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 Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:31 pm
It was early in the morning, far too early to be awake, and yet Tock was. He was a bit away from the Jolly Rodger, planing a slat of wood into a board. It sat on two wooden horses made of two slats of wood tied together into triangles with rope. They were there to hold the board steady so he could work.
He was silent, for the most part, shaving away thin pieces of wood with a thick shell that he had found in the surf. It wasn't the first shell he had used, it wouldn't be the last. Sometimes he put too much pressure on the cut and it broke the shell entirely. Then he would curse and go back into the water, searching for another.
It never occurred to him that a child wasn't supposed to spend his free time like that. It never really occurred to him that he was a child in the first place.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:37 pm
Bavaria usually was up early, when she felt there was work to do or that something needed to be finished. This morning was one of those mornings. She was in the need of some wood to work with, since there was someone else coming to the grove. Traps were in need of repairing and reinforcing. That meant more wood supplies.
At this moment, she was moving towards where the pirate-kids were staying. They were working on an old ship, rebuilding it and using trees to do that. That meant that she could possibly get some of the stuff that they didn’t use, and use it herself. But, she didn’t expect someone to be up.
Bav hovered in the air, looking at the big gator guy from the edge of the foliage, watching him as he worked. Then she snorted. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping, kid?”
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:40 pm
Tock jerked, startled by the voice. He hadn't expected anyone to be up this early, in fact that had been one of the main reasons he was. He turned, looking at her for a long moment before turning back to his work. He knew who she was. He had seen her when he had tried (and failed) to follow Silva around for a while.
"I haven't found the cabbages yet, so you don't have to be here," he told her bluntly, thinking she was here to fulfill Silva's side of the bet.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:55 pm
"I ain't here to find out how you're doin on finding cabbages," she said, giving him a bit of a glare. She didn't know Silva's deal that he had going with the Tock. "I need some wood, and you are throwing out some things I could use."
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:57 pm
He hesitated, his hand hovering over the wood he was planing for a long moment before he nodded. "Sure," he said. "I've got no problem with that."
He wondered if Silva had neglected to tell her about their deal. "Bavaria, right?" he asked, realizing it was the first time they had spoken. He just knew her from behind, really.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:17 pm
"Yeah, call me Bav," she said, flying forward and to the bits of wood to sort through them. But there was something off about Tock this morning. She had seen him around often enough to know this much. "What's wrong, kid? Just can't sleep in?" she asked, glancing at him.
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Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 8:19 pm
He fell silent for a moment, thinking over the question. "You know Silva," he finally said. "Red feien guy, irritable as hell? He's tiny but kind of... scary, you know?"
Of course she knew Silva. But she didn't know that he knew that, right?
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:01 am
"Yeah, I know him," she said simply. There were many choice words she could also say about Silva, but right now, she wasn't interested in complaining about him. The kid was working his way to a point, after all.
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:13 am
"Y'know," he said. "I didn't want to be leading a group of kids. The entire reason I came here was to get away from them, and from Ahja. But now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to lead, and the only guy I know that's good at it threatens my kids with spikes if I don't pay him on a regular basis. Do you know how irritating that is?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:51 pm
"Ha! That's how Silva is," she said, giving him an amused look. Then she went back to the matter at hand. "So, you left to get away from leader ship and others, now you find yourself leading and with others. Funny how those things work, huh?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 6:58 pm
"You really think I didn't notice that?" he asked irritably. "Maybe it's because I'm older, maybe it's because I'm taller, or maybe it's because I'm definitely not going to listen to one of them, so they might as well listen to me. After all, I can back it up with teeth."
He planed the wood for a little bit longer before asking her a question that he had been wondering for a very long time. "Why do you follow him?" he asked. "We both know he's a real jerk, he's meaner than hell, and he's obsessed with his trees more than he is with the little guys that are following him. So why are you doing it?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 7:57 pm
Now it was Bav's turn to go quiet. She had just pointed out the obvious to him when it came to his situation, then he asked about her own situation. Well, it really wasn't a situation. She chose the position she was in.
"Silva's a real bastage, ain't gonna get around that. But, ya see, he's got something from me not many other people get: respect. Yeah he's hard nosed and s**t, but with those that do follow him? We ain't mistreated. Hell, I'm not doin anything I wouldn't normally be doin, just having more of it to do. He pays me, and doesn't rip me off. Then he gets me other jobs ta do."
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:02 pm
He was silent. "It's kind of hard not to respect him, I guess," he admitted. "Were you always with him? Or did you come from somewhere else?"
He wanted to know if he was the only one that had left his first home behind for "freedom." Hell, the older he got the more he started to believe there was no such thing. He left the hut to escape the rules, only to wind up making his own, ones that hinted of Ahja's influence. And Silva's influence.
He wasn't free, was the real point. If anything he was even more tied down.
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:20 pm
"When I was little," she said again, after another moment of silence. "And I mean little, little, I had gone off away from my family, explorin. Then I needed to see where I was so I'd know what direction to head back home, so, I flew up into the sky. But I flew a little to high and I looked like somethin good ta eat for some bird."
"That's when Silva came 'n saved me. Then he scolded me, told me how much of an idiot I was, but he didn't coddle over me. I hate bein coddled, 'n told it's not a big deal when it is. Hell, I almost died. Anyway, after that, he took me huntin with him. Stuck me in trees and stuff while he worked. When his job was done, he brought me home to my family."
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Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:23 pm
"Heh," he said, trying not to be amused and failing. "So he just kept on hunting? I bet he took his damn time about it too, didn't he?"
It sounded a lot like Silva, actually. He could almost picture the old man kicking the bird in the beak, the little girl tucked under his arm. "No wonder you respect him... but do you like him?"
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