5 The First Hunt

Before the sun greets them, the Tribesmen were all awake already.

Who can contain the excitement they felt? It's the day they all awaited!

They all gathered the things needed for the hunt such as Branches, Rocks, Sturdy Vines, and different types of grass that Apo Isko asked them to bring.

Apo Isko, asked 10 men to dig 2 meter wide and a meter deep hole in between 2 trees. After that, they placed the sturdy vines at the bottom and tied ends at the trunk of the trees. Then, they covered the hole with thin branches and covered the branches with different grass. They placed the rocks behind the tree, and tied a vine from a thick branch above the hole.

Apo Isko, explained the purpose of this hole and briefed the plan on how to hunt the dangerous beast.

Liksi, a thin man but with ripped muscles volunteered as the bait. He needs to lure the beast to the hole and when he reached the hole, he needs to jump and hold the vine tied above the hole so he won't fall down with the wild beast. Then the rocks they gathered will be used to stun or kill the wild beast. They will throw as many rocks as possible to the head of the wild beast and pull the vines to lift it once it can no longer move and there goes the food they were eyeing. The meat of the wild beast will be their lunch later.

They executed the plan smoothly, and it only took them 10 minutes from luring the wild beast to killing it inside the hole. Then the 10 men dragged this huge piece of meat after.

The first hunt is successful, so they went back to the village to cook the meat.

As they were primitive tribe, they don't know any cooking method aside from roasting it directly.

2 Men provided a bamboo pole as thick as an adult's leg. They pierced the wild beast from the mouth to its anus. They lifted the bamboo pole and put it on top of a bonfire, they burned the stomach part first so they can cut it open using the edge of a sharp stone to remove its innards. They also carefully removed its skin so they can make an animal hide out of it.

It's a feast for their Tribe as they're only a small tribe with less than a hundred population.

Almost 50 were adults and the rest were 2 generations of children which is the 10 years old group and 1 year old group.

The meat of a whole wild beast is more than a 100kg, so everyone can eat more than 1kg each.

When they consumed more than half of it, they were full already.

The meat will go bad if they won't consume it within half a day. So when Apo Isko saw this, he frowned when he realized that it will go to waste if it won't be consumed. If only there's a way to make it last without and still okay to eat for a long time.

An idea! He immediately asked the Talking Book if there's a way to prolong the lifespan of food.

The Talking Book, gave 3 ways on how to prolong it.

Smoking or Curing, Salting, and Drying. But it needs the most important ingredient which is the salt.

He also asked the Talking Book about salt and how to make salt.

As they were located near the Sea and near the mountains, they can easily find salt water.

However, they don't have any containers or buckets to use for carrying salt water.

So he tried drying a piece of meat using small bonfire inside a small cave instead.

He asked 1 person to ensure that the fire won't run out or grow bigger to avoid burning the meat.

Although he believes the Talking Book, he still wanted to test if this will work.

It will be a great leap on ensuring that the Pacific Tribesmen won't starve.

But the day is not yet over, it's only half a day that passed. He still want to try different ways on gathering food. Especially the river traps and the so-called fish pond.