Late morning
Road between Welles and Oakleigh
It had been a hard two trials now. With his demotion still fresh in his mind and suddenly loaded with chores he didn't know how to do, Sin had been under pressure for most of the time. Whenever he wasn't with Elyna, he was following a woman named Emily Warren, a major in Elyna's unit. The woman was neither friendly nor angry at him and most of them time just watched to make sure he did what Elyna had ordered him to do the night or the morning before. While he understood their concerns, he didn't like their countermeasures. He hadn't had a moment to himself in almost 48 breaks. He slept with the airmen of Elyna's unit now, ate with whoever from Elyna's unit was eating and whenever he wasn't surrounded by them Elyna or Emily were in sight.
His horse was moving on, following the column that was Malcolm's army. Emily rode next to him, making sure he didn't make a run for it for whatever reason. Sin gave her a glance before trying to look over the long column of people towards their currently invisible destination. He stretched out, reaching both hands to the sky before letting his eyes shift over their surroundings. Far to their left was a range of mountain and somewhat behind them, almost the same distance but to the right another one. In all directions around them the open plains stretched out, connecting these landmarks. Up ahead, on the left of the column, a small hill overlooked their march.
Sin moved his horse a little closer to Emily's before leaning in and pointing past her towards the top of it. "Would I be allowed to get some space? There's nothing I can clean while we're on the road and I think I've been a good enough boy to warrant some sort of downtime, no? It'll take half a break at most." For a few trills, Emily regarded him and the hill before finally giving her consent. Sin nodded his head in thanks and slowed his horse down a bit until the skyrider supply wagon he'd left his stuff on passed him by. He quickly reached in and grabbed the kit he had bought back in Welles when they had landed, before all the trouble had started.
When he looked up he saw Emily packing her own backpack with supplies for their trip. So much for some alone time. The two set out a few bits later, riding their horses away from the column and to the top of the hill. It was far up but it provided a good view of the surroundings. Sin didn't feel like talking and Emily wasn't too keen on it either it seemed. Sitting on his horse on top of the hill, Sin took a moment to take in the view. The eastern settlement had something new to them. Rynmere was mostly civilized, at least the areas where Sin had been in his life, so it didn't feel very free no matter where you looked. Here, this was the wild frontier, here vast open plains of nothing were still exciting.
Sin got off his horse and hobbled it with the reins, letting it walk around freely but limiting the speed with which it could move. Taking the kit out of his pack, Sin opened it up to reveal all the tools a scribe would ever need to do their job. He also had a vellum sized wooden plank smoothed out to use as a handheld drawing board. Nothing was worse than having to write on an uneven surface with your precious paper. He fished out a single vellum and held it down with his thumb onto the board as well as a piece of charcoal, thinned to be used as a sketching tool.
Sin looked over the horizon until he was faced with the mountain range they'd already passed. He took the charcoal and started drawing some pointy angles to depict the mountain tops in the bottom right corner of his paper. Using his thumb, he measured the relative size of them by using the distance to shrink them down so they would fit on his paper. From here, the mountains were about two thirds of a thumb high so he made sure to give them the same height on his paper. The charcoal scratched on the fabric, leaving behind dark lines. "It's important to see the difference in distance and height, that's why you see so many artists using their thumb to measure. It's a steady rule."
Sin was quite sure that the major didn't care about his explanation but he hadn't spoken with anyone for almost two trials now and considering he was surrounded by about hundred fifty people, Sin found that a big shame. So he used the major to get rid of some of that. When he'd drawn a few mountain tops, Sin turned around to face the other range and did the same, measuring their width with his thumb before drawing it on his paper in the top left. "Maps are important to survival in these situations. We're mostly new here, the rebels are as well, although less so. It's good to know where we are and from where the enemy might be coming. But you probably knew that already, right?"
Sin turned to look at Emily who was busy looking at the column below them. He thought she grumbled something but he didn't ask her to repeat it. In between the two mountains, near the bottom of the vellum, Sin drew a small bump and placed a thick charcoal dot on top of it. "That's us, see, you and me. Immortalized." Sin turned his board towards Emily so she could see it as well before continuing with his work. He still wasn't sure if she was listening or if she was ignoring him but he kept talking none the less.
He spoke about many nothings, explaining why the trees on his sketch looked horrible or why he could never get used to the cold during Vhalar and Zi'da. A lot of words rolled from his lips but none of them truly meant much apart from a few tidbits of information on the work he was currently doing. Near the top of his bottom right mountain range, Sin added some trees to depict the small brush of forest he could see peak around the foot of the mountains there. Further away he could see that the horizon was slightly thicker, showing him that there were more trees further back so there was an open space between the two forests. Sin drew a few trees behind the first clump he'd placed, leaving some space between the two.
From this distance he couldn't tell much of a difference between small hills and flatter terrain so he left those details out, focusing instead on the treeline he could see. Near the bottom of the map, in the middle, he quickly drew a little fort and scribbled 'WELLES' next to it before moving to the left of it and adding trees as well. It was a relaxing task he'd set himself to. No time to really think about anything as his hand kept making the same movements each time he added another tree to the vellum. After a while the motion came automatically while he filled up the empty spaces.
From the little town on his map, Sin started drawing a quick dotted line connecting the hill he'd drawn with the city, depicting their trip up to now. He passed the hill slightly as he observed the snake that was Malcolm's army slither through the landscape below him. Turning back to the mountains in the distance, Sin added some more trees as well. Once he was done with the thicker forest lines, he started to sketch some quick grass icons in the empty space in the middle and running some thin lines between them to depict the mostly flat and hilly area that was Welles.
"And then we add some lines to make it look more flat, you know, so that commanders know what they're looking at. I know because I made it but others might have no clue about it. Nothing is worse than wrongly delivered information. Difference between life and death, you know. Anyway, once you've got all the important bits on there, you just fill it up as you like. I know people who just draw lines to indicate similar areas and others who take a bit more time but bring back more detailed information on paper. I myself prefer the second method, I can't leave things incomplete like that. How about you wh-..."
Sin turned around towards where he thought Emily was while he was doodling some more trees into his thick forest areas. When he turned he came face to face with her and before he could react, she'd taken his board and vellum from him. "Hey!" From somewhere, Emily had pulled out a stick of charcoal herself and scribbled something down in the corner of his map, making quick and obviously practiced motions with her hand. "I prefer mine like this, it flows quicker." Emily told him as she handed Sin his board and vellum back. In the top right corner, three clumps of trees had been added to his map, triangles instead of Sin's fluffier round trees. "Wh-... Ah, well... thanks. I'll keep that in mind, major."
A little unnerved, Sin took his board back, staring at Emily, before he pulled his eyes from her and back to his board. What was he about to do again? Sin took a moment to recover himself as he looked around, letting his eyes slide over the horizon. Right. Sin looked up to the sky, spotting the clouds above. They still looked like they were hanging low and darker in color. A youth spend on a farm, Sin knew that those signs were for snow fall. Vhalar weather was still leaking through into Zi'da and most likely would for a few more days. Sin turned his vellum over and noted down his findings, describing the low hanging clouds and their coloring as well as the fact that they seemed sparser, less thick. Stopping for a moment, Sin put his finger in his mouth and sucked on it a moment before sticking it up in the air.
The wind was blowing from the west deeper inland. He noted that down as well. Western wind usually meant slowing down of the heavy weather and some clearer times ahead. Sin finished his scribbles with his prediction. Maybe 5 more trials of snowfall but less so than in the previous days, no more snow until tonight, 18th trial. "Let's head back. Captain Burnham will be arriving soon." Emily's voice came from behind him as she spoke and when he looked at her she was already sitting on her horse, ready to go. Satisfied with his work, Sin put the board and the charcoal stick back in his kit and into his pack and rolled the vellum up carefully before putting it in his pack as well.
As they rode back down the hill, this time in the opposite direction so they could catch up with the column, Sin realized that he hadn't thought about Faith and Padraig or Malcolm or his demotion since he had started his work. By the time they reached the bottom of the hill, the snow had started falling again, covering the world once more in a light dusting of white.
Off Topic
Deducting 18 GN 2SN for a scribe kit with one extra stack of Vellum, 5 charcoal sticks and a portable drawing board but without the crude paper.
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