Real Cooking (D'ero

[Marnark]

Well, she hadn't quite kept her promised. But D'ero didn't know that. When she'd gotten back from the excursion that the Shield had gone on, she had gone to her own place and crashed out for a solid day. Boom. There went one of her rest days. But that was also normal, after an extended mission. When she woke up again she had a bath next. A real, hot bath. Getting all the encrusted mess off of her, it was good to be clean again. Her outfit was also cleaned and reoiled, ready to go again.

So properly dressed again and clean once more, Jarshan made her way through the Weyr halls. Her leather didn't make a single sound as she moved, her soft soled boots padding quietly across the floor. Given what time of day it was, she was pretty sure where she could find D'ero. Mostly because she had caught sight of him just a few minutes prior.

For those without wings, it was a long walk and quite and exercise just to get there. But with a long stride and more than plenty of patience, she got there in due time. And when she got there, she started to get a mischievous twinkle to her eye. Which completely did not go along with her being dressed for Shield activity.

Sneaking up behind him soundlessly, she wrapped one arm around his middle to keep him from leaping off any short ledges with long drops, and placed her other hand over his eyes. "Guess who." She whispered. Nevermind the whole thing was somewhat awkward, given how much wider and taller than her he was.

[Ise]

D'ero managed to not jump as Jarshan snuck up on him. He did tense up a bit until he heard her voice. He relaxed and a little grin came to his lips.
"Sounds like my favorite person in the whole Weyr."
He turned in her arms and gave her a look over before leaning down a little to give her a quick kiss. It was good to see her back from her mission and looking no worse for wear. He had missed Jarshan while she had been gone and had been anxious for her return.

"So how did your mission go? Or am I not allowed to know that kind of stuff?"
He ran a hand down her arm before he forced himself to take a little step back from Jarshan. He needed to try and behave himself for a little while at least, as hard as that was to do around her. And of course her being dressed in her leathers really didn't help him too much. At least now he could try and sneak little things in with her and hopefully not push his luck too much.

"Hm if you're back and you're here that means we get our second date now doesn't it? A cooking date right? So I'll get to spend time with you and have good cooking? I hope the afterlife is half as good as this sounds like it'll be."

[Marnark]

She couldn't hide a grin as his jump told her that she really had snuck up on him. She let him go though as he turned around, allowing him to steal his kiss. Silly boy was a hopeless romantic, but she was okay with that. "Don't let your toad hear that." She teased with a grin.

"Well ... it's no secret what we do, you know. So I don't see why I can't tell you what I've been up to. Most of it is boring I assure you. You know, the whole sneaking through the woods and sleeping on the cold ground bit." She gestured at the forest in general with a vague wave of her hand, even if it couldn't be seen. "We did manage to catch a few twerps out there, and got them apprehended. The ones that were amiable to being brought in, anyway." She shrugged. "So well enough I guess. We did what we set out to do." She took his hand when he got that low, not missing a single thing of his actions. Which only elicited another grin from her.

"You're so wound up! Did they not let you fly today or something?" She teased. "But yes, I'm here to drag your scraggeldy ass off into the forest and make you work for your dinner. You might want to find yourself a leather jacket. One that can handle being scrubbed and slashed at, not your flight jacket. You don't want one that well insulated either." She cautioned.

[Ise]

"Frog, not a toad. And I did say person, I don't think he counts as a person."
He grinned though as he listened to her talk about the work she had done on the Shield's mission. While the sleeping on the ground part didn't sound like much fun to him, he was glad that they were able to complete their mission on a high note.
"Glad that you guys were able to catch someone out there. Was it any of the Holdless or just random hooligans?"

D'ero was only slightly disappointed when Jarshan moved his hand. At least she seemed to find his actions amusing and not annoying. He let out a chuckle and shrugged a bit.
"No, didn't get to do much flying today. And even if I had I still wouldn't be able to help myself. You just have that affect on me. I don't think you mind too much though."

He gave her a little grin before raising an eyebrow slightly. His coat was going to get scurbbed and slashed at? What was he going to have to do for her? He'd find out soon enough. He thought for a moment before he went to the chest where he kept his things and dug through it a bit until he came up with a well worn coat. It wasn't insulated but it was still something that he hadn't found much use for in the South, it was either too hot for a coat or too wet. He pulled it on, making sure that it still fit him before pulling it off and draping it over an arm.
"I haven't had to wear this since I left for the South. And aside from my flight jacket I haven't had to wear a coat at all since getting here. Just what are you going to make me do? Fight for dinner?"

[Marnark]

"Holdless, random hooligans ... is there a difference?" Jarshan asked. "They both take a knife to the ribs equally well." She shrugged, letting go of his hand as he moved to go look for a suitable jacket. She eyed it and him as he tried it on. "Is that what they call fashionable up there in the north? It's hideous." She stated, with no embarrassment for the insult.

Insults were something that she didn't have a problem flinging. And apparently it didn't matter who at either. Or what at. Besides... the North was a particularly easy target to fling insults at.

She did snicker a bit at him though. "I can tell all too well the effect I have on you." She agreed. "Sorry, but you're going to have to keep your pants on for this date." Jarshan teased. And maybe she could make him stick to that too.

"You ... are going to want to wear that." Jarshan stated when he took it back off again. "Someday this week we're going to have to drag your big butt down to the caverns and get you a proper jacket. But yes, you have to fight for your dinner today. Come on then." She gestured for him to follow, and then headed out again, back down to the ground. "And you get to leave your toad behind, too. If he comes you probably won't get any dinner."

[Ise]

"The Holdless have a goal and hooligans aren't that smart? I don't know, I guess for you guys they both come out to be the same thing, trouble makers that need to be dealt with."
He was unbothered by her killing them, he had never seen a Holdless prisoner before and assumed they had caught some of them. He now just felt lucky that the Shield hadn't handled the Expedition like that. It would have been a shame if he had seen Jarshan only after she had slipped a knife between his ribs.

D'ero looked down at his jacket and frowned a bit. He thought it looked fine on him. So it was a little old and worn out but he didn't think he looked that bad. Of course he had never had much interest in fashionable things.
"No, it's just my coat. And it was my brother's before he out grew it, and it may have been my dad's before that... why waste a good coat if it still keeps you warm?"
He shrugged a bit, his family hadn't let things go to waste and the coat had always worked just fine for him. A new one would be nice but he wasn't in any rush to get another one when he still had one.

"I promise my pants will be staying on. As hard as it's bound to be to keep that promise but I will at least try to behave myself and not get you too hot and bothered either."
He grinned a bit, remembering how hard it had been for her to take her eyes off his chest. Or at least that was how he remembered it in his mind. He wanted to believe that he could have the same affect on her as she did on him, or else it just didn't seem fair.

Slipping the coat back on, D'ero shook his head a little.
"Just what am I fighting? And why is it me that's fighting it? We do some fighting lessons in weyrling training but I'm no where near your level of fighting."
He wasn't complaining to Jarshan, more just curious to know what her reasons where. He followed after her though, staying close beside her.
"Horuth won't follow, I'm sure he'll enjoy the time he gets to be by himself. I'm too distracting during his nap time."

[Marnark]

Jarshan chuckled a little. "The holdless are hooligans." She corrected. "Otherwise they would not do what they do. At his statement that it was just his coat and that was all there was to it ... beyond other people possibly having worn it too, she just sighed. "Northern taste is terrible." She confirmed. "After today you might not have a coat left, depends on how well cared for that leather is, and how thick it remains after that many turns of use." She warned. Yes, today's excitements might just prove to be the end of that awful looking jacket.

Jarshan rolled her eyes but grinned at his long drawn-out promise to keep his pants on. "After today is over you might be too tire to even think." She answered. She didn't elaborate on that, as he plowed straight into more questions. "My, aren't we curious today. You're not going to be fighting necessarily. Certainly nothing like what you're thinking. You're just going to be in the woods, and that alone is probably going to be enough of a challenge for you." Exiting the lower entrance to the tunnels she'd been descending, she cut across the bowl headed for the exit that dumped out into the jungle that surrounded the Weyr.

"Today, you are going to learn to cook. And I mean really cook, not that easy stuff they do in the kitchen. First, we have to find our ingredients!" She informed him, rattling her fingers off of the bow that crossed her chest. Unlike a lot of people who wore their bows, hers was strung across her chest backward. Or so it seemed. Instead of having the string across her chest and the bow itself behind, the bow's wood was clamped to her chest by the string crossing her back. Though it was only about two and a half feet long, a very small bow by most standards, it was a powerful little creation with a high powered draw on it. The short length of it made it easier for her to navigate the jungle and also had the double benefit of keeping her boob out of the way when she was shooting it.

For the time being she walked on the ground, making it easy on him to keep up. For several hours she walked, as if she had a notion of just where it was she was headed, and expected him to follow. She didn't look back to see if he was; just the sound of his feet hitting the ground told her just exactly where he was. Abruptly, she came to a halt and pointed her finger at the ground. "See that? Dig there." While he probably didn't know it yet, the plant she was pointing at was liable to have some tasty tuber bits under the soft tree-litter festooned peat soil.

[Ise]

"I'll have you know that I've taken good care of this coat. Or at least I did when I was wearing it. It's old but I bet it'll still be around by the time we're done today. So long as I don't have to wrestle a feline. If I have to do that then I'm not sure if I'll be around."
He was pretty sure she wouldn't make him do something like that. But he wasn't positive. Jarshan was not the most predictable person so he was never fully sure of what she might do.

D'ero did wonder what exactly he was going to be doing though if his coat might be getting destroyed and if he was going to be too tired to think. He didn't think he would end up being too tired, days full of hard work were normal for him, he had enjoyed those sorts of days.
"Oh just in the woods? I don't see why that'll be such a challenge, I know I'm not as cordinated in them as you are but it's not like I trip over every tree branch on the ground or anything."
He followed along behind her, easily keeping pace with her as they treked through the Weyrbowl, once they got to the forest he would have a harder time, he wasn't as sure footed in there as Jarshan was but he didn't see what the big deal was.

Of course he hadn't been expecting to walk for hours and hours and then a couple of more hours. What she was looking for he had no idea, at least he had a nice view of her from the back as he followed along. His breathing had gotten a bit heavier but he didn't slow down or ask for any breaks, it was the heat and humidity that was getting to him more then the walking was. And the coat was only making it worse. While he was tempted at times to take it off, he kept it on knowing that the coat was the only thing stopping his arms and shoulders from getting scratched up by the trees they passed under and through. Of course he wasn't enjoying the feel of his shirt clinging to his skin like this either.

Finally though, she came to a stop before pointing at some plant. He looked at the plant, looked and Jarshan and wish that they had a shovel or something before he dropped down to his knees and started digging the plant up. The ground was soft but he was careful as he dug up the plant, he didn't want to stab himself with some unseen branch and he wasn't sure how careful he needed to be with this plant.
"This is stuff that we'll be eating right? You're not just making me dig in the dirt for your own amusement right?"

[Marnark]

Jarshan laughed as he plopped down on the ground to start digging. "Silly." She accused, stooping to pick up a stick. She tapped him on the shoulder with it and then offered it to him. "This works better, you know. For loosening the soil. And yes, there's a reason I am relegating a mighty dragonrider to menial labor like digging a hole in the ground with his fingers." She giggled just a little. "You'll be finding some elongated tubers down there. When you do, dig 'em out." She explained, crouching on the other side of the plant to watch.

She was completely content to let him do the work. He was the one learning, after all, and Jarshan believed in hands-on learning. If she did it, he wouldn't learn a sharding thing. Lucky for him, the soil was not only easy to work, but the roots weren't very deep or hard to remove from the root system. In short order they had a small handful of the skinny things. They certainly didn't look like any tuber the kitchen used. But they were hard as a rock.

She pulled open a pouch on her belt, and pulled a cloth pouch out of that. Flicking it to unfurl it, she pulled the mouth of it open and held it out for him to deposit the roots in. "This is our first ingredient. Wild tubers." Jarshan explained. "Now you need some spices." She arched a brow at him, and then grinned. "Don't worry, it doesn't require any digging."

Standing up again, she didn't go far before pointing out various plants. "This is hot, you don't want much of it. This one had a tang to it, so you don't want much of it either. Too much and you'll puke it back up. But a tiny bit is a good, flavorful addition." She explained each as she went, making sure he saw what each plant looked like, and smelled like once it was broken. She harvested the bits herself, however, now that his hands were so very nicely covered in dirt.

It was not too long before they happened across a stream, in which she gestured for him to wash his hands in. Or as much of him as he cared to get wet. They were farther from the mountains here ... far enough that the water was not icy cold. She certainly had not missed his fish-out-of-water gasping in the humidity. Or that he was completely drenched under the protective leather coat he was wearing. Jarshan didn't want him to get a heat stroke on her, and took precautions against it. Like not pushing him as hard and giving him time to cool off, get his wind back.

While he played in the water, she kept an eye on the jungle around them. It was a good job that she did, too, for it saved D'ero another trek through the forest in search of further ingredients. In a flash she had her bow off with her left hand, her grip on the wood never releasing as she stripped it off over her head and twirled it around in the self same hand until it came around to rest where it should be for firing. All while her right hand stripped an arrow out of the quiver and nocked it on the string just as soon as it came to rest. In less than two seconds she'd gone from wearing her bow to having fired it. The arrow zinged off into the brush so quickly that it was difficult to register if a body wasn't expecting it.

Stepping into the bushes after it, Jarshan retrieved the arrow - and the small wild wherry it had skewered through. "And our meat." She grinned at D'ero as she walked back, dropping it next to him. "Do you know how to skin and gut?" She assumed he did ... he'd had to feed his toad after all. But then, it might have also been skinned and gutted for him, all he might have had to do was cut it into dragonet-bitesize bits.

[Ise]

He took the stick from her and used that to help dig up the soil around the plant.
"Hey I don't mind this work. Better then mucking out stables, smells a lot better too."
D'ero gave her a little smile as she crouched down to watch him work. Now that he knew what he was digging up, he was carefully about how hard he poked the stick into the ground under the plant, he didn't want to break the tubers and have to dig up even more of them. It didn't take him too long to get the tubers out of the ground and he looked them over a bit before dropping them into the bag Jarshan held open for him. They didn't look like anything he had seen before and hoped that it would taste better then it looked.

The spices were far more interesting to him. He didn't think he would be able to remember all the plants that were pointed out to him but he could remember a few of them. He could remember the smell of them better then he could the looks of the plants. He kept his hands to himself though, letting Jarshan gather the herbs and even resisted trying to leave and dirty hand print on her rear, no need to make her kill him before he had eaten after all.

The water was a welcomed sight for him. He washed his hands clean before he pulled off his coat and took a little extra time to splash some cold water on himself. He was almost too busy with the water to notice Jarshan whip her bow out and shoot something. He caught it out of the corner of his eye and turned to watch her. His eyes darted around, unsure what it was that she had been shooting out until she followed her arrow into the bushes and came back with a wild and dead wherry.

He visibly relaxed before picking up the wherry, looking it over before giving her a nod and resisting the urge to roll his eyes at her. He was not one of those little lordlings that was helpless when it came to things like skinning and cleaning out a wherry.
"Yes I can skin and gut things. I grew up on a farm and had the pleasure of doing things like this all the time. Wherry's are easy, herdbeast are a little harder."

[Marnark]

Jarshan eyed him for a moment before laughing and sliding the arrow out of the creature. Instead of pulling it backward back out, she fed it through the same way it had punched in. The fletching folded back neatly and slipped right through, though it did come out bloody. She handed the carcass to him, and then unsheathed one of her thigh-knives. Reversing it in her grasp, she extended it to him. "Then get busy, boy. What are you waiting for?" The grin she was wearing took the sting out of her words, as she moved to the water to rinse the arrow off. Sliding it back into her quiver, she walked over to a bush and started hacking at it with another of her knives. Coming away with an assortment of sticks, she walked the few steps back toward where D'ero was, and sat down on the soft, decomposing tree litter.

While he worked with the wherry, she fiddled with the sticks in her own lap, occasionally glancing up to see how he was doing but keeping any comments to herself. Pulling a spare bowstring from a pouch, she tied one end of it to one end of a longer stick, and then bent the stick into a bow shape and tied the middle of the string to the other end. With a shorter stick she threaded it through the string and twisted it once, causing the bow-shaped stick to bend that much farther, the string now wrapped around the middle of the second stick as well. Toeing a thicker piece into a good position on the ground in front of her, Jarshan rested one end of the middle stick on top of it, steadying the whole rickety contraption with one hand while she rooted around in the tree litter with her free hand. Coming up with a rock, she placed that on top of the vertical stick, and leaned on it. Holding the whole thing like that, she picked up the bow-shaped stick and started sawing it back and forth industriously.

The string going from one end to the other around the middle stick that was now pinned between one piece of wood and the rock under Jarshan's weight caused the middle stick to start spinning. First one way and then another in very rapid succession, following the behest of her sawing.

"They're still making you do weyrling chores?" She asked, apparently not at all perturbed to talk and work on something at the same time.

[Ise]

"Yes ma'am, whatever you want."
He gave her a mocking little salute before he took the knife and went to work on plucking and cleaning the wherry. This wasn't the first time he had done such chores, nor would it be the last time. He didn't mind such work, it was easy and some what mindless which gave him the chance to watch what she was doing with the sticks and the bow string.

"Hm? Oh, yea. It's free labor, why wouldn't they put us to work doing something. I don't mind it that much, I'd rather be doing something then just sitting around waiting for something. The chores have changed at least, we're doing less scrubbing and cleaning and helping to patch up gear and do counts on what the Weyr has and what it needs more of."
He shrugged a bit and finished plucking the feathers off, taking a knife to the skin of the bird and making sure that it was clean and free from bits of quills that might have gotten stuck. Next came the fun part of cleaning the bird out.

"Did you want me to save any of the innards for you? Or do you just toss them all?"
He was careful with the knife as he started to cut off the head and other more useless parts of the bird. It was bloody and messy but at least the river was still right there so he'd be able to clean up again. And he was being careful to not get blood or anything onto himself. The last thing he wanted was for the sent of blood to attract other animals to them, especially if those other animals were felines.

[Marnark]

The poor abused stick on the bottom was beginning to smoke, the little tendril curling up into the air as it rose from the wood. "I should think that by now you'd be rather occupied with not only dragon care but wings and drills and things of that nature ... too busy for menial labor. Weyrlings don't do wing drills. You are. That, to my mind, means you are not a weyrling, regardless what they call you." Jarshan commented as she continued to saw away with her little bow contraption.

"Unless you want any of them, just toss them. Normally I might keep a few, but I figured we'd keep it simple today." Jarshan answered offhand. "Don't dump them on the ground, though. Bury them. Along with those feathers." She cautioned.

Getting off of the rock, she dropped it and the rest of the contraption to one side suddenly and quickly. With a boot she scraped a section of forest floor clear of any debris, before hollowing out a small area with her hands. Placing a few dry leaves and twigs in the center, she picked up the smoking stick and upended it over the heap. Out of the little hole that she had more or less force-bored into it with her bow-contraption fell a tiny red hot coal. Once it landed in the tinder heap, it really started smoking. Jarshan leaned over and blew on it gently before tinkering with the pile a little bit.

Soon, there were flames licking up out of it, and she started adding sticks. Including some of the ones she had used to make the coal in the first place. Once the fire was going pretty well, she took a moment to re-coil her spare bowstring, and returned it to a pouch on her waist. Following that, she started adding more substantial wood to the fire, whatever was within reaching distance from where she sat. After nearly all of that was in the flames, she bothered to get up and actually fetch some dead fall for the hungry fire.

It was not long before they had a nice cooking campfire going. Pulling out a skin bag that looked like it might at one time have been something big's bladder, she handed it to D'ero. "Fill that with water." She instructed.

[Ise]

"I'll just be happy when the rider title is official. If they still want me to keep doing little chores around the Weyr I won't mind. Just have to wait until the next batch of candidates and weyrlings shows up and then they'll be able to take over the menial labor.”
He gave Jarshan a little nod as he took the knife and started to open up the wherry and pull out the innards. For now he dropped everything on the ground, once he was done he would make sure the feathers, guts and bloody dirt all got buried to make sure wild animals wouldn’t come and pay them a visit.

He took his time cleaning out the inside of the wherry, instead watching Jarshan get the fire started. He had never seen anyone start a fire like that before, he had seen others try to do it like that but flint and tinder had always been faster and easier back North. Still, it was good to have multiple ways to do something, maybe he’d have to ask Jarshan to teach him how to do that.

Grabbing a stick that Jarshan hadn’t thrown into the fire yet, D’ero dug a hole deep enough to put all the trash into it. He was careful to make sure that he didn’t miss anything and that every little feather and every spec of red dirt found its way into the hole and covered with clean dirt. Animals were sure to dig it up once they left but for now they would still away.

He handed the skinned and cleaned wherry to Jarshan as she gave him the bag. He looked the bladder over, shaking his head a bit and wondering just what animal it had come from before he stood up and gently slung the bag over his shoulder.
“Alright, full of water. Anything else I’m going to need to bring back or will that be it?”

[Marnark]

Jarshan picked up the wherry once D'ero finished with it, and strung another stick through it. She then stuffed a pair of forked sticks into the ground to either side of the little fire. Sitting up straight Jarshan looked up at him with a quizzical look on her face. "No, just water. About half to three quarters full." she gestured at the nearby stream. "That water will do."

Silly boy. She went back to tending the fire, feeding it and then letting it die back down again so that it wasn't quite so actively flaming. Once the fire was at that perfect stage of heat, she set the wherry's stick in the forks of the other two, placing it above one edge of the fire. While that was going and D'ero was fetching water, she took another young, green stick and bent it into a loop. Holding it up she adjusted it until the size of the loop met her specifications. Twisting the ends of the stick through the loop a few times, she added a few more sticks to the sides until she had a hoop on a wide tripod contraption. Setting that down on the ground by her knee, she waited for D'ero to arrive with the water she'd asked for.

"Be sure to wash the knife, too. You're going to be peeling those tubers you dug up, next." She warned with a grin.