Trial and Error Crafts

Ricin clucks his tongue and hums thoughtfully to himself as he inspects the horns of the animal before moving off to gather some odds and ends. However, ears catch Chade’s question and Ricin drifts back over to the dead creature. Offering his brother a wide smile, Ricin says, “Well, we need something to hold the pelt with… right? Look at how the horns curve.” One light hued paw mimics the natural curl of the ram’s horns as Ricin continues, “If we roll the pelt tight enough, maybe we can put the horns around it to keep it tightly bound. That way, we can easily keep it on one of our backs when we travel.”

A confident smile rests the lighter boy’s lips as moves off to gather things. While he moves around the room, Ricin keeps an eye on Chade’s progress. He offers his brother a shrug when asked what they do after it torn off. He says, “We will figure that part out once it is off.” There are spotty memories of their father coming back from a hunt and tanning an animal’s skin but he had never paid close attention to the process. Chade continues to pull the pelt away from the meat as Ricin gathers his things, finally depositing his objects in the space he is using for crafting.

When Chade finishes cutting off the skin, Ricin moves to stand next to his brother. Nodding at his brother’s words, Ricin says, “Remember when da’ would tan skins? Didn’t he have a wooden frame or something? And…” Brows furrow as the lighter brother tries to grasp hold of an elusive fragment of memory. After a moment he says, “I think he used fire too… I think.” Huffing a sigh of frustration at himself for not paying closer attention to those things, Ricin looks to Chade with sadness. “I don’t know Ny, I never took the time to watch da. I really wish I had.”

Sorrow drowns Ricin as he prepares to remove the creature’s horns. Memories ignite like wildfire, burning through the lighter hued pup. Their father’s smiling face haunts the dark recesses of his mind, promising him love and acceptance. Ricin remembers their father as he works, putting all his sadness and anger into the removal of the animal’s horns. When the last one jerks free, Ricin retreats to his spot, laying it among the other objects. He pushes the sad memories aside, instead forcing his mind to latch onto the puzzle of how to make a functional yet decorative pelt holder.

Taking time to clean the gore off the horns, Ricin then lays them a short distance away from each other. Looking to size of the pelt and trying to guesstimate how long and thick it will be when rolled up, the light pup makes some slight adjustments to the distance between the two horns. Satisfied, Ricin then picks up some of the odd pointy sticks and lays them between the curled horns. After he has made two lines of sticks, one in front of the other, Ricin then lays some strips of leather over the spaces where the sticks overlap. For now, he prepares his work, spreading everything out and placing them where they will be attached.

Moving around, prepping and humming thoughtfully to himself, Ricin then takes serveal longer strips of leather and lays them in front of the horns. These will be fashioned into shoulder straps, to loop under on their arms and allow for easy transportation. Finally, Ricin moves the small metal chains to lay next to the tips of the horns. These will have no functional purpose, the dangling chains offering a slight bit of flare in an otherwise boring contraption. Stepping back, satisfied with the lay out, Ricin looks to Chade and says, “When you have a moment, I might need some help tying knots.”


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