Totem Carving

[Krolbrim]

((Feel free to post events about your totem carving here! I'll put mine up later - I need to RP a bit of it out ingame first.))

One last starfire...the treant fell. Krolbrim would make use of it's wood for some last good. Carefully extracting a chunk, he walked away, back to Sun Rock Refuge...

Krolbrim sat by the water...hole...thing, there. Okay, you can skin things...it's just a piece of wood. Easy, right?

It was not easy.

Krolbrim took his skinning knife to it...a careful cut here, a slash there, a slash too far and- "By the Earthmother! My hand!"

Rejuvenation was a useful spell, Krolbrim mused.

Some time (and several trips for more wood) later, a strange looking blob of wood sat on his lap. He held it up. "It...works, I guess." His eyes widened. By the Earthmother, he could hear...

...Two blood elves doing very nasty things. "By the Earthmother, what is this?!" he roared, shifting into bear and crushing the horrible totem attempt. Shifting back to normal, he sighed. "Back to square one."

Several hours (and a lot of aching) later, he made a relatively nice totem. It was a round shape, with three rings on it that stood out further than the other. He had, after a few attempts, managed to carve the name of his old tribe onto the rings. He smiled, relatively happy with his work. The sound of a sudden gust of air rang in his ears, though the air was still...and he could hear. He said something into his totem...

"Yes...IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!"

[Rhumal Sunfist]

A totem. Such a strange thing to be asked to create for a druid, though he was more than well-acquainted with their presence. Every Tauren town has at least one large totem, after all, each one honoring a different spirit or element. But then again, Rhumal reflected, the way of the shaman and the way of the druid are only different in how they go about achieving the same ends. Both interact with the mystic powers of things that transcend the material world. Shaman with the elements that comprise nature, and druids with the spirits of nature itself. Abstract concepts to the unlearned, and certainly an interesting discussion to be had.

Nonetheless, the druid found himself wondering how to go about his task. He'd found a piece of driftwood on the shore of Tanaris and set it upon his lap, but somehow the wood did not call to him. An idea struck him, however and he glanced down at his upper arm. With a moment of concentration, he turned the flesh there into hard wood and stared at it. Why carry what you can etch into yourself forever? he thought.

Unsheathing the knife he normally used to skin his prey, he took a few moments to sharpen it and then heated it over the tiny campfire he'd built before. Staring at the cleansing flames for a few moments, the druid shook himself out of the brief trance and then looked down at his arm. Breathing in deeply, he closed his eyes and reached out with his mind, seeking the spirits of nature near at hand.

"Wind." he spoke into the spirit-world. For a long time, no answer came, until the ghostly voice replied.

"I know what you seek," said the voice of wind, as its avatar slowly appeared in the bizarre abstraction of the spirit-world, "It is known to us."

The druid gestured in respect, spiritually, and acknowledged, "Please, Wind, show me your name and grant me your blessing. Honor me with your voice, so that mine and the voice of all Earthspear shall be heard by one another."

It seemed as though the spirit nodded and made a gesture, then slowly faded away from view. Back in the material world, Rhumal's eyes opened and he could see the faint outline of a glyph upon the bark of his arm. Taking the knife more firmly in his hand, the druid prayed briefly to the Sun and then set the blade against his flesh, carving it where the marking guided him to. Though the bark-like skin cut like wood, it still bled like his own flesh, and the pain was agonizing.

Forcing his will, the druid continued to carve the marking until it was a complete glyph, depicting the name of the Wind. As he finished, Rhumal took in a deep, long breath and held it for a moment, storing his pain into his lungs and then breathing it out in a slow, steady sigh. As the icy sensation of knife-cut flesh subsided, he worked a slow healing aura about his arm so that it sealed shut, but left behind a prominent scar.

Content with his work, the druid spoke into the wind, "I am done." then lay himself down to rest.

[Lillyandra Swifthoof]

After done grouping up with her fellow clan-mates, Lilly heads back to the tauren city of Thunderbluff. Looking for a nice piece of wood. Going to shop to shop, she scratches her head. The young calf plops down on the ground.

"Lilly must find wood!" she said to herself in an excited tone of voice. "Lilly no harm trees. They has feelings like Lilly!" She gets up again, dusting herself off and goes to the next shop, she finally found it, a nice piece of hunk of wood. She buys it for a few copper.

She takes it back near the small pond, thinking what to do with it. She takes out a skinning knife and begins to carve it, she carves a mouth and two happy looking eyes and few scribbles representing the essence of air.

She then looks at the elemental air that she placed out of the bag. "Lilly no shaman." She blows into it, and then she uses lifeblood ((I think) as plants goes around her, releasing its own oxygen around the totem and the totem sparkles.

"Lilly did it!!" she pounds her chest, roaring with excitement.

[shotaldine]

The young Druid of Restoration felt befuddled about having to carve a totem. "I am no Shaman.." She said to herself as she sat on the back of one of her Kodo's, the brown Ha'seet. She was on route to Sunstrider Isle where some idiotic elves had made a few of the local Treants go crazy and the trees where attacking anywho came near. It was from the wood of one of these treants she would carve her totem.

She felt terribl about killing an innocent Treatn, as she could take their form and loved to speak and sing with them, so she decided to take out one of the crazed ones and try to purify the wood for her totem. That way she would not kill a harmless Treant nor would she have to take a part of a harmless tree. Now granted she could have gone to FelWood or someplace as equally diseased and tried to get wood there to purify, but she doubted her skills in restoration were that high just yet.

She parked Ha'seet by nice little gnoll with few lynxes to pester her and lots of grass and flowers to nibble on, and the young Druid made her way to the pond where the Treants were going crazy and she too out her staff. She held it up and cast a single Wrath spell on one of the near by tree's. She walked carefully up to the sentient creature and picked it up, well, tried to. The poor druid was maybe a foot and a half taller than the treant itself. Not wanting to give up just yet, Shot grabbed the thign by a root and began dragging it to where Ha'seet was watching curiously, chortling a kodo-like laugh as the young Shu'halo struggled to drag the corpse over.

She collapsed onto her rear and gave an exasperated sigh. She took out her handy skinning knife and went to work trying to jsut carve the totem out of the treant itself instead of cutting a hunk out. She made soft cuts in the wood, attempting to make ines where she needed to cut and then sat back and looked, making sure they were all well placed and even.

Once she was satisfied with the outline, she began careful, purposeful strokes, pulling her knife through the wood slowly. It was easy to carve the treant, it was well watered and her knife was constantly sharpened, as she used it for her leather working alot. So slowly she watched as the form of the totem began to take shape, if she made a mistake she would cut the edge off and start on the flatened part, her totem would not be large, as she had fudged a few times. But still, she thought it would work none the less.

After about an hour and a half of careful carving, and Ha'seet trying more than once to eat the berries Shot used for her spells out of her bag, Shota finished her totem. It was a totem with wings sticking out of the side. She didn't now why, but she felt like carving it to look like a Raven. Around the totem she carved a little story she had heard once of an old kodo and a Sly raven. It was an old tale to teach children morals, but she liked it.

After addng a touch of a Regrowth spell, a few leaves sprouted from the wings and looked like feathers, and Shotaldine was pleased. She then held the small totem up to her face and listened for her tribe mates. The mouth of the totem glowed a soft blue and she smiled. "I have completed the Totem."