Northern Woods
The treck had not been a short one, but he was used to these little adventures. His grandfather had been gone for a little under a month and wouldn't be expected back for at least a fort night. He had borrowed his elders winter clothes, and snow shoes and set off northwards, it had taken him a total of six days to reach the northern forests. He often came here in search of a decent hunt or some thing interesting. He'd wanted to visit Avanthal but could never muster enough resources to make the trek. And as such ended up on a hunt with his best friend, Roy. Roy was a shaggy dog, with blue and grey fur. He was mellow and relaxed though still quite young. His grandfather gifted him the dog on his thirteenth spring, last year. And thus far had been trained fairly decent. He could lay, sit, fetch, grab kindling, and to top it off he was a decent tracker.
Several leagues back he had donned the snow shoes, he'd asked for years for his own pair but was always turner down "Your still growing! When you stop, I'll show you how to make your own!." He always gave a sarcastic remark to show his disappointment but loved the old man anyway.
He snapped back to reality in time to catch a a white hare standing perfectly still. Roy too saw the rabbit. The dog was perfectly still ready to give chase. Bardolf knocked and arrow pulling back his hand resting near his cheek as he took aim. The rabbit looked ready to run, the tension was growing and before he could escape the arrow slid behind his front leg, piercing his organs with a clean shot.
Roy kept forward grabbing the lifeless, slightly convulsing animal and made his way back to bardolf. "Drop it Roy!" He said in a commanding voice, his eyes locked with the dogs. And for a moment he thought the dog would keep the rabbit. But instead let go. He quickly set his bow down, pulled the arrow and set it down also. He pulled his trusty knife from a leather sheeth that rested against the small of his back and stripped the little critter of its fur. He stuffed the fur into his rucksack, and strung the rabbit up on the outside of the sack, letting it cool in the brisk air.
He hiked for several more hours scoring another rabbit, and a large squirrel. All of them ended up the same way as the first hare. After his day was finished he decided to dig himself a small snow burrow. He packed the top down and began to dig, taking off his snow shoes before hand. And soon he had a small hole in which he could lay down. He strung up his rucksack on a nearby tree, taking out only a small chunk of cheese, and two sausages. He gave one of the sausages to Roy while he gobbled down the cheese and then consumed half of the meat, before giving it to the dog who was now bagging for more.
After a somewhat cold night, bardolf set off for home. He'd made the decision at some point the previous night. Between his shelter collapsing on him, and shivering all night, it wasn't a hard choice. He still had several hours before the sun would rise so he made this part of the trek in the dark. Never really fearing the darkness but always cautious. He covered a great deal and soon was forced to take off the snow shoes. He covered ground much quicker this way and after almost a half day of travel he shed most of his winter gear. He was either already in Sylaria or close. He cared little, as he defended a small hill, which turned out to be a cliff that led into a little valley. It had a creek running through it, and then quickly rose to form the another hill. Regardless of what it looked like or how tall the cliff was he fell from it landing ten feet below, the wind knocked from his lungs and pain near his collarbone.
It was extremely painful to move his arms or his body, he pulled down his wool shirt exposing where his bone was he found an angry black and blue bruise. His ribs hurt fiercly and he couldnt take a deep breath. After checking himself for a moment he began to feel a dull throbbing in his leg, he pulled a pant leg up hoping only for a bruise but was surprised to find what seemed to be a shard of bone protruding.He layer back and let out a deep breath, his mind was racing and he felt the prickles of fear creeping up on him. When he finally talked himself down, he sat up and struggled with what to do nexy. Eventually he came to the conclusion he needs to stop the bleeding. He tried several times to push it back in and on the final attempt managed o get it in. He layed back down letting out a shakey breath. Tears streamed down his cheeks, gettimg back up he ripped a pantleg wrapping the wound he searchrd for near by branches. He grandfather always told him stories about how to treat a broken bone. There were three that would possibly would possibly work. He crawled to them groaning softly his body was filled with pain as he moved. He managed get the sticks. It took another portion of his pant leg to splint his leg. He later back down exhausted, tears still occasionally spilling from his cheek.
At some point he fell asleep and when he woke Roy had found his way down and was nestled by his side. He decided to just let exhaustion continue its course and he slept some more. The second time he woke he had decided to check his fear. His bow managed to survive with several arrows. Though the ones that had been under him were crushed, along with his grandfathers snow shoes. He used to arrows and snow shoes to further secure his splint. He leg was now in excruciating pain so much he forgot about he rest of his body. With the aid of a nearby stick he managed to get up. There wasn't much choice in how he was going to get out. He had to follow the stream. He decided to go up stream working his way limping through he swampy, slightly wooded terrain. The valley eventually narrowed out and became a flat open plain that dissapeared into hills. It would take him twice as long to get to his grandfather's house with a broken leg. He maybe able to beat the old man home.