Solo
Apprentice Cook
No! Seriously?
Posts: 82
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Post by Solo on Oct 27, 2010 8:15:52 GMT -5
“Nope,”
"That's good. He's staying with us." Ivy turned toward her room at the same time as Bunt turned to look at her and the cat. Ivy halted, curious as to what Bunt's reaction was going to be when he first saw Do-over. After all, Do-over was not your average cat.
“Looks like he has been ‘round tha block a couple times. What's his name?”
"Do-over."
“Jes keep him from peeing on my bed,”
Ivy gave a snort, covering her incredulous laugh. "That's dogs that do that. Cats have better things to do than act like dogs." She stated, turning away and entering her room. She dropped her bundle on the bed and debated momentarily about wether or not to unpack then, but decided against it, figuring that she could always unpack before going to bed anyhow.
As she reentered the main room, Bunt asked her if she liked fish. "I don't really care, as long as its fairly fresh and not half-spoilt." she replied, bending over to rub Do-over behind the ears. Do-over closed his eyeand let out a rumble that sounded more like a growl than a purr.
“Hope he likes milk,”
Ivy looked up to see that Bunt had placed a bowlful of the stuff on the ground for Do-over. She glanced back down at him and saw that he had his eye open now, and was glaring at the bowl...or at Bunt. After a moment, the cat staulked over to the bowl and started laping the milk up, acting as dignified as possible while keeping his one good eye on Bunt. Or at least, Bunt's ankles.
Ivy watched Do-over a while, then walked over to the barstools and seated herself on one, switching her attention to watching what Bunt was doing. She'd never done any real fancy cooking, just plain and simple, so watching Bunt cooking supper was a lesson in disguise.
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Post by Brandwyn on Nov 9, 2010 14:50:16 GMT -5
Bunt noticed that Ivy was watching him cook and tried not to block her view, but he didn’t offer up any instruction. He was content to let her learn by watching, but was ready to answer questions if she had any. Within minutes he had braised the fish in the olive oil and vegetables and dished them out onto their plates. He sat them on the table along with the bread and honey and a dish of herb butter and then sat down. He had already placed a jug of apple cider on the middle of the table along with two mugs, so he poured them drinks and then dug into his food.
After a few minutes he took a sip of cider and then said, “tha real trick wi’ catfish is in tha debonin’ and cleanin’. This guy here in town does one hell-of-job and saves me tha trouble. Well worth tha extra coppers.” He winked at Ivy. “But out on tha trail we don’ have such luxuries, so I will haf ta teach ya how to clean fish properly.”
After supper he washed up the dishes and set them on the counter to dry then he turned to Ivy and studied her a moment.
“Okay, we hafta go back up ta tha castle and get ya outfitted properly. I hope they have everything we need.” He looked at Do-over and then walked to his bedroom door and pulled it shut, just in case. He liked cats well enough, but he didn’t like their hair on his pillow and the fleas were murder. Grabbing his cloak and his bow and arrows he said, “go grab that cloak from yer closet.”
He waited until she was ready and then led her around back to the stable behind the cabin. He was greeted by a whinny and Low Belly strode briskly over to him. He held out an apple and she crunched it, taking off a piece at a time very carefully from his fingers.
“This is Low Belly or LB.” Bunt told her and then held up his hand to block Low Belly’s view of his lips. “She’s named that on account she eats so dang much that she’s a bit chubby an’ her belly hangs down to the groun’, but don’ be tellin’ her I said so.” He chuckled and rubbed LB’s forehead affectionately as she nuzzled his pockets for treats.
He grabbed the saddle and pad from the hook in the shed and after a quick brushing set them on Low Belly’s back. While he was doing this, he explained to brush with the lay of the hair of the horse which was generally from nose to tail and how to set the saddle and tighten it up. Low Belly stood quietly while he tightened the cinch and then placed the bridle on her head. He swung up into the saddle and held out his hand for Ivy to swing up behind him, leaving the stirrup empty so she could put her foot in it to mount. "Put yer left foot in that stirrup an' then give a bounce on yer other leg an' I will pull ya up. Swing tha' right leg over her rump and settle in behind tha saddle." He instructed.
“I expect ya never been on a horse before, right?” He asked her. “If ya don’t mind sittin’ behind me, I would like ta show ya a few basics on the way up ta tha castle. With any luck they will have an extra horse ya can use ‘till we get ya a regular ranger horse.”
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Solo
Apprentice Cook
No! Seriously?
Posts: 82
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Post by Solo on Nov 15, 2010 11:03:22 GMT -5
Dinner was delicious, which said something about how often Bunt cooked. After dinner was over, Ivy started to help Bunt with the dishes, but he apparently didn't need any help, so Ivy went back to the barstool and watched him do the dishes the same way she used to do them when her brother was alive. With soap.
“Okay, we hafta go back up ta tha castle and get ya outfitted properly. I hope they have everything we need.” ........ “go grab that cloak from yer closet.”
Ivy slid reluctantly down off the barstool and went to her room to get the cloak. She pulled it on over her head, returning to the main room where Bunt was waiting for her. Glancing at his shut door, she held back a burst of laughter; if he felt that his closed door would deter Do-over from getting into his room if he wanted too, so be it.
She followed Bunt outside and around the side of the house. Why was he heading this way, when he knew that the castle was the other way? Then the stable hove into view. Oh.
“This is Low Belly or LB.” ........ “She’s named that on account she eats so dang much that she’s a bit chubby an’ her belly hangs down to the groun’, but don’ be tellin’ her I said so.”
Ivy raised her eyebrows and studied the mare with a critical eye. "I can see why you'd call her that." she said slowly. That was the last thing she said, before Bunt grabbed a saddle, briddle, and a brush, and proceeded to give her the 101 Crash Course About Horses For Dummies explanation. Ivy folded her arms across her chest, leaned against the rail out of the way, and nodded when appropriate. Afterwards, she'd probably need him to give her the Dummies lecture again, but for now, she tried to remember everthing he said. Hopefully she would remember the critical parts.
When Ivy realized that Bunt intended to ride up to the castle Ivy opened her mouth to ask how he thought she were going to keep up with a horse, but shut it when he said, "Put yer left foot in that stirrup an' then give a bounce on yer other leg an' I will pull ya up. Swing tha' right leg over her rump and settle in behind tha saddle." ........“I expect ya never been on a horse before, right?” ...... “If ya don’t mind sittin’ behind me, I would like ta show ya a few basics on the way up ta tha castle. With any luck they will have an extra horse ya can use ‘till we get ya a regular ranger horse.”
Ivy grunted her replies as she did as Bunt instructed, putting her left foot into the sturrip and giving a little jump with her right leg, and getting hauled up to sit behind Bunt. Once seated, she shifted around until she was perched on her knees, hanging onto Bunt's shoulders to keep her balance--all of this just so she could see clearly over his shoulder and watch what he did with the reins. "Yeah, okay, just don't trot. I'm trying to see what you're doing."
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Post by Brandwyn on Dec 14, 2010 15:24:04 GMT -5
(OOC: Solo, I am very sorry I haven't posted on this in so long. I am so easily distracted! Please forgive me!)
Bunt craned his neck to see the very unconventional way she was ‘sitting’ on Low Belly and quirked his mouth to keep from smiling. “Hang on tight.” He said and eased Low Belly forward with some pressure on his knees. He explained how to start her, stop her, back her up and turn left and right.
“Tha’s the basics.” He said as they slowly made their way up the lane and toward the city. “Piece of cake!” he grinned, knowing full well what it took to ride a horse. “Now ya better sit down there proper-like or yer gonna fall off.” He always kept one eye out alert for trouble and didn’t want her to fall if Low Belly had to make any sudden maneuver for any reason. “The main trick ta ridin’ a horse is to move with the beast, not against it. Ya gotta get yer balance and get with their rhythm.”
He kept Low Belly at a walk all the way up to the castle and then enquired for the Chatelaine, their favorite person. They were directed to the Chatelaine’s office just inside the main entrance over to the left and down a short hallway.
Bunt knocked on the door and took a deep breath, remembering he had to remain calm, even though the man irritated the snot out of him. Jonathan Rourke, Chatelaine of Caraway Castle opened his own door and looked at Bunt as distastefully as Bunt regarded him. “Ranger.” He nodded in welcome, leaving the door open as he resumed his seat behind his desk. “Decide to return the little thief after all?”
Bunt scowled and resisted the urge to grab the man by his collar. Instead he plopped his butt down on the corner of Rourke’s desk, just to bug him. “Nope. I need all the trimmings for a ranger apprentice.” Bunt paused, expecting Rourke to react, but the man had resumed studying some papers on his desk with only a slight irritated glance at Bunt’s derriere parked on a stack of papers. “It is customary for the Baron of a fief to provide weapons and mounts as required to the Ranger Corps. Surely you know that the Corps will reimburse the fief for any expenses.”
Rourke put down the feather quill he had picked up and sighed, standing up. “Very well. Follow me. I take it you want the standard weapons?”
Bunt nodded as Rourke moved around the desk and opened his door again. “Lead on!” He motioned Ivy to follow Rourke first and took a quick glance at the Chatelaine’s desk as the man left, quickly scanning the documents there. He bit down his anger again as he noticed three items of particular note.
As they walked across the courtyard to the battleschool’s armory, past the apprentices practicing, Bunt said casually, “I would like to take up the Baron’s offer for a dinner after all. How about in two nights?”
Rourke looked thoughtful as he unlocked the armory door. “I will have to check His Excellencies schedule, but I think that he might be free that night. How many guests would you like to invite?”
It was Bunt’s turn to look thoughtful. “Jes the trade masters, I should think. Might as well git ta know ‘em. Don’t like crowds much, so keep it small.”
Rourke nodded and pointed out the section where the knives were. “Bows, what few there are, should be back there hanging on the wall.” He turned to leave and Bunt stopped him.
“Going ta need some light in here.” He glanced pointedly at the lanterns hanging unlit on the wall sconces. “An’ we need a nice calm, smart, smallish horse for the Lady.” Bunt had the satisfaction of seeing Jon stiffen in protest.
“Ranger horses aren’t part of the deal.” He retorted, pulling out a flint box and taking several moments to light the lantern that Bunt was perfectly able to light himself.
“Yep, yer correct, but replacement horses are.” Bunt smiled. “She would jes need it ‘till I can git up ta the ranger camp ta git her a real horse.”
The side of Jon’s face twitched for several moments as he debated on the merits of arguing with a ranger. “ Very well, tell the stable master I said you are to have your pick of the available horses on a temporary basis.”
“Thank ya kindly, Jon.” Bunt nodded, taking the lantern from him and heading back into the armory as the Chatelaine exited, leaving the door open. Bunt chuckled. “That was fun! Twice in one day!” Then he got down to business and started rummaging through the knives and sheaths, picking up several, examining them, putting them down, muttering under his breath and shaking his head in disgust at the general condition of most of the armory. If they fief were attacked by a major force, they would be hard pressed to outfit a counter force with decent weapons. He made a mental note to add that to his report to Crowley.
Eventually he found a very nice looking long dagger with a plain black leather sheath that could hang from a belt or be tucked into a boot. He handed that to Ivy. “I think ya better take this. Ya might have need of it, given yer spunky attitude.”
Then a couple of minutes later he found what he was looking for, a ranger sheath containing an old Saxe knife and a throwing knife in the double scabbard. He pulled them out and examined the blades, and then he tossed the throwing knife across the room in a lightning fast motion. The little knife imbedded itself an inch into the wall and stood there quivering. The Saxe knife landed right beside it. “They’ll do, though yer gonna hafta clean up tha’ sheath. The leather is purty old.” He walked back over to the knives and pulled them out of the wall and sheathed them and handed them to her along with a wide black leather belt with a large round buckle.
Next he went to the bows on the walls. There were pitifully few and none of them were in the best shape. He inspected each one and rejected them all, realized there weren’t any left and went back to the third one he’d looked at. It was the least bad of the bunch. It was a small recurve bow that probably was pulling only about 35 pounds, but looking at Ivy, he figured she might not be able to handle more than that anyway. There were several nicks and gouges along the top have leading side of the bow that made Bunt think the thing had been used as a sword in some mock battle at some point, but it was sound and after stringing it and testing it, the string reset itself true. They would have to see how it fired an arrow later. He unstrung it and found a leather bow case that was a good 4 inches too long for this bow and handed that to her as well.
After another five minutes he had sorted out two dozen arrows all of mismatched fletching and placed them in a very nice black leather quiver and handed those to her. He found a back strap so the quiver could be mounted behind her back if she chose to do so. “Well that is about all ya need from this room.” He said as he looked her over to see if she had donned her gear correctly. He adjusted a couple of things and then took another look at her. She almost looked like a ranger apprentice, but something was not right. He stared at her for a moment trying to figure it out.
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Solo
Apprentice Cook
No! Seriously?
Posts: 82
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Post by Solo on Jan 31, 2011 12:55:39 GMT -5
Ivy wasn't entirely thrilled with meeting the Chatelaine again, but since it couldn't be helped, she kept her mouth shut and let Bunt do the talking. Was it her, or was the Chatelaine very easily annoyed? There was something to keep in mind for future reference.
The Chatelaine led them to the armory and Ivy was pleased to see the man leave shortly thereafter, leaving them alone to select her weapons of mass destruction.......Once she was able to use them properly, of course.
As Bunt rumaged through the available weapons, Ivy took a look around her at her surroundings. They were down in what could be called the basement of the castle, with stone walls, stone roof, stone floor....everything was stone. She wandered deeper into the room idlely studying the weapons and armor. There was one suit of armor placed together that looked like the exo-skeleton of a knight; it startled her when she first laid eyes on it, but she quickly recovered when she saw that the space behind the open visor was empty. She stared at it facinated, wondering how a knight could bear to wear all that metal.
Bunt handed her a slim dagger with a wicked-looking point to it, saying she might need it because of her attitude. Ivy saw nothing wrong with her attitude but then, another knife would always come in handy, so she kept it and tucked it into her belt. A couple of minutes later, Bunt handed her a double-knife scaberd, then a bow that looked like it had seen better days, and followed that up with a quiver of mis-matched arrows.
He helped her put the gear on and get it seated comfortably, then stood back and looked her over. Ivy looked down at herself, then back up at Bunt. "Are you sure you want to give me all of this? I might shoot somebody important." Like the Chatelaine, she thought. She looked around the room wondering how long it had been since anyone had been down here to get something, and decided that it had probably been awhile. She turned her attention back to the suit of armor. After a moment, she gave in to the temptation and lowered the visor. A clicking sound followed and--was it her imagination or had the wall just moved.....a tiny bit?
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Post by Brandwyn on Feb 28, 2011 16:31:16 GMT -5
"Are you sure you want to give me all of this? I might shoot somebody important." Like the Chatelaine, Ivy thought.
Bunt rubbed the corners of his mouth to hide a smile. Schooling his face he replied, “Oh you’ll learn howta control these weapons right off, though perhaps it will take a bit longer to learn to control your sudden impulses.” Bunt surveyed the armory again, trying to think if there was anything else his new apprentice was going to need. He looked up when he heard a click and saw Ivy retracting her hand from a suit of armor. A sudden change in the air pressure to his right made Bunt whirl and the torch on the wall flickered as if a small draft of air was wafting past it.
“How interesting!” Bunt moved closer to examine the wall. “I think you’ve jes stumbled on a secret door.” Bunt looked at her with a gleam in his eye like a kid in a candy store. “How’d ya like ter find out where she goes?” He grabbed the torch out of the wall sconce and held it out to her. “Let me see if’n I can git it ta open up.”
Bunt ran his hands along the almost imperceptible crack that had formed and then leaned against the wall, bracing himself so he wouldn’t fall if it moved suddenly. It didn’t budge. “Humph,” Bunt said and then braced himself again and pushed with all his strength. Slowly the stone door slid back and then he was able to push it open as the ancient mechanism began to work normally.
A plume of dust shot up as the door swung inward and then slowly settled back to the floor. A string of dusty cobwebs floated down from above and there was nothing but blackness more than a few steps into the tunnel. There were no visible footprints in the dust on the floor other than the scrape marks left just now from its opening. It looked like no one had used the tunnel in a very long time. “Now technically we should report this find ta the Baron. Chances are he already knows about it though an’ I like ta keep my options open and escape routes secret. Never know when ya might need ta get in or outta the castle.” Bunt looked at the open door that led back outside and said, “Hang on a moment.” He skirted around the armor stands and glanced through the open door. No one seemed to be paying any attention to them. Leaning against the door with his shoulder, one leg crossed over the other with his toes resting on the ground so it would look like he was waiting for someone if anyone outside were to look in the door, he shielded the key hole and fished into his belt pouch.
Bunt pulled out a chunk of wax and worked it for a moment until it was soft and then made it into a rough key shape similar to the one the Chatelaine had used to unlock the armory door. He gently pushed it into the keyhole and wiggled it carefully and then pulled it out. There was a very faint impression of the internal mechanism of the lock. He pulled out a small wooden box just large enough to hold the wax ‘key’ and placed it gingerly inside. He hoped there was enough information there for a locksmith to make a new key. Now he only had to find one willing to do it.
Looking up he saw Ivy watching him and blushed just a bit. “Uhh, best not to mention this little trick to anyone. It ain’t exactly part of ‘Ranger Arts 101’ if ya know what I mean.” He glanced outside again and threw up his hands like he was impatient and then swung the door shut, closing them in. He didn’t want anyone to stumble in on them while they were in the tunnel and the door could be opened from the inside even if the Chatelaine had left it locked, which he hadn’t.
Bunt crossed back over to the tunnel door and turned to Ivy, “you found it, do ya wanna go first or do ya want me to?” The gleam in his eye gave his excitement away, though he appeared calm on the outside. He loved exploring tunnels and passages, especially if they were secret.
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