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She got closer, swiftly and carefully making her way over. It would be bad to accidentally break anything, or walk on what she shouldn't. "Yes, I'm song Talea." The man nodded a bit, pausing for a moment before speaking more. "I have discovered some bones of an ancient creature long passed. I believe it is a kind of aquatic creature, but it is very large. I want help digging the bones up, then I can see how complete the skeleton is and if it's something already discovered, or something new. Use these tools and be careful not to damage any of it."
She already liked this person. He didn't question her age or blindness, just told her what to do. "Will you tell me what you find out after its all out?" She heard the older man laugh as she walked closer, grabbing the bag of tools that she had been instructed to use "It will take me some time to fully gather all the information, but I will send you a copy of my report after. Now go, work!" Song smiled, feeling a little bounce pop into her steps. "Thank you!"
The work itself was long and tedious. She was used to work of that nature though, so it was easy to keep focus. Her trick to doing that was keeping her mind on her task at hand. You only accomplish anything by taking one step at a time and remember that the end will be all worth it.
She had hoped the work would be competed by the end of the day. To her dismay it wasn't. She could feel the cold of the night threatening to come. "It's time to stop for the day." Either song didn't hear him, or she was pretending not to.
The idea of stopping now bothered her, so her cheeks fluffed up a bit. Still, she continued carefully working "If you don't stop now, you wont get enough rest. Then you will be useless during a lot of work hours tomorrow." Song let out an annoyed sound, but conceded. She didn't want to be useless for any hours the next day. They drank water and ate the meal. She wasn't sure what an MRE was, but it tasted good. The man had put small packages into thin bags and added a little water. Just like that the food was cooked! That water was used a few times that way, eventually being used for a drink.
Apparently the food was prepared and packaged in ways that allowed it to last a lot longer than it would have otherwise. After the meal, they slept. Early in the morning they woke up, had another meal, then went right back to work. The day was long and silent, focused on the task at hand. While the older man had needed a break due to the heat, she didn't. Why? She was born and raised in a desert that was hot at day and cold at night, so extreme temperatures didn't really wear down on her little body so much.
She treated excavation like she would have with weaving. Feel things out, be patient, make sure you do things right. The bones feel reminded her of stone, though they also had the texture and feel of bones. The more they uncovered, the more she could imagine about the creature. It didn't have teeth, but it had a strong sharp boney jaw. That jaw was able to open and close, it could have chopped up its prey with its mouth.
But was it the type of fish that would eat other fish? No bones of other animals were found in its stomach, but it could have just as easily have just died with an empty stomach. It's last meal could have also been a sea creature that had no bones. She didn't voice any of these thoughts though, since she wasn't the archaeologist. The best way to learn about it would probably be through books, but the spider also doubted that a book could give her as clear of an idea as she had now on how it looked.
She was starting to understand the importance of using different methods to get information on something. If you want to find out what's going on somewhere, you need to have gone to that place long enough to have a personal idea of how everything goes. If you don't do that, then you wont fully understand the unique way that town works, how that culture functions for that area, or where everyone fits. But you also needed to read stuff on what's going on about whats going on, otherwise you will only have guesses based on an incomplete image.
Work wasn't completed on the third day either. The dinner just felt like a distraction from work. The desert spider had a hard time getting her restless self to sleep. Eventually she managed, but had dreams of a great deep sea, of different fish swimming in that ocean. For some reason the dream made her sad. She woke up crying, but the tears were quickly wiped away. It was early in the morning, time for breakfast. None of the meals ever tasted exciting, but they were always filling.
The fact that they never left her hungry was all that mattered in the end, even if tasty was exciting. She was here to work, not be spoiled. This was why she didn't mind working long and hard on the third day. It was the same slow and tedious work that it had been every other day so far. She was determined to see this job through and continue doing a good job. Part of her did really want it to be finished today. This has already gone on for long enough, right?
Well, she had said many times before that she was best at being patient with weaving. When it came to other things, eventually that patients ran out. Of course this was on the topic of crafting. Thread weaving, chores, helping take care of other kids, fighting, practice, that was her life for a long time. That was a lot, but it was also a monotonous life where she had ended up developing a positive and pushy attitude in order to keep energy in things.
"It's time to take a break." This time when she was told that, Song put up a little fuss. "I want to finish everything tonight!" The desert spider didn't stop working, easily ignoring how the heat had already mostly faded from the air. She heard the older man get out a tired sigh, "Maybe we can finish up tomorrow, if you rest tonight." That left song feeling unsatisfied. Still, she knew better than to argue with sound logic.
The youth really wanted to argue, fuss, and pout. This wasn't at home though. She couldn't wiggle her way into getting a little of what she wanted. Feeling frustrated, she put the tools away in their bag for the night before getting up and going towards where they would eat. That night she had another dream of being in the ocean. This time it had a lot of small fish and one big fish. A huge heavy fish the size of a small whale. It was coated in bony plates, and moved slow. It was so... alone.
After waking up that morning, she decided that she didn't like doing jobs alone. The spider missed sleeping next to others, working next to others, being around someone almost all the time. This morning she ate extra fast in order to get back to work faster. This had been fun at first, but she really wanted to get back to the guild. This job would have been better to do with someone else. Should she tell someone it was lonely to do jobs alone? That she missed being surrounded?
Try not to think of it right now, try to focus. It was a lot harder to focus this day, but Song still managed. One thing that helped was humming. The skeleton was mostly complete in the areas that were unearthed so far. Under the bones was an imprint from the fish's body, probably from before it's insides rotted away. A firm object makes better imprints than a floppy one, and the girl knew rot. Rot was softer, goopier, less shapely, and certainly floppy. How many years was it there before anyone found its bones?
How long does it take an imprint to be made that will last forever? Or maybe it's just how long its left alone? But this wasn't something the girl knew enough about to answer. Song decided not to think on the what ifs too much on the big fish skeleton. Her reasoning for doing that was simply that she would eventually find out anyway, in the letter she would be written after the expert figured everything out. By high noon that day the excavation was complete. Part of her wanted to stay a bit longer and rest.
In the end, she decided to leave then and there so she could get back to the guild faster. She never had weird dreams like that there.
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