Student and teacher ~ This one did not win.
Natal stepped outside and slid the door shut behind her as she tapped her toe on the stair thoughtfully. Her heavy boots made soft thudding sounds against the rock path as she finely stepped down from the porch and headed to the woods. To day she wore green cargo pants and a dark tan shirt, at her belt was a large hunting knife and a bow and quiver over her shoulder. She let the sounds of the city drift away as she forged deeper into the woods, She let the sounds of the wild wash over her, bringing back memory's, bringing back her training.
She paused in the forest and took a deep breath ad held it in, the sounds around her stood out, the smallest rustle of the leaves, The scrabbling of paws over the bark. Her eyes closed as she pinpointed the direction of the sound and what was making it. She moved again, slowly, softly. So soft that one would have thought that it would have been impossible in such heavy boots. But she did it and she did it with perfection. Most hunters could only envy this girl's skill to move through the wild places.
Natal was a tall girl with deeply tanned skin and sun bleached gold hair, Bright blue green eyes. A well worn Fedora set atop her head golden waterfalls of hair creeping out from under it as she moved across the floor easily ducking under branches and side stepping boulders. Deep with in the forest she eventually stopped with in a sheltered clearing, She propped her bow against a tree and slipped off her quiver to set beside it before she went about make a pile of twigs and sticks.
A large commotion with in the forest brought her attention up. A moment latter a rather irritated and breathless boy stumbled through a clump of bushes and hit the ground right in front of her. with a chuckled she picked a bit of leaf and twig out of his hair before she smacked him on the noes with one of said twigs.
"Ow what was that for?"
"You do not listen well student." Natal's accent was deep, long and drawn, But fluent in the English tongue. "You must move with the forest, not against it."
"Easier said then done." The boy mumbled. Kent, had short, bark brown hair and Bright Hazel eyes, His skin was pale with freckles playing over his face and arms.
"You listen, I teach you to survive here on my land, Then you don't need to steal anymore..."
"Right..." He sighed Shifting to sit on his knees as she settled back on her heels in front of the pile of wood.
"You must learn to move with the forest, At the rate you move every creature with in two miles knows that you are coming, and you cannot hunt them."
"Why would I want to hunt and eat raw dear instead of grab a nice burger?" The boy learned quickly, he ducked as Natal cuffed him over the head.
"Not raw silly boy." she said chidingly. "You hunt, prepare the meat and cook it, venison is as good as cow." She said poking at the sticks in the pile. "I will teach you to make a good cooking fire, then we practice your movements..." She said pointedly looking at him sideways. The boy moaned at this but settled down to listen to the girl speak to him. The girl demonstrated several ways to make a fire, starting with the easiest and working her way up to the most complicated, and made the boy repeat what she did until he could get it well enough to start a fire. This went on for hours, long enough for the sun to reach midday.
"Your learning." Natal said approvingly as he lit another fire successfully.
"Thanks." He muttered but he was obviously pleased at the praise.
The girl Glanced to the sky thoughtfully. "We shall have... Lunch." she said decidedly. "Then we shall practice your movements."
"Great, I'm starved... what are we having?"
Natal smiled at the question. "Patents Kent." She said as she picked up her bow and slung her quiver over her shoulder. "Tend to the fire, I shall be back..." With that she vanished into the forest leaving Kent alone in the clearing.
Kent of coarse thought that Natal was insane leaving him alone in the middle of nowhere, With a fire no less. He watched the twigs burn, occasionally getting up to add more, but never wondering far from the fire, He'd learned last time wondering the woods when he didn't know where he was going, was a very bad idea. and he didn't want to think of what else could be lurking out there other then Natal, and she could be scary at times. Fortunately for him he didn't have to wait long before the wild girl came back with two squirrels lopped by their tails to her belt.
"We are going to have... Squirrel?" He asked incredulously.
"Yes." she answered propping her bow against the tree and dropping her quiver beside it before taking a seat next to the fire. "Gather more wood. I will prepare the meat."
Kent sighed and pushed himself up to do as he was told while Natal pulled out her hunting knife and began to shave off the hide. He wondered how she could manage that, most girls this guy knew, where in the city, and they would have shrieked in terror if they had even touched a dead animal, even if it was freshly killed.
One by one he gathered sticks, twigs and a few large branches that he could fit into his arms. When he returned he dumped his load beside the fire and set down again. Natal, in such a short time, had skinned the squirrels, cleaned them and was now sharpening two sticks to spit them on.
"Good work." She praised with out looking up, He swore some times she knew everything that happened even when she couldn't see it happening. Natal just seemed to have that air around her, authority but the Gentle guiding kind.
He watched as she drove both Squirrel carcasses onto the sticks and then both sticks into the ground next to the fire.
"Now we wait."
"How long?"
Natal chuckled. "Patents." she chided softly. "I well tell you a little more about my tribe while we wait..." She waited for him to protest but Kent decided against it and settled down near the warmth of the fire to listen.
"As you know my tribe name is Kanza, It means wind people, or treasure of heaven."
'Which one exactly where you named for?"
"Treasure of heaven." Natal answered. "Father chose Natal, mother chose Kanza so I am Natal Kanza of Kanza Natal."
"I like Natal Kanza Better."
She raised an eye brow at him in a small question before shaking her head. "anyways." she continued. "My tribe has a strict passage of rights. At the age of 10 we are trained to survive in the wild, what we can eat and how to prepare it. How to hunt, what to hunt and how to fight. At age 15 we are sent out to survive on our own..."
"Really?"
"yes, 10 years treated as children, 10 years to grow and play, Five years to learn the way of nature and master it." She said quietly reaching out and poking at the cooking meat, which watery flavor wafferd through the air now. "We my go where we wish, even travel over sea's to new lands, We search for our..." she paused as if looking for a word. "Nature Tribe." she said frowning as if that wasn't quite what she wanted to say but as close she could get.
"Nature tribe? so your first tribe sends you out to go find another tribe?"
"Kind of." She said slowly. "these nature tribes, family's, are animals." she said poking at the fire with a stick as she thought. "We search and search until we are claimed by one, We stay with them for two years, learning their ways and how to survive and then, and only then may we return to our home tribe."
"What?" Kent was obviously confused, he felt confused.
"There is another... tribe that have totems... Something that is to guide them, protect them, This... very much like it."
"So like guardian spirits?" He asked.
"Much like." was her reply. "We must prove ourselves strong enough, or die trying." She said solemnly.
"O-or die trying?"
"Even they are honored for trying dishonor is only held for those who run from it."
"are.... are you running from it?" Kent asked slowly.
Natal looked up at him abruptly with such an intense gaze he was sure that she was going to smack him with a burning stick. She burst out laughing however. "No, very few of us run from our journey to adulthood." She said finely. "Some die, but few run."
"So have you found your... nature family then?"
She shook her head slowly. "not yet, other wise I would not be here." she said simply.
"How long have you been searching?"
She mulled over this question for a long moment before finally poking at the fire again and adding some more tinder to it. "A long time.... three years." she said finely. "Once I find my family... two more years away. Then I may return home, if I survive."
"Survive? Natal your like the best, I doubt that you would be killed by anything but old age."
Natal chuckled Good-humoredly at her young minded student. "Even some of the best can fall to the beast that tests them." she said wisely. "My mother travailed for one year before she was claimed, the beast that challenged her left her a scare but she survived and bares it proudly."
"What was she... claimed by?"
"cheetah." She answered he gawked a bit but before he said anything she picked one of the squirrels on a stick and took a little nibble before nodding in satisfaction. She plucked the other and handed it to him. "Try."
Taking it slowly, and looking it over with doubt before he slowly leaned in and took a small, very small bite. It was... surprisingly good.
Natal watched her student dig into the meat and grinned. "Its good yes?"
"Very..." he mumbled over a mouth full. "How would it taste though with seasoning?" he wondered idly as she tore off another chunk.
"Next time, Perhaps." she responded taking of a chunk of her own Squirrel. They ate in relative silence, only kent's smacking lips disturbed the peace between them, But Natal chose to ignore his rude enjoyment of the meal choosing instead to focuses on the whisper of the leaves, the rustle of the underbrush. There where no predators near by, leaving it safe for her pupil to practice his stalking.
"Now we say our thanks." She said before Ken't could set down what was left of the squirrel, he had done well eating almost every scrap of meat on it.
"Thanks?" he asked. The girl sighed in exasperation. "thanks for the woodlands creatures lives that they gave to feed us."
"Oh right... Um well, thanks for being so... you know Delicious..." he said looking at the bones of his meal.
Natal rolled her eyes before carefully kneeling placing the stick between her hands and closed her eyes. "Oh small spirit of the forest, I thank you for your sweet meat that has sustained me this day, I honor your sacrifice for my sake. Find rest with the creator..." she was silent for a moment before she dropped what was left of of the stick and squirrel into the smoldering fire. She looked to her student pointedly.
"Um what she said..." he dropped the squirrel into the fire, which popped and hissed sending some sparks in his direction.
She again shook her head in aggravation at her student. "You do not honor life as you should."
"Whats there to honor?" he shot back. "People kill each other all the time in cold blood or revenge, there's no respect for life anymore."
He looked up catching her gaze only to mutter. "at least not here..."
"Maybe not." She said firmly. "But if you are to be my student you will learn to honor all forms of life great or small." Silance passed as the boy's eyes feel to the ground and studied the girls boots. "Now you will put out the fire and scatter the ashes over this clearing, Then you will return to my home, with out alerting me or Mojo..."
"Mojo?! nothing can get passed that hound!" Kent exclaimed only to quickly take the statement back. "e-except you..."
"Someday you will..." she said promptly. "with practice and that is why you will be stalking on your own."
"O-on my own!?"
"Yes." She said making sure that all of her items where in her pack before picking her bow and quiver up. "I will wait for you at the house, if you find trouble you know how to call me." she said simply before she smiled and gave him a salute. "Have confidence." she said before she once again vanished from the boy.
Natal once again moved through the forest, seemingly with out trying she flowed from one spot to the next. Her form, from time to time, blending in with the surrounding forest. Just as before she reached the rocky path leading to her home, her boots thudding against them as she made her way to the door.
Her boots she left at the top of the stairs as she tapped her toes against the porch before she turned facing the forest and set down meditation style and closed her eyes as she waited. She listened intently to the sounds around her, the sounds of the city drifted in, loud, cluttered and unnatural. The sounds of the woods fought back with song and soft rushes of wind. Still she could make out both in the endless clash at the edge of both worlds.
She waited there for what seemed like hours, but her body never moved save for her calm breathing, as if she was asleep. There was a rustle, a pause and then a crunch. Her lips twitched up but she waited longer. Heavy breathing, being worked hard to be controlled. Awkward steps and a crack.
"Raroooo! Rarroooooo!"
"Drat!" Kent yelled as Mojo started to call from behind the door.
Natal stood with a smile and stretched slowly as Kent made his way to the porch. "You did well student, thats the closest you've gotten but your breathing is still to heavy." she said and then bemusedly picked a twig out of his hair. Behind her Mojo clawed at the door with another prolonged bark. "come..." she said and then opened the door and stepped in, Mojo backed up before dropping in a playful crouch his tail shaking his entire back end with how hard he wagged it.
"Whos a good boy?" Natal cooed before pulling something from her pocket and tossed it only to have Mojo to snatch it before it could even start falling.
Mojo was an overgrown hunting hound with a bit of German Shepherd in him. His Brown coat had flecks of black, and his muzzle was even graying, but for the whole he still acted like a large puppy.
Kent stepped in and shut the door while Mojo broke his treat in half and then trotted to the door and looked at Kent. "Really, as soon as I walk in you want out?" Kent asked in exasperation, Mojo only wagged his tail more. Kent sighed and opened the door once more while Natal chuckled and moved off down the hall. "You need water, come drink." She invited presently after stepping into the kitchen and pulling out two glass cups.
Student and teacher set at the small table, cool water running down their throats while Natal explained what he needed to do better to pass in his training, She did not mention the fact that he was older then most students, and there for should have had less time to learn, even if he did learn fast she did not think she could teach him everything before he turned 15. She would extend his training, it was the only way.
"I well see you tomorrow." she informed him at the front door. "Come ready for a good deal of woodland walking."
"Great." he muttered. "I'll be here." he said as he walked down the steps and back to the city.
"Of coarse you well." she said quietly watching him go. He faked uninterested, but if he truly had been uninterested then he never would come back every day to learn exactly what she had to teach him. Maybe there was some hope for him she thought shutting the door.
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