I have toured the endless starlight…

With a bundle of hides strapped to her back Aerndis looked for a good place to settle down and work. Rudolph, her eagle, soared above her before landing a short ways ahead. He'd found a spot, excellent! She quickly trotted over to the bird and found herself standing at the edge of a lush prairie. This had to be the Algoma Prairie. She dipped her head a moment to take in the heady scent of the grass and the abundant scents of prey. What a lovely area.

Aerndis shrugged the bundle off her back. The hides were from fresh kills and so she was anxious to get to work while they were still pliable. There was also the chance that the remaining blood and flesh would attract predators and scavengers. Rudolph settled in one of the few trees that stood in the prairie to act as a look out.

Using her jaws she carefully unfolded a white tail deer hide. Bundled in the hide was a dead rabbit, part of the deer's scapula and the deer's brain. She'd need that to tan the hide. Setting aside the rabbit she eyed the deer hide, debating where best to start.

TIAMAT

It had been a long time since she had been a Klein.

Tiamat's chest rose and fell with even breaths. She steadied herself, eyes closed, head bowed. Her paws worked the earth beneath her feet -- damp, cold, and surprisingly rich. She'd heard of the Volcano's eruption, but had stayed clear of the fallout in the months that followed it. Now that its effects were beginning to lessen, the wolf felt safer returning.

She'd half a mind to find her family first, but news of the Klein empire had reached her charcoal ears. They were growing steadily. It pained her a little, put a pang in her heart when she thought of her late parents, but to know that the Kleins were still thriving was a relief.

And, it meant that they could wait.

With that in mind, she strolled aimlessly through Boreas. Presently she halted, turning her striking eyes towards the wolf she'd chanced upon. Her lips wrinkled into a smile, genial and bright, eyes half-lidded as they always were. She stood, small and slight, at 29 inches, shorter than the average wolf and definitely small for a Klein. Fur tapered off her in wisps, every inch of her sharp and angular, rather a sight to behold. The other wolf was taller than her, but her face was youthful and she had not the world-weary air that seemed to bear on the Klein wolf.

"Good day to you," Tiamat purred, voice a strangely soothing lull. Her words flowed from her lips like a hymn, rolling off with a foreign lilt. "What might you be doing?"

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OOC:

I have toured the endless starlight…

Deciding the smell of the deer's brain might attract more company she opted to start there. Rudy could always take the rabbit and fly off with it if necessary. Aerndis used her teeth to finish unwrapping the deer hide so that it lay flat with the fur side down. Blood and bits of flesh still clung to the deers hide. She was about to take the piece of scapula in her teeth when she heard the sound of approaching paws. She looked up to see a small woman approaching. The woman greeted her and asked what she was doing.

"Hello there, I'm just tanning a hide. Working on getting some leftover bits off first. Are you here to do some hunting as well?" Aerndis grasped the scapula in her jaws so the blade portion lay against the hide. Holding the hide down with her front paws she pressed and worked at the stubborn bits of flesh that hung to the hide, working here and there to clean it up. All the while she would glance at the stranger, awaiting cues to see where the conversation would lead.

TIAMAT

"Tanning," Tiamat mused, rolling the word around in her mouth. It was a thing hunters did, she supposed. She'd never been a hunter, even though she was good at it; necessity had forced her practice, but the best hunters had all specialised in their skills from an early age. This younger wolf had Tiamat's interest piqued. "No, no." Her lips curled in a smile, thin and glinting white, like a waning moon. "But I'd like to see how you 'tan' this hide."

Though the other wolf was younger than she, Tiamat was no stranger to humility; she'd learn all she could from here, and then use it for her own. There was a lot she didn't know about this land -- Tiamat had spent as much time as she could roaming around, distancing herself from her ancestral home. In her heart she'd panged for her family, but she'd held out -- was she really ready to return? To be brought back to the clutches of the Klein name, to live up to her heritage, and to once more be beholden to everything the family demanded? Of course she was; yet, Tiamat couldn't help but feel as though freedom would slip from her grasp the moment she wore once again the mantle of Klein.

The scent on her was mixed; Tiamat was first assaulted by a great range of smells, indicating pack life. Again, her thoughts wandered to her family. None of them she could smell on this wolf, so what had happened to them? Were they sequestered by themself in their own little empire? Had they spread out, to infiltrate the land piece by piece, unseen and unheard? Then, the younger wolf's own scent emerged from the mix, stronger now than it had been before. Tiamat committed this scent to memory. One wolf in a ledger she intended to keep clean.

"I am Tiamat," she offered first, the name easily slipping from her lips. She left out her family name, curious to see how this wolf would react when presented with an ordinary stranger. Tiamat had never been any sort of princess, but respect had been grudgingly accorded to her. Tiamat wanted to see how someone who'd never known her in a previous life would interact with her. "What do you call yourself?"


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OOC:

I have toured the endless starlight…

Aerndis set the scapula down when she'd finished working over a troublesome spot. The stranger stated that she wasn't there to hunt but was interested in tanning. She introduced herself as Tiamat. "It's nice to meet you Tiamat. I'm Aerndis. Tanning is pretty simple it just takes a lot of work. With the help of my companion I cut the hide from the deer's body and then used the scapula to scrape off excess flesh." Aerndis leaned down and unwrapped a small piece of buffalo hide to reveal the deers brain. As she did so her serpent eagle, Rudolph hoped forward to introduce himself. "Hello, you can call me Rudy." The bird cocked his head to the side, gazing up at Tia in that unusual manner of birds while Aerndis continued.

"You then take the brain from whatever it is you've killed and smash it into the hide and rub it around." It was gross but effective. Using her paws she batted the brain onto the hide and then proceeded to smear it across the flesh, using her weight to massage it in. "The brain is just slightly acidic and helps to prep the hide for preservation."

TIAMAT

"Hello, Rudy," Tiamat smiled, oddly gently. She had a bit of a soft spot for birds; she'd tilted her head skywards in her youth and wished she were anywhere but home, but slowly grew out of it and into her responsibility and roles. Being seen as a second-rate Klein had at first jilted the young Tiamat; then, it had driven her to prove everyone else wrong, and she'd succeeded. She no longer pined for the freedom of birds, but found herself liking them even so. "Well met, Aerdnis."

She watched and listened as Aerdnis explained and worked the hide, wrinkling her nose slightly when Aerdnis spoke up about the brain. Well. Tiamat could see how it worked in theory, but in practice... At least tanning hides had never been part of her duties. It was one thing that Tiamat was glad not to be doing. Still, she moved closer, looking with keen eyes at the girl's work. She massaged the brain in with steady rhythm, ensuring that every part of the hide that needed to be covered, was coated in the... brain mush. Aerdnis had a good work ethic, and it seemed she was willing to dirty her paws to get the job done.

Exactly what Tiamat liked in a wolf. She smiled again. "That's very interesting. Where did you learn this from?"


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OOC:

I have toured the endless starlight…

Aerndis finished smearing the brains into the hide, pausing for a moment to examine her work. Yes, that would do. She scrapped off the excess with her paws, leaving that for the bugs. Now she just needed to wait and let the hide cure. She moved to lay down like a sphinx enjoying the feel of the sun on her back. It was a nice day to be out. She considered Tiamat's question for a moment before answering.

"I know this will sound strange but I actually learned how to tan hides from a loner who had taken me in during a storm when I was younger." Having been more or less abandoned by her parents when she was younger most of the skills she'd learned were from loners or through her own experimentation. She was in a better place now with both her parents but she couldn't really say she felt close to them and even now it just felt strange to refer to them as 'mom' and 'dad'.

"So what brings you out to the prairie? Are you just passing through? If you're hungry I don't mind sharing my rabbit."