There was a large oak growing, just outside the orchard behind Woe's longhouse. Today, Woe had made the determination that he would shape it into a sort of house, or shelter for Toutouye. If the boy couldn't, or wouldn't abide the indoors, he could at least make do with more comfortable lodgings than a simple cot beneath a hide tent. It was well past time that Woe did this. In fact, he'd meant to earlier, but the situation kept rolling away from him, one thing drove out another, especially of late. But now they had a moment of relative peace and time, two necessary ingredients for the sake of getting what they'd need to have done.
Woe knelt in front of the Oak tree, breathing deeply. He felt the energy it gave off, and between him and the tree, and the mark of Sevrath that gifted him the ability to give the oak tree shape. Yet as a Soul-Forged, he knew all plants had a sort of will of thier own, and wouldn't necessarily accept just any shape. So as he sang to it, he simultaneously communicated with the great tree. It fed back with the necessary feelings, that would make it easier to reach a compromise of shape and structure for it to take.
He sang to it, and let the feeling of concern, of gratitude toward Toutouye, to give the tree inspiration to shape itself in a form that would provide small shelter. In time, it formed a modest room. He was about to sing his last, when a gut--wrenching scream rent through the air. The doorframe he was forming into the oak-dwelling curled wickedly at the last perhaps reacting to the violent scream. But then, Woe ceased his shaping of the tree, giving it a moment to rest before he'd return to finish it's form.
He turned toward the spot the scream had come from. He heard much rustling of leaves and branches underfoot. As he went to investigate, he realized he was nearing Toutouye's campsite. He brushed aside the shrubbery branches and leaves that gave privacy to the campsite, and saw Toutouye inundated by a pack, no a colony of very friendly bunnies. He didn't appear very amused by their forthrightness, however.
Woe came out from behind the brush, and signed to Toutouye, "What is the matter?"
Toutouye turned his head, and frowned, furiously signing. "These rabbits got into my apples. They have left raisins all over my bed, and they're everywhere."
He took a look at the bunnies, all of them scurrying about happily and heedless of the humans that were moving and standing in their midst. "Well, they're awfully friendly. Shouldn't be hard to exterminate them."
Toutouye let a wicked grin cross his face, as he looked at the bunnies, and snatached one from the ground. It cuddled him for a few moments, but then Toutouye snapped its neck easily, bashing it against the nearby trunk of a tree, to ensure it didn't suffer unduly. Woe smiled at him, "We'll get a good share of pelts and meat for these buggers."
The bunnies, when it saw that these humans weren't exactly friendly, began scurrying with chaotic abandon, scattering leaves and branches and making an obstacle of themselves as they made a mad rush away from TOutouye and Woe.
Woe summoned a shadowy snakewhip to his hand, and began clubbing the rabbits unconcsious. They had three down before they even had time to make distance. Toutouye for his part grabbed another that had been cornered inside his tent, and easily snapped its neck like the other.
There were a lot of bunnies, it'd be a long chore to hunt down more of them.
They spent much of the rest of the noontime setting traps. Woe instructed Toutouye to spread out his traps, and also to tie a ribbon of red or yellow to the brush nearby the traps, so that they would alert any people coming upon them, and so they wouldn't accidentally be harmed by the traps.
Why red or yellow? Toutouye signed, witih a shrug.
Haven't you heard the old rhyme? Red or yellow, kill a fellow?"
Toutouye's face twisted into a grimace, and he stuck his tongue out at Woe.
"Oh well..." Woe said, as Toutouye went off, with ribbons and trap materials in hand.
Woe meanwhile set some snares, a variety of other traps as well. Some were pit traps, others more deadly, containing sharpened sticks to impale the poor hapless bunnies. The things really were beginning to pester the locals of Egilrun, especially as some had taken to treating them a little too nicely.
While he understood that some might feel sorry for the beasts, it was no good to engender such behavior in the wild things. They needed to be taught that humans were not to be relied upon. In the long run, it'd be for the best of their broods to learn that humans were to be avoided, and to trust to their own abilities.
It was for a similar reason that Woe was out here, working alongside Toutouye, when it might've been easier to breathe poison upon the hordes of rabbits. He wanted to encourage Toutouye's sense of self-sufficiency, which was already strong. But He also wanted to know what the boy was capable of, exactly.
He'd find out soon enough.
He continued setting a field full of traps, making sure to mark them off with a few standing sticks, with yellow and red ribbons tied to their ends. Off back to the Cabin he went after he was finished setting a bunch of the traps. Now came the interesting part. Actually driving the bunnies off.
Using his bullwhip, while seemingly an obvious choice for driving and herding, seemed almost overkill. Plus he could use this opportunity to learn a weapon he'd been meaning to learn more about. The sling.
So as Toutouye arrived, Woe conjured a pair of the slings, from shadowy tendrilsi lining across the ground. He gave one of the slings to Toutouye.
You know how to load a sling, yes?"
Toutouye shrugged, and then demonstrated, by packing a smooth pebble into the sling. It was a little small for their purpose, but he supposed it could work agains ta creature as tiny as a bunny. Toutouye wrapped the end of the sling to his middle finger, while his index and thumb gripped the other end between them.
Woe knew enough to mimick the lad's actions, as he knew more about using such weapons than he. Although Toutouye wasn't a great shot, he knew some of the basics of missile weapons, having lived much of his life solo in the wild.
Woe copied his actions, and then took a bullet from his pocket and placed it into the cradle. By now, the bunnies had overcome their fright, and were beginning to congregate in the main open area behind the cabin. Woe stiffened his brow as he looked at them, and then nodded to Toutouye, to observe how he slung the weapon.
Toutouye slung it forward, counter clock-wise so to speak, so that the cradle came forward as it spun over his arm. This seemed to lend it less lift, and more in the way of speed as he released it.
Of course, the rock flew mere feet away from the nearest bunny, as Toutouye's aim was not anywhere near to competent yet. But then, they weren't trying to kill the things with their slings. They only wanted to herd them into the dangerous zone where they'd dug all the traps.
Woe repeated the same motions as his adopted son, taking aim at the crowd of bunnies and then swiftly letting loose with a single rotation.
The bullet fell far short of the mark, but that was good, as it drove them forward. The bullet did skip against the ground, but somehow miraculously managed not to hit a single one of them. Woe took the miss in stride, but Toutouye smirked, suppressing a snicker as he followed after the crowd of bunnies that were now fleeing for dear life.
They drove them through the fields, into the woods where the traps and ribbons had been set.
By the time their hunt was over, they'd bagged a couple dozen rabbit carcasses at least. Hopefully those friendly creatures had learned their lesson, to fear humans, and not befriend them.
Woe and Toutouye went about disassembling their traps after the hunt, plucking the ribboned markers as they went back toward the cabin, carrying their catch.
When Woe made it to his office, he drafted a standing bounty for the pelt of any bunny found within Egilrun's borders:
To whomsoever it may concern,
Let it be known that the Egg of Egilrun has issued a bounty on the pelt of any bunnies found within the town of Egilrun, until the end of Ashan.
Egg Woe Morandi.
Template by Natalia Gregorios
