Mavros Weyr and Seahold :: Greater Mavros :: The Fields :: Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow Author Topic: Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow (Read 115 times) WeyrSparrow Administrator [M:0][M:0] member is offline Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 569 Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow « Thread Started on Sept 28, 2009, 9:43pm » Wherling Lesson Two Pulling Fieldstone and Plow "But watch whers. master! I don't see why we have to use them at all when we have perfectly good cattle to do the job!" sputtered Journeyman Paxom, while Anden looked on with a long suffering eye in the hooded lamp-light. Sunrise was still several hours away, and even for beastcrafters, it was an interminably dark and cold spring morning. That was the only reason he was tolerating this...snit at all. That, and the fact that he knew Paxom's bad temper was only a cloak for the man's anxiety. None of the beastcrafters were particularly comfortable around the whers. "They need to be tamed and accustomed to being handled, Journeyman." Anden replied. "Besides, only the well-handled ones are coming. Under Antony, that brown could clear this entire field." The wherlings-in-training, together with their half-grown beasts, had been instructed to come out to the fields west of Lake Ildath early. The recent departure of Hera and Hersk had left them once more without a teacher. They had been rather neglected in terms of lessons for the past month or so, left to do odd jobs where the beastcrafters would let them and assist with the clearing of the tunnels in the hold when they were able, but most of the time doing their best to stay out from underfoot and keep from frighting the animals and the holders and the weyrlings overmuch, something which was quite an endeavor in the close quarters of the tunnels. For the most part, the wherlings had done a good job of raising the beasts safely regardless. But the gold - the gold...Anden closed his eyes and felt his jaw clench. Looking to become no better than Nemorth in twisted miniature. Too much for that drudge to handle on her own, too much for Hera - to the point where she'd left the island - and far too much for him. He was a beastcrafter. He had not come to this island to work with monsters. All the whers were more than half grown now, and now girded with considerable muscle: herdbeasts and draybeasts and canines alike had started to eye them warily, and shy away when they scented them on the wind, and not without justification. After all, they had recently begun to take their own prey live from the corrals, and had proved to be no neater when it came to enjoying their meals than their draconic cousins. Caris, leading the unwieldy and rather truculant looking Carisk, arrived with several sweet rolls in hand, approaching Anden with that cautious reserve of hers, as if she expected to be bitten for the temerity of bespeaking him. "Master," she said, "Will we be plowing to-day?" "Yes," replied Anden, eying the sweet rolls and frowning slightly despite himself. If Caris was still resorting to bribery to get her wher out of bed in the mornings, then the situation between the green and her handler had clearly not improved. "Some will be plowing - others pulling fieldstone. We'll probably leave the stonework to the bigger ones, though, the brown and the blue." It was rather late in the year to be plowing, but hopefully the seeds sown in these fields would flourish over the summer, and provide the settlement with cereal grains and vegetables to supplement the plain and rather strictly maritime diet most of the holders were now enjoying. The crops in question had all been selected and purchased from traders on the promise of a short growing season, rather than for any other trait. Anden only hoped that they could prepare the fields for sowing fast enough to make the purchase worthwhile. « Last Edit: Nov 9, 2009, 10:22pm by WeyrSparrow » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Plotting Page Tealah Adolescent Mavrosite [M:-19] member is offline Currently Reading: Dragonchoice - http://www.dragonchoice.com/ Joined: Mar 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 197 Re: Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow « Reply #1 on Oct 1, 2009, 12:24pm » Mud-brown Antosk, standing steadily amidst the other whers, had only a vague annoyance that they would be used for such demeaning work. Pulling plows! Work for delicious-stupid-food beasts, not whers. He even rattled his stumpy wings a little in irritation, causing Antony to look askance on him. But mostly he was just happy to be given a real job. He was no good chasing tunnelsnakes; he just wasn't agile enough. This was something he could dig his claws into the ground and do some real physical work. Good, very good. Not silly-baby-wherlet work, even if it was lowering them to the level of delicious-stupid-food beasts. Bad, good, but mostly good. Antony stood beside his brown, eyes on the ground at his feet and hands rubbing nervously together. So they were to plow? Paxom certainly didn't seem happy about the idea. Why shouldn't he be? It would mean that the herdbeasts would be fresher, and the whers certainly weren't going to plow all the fields... were they? He really wasn't quite sure what Master Anden intended them to do. All he knew was that Antosk was pleased with the idea of getting some good hard work in, but was irritated. If Antosk was irritated, how must Kaylisk feel? He cast a nervous glance over the other whers. This plowing thing, it wouldn't be easy. Antosk might be enthusiastic - as enthusiastic as the brown ever got, anyway - about the idea of hard work and Antony was very much used to this sort of thing, but how did the other whers and their handlers feel about it? But Antosk was - surprisingly - getting impatient with just sitting around waiting to get started, so he shoved Antony sharply with his snout. Work, he insisted in that slow drawl of his. As in, it's time to work now and all their talking about it was silly. Rubbing his shoulder (Antosk was a strong wher, even that little bump was enough to bruise), Antony sighed and spoke up. "Antosk is ready to work, Master Anden. He's very... erm... insistent." Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged WeyrSparrow Administrator [M:0][M:0] member is offline Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 569 Re: Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow « Reply #2 on Oct 1, 2009, 7:16pm » Anden broke into a wide grin at the sight of Antosk and Antony. "So I see, Journeyman. And a fine beast he's growing up to be!" The older man still kept a careful distance from the pair despite his jovial tone, but he did wave Paxom over with a brusque gesture. Paxom, curly-headed and sullen, approached with even more caution, eying all the whers as though they might leap up and relieve him of an arm at any moment as he dragged over a heavy wooden yoke with the help of a few apprentices. "This one was made for one of the larger bulls," said Anden, gesturing to the device, "but it should fit him. He's about as broad about the shoulders as the Istan black, after all. Go ahead, you should be able to get it on him with Paxom's help. When you've got it on, you'll be plowing the field in a line here. Caris, there's a smaller one for your green, too - you'll be handling the next furrow over." But Caris was already in the process of yoking Carisk: or rather, bribing Carisk to sit still long enough so she could lift the heavy wooden device over the green's shoulders, which while they weren't half as broad as Antosk's were not exactly small, either. More like, lumpier, squishier and narrower, and a good deal harder to get anything to stay fixed on for any length of time. Especially when Carisk was jiggling all over with interest and squirming back and forth to boot. Anden, eying her blubbery olive mass with disapproval, frowned. "Caris," he said, "I'm not sure it's a good idea for you to be feeding her sweets all the time. What about her teeth? She does seem to be putting on rather a unhealthy amount of weight - " "But Master Anden, she won't do anything I tell her unless I give her sweets." The girl's tone was sullen. Wannasweetroll. Wannaroll. Wannanother. Every time Caris tried to lift the yoke over Carisk's head, the wher ducked out of the way, so that it slipped off and fell on the ground: she then looked up at Caris with an expression in her beady blue eyes that had something of the malicious in it, Anden would have sworn by it. At any rate, it was making Caris' brow work and her lower lip tremble, and the Beastcrafter looked away - he had begun to wonder to himself whether he'd made the right decision in rebonding the wher in the first place, and that expression didn't exactly make him feel much better about the choice he'd made. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Plotting Page Theta Adolescent Mavrosite [M:11] member is offline Joined: Mar 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 179 Re: Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow « Reply #3 on Oct 4, 2009, 6:39pm » Rocks! Gwysk chirped, which pretty much summed up the young wherlet's chatter for the last five minutes or so. Gwyn gave a slightly put-upon sigh, chewing on her lip for a second before answering. "Yes, rocks." She said softly. The green wher was fairly dancing with the prospects of inspecting rocks, not understanding that the job of pulling them was both out of her strength and not nearly as fun as examining them. What is? Gwysk asked, pausing curiously to watch Antosk being harnessed. Fearlessly, she approached the much larger wher, nostrils flaring and neck straining to sniff the object around him. Gwyn, cheeks burning slightly already, ducked as she chased after her wher, tugging softly on a tiny wing. "Gwysk, out of the way," Gwyn ordered, feeling overly relieved when the green obeyed for once, getting out of the way and looking up at her handler with her large eyes, excited. Smell funny. Food-smell. Gwysk announced, slightly puzzled why Antosk was wearing a food-leash. Where was food? Anxiously she snuffled at the air, trying to locate the missing beasts. When she scented the normal beast smell faintly from their pens, she sat back, confused. Gwyn seized the quiet moment and made eye contact with Anden, perhaps a slightly less reserved look on her face. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Weyrling H'cen of Zenoth Journeyman Healer Anahe [Loki] Wherling Gwyn of Gwysk Weyrling B'kar of Polth Tealah Adolescent Mavrosite [M:-19] member is offline Currently Reading: Dragonchoice - http://www.dragonchoice.com/ Joined: Mar 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 197 Re: Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow « Reply #4 on Oct 7, 2009, 9:50pm » Antony nodded at Anden's orders, and stepped forward to assist Paxom with the heavy yolk with an anxious half-smile. He may have been equal in rank to the man as a beastcrafter, but he'd never felt like it. Now as a wherling he wasn't quite sure WHERE he fit in with the holders, and he was anxious not to give cause for complaint. That is, other than the hulking brown beast that followed him around. He was pleased to note as they lifted the yoke onto the immobile brown that his wiry strength - honed from years of working with beasts of great size as well as lifting things like this very yoke - hadn't deteriorated in the slightly less demanding career of a wherhandler. Perhaps some would have been surprised to learn that he believed it to be undemanding, but without any real work for the wher pairs to do, it really felt like it. Perhaps he had just been picking up on Antosk's impatience. Antosk tolerated the yoke with only a heavy sigh. He tolerated Carisk much less, berating the smaller green with an annoyed rumble and a click of his heavy jaws. Foolish, acting-fresh-hatched wherlet-brat. And why was Antony looking away so uncomfortably from the pair; he should be putting them in their place so that they could get on with this! He huffed at the apathy of the humans. Useless, all of the - Eh! Gwysk was sniffing at the delicious-stupid-food-beast smelling contraption around his neck. He stared back at her. Silly greens, the whole lot of them. Either acting silly-baby-wherlet or entering his personal space. He huffed again, though between Antony patting him soothingly on the shoulder and Gwysk backing off he settled down. "This furrow here then?" Antony asked to be sure, though he'd already set Antosk in place for the plow. But anxious as Antosk was to be getting to work, he still gave Antony a sharp mental goad, enough to make him wince. "Ah, do you... do you need help with that then, Caris?" Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged WeyrSparrow Administrator [M:0][M:0] member is offline Joined: Feb 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 569 Re: Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow « Reply #5 on Oct 8, 2009, 7:49am » "Yes, Antony, that's the one," Anden nodded, at the moment half-distracted by his preoccupation with Caris' struggles: the girl did not seem to to have taken Antony's questioning well. "No." In fact Caris' answer was at once more forceful and more tremulous than Antony's tone warranted: her round cheeks were crimson with embarrassment and bad temper. And just as she shook her head, rather forcefully, making her long black pigtails whip back and forth, one caught her green in the corner of an eye and Carisk bellowed and shrugged off the yoke onto the ground, square onto her handler's thinly shod foot. Caris shrieked, and hopped up and down on her uninjured foot, while Carisk's beady eyes rolled, and Anden threw up his hands in the air and did everything but let out an exasperated groan: "ENOUGH!" he cried, "Caris, if you can't keep that animal calm take her down to the lakeshore where she can't do anyone any harm." Carisk, the lake - Caris made a step forward towards the green, careful not to put too much weight on her bruised foot. Ooooo Takkabathnow? Takabath? Oh fun! And Carisk was thundering off through the mud of the fields towards the grey glint of Lake Ildath in the distance, before Caris could so much as make another motion to lead her: with a dismayed cry, the girl ran after, nearly tripping over her own skirts in the mud of the furrows, brow wrinkled and face red. The yoke lay abandoned in the black mud: Anden eyed it with displeasure. He ought to have known better, he thought, than to try and put these animals to any practical use at all. This whole wherhandling scheme had been a bad idea from the beginning, and he regretted the day those lumpy eggs had made their first appearance in the beasthold. Rued it. "Well," he said, catching Gwyn looking at him - at least that one had her green under control! "Why don't you take that yoke, Gwyn, and put it on Gwysk? It might be a tad big, but at least she's being cooperative this morning. You should be able to do at least one furrow." « Last Edit: Oct 8, 2009, 7:53am by WeyrSparrow » Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Plotting Page Theta Adolescent Mavrosite [M:11] member is offline Joined: Mar 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 179 Re: Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow « Reply #6 on Oct 15, 2009, 5:42pm » "Ah yes..." Gwyn answered softly, eying Gwysk and swallowing. "Of course." She wasn't afraid of Gwysk, not in the least, but the small green had... well ideas that usually ended up in some sort of embarrassing scene. What? Gwysk asked Gwyn, prancing around her feet with a spring in her step. See rocks? Rocks? See! Rocks, see... Rock? Her happy trail of words died as she observed Gwyn with her head cocked to one side. Gwyn had lifted up the yoke and the wher was confused. What doing? "Come here Gwysk, you have to work." Gwyn answered, and distantly wondered how Caris was doing. She felt sorry for the girl and her uncooperative wher, at least, when she wasn't worrying about Gwysk. Work see rock? Gwysk queried coyly, stepping forward, but not far enough to get in the yoke. This didn't seem like it was going to get her to see pretty rocks. It smelled of trick. "After you work. You have to plow." Plow? "It means dig. You have to get in the harness, Gwysk." Gwyn hardened her features, testing out some authority. Gwysk wasn't really impressed, but she curiously approached, unconcerned as she examined the yoke closely. Sensing opportunity, Gwyn quickly put the yoke over the young wher's shoulders. Heavy! Gwysk yelped, skittering sideways. She tugged at the yoke, pulling it a small way, before wriggling out of it. "Gwysk stop it! Stop!" Gwysk whispered fiercely, ducking her head and letting her hair hide her red cheeks. She clenched a work-worn hand into a fist. Gwysk stopped moving, and the green sulked, sitting down and placing her head on the ground in misery. Not like plow. No no no not like plow. Plow bad. Stony-faced, but at least taking comfort in the fact that Gwysk wasn't as uncooperative as Carisk, Gwyn sighed. She replaced the yoke on Gwysk's shoulders and paused, at loss of how to secure it. Being a drudge didn't exactly teach one how to plow. With a hand on Gwysk's shoulder, the wher still pouting, she looked up and around in a silent plea. Link to Post - Back to Top   Logged Weyrling H'cen of Zenoth Journeyman Healer Anahe [Loki] Wherling Gwyn of Gwysk Weyrling B'kar of Polth labaie Moderator labbadabbadoo[M:-20] member is offline MOAR TEA. Joined: Mar 2009 Gender: Female Posts: 160 Re: Wherling Lesson 2: Pulling Fieldstone and Plow « Reply #7 on Oct 17, 2009, 1:11pm » "We're late, we're late," Logen moaned quietly. Distracted, she picked at a hangnail on one thumb, then shot a glance of mild reproach at Logesk, slinking at an unhurried pace at her side. "You must learn to wake up more quickly when I tell you. If Anden has our hides, I know I won't blame him." Logen not worry, the blue wher snapped, then snarled to himself as he narrowly avoided tripping over one of his relatively long wings. Worry bad. Sleep good. Logen sleep. "No, Logen work," the young woman said, "and Logesk work, and all work, and not so much sleeping. Especially when it makes us late." Work, agreed Logesk, nuzzling his handler with his ugly, snaggle-toothed head. With a sly and definite humor, the young wher added, Sleep later. Exasperated and amused despite herself, Logen huffed and shook her head. "You're impossible." Her eyes returned to their goal . . . and she blinked. Wait. Where had Carisk gone? Hadn't she been there a moment ago? Run, Logesk supplied, supplementing the answer with an image of the chubby green bolting for the lake. "Oh dear. I wonder if Anden will think late is any better than runaway." To this, the blue had no comment. They were there shortly, and Logen pasted her brightest, most dimpled smile on her face. "Very sorry we're late, sir. Logesk can be terribly difficult to get up when he's been napping." Not nap, observed Logesk, eyeing Gwysk and cautiously sniffing the air. Nope. Not nap. ((Failpost!)) 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