A Hunter (2)

Rao lifted the rabbit, and started explaining.

"Rule number one, bleed out the game as soon as possible. If the blood starts clotting, the meal is ruined. Make a deep incision in the neck and then hang them upside down, to make the blood drain out." he said while stabbing two wooden branches he got from a nearby tree into the ground, then tying a rope on both, creating what looked like a clothesline.

"For this little guy, the fur is useless, so it'll make things go faster if we just cut off the head." Rao continued "I'll be doing the dirty work for now, you kids just have to remember what i'm telling you." He looked at samuel "Samuel, get it together, it's survival of the fittest, i heard from your father your goal is to become a hero, come on now, a hero can't get nauseous over something like this."

Samuel took a deep breath and nodded, his goal is no longer to become a hero but like Link told him, it can be a start.

"I'll try my best Uncle rao" said Samuel, putting on a tough face.

"Haha, ok little guy." Rao looked at Link "I'm impressed, you didn't react much." he said with a proud smile.

After cutting off the rabbit's head, rao hung it on the rope. the blood started dripping.

"Ok, now that we're waiting, how about we get something else?" said rao.

"If we leave it here, wouldn't the blood attract predators and we might lose the rabbit?" asked link.

"Very good, you know what you're doing, but little man this is the edge of the forest, we won't find anything we can't handle here." Rao continued "We're not going far anyways. how about we hunt some birds?"

said Rao as he pointed at the tree behind them, link can see five birds the size of a basketball sitting on it.

"Those are the Ru birds, they're naturally gifted in using air magic, and extremely fast. They don't attack, they only run which is why some people find them hard to catch, but they taste better than chicken, and their feathers can get us some coins." rao said with a thumbs up "Now. Let's all aim at once and shoot at the same time. always do this when you're with people, because they won't stay to ask who shot their friend, and those birds are too fast."

Link stared at them, they looked like turkeys with each feather colored in grey or black, giving them an impressive look.

"It's such a waste to lose two, maybe I can find a better angle." said Link in a whisper.

"Link, it's hard enough to shoot one, let alone two, it's nearly impossible with just an arrow." rao whispered back. they were too close to the tree to risk scaring them off.

After slowly stepping to the left, link found a perfect angle, with one bird and the other right behind him on another branch.

"Perfect" link thought, activating both Radiant arrow and eagle's eye.

Link's eyes changed color. his sclera going from white to yellow and his iris turning dark red with mana.

Link was facing the tree, Rao and Samuel couldn't see the change, but they noticed the arrow that Link had nocked in his bow having a grey glow.

"Is that air magic?" Rao thought to himself "Where did he learn to do that?"

Samuel looked at the arrow for a bit and looked back at the birds, trying to keep his focus and not miss. He saw link practicing so many times that he was used to it.

"Father, countdown from three and then we'll shoot" said link, snapping his father out from his trance.

After nodding to each other, rao started whispering in a low voice.

"1...2...3"

WOSH! WOSH! WOSH!

The sound of arrows being shot echoed in the forest. Rao's arrow left his bow, hitting the bird with precision.

Samuel's arrow hit the bird's leg, unfortunately the bird didn't need its legs to fly off with the speed of a bullet.

Links arrow flew, leaving traces of grey matter, the size of a pea, looking like confetti. The arrow hit the two bird's heads tearing them clean off.

Rao could see Link's arrow being stopped by a tree on it's way, penetrating it, with the arrow head protruding from the other size.

"By the great mother" rao yelled.

Link tried to hold back the skill, giving it the minimum requirement of mana, but it still made such a scene.

"Samuel missed, we still lost two birds" link thought "Well two is better than three i guess."

Link looked to his left, seeing rao half jogging towards him.

"Was that magic?" rao asked with a surprised expression "Your teachers have been calling you a genius but i didn't think it was to this degree." said rao while patting links head.

"Father thinks i learned to do this from school. I guess that'll have to do for now." link thought to himself, giving a look to Samuel, hinting to keep quiet.

Samuel nodded, then he looked at where his bird was and frowned.

Rao noticed Samuel's expression and patted his shoulder.

"Kid, you hit the bird, it's way better than what i did back when i was your age." he continued "My arrow slipped, hitting my father in his leg. He never took me hunting with him again until he was sure I got a hang of archery."

Both Rao and Samuel laughed.

While doing so, Samuel looked at Link while he was collecting the dead birds.

"Will i be able to keep up?" he thought to himself "Even though we train together and do the same things, he somehow keeps getting way ahead of me."

....

After rao beheaded the birds and hung them at the clothesline, he grabbed the rabbit and placed it on a makeshift cutting board.

"What i'm going to teach you stands for all rodents, so try to remember everything i do." rao continued "To skin it, Make a cut in the hide across the back. Grasp a fold of skin on each side of the cut and pull in opposite directions. The hide should pull away easily." rao demonstrated slowly so the kids don't miss anything.

Link noticed that aside from being disgusting, skinning a rabbit was like taking off a sticky wet glove.

After that, Rao showed them how to Remove the feet, and tail to complete the process. Now comes the gutting.

"When you proceed to gut your game, be careful while making incisions. If you cut open the bladder or the intestines, the meat is ruined by bile and feces. There is no saving it, so pay attention, kids."

Gutting the rabbit was bloody and gruesome, but Link was not affected much, unlike Samuel who nearly puked twice.

After he was done, rao lit a fire and put the rabbit to roast on a stick.

"While we wait, I'll explain to you guys how to scald a bird for plucking. As the name implies, the water must not be too hot nor too cold.

Just enough for you to immerse a finger in without getting a burn, but without being able to hold the finger in for long. that's proper scalding temperature. when we get back, we'll do a practical test."

Rao checked on the rabbit, taking it out of the fire and cutting it equally between them.

"This is your first game, enjoy it" said rao to link.

Link was a little excited, he ate rabbit meat before but this one tasted a little better than usual.

After their quick snack, rao started explaining again.

"Scalding is easy and quick. You only need to throw it in the cauldron for about 50 seconds. It's better to gently stir the water in the process, to clean the birds from external parasites and dirt.

It also helps to loosen the feathers. Never scald too long, or the meat could start to boil. Not to mention the risk rupturing the organs and ruining the meat.

Now after taking the bird out, gutting it is similar to what we just did with the rabbit, but scalding and plucking will replace the skinning process... Oh and removing the crop, neck, and oil gland. I'll show you how later. let's go home for now."

After making sure the birds were properly bleed out, he tied them together and hung them to his back.

As they were walking through the clearing and reaching the trees.

The trio found a trail, rao started to inspect the area, after a few looks around, rao began to frown. Link also noticed that the trial they discovered did not belong to some little rabbit, it was from something large.

"This trail wasn't here when we passed, right?" asked samuel.

"Yeah, I'm guessing something was attracted by the smell, but it didn't attack us and just watched." said rao.

"Why would it just watch?" asked samuel.

"It's intelligent," said link.

"What do you mean?" asked Samuel, getting more and more frightened.

"We were in the middle of a clearing, if it attacked or charged at us we would have noticed and acted." link continued "But it just waited..."

Rao cut Link off, realizing something.

"We need to get out of here. now, hurry up." said Rao trying to sound as calm as he could, but he couldn't fool link, seeing the panic in his father's eyes.

"What would scare father this much? he's a hunter, he should have had his fair share of encounters." link thought to himself.

"Since when are animals or even monsters intelligent." Rao was about to answer Samuel, when a sudden roar echoed through the forest, the birds in the surrounding area started to flee to the skies. Rao got his bow out and readied an arrow.

"The two of you, run back to the village and call for help. Tell them it's a Hell Bear, and it's an adult. Go now while I distract it!" Rao shouted at the two children.