Completed A man's gotta eat

Summer job thread 3

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The Diamond of Kalea is located on Kalea's extreme west coast and called as such because its completely made of a crystalline substance called Skyglass. Home of the Alvina of the Stars, cultural mecca of knowledge seekers, and rife with Ethaefal, this remote city shimmers with its own unique light.

A man's gotta eat

Postby Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 2:43 pm

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3rd of Summer 518AV

From a very very young age Raeyn was taught that if he ever wants to achieve anything he needed to get his hands dirty. Whilst the lesson proved very true in later years, for a perfectionist can never be satisfied with the sub-standard labours of others, it was certainly those early years of hunting in the woods just outside Lhavit walls with his father that cemented the lesson in his brain. Work as a hunter brought a whole new meaning to the concept of 'getting one's hands dirty' however for there's nothing quite as disgusting as preparing animals who had not long since moved and breathed and lived, to now be sold as slabs of meat.

It was perhaps in Inarta blood to learn the subjectivity of value of life at a very early age. For, no matter how he hated the feel of guts and blood on his hands, Raeyn would hunt a hundred rabbits to fill the bellies of his family. Cuteness of those twitchy noses had nothing to do with it. He could both marvel at a rabbit's adorable appearance and enjoy the taste of it's tender flesh in a stew.

Mara had, as always when the gruelling task of skinning last night's prey was at hand, left the house, leaving the hunter alone with his craft. In the pleasant rays that poked though early morning mist and lit up the interior of his small apartment, Raeyn prepared the fruits of his hunting for sale at the Jugged Hare.

He laid out the little furry corpses on the wooden floor neatly and gently. Surreal as it was, to face the death of such little creature, he was really quite used to it by now. And so, without much fuss, the hunter picked up the first limp, lifeless rabbit n his hands. It was the victim of a snare trap. The poor thing asphyxiated itself, breaking the neck. But it made his job far far easier for there was no punctures in the body and no unpleasant blood to deal with.

With his hunter's knife, Raeyn performed the first incision, struggling for a moment to pierce a small hole at the heart. There was an ache in his left shoulder from the night before that made the whole procedure quite painful. Eventually, however a loud pop echoed thought the flat and a little hold opened up in the pelt of the creature right on the ribcage bridge. Placing the knife beside him Raeyn felt around the puncture for a moment to make sure he didn't cut too deep and only the skin was sliced. Satisfied after a few minutes, when no blood seeped out to taint the soft rabbit fur, he continued the incision a few inches down the body, lifting the skin off the muscle as he did so.
Last edited by Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 8:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Raeyn
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A man's gotta eat

Postby Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 2:56 pm

The sound of tearing skin caught the hound's interest and soon enough Ru trotted over to his master, snuffing at the rabbits enthusiastically. "Leave, boy." came a stern word of warning, for Raeyn really didn't wish to deal with dog hair on his meat. The hound was shedding for the summer, after all. He gave the little corpses one last sniff before returning to his rightful place by the hearth where the flat was the warmest.

Satisfied that no fruits of his labour would fall victim to a grumbly dog's stomach, Raeyn returned to his task. He placed the knife beside him and spread the pelt open, revealing a pink, intact ribcage beneath. This was the part of the job where a little bit of muscle came in very handy for when it came to rabbits, he didn't really need to cut the fur away. When pulled at hard enough, the skin would separate from the muscle, albeit a little effort was needed to do so. And that's exactly what he did. Gritting his teeth for with every pull, pain would tear though the muscle in his own arm, he very very slowly skilled the rabbit.

Raeyn wished that he hadn't left it so late in the morning to do this as a fresh kill was far easier to skin, far more tender. Still without much verbal complaining he got on with the task, hoping to complete it sooner rather than later. First he removed all the skin from the belly, then the kind legs and then the front. One only the head was left he took the knife and with one large swing, hacked it straight off, tossing it to the dog. Raeyn winced as he did so. There was something about the act that made him just a little bit uncomfortable.
Last edited by Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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A man's gotta eat

Postby Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 3:13 pm

The next priority was to gut the animal. A task far more easily to accomplish now that it no longer resembled anything living but a gangly, grotesque bit of pink flesh and bone with no head. Puncturing though the stomach just enough to expose the intestine, Raeyn held it over a cleaned out post and slowly pulled the innards out. The heart and kidneys, which were in deed in quite a good shape still, he separated from the rest of the body and put on a pile of things to wash. Those were edible. The rest of the guts he discarded, taking utmost care with the stomach especially so that not to accidentally puncture it and taint the meat with gross, half digested grass.

This skinning really went quite well. He was rather proud of himself for managing to take all the fur off in one fell swoop and gut the animal with a relative ease. Then again preparing a strangled animal was much easier than that which died to a head shot or a heart shot. There was no nasty leaking or unsightly tears to worry about. The peace and quiet of his own home as oppose to that of the wilderness was also certainly conducive to the task at hand, one hand, for the other was aching since yesterday and the hunter had to grit his teeth and work though the pain.

Ever since he suffered that fall the whole of his upper shoulder felt bruised. And whilst in the morning it looked fairly alright, by the time he was done skinning and gutting the first rabbit, it had swollen quite considerably beneath his shirt. His joints became quite stiff and tender and soon enough the hunter hand to keep the hand close by his side to minimise the constant dull throbbing.
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A man's gotta eat

Postby Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 3:30 pm

Once the first corpse was ready, gutted and cleaned off, came time for another. This one would have been a little harder to work with however for, not only was it shot rather than suffocated, the place where the arrow went in was just above the left hip, leaving the creature in a state of a bloody mess. Still, meat was meat and Raeyn wasn't going to turn his nose up at the prospect of earning a few more pennies. His studies were not cheap, after all.

He cleaned the blood off the fur with a spare rag, to begin with. A task which he thankfully only really needed one arm for. Then came the hard part. Much like the first time, he once again made an incision on the animal's breast doing his best to take off all the skin bit by bit with a little help from the knife this time. Holding the creature down with his knee and pulling the skin away with one hand, he allowed the other to rest a little focusing on the end goal. At this point he was still rather in denial that the bruises on his shoulder were anything to even remotely pay attention to or seek medical assistance for. Like the stubborn man that he was, he worked though the pain with a few own and whines where and there but little actual verbal complaining.

Once that was done he once again repeated the unpleasant task of removing the head and legs, saving all those bits that could be eaten or sold and discarding the rest for dog food. He worked in this manner into the late hours of the morning, gradually getting slower and slower as the pain and fatigue in his arm intensified. He'd take a break here and there. Some even longer than others. Though it all Ru kept him company, gladly taking a bit of attention and fuss between tasks.
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A man's gotta eat

Postby Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 3:46 pm

A job which usually took a coupe hours at most, was starting to get really quite stretched out as the swelling and pain in his left shoulder was now really irking him. Raeyn was hoping to finish before his twin sister came back home but it was not to be so.

With a smile she greeted him upon her return, only to find Raeyn struggling with another rabbit skin on the floor. An expression of ache and frustration on his face which, albeit not all that uncommon, seemed to manifest a little more often this season.

Ru came running up to her, standing on his hind legs and barking loudly. His paws thudded repeatedly on the wooden floorboards as he jumped around his mistress, excited by her arrival. Giggling, Mara gave the dog a rough scruff around the cheeks and a little kiss on the nose before walking over to her brother and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Ouch!" Raeyn winced in pain and recoiled, having not quite expected the sudden bit of contact. In a matter of seconds his illusion of being completely fine and normal, albeit not very successful, was shattered. He already dreaded her questions before they even began.

"What have you done to yourself?" Mara's eyebrow raised.

"Nothing. I'm quite alright. You really don't need to worry. It's just a pulled muscle or something." he protested, shuffling a safe distance so that she wouldn't grab him again. His protests betrayed him completely. Then again a twin couldn't hide such things from the other very easily. It was as if she had a sixth sense when it came to exactly what he was thinking, feeling and doing.
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A man's gotta eat

Postby Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 4:07 pm

"How's your days been?" asked Raeyn trying his hardest to deflect attention from his hidden wound as his fingers fiddled with a freshly skinned rabbit. "What did you get up to? Seen the parents perhaps? Any gossip around town I should be made aware of?"

"Since when do you care for such thing, Rae-Rae? You often tell me to not concern my self with gossip." she replied, giggling. But it was clear Mara was not so easily deterred. Once she put her mind to something she was going to do it one way or the other and if this thing was to find out whether her twin brother had hurt himself, well, he stood no chance.

"I changed my mind. Please, tell me everything about your day. Seriously. Spare no detail.

"How about you start?"

Raeyn's eyes widened. Much like a deer in the headlights his mind was panicking and he froze awaiting his metaphorical demise. It wasn't quite clear to anyone, even to himself why he resented admitting his shortcomings to others quite so much. Or perhaps why his twin sister, the one person he was truly close tom was the last person in Mizahar he'd ever admit not being ok to. Raeyn was a man whose pride knew no bounds.

His eyes settle back down on the rabbit as he pulled the furry pelt off it's little bones. Another wince of pain gave him away.

"If you're not going to tell me, at least let me help." insisted Mara, almost amused by this game. She rolled up her sleeves and helped Raeyn pull the rest of the rabbit fur off, freeing it from the body.

"I fell off a tree." admitted Raeyn, gritting his teeth and casting his eyes aside.

"You did.. what?"

"I fell off a tree."

This was certainly the last thing Mara could have imagined. For a man so dignified and proper as her brother was, there was something so simply unbelievable about the confession. Baffled she asked. "But... what? Why?"
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A man's gotta eat

Postby Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 4:18 pm

To Raeyn, embarrassment was worse than pain. The's rather break both his arms and both his legs than ever to be caught in an undignified position. Granted, he was never given the freedom to choose between such things.

"Come, let me have a look." insisted Mara, washing her hands and grabbing her brother by the shirt before he had the sense to wriggle out of the situation. Begrudgingly he unbuttoned it, freeing his left hand from the sleeve to reveal quite the considerable swelling and serious bruising complete with a few shallow scratches for good measure. Mara gasped. "And you're just telling me about this!?"

Raeyn shrugged with one shoulder. "It'll go down in a couple of days. I'll be fine."

"It could be broken. You'll go see a doctor first thing tomorrow morning. And I don't want to hear any protesting."

She did mother him sometimes but then again he lacked the sense to mother himself. Left to his own devices Raeyn certainly wouldn't deem it necessary to do such things as getting a professional medical opinion on his swollen shoulder. He did indeed protest but no matter how much or how desperately, Mara shut him down in an instant.

"Better to be safe than sorry."

"Fine, as you wish." he rolled his eyes, clearly grumpy and defeated.
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Raeyn
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A man's gotta eat

Postby Raeyn on June 11th, 2018, 4:26 pm

Once all the rabbits were skinned and prepared for sale, the twins packed them up along with the deer pelts and meat he had prepared the day prior. Raeyn had wished the hunt was a little more fruitful considering that he paid for it with his health. Of course he'd never admit it out loud. Once all was done, Mara helped him get dressed and he headed out to the Jugged Hare where he arrived just before closing. Coins were exchanged and both meat and fur was sold, allowing the Inarta to finally return home and have one less thing on his mind. A long awaited moment to relax.The job of a hunter was a hard one but he could never imagine exchanging his life for any other.
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Raeyn
...and the Wind Chicken
 
Posts: 343
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A man's gotta eat

Postby Saiyin on June 11th, 2018, 8:33 pm

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Grades Awarded

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Raeyn


Skills
Butchering: +5
Animal Husbandry: +1
Endurance: +4
Cleaning: +1
Observation: +1
Subterfuge: +1
Socialisation: +1

Lores
Raeyn: Taught to get his hands dirty to be able to achieve something
Hunting: Separating cute animal from delicious flesh
Animal Husbandry: Commanding Ru to leave
Butchering: Easier with a fresh kill
Butchering: Which parts of rabbit are edible and which aren’t
Raeyn: Proud of a job well done
Endurance: Dealing with throbbing pain
Subterfuge: Using small talk to distract
Mara: Very determined
Raeyn: Embarrassment worse than pain
Mara: A little too mothering sometimes
Lhavit: The Jugged Hare

Notes
Oh my god! What a loveable idiot. :rolleyes: Haha! That was a great read, and I enjoyed seeing Raeyn getting progressively more in pain and yet still powering through it. Your descriptions of butchery were excellent too, well done. If there's anything you think I've missed, please shoot me a PM and I will look it over for you. :) Happy writing!

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