Through the woods we ran

[galrad]

Who: Keith galrad and you!
When: Any time between May 6th and 14th. Boy trains a lot and is building a shack!
Where: Beyond the city walls, past the slums and towards the wilds and the forest
What: Keith's way of working out his thoughts has always been through combat- maybe that's the Galra in him. Come spar with him, learn a little basic swordsmanship, or ask him what the hell he's doing building a shack out in the woods!
Warnings: None for now

I. Sparring

[ Keith's way of working out his thoughts had always been through combat. Maybe that was the Galra in him, but there was something about the focus of having a sword in his hand, the burn of his muscles put through a harsh workout- it all helped him to settle his mind. Back in the desert, on nights he couldn't sleep, thought he was going crazy searching for nothing more than a feeling, he would head out into the dunes, and either speed through them on his hoverbike until the wind bit through skin and bone, cut hard enough, deep enough to forget, or, like now, he'd look to put himself through his paces. It had been the same in the Castle of Lions, even more convenient because of the provided pre-programmed training bot. If it had tried to kill him on one occasion, well- what was an attempted murder between constant companions? Besides, Keith had never exactly gone easy on the poor thing... It had kind of seemed only fair, after the fact.

Now, though, Keith was trying to balance all of the information that had been provided to him since his arrival. Witches. Monsters. The infection spreading across the land, the part that the locals hoped they had to play... Wasn't the task of saving their own universe enough? Was it selfish of Keith to still wish to go home, to let them deal with their own problems?

Could he forgive himself if he did?

No one had tried to stop him when he had passed through the gates. Maybe no one dared, or maybe they hoped he'd do something- die, take out a few shade creatures, he didn't really know. All Keith knew was that he had thinking to do, and the best way to do it was with the steel blade strapped to his back, as far into the woods as he dared where he hoped for silence. For peace.

Cutting at trees weren't the ideal enemies, but they were better than nothing. Keith started with a few warm-up stretches, a few practice swings to get himself accustomed to the blade he had coaxed one of the local blacksmiths into allowing him to borrow. It wasn't anything like his bayard; customized in every way to his body; from the grip of the hilt to the weight to maximize the power of his swing. Nor was it like his Blade of Marmora, heavy with purpose but lithe and deadly sharp.

Keith settled on his target; a rotting stump in the middle of the clearing he had chosen for his practice space. Blowing out a slow, steadying breath, Keith readjusted his hold on the sword. And then, he lunged.

II. Home Sweet... Shack?

[ City living had never been to Keith's tastes. He could tolerate it- he'd had to endure it on more than one planet, on more than one occasion- but if he had a preference? He'd take being alone in the desert any day.

It was kind of the Coven to house them, no matter how temporarily- but that was the thing, Keith wanted to make it as temporary as he could.

He wasn't any stranger to roughing it; to making due with whatever he could. He wasn't even averse to sleeping on the streets i he had to- but beyond the wall was something almost familiar. The wild and untamed landscape beyond the wall, beyond the slums where the presence of people and monsters alike began to thin and the danger of the blight became more apparent. He was looking for a patch of uninfected land. Maybe if he got lucky, the bones of an existing structure that he could build off of.

Apparently it was Keith's lucky day.

He'd hiking through areas around the city for a couple of days, looking for the right spot. Kosmo at his side and sword strapped to his back (just in case). Radiating outwards slowly, not wanting to be too far from the city itself. The signs of population had thinned to almost nothing, only the occasional mossy lump of man made wood or rusted hunk of something poking from the ferns to mark human presence. He was following along a gentle stream when he found it.

It didn't look like much, it didn't look very good at all really, but it had four walls (well, three- but he could work on that!) was next to a water source, far enough away from any cwyld infection that he wouldn't have to worry so much about Kosmo, had enough of a clearing that if Keith put his mind to it he could start tilling the land, plant some fruit trees and vegetables- yeah. This could work.

So Keith began to transfer supplies in and out of the city, bartering labor to borrow tools, salvaging whatever scrap he could find in the rougher parts of the city that might have been able to find a use for.

Maybe you found him dragging a long rusted looking sheet of tin out towards the woods, or perhaps you were drawn by the hammering of an axe against a tree- but Keith wasn't about to say no to an extra pair of hands helping him in his endeavor. Because really, the shack needed some work.

Comments

[galrad]

[ Keith's hoping the stay is short, personally, but if he's gotta stay at all then he's at least going to make the best use of his time as he can, and he's certainly not comfortable living in the crowded conditions of the city for more than a few days if he can help it. Thus: Shack in the woods.

Perfect compromise, right?

Besides, he'd walked through the slums. Seen the faces of the people pushed out; sick, infected, starving or worse. Maybe he couldn't do a lot, but maybe he could also do something, even if it was just hunting with Kosmo, sharing the game that he caught. Foraging herbs and whatever else he could find to ease their suffering. At his heart, Keith would always root for the underdog. He was one himself, after all.

If Keith had seen her in the boughs of the tree, he most certainly wouldn't have started cutting it down. He'd tried to be attentive of such things, but he wasn't perfect- and honestly, hadn't really been looking for a many-spiked alien creature.

At the trill of her voice Keith jerked back, blinking in surprise as he looked up and caught sight of her head, clutching his axe a little tighter. First looking on edge, half expecting a fight- and then, just kind of guilty.

Aliens weren't exactly a new thing to Keith, so her appearance didn't startle her so much as her existence in the tree itself. ]

Holy- Hey! Sorry, I didn't see you up there... [ He called up, dropping the axe to the ground by his boot, and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. ] Are you okay? I didn't... hurt you somehow did I? [ For all he knew she was a part of the tree okay. Weirder things had happened to him. ]

[horkbajir]

I'm fine, thank you. A moment. I'm going to come down.

[She pulls her head back out of sight, and after another second or so can be seen out on one of the branches heavy enough to support her weight. Humans tend to flinch when she just jumps out of trees to land near them, so instead she drops off the branch, swings by one hand onto the trunk, and just scales it down like it's a wide ladder, her claws and the short blades on her ankles biting into the wood.

Then she's on the ground, where she just doesn't move as fast or fluidly but is still quite tall. She has one of the watches strapped to her heavy tail, near the end.]

Are you building something, or is this for firewood?

[galrad]

[ When she hit the forest floor, Keith took her in. She was impressive, to say the least- but he didn't seem afraid of her, giving her a friendly smile once she's in front of him. ]

Sorry again for the disturbance. [ He brought a hand up, rubbing the back of his head and laughing awkwardly. ] I'm fixing up a shack- trying to make it look less like a, uh. Well. A pile of wet wood and into something a little more livable and homey.

City life isn't really for me, not if I can help it anyway.

[horkbajir]

It's well. [She considers what he says, her head tilted.]

I feel much the same. Would you mind a word of advice? I understand only so much of - [what's the word] - carpentry but I know trees. Perhaps we could help each other. I have need of bark, and stripping too much kills the tree. But if it's felled, that doesn't matter.

[galrad]

Hey, I'm open to anything. I'm not much of a carpenter myself- kind of just figuring it out as I go. I'll take all the advice I can get. [ Keith chuckled a little, tilting his head to look towards the tree he'd been hacking at as she spoke, before smiling a little more. ]

I didn't catch your name, I'm Keith by the way. But yeah, I think we can help each other a lot. Bark's a nice look, but it's a little more rustic than I'm going for, especially for reinforcing the support structure. [ He looked back towards her, holding out his hand for her to shake. ] It's nice to meet you.

everything I know about this I got off wikipedia and I didn't read that close

[horkbajir]

All right, then. [She tries a smile, though it kind of looks weird. Hork-Bajir don't have very expressive faces]

Toby. Toby Hamee. [She looks down at his hand, then extends hers. It's long-fingered and narrow, almost apelike, with short claws that are each heavily curved. She shakes hands very carefully, happier to let her fingers be grasped than the other way around.] Thank you.

Now, this tree is a hardwood. It's dense enough that you'll have difficulty working with it, and it grew slowly. For a small project you would be better off with a softwood like one of the pines. [Her people build platforms in trees to make it easier and more comfortable to live in them, since Earth trees are much smaller and less convenient than the trees on the homeworld.] Pine trunks may be easier to split into planks, if you want any of those.

[galrad]

[ Keith doesn't hesitate in take her clawed hand, giving it a brief shake, before dropping his hand back down. ] It's a pleasure, Toby.

[ He listened as she gave her instruction on the tree, and Keith put his hand against the trunk, before huffing out an amused breath. ] That explains why it was so hard to hack through. I'm not exactly... I grew up in the desert, the trees there were stumpy and weathered, if there were any trees at all. Got any suggestions on a better tree? I'd say it's not exactly a small project- but not huge either. I'm not building a home from the ground up just. Replacing some of the worse off parts.

[ Drawing his hand away from the tree he turned to smile to her, rubbing his cheek for a moment, before asking: ]

If you don't mind me asking, what do you need the bark for?

[horkbajir]

[Not as firm a handshake and fewer pumps than America used. She'll remember this.]

Understandable. My people are from a heavily forested world, with trees far larger and taller than here. Nothing of the memory was genetic, and the trees of Earth are more fragile. We learned anew.

[Toby nods, an odd and graceful gesture considering her neck.] Where are you settling? The time and effort to carry wood is also going to be a factor.

My diet is mostly bark, actually. That's part of why I'd prefer to live out here.