Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn continued taking advantage of the gorgeous fall weather as she worked her way through the southern territories. Here the summer held on a little longer and as she entered the Orchard she saw beautiful rows of trees. Some boasted green leaves and others had turned a dusty shade of violet. Several of the trees bore beautiful red apples. The Orchard was a forest unto itself and as she walked through the tall green grasses bugs of all kinds buzzed and fluttered. A butterfly landed on her nose and she grinned for a moment before it took off into a pale blue sky. There were a few clouds starting to gather lower on the horizon but they were thin and pale so she wasn't worried about inclement weather. As she worked her way through she paused at a nearby tree and delicately scratched a mark into the outer bark. She could probably navigate through easy enough but better safe than sorry.

Dagrún scooted across Fireside's border to her favorite crafting spot in the Orchard. She wasn't to worried for although it wasn't a claimed territory there were enough Fireside wolves roaming around that she wasn't all that worried about her safety. She knew Halla was gathering some herbs nearby and would come to her rescue if she needed it.

Dag settled down in the clearing to await her companions instructions. The kestrel perched on a low branch to start the lesson on building a fire. "Ok, if you're going to build a fire its important to make sure you can keep control over it. If it gets loose it could burn this whole forest down and even the pack lands. Fire is dangerous and you must be very careful with it. Now, we'll first want to build a fire ring. You can do this by digging into the dirt to make a ring or moving rocks to form one."

Dagrún nodded and as there were a number of rocks nearby she started using her paws to scoot them into a ring. As she worked she noticed a strange looking woman scratching on a tree. "Hey! Who are you? What are you doing to that tree?"

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Tirana moved over to look up at another tree and then another. What was really interesting was that almost all of these trees produced some sort of fruit. There were apple trees, pear trees, peach trees, and plum trees. That seemed rather odd to her. She moved past the trees into a clearing full of wildflowers and she stopped at the edge of the clearing to leave her mark on another tree, again with her claws.

Jynn paused as a voice called out to her. She looked to see a young pup and she smiled gently at the girl. "I'm Jynn Tirana, I'm just marking the path I'm traveling so I don't get lost. What are you up to?"

Dagrún thought it was interesting that the woman was marking the trees to make sure she didn't get lost. That idea could come in handy in the future. "I'm learning to make a fire! My name is Dagrún Finnvi. How come you're all stretched out like that?" She didn't really know how to articulate her confusion over how different Jynn looked from other wolves.

"Dag, that's not an appropriate question. Come now, let's focus on your fire. Halla will want to use it for her tea. Now, we'll want to gather a number of sticks to burn. You'll want big ones, medium ones, and small ones. Whatever you can carry and they'll need to fit in the fire ring."

Dagrún nodded and started collecting sticks that had fallen in the clearing. Whenever she found one she thought would be good she bounded over to the kestrel to check that it was good. Once that was done, Sperla instructed her how to lay the sticks in the fire ring by stacking the biggest on the bottom and working up to the smallest on the top.

Come down, come down sweet reverence

Jynn chuckled at the pups question and she looked to the bird. "It's alright, I get that a lot. I'm a maned wolf. A different kind of canine like a fox or coyote but entirely my own species." She hoped that was a good enough explanation. The girl seemed to accept it and went on her way to gather sticks under the watchful eye of her companion. While the girl worked on her fire Jynn continued her exploration of the Orchard. There was a large amount of fallen and old fruit on the ground now that it was towards the end of the season. Many small prey animals were taking advantage of the fallen fruit, scampering here and there and Jynn immediately started hunting.

Jynn's answer made sense enough to Dagrún. Maybe she'd see other maned wolves in the future when she was able to wander farther. She finished stacking the sticks hen looked to her companion who then said it was important to add tinder to the top to catch on fire, something like dried leaves. Dagrún quickly complied, scooping up a big mouthful of dry, fallen leaves and dumping them on the top.

"Ok, now we need to start the fire. Grab the flint and steel out of the travois." Dagrún nodded and bounded over to the travois to select the suggested items. Once they were in her jaws she scurried back over to the fire ring and set them down. "Ok, set the flint onto the edge of the fire ring, as close to the leaves as possible. Take the flint in your mouth and strike it against the flint to make a spark."

Dagrún did as she was instructed to and it was awkward at first. She swung her head striking he steel against the flint. There was no spark. She tried again, no spark. By the fiftieth try she got a spark and by the eightieth time she finally got the kindling to catch fire. It slowly then spread through the rest of the sticks. She let out a cheer then flopped down on her belly.