, taking the ax out and waving down at Skuld. "I knew I heard something!" he chuckles a little bit. "We're cutting it down for firewood!" speaking of down and cutting, the top starts to break, tiling away from Kentar and falling to the ground. "Timber!" he calls.
Aikuen nods, "Aye. What Kentar said... Ere scoot back a bit... " and the top of the tree crashes to the ground with a loud crunch and a swirl of snow, "Danger of falling wood apparently..." he chuckles.
Skuld seems horrified as the tree top comes down, and stares at it for much too long. Her whiskers twitch, then her tail, and then her eye moves from the wood, to Aikuen, up to Kentar and back again. She doesn't look very happy, but she doesn't look like she knows what to say, either.
Kentar looks at Skuld a little and tilts his head at the horrified look. "Something wrong Skuld?" he asks, starting to very, very carefully make his way back down the branches, making sure to kick a little more snow at Aik.
Aikuen is quite far away from the tree, very near Skuld, so the snow gets to trounce the ground with a loud splat, "Yah missed..." he chuckles, and then glances back to Skuld. Doesn't say anything but shrugs, "I'm going to start cutting the top and getting it in the wheelbarrow..." he hefts the axe, and heads over to the top of the tree.
Skuld twitches her muzzle, and shakes her head, watching the stoat climbing down. She says nothing yet, apparently waiting for the stoat to be on the ground. She's certainly watching his progress very closely.
Kentar sets his feet back on the ground and brushes snow off himself, shrugging off being ignored. He takes the ax from his back and starts hacking away at the bottom of the tree.
Skuld twitches her tail. "You're going to cut the tree down..?" She seems a little relieved, initially, when he's down without falling out of the tree, but now she seems odd again. A little twitchy and nervous, taking a couple of steps forward.
Kentar nods. "Yeah. We need firewood." he chuckles a little bit, the stoat hacking his way through the large trunk, nodding. "Stand back a little." he smiles slightly.
Skuld stays where she is. "But... You'll make it angry." She mutters, looking around. "You should take a fallen one?" She suggests. Really does seem worried about something being angry. "What happens after it's cut down..?" She ventures, after a moments pause, eyeing where he's cutting with a bit of a frown.
Kentar blinks a bit and stops. "Tree's don't get angry." he says, looking down at the feline with a shake of his head before continuing. After a few moments, it falls over, away from the group. "Well. It gets cut up into logs. Then used in the fireplace at Moledeep." he nods. "Got to keep warm."
Skuld shakes her head and points at the tree under the cut. "No. I mean the stump. Will you coppice it, or leave it?" She seems calmer, her usual tonelessness creeping back in. Not commenting on the reply of trees not getting angry.
Kentar shrugs. "Leave it." he nods. "Why?" the stoat asks, going over to the down tree, giving some good hard slams into the log with the ax, making it into many smaller ones, small enough to fit in the wheelbarrow.
"But... It will just die. If you leave it like that." Skuld sounds puzzled, looking from log to stump. "And you'll annoy the wildwood." She states, firmly. She's always been odd, but she's certainly been a little more so lately. Perhaps it's poor eating, or something she's been taking.
Kentar sighs and stops, burying the ax in the wood to keep it from going anywhere, motioning around. "This area...the woods...they don't get annoyed. They're not alive. Not like you or me. They don't feel. So they wont be angry, annoyed, or bothered by me leaving a useless stump in the ground." He frowns. He gets EXTREMELY creeped out around her. The stoat just takes the ax and continues chopping.
Skuld twitches her muzzle, and flicks her ears, then goes up to the stump, extending her left paw to touch it, and muttering something at it. She can see it's quite smashed on the top through the blows of the axe and shakes her head. "You should apologize." She states, her normal self again.
Kentar says quite quick and quite harshly. "I'll apologize to that useless thing when it sprouts two arms, two legs, and starts telling me that it's really alive." he says. "Shouldn't you be somewhere else? Where your not being annoying?" he frowns, not looking over.
"I don't have anywhere else to go." Skuld states, simply, a smirk creeping at one corner of her muzzle. "Forest spirits can sprout two arms and two legs... They come for you in the dead of night, as you try to sleep. But you never see them beyond the corner of your eye, and they can slip into your dreams to take root and sap your life away slowly."
Kentar frowns. "Whatever. No such thing as spirits, you weird, stupid little thing." he nods. Its rather obvious that he doesn't like her. And that whole spirits thing makes him oddly uncomfortable. He tries hard to ignore her, piling up the wood.
Skuld watches him, and continues to smirk. "Easier for them to hide from those who do not expect them." She pats the stump, gently, before taking the sparrow feather from her pouch, and bending to place it among the roots.
Kentar rolls his eyes. "Get lost." he says simply. Weather or not he's telling her to get lost or himself is unclear, but its probably her, even though he's wheeling the barrow along the path back to moledeep. "Aik! I'll send Robin back with the barrow." he nods, vanishing.
William is outside in the snow again. He watches Robin go off with the wheelbarrow toward the woods and follows him a ways before being sidetracked by three sets of pawprints in the snow going in the same direction. The rat follows the tracks, keeping the stoat in sight. Will takes his time following the prints in the snow. He comes upon Aikuen and Skuld after a short while, the otter is heading back to Moledeep with the wheelbarrow as Robin stays to chop more wood. Neither otter or stoat seem to take much notice of the cat. Will stays out of Robin's way since he doesn't seem to need help and he's using the only ax.
Skuld has decided to sit next to the stump, the roots still bearing her feather amongst the snow, and watches the activity with what looks like a knowing little smile on her face. Once again, she looks quite dozy, her good eye watching, but distractedly.
William walks over to Skuld and takes a seat on the tree stump, "Back again?" he asks the cat smiling. He leans over still listing to the blows from the ax and scoops up some snow in his paws. "How have you been?" he continues not looking at the cat as he packs the snows tightly into a ball.
"I told Kentar about the Forest spirits..." She mumbles a little, her own gaze fixed on the work with the wood. "I do not think he wanted to hear about it. But I made sure I told him." She answers, without really answering the question at all.
"Ah. Pretty sure he didn't want t hear about it. We don't really believe in that stuff too much here," the rat says a little apologetically as he bites into the snowball he's made, as he too turns his eye toward Robin and the firewood. "What would you'd have him do?" he asks at length not that he believes in tree spirits but he is a little curious.
Skuld nods a little. "Apologise. Offer something to the tree. He's damaged the stump- it will have a hard time trying to regrow." Her eye wanders down to the snow now, and she claws a small design in the white. "He'll have bad dreams, now. Bad dreams until things are put right."
William chews on his lower lip a while thinking, the bitten snow ball falls from his paw as he pushes himself off the stump. He kneels in front of the stump and puts a paw on it and slowly mutters strange words that aren't English. He doesn't know what he's saying but he had made sure to memorize the words in case he ever needed them again. After a short pause he stands up again and brushes snow from his pants. "Should work I think. Worked th last time," he says to himself moving over to sit by Skuld, without touching any part of the tree stump.
Skuld tilts her head and wrinkles her muzzle, a curious look at the rat. She gets the gist of what he just did, even if she didn't understand the words. "Thank you. But I still think it should be something that Kentar should do... He was the one to do this, and the one who the anger will follow.
William nods a little, "Probably right, but doubt he'd do anything about it unless he really thought what you said was true. They don't believe in that stuff. ... I don't usually talk t trees either, but better safe then sorry."
Moledeep: Mole Hall
Kentar takes a deep breath, the stoat having a little trouble focusing on the marbles he's playing with by himself. He's annoyed, trying to get good enough to be able to beat anyone later on. But he's just not getting anywhere.
Skuld had drosily wandered off into the woods somewhere not answering Will as usual so the rat had followed the many paw tracks, boots tracks and wheel ruts back to Moledeep. He comes into the hall having shaken out his cape and hung in up in the entry. He gets his brother a small smile when he sees him and plops down onto the floor to watch him
Kentar flicks a marble at one and ends up skying it, the little marble flying over the others and off the wall. "Gah, I give up." he frowns and sits back, turning to Will and pointing at him. "You didn't see that." he smirks.
William grins a little, "If you say so. Would it help if I played against you or are you done with em for today?"
Kentar frowns. "I'm done for today. Sorry Will." he frowns. "I don't like marrrbles!" he blahs, running his paws through his headfur with a nod.
William nods, "So you're good at lot of other stuff. Don't have t be good at everything." He stands up and walks toward the kitchen, "I'm gonna see what there is t eat. You want anything?"
Kentar nods. 'I'm better at throwing knives then anything else." He nods, smirking. "Should have a contest you and I! Make Aikuen with an apple on his head the target." He laughs and then shakes his head. "No thanks, Will, I'm good for now."
William shakes his head as he disappears into the kitchen, "Would be better to throw them at something else. Pa'd be sure t find a way t beat both of us."
Kentar laughs a little bit and shrugs. "Ah, Aik doesn't scare me." he grins. "I could throw circles around him! Although, being tortured by him would be bad..." he hrms. "Yeah, maybe not."
"He wouldn't torture you. Might do something to you though," Will says as he returns with a steaming bowl of something and plops back down on the floor to eat.
William's bowl is filled with hotroot soup and the rat added bits of dried fish to it just because. "I don't know. Play a trick on you or something. But he wouldn't torture you. He doesn't do that anymore," Will answers the stoat.
Kentar nods and phews a bit. "Glad." he nods. "I've been through enough of that since I met you and him." he nods frowning slightly. "Anyways. I'm sure Robin wouldn't mind doing it." he grins
William jokingly asks, "Being a target or torturing you? I'm not sure he'd want to be a target no matter how good you are at throwing knifes.
Kentar laughs a little. "Target." he smirks. "He wouldn't want to torture me." the stoat nods. "He told me he'd do it if he had to. Well, I'll ground him if he doesn't." he chuckles.
William asks, ""Isn't he a little old for that? Oh well, if he doesn't like it he could go somewhere else."
Kentar shrugs. "He's still my son.' he nods. "But yeah, I suppose he is." he sighs.
William shrugs a little himself his mouth full of soup. After he swallows he asks, "You ok?"
Kentar huhs a little and shrugs. "Yeah. I just miss the young Robin. You know, before the village burned. Was a good little kid." he chuckles slightly.
William ahs, "... he's a good adult too. You should be happy. Sides Kluna is quite full grown yet and Chris is little." The rat doesn't really know what to say
Kentar nods a little bit and smiles slightly. "Yeah. You're right." he smiles before standing. "And, I think he's got a crush or something on Hannah." he chuckles before heading off. "I'm going to go find Chris!" he smiles.
William smiles a little more, "Oh no, more stoats and then more little stoats!" He chuckles, "At this rate I'll be a great uncle before I'm ever a father." He waves as the stoat leaves shaking his head in amusement at his unusual family.
Groups:
