This apprenticeship was interminable.
Almost as interminable as that famine had been, Triste'coeur mused to herself. She sighed, near inaudibly, as she examined the charm she'd completed. Silver eyes narrowed, seeking any possible fault in the arrangement of bone and various other animal bits, estoteric markings scratched upon them with exacting precision. The priestess that had set this task upon her would not be pleased if there were flaws, nor the warriors that would come to her in the future seeking items such as these in an effort to bring good fortune to their ventures. Ah, there. Take a claw, make that marking in particular a little deeper, a little more visible. She allowed a faint smile to cross her maw as she held up the item, watching a couple of feathers catch the light. That priestess would not find this charm unacceptable, Triste was certain of it.
There was a reason the priestess held her rank, and the ashen grey lioness had certainly learned much since the days when she'd been a fresh-faced adolescent insistent upon learning the rites, the rituals, the multitude of ways one might attempt to gain the favor of (or placate) the gods. It didn't always work; the recent famine had been more than proof enough of that, and Triste was certain that if she'd wrestled with feeling inadequate to repel a curse of such magnitude, then the priestesses themselves must also have been growing desperate. At least the offended god had taken his leave of these lands before anyone took truly drastic measures.
Aside from...that. She shoved the image of the battle from her mind. A challenge of that nature was to be expected with Breytast Vindar upon the winds, but the overwhelming brutality of this one disturbed her. Neither the former Warlord or her cubs had been seen since...unless her Sight offered her clarity, Triste could only hope that the cubs had been taken and hidden away safely. It was old history to herself, but it had not been so long ago when Njal had exiled (or made Thralls of) Aesir's line in the wake of his own ascension to power. So it was not unheard of for a new Warlord to make such a display of power, even if it had been some time.
Sigh. This wasn't going to get that charm to the priestess' inspection any faster. She rose and reached for it...
"Still playing at being a priestess, then?"
Her ears swept back, though there was little other change to her expression. Pausing in her motion, she regarded her intruder with a steady silver gaze. "There is no play about that which I do, and you well know it. You would have learned that from watching your mother, I should think." Today was going to be a trial in more than one way, it would seem. "Speaking of which, does she know you're back?"
The large dark male smirked as he stood in the doorway, an insufferably indolent air about him. Hrafn was both strong and smart, and he passed up few opportunities to prove either one. Often at the expense of others, and often in petty ways, but he wasn't particularly bothered by that. "Maybe. If not, she will soon enough. She knows I can handle myself." A yawn showed an impressive display of sharp teeth. "You didn't really answer me. You're still at it, then?"
Triste sighed inwardly. Out of priestess Susu's litter, this was the one that liked to try her patience most. It was almost as though he'd made it some sort of life goal to see her steady demeanor crack. She wouldn't put it past him. What he thought he'd get out of it in the event that he succeeded, she didn't know. She could deal with him, sure, but she wasn't fluent in speaking a*****e. "Yes, I am still apprenticing. My studies have been quite exacting, but they progress." Yes, she'd been an apprentice for quite some time, but she was certain that this was her path. Someone wandering in to interrupt her work was not going to change that, son of a priestess or not.
"Do they, now?" The smirk widened and Hrafn's red eyes glinted a little, thinking he'd found a crack into which to dig. "Ever think that maybe you're not cut out for it, and they're just giving you the run-around so that they've got a useful body to do work for them?"
"Not really," Triste replied in a flat tone, disinterest in his needling plain in both her voice and her body language. Every line of her said, I am humoring your bullshit until you get as bored as I am with this and wander away. "There are thralls for that." She was not likely to keep one herself, given her family history, but she could admit that a personal thrall could be useful. If only so that one didn't have to re-teach someone what this desired herb looked like, or how to do that rudimentary preparation. There was some small possibility that this usefulness could prove tempting, in the future.
The male waved a paw dismissively. "And teach a fresh one what needs to be done every time? What a waste of effort when there's enough real work to do." He stretched slowly before straightening up, looking the grey lioness up and down. "I'm just saying, if you stay as an apprentice long enough that I get some spawn running around, you might want to rethink your career path." She'd been an apprentice as long as he could remember! She didn't quit easily, he'd give her that much.
"If that's my deadline, then I've got nothing to worry about," Triste shot back with a deadpan delivery. "But I'm sure you have something better to do, unless you'd really like to explain why you're holding up my work." Regardless of his family connections, that could end up rather uncomfortable for him.
"Tch! That's a low blow, woman." Hrafn was selective about who warmed his bed, that was all. He got bored too quickly if a lioness didn't have a brain in her head. Rubbing most lionesses the wrong way was a...smaller detail. "Fine, fine. I'll tell mother you said hello."
"You do that, then." As the other demigod finally took his leave, she turned back to the charm she'd finished and readied it for delivery to where it needed to go.
The charm turned out to be a successful enough job, with the elderly priestess looking it over and deeming it satisfactory. Triste was beginning to feel confident that she would overtake the lioness' place sooner than later. It would certainly be easier than trying to supplant Susu!
(Word Count: 1119)