Observations of the Enviroment

Job Description:

“I wonder what I should write about” Natalia pondered as she exited the city and entered the surrounding desert. She had taken a job on request of a local university in order to pad out her coffers. Natalia who had traversed the area surrounding Heliohapt often had acquired a fairly extensive knowledge of the plants and animals it contained and as such was having a difficult time deciding on what and how much to note on her report.

“I suppose I will start with the plant life in the surrounding area” she would decide as she began to examine specimens close by. Natalia would write the notes down for each specimen in a consistent format to reduce confusion and improve communication of differences and intent to the person who would be reading them. For plants she would start by quickly but accurately sketching the shape of it and then writing about the soil it was growing in, its height, whether it had any flowers, the vividness and hue of its color, the rigidity of the plant, the strength and nature of its aroma, and then anything she thought was noteworthy using a single page for each specimen. Though she had impeccable handwriting either way, Natalia made a note to use a simple style as to ease readability and allow for copying incase her notes needed to be transferred elsewhere. By the time she was finished with the plant section she had cataloged she had cataloged fifty specimens with twenty five different species each having two separate individuals recorded.

Her process for animals was similar though the layout of the notes was changed to reflect the difference biological kingdoms. The pages would be constructed with a sketched side profile of the animal. Then there was a category to denote if it was a sky or land animal, then one to describe  the specimens diet,etc. She had treated the recording of data for all of the animals the same until she spotted a jackal (/African golden wolf). As Natalia has a fondness for canines and a love for this particular species, she took extra care writing it and the jackal’s page ended being special.All of the sections were the same on the prior pages except for the space for extra notes which contained a vivid if somewhat theatrical description of the animal with wording like “Its coat shines brilliantly in the desert sun, perhaps a gift nature provided as a representation of the animal’s own brilliance.” which took a noticeable departure from the previous diction she had used in the extra section which had been free from personal flourishes and simple in vocabulary.

Having written all she felt was needed she would make a quick return to the city albeit with her head occasionally turning towards the direction she had observed the canine earlier in the day. Handing over all her notes to the office staff of the university, she watched the aid quickly file away the fairly thick packet into a much larger pile of papers and other things such as scrolls. With her bag of coin in hand, the imuchakk left the building. “Maybe I should get a canine friend” she mused to herself as she walked towards the center of a city bathed in the noon sun.

WC:550/500