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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 9:53:09 GMT
1040 words
| | Pet: none
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As the young samurai Caerbannog observed people’s daily lives in Londinium, she noticed an increasing number of landers who had their own mounts. By the looks of it, they were not couriers or cavaliers so she thought it was rather odd that they had their own shire horses which could be summoned at their whim. The horses were not like regular barn yard animals which stayed in pens or enclosures. They were creatures that appeared whenever a lander blew a small wooden whistle. The sound of the whistle was rather annoying to Caerbannog but she figured that all whistles were like that anyway. The question in her mind was, where did all those whistles come from? The little smithy made her way down to Saint Pancras Station to check the stalls. Since the item was made of wood, she went over to the artisan and woodcrafter sections. There were the usual puppets, handheld mirrors and statues of just about anything that one could imagine. Caer walked on until eventually she found a stall which still sold mount whistles, but the last one was quickly purchased by a passing fellow adventurer. She stayed to observe the woodcrafter who owned the stall and almost immediately, the man set to work and began crafting yet another wooden whistle. At least now she was sure of two things: the mount whistle was craftable, and it could be used by anyone regardless of subclasses. Her own pets could be used as mounts but the wolf-hair understood the need for using actual dedicated mounts. Not everyone was interested in the animal trainer subclass and it would be folly to expect people to dedicate so much time and effort to something that was as simple as getting from Point A to Point B. Mounts were only decently fast, after all; they were nothing like Hirosame’s trains.
The wolf-hair then wondered where those mounts could have come from. Obviously they were not wild animals for such creatures would not be inclined to follow the words of any regular lander or adventurer. What place had a lot of animals? A zoo! Close, but no controller. What place had a lot of domesticated animals? A farm! Yep, that’s the correct answer! After she observed the woodcrafter’s methods of crafting the wood whistle, the smithy set off to some party of Windsor Greatwood, beyond the gates of Londinium but not too far from its walls. There were small farms around the city which made use of the lush greenery in the Greatwoods, some of which tamed wild animals while most raised their own domesticated creatures. Seeing as the mounts which she saw in the city were obviously tame, the wolf-hair thought that she would only have to earn the trust of some little beastie so that she could use it as a mount. Not wanting of food or shelter, tamed animals were also more trusting of people than their wild counterparts. It should be easier than taming a centipede or a wyvern, but not too easy.
Eventually, Caerbannog came across a small farm that had a decent number of animals. There were cows, horses, sheep, goats and most curiously, what seemed to be a smaller version of llamas. If the wolf-hair remembered correctly, those things were called alpacas and they were much more amicable than their larger counterparts. The wolf-hair snickered as she remembered the popularity of llamas on the internet mostly due to their disgusting spit which people found highly entertaining. Caer herself was more of a doge and lolcat person, but she thought that llamas were interesting in their own way. Alpacas though… they were much more adorable to her, probably because of their size which was close to the smithy’s own height. Careful not to disturb the animals even though she daydreamed of burying her face on an alpaca’s thick coat, Caerbannog looked for the farm’s owner and eventually found her.
“ROSE!” the samurai screamed as the wide middle-aged woman turned around.
Little Caer ran to the lander who picked up the adventurer in turn and spun her around.
“Oh you cute little dumpling!” the woman said to the wolf-hair, “What are you doing here?! Do you have a quest in this area?”
“No no, I was looking for a farm because I want to learn how to make mount whistles!” Caer excitedly announced as the lander put her down.
“Good timing, I’m taking care of this place for a friend. She had gone off to Avon, you see?” Rose smiled from ear to ear, “How about you take a look around while I feed these little beasties?”
The woman then began to drag bales of hay towards some of the enclosures.
“I have a better idea! I’ll look around while helping you feed them, okay?” the samurai declared as she pulled her own bales of hay.
“A perfect plan. Ask questions as you go, dear baby girl,” was the chipper reply from the lander who was obviously happy to see the wolf-hair adventurer again.
The two ladies walked over to each enclosure filled with different kinds of farm animals. Some of them ignored the people and just dug into their meals, while others were curious of the little adventurer in black and red. Some of the horses, which were much taller than Caerbannog, sniffed at the girl’s hair and licked her forehead. The samurai did not mind at all for she liked animals very much, as evidenced by her choice of subclass. With two people working in the farm instead of just Rose, feeding time went about quickly and the pair moved on to the cows and sheep. Unlike the horses, cows were greedier and completely ignored the people who handed the bales of hay over to them. On the other hand, the flocks of sheep were incredibly curious and nudged both the lander and the adventurer at every chance that they could get. The last enclosure contained a small group of alpacas, a mix of young and adult animals. The older alpaca huffed and pulled the bales of hay away from the bipeds while the younger ones curiously stared up Caerbannog’s skirt. It might have been the first time that the alpacas ever saw striped undergarments.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 9:55:23 GMT
1050 words
| | Smithing the Whistle
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After minor incidents of getting her clothes pulled and her limbs licked by the farm animals, Caerbannog was able to complete the designated feeding time along with the lander Rose. The woman, thankful for the little samurai’s help, sat down with her during their idle hours and helped the wolf-hair by answering any questions that she might have.
“Do the animals here react to whistles?” Caer first asked as she took out her smithing toolset and set it up on the porch of the farm house, away from highly flammable material likes hay and grass.
“Some of them do, but not always in the way that we want them to,” Rose answered, “For example, dog whistles grab the attention of dogs that some people train but when the farm animals hear it, they become distressed instead of being attentive.”
Caerbannog swapped her school uniform gear for the more practical smithing overalls, tank top, boots and gloves. She then fired up the portable furnace that was stuffed with the coal that the blacksmith tossed into it. The quench tub was filled with quenching liquid for later use and her anvil and hammer were set down in front of the furnace. The wolf-hair thought back to that time when she painstakingly crafted small iron scales for a scale armor sleeve. Crafting a whistle would be similar to that because of the small detail, but at a much lower level of difficulty because she only had to craft one item.
“Do you have any whistles?” Caer asked the lander who nodded and immediately walked into the farm house.
While Rose was looking for any whistles that may be in her possession, even toy whistles that her friend’s children might have used, the wolf-hair blacksmith began to refine metal from some iron ore. The heat of the furnace melted the metallic components of the ore which were then place onto a small mold. Caerbannog did not really need a whole ingot, but she needed to gather all of the refined metal in one place so that should do. Afterwards, she poured the metal into two separate, smaller molds: one for the upper half of the whistle and the other for the lower half. She couldn’t exactly make a whistle from just one piece of metal after all. Unlike wood or clay, metal was not readily shapeable. To make sure that the inner workings would have the correct shape, Caerbannog would craft the two pieces apart and combine them to create the metal whistle.
“Here you go!” Rose suddenly spoke up loudly that the wolf-hair almost jumped, but she caught herself and did not cause her furnace to topple over.
The lander then put an assortment of whistles near the quench tub: big and small, wood and clay; most of them were toys while others were used to mimic the call of birds and the like. Caerbannog wondered if other wind instruments such as flutes or ocarinas could be used to summon mounts, but at the same time she picked one of the wooden whistles as her model. The small pieces of metal were heated up before they were worked on and the blacksmith crafted them as quickly as she could. If she re-heated them too much, the metal would become too impure due to burning carbon; and so the little samurai girl, with gloves to protect her hands, worked swiftly with her detailing tools to create the two halves of the metal whistle. It did look just like the wooden whistle that she modeled it after, but would it work the same way? The sound might be different due to the materials used.
“Almost done…” Caer exhaled as she joined the upper half of the whistle to its lower half and made sure to leave no hole that could let the user’s breath run out in an unwanted direction.
Once the two parts were joined together as one metal whistle, the blacksmith placed the item in the quench tub and left it to cool down for a while. Rose patted Caer on the shoulder, her hand rather heavy and rough; calluses on the woman’s hand gave away all the hard labor that she’d been doing. Because of that, the samurai appreciated the pat on the shoulder all the more. If such a hard worker such as Rose acknowledged her crafting, then it was worth all the effort that she put into it as well. Still, there was a trial up ahead that the samurai had to get past. The metal whistle still had to be tested and its potency and effects checked. The wolf-hair hoped at it would at least elicit a reaction from any of the farm animals, but then she did not want anything too violent. Who knows what would happen if her whistle pissed off a whole farm full of animals? Probably a stampede of cows and fluffy sheep. Even with the thought seeming funny in her mind, it would not be a laughing matter if it really did happen.
A few more minutes and the metal whistle would be completely cooled and ready for use. Caerbannog was slightly nervous; she did not want to fail, especially not in front of Rose who had been so impressed with her thus far. As the blacksmith killed the fire in her furnace and put some of her tools back in her inventory, she glanced beyond the porch and watched the animals that roamed their decently-sized enclosures. The horses would be a good place to start for they were the most generic of mounts, but then it would be interesting to use a cow to get from one point to another. Sheep were cute but not everyone was as small as the wolf-hair. Caer shuddered as she imagined Rose on the back of an unfortunate ewe. Soon the furnace was completely cold and her metal whistle, which sat in the quenching tub, was ready. The wolf-hair mustered up a bit more determination and positivity, and then she took the whistle out of the tub. With the item in her hand, Caerbannog walked over to the horse enclosure. She blew into the newly-crafted whistle but all she got were weird looks and raised eyebrows from the horses.
Caerbannog used Whistle! But it was not effective…
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Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2015 9:58:54 GMT
800 words
| | Finding Sheep
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…or so the blacksmith thought at first. That was, until a foal looked up at her and turned its ears to her direction. Caerbannog used the whistle again and the foal faced her completely. The older horses, however, shook their heads and turned away from the source of the whistling noise. Caer looked over the metal whistle in her hand; did it sound weird? Why were the older animals turning away from it? She couldn’t use a foal as a mount so the samurai just moved on to the next enclosure. Ah, cows… wouldn’t it be great if she could charge in on an angry bull? Even if it would not fight, the sheer presence of the creature- wait, only a calf came running to her when she blew into the whistle. The cows and bulls ran over to a corner far, far away from the wolf-hair. Charge in on a calf? Yeah, right. The blacksmith went over to the next enclosure: sheep.
“Uh…” Caer sighed as the creatures flocked towards her like moths to a flame, “Okay you look like a nice bunch.”
The moment that she blew the whistle though, the sheep scattered like panicked sorority girls in a dorm that was on fire. Only the littlest lambs remained near her and they raised their cute noses at the samurai. Adorable! But totally unfit for use as mounts. Sure, Caerbannog was smaller than most adventurers but that did not mean that she would put infant animals to work. How rude of you to think that! Young animals could be used as mounts but babies were out of the question unless the rider weighed only as much as half a sack of potatoes. Caer weighed maybe three-quarters a sack of potatoes. If the metal whistle could only drive away adult animals, she hoped that it would at least be able to attract young adults which would be suitable for her purpose. The samurai checked the goat enclosure but some of the creatures were engaged in a fight; pass. Caerbannog walked a little further until she reached the alpaca enclosure. Who thought that some lander would have such out-of-place creatures in his or her farm?
“I just want my own mount… please make this work,” the smithy sighed once again before she blew into the whistle.
As she expected, the babies stayed while the adults scampered away. Caerbannog was about to give up and just toss her metal whistle into the furnace when something warm and soft brushed against her overalls. The samurai then felt a tug on her pant leg. She looked down and noticed a young alpaca, colored cream and coated fluffy, which was slightly older than all the babies that had responded to her whistle so far. The creature then stood up and sniffed at the metal whistle in the wolf-hair’s hand. Caer blew into the metal item once again and then young alpaca’s ears perked up as it stood to attention. The samurai tested the creature’s attention span; she walked along the fence of the enclosure and blew the whistle after every few steps. The cream-colored alpaca followed her and sniffed at the fence every now and then.
“Looks like you found one,” Rose said as she walked up to the samurai, her big hands in her apron’s pockets, “Why don’t you let him out and let’s stay at the porch. My friend will be back soon. You can talk to her about it.”
Caerbannog nodded enthusiastically at the lander. The alpaca would have to be trained as a mount but that was a problem for another time. Her metal whistle had been crafted successfully and it worked too, so that was all that mattered at the moment. With a bit more tweaking and experience, she or other blacksmiths should be able to create metal mount whistles suitable for adult mounts. That out of the way, Caer thought of a name for the fluffy mount already: Sheep. Quite fitting for a young creature that was as soft and fluffy as its namesake. Sheep the alpaca, once he was let out of the enclosure, followed the little blacksmith and the taller lander to the farm house. He curiously looked around at everything but almost immediately hopped towards the samurai when she was too distant. Sudden sounds from the other animals made Sheep jump, as was expected of a young creature which was to be trained as a mount, but he showed no signs of going crazy at strangers. Caerbannog waved to the alpaca and offered some fresh hay to him while they waited for Rose’s friend. It might take while for Sheep to be trained to be a proper mount seeing as he was a very young alpaca, but Caerbannog had all the time in Elder Tale for that.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2015 16:58:58 GMT
1610 words
| | Sheep in the City
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The talk between Rose's friend and owner of the animal farm, Lauriana, and the samurai Caerbannog was short and straightforward. The adventurer wanted to purchase a young alpaca, one of many and nothing special, for a reasonable sum of gold. To Lauriana, it seemed like a good trade so she let the little samurai girl lead the alpaca away to its new home. Caerbannog, even with her odd name, did not seem like an animal slaughterer anyway and she was Rose's acquaintance so the farm owner did not ask any more questions. Sheep, as the alpaca had been so inappropriately named, seemed to have already warmed up to the wolf-hair in a short span of time. Perhaps it was due to the metal whistle... or to the fact that Caer let the creature chew on her clothes and hair. As they walked along, the young animal was led only by a comfortably-tied piece of rope around his neck and its other end was in the samurai's tiny hands. She patted the alpaca every now and then to assure it that everything was going to be fine, up until they reached the main road. A passing cart which hurriedly rolled past startled Sheep and he buried his face on Caerbannog's back. The wolf-hair sighed at this; it was just as she expected of an animal that was only fit to be a mount, and a young one at that. It might take a long time or just a lot of patience to train him to take her from point A to point B. The alpaca would have to be acquainted with the busyness of the roads and the sheer amount of people outside of their little farm in the Greatwoods. But for now, Caerbannog still had to earn the frightened creature's trust. Unlike the usual mount trainers, Caer was a Level 90 animal tamer so even if her skills could not make the alpaca trust her unconditionally or bind it to herself, she could at least make it calm down even in a stressful situation. The Greatwoods of Windsor was so new and so vast and so scary to the young alpaca's eyes that he just stared at everything as if he was a deer caught in headlights. Even as passers-by threw strange glances at the samurai and her fluffy farm animal, Caerbannog just stood there and waited for Sheep to take in everything around him. Tall and short, male and female; adventurers and landers walked past the odd pair. A little samurai and her alpaca, the two connected by nothing more than a piece of rope. If the alpaca so wished, it could headbutt Caerbannog and flee back to the animal farm. But being a young beast, Sheep was also curious of this new world past their fences so his anxiety and fear were replaced by less stressful feelings soon enough. Once the alpaca had calmed down, Caer patted its side gentle, careful not to startle her dear little Sheep.
"Are you okay now?" the samurai asked the creature which was only slightly taller than her, the skill Tongue of Nature toggled on before she spoke.
At that, Sheep's eyes widened once again. Did the fluffless one really just speak to him? And in a language that he could understand?! Oh, his friends would have to hear all about it! The alpaca was so surprised that he just stared at Caerbannog for a while until the samurai patted his side once again.
"Yoo! Yoo talk!" Sheep exclaimed, his vocabulary rather limited even compared to other alpacas due to his young age. His tone became solemn though when he asked a question, "Nevur see friends again?"
Well, at least he seemed to know that any alpaca that left their farm with a different person would never return. It saved Caerbannog the trouble of explaining to him that he would be staying with her in Londinium now as her personal mount. But as for the question itself, there was no definite answer yet. The samurai figured that it would not hurt to take the alpaca back to his original home every now and then just to visit.
"I talk, yes," the wolf-hair replied, "As for your friends, we can try to go back later. But first, training!"
Sheep did not really know what training was, but the samurai did not seem to be a bad person so the young alpaca nodded at her and began to walk alongside the wolf-hair when she headed up the road to Londinium. And how did Sheep know that she was not a bad person? Why, by the taste of her clothes and hair, of course! Anyone who tasted 'bad' was a bad person, that much Sheep knew! It might not sound logical but who are we to question alpacas? The pair walked on with the samurai leading the way; Caer moved slowly to allow the fluffy young one to look around. Londinium was in sight but it was distant and the samurai waited for the right moment to ask something of Sheep. When he seemed distracted enough by the curious things around him, the wolf-hair stopped and so did the alpaca.
"You're Sheep," Caerbannog said to the young creature, "And you're supposed to carry me around."
That did not sound like the nicest way to say it, but the samurai had noticed the alpaca's limited words so she wanted to be as brief as possible. Sheep tilted his head as he thought about what the fluffless one just said. It seemed reasonable to him for the other animals in their farm did pretty much the same thing.
"Okay!" Sheep cheerfully said, much to the relief of Caerbannog.
It was not as difficult as she thought it would be and that probably was because the farm animals were already domesticated by their original owners. Sheep even lowered his head a little when Caerbannog clambered onto his back. She was still in her smithy clothes, which she hoped would be washed later by her dear house husband Kumori. Wishful thinking, but the wolf-hair was too exhausted to think otherwise. In any case, the alpaca did not give her much trouble and once she had successfully seated herself onto Sheep's back, Caerbannog held onto the rope around the creature's neck with one hand while the other hand pointed towards Londinium. It wasn't rocket science and Sheep was not stupid, merely young and inexperienced with the outside world. He did understand though that the wolf-hair wanted for him to walk forward towards the high walls in the distance.
And so the odd pair, now a fluffy mount and his rider, trotted on towards the city. They caught up to the people who stared at them earlier and Sheep happily ran at a steady pace past them. The wolf-hair felt light upon his back and he thought nothing of the labor that he was being put through. All that while, Caer had wondered if it was really okay to put such a young creature to work but seeing as Sheep seemed to enjoy it, she was not so worried anymore. It wasn't long before they reached Londiunium, a bustling city that made the young alpaca stop on his tracks. There were so many fluffless ones in it! A lot of them stopped and stared at the odd mount and his rider but he knew to pay them no mind. He had successfully carried the fine-tasting fluffless one up the road to the place with high walls, and that was enough for Sheep to be proud of that day. In the farm, he barely did anything aside from play, eat, sleep and poop. Now he had something else to do and it felt great!
"That's enough for today," the samurai patted the alpaca's neck as she hopped off of his back, "You did good!"
Sheep let out a happy grunt and he licked the wolf-hair's head. Caer really needed a bath now but she did not stop the alpaca from displaying its affection. Since it was a young creature, she would have to be very patient with it and careful too otherwise it may be traumatized before it even became an adult alpaca. With the end of the rope in her hands once again, Caerbannog led Sheep through the busy streets of the vast city. The main road was packed with so many people so Caer led the alpaca through one of the alleys. It was quieter but a rather roundabout way of getting to the Abbey. She would have to show Sheep all of the roads and little pathways where he could fit so that if they ever had to go around the city, her mount would not get lost.
After a few minutes of walking, the samurai and her young alpaca finally arrived at Westminster Abbey. She would have a lot of explaining to do and it was still questionable whether she would be allowed to use such a young animal as a mount, but Caerbannog hoped that she would at least be allowed to keep Sheep. The alpaca knew nothing of the wolf-hair's dilemma and she kept it that way. The mount and its rider then headed towards the Abbey, one curious of the bright new world around him, the other lost in her thoughts as she thought about any valid reasons for her to keep Sheep. 'Because I want to!' would not always cut it and she had used that reason so many times already. Ah well, if anything she could keep the alpaca in their private home. She was almost so sure that Kumori would not mind.
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