[FLASHBACK] Mac and the Puma (Completed)

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

Once again the cougar appeared out of nowhere and bowled over the closest wolf. She leaped gracefully to her feet and positioned herself between Mac and the wolves. Mac notched an arrow and sited on the nearest wolf, whose attention was now focused on the hissing lion. The two predators feinted and snapped at each other so he had to wait for a clear shot. His opportunity came when the second wolf lunged at the cat. As she turned to engage him, Mac released his arrow. It embedded itself in the first wolf’s haunch with a satisfying “thunk”. Mac was aiming for the neck but he was happy to have hit it at all, although it was so close that he could hardly miss. The wolf let out a yelp and twisted its head around to snap at the offending arrow. Mac's second arrow struck the wolf's exposed side and went deep. The wolf yelped again and tried to run away but all it could do was thrash around on the ground. This appeared to be enough to convince the two remaining wolves that they were in the wrong fight. They melted into the forest as quickly and quietly as they had appeared. Mac was breathing hard, more from adrenaline than from physical effort. He turned back to the first wolf and notched another arrow. But it was dead, lying in two pools of already congealing blood. Mac sat down. Only then did he think to make sure the cougar was alright. “You okay?” He asked, looking toward her. There was blood on her shoulder.

[Renalee]

When the first arrow struck Ren knew they would be fine. She threw herself snarling at the two other wolves, giving the hunter the space and access he needed to fire as many more of his arrows as he wished in the body of the leader. It was just a matter of time before the injured animal tumbled and fell. The smell of the two other canines immediately shifted, introducing a nuance of fear, and they whirled around, heading back towards the line of trees. Ren snapped her jaws after them in a final warning before going to sniff at their fallen companion to confirm he was indeed dead. He was. The human had dropped to the ground in the mean time, looking rather shaken. The puma approached him slowly and nudged his leg with her nose. She then proceeded to sit down next to him and turn her head in order to lick the small trickle of blood that had appeared over the scratch on her shoulder. It was not big at all, the teeth of the canine having barely grazed her, so it closed up almost immediately under the ministrations of her tongue. When the human asked her if she was ok, Renalee rose to her feet again and gave an awkward shake of her head and shoulders in confirmation. Deciding this would no longer work, if she wanted to communicate with the man, she let her body relax and shift. “Barely a scratch.” The young woman that stood in front of the hunter now instead of the puma gave him a toothy grin. She extended her hand, waiting for him to pass her the bag she had entrusted him with and glanced towards the meadow. “I dropped my rabbit somewhere in the grass. I’ll have to retrieve it.”

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

Mac's campsite consisted of a large tent containing a bedroll, a blanket and a variety of clothing items scattered around. Outside the tent door was an axe, fishing tackle, a lantern, a tarp and other items scattered around none too neatly. And there was a horse wandering about the camp untethered. A gray-white mountain pony. Mac lifted the dead wolf off his shoulders and dropped it heavily on the ground. “That's Shin'ta,” he said pointing at the horse. “She gets a little skittish around predators, even Kelvic ones, but give her a little while to get to know you and she'll be fine.” He collected a length of rope, tied it around the wolf's head and dragged the carcass to a tree near the lake and some distance form the camp. “I'm gonna try skinning it. Wish me luck.” He threw the other end of the rope over a sturdy tree branch and hoisted the carcass into the air until it was swinging free. “Hey,” he said to the cat woman. “I didn't get your name. Mine's Mac. Do you know how to skin a rabbit? Or maybe start a fire? Or maybe make us a rabbit stew? I got some potatoes and carrots over there somewhere.” He pointed in the general direction of the tent and the clutter surrounding it. Without waiting for a reply, he took out his hunting knife and slit the wolf's stomach open from top to bottom in a single powerful cut. Somewhat to his surprise, it worked and the wolf's innards came pouring out on to the ground. The stench hit Mac hard. He stepped to one side and tried to vomit, although all he produced were dry heaves. He grimaced and went to work cutting out organs and scraping out everything he could find that looked like something he wouldn't want to eat. He got some water from the lake and washed out the open carcass as best he could. He was about to start skinning it when he realized that he would be working in a stinking pile of guts. He let the wolf down, dragged it to another tree and hoisted it back up off the ground. “Note to self,” he said to no one in particular. “Clean out the innards before you string it up.” He had seen this done a few times before, and had paid close attention. But this was the first time he'd tried it himself. He made a cut all the way around the wolf's neck and then did the same around it's paws. Then he began to peel the skin off the hind legs. He worked his way carefully up the legs, over the rump and up to the front legs. There he sawed away at the skin until it came loose. This left him with a fairly good sized wolf pelt. He pulled the rest of the beast's skin off up to it's neck. “Damn,” He said as he stood back to appraise his work. “That's one naked lookin' wolf.” The sun was getting low in the western horizon and Mac was tired and thirsty.

[Renalee]

Renalee deposited her backpack by the human’s tent before she took a quick look around his small camp. It was exactly what one would expect from a hunter’s temporary residence and the Kelvic took an instant liking to it. Even the horse which did look at her with distrust, just like the man had said it would. It didn’t really matter all that much. “My name’s Ren,” the blonde offered when Mac introduced himself. “And I think I can manage it.” She hadn’t actually performed any of the tasks the man had given her very often, never in the case of the stew. She could start fires, as long as there was enough material to build one and it was all perfectly clean and dry. And as far as skinning went, Ren had seen her father do it quite often and had even done it a couple of times on her own with varying degrees of success. She decided to start off by collecting some wood, dried grass and leaves. There was an abundance of everything in the camp’s vicinity and Ren had built herself a decent looking pile in no time. She arranged it in a cone-like structure with the grass and the leaves at the bottom and in the center of it. The smaller sticks that would catch a flame easier followed and on top of them were pieces of fallen branches. It wasn’t pretty, but when she brought her flint and steal to it and hit at the edge of the metal a couple of times the small sparks produced caught rather quickly. The flame was small and hesitant at first and the whole thing was smoking quite a bit, but at least she had managed to light it up. Next on her list was bringing some water over from the lake in one of the hunter’s pots she had discovered in the vicinity of the tent. She propped up a couple of longer sticks, somehow managing to balance one over the fire held by two others on each end, burried a little bit into the ground. It certainly wasn’t the most stable of constructions, but when she hung the pot on it, using its thin metallic handle and a small hook that had went with it it held. She would leave the water to boil while she took care of the rabbits. Using her eating knife, which was still rather sharp despite being used to practice throwing with, Ren cut both rabbits’ bellies open, throwing their innards into the lake. As far as she could remember she had to cut off the head and the paws first, which she did. She didn’t know where to start removing the skin from so she just picked a spot on the chest and started peeling it off. She definitely lacked precision, managing to cut the pelt in a couple of places when the knife slipped in her hand. The body of the rabbit wasn’t spared either, taking on a fair few of her inexperienced stabs. Once the Kelvic was done with the first rabbit she moved on to the second which went a little bit faster, but not much prettier. She washed the now skinless bodies of the rabbits in the water, just to make sure nothing of their intestines was left inside. Ren knew she was supposed to skin and clean the heads as well, but very convinced that she wouldn’t managed it she just buried them together with the feet in a small hole away from the camp. When it came to the stew it turned out a much easier task than she could have imagined. She quickly chopped the rabbit’s bodies into smaller pieces, without bothering to separated the bones from the meat and threw them into the water. Large chunks of potatoes and carrots followed and while the potatoes weren’t pealed at least they had all been washed in the lake beforehand. Rummaging through the grass and around the trees Ren even managed to find some plants which smell she was sure she recognized from her father’s dishes. So she threw in their leaves as well. By the time Mac had returned the camp was smelling positively delicious, most likely due only to the herbs and the fact there was good meat involved in Renalee’s improvised recipe. “I made us some stew!” It was a proud declaration, accompanied by a wide grin sent in Mac’s direction as Ren looked up from cleaning her knife to greet him.

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

Mac walked over to the fire and inspected it. “It'd need less tending if you put some larger pieces of wood in a sort of log cabin arrangement over the top. Not too tightly spaced. Gotta let air in.” He examined the makeshift cooking arrangement. “Not bad.” He looked over at the pieces of rabbit pelt. “Won't be able to salvage much out of that mess.” He sampled the stew and spit out some bones. “Well, I don't care much for bones in my stew, but it's edible.” He straightened up and turned to the girl. He had a frown on his face, as though he was trying to remember something. His expression and voice softened. “Actually it's quite good, Ren” he said, giving her a broad smile. “You did a good job with the fire and the cooking pot. And you managed to skin two rabbits and made a fine rabbit stew.” He frowned again. “I don't know why I had to start nit-pickin' at stuff. There was no call for it. What say we sit down and have some of this fine meal you prepared for us?” He filled a bowl with stew, sat with his back against a tree, and proceeded to attack his dinner with gusto.

[Renalee]

Ren observed the human as he inspected her work. He wasn’t exactly sweet, but the girl had faced much harsher criticism before so she took Mac’s words as more of a friendly advice. She would certainly need the fire tip in the future, if Winter found her in the Wildlands again. Something which seemed highly likely in this particular moment in time. When the man turned around, a frown marring his features, and apologized Renalee waved him off. “I’m glad I could help. And sorry about the rabbits’ pelts. I’ve never showed particular talent in skinning. Even if you human hunters seem to value that skill above all else.” In her opinion the rabbit stew was lovely. Nothing like what her father could whip up, but it had meat in it and smelled lovely. She did push away the pieces of potatoes and carrots, but cleaned her plate of everything else, even sucking the marrow out of the bones. She was very tempted to lean down and lick her plate, but knew that humans weren’t much appreciative of things like that. ‘Bad manners’, Zalek had called it. When they were done eating Ren poked a little bit at the fire, more pretending like she was doing something than actually doing anything. “You know, you’ll need to practice with that bow of yours. Although rabbits are a quick and small prey - hard to hit. My father uses a bow to hunt too. He says it’s all in the breathing. I never understood what he meant.” After a small pause for consideration Ren asked. “What are you going to do with the wolf’s pelt?”

[Jeremiah Maccabee]

“The wolf pelt. I'm not sure. I suppose I should scrap it as clean as I can and take it to town and try to sell it. Why, did you have something in mind?” He got himself a second bowl of stew and dug into it with the same enthusiasm as the first. “This is pretty good,” he said to her, pointing his spoon at his bowl. “You can cook for me anytime.” He looked thoughtful for a few moment. “Archery. Yeah, I'm not very good with a bow yet. Fact is, I'm not very good with much of anything out here in the wild. Just figuring it out as I go. I guess I'll get good at it if I don't get eaten by something in the meantime.” He smiled at this. After dinner, Mac took his bowl and spoon, as well as Ren's, down to the lake where he rinsed them off. Then he went to work on the naked wolf. He didn't really know how to butcher it so he just started carving away at it with his hunting knife. After a bell or so he had a pretty good collection of pieces of wolf meat, plus a seriously hacked up carcass. He let the carcass down on to the ground and retrieved his rope and meat, which he brought over to the fire. The fire had been going for quite a while and had a good bed of coals. “I'm not really sure how to do this, but somehow we gotta smoke it enough that it'll keep for a few days.” He let the fire burn down until it was just glowing coals. He strung the pieces of meat over the coals and continued laying wood over the coals. He kept this up until well after dark. He and Ren sat around talking, sharing their stories with each other, generally getting to know each other. Later he took the smoked meat down and hung the pieces by rope from a tree branch well above the ground. Done properly smoked meat would keep for months. Done by Mac it would be lucky to last a few days. But that was a few days worth of meat that they wouldn't have had otherwise. “Girl, I am beat,” he said at last. “I only got the one bedroll and a spare wool blanket. I don't know whether you prefer to sleep in human form or cat form. Either way, you're welcome to share my tent and I'll be glad to let you have the blanket.” He cocked his head and looked at her quizzically. Then he disappeared into the tent.

[Renalee]

Ren shook her head negative. “No. No idea. I don’t usually care about the pelts. It’s the meat that matters.” She grinned when Mac complemented her stew. She had never really bothered observing her father when he was cooking and all she knew about it was that everything you wanted in your meal had to go in the pot. Obviously that was all that was needed, if the man was prepared to eat more of her dishes. Still, there was something to be said about the taste of meat torn straight from the body of your kill. The Kelvic tagged along with the hunter after dinner, closely observing as he worked his way through the wolf’s carcass. They shared a rather companionable silence and Ren enjoyed the human’s presence, so different from those of the people she had been in contact with recently. Out here in the wild she finally could claim to have found her own version of peace. By the time they were done with smoking the meat their camp had filled with the sounds of all the night critters. Ren had managed to clear out the mess her cooking and skinning had created and had settled by the remnants of their fire. The coals still released some heat in the air around them and the girl put her hands closer, relishing the warmth. It had ended up being a rather long day and she felt tired. “I’ll take that blanket then. And I think I’ll stay out here. I never really liked tents,” Ren stood up stretching and covered a yawn with her hand. “Thanks for today, Mac. I had a lot of fun.” She grinned as she accepted the woolen blanked from him. “You have yourself a goodnight now.” ‘Goodbye,’ the girl added in her head as she watched the man retreat into his tent. By the time the coals turned black the puma was a few miles south and was finally settling down for the night. There was a long way to go before she reached Syliras and Renalee wouldn’t be getting any closer if she stopped to spend time with every human hunter she met.

[Paragon]

Jeremiah Maccabee

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Investigation	1
Shortbow	1
Tracking	1
Hunting	1
Observation	1
Skinning	2
Wilderness Survival	1
Food Preservation	1

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Cougar Prints
•	Addled by the Female Form
•	Renalee: Cougar Kelvic
•	Smoking Meats
•	Wolves: Hunting in Packs

Renalee

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	1
Tracking	2
Acrobatics	1
Intimidation	1
Investigation	1
Hunting	2
Running	1
Brawling	2
Cooking	1
Skinning	1
Wilderness Survival	2

Lores

•	Lore Earned
•	Disarming a Hunter
•	Jeremiah Maccabee: Human
•	Building Campfires
•	Hunting and Skinning Small Game
•	Butchering Animals
•	Smoking Meats

Legend Becomes Reality

Great thread - I loved the use of images, they were really effective! If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can work from there.