Day 2: First Hunt
The new day came, the sun rose above the horizon and I entered the forest by myself. All I was a simple leather bad to make carrying whatever I found easier.
The forest was rather peaceful. For the first few hours of the day the only animal I had seen was a squirrel, which I could not catch. Occasionally I did see tracks left by other animals, but I didn't manage to follow them to an animal. I always lost track of any potential prey.
At about noon I saw a small meadow with some berries growing there. I decided to rest there ad eat the berries as lunch. I was hungry since I hadn't eaten breakfast. Fortunately the food was delicious, sweat. I gathered some berries, one hundred grams probably, and continued my journey.
There wasn't much that was catching my eye, the best I did was loot a woodpecker nest for its eggs (three in total). About an hour after that particular event I stumbled upon some mushrooms, based on their appearance I came to the conclusion that they were edible. Just as I was picking them up I heard high-pitched squeaking from behind me.
I turned back and saw two rats, roughly thirty centimeters long.
"Excellent." I thought.
They were no more than two meters away from me, so I could easily catch them. After realizing that I had noticed them the rats started running away. I jumped forward and grabed the one to my right. To my surprise instead of continuing to run, it turned back and bit my index finger.
"Ouch! You're going to pay for this!"
It hurt a lot. I almost dropped the rat I had caught.
After catching the second the second one I broke the rats' necks, killing them off.
"The rats were together, which meant that they were a species of social rodents, not solitary ones." I started thinking.
"That means..." I continued my chain of thought "that somewhere in the area must exist a burrow inhabited by several more rats. Rats that I can catch."
Where was that burrow? I started searching. I found two entrances at the base of a dead tree, one at the base of a chestnut and another hidden under a rather big rock. A plan formed into my head.
I collected a bunch of grass and started weaving it into simple ropes which I used them to make four snares. I set them up at the entrances.
I hope that my traps will work as intended.
Since time should pass before I can enjoy the fruits of my work I decided to walk around to see if I could find something interesting.
The only notable incident took place about an hour and a half after the last snare was set:
"Shhhh" I heard a weird noise and sensed movement to my right.
I turned to see a gliding snake. The noise I was hearing was the sound of air hitting its bottom half. The snake (at least a meter long) landed directly on some squirrel and started swallowing it hole.
This was weeks where I came in. I quickly ran towards the reptile while it was busy trying to get the squirrel in its stomach. The important thing was that while doing so the snake was vulnerable. I picked up a nearby rock and smashed the animal's head. Two time just to be sure.
It was I in the end, who got both the squirrel and the snake for food.
Two and a half after I had set up my traps I go back to see if I've caught something. In total I got three rats out of the four snares. Pretty good, I'd say.
And with that I decided to return to the village. In total I had gathered:
Five rats
A gliding snake
A squirrel
Three eggs (which I had actually eaten)
100 grams of berries
300 grams of mushrooms
I ented the vllage about two hours after sunset. When I showed off the snake (which was the thing I was the most proud of) Freyr said: "Well done! Snakes are though little things. A glider I'd say based on the shape of the body?"
"Yeah, but it's not a big deal. Check the squirrel."
After seeing the bite marks on it he replied with: "You probably killed it while the snake was eating, instead of facing it straight on. Why do you think that this something not to be proud of? I can only congratulate you for being smart enough to use the opportunity you had."
"I just don't thing it was a big deal." I mumbled.
"No achievement is a big deal for the person who did. Now go to the warehouse and leave the stuff you don't want for yourself there. You can also take whatever you need. If you can excuse me now I have a farm to plan."
"Ok." I answered.
The warehouse was most likely the biggest building in the village, at least four times the size of an average hut. Meat was drying on the walls, a stack of wooden spears was lying in the corner, piles of animal pelts and chitin shells were to my left. A female goblin was skinning a boar at the center of the building. The bodies of two or three other animals.
"Hi!" I intruced myself "I'm Stralk. Where to leave these?"
"I Lashi." she said "Wherever. Just not mess up order much. And better skin animals."
"U-understood. Thanks. Just... it's that I don't have anything sharp for the."
"Ugh." she rolled her eyes, searched for a bit and gave me stone knife. "Here."
"Thank you."
"Fruitfull first time?" she decided to try to better the conversation we we were having.
"I suppose so. I caught a bunch of things. Wasn't that hard." I said while putting the various rat pieces where I found fit: meat where meat was, skin where skin was.
"You lucky." she giggled a bit after hearing what I said "For the most of my hunt, I chased by raptor."
"That surely sounds... thrilling. Fortunately I see that you escaped?"
At least for me Lashi's story sounded pretty interesting. For my surprise I heard her laughing out out loud. She then pointed a scar going from her right shoulder all the way to the base of her left tit.
"That from it. I end up stranglin' it."
"Wow. You have experienced quite a lot more than me."
"Just wait three years. Might have beaten me by then."
"Whatever." I shrugged.
By that time I had already finished skinning the snake.
"Want help with the other animals?" I asked.
"Making my job easier. Thanks. Want more stories?"
"Absolutely!"
And so I was told stories of Lashi going on daring hunts as I was skinning animals.
After we were I asked her where to throw the unusable stuff (the snake skin, bones, intestines, etc.).
"At the 'shroom farm. But can give me the teeth?"
"Ok, what do you want them for?" I asked out of curiosity.
Lashi showed me a wristband of small teeth and claws she was wearing and gave me the explanation of "makin' more". I, of course, gave them to her and so we left the warehouse. I kept the knife she had given me.
I threw the junk away and went to sleep.