After spending many hours examining and attempting to recreate the work that Scylla had done for the gifts she had offered her and Saracyn during the festival feast, Avacyn finally gave up her efforts to figure it out on her own and went to go find the slate and cream young woman. At the very least she was lucky that Scylla had decided to stay here for a while so she didn't have to try and go visit Syclla's pack in Auster to get answers. She felt like she had pretty much mastered or at least become extremely comfortable with all manner of crafts and projects dealing with stones and metals, but working with leathers and skins was turning out to be a far more difficult task than she was expecting.

Avacyn made her way down from the large series of caves that she shared her family to find the one that she was fairly certain Scylla had taken up residence in since she remained here after the festival. She found the other girl's scent pretty easily and peeked inside the cave that was heavy with it, but didn't find her there. She hummed softly and looked around a bit, trying to see if perhaps she was somewhere near by, but she lost track of the scent somewhere down the mountain path since it had snowed that morning and the scent didn't hold as well on the snow. Well, she supposed she wasn't in too much of a rush so she went back to Scylla's den and laid down just inside the entrance to wait for her, assuming she would probably come back sooner or later.

"Avacyn Mendacium"

Scylla had been settling well into Elysium. She still did her own thing because it was damn near impossible to tie her down. The girl was learning a bit of healing here and there from the pack healers so she felt that she was doing her duty. No one had to look after her. No one had to feed her. No one had to even acknowledge her existence if they didn't want to. It all suited Scylla just fine.

Just because she wasn't at home didn't mean that she would stop indulging in her favorite pastime. Before she left Fenmyre, Scylla had packed a satchel full of little things. Horsehair, bone needles, things of that nature. Enough supplies to get her through until she could collect more. She had everything that she needed except for a subject. And so, the slate and cream girl had gone off hunting. One rabbit and one pheasant later, and she was headed back to her cave.

Padding towards the cave, Scylla noted that Avacyn lay in the doorway. A little hmmph was released and one speckled brow arched, but she didn't stop her approach. Stepping over the larger girl, Scylla placed the dead animals on a long stone bench, which was why she'd chosen this space. Only then did she turn back to the purple girl. "Hey Ava, what can I help you with?"

"Scylla"

Avacyn was in no hurry and was happy to wait for Scylla to return—which she eventually did. Avacyn was examining her paws when she heard the sound of someone approaching and she lifted her obsidian gaze to look at the slate and ivory girl walking toward the cave. Avacyn shifted to sit up on her haunches as Scylla came in, waiting as she went to drop off a rabbit and pheasant that she had apparently hunted while she was out. Then came the question—what could she help her with? Avacyn smiled softly and replied, "Actually, I wanted to see if you could show me how you made the pieces you gave Saracyn and I. I've been examining the fine stitch work you did for days and practicing it, but I can't seem to get it down." That was when she happened to notice Scylla's unusual toes, not unlike the ones she had spotted on the woman that lived with her Uncle Merrick, and the realization crossed her face with a soft chuckle. "Although... Maybe I'm just not built for that kind of crafting," she mentioned as she lifted one of her large, tiger-like paws, wiggling the soft, rounded toes a bit. She gave a small shrug and added, "Ah well... I'd still like to see how it's done if you don't mind. Any techniques I can incorporate into my crafting would be fantastic."

"Avacyn Mendacium"

Scylla questioned the purple girl and the reason for the visit soon came to light. Ava wanted to learn about taxidermy and admitted to having tried it on her own with little success. Ava then happened to look at her paws and realization dawned on her that they were built a little differently. Scylla shrugged a speckled shoulder and gave her head a shake. "Just because your paws are bigger doesn't mean that you can't learn how to do this. You just might need to work on a larger scale." It would be easier for larger paws to work on a larger creature versus working on something as small and slender as a snake or a mink.

With one paw, Scylla waved Ava over to the bench. With practiced precision, the small fae spun a blade in her odd paw and began to slice down the center of the rabbit belly. She did the same down the inside of each leg, chopping through the bones just above the paw. It was difficult to recreate a paw and there wasn't enough meat in a rabbit paw to bother with, so she just kept them on there. "So the secret with skinning is to try and place your seams where they're less likely to be seen. You don't want to slice down the middle of the back, for example." Scylla continued removing the rabbit from its skin, tossing the corpse aside and holding the fur in her paw. She then moved across the room and took the lid off of a wide container. Placing the skin fur side down in a wide wooden dish, Scylla began covering the fleshy underside in a thick layer of salt. "Salt removes all of the moisture from the hide so you can avoid rot," she explained.

With the hide under salt, Scylla then took the handle of the wooden tray between her teeth and gently pulled the tray out of cave and into the sun. "Salt the skin twice, leave it in the sun for two days. Larger skins may need to be cured for longer." Mismatched eyes rested upon the face of the purple girl. "Questions so far?"

"Scylla"

Avacyn hummed with thought as Scylla pointed out the possibility of working on a larger scale instead. She had been trying to mimic the small, intricate stitches she had seen on Scylla's work, but she could possibly work on something larger where the stitches wouldn't have to be so small to not be noticed. It was a good point that Avacyn hadn't considered in her efforts to match the other young woman's work. At Scylla's invitation, she joined her at the work bench and watched as Scylla skinned the rabbit with practiced precision and nodded with understanding as the explanation of cutting where the seams were less likely to be seen was given to her, stowing the tip away for later. That part certainly made sense and was expected, but what was new to her was when she placed the skin fur side down in a container and began to cover it in salt.

She watched with a curious tilt of her head until it was explained to her that the salt was to draw moisture out to prevent it from rotting. She gave a soft 'ahhhh' of intrigue and nodded. She had only seen hides stretched out and dried so this was a new technique for her to learn. It did make since though since Scylla's goal here was to keep the skin in tact as much as possible and in the shape of the animal it was rather than forming it into something else. She followed Scylla as she pulled the tray outside, listening to the instructions and time line she was given for how long to salt and dry the skin and nodding again. When Scylla asked for questions, Avacyn replied, "Do you need to wash the salt off of the skin after it's done curing? Or does it not matter since you're going to just sew it up? And what do you use to sew it up? What kind of needle and thread?" She was always full of questions, but she tried not to bombard Scylla with them all.

"Avacyn Mendacium"