Deer me

[Dandelion]

65 Zi'da 718

The sound of wolf howls and crashing brush woke Dan in the night and he lay there in his bedroll with his heart racing and ears stretched, trying to work out whether the hunting wolves were coming his way not. They didn't seem to be, so after a while, he drifted back to sleep with one hand on his spear.

It was still fresh in his mind when he woke with the dawn and went through the morning routine of grooming the ponies, pulling on his own clothes, and considering how to spend the day. If the wolves had been successful, they might have left something he could raid, even if it was only bones to boil into a broth. The trial was cold enough that any remains would still be safe. He nodded to himself, settling into that as a first task for the trial. If there was anything left of it, it would take long breaks to process it. Better, he decided, to check early and have the trial-light if he needed it.

He gathered up spear and knife, and his general hunting kit just in case he ran across anything, and eased his way out past his camp and into the edge of the trees. He looked in a slow and steady arc from right to left and back again. He drew in long, calming breaths of cold air that bit at the back of nose and throat, and searched it for any trace of blood-scent. He listened hard, taking in the pattern of bird song and insect drone, and trying to decipher any holes in it that might signal the presence of a predator on the prowl. Eyes, ears, and nose worked together to seek out clues to any potential carcass. At last, he pinpointed the right direction and set off that way with his spear held ready. He doubted he would be the only creature on the hunt for that carcass, and if so he might have to defend himself from the other seekers. He took no offense at that, only fitted himself into the pattern of the wild alongside them.

The wolves had taken down a doe. The carcass lay, two-thirds eaten, in a trampled, blood-spattered clearing. The throat had been torn out, and the hind legs were all gone, but the shoulders were intact, and Dan's eyes lit up in delight at the amount of hide that remained. He could make an outer, waterproof, layer for his feet from that, and have more left to add layers elsewhere. The edges were torn and ragged, to be sure, but scavengers couldn't be choosers.

He circled the edge of the clearing, scanning the damp earth, until he found the wolves' departing tracks, and then returned to the remains of the deer. "Thank you for your life," he told it in abbreviated sign. "I will not waste it." Dead eyes stared glassily back and one corner of his mouth lifted in apology. He tried lifting the body by one of the remaining legs and found that it was just barely manageable. Barely was enough, and he heaved it up onto his shoulders and staggered back to camp with it.

Dumping it on the ground near the fire, Dan took a moment to add more fuel to the fire itself, and rig the drying lines up where the smoke curled against the rain shelter he had set up. Then he drew his knife and began to skin the deer's shoulders. He pulled up an edge of hide until it stretched the bonds holding skin to muscle, slid the knife in to cut it free, then pulled a bit more. Sometimes the knife slipped and poked a hole in the hide. Gradually though, he got one side of the hide free, and paused to clean the knife and start on the meat. He cut thin, not quite even slices, and strung them up on the drying lines to dry and smoke high above his fire. Wood smoke would have added a better flavour, but he hadn't the time or the energy to waste hunting down wood when he had dried dung from his horses to keep him warm. The smoke as much as the cold would keep the flies and other insects away. When he got down to the bone, he heaved the carcass over onto the other side and began to skin the other shoulder.

At last, after much pulling and tugging and cutting, he managed to get the entire remaining part of the skin free and pushed it to one side while he dealt with the rest of the meat. He cut it up with tired hands that were clammy with drying blood, checked for guts - the wolves had gotten those though - and tossed the smaller bones and the scraps that clung to them into a pot. He added water to make a sort of soup and hung the pot over the fire to simmer long and slow.

The longer leg bones he set aside until he could get the precious sinew off them. He shook out the cramping muscles of his hands and scrubbed them and his knife clean, then added more fuel to the fire to keep it going. He sheathed the knife, spread the deer skin out flat on the ground, hair side down, and used the scraper from his leather working kit to scrape it fully clean before he stretched it out to dry. He scooped the brain from the skull into a bowl to use later in roughly tanning the hide and wedged the head itself into the fork of a tree to look out over a final, glorious sunset.

That done, he took a moment to settle back on his haunches and watch the sunset himself, even as his mouth water at the scent rising from his soup pot to mingle with ever present smells of smoke and horse. Dinner tonight was going to taste so good, rich from the marrow in the bones, hot, and thick, and meaty. Totrial, he decided, eyes half closed against the last of the light, had been a good trial.

[Whisper]

Dandelion

Awarded Points
10
These points can/cannot be spent in magic

Awarded Knowledge
Fieldcraft: scavenging from an animal kill
Fieldcraft: skinning a deer
Fieldcraft: drying meat over a fire
Fieldcraft: using everything
Cooking: bone broth
Strength: carrying a heavy load

Awarded Extras
Loot & Losses

• Half a Doe Hide
  Steaks of Veal (x5)

Injuries

• words

Renown

• None

Comments

This was a good thread, however it was significantly below the suggested word count of 1500 words per player. I'm not going to penalise you for it this time - you current post count suggests you're new! However for future reference, we do have this guidance and, while it is not a hard limit, we hope players will try to reach that number as much as possible.

If you have any questions, comments or criticism about your review, feel free to send me a PM and we can discuss it.
Thank ye.