• Solo • Flowing gish

[Oram Mednix]

7 Ymiden 722

There it was again! A faint, moving filament of multi-colored light in the mouth of the stream that flowed into the Whisker from Oram’s property. Standing on the short one-lane bridge that spanned said stream, leaning intently over the railing, Oram pointed and looked over to Skai, who regarded the water as if it were a blank piece of paper. ”Do you really not see it?” the hunter asked the old caretaker.

Skai shook his grizzled head. ”You got better eyes than me, son -certainly younger ones.” The old Ranger’s tone was skeptical, though he clearly did not wish to argue with his boss over something trivial. Oram sighed and turned back to regard the water. He supposed he did have better eyes than Skai, likely better than most people’s. He could pick out a prowling etchwing, for example, which was apparently something few could do. And those eyes were definitely seeing glowing filaments wriggling under the water, appearing briefly and then swiftly vanishing.

He would probably not have seen them by daylight, only now, as it grew dark, could he pick them out. It was Ymiden, and evenings were finally somewhat warm again. Even cold-averse Skai wasn’t complaining at being out tonight. Crickets and frogs were starting to strike up. Fireflies would come soon, although they had not made an appearance this evening.

Trills passed, perhaps a bit or two, in silence, before Skai stirred and grunted. ”I’ll leave you to it, then,” he said. ”Let me know if you catch any.”

”Catch any", Oram echoed in a mumble. He hadn’t yet actually considered trying to catch one of the strange things, assuming it was, in fact, a critter. Ever a huntsman, he would have gotten to that idea eventually, though, with or without Skai’s prodding.

Oram saw another wriggling filament, watched it for a few trills before it faded and disappeared again. They moved like eels, he thought. Perhaps they were eels. Well, if they were eels, he had ideas on how to catch those. He would think on it more in the morning. Looking up, he realized that he was alone out here. Skai had already wandered into the house. Mule, Gandersauce, the goats were inside. Oram peered up at the sky. It was partly cloudy, and he could only see some of the stars. Ducking behind and out from clouds, Saoire’s turtle appeared and disappeared from view much as the filaments did. Oram could have sworn it winked at him.

A colorful flash of light, brighter than the others he’d seen so far, brought the hunter’s eyes back down to the water. It was another filament, this one seemingly close to the surface. It was almost certainly an eel, Oram decided as peered closely at it. And the light it gave off was multi-colored. The colors seemed even to vary, to shift and move, but that might have been an illusion created by its undulating motion. As he watched, that motion slowed and stopped, and as it did the light faded.

Yes, Oram decided. Faded. Much like a firefly did. He was sure the thing hadn’t receded into the depths as he watched. Not taking his eyes off the last spot he had seen the thing, Oram’s patience was rewarded when the filament reappeared. This time, it moved more vigorously, and this time it *did* dive deeper into the water, where the hunter eventually lost sight of it.

After a few more bits, he decided he’d had enough entertainment for the evening, and went back into the house. He would sleep on the question of what if anything, to do about this new phenomenon, these new eels, and approach the problem with a fresh mind at first light.

[Oram Mednix]

8 Ymiden 722

Oram rose to meet the new trial with a simple plan: construct a trap for the glowing eels and set them for tonight. This was not all he needed to do that morning; he had brought some correspondence with him from the Darbyton office to work on, as well, intending to return to the Rangers Headquarters tomorrow with that work completed.

Before he turned to either of those tasks, though, he went out to the stables to check on and feed the animals. The goats were older now, and even Ornot had grown more sedate of late, though both goats should still have a number of good arcs remaining them . They could live out those arcs in peace and comfort now, Oram thought, as his new acquisitions left him with little need for pack goats any more. Now they were around mostly for companionship, than work, although Skai still made use of them on occasion.

The crotchety old caretaker, when at last he arose, would grumble that he could have taken care of the animals himself. Oram did not doubt this -it was, indeed, why he had hired the man- but feeding and watering Mule, Gandersauce, Wether and Ornot with his own hands helped to renew his bond with them. Skai would get over it.

After breaking his own fast, Oram would go to the workroom and try a concept he had: the hunter had made plenty of fish baskets, and he also had made simple pipe traps for eels. His idea was simply to combine the two concepts. He would attach a hollow bamboo tube over the entrance to a fish basket, and he would cover the body of the basket itself with material to darken it, since he knew that eels sought out dark burrows with narrow entrances.

Oram had briefly considered using burlap or canvas as the covering, but eventually hit on the idea of using the new local material of choice: birch bark. It would not absorb nearly as much water as the fabric, and would thus be lighter when soaked and easier to recover. Attaching the tube over the entrance was the trivial work of a few bits, but applying the bark was somewhat more time-consuming; it was well into mid-morning by the time the hunter finished. With a couple breaks left before lunch, the Chief Ranger retrieved the paperwork he had brought and put on his spectacles to do some Chief Ranger stuff.

After lunch, the hunter lowered the fish baskets into the spring under the bridge. The water there was perhaps twelve to fifteen feet deep, not an ideal depth, but the bridge would provide a convenient anchor and landing for his traps. After letting them rest for a moment, he began pulling them back up. In spite of their covering not being an absorbent material, the baskets were surprisingly heavy and resisted being pulled up. As he grunted and gripped and pulled, Oram realized the problem: drag. With the birch bark covering, the surface of the baskets were no longer porous, and so resisted being pulled through the water like the end of an oar.

While Oram was pulling up the last trap, he felt the rope suddenly go slack and the weight of the trap fall away. Cursing, he reeled in the rope to reveal the far end still attached to a torn wire loop that had served as a clip. An older effort, he thought glumly as he examined the failed loop, not his best work. He would be sure to make the replacement loop sturdier.

First, however, he had to get the trap back. The water wasn’t more than fifteen feet deep at that point in the creek, so he could reach the trap without problem. And there was enough light that he would probably be able to find it easily enough on the creek bed. It seemed prudent, however, to get his lightstone first, which he retrieved from the house. Then he stripped and dove into the cool, clear water.

The trap was not hard to find. The water was clear enough that Oram was able to spot it readily even without the lightstone’s aid. Retrieving the trap was the tricky part. The same factors that made it challenging to pull up by rope made it challenging to carry up by swimming. He actually had to let go of the trap and return to the surface to catch his breath while he reconsidered his approach. Going down a second time, the hunter decided to pick up the trap by its narrow end, so that the rough cone shape of the trap’s “nose” provided a sort of prow, making the resistance manageable.

With great relief, he set the trap down on the bank and pulled himself out of the water to catch his breath. Gandersauce waddled over just then, honking curiously as if asking what the human was doing. ”I’m not sure,” Oram answered aloud. The goose responded with a rapid quacking sequence that suspiciously resembled laughter.

[Oram Mednix]

The buck stops here.

The sort of eel traps Oram was making now were known as “bucks”, he recalled. He had no idea why. It didn’t matter; he had some modifications to make. The drag created by covering the fish baskets in birch was an issue. Purpose-built eel bucks were tightly-woven, like actual baskets, but Oram wasn’t interested in doing that much work right now. He would try incremental changes to what he had, instead. One of those changes was to attach the birch with one edge flapping loose. The sheets would still lie flat on the surface of the cage when at rest, but would open at the loose edge to admit water flow when the buck was being pulled. Another change Oram made was to attach the tow chord to the narrow end of the basket, so that it would nose up through the water in a way that offered less resistance while being lifted. Finally, he put in the bare minimum of ballast needed to make the baskets sink, cutting down on weight.

After a couple trials, he decided that his modified traps were good enough; at very least, he could pull them up without too much difficulty now. He cut up a few perch he had caught angling earlier and used them to bait the traps, then let them down into the creek, near the mouth where it emptied into the Whisker.

9 Ymiden, 722.

The next morning, Oram checked his traps, and was gratified to find three eels in them; two in one, one in the second. The third was empty, so he replaced it. The eels had light-colored, translucent bodies. Such were aptly named “glass eels”, Oram recalled, though he had never caught any himself before, nor indeed remembered seeing one first-hand. They did not appear to be glowing, however.

Skai recognized the eels, or thought he did, saying that it wasn’t unheard-of for loggers to fish for them in the waters near their camps. ”Did any of them glow?” Oram asked. The old caretaker shook his head.

”That’d be a new one,” he grunted.

Oram put on his gloves to take remove one of the eels. As he did, it suddenly began to squirm and writhe, giving off a faint burst of multi-colored light as it did. Startled, Oram dropped it, though it fortunately fell right back into the basket, which Oram had set in a tub with just a little water in the bottom.

”Well, I’ll be,” Skai exclaimed. ”I guess these do glow, when they move, at least.”

The eel swam about in frantic circles for a few trills within the basket, then calmed down again. When it came to rest, the glow subsided. Both men gazed at it in wonder. ”I wonder if they’re safe to eat,” Oram offered, after some time had passed and the eel continued not to do anything else that caused it to glow.

Skai smirked: ”One way to find out.”

Oram glanced over. ”You know how to cook these?” he asked.

The caretaker shot his boss a pained look. ”Of course. I’ve roasted ‘em plenty of times. Nothing special. Just use a hot flame and cook ‘em quick. You just have to make sure you don’t burn ‘em, nor cook ‘em too low, ‘cause then they turn rubbery.”

Oram pursed his lips thoughtfully. ”They can be smoked, too, right?” he asked after another couple trills.

Skai nodded. ”Aye, of course. You’ll have to ask someone else how. We never caught more at one time than we could eat fresh, so we never bothered with smokin’. But the Company brought in smoked eel from elsewhere at times.” He made a wry face. ”Those can get rubbery. Fresh is definitely better.”

While Skai got out some vegetable oil, salt, and rubrum berry juice (Oram found himself wondering if one could make an eel ceviche, but didn’t ask Skai) the Chief Ranger went outside to dump the remaining eels into the shallow pool he had made originally to hold crayfish; then he re-baited and replaced the eel traps. He was going back into Darbyton the following trial, so he would take whatever eels he had left with him, both to show around and to sell. Since the eels were new, at least to him, he would write a letter to Professor Seams back at the University to find out if the species he had found was, in fact, novel. If it was, he would try to catch one to bring to the University as well.

And if there turned out to be a market for his eels, Oram would work on designing better traps. With luck, he could turn those eel bucks into real bucks!

[Oram Mednix]

Rewards Requested

Notes/Warnings: (Any Notes or warnings? Violence?)

Thread: Flowing gish
City/Area: Surrounding Waters & Landmarks

Skills Used:
Animal Husbandry (Competent)
Hunting (GM)
Swimming (Novice)
Engineering (Competent)
Detection (Master)

Renown: 10, for showing off novel eels to both locals and the university. Also, a new trap design.
Wealth Points: n/a, this will be my wealth thread.
Collaboration: No.
Local Language Thread? Yes. The Language of Loooove. Okay, no.

!	Message from: Kasoria
	Done!

[Kasoria]

Oram Mednix

Few things I enjoy more than a nice outdoorsy Bear Grylls kinda post. Especially when you can see the character's thought processes, the trial and error involved in trying something new. You put it all together with humor and shine, too, which is always welcome!

• Renown: 10
• XP: 10
• Knowledges:
  • Animal Husbandry: Animals age.
  • Hunting: Eel bucks!
  • Swimming: #1 (no idea what to call it, sorry)
  • Engineering: Modifying a design to minimize drag.
  • Cooking: Roasting eel
  • Field Craft: Eel can be smoked to preserve them.