[flashback]Just shut up and Hunt.(Erzotol)

[Emizal Silverden]

Emi bent down to the ground looking at her arrow sticking out of the soil. It was covered in bright red, frothy blood, smirking in a displeased way, her hands flashed out plucking the wooden arrow from the soft ground. "mostly lung, I would be lucky if it hit the heart." she sighed as she shown the quiver of the arrow to her brother. " it fell over there, should bleed out before we reach it." Emizal was disappointed in her shot all together, if she only practice more she would of hit her mark with little trouble. Lung was a lucky shot at best, for she was aiming for the heart, she continued to go over the shot in her head, trying to figure out how to improve her skills. She looked towards the tree line, knowing that the buck was down and around there somewhere. She followed her brother noticing on how he was tracking the animal. There was light dots of red that covered the grasses, some landing on the tips of the long blades others trampled on the ground from the animals last attempt to save it's own life. She could see there was a path that led into the small clumps of trees, matted down grasses, and blood spatter was like an arrow pointing at the animals final resting place. She followed her brother to where the buck laid, watched as he pulled his own arrow from the flank of the deer. "let's hope that you didn't ruin the leg meet with that shot, it's fathers favorite and you know that." she teased as he examine the arrow. Emi bent down swinging her bag around to sit on top of the dead animal, she opened the pouch and pulled out a knife she took earlier that morning. Moving her bag off the deer she placed an hand on the still warm body, "Thank you for your life so that we can sustain our own," she softly whispered, as she moved her hand off and looked to her brother, " well come on let's get it rolled over so we can at least get it skinned and cut in quarters. The wild animals will soon discover us and we can't just sit here and let them come." she stood taking off her over shirt, placing it down in the ground and laying the knife down on it. She then ate Ed to the other side of the deer, pulling her messy hair in a single ponytail. She then reached out around the large deer and pulled the front legs up into the air, holding them so the deers back was laying on the ground. "brother grab the rope in my bag, tie it's legs and throw the other end of the rope over that thick limb up there." the knotted tree would make a good place to hang the deer, it will be easier to gut and skin, and also to get the back-straps off the deer. She waited for her brother to start helping, " the sooner we can do this the safer we will be."

[Erzotol Silverden]

" Bah! He can have the other leg on the off chance this one is a little messy from the arrow " he chided back, playing along with Emizal's teasing. The tip of his arrow was smattered with strings of gore, dark blood at that which indicated it ripped up the muscle in the deers leg a bit. If they didn't hurry the quickly pouring blood in the wound would soak the meat around it ruining it even further. With his luck, Erzotol knew that he would get that piece, and not wanting his dinner to be entirely terrible, he immediately went over to help Emi.

He dropped to his knees in the grass, the movement spurring up thin strands of the stuff into the air around him, and falling on the loose folds in his clothing. Down so close to the deer, he could smell the life diffusing out of it, and the smell of death faintly replacing it. They needed to section off the meat, and preserve it fast for in the heat of the day, food tended to fast spoil, unless properly preserved. Not to mention the smell of a fresh kill would likely bring any predators nearby running to their location, and here on the sea of grass, that was trouble they did not want to run into. Emi knew this as well and he smiled as he watched her at work with practiced calm. She could hold her own, of that he was always sure, and looping his arms over the deers soft belly he helped Emi roll the deer onto its back with little effort thanks to their combined strength.

" I know how to string up a deer sister, sometimes I fear you forget that I've been at this longer than you Erzotol said in a teasing manner as he grabbed up the rope lying in her bag, taking one end of the tan coil and tying it tight around the two front feet Emi had gathered. He would have preferred to hang it from its back legs, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to allow her this one concession. Slowly he went about finishing the knot around its feet, looping the rope through a circle he had made, and pulling it through tight as he could, before tugging on the feet to make sure the deer was secure. Satisfied that it would hold, he stood up and held the rope gently walking over to the tree Emizal had gestured to, running the rough coils through his hand until he had the end of the rope in his hand, and he swung it in a wide circle before letting go, watching the spiraling twine fall across a strong limb high in the air.

As the rope fell down to greet him and he quickly grabbed it up in his hands and pulled, the deer dragging across the ground, and Erzotol gestured for her to help it along while he pulled. He strained with the effort but it wasn't anything he wasn't used to, and he watched as the deer was hoisted high in the air, its back legs dangling it the air, and little streams of blood making lines across its soft fur hide. When he figured it was at an appropriate height, he took the rope he had been gathering and looped it around a nearby tree, doing the same knot he had done on the deer's feet, except he did it twice, making sure it was extra secure. " There, now time for the gutting he said cheerfully, as he stood up and wiped his sweating brow with the back of his hand.

[Emizal Silverden]

Emizal sighed as she grabbed the sharp knife off her shirt, "I never had to skin a deer before brother so you will need to help me through this, I know you start on the under belly.." she pinched the fur of the exposed belly and made a small straight cut, extending about a inch, being careful not to puncture the meat. She then pulled on the fur, taking the knife and cutting the skin as she pulled it further down towards the neck of the animal. Soon there was exposed tisue of the deer, and and inch wide skin patch that ran from the sack of the deer to the neck. The fur would make for a good blanket this coming winter. And she intended to take if off in a clean cut. She worked the strip of fur all the way down to the neck cutting it off all together. She then set the strip to the side as she cut around the animals back hoofs, leaving about a half inch of fur, the incision only cut the skin and noting more, she was careful only to cut the skin and nothing more. After completing this task she sighed, light drops of sweat hit her brow line. "Now brother I will need your help to pull this hide off the deer once I make two more cuts it will take all of our skills to get it off." She brought the knife and made a cut from the small circular incisions at the hoofs, straight down the inner part of the legs to the cut she made on the belly. She then did the same to the other hind leg, she then walked around the deer and dropping the knife on the ground, she then started pulling the fur of the left hind leg, separating the animal skin from the body. It came off clean down to the rump of the animal. She then turned her attention to the right leg repeating the step. The animal right flank was bleeding from her brothers arrow, a small incision was left as blood dripped down the animals tissue. She made a face as it the animal hide was pulled down past the rump. "That leg is a goner for us, we can use it though for the foxes, I'm sure it will make a great feast for them." Her hands covered in fur and blood, she grabbed hold of the skin and pulled with all her might as the skin separated even more from the body. It made a ripping noise that stunned the silent forest around them. she had the fur pulled down to the neck of the animal when she notice she for got to cut a circular incision around its neck, "Brother need your help here," she said as she lifted the skin off the head of the deer, "Cut that will you?" she motioned to the neck hoping and knowing he will know what to do.

[Erzotol Silverden]

He watched carefully as his sister carefully stripped the body free of its skin, and he made an audible tisk as he noticed she had forgotten to cut the neck skin. Always forgetting something that one he chuckled to himself as he walked over to his sisters side, and gently took the knife from her hand. " Sorry, I need to borrow this, only have a sword " he said with a small laugh. Truly he needed to invest in a knife sometime soon if he was to do this on his own without borrowing a blade or misuse his longsword. Otherwise he'd be stuck looking unprepared like this time and time again, and that was something he preferred not to happen.

He whistled a cheery tune as he sliced off the small patch of skin still left on the body, and released the skin into Emi's hands. Without the skin covering up the body anymore, they could more easily see the meat of the deer, along with the injuries it sustained, and the removal allowed the blood to flow a bit freer down and pool on the ground below. " Yes, so it looks like we just need to sever the bad meat, and fix the rest up for ourselves " he said as a grin quickly formed on his face and he placed the edge of the knife on the animals right hind leg and began sawing it off. More droplets of sweat began to bead on his forehead as he worked his arm hard downwards; cutting through the animal's many tendons till it reached the bone. " Now here comes the hard part " he muttered as he gritted his teeth and moved the edge of the blade hard across the bone. The sharp edge of the bade carving groves into the bone, slowly shaping it inwards until the it was creased nearly halfway through the solid bone. Almost finished with the severing, Erzotol dropped the blade, and grabbed the slippery leg in his hands before bending it over his knee straining to snap it. A loud crack sounded as the bone gave way, and soon the muscle tore away along with it, leaving the ruined leg in Erzotol’s arms. With a sheepish smile he tossed it onto the ground, and then began to work on the meat, sliding the blade a few inches underneath the meat on its side where he hoped the steel would come closest to the bone. The meat near it's collar offered little resistance to his prying, and going down from the collar bone he sliced as near to the ribs as he could till at last his blade came out at the base of its stomach with a wet sound, a stream of blood pouring from the gouge in the meat. His blade then went to work on the other side, and then placed the dagger in his sword belt to free his hands for the messy part. Sliding his hand between the single incisions that separated muscle from bone on both sides, he spread the muscles of the belly out wide; stepping back a fraction too late though as the insides came spilling out of the deer, matting his boots in gore. Dissatisfied that he didn't manage to dodge the spew, he sighed before continuing on, carefully removing the intestines still attached, along with the rest of the guts and placing them in a pile on the ground where the majority of the gore initially fell. A steady stream of blood continued to pour from the corpse and he smiled faintly, knowing this drain would be good in keeping the meat fine and tasty for later. Pulling the knife out of his belt again, it coming out in a whisper of leather against metal, and he stuck it back into the collar bone of the deer where he originally started cutting down, going more along the breadth of the collar bone on both sides before finally setting the knife down again in his belt loop.

He motioned for Emi to come over with a curling of his fingers towards himself, and then set himself on the right of the deer, hooking his fingers in the cuts just before the collar bone, and burying them deeply into the still warm and wet flesh. " Could you pull against the other side as soon as I say to " he said more than asked, and he firmed his grip his side of the cut of meat. If she pulled from her side, he would instantly pull on it as hard as he could from his side, pulling it towards his side as hard as he could as if in a macabre game of tug of war with his sister, pulling hard until the muscle separated completely from the bone with a loud watery smack, and he would stumble backwards a little bit, but as he lowered the slab of meat, he would offer a smile to his dear sister. " I guess we aren’t as useless at this as I thought we would be " he said with a twinge of a grin.

[Lariat]

Emizal Silverden

Experience:

Riding: 2 xp
Rhetoric: 1 xp
Tracking: 2 xp
Observation: 3 xp
Longbow: 2 xp
Skinning: 2 xp

Lores:

Lesson Learned: Best to wake up early to prepare for a hunt
Check belongings for foxes to avoid undue distractions
Hunting with another and the advantages therein
How to skin a deer
Intuition: Make all the cuts you need to when skinning before trying to peel off the fur

Additional Reward:

1 Slain Deer & a roll of deerskin

Comments

I sincerely apologize for the delay. As always your writing is phenomenal and I greatly enjoyed threading with you in this one and am also sorry for retiring Erzotol and abandoning our threads like this one. It was a hard thing to do but needed to be done. Perhaps we can arrange a thread one day. If you have any questions about how I graded or think I missed something send me a pm and I'll make the necessary adjustments.