Solo The Familiar Hunt

[Zach Grasswind]

3rd Fall, 521av.

Zach had not been back in Lhavit for very long, yet somehow it felt like he had never really left. Sitting on his bed in the Solar Wind Apartments with the early morning sunlight casting a golden glow over the room was a familiar and comforting thing to the Drykas. It was a funny feeling, the realisation that a place you never expected to be had started to become a home. Even funnier was the fact that he had missed Lhavit and not Endrykas during his seasons of travel. Zach had expected being on the move – and seeing Riverfall again – to have awoken a desire to return to the city of tents, but it had done just the opposite and he had been on the return to the mountains as soon as his business had concluded.

The hunter stretched his arms over his head, cracking his fingers as he did so. Hunter… yes that is what he was and that is what he planned to become again. A glance out the window told him that it was overcast, so he shrugged on his coat and picked up his bow. He hadn’t used the weapon in a long time but it still felt familiar and right in his hand.

I did not take him long to make his way over to the Hunter’s Guild. Zach’s stomach was rumbling, so a stop for some breakfast and to check in with fellows he had not seen in an age would be just the ticket. Pushing open the large oak doors sent a wave of nostalgia flooding over the Drykas and he smiled as his gaze drifted over the large common room. A fire was crackling merrily in the hearth beneath the familiar animal heads and he noted a couple of new additions to the wall with admiration. He made his way over to the bar near the back of the room, passing a few bleary-eyes hunters hunched over the scattered tables.

The barkeep was a new face, and he took Zach’s request without fanfare, though there was a curious glance at the brass bracelet around the hunter’s wrist – the identifying mark of all guild members. Zach managed one sip of his ale before he felt a friendly slap on the back of his shoulder, the familiar voice of Long Stan accompanying it.
“Zach! Welcome back boy!” The older hunter settled himself onto the next stool. “We were wondering if you’d ever appear again. You sticking around now?”

Zach turned a little so he could face Stan. The man hadn’t changed a bit, aside from perhaps the addition of a new scar, but honestly who could tell with the grizzled hunter. He chuckled at the grin on Stan’s face.
“Aye, I hope so! If you lot don’t kick me out for forgetting how to use my bow anyway!”
Long Stan rumbled a laugh before motioning to Zach’s food. “Tell you what, you finish that and then come on out with me today. Sound good?”

In response Zach gave a nod and downed the rest of his ale. “Sounds great!”


wc: 515

[Zach Grasswind]

The two men did not waste much time in gathering their belongings before heading for the door of the Guild. The clouds still hung low over the city and the smell of impending rain filled the air. They walked through the Peak as old friends, Zach filling the older hunter in where he had been and what the journey was like.
“What have you got a mind to catch today then?” The Drykas glanced sidelong at Stan as they crossed a bridge.

“I’m after a nice sizeable deer today. Got a family celebration coming up and we need a good bit of meat for it! Of course you can take some for yourself too for your help.” Zach smiled wryly to himself. Long Stan definitely did not need his help – one glance at the spear on his back could tell anyone that. He suspected the veteran hunter was requesting his ‘assistance’ today to ease him back into the work and he appreciated it greatly. He had not used his bow at all for well over four seasons now and he feared he had forgotten everything he knew.

Soon enough the pair of hunters were stepping out of the city and into the wilds of the Misty Peaks. Zach’s gaze roamed the landscape before him, drinking in the sights he had missed. The sloping hills that rose into impossibly steep crests. The thick forests covering the scene like a blanket. The layer of cloud hanging low, brushing the tips of the pines with curling mists. A sense peace stole over him, a feeling that things were right once again.

They quickly crossed over into the gloom beneath the trees. Their footsteps became muffled as they fell upon layers of pine and soil and their eyes took a moment to adjust to the low light. The hunters kept to the main track for a time in companionable silence before they decided on a spot to leave the trail for the main event. Zach fished a small length of bright yellow twine from his pocket and tied it tightly around a skinny branch on a tree at the point they had chosen so that they would easier be able to find their way back to the trail. Of course, he could use his ‘eyes’ to do much the same thing, but since he still did not understand the gift, he was reluctant to rely on it.

Zach had not spent a lot of time hunting deer in the past. He had found the most success with grouse and rabbits, especially when working on his own. Deer in theory were easier to track, but only if you knew the places they liked to inhabit. Long Stan knew all about the hoofed animals – a fair amount of the heads adorning the Guild wall were his work.

“There’s a nice big clearing not too far from here. Deer like edges.” Zach nodded as he listened to the man’s words. “The woods keep them feeling safe and hidden, the scrub and open grass keeps them fed. Of course, sometimes they aren’t around here, I suspect there are other clearings way off that they also use but you’ll usually find a few if you remember where it is.”

As they walked, Zach would periodically attach the yellow twine to tree branches or tall shrubs they passed, making sure their own trail was marked clearly for their return. After some chimes Long Stan stopped Zach with a hand and motioned to some greenery just below their eyeline. “You see that Zach?”

The Drykas dropped his gaze and scrutinised the shrubbery. A branch had grown a little longer at one point and had stuck just a bit further out from the rest of the bush Stan was pointing at. It was broken, hanging on only by the outer layer of young bark. Something must have moved past it at speed. Or… Zach looked closer, noting the little thorns along the branch and the scars where a few must have broken off. An animal must have passed by and the branch got caught in its fur and snapped when whatever it was continued moving.

The Drykas then crouched and peered at the ground. Under the dense canopy the soil was damp, and damp soil meant that footprints would be easy to spot. Where the hunters were standing had a decent covering of leaf litter, but Zach noticed that some of it had been disturbed, mud showing on leaves that had been turned over by something.

A little further ahead Zach found what he had been looking for. A single clear hoof print indented the loamy soil. Deer prints were easy to identify, even to him. Two elongated ‘toes’, rounded at the back and curving into a point at the front. He showed the print to Stan who nodded once.

“That’s a good sign. It looks fresh to me; you can see there is still a bit of moisture in the print. We’re still a bit off from the edge at the moment, but they could be closer. Keep your ears sharp.”


wc: 850

[Zach Grasswind]

There was a lot of leaf litter on the ground, so the hunters didn’t find much more in the way of clear prints. Occasionally Long Stan would point out marks Zach would miss, like leaves that had been crumpled under a hoof versus simply being withered.

“How many do you think came this way Stan?”
“Hard to say. Probably not many – the leaf litter would be more disturbed and we’d be finding a lot more broken branches if it was even a small herd. I reckon no more than five moving slowly, but it could just be the one.”

The pair moved slower now, Long Stan almost silent and Zach trying his hardest to emulate the superior hunter. He continually moved his gaze from the trail ahead to the ground just in front of his feet, making sure he was not about to step on any twigs or stones that would make noise. The leaf litter was harder to avoid for most of the ground was covered in it, but somehow Stan managed to make barely a whisper of noise. It was quite damp, which helped, but occasionally a muffled crunch would sound from under Zach’s boot.

Eventually the pair heard a noise ahead and they stopped, crouching low. Squinting through the dense brush Zach made out a single deer moving slowly down an unseen track, browsing on bits of undergrowth here and there. It was a male, a good few years old judging by the antlers crowning its head. As the hunter watched, he noticed it moving a little oddly. Long Stan had seen this too and nudged Zach.

“He’s our boy. See he has an injury to his front leg there? He’s still strong but probably won’t last long enough to mate again with the wolves about, so there’s no worry to take him down now.” Stan kept his voice low and soft so as not to startle the animal. “He’s yours when you’re ready.”

Zach took a moment to observe their situation. They were on a gently sloping part of the Peaks with the deer slightly below them. The buck had its flank to them with the head angled away slightly as it nosed through the leaf litter. From his vantage, a broadside shot would be his best bet – and the one he was most comfortable with at present. He had seen other hunters pull off spectacular headshots but Zach knew his precision shooting was nowhere near their level.

Slowly he reached up to retrieve his bow, noting the lack of a breeze as he did so. That was good, for the deer would be less likely to smell them. A breeze flowing towards them was of course optimal, but at least there was nothing actively carrying their scent over. He fitted an arrow snugly to his bow and raised it to his face. As quietly as he could, Zach bought a knee down to rest on the ground and set his other foot square to it to give himself a solid anchor. He pulled his arm back, muscles straining after not being used in such a way for so long, and focused his gaze down the arrow shaft.

The buck was still browsing, oblivious to the two hunters watching it. Zach adjusted his aim, lining the point of his arrow up with the heart-lung placement he was used to using. This particular shot had a bigger target area than others which was well within Zach’s ability to hit. He took a breath and held it, made one final adjustment and then let the arrow fly. It sailed through the air and buried itself in the side of the deer, who let out a startled bellow. The aim had been just right, the Drykas could see he had hit well within the target area, but the deer didn’t drop immediately.

The buck tried to dart away, crashing forwards through the brush. “Shyke.” Zach jumped to his feet to go after the beast, stealth no longer the name of the game. The heart-lung shot occasionally failed to drop a deer immediately, and the Drykas suspected that his shot was also weaker than usual since he hadn’t shot a bow in all the time he had been away.

The deer had dropped a little way off, its leg giving out on it as it had tried to flee. As he approached, the hunter watched as the sides of the animal stopped moving with breath, relieved that its suffering had not bee too extended. He vowed to himself to regain as much strength as he could and more, so that future shots would lead to instant deaths. Eventually he would have the skill to try for neck and headshots, but he knew they were still out of his league for now.


wc: 801

[Zach Grasswind]

Long Stan had not been far behind him, and he came up beside Zach to look down at the deer. “Not bad boy, I think we can let you stay.” The man chuckled and Zach gave him a wry smile. “You ever field dressed one of these?”

He shook his head. “Uh, no, never actually brought one back on my own before.” Zach usually stuck to hunting rabbits and grouse as they were easier to carry by himself.
“Well then, get those sleeves rolled up and I’ll show you how it’s done!”

Zach set his bow securely against a tree and pushed his sleeves as far above his elbows as they would go. Long Stan was pulling a knife and cloth bags out from his pockets when he turned back around, arms already bare. Zach helped him manoeuvre the deer onto it’s back. “I assume you know that we will be removing all the innards.” Zach nodded once. “We do it to cool the meat quicker and stop too much bacteria growing.”

Stan motioned for Zach to move to the rear of the deer and hold it steady. “We start here.” He tapped the knife on the animal’s rear end. “We cut around that, and then move onto the body.” Stand did as he was saying, cutting a neat, deep circle where he had indicated.

“Right, hold him steady from the top now.” Zach moved to hold the deer under its front legs, watching closely as Stan moved onto the body. “You have to be sure about your cuts here else you’ll never get anywhere.” The older hunter lifted the skin just below the buck’s ribcage and punctured it. He then cut all the way down to the pelvis with swift and strong motions.

“It’s good to start your cut under the ribs like this, as you can use the fur if you want it and it can be mounted like the ones back at the Guild. You need to be firm with your knife but don’t go too deep as you don’t want to puncture anything internally.”

Long Stan carefully cut the diaphragm muscle and oesophagus and then Zach helped him roll the deer onto its side. “Easier to get the big bits out this way.” Stan carefully pulled the innards from the animal, its position on the ground helping them to fall out easier. He noticed how the older hunter took his time to make sure nothing ruptured. They rolled the deer onto its back again and Stan picked up his cloth bags.

He reached in to carefully cut away the heart which he placed into one bag, and then took the liver from the innards and put it into the other. He tied the bags off and gently rested them on the ground near his spear. The final thing Stan did was to remove the lungs and windpipe, leaving a clear and fairly clean cavity.

The hunter straightened and rinsed off his hands with his waterskin. “Not too difficult, hey.” Zach nodded in agreement. It had been simpler than he had anticipated, however he also appreciated that it had also taken considerable skill with the knife to do it so cleanly. Together they tied the legs of the deer and collected their respective weapons. They left the innards covered with some of the leaf litter for scavengers to find and set off back to the city.

Zach took the lead, flicking his gaze from the ground to the trees as he went. Human footprints were easier to find than those of animals, and the yellow of the yarn he had tied onto branches on the way in stood out clearly in the shadows from the canopy above.

They made good time, stepping back through the city gates about a bell after Syna had crested noontime. The pair of hunters headed for the Guild rather than the Jugged Hare, for the meat was for Long Stan on this occasion. “Tell you what Zach, stick around after a meal and I can show you how to prep it if you like.”

Even though the older hunter would only be able to see the back of his head, Zach nodded. “That’d be great actually!” He had been wanting to learn how to do more than simply just shoot animals for a while now, to try and become a little more self-sufficient. Learning to utilise what he could kill would be an excellent first step.



wc: 744
total: 2910

[Zach Grasswind]

XP Award!

Name: Zach

XP Award:

• Socialisation: 1
• Observation: 3
• Tracking: 2
• Stealth: 1
• Hunting: 2
• Weapon: Shortbow: 1
• Wilderness Survival: 1

Lores:

• Self: Sees Lhavit as home now
• Hunting: Understanding your prey is key
• Hunting: Deer like habitat edges
• Tracking: Broken branches indicate an animal passing by
• Tracking: Deer prints
• Tracking: How to tell if prints are fresh
• Tracking: How guess at how many animals have passed through an area
• Hunting: Broadside shot
• Weapon - Bows: Anchoring yourself
• Wilderness Survival: Field dressing helps to reduce bacteria growth in a fresh kill
• Wilderness Survival: The basics of field dressing