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Post by reqqy on Oct 15, 2008 10:04:46 GMT -5
Mutasim's mood seemed to improve the moment he stepped outside of the archives, his bare toes digging into the dirt beneath his feet. Yes, yes, much better. Clean, wholesome air. No confining walls. Jabari issued forth a quiet chittering sound that seemed vaguely amused. "No one asked your opinion." The tone of his voice, however, lacked the harshness that the words might have suggested. He bounded for the boat secured at the dock, sliding in. Mutasim was just about to take off for the opposite bank when he remembered that he wasn't alone. Slowly, his head turned, dark eyes focusing on Kalina.
"If you're going to come, do hurry it up." He was not about to wait on her any longer than he had to. As he waited for her to make her decision to join him or not, the young man shed the outer coat, leaving him in just the close-fitting black shirt and the torn-off trousers. The knife-belts, also black, still glinted occasionally when an errant sunbeam caught a sliver of metal. They crossed a chest surprisingly broad for the boy's size. His coat folded, the oars drawn up and anchored, Mutasim cocked a brow at Kalina.
"Well?"
He was being far more patient than he should have been.
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Post by archenstone on Oct 15, 2008 11:43:36 GMT -5
Kalina wasted no time. She was quickly in the boat with him and ready to go. The warm sunlight felt wonderful on her back and arms. The water beneathe them led off into the jungle. Was it her imagination? Could the foliage be thicker here than where she used to travel? No matter, maybe it was just because of the water.
She looked at Mutasim. He seemed to brighten up once he was out side. She truly noticed his tanned skin after he removed his jacket as well as how toned he was. Brushing some thoughts aside she looked at the knife belt.
"Do you always keep a personal arsenal at hand?" She asked indicating the knife belt. Her tone reflected curiosity, nothing more. She briefly wondered just how many knives Mutasim had.
"I used to make things in my Father's forge....but he never taught me weapon smithing." Probably cause I'd try to make weirdly curved blades or really big ones....
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Post by reqqy on Oct 15, 2008 14:00:51 GMT -5
Casting off from the bank with an ease that suggested familiarity, Mutasim fell into a steady rhythm, the boat gliding through the water with little trouble. It felt nice to actually be doing something. Jabari flitted from his shoulder to Kalina's lap, curling up there as if it were the most natural thing in the world for him to just lay all over random strangers. He consumed the last of his meatroll with a contented croon.
Pulling at the oars, he stared at the girl with just as much curiosity as she had him. "Do you always go without one?" His tone was mildly confrontational...but not significantly so. There was a touch of genuine questioning to it. "I've always wondered why you southerners run around unarmed. It's worse than being naked." Another stroke, and then he added, "I wouldn't carry as many if most of them weren't throwing knives. You can't count on having the time to retrieve a thrown blade, after all."
Definitely in a better mood, given how freely he was talking. The archives were simply oppressive to Mutasim. The boat skipped sideways for a moment, caught in the current, before the boy managed to right it again. "A metalsmith, then?" That actually did spark Mutasim's curiosity. Maybe he'd let her live a little longer instead of tying her to a tree. Although...truthfully he didn't much feel like expending the effort now, anyway. "I've taught myself a little woodwork, but smithing has always fascinated me."
At least since he discovered that there were certain things you simply couldn't do with wood.
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Post by archenstone on Oct 16, 2008 6:25:48 GMT -5
Her widened slightly when the flitter decided she was a good rest stop. She took the opportunity get a good look at him. Remembering her earlier encounters she rubbed his eye ridges.
"I suppose a weapon would have been good on occasion." She admitted, thinking of a few encounters she had with wild animals. "My Father didn't approve of young girls running around with weapons. It's one reason he wouldn't teach me to make knives. Then again, he wasn't too thrilled that his daughter preferred to "find mischief" instead of properly learning a craft."
She felt relaxed as they moved along the river. "Yeah, but silver was my Dad's specialty so thats what I know most. I learned to work some stuff with iron but it was more heat and more work just to produce a good chain than to make a couple of nice bracelets. If I had worked more on iron I'd have never been able to wear proper clothes. I enjoy it but I don't want to look like a man."
"Thats cool. There's some really neat things to do with wood. I could never convince the carpenter to show me anything though. He was sure that I'd lop off an arm or destroy his stuff...not that I would. And since I didn't own a knife I didn't try twiddling things on my own. What do you like to make?"
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Post by reqqy on Oct 16, 2008 9:23:23 GMT -5
Jabari crooned softly, wrapping his tail around the girl's wrist. Mutasim just gave him a look. The brown was getting bolder and bolder as time went on, and the candidate wasn't altogether sure he liked it.
"Strange. You'd think women would need weapons more than men. At least a belt knife. Every dragonrider I've met carries at least one dagger openly, for practical reasons. Knives have uses beyond self-defense, after all." Mutasim angled the boat nearly parallel to the bank, working with the current to bring it toward the landing. He had little experience with silver, and none with forging - not to mention fathers. The young man didn't particularly care about that last. The less males he had to deal with, the better.
Her last comment threw him, though. Look like a man? He frowned, uncertain as to what she could possibly mean by that. Kalina seemed female enough to him. Okay, so a bit tall, and perhaps stronger than most female candidates her age, but a good number of the female dragonriders around the Weyr were at least as muscular as this girl. "I don't see how you could," he stated honestly, with no intention whatsoever toward flattery. Just because you possessed a couple of traits that were generally found in the opposite gender didn't mean you'd be mistaken for them. Mutasim had never been mistaken for female because of his height. He found the concept rather odd.
Shipping the oars, the young man jumped from the boat, hauling it up the enbankment and setting to securing it firmly to the small dock across from the main hall. "Oh, this and that. I've done canes, a whistle - although my model was pretty crude so I'm afraid it's hardly worth the wood used to make it, some figures, boxes, and some hairpins once." He shrugged mildly. "All about experimentation. Nothing wonderful, but you get bored when holed up with a broken foot." The last knot secure, he offered to help her out of the boat in silence, Jabari returning to his minepet and winding himself around the boy's forearm.
"Lazy thing," he commented, not without affection. "So I take it you like wandering about the jungles? Is that what you meant by making mischief?"
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Post by archenstone on Oct 16, 2008 11:25:38 GMT -5
Kalina couldn't fully suppress the urge to chuckle. "That's because I don't look like man. But if I did Smithing for a long time I'd have way too much muscle! I've never seen anything bulk up arms so fast. Not to mention it bulks your shoulders and flattens your chest..." Kalina faltered at that point. Why am I telling a guy that...? She inwardly groaned.
She exited the boat with his assistance and glanced around. "Yeah, I could show you places out side of Blossom hold that would make my Father furious! I almost got trapped out in thread once. Can you believe it? The last day I was there I got chased by a big cat. For him mischief also meant anything I was doing unsupervised...I tried to get into Dolphineering at one point but they didn't like me going out on my own either." She was glad to be on another topic. "I used to collect neat stones and stuff from the forest.
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Post by reqqy on Oct 17, 2008 8:16:36 GMT -5
Mutasim couldn't help it. At least when his eyes drifted to her chest, it was with no intent other than objective scrutiny, a scrutiny brought on by her words. She'd have to work fairly hard to flatten that chest, he thought mildly. His eyes came back up to her face, the boy's expression clearly one of incredulity. This Kalina had some very odd notions. First and foremost being, of course, that it was somehow preferable to be weaker so long as you had a...chest. Women were strange indeed. If he'd had any honest attraction to this peculiarity of the female body, he might have understood better, but Mutasim wasn't a sexual entity. The whole concept simply confused him. In fact, he'd find the flattening of the chest to be a positive; those things couldn't be comfortable.
"Did you like making your father furious?" Mutasim questioned, softly. He didn't really know what to make of Kalina. She was something of a curiosity...so exuberant about making people mad. A man mad, for that matter. Dangerous business, but maybe her father hadn't really been angry as Muta understood anger. Mutasim's concept of anger was violent and physical. The candidate didn't say much to his companion's fast-paced words, although he did wonder how she'd managed to become the prey of a feline and, more importantly, how she'd managed to escape when he knew she didn't carry weapons. He'd seen what those things could do, and could only be grateful that he hadn't run into any so far.
He was betting he could take a feline, but better not to test that assumption.
"Supervision has its good points," the boy stated mildly. He couldn't really scold her, though; he balked and broke as many rules as he pleased - which was pretty much all of them. He'd practically lived out here in the jungles for a couple of months after finding out about Z'hin. Funny, that. The brownrider was back from the dead, and someone Muta would have been frightened of, now. He wasn't scared of him because of their history, but Mutasim found himself mourning his friend again...The man who came back wasn't at all the one who had left.
Leading the way, he snorted mildly. "Collecting stones? Your father must not have had much for you to do. Stones aren't really that interesting." He kicked one as illustration.
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Post by archenstone on Oct 17, 2008 12:19:40 GMT -5
She paused for a moment. "Well, no I don't really. Thats why I never told him how far I went. Everyone believed that I stayed close to the Hold. I was around enough people during the week that they didn't think to ask how far I went. I would get through chores and go. He only really got mad when I would get bored learning one thing and choose something else....or use materials he had set aside for one of his own projects. I only did that once or twice. I've never seen him madder than when I accidentally used up some metal he had prepared for work.."
Could he really think there was not enough work for her at the hold? She brushed a stray bit of hair back behind her ear.
"I had stuff to do, but if I was wandering and found a neat stone I kept it. Besides, some of them grew really neat crystals." She thought back to how she left. She missed him. "He was probably really mad when he found I'd left though." She said thoughtfully. "I really miss him. If I'd have stayed to say bye to him though he wouldn't have let me leave. He didn't want me around dragons." I didn't want to be some man's wife though...never to be my own person and just have kids.
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