Seal had been adventuring with
@Acrux and
@Maggak when
@Slaney returned with a freshly killer fishercat. The aggressive beastie had picked a bad fight when it challenged the silver man and found itself as food for the rapidly growing pups. Seal couldn’t believe Moonspear’s youngest were already juveniles, gangly legs and all.
However, before the lad and lassie could dig into the meal, Seal managed to convince them to let her pull the plush, chocolate-colored pelt from its body. The girl had developed an aptitude for tanning, thanks to her admiration of Sialuk and Kukutux, and wanted to practice her skills.
It was then she sought out
@Simbelmyne for help. She crossed the mountain, the rolled-up skin in her mouth, and searched for Moonspear's newest member.
The deepening chill of the air had prompted Simbelmyne to find more insulation for her den. She found she was not well-suited to the cooler temperatures of the upper altitudes, and had chosen a den in the forested foothills, reinforced by a tangle of roots from a thin, wind-warped spruce tree. Its dropping boughs offered some protection from the wind, but she found the earth hard and cold beneath her as she slept.
She had put down a layer of cattail leaves, but it wasn't enough to block out the cold that seeped into her limbs as she slept. She had made only small kills, and what pelts she could strip from them often became stiff throughout the day, warming and softening only when she lay upon them. Furthermore, they only seemed to last a short time before they began to smell, and had to be discarded.
Slowly, slowly, she felt herself failing to thrive, here.
She had caught another rabbit to replace a pelt which had begun to smell strongly of stale and rot, and had already devoured every bit of its innards. She worked away now trying to clean the rest of the pelt, stripping as much of the fat and tissue off as she could from the torn edges. It was not at all pleasing to look at- but it would at least last another week, she hoped.
In the distance, she spotted one of Njord and Meerkat's children, carrying something dark and soft along with her. Her eyes shone with envy; even the youth of the pack, it seemed, were more adept at handling pelts than she was.
Seal was pleased to find the elegant woman working on her own pelt! It seemed they were of the same mind and shared interests. After Kukutux’s talk, the adolescent was eager to know the women of Moonspear better and find the camaraderie that the wise shaman spoke of.
“Hi!” she greeted, words muffled by the fur in her mouth. She set the fisher cat’s skin down and greeted Simbelmyne with a low, friendly wag of her tail. “I was hoping tae ask your help with this, but I see…” her eyes observed the fine rabbit pelt Simbelmyne worked, “… that you’ve got your paws full already.”
Then, an idea struck. “Hey, how about I help you prep that skin, and then you can help me, and then we’ll tan them together?” she suggested. “Might go faster,” she added, hoping Simbelmyne would join her company. “Ah’m Seal, by the way.”
Seal drew closer, and Simbelmyne sat up so that she might welcome the girl's presence properly. Her gaze naturally fell to the roll of fur that she brought, noting how much cleaner the edges were where it had been split. Her tufted ears flicked back for a moment- a show of deference for the daughter of a former leader.
There was no malice or judgement in Seal's tone, though Simbelmyne regretted that the girl had caught sight of her fairly tattered attempt at making a strip of bedding out of the rabbit she had caught, especially in comparison to the sleek, glistening fur that she carried with her. Her tufted ears fell back again as Seal hinted she might want help with her pelt.
Something she was happy to give, but...Not, exactly, considering her lack of experience with such things.
"I am...Not very good," She admitted. Ashamedly, she pushed the pelt forward, skin side up to show where the edges were tattered, and where her teeth had occasionally punctured clean through. "I would take your help- but I would not risk something as nice as what you have, by offering mine," She said with a thin laugh. "I am Myna," She said, using the name that Seal's father had seemed to prefer. She was aware that the man and his wife had left to establish a home of their own, but it appeared that she would not have to miss his accent, if Seal remained with the pack.
Seal inspected at the skin Simbelmyne worked with a novice’s hand. It was true, there were many imperfections, but the girl could not say her first attempts were any better. The only way she had improved was because of
@Sialuk’s teachings.
“That’s okay, I’m learning too,” Seal encouraged.
“Look… this part is pretty good.” She nosed one edge of the rabbit skin that was practically unblemished.
“I dinnae ken much, but I can show you what I do know,” she offered. Seal wanted to be a good teacher just like all of the other adults in her life.
“I also think… that most of it just comes down to practice,” she added with a good-natured laugh.
"Plus, rabbit skin is the hardest to start with. It's so soft an' thin!" She hoped this made Myna feel better.
“If you pull the skin tight across with your paws, it makes the sinew easier to cobb an’ remove.” Seal took one edge of the rabbit skin, pulled it taught, and began to mow and pull away the fatty silverskin with her incisors.
She cringed inwardly as her rabbit pelt was inspected, only to flick her ears forward and tilt her chin as she took note of the one section that had been torn in a nice, clean line. She'd managed to avoid puncturing the skin there with her canines as well, and in comparison to the rest of it, that small part looked somewhat decent. At least she knew now what to look for in her work- and where she struggled. She was relieved to know she wasn't too bad, given the fact that she had chosen a particularly difficult skin to work with.
Seal offered to help, a thing that brought a kindly smile to her lips. Young as she was, she was easy to defer to and Simbelmyne lowered herself to lay upon the ground as the girl pulled the skin tight between her forelegs so that she could rake the tissue clean with her teeth. She nibbled, using her incisors, a process that flipped a switch in Simbelmyne's mind. That was not what she had been doing- but it looked much more effective.
She scooted around to be shoulder-to-shoulder with the girl, and stretched the rabbit's pelt a bit further so they could each work on a section. She cast a sideways glance in Seal's direction every now and again as she worked, warmed by the presence at her side, matching the rhythm of her jaws to those of the intelligent girl.
They, two sisters of the moon village, worked the skin together. Seal felt an instant camaraderie with Myna and reflected on how happy she was to have her be a part of their village.
“There,” Seal chirped when she felt their work to clean the skin was finished. She turned it, looked at it, and passed the woman a satisfactory nod. “Now we must cure it to keep it from rotting.
Then, a laugh!
“I know it sounds odd… but we must make a balm of brain and ash to coat it before it dries.” Moonspear had no shortage of these ingredients. “Have you been to the place the stars fell?” she asked.