[Syliran Archives] To Forge a Huntsman

[Lorden Ladis]

77th of Winter, 514 AV

Lorden sat the brown book down softly on the oak table. The knight reached his newly freed right hand out, wrapping his fingers around the top of a nearby chair. Eagerly, he pulled the light brown seat from the table it was under. With a relieved breath Lorden settled into the seat, before closing his eyes and titling his head to the ceiling of the archaic archives. A smile began to form on the knight's face, as he breathed in and out slowly.

This feels right, Lorden thought, comparing the gentle, peaceful feeling of the library, with the horrific happenings of the day before's patrol. Slowly, Lorden opened his eyes, hopefully looking over to the corner of the room, and to the robbed man that sat behind a desk there. As the knight glared at the black haired librarian, longing almost entered his eyes. Quickly he shook his head in denial; Lorden put down the thoughts that were beginning to bubble up against his will.

No, I could never be a scribe, Lorden assured himself drearily, his heart beginning to squeeze itself.

I'm needed elsewhere, the knight thought, glancing down at the scabbard, that stuck its way out to the side of his seat. As his blue eyes drilled into his sword, memories of the battle with the wolves once again entered Lorden's mind; this time, the euphoria he had felt, inched its way into his thoughts, urging him to somehow experience it again.

"You're a killer, a warrior. A knight! You know you revel, in the warm feeling of sliding my steel length out of a fresh kill; as the warm body of your victim slouches over, submitting at your feet," Lorden could almost hear the words coming from his weapon, almost imagine a dark voice uttering them. The knight found his eyes stunned, unable to move from his own possession.

"A part of you even enjoys the sight of their death throes. You're a killer Lorden, a hunter of men," the blade's voice grew darker, viler, more coy; almost as if it enjoyed the inner torment, that it knew it was stirring up in it's wielder.

The dumbfounded man quickly squeezed his eyelids together, stubbornly blocking his sight of the sword, and ending its suggestive mutterings. With his blue eyes held firmly shut, Lorden moved his blinded head to look straight ahead. The knight took a deep breath, and opened his eyes slowly. Exhaling in as calming a manner as possible, Lorden ran a hand through his long, raven-esque hair.

I should have slept a little bit more, Lorden cooed to himself self-assuredly, a false smirk gluing itself to his face unconvincingly. Swallowing, Lorden reached his dominant hand for the brown book, that sat on the table before him.

Lets just see whats in here, the knight thought, shifting his thoughts hopefully. With the book in his right hand, Lorden lifted his left to pull back its cover. As his appendages shuffled the brown leather volume open, the knight allowed his eyes to take in what passed for its title page.

Basics on Tracking Syliran Buck, Lorden read the name inquisitively. As he became exited about the book's topic, any uncomfortable thoughts he had, finally began to tuck themselves back away, into whatever dark fold of the knight's brain, that they had crawled out of.

His heart now beginning to feel lighter, Lorden once more flipped into the text a page, eagerly reaching for the calm it was starting to provide him.

[Lorden Ladis]

77th of Winter, 514 AV

The knight starred at the sheet of paper, his blue eyes softened. Smiling as he did, Lorden's orbs passed along the rushed handwriting.

The most important thing any hunter needs to know about an animal, whether it be a buck, doe, or even a human in some situations; is that they move at a constant pace. Deer, and that includes buck, graze at a steady trot; if you see otherwise, something has spooked em'. If you're hunting a buck and it starts running away from your general direction ,for example; sorry friend, if you didn't just shoot a nocked arrow, there went your supper.

Lorden took note of the words, his eyes lingering on the word 'human'.

I've never even noticed, but I think it might be true, the knight mused, pondering the proposed tendency for people, and not just wildlife, to move steadily.

Then again, deer don't speed up their feet because of tree shadows, or imagined monsters sulking in the bushes; can't really say the same for some travelers, Lorden continued his thoughts, a look of suspicion entering his eyes, as he slipped the blue orbs down to the book's next paragraph.

When it comes to this point, it's usually best to just find new prey, or suffer through your belly's rumbling. You'd have to move faster than a sprinting hare to catch a startled deer, and unless you can run as softly as the same little animal, your prey is going to know what's behind it, and the venison-on-legs, ain't going to stop till it can't move its hindquarters no more. I don't know you reader, but I'd wager you can't outdistance or outlast a buck.

Lorden titled his head inquisitively. Was a book on tracking, telling him not to track? Raising his eyebrows, the knight continued on.

But how do you find your next chance at some meat, you'd ask.

Now we're getting somewhere, Lorden thought, allowing his brow to settle back down naturally, as he starred on at the brown book.

At the end of the day, I can't really make you a tracker. But I can tell you how I track, and set you on your way to the woods. So, back to finding that meat. Firstly, if you have no idea what your doing, your going to want to look for a source of water, or if your feeling like Ovek is on your side, a source of food. Since you're reading this guide, I'm going to go ahead and tell you dear like to munch on twigs, wild berries, flowers, nectar, and I've had some of my best luck with leafy shrubs. It's not uncommon to see farmers shooing the animals away from their wheat, either. And dear will bite on fallen nuts all day. Finally, I swear I saw a snow-covered doe biting on a tree once, as strange as it might sound to ya.

If you opted to find the food, read the paragraph, if not, read it anyway. Water is easier to find than food, in most situations, and deer do have to drink; but you need to know everything I've written below to track.

Alright, so you've found a food source, good. What's next? Well, I need you to glance over what you have, has it been picked at? If a berry bush is full, you can feel free to sit there all day; some game might even come by. But unless there's a stream within a half mile, of the food, I wouldn't stake my dinner on setting up near it, not without some further investigation.

No, what you really need to do is observe your surroundings. If the leaves are orange, do you see any trees missing a section of their bark, almost as if it's been scratched off? If yes, then a deer has been through here; a buck just racked its antlers against that very same tree; when it did that, however, is up in the air. It's important for you to know that you can find these markings anywhere, but looking for food or water, gives you a good chance to find them; and the other signs I'll talk about below. Additionally, if you see a path of trees, whether near food or not, that have antler markings on them, you just found gold. Which brings me to my next, and most important, lesson.

Deer are lazy, they use the same paths over and over again; whether that be a trail, road, or just a place in the woods where there aren't many roots. Because of this, if there's food, and signs of the animal nearby it, you could probably feel safe setting yourself up there; if there's water, even better. Basically, look for a place that has signs of life, and that looks like it can support it. If you find a area like this, you'll find your prey. And then, you just have to kill it.

Of course, I could teach you more in person, but this book will have to do for you, until you get your own experience up. To close this up, I'll go ahead and say that deer scat is another good sign of a trail; and if you find it it in a place like those listed above, you probably just found another deer path. If you don't mind it, you can even pick up the droppings. If deer feces is wet or shiny, its owner was there that same day. If when you touch the scat, you find it warm, then you just missed a deer. Both of these are good signs, and almost always point to an active animal trail.

Finally, as my hand begins to ache, I'll tell you that if you walk a path, you can sometimes find a deer in its bed. Bucks and doe both make circular dents in the grass to sleep, if you see something like this anywhere, you're as close to a deer as you can be, without setting eyes on it for yourself. Good hunting.

The knight read through the wealth of text eagerly, finding that the information within, came to a stop, much too soon. As Lorden's eyes trailed on what seemed to be the ending of the book, he quickly and inquisitively flipped through the few remaining pages. As he flipped, the literate-swordsman noticed a few shaky drawings, of what looked like tracks; and he did indeed note these. But, even Lorden had seen deer tracks before, every knight who had patrolled the Kabrin had; thus he didn't spend much time on them. Taking a satisfied breath, the scholarly twenty year old flipped the book, back to its first page.

It couldn't help to read it, once more, Lorden thought to himself; his eyes glanced to his silent scabbard for a moment, before happily rebounding to the book in his hand.

No, it can only help, really, the knight mused further, already beginning to read the title page over again, as he thought the words.

[Sayana]

Your Grades Have Arrived Lorden Skills: Skill EXP Observation +1 Research +1 Tracking +1 Lores: Self: Could never be a scribe Tracking: Once a deer is spooked, you're out of luck Tracking: Deer Trails Tracking: Deer Beds Tracking: Identifying the age of Deer Feces Tracking: Finding Deer Trails Tracking: Antler Rubs Tracking: Deer Tracks Location: Syliran Archives Comments : That was a very informative thread. I also quite enjoyed the prose of the author of the tracking book. It was informative yet personable – something that seems like a realistic writing style at the time. Also, thanks for such a succinct list of lores in your grade request. It made my job really easy since they were all very relevant. Though I could only award one point in tracking because it was only a single post. Still, the lores will come in handy when you actually do it. Don't forget to edit/delete your grade request in the grade request thread. However, make sure to keep the link so that the DS can review graded threads with ease. If you have any questions or concerns about your grade please feel free to send me a message. Enjoy.