Hunt To Eat Not To Evaluate Injuries
1236 Words
After the rest had done probing and poking at the 3 red deer carcases, it was time to harvest the hunt. Those who were skinning the carcasses were discussing animatedly on how those arrows hit the vital points of the animal and also discussed how the targets would be if it were humans.
The work done for the skinning and removing the antlers were swift and soon the innards were cleaned and kept into vats and stored inside the cold storage barns. Sir Blackie was bounding about when Old Kayla hushed and said this would be reserved for later part of the days.
At least for Sir Blackie, the bones would suffice for it and the same goes to the felines that somehow had multiplied during their stay. They had rodents to catch and if not they would simply laze around under the dining tables and would be fed by the children.
Little kittens were seen scampering about following their parents as they made their way and stood by, watching the men worked their way to clean the carcasses and to separate the meat accordingly.
There was about 4 large wild boar carcass inside the chiller along with bountiful small game meat. Adding these 3 red deer, the provision of meat would be enough to last till the end of winter as the cooks would sparingly use the meat for the pottage.
But in this case for the roast meat, a wild boar and a red deer were being rotisseried on top of 2 large fire pits and would be ready to be roasted right during dinner time.
For a population of 500 or so residents, the two roasting meat might not be enough to feed everyone but it was considered as an addition to the pottage and endless slices of freshly toasted bread.
Even if everyone got a slice of roasted meat tonight, it would be better than nothing as they knew that their situation right now was much better than before and they were always thankful towards the leadership that they were experiencing right now.
They knew that somehow, somewhere near or far, there would be a small number of people that might not have enough to eat and may end up with only a single or half slice of bread to eat. So they were deeply thankful for whatever that were being served on the tables and they never forgot to say grace silently before each meal.
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"Your Majesty, I beg for your pardon at the training grounds earlier. It is not my intention to make you feel bad and be insolent on you but I treat my lessons strictly because a bow and arrow in hand would only mean life or death to you or your target. I sincerely hope you would forgive me, Your Majesty."
Gwen was on half knee as she clasped her fist over her chest as she mentioned to both Heather and me. "Rise, my dear Archery Teacher. You had not done anything wrong in any aspect. If a student plays the fool, a teacher has the right to reprimand and punish the student. No matter the student is from a noble or royal family, there is no such thing as biased treatment. Do you get me?"
Gwen slowly rose to her feet and bowed slightly as she answered, "Thank you, Your Majesty. Here's a 110-pound bow as a personal bow for you. There's a D loop installed on the drawstring but would need to be adjusted accordingly."
"These are a detachable set of nooks for your own choice to use. There are the half-moon and capture nock tips made of Reeds so you could get someone to fashion them if you run out of these nocks."
"Besides, it adds 2 inches to the length of your current arrows and once you had adjusted the D loop, you could easily reply your arrows to your target more efficiently."
"This is a 110-pound bow, so it would be advisable for you to start training as much as possible to be able to hold the drawstring for a period of 10 minutes for every set. Remember to use the bracer and gloves and lock your elbow and hold the bow perpendicular to the ground. I'm sure you would be able to do it with self-practice. Look me up if you need any advise."
Without waiting for a reply, she bowed slightly and twirled around on her heels and walked out from the raised platform of the domain where she went ahead and prepare dinner and other activities in the courtyard.
Someone picked the bow, a set of nooks and a quiver of 50 field arrowheads that would make an impact if one would deploy a half bow and at close range towards lightly armoured personnel.
It was the first few arrowheads made by Andy and I guessed Gwen had requested for 50 of these to be made especially for me. It could be used for small game but it would hurt human a lot.
As for the game, the archers would normally be using barbed arrowhead at a close distance so when the arrowhead penetrates, the game would be running away and more damage would be dealt by the barbed arrowhead.
Very soon, the barbed arrowhead would cause a major blood loss or simply the arrowhead would drive in deeper and thus exhausting the life of the kill.
I accepted the gift and held the bow on my lap as I sat there on the bamboo two-seater throne with Heather. I pulled the rawhide drawstring and felt that it was at least 3 times harder to pull. The D loop that was fitted by Gwen was adjustable and I could adjust it to the centre of the drawstring and easily nook the arrow and use the D loop as a 'trigger' for me to pull and release the drawstring.
I looked at the D loop and I was sure that Gwen was laughing at me from a distance because aiming and releasing an arrow using a D loop was much more difficult than to grasp the bowstring by the fingers instead.
"I think she doesn't mean any harm by putting this D loop over here after all. I think this would be used as a quick trigger as she did earlier..." I thought to myself and I wished that I could have a 55 pounder instead of a full 110 pounder bow instead.
After dinner and well into the night after the nightly conference, I was on the balcony of the domain as I was pulling and locking my elbow to hold the bow that was given by Gwen steadily.
Instead of 10 minutes, I timed myself on how long I could hold the drawstring back to my best ability before giving up. From there I would be able to gauge how low my strength and stamina is and decided to buff up as soon as I could to be a match to the weakest Shadow member there was.
Do you think there would be the weakest Shadow member in Gracehaven? The weakest one would be well 6 feet underground already. So how could I gauge the weakest Shadow member? Maybe a small 3-year-old Shadow member instead?
MY GOD... HOW COULD I BE SO WEAK...!
I made up my mind from that evening to get myself stronger than before...!
- Writer
