The weather was fair, fair enough for a small venture. Clouds billowed and filled the sky with their puffiness, no rain in sight. The temperature was warmer than in the mountains and a welcome relief from the normal frigid air usually inhaled. Jikan packed lightly, a small one person tent, along with enough food supplies to last a week in nuts and berries. A hunt or two were planned for the rest of his diet. Reaching to a pouch on his backpack he retrieved some nuts and tossed them in his mouth as he recalled his father's words. 'You must go into the heartlands, deep as possible. Almost to the point of being lost, then find your way back. You can only take your wits, Keri and this backpack.' He continued to struggle on the why of his journey, his father told him it was a bonding trip with his dagger, though it fell to confusion on how the trip would make them bond. Jikan figured the best way to bond with a weapon is to fight with it. His father had other plans apparently.
Getting into the thick of the heartlands was going to take some luck, and as luck would have it - his father had fastened a Machete to the side of the backpack. Withdrawing the Machete he began his trek into the heartlands. Maybe an hour had passed, told by the position of the sun it was now near the top of the afternoon. Jikan looked at his compass, the dials continued to spin around unable to find north. He shrugged, "I guess this is the part where I get lost..."
Another hour passed and sweat dripped down Jikan's face. Wiping it, slashing could be heard as Jikan went to work clearing out a campsite deep in the vegetation of the Heartland. Using his adventuring machete he slashed branch after branch, he could feel the elation from Keri. She was excited for some unknown reason, Jikan figured it was because he wasn't using her to cut through the forest. It had already taken him all morning to get this deep into the heartland and he had no plans of returning to the village until his mission was complete. Even with the mission being a vague lesson from his father.
Setting down his backpack in the clearing, he took special care to have as much space between the trees and where he planned to plant the fire. He cleared out the space of debris, piling all the branches he had slashed for tinder while making a separate pile for larger logs that could keep the fire burning through the night. Going through the pockets on the backpack he found mostly survival tools, most of them obsolete due to Ninjutsu, trusting in his father he used the tools in the bag over Ninjutsu. 'My wits, My weapon, and this bag... huh.' He retrieved a flint from the front pocket and struck it over the fire with the machete. An ember began to burn in the middle of the campfire, using his own breath he blew life into the fire and it crackled to life. 'Good thing there has not been any rain in this area, logs should burn quick and hot.'
Next was the tent, it was a basic tarmac with sticks and strings to hold it up. He looked to the sky and there was still nothing brewing from his limited vision on the forest floor. He opted to make a hammock instead of a tent, tying the ends to two trees that were far enough apart to let him sleep in comfort, while being far enough from the fire to not be set on fire from it's swinging motion. Jikan sighed, looking into the campfire, withdrew Keri from her sheathe and spun the dagger between his fingers. For the first time in hours, a voice was heard. "Hello Keri, what am I supposed to do now?" The elation from earlier was still pulsing through Keri, it lingered and was replaced by what Jikan could only take as a shrug or uncaring. "How helpful..." He continued to spin the dagger...
He looked at his compass again, it was still spinning. He was in the dark about magnetism so he shoved it into a pouch. "How about a hunt?" he stopped spinning Keri and gripped her handle. The elation he felt from it came back ten fold and decided it was time for a hunt. "We can't travel too far from camp... We would get even more lost." "Sorry dad, We can't be as old=fashioned as you planned." Making handseals with his left hand he dowsed the fire with water, removing the wet logs and tossing them into a surrounding thicket. "Just not proper leaving a fire unattended." His right hand spun Keri one last time before sheathing her. It was still midday so a position was hard to calculate. His left hand once again formed the proper seals and a Shadow Servant popped up in a swirl of crows. "You stay here, for positioning. Don't eat anything..."
Another set of handseals and he used Snapshot to record his hunt and a redundancy on finding his way back to camp. With two systems of finding camp in place he headed north of his camp to explore. He cast his last set of handseals and activated Active camo. Now the hunt could begin.
[WC:903 - MFT]
[ OOC: Using Discovery of Contract of Your Choice -
Effect: Discover contract - Using the contract card to find Fox Contract.
Approved: https://www.ninpocho.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=59894#p323093 ]
Getting into the thick of the heartlands was going to take some luck, and as luck would have it - his father had fastened a Machete to the side of the backpack. Withdrawing the Machete he began his trek into the heartlands. Maybe an hour had passed, told by the position of the sun it was now near the top of the afternoon. Jikan looked at his compass, the dials continued to spin around unable to find north. He shrugged, "I guess this is the part where I get lost..."
Another hour passed and sweat dripped down Jikan's face. Wiping it, slashing could be heard as Jikan went to work clearing out a campsite deep in the vegetation of the Heartland. Using his adventuring machete he slashed branch after branch, he could feel the elation from Keri. She was excited for some unknown reason, Jikan figured it was because he wasn't using her to cut through the forest. It had already taken him all morning to get this deep into the heartland and he had no plans of returning to the village until his mission was complete. Even with the mission being a vague lesson from his father.
Setting down his backpack in the clearing, he took special care to have as much space between the trees and where he planned to plant the fire. He cleared out the space of debris, piling all the branches he had slashed for tinder while making a separate pile for larger logs that could keep the fire burning through the night. Going through the pockets on the backpack he found mostly survival tools, most of them obsolete due to Ninjutsu, trusting in his father he used the tools in the bag over Ninjutsu. 'My wits, My weapon, and this bag... huh.' He retrieved a flint from the front pocket and struck it over the fire with the machete. An ember began to burn in the middle of the campfire, using his own breath he blew life into the fire and it crackled to life. 'Good thing there has not been any rain in this area, logs should burn quick and hot.'
Next was the tent, it was a basic tarmac with sticks and strings to hold it up. He looked to the sky and there was still nothing brewing from his limited vision on the forest floor. He opted to make a hammock instead of a tent, tying the ends to two trees that were far enough apart to let him sleep in comfort, while being far enough from the fire to not be set on fire from it's swinging motion. Jikan sighed, looking into the campfire, withdrew Keri from her sheathe and spun the dagger between his fingers. For the first time in hours, a voice was heard. "Hello Keri, what am I supposed to do now?" The elation from earlier was still pulsing through Keri, it lingered and was replaced by what Jikan could only take as a shrug or uncaring. "How helpful..." He continued to spin the dagger...
He looked at his compass again, it was still spinning. He was in the dark about magnetism so he shoved it into a pouch. "How about a hunt?" he stopped spinning Keri and gripped her handle. The elation he felt from it came back ten fold and decided it was time for a hunt. "We can't travel too far from camp... We would get even more lost." "Sorry dad, We can't be as old=fashioned as you planned." Making handseals with his left hand he dowsed the fire with water, removing the wet logs and tossing them into a surrounding thicket. "Just not proper leaving a fire unattended." His right hand spun Keri one last time before sheathing her. It was still midday so a position was hard to calculate. His left hand once again formed the proper seals and a Shadow Servant popped up in a swirl of crows. "You stay here, for positioning. Don't eat anything..."
Another set of handseals and he used Snapshot to record his hunt and a redundancy on finding his way back to camp. With two systems of finding camp in place he headed north of his camp to explore. He cast his last set of handseals and activated Active camo. Now the hunt could begin.
[WC:903 - MFT]
[ OOC: Using Discovery of Contract of Your Choice -
Effect: Discover contract - Using the contract card to find Fox Contract.
Approved: https://www.ninpocho.com/viewtopic.php?f=79&t=59894#p323093 ]