Chapter 8 Supper

Gabriel's father watched him like a hawk as he went through his morning routine of exercises.

"You seem to be in a good mood," he commented and Gabriel nodded.

Getting some food in his stomach the night before had let him sleep much better than he could remember ever sleeping before, but he wasn't going to tell him that.

"Today I said we would start you on some new training and I think now is the time," his father said, turning away from him as he finished the last move.

Gabriel fell in step behind him without a word. He knew better then to ask any questions. His father would answer them, or he wouldn't. They went in a new direction and soon ended up on the edge of a field. A wild rabbit hunkered down in some tall grasses as they paused under some trees.

"You are about to hit puberty, where your body starts making more muscles and you will grow taller very quickly. This time is often when common boys begin their training, because any training they had received up to this point would only make them clumsy after their body changes."

Gabriel frowned as his father paused, but he didn't say anything. It was obvious he was waiting and trying to get him to complain. When Gabriel didn't speak out, his father continued.

"I have intentionally restricted your diet in order to give you an edge when training, and I think it has worked well so far, but after last night I believe it would be best if you learned some new skills other than stealing."

Gabriel jerked back at his father's words. How had he known? Was he going to be punished?

"See that rabbit?" asked his father, pointing with a thin dagger that had suddenly appeared in his hand.

Gabriel nodded and his father flicked the dagger. It hit the rabbit as it jumped to run away at the sudden motion.

"You will clean it and cook it. Then you will practice using these throwing daggers to hunt. There are at least ten other rabbits in this field. You will catch all ten of them before it gets dark. Then you will practice skinning and cleaning all of them in order to have something to eat."

Gabriel took the two daggers that his father handed him and moved over to get the third from the dead rabbit. The dagger had gone through its eye. It took him half an hour to clean the rabbit as his father taught him the proper way to clean it without messing up the meat.

"You will probably hit the rabbit in the guts while you are still learning, which will cause the gut juices to ruin the meat," explained his father after they were done. "Put all of the parts you will not be eating in this bag. We will be using them later."

Gabriel scooped the guts up without complaint and threw them, along with the hide, head and feet into the bag.

"Now, you will start a fire."

Gabriel moved back away from the field, so as not to spook any other rabbits as he scavenged enough fallen limbs to build a fire.

"Before you can cook the meat of your rabbit, it needs to be cleaned. Take it to the stream over there and wash it good. You don't want any of the juices from the guts on it."

After washing the slimy meat, he carefully arranged it on a flat rock near the fire.

"If you intend to hunt other rabbits, you need to be able to hold the knives correctly."

While the meat cooked, he practiced holding the knife correctly and throwing it into a log. This was going to be harder than he thought, but the smell of the meat made his mouth water.

"Enjoy your meal. It may be the only one you get all day," said his father turning to leave. "I will be back at dusk to see the ten rabbits you have killed. Make sure the fire doesn't spread."

With a nod, Gabriel started moving other large rocks around the fire and stomping out the little sparks that had already started jumping around. Surprisingly, he had enough dirt stuck to the bottom of his foot after getting them wet in the stream, the sparks didn't burn him.

The hardest part of the hunt, was to hit the rabbit with the knife when he threw it. Most of the day was spent trudging after the knife when it went skidding through the grass. By the time his father returned, he only had three rabbits.

"Only three?" he asked with a frown. "I suppose we will have to butcher these and try again tomorrow."

The meat was not nearly as good on these as the guts had time to leak their juices into the meat while Gabriel hunted. They had to throw most of it away and Gabriel was left with very little to cook for his evening meal.

The next day went much better. He woke early, next to the cold fire, and saw several rabbits munching on grass nearby. Without waiting for his father to arrive for the morning exercises, Gabriel started hunting. He killed two before he showed up. They rebuilt the fire and skinned the two for breakfast.

"You've already got two. You only need to kill eight more before dusk," his father said; leaving as the meat cooked.

Gabriel looked over the knives carefully, thinking about how the rabbits moved. If he aimed right above them, the knife would hit them when they jumped to run. The clearing was empty as far as his eye could see, but he knew there were rabbits there.

Leaving the meat to cool, he moved out slowly through the tall grass, watching for any movement or sign of rabbits. Several disappeared into holes as he got close and Gabriel wondered if there was a way to dig them out. The moment he started trying to dig, the rabbit would spring away from a different hole, and he stopped.

These rabbits were smarter than he was, and that was a problem. They were used to being hunted. Trudging back to his cold breakfast, Gabriel wondered what his prey thought. If he could figure out how their minds worked, he could maybe catch them easier.

It seemed like they focused on hiding by being still, and then when he looked at them to throw the knife, they would run to a hole. Then if he tried to get them in the hole, they would just run out another hole. He needed to catch them before then.

Finishing the last of the meat from the first rabbit, he decided to leave the meat from the second for later. That way if he didn't kill any more, he would still have something to eat later.

It didn't take him long to figure out that the rabbits didn't move if he didn't look at them. They were watching his eyes. But if he moved directly towards them, even with his head turned, they would still run as if he were looking at them. And the motion of throwing the blade would still make them jump to run.

He still had two more rabbits to kill as the sun started to sink, and he knew his father would be back soon. Stepping onto a clump of brown grass, high pitched squeals erupted under his foot and the ground exploded with tiny baby rabbits fleeing everywhere. Hunkering down, Gabriel moved the grass away to show there had been a nest there. When he stepped on it, he managed to actually kill two of the babies while the rest scattered.

They weren't any good for eating, and he didn't know if they would count, but he scooped them up anyway.

"While it would seem you have succeeded in killing ten rabbits, I'm not going to let those two count unless you cook and eat them too. The number of rabbits in this field has been depleted. I think tomorrow we will start with something harder."

Gabriel went to work skinning the rabbits he caught, including the two babies. He had killed them, and presented them as kills, so he had to treat them as such. There was barely a sliver of meat from either of them, but he cooked it along with the other meat anyway.

"I will take five of these rabbits back to pay for the food you stole the other night. If you steal again, I will whip you unconscious."

Watching his father disappear into the darkness, Gabriel licked his lips nervously. How had he known? Glancing down at the meat that was sizzling on the stone, he suddenly didn't care. This was the most he had managed to eat in his entire life, and it was glorious!

The best part was that now he could catch something to eat whenever he needed to, and would never be hungry again!