Lucky Rabbits Foot

[Vest]

Fall 25th, 522AV

Today, Vest was tasked in learning to skin and carve a few rabbits recently hunted by Damir. This technique was called field dressing, according to Dumir, and they would be doing this on trapped rabbits. Vest approached this large, wooden table and looked at her mentor that stood across from it with curious eyes. Dumir started the demonstration by reaching under the table to a wooden crate and pulling out a live rabbit. It was kicking up a storm when he took a firm grip of its hind legs and head.

“We are going to dislocate the head with a quick twist and snap in hopes to humanely kill it.” Dumir gives Vest a pause to take in the information before uttering the word observe. With a quick motion, he twists the rabbit and an audible snapping echoed from the animal before it fell limp. Vest was both amazed at how fast he had executed the kill and cringed at the rabbit being killed. However, she quickly got over it as Dumir laid the rabbit on the table and pulled out a large knife from the side of the table.

“Next, we will remove the head to drain the blood from the body. This part can be a bit tricky, as you will need to sever the head with a certain amount of force, or it will be difficult to cut through.” He felt around the back of the neck until he located an area and placed the tip of the knife there. With precision and force, Dumir lifted the knife and brought it down with a resounding thud. At first, a bit of blood sputtered out, but Dumir was quick to take it off the table and hang it upside down over a bucket. “While we are within the city, draining the blood into a bucket is the most cleanliness. But if you do this out in the wild, hanging it on a branch while you prepare other rabbits is just fine.”

Vest watched with odd fascination and peered around the table as Dumir began stringing up the rabbit over the bucket. The blood drained in a steady stream while she watched before her eyes went back to looking at Dumir.

“What is the point in draining the blood? Is it better? What happens if you don’t drain the blood?” Vest spoke with eagerness and curiosity, taking Dumir a bit by surprise. Was she always this eager to learn? She had always seemed to be a bit sullen and hush hush on their trips. Maybe the idea of butchering an animal was more interesting than helping on hunting trips. With that, Dumir attempted to answer her questions well as he started cleaning off the table. Vest did her best to listen but was mesmerized by the draining rabbit.

“Well, it is all up to the hunter when they want to drain the blood from the rabbit. Some of them wait until after they have skinned the rabbit to drain the blood, others like me remove the head before skinning. I think it’s easier and less messy and gives the meat a more tender feel when cooked, but that is all opinion.” Dumir retrieved the now drained rabbit from where it hung and laid it on the cleaned table again. “However, it is a must to drain the blood as it will make the meat spoil faster. Now the next part is to skin the rabbit. It’s easier to remove it when the rabbit is freshly killed and still warm, so we will do this now.”

Dumir gestured for Vest to follow and rested a finger behind the rabbits’ shoulders. “Here is where we will begin to skin the rabbit, as you see here, you will lift the skin just a bit and slowly push a narrow knife through. Don’t go too deep, as stabbing the meat of the rabbit will ultimately contaminate it.” Dumir spoke while he worked, and Vest furrowed her brow.

“What do you mean ‘stabbing the meat will contaminate it’? Aren’t we already cutting it open and such?” Vest tilted her head as she thought about how silly it sounded. Even when they cleaned the table and their hands, they are still touching the outside of the rabbit. Her mentor seemed to only nod to her question as he answered.

“Good question, but the outside of the rabbit can be washed, if we pierce the inside meat, bacteria will be more difficult to wash out. This means that the moment you unintentionally cut the rabbit you have ruined all your hard work.” Dumir set down his knife and wiggled his fingers into the small incision that he made before giving a soft grunt. He pulled in opposite directions on the hide and tore it away from the body with ease. Vest was amazed, and a bit disgusted, while she watched this spectacle unfold before her. Dumir then grabbed the pelt and pulled it over the neck region before bringing it down to the ‘ankles’ of the front feet. “Now we will remove the feet and tail because they don’t contain much if not any meat at all. You will cut right between the ankle bone if you want to be precise or take a heavy knife and lop them off.”

Vest nodded and watched as Dumir took the knife from before and chopped off the front legs. He then pulled the hide from the back end and chopped off the back legs and tail. He tossed those scraps off to the side before flipping the rabbit with the belly towards him. Switching to a smaller knife. Dumir raised the skin of the belly and made a small cut big enough for two fingers to go into it. He then used his fingers to keep the skin lifted until she cut up the belly and to the rib cage. From what Vest was observing, it looked as though he was about to remove the organs, and as she leaned closer for a better view her nose scrunched up and she pulled away.


WC: 1015
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[Vest]

“Ugh! That smells so gross, why does it smell like that?” Her reaction made Dumir chuckle as he didn’t look away from what he was doing. While Vest's reaction was a bit overdramatic, it was very much understandable. Either way, she had to learn and get used to the smell, otherwise she wasn’t going to make it far in the hunting field.

“Did you expect it to smell like flowers and rainbows? It is the inside of a rabbit, it's going to smell weird, but you will become accustomed to it over time. Either way, I have now begun removing the organs, which will be made easy with the help of gravity. See they are already falling out, now we just need to reach up here with a couple of fingers and gently, but firmly, scoop downwards to help the rest.”

Vest watched as he used two of his fingers to reach into the ribcage and scoop out the organs. He also seemed to have carefully pulled out something from the backend of the rabbit, but she couldn’t tell what it was. From her angle, it looked like a small yellow ball, and when he tossed it in the scrap bucket it gushed out with yellow liquid. She gave a guess to what it was and concluded that making sure that it didn’t touch the meat was wise. Dumir then tossed the butchered rabbit into a bucket of icy water after rinsing it off and instructed Vest to come around the table. It was her turn to butcher a rabbit, but Dumir made it clear that he was still going to shadow her during it. This made Vest a bit more relaxed as she walked around the table and watched as a new rabbit was set on the table. Dumir leaned over Vest and proceeded to have her take hold of the rabbit’s neck. He then softly muttered in her ear on how to tightly hold onto the rabbit and twist. She did so without much thought, feeling the bones break and the life drain from the once frantically writhing rabbit.

“Good, now we remove the head and drain it. But first, tie the back legs so we can hang it.” He gestured to what knife to use and showed a suggested spot for her to chop at. She gave the area a feel, figuring that cutting between two bones would be so much easier than going through a bone. Vest lined up the heavy knife to the area she was planning to hack away at and lifted it before bringing it down with a clumsy thump. Vest missed the area where she was intending to chop at and instead her aim ran further down and close to the shoulders. She looked at her mentor for assurance and he gave a huff and nodded as he directed her over to the tree. She quickly lifted the rabbit and hung it, soon finding that she was not as graceful as Dumir. She had gotten blood all down the front of her legs and lower abdomen, which made her sigh before turning to face her teacher.

“While that one drains, we clean the workspace.” He raised a brow and hinted over to the table before catching a look at her bloodied clothes. With a sigh and disappointed shake of his head, he just suggested that the skill to avoid blood will increase with time. Vest only rolled her eyes and walked over to the table to begin cleaning it down. The next steps needed was to clean as much of the workspace as possible, including hands and tools. It took her roughly 15 minutes to finish up, and by that time the rabbit had completely drained. Vest unhooked the rabbit and brought it over to the table before looking down at it.

WC: 640
.

[Vest]

“Alright, so I need to remove the hide, and if I remember right, I need to lift the skin?” She took hold of some fur on the back of the rabbit and gestured to the size of the cut. “About this big of a cut—then wiggle my fingers in here and—” Vest mumbled softly before yanking the hide from the rabbit in opposite directions. It pulled away quite easily compared to what she thought, and the amount of force she put behind it was a bit too much. But still, Vest was able to remove the hide with ease and proceeded to pull it over to remove the feet like she had seen. Which was a challenging task as well, considering when she chopped downward, the knife only went halfway through, making her need to chop through it again. Vest gave a shiver at the constant crunching noise from her repeated chopping, but with a few huffs she made her way through the mess.

“A little less elegant than I bore witness to, but nothing unexpected. Next is to remove the organs. One thing that I failed to mention is to make sure not to bust open the colon or bladder. If you do, we will have to throw away the entire rabbit and start over.” Vest listened intently and nodded when he was finished talking, turning back to the rabbit and lifted the skin a bit to make an incision. From just first glance, Vest was able to see the organs of the rabbit, as the skin was basically seen through in that area. She found it fascinating as she made the small cut and was even more intrigued while she was guiding the knife with her hand. It felt slimy and still warm, making her cringe a bit every time her fingers brushed against an organ.

And after a slow ten minutes of careful cutting to open the belly, Vest then proceeded to guide the organs out with the instruction of Dumir. He also took time to show her the organs one can keep, and the ones people throw out. Hearts, livers, and kidneys are some delicacies that most hunters keep to cook with the rabbit or use as nutritional animal treats. For now, Vest was just being taught how to kill and clean a rabbit, keeping the organs was not something she was going to get to do until she was able to fluently handle this process by herself. This was something she understood, so she didn’t argue with the point and went on to wash and store the rabbit in the ice water bucket. For the next few hours, Vest practiced on field dressing rabbits while Dumir went about and began carefully carving up and portioning the stored rabbits. Once the sun had begun to set, Dumir and Vest were carrying their spoils back to the farmstead. Dumir allowed Vest to take a rabbit carcass for her to try and cook tonight, followed by brief instructions on how to do so. He informed Vest that he would teach her different ways to trap or bait an animal tomorrow and warned her to get plenty of rest, as they would be heading out before the sun lit up the sky.

Vest nodded and went inside, putting her gear away and the rabbit on the table. She went to take a long and hot bath, scrubbing away as much of the blood smell as she could before tossing her clothes into a separate bucket to soak. In the meantime, she walked into the kitchen and pulled out a black pot to fill with water and place it over her fireplace. Dumir mentioned the easiest way to cook the rabbit, for a beginner, was to boil it with some seasoning. He said it wouldn’t taste like a great meal, but it was sustainable and something for Vest to eat for a few days if rationed right. So, now she seasoned her water with the few seasonings she had around the house and went to make herself some tea at least. While she was waiting on both pots to boil, she focused her attention on scrubbing her clothes. Blood was a pain to get out of clothing, especially dried and caked on blood from a whole day. Soaking it seemed to help just a wee bit, but it definitely stained the fabric, leading to Vest concluding that she would eventually have to buy more clothes.

After a few chimes, the kettle started whistling and Vest responded in kind by going to take the kettle off and pouring it into a readied container that already had tea bundles in it. She then checked on the pot and added in the rabbit with some more seasons when she noticed it was boiling. After a bell or two, and some much needed tea sipping, Vest carried the pot over to the table and served it up with a bit of stale bread. As Dumir mentioned, it was dull and lacking flavor but also really filling as Vest had finished almost two bowls before she was full and still had plenty left over.

WC: 859
.