[027]

[forestpride]

[Recently, Moro brought a whole pile of firewood from the depths of the forest for the village to use, as needed.

Today, San can be seen carrying some of it away from the pile. She moves significantly smaller quantities at a time, of course. And she seems to be, essentially, taking it back into the forest. It also takes her much longer than Moro to

Comments

[skarabrae]

[Snufkin is taking a walk in the woods, familiarizing himself with its paths and features. When he sees what San is up to, he pauses to watch awhile, without saying anything-- trying to puzzle out what it is she's up to.

He doesn't want to startle her.... she looks rather fierce.]

[forestpride]

[What she is up to is moving some of the smaller pieces of wood to the new feather stations. ...Mostly the one in the forest. So no one gets any ideas if they want a fire.]

[skarabrae]

[He thinks he gets the idea, but the image of the girl and what's she's doing fit rather oddly together-- and prompt him to ask-] Did you pile all that firewood?

[forestpride]

No. Mother did.

[skarabrae]

Your mother? [he examines the pile, blinking]

Do you live nearby, or is it for something else?

[forestpride]

I live in the forest. This wood is for the humans to use.

[skarabrae]

Oh.

You live in the forest, you say? [he tilts his head, slightly. Interested.] Is that your job-- cutting wood? [please don't kill him, it's the appearances.]

[forestpride]

No. My job is to teach the humans how to live in harmony with the forest.

[This job is different.]

[skarabrae]

I see. [blinks. Very different.] Do they really take a lot of teaching?

[forestpride]

[not knowing her for more than this brief five minutes, Snufkin has no basis from which to ask where San learned comic timing.]

Yes.

[skarabrae]

Well I suppose ...some would. How do you go about teaching that kind of thing?

[forestpride]

['I don't know, I've only had this job for about a month' is the truest answer.]

Some of them will never learn.

[skarabrae]

People do get set in their ways... [cautiously, because he isn't quite sure what she's referring to]