Allowing the boy to be the navigator, Rhazien played the roll of “treasure carrier.” Carrying the bulk of the hide on his back, he followed Strai into a neighboring territory, where the volcanic wasteland morphed into a thicket. Dense foliage meant a water source nearby, which was what they needed to wash the pelt. In fact, they didn’t have to travel far beyond the border before they found what they wanted. An array of smaller streams led to a pond, which further stretched out into the labyrinth of waterways. Slowing his pace, Rhazien approached the shore of the pond, stopping and setting the pelt down once he felt the wet sand.

He watched the boy do the same, before he started prompting him on their task. “You know how to treat a pelt?” He asked, wanting to gauge his level of knowledge before proceeding.

"Speech"

Strai stopped when they reached the waters edge, glancing back at the larger adult to see that he had done the same. The newly carved piece of pelt thrown haphazardly over his shoulder. A smaller twin to the one Rhazien carried. As a question was posed to him, he hesitated, pausing. He didn’t like to admit any weakness to a stranger. Would this be perceived as one? “I’m not as familiar as I could be” He said after a moment.

So far, this wolf had been extremely helpful to him. He wasn’t sure how far his aid would reach, and was prepared to find the end of that tether any moment now.


"Speech"

Rhazien wasn’t surprised by the boy’s answer- he seemed pretty young after all. Part of him wondered where this boy came from, if he had a family, a home of his own, etcetera. Those inquiries would be for later he decided- most kids were pretty naive, but this boy seemed more reclusive than others. he wanted to show him how to treat the pelt first, and gain some of his trust.  “You need to rinse it first.” He grabbed the pelt and started to drag it into the water. “Get all the blood and sinew off.” Finishing the explanation, he submerged the pelt and went to work washing the sinew away.

Assuming the boy would imitate him, he waited for Strai to settle into his task before Rhazien tested his luck. “You got other adults around to teach you this stuff?” Cryptic as usual, he wanted to gather information in an indirect way. He found that open-ended questions were always beneficial when trying to gain information, because it left room for the recipient to talk more.  

"Speech"

At Rhazien’s direction, Strai took his smaller piece of coat to the water as well. He placed it into the water, rinsing it as the black wolf did. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about taking directions from the stranger, but so far things were going surprisingly well.

When the purple eyed wolf spoke, Strai glanced over at them, his eyes narrowing into a glare. “I don’t need anyone to teach me, I’m fine on my own.” He said back, his voice surly as he finished scrubbing the blood from the pelt. His words were a contradiction, since he was using the advice Rhazien gave him - but he didn’t seem to care.


"Speech"

In his peripheral vision, Rhazien watched the boy mimic his actions, cleaning the sinew from the pelt and using his claws to scrub the tougher parts away. His question must have either caught him off guard or irritated him; his amethyst eyes suddenly narrowed into a glare, before a contradictory statement left his jaws. Rhazien couldn’t help but chuckle in response, the sound deep, throaty, and a bit crass. “Damn- what am I doing here then?” He said, inky lips pulled back into a smirk. If he knew it all and didn’t need any guidance, was Rhazien just wasting his time?

That’s how the words came out, but Rhazien knew better than to believe what the boy was saying. And so, he continued with his lesson. Dragging the pelt from the water to place it on a boulder large enough for it to drape over, with the fur side down. “It will need to dry out in the sun… usually for a day or so, until it feels soft and flexible, not fleshy and malleable.” Smoothing the pelt out with his paw, he waited for the boy to mimic him again.  

"Speech"

At the sound of the other wolf’s chuckling, Strai looked over at him again. His eyes narrowed as he wondered if he was the butt of a joke to the other wolf. He didn’t really have a good response to that. While he didn’t want the help of anyone, the truth was he had to learn somehow. He just didn’t like taking charity from strangers. “Cleaning a bear coat, I presume” He said dryly.

When Rhazien placed his coat over a boulder and explained the next step, he wrinkled his nose in annoyance. They had to wait a day or so? That seemed like a waste of time. “There no way to speed it up?”


"Speech"

Cleaning a bear coat, I presume. This kid was hard to follow. One minute he seemed genuinely interested in the task. Hell, they even had fun together killing the bear. And the next, he was reclusive, seeming to withdraw in himself. Rhazien shrugged his comment off, not caring to prod any further. There’s no way to speed it up? He asked, in which Rhazien cast his eyes towards him. “Not that I know of… Unless, you’ve got a different idea?” Strai said he didn’t know how to treat a pelt. But that didn’t mean the kid couldn’t brainstorm a different kind of strategy, if he really wanted to.   ”Speech”