[Bronze Wood] Hunters' Challenge (Roderick)

[Wade]

42nd Summer, 513 AV, 8th Bell

Wade leaned against a tree at the edge of the Bronze Wood, cloak tight about him, quiver of arrows on his back, and his short bow leaning against the tree beside him. His arms were crossed about his chest and his head nearly rested on them as he struggled to keep from dozing off. His head pounded with every time his heart pumped blood through his body. In fact, his whole body was weary and his limbs were heavy, but he had dragged himself out here despite of that.

Last night, in the tavern, he had made a bet about three drinks into the night. Some dumb youngster with a comically large longbow had said that he could gnab twice as many animals in a morning as Wade. In his drunken state, Wade had convinced himself that he was the greatest hunter in all of Syliras, despite his recent disappointments, and he took up the challenge without hesitation. He had accepted the challenge with such gusto that he wouldn't be able to return to the tavern without bringing the snickers of everyone in the establishment if he didn't actually show up to the challenge.

Getting up this morning was the hardest part. His bed was just so damn comfortable and his head had felt as if it were a horseshoe being pounded into shape by a blacksmith. He accidently stabbed himself in the hand with an arrow as he picked them up and clumsily filled his quiver and he had tripped and fell in his own doorway as grogginess continued to assault him.

Still, he was here and the longbowman had yet to show. With any luck, the man wouldn't show at all and Wade would be the de-facto winner, gaining the respect of the tavern patrons while cutting down the longbowman at the same time. But now...

Wade's head dipped lower as he nodded off.

[Roderick]

Roderick stepped over another rock as he walked further into the Bronze wood. He tasted vomit on his tongue, so he must have hurled somewhere between the tavern and his apartment. He regretted every drink he'd had the night before; at some point he'd boasted to a man called Wade about how good he was at hunting, and the other archer had challenged him to a hunting contest to show Rod otherwise.
He hawked and spat on the ground in a vain attempt to get rid of the taste in his mouth, and quickened his pace. On the way there he'd felt his stomach churning and soon found himself leaning on a tree as he threw up what he had in his stomach. Then he'd doubled over and dry-heaved til his gut ached and burned.

When he finally got to the clearing, he thought he might have been too late. It was a moment before he saw the other huntsman, standing next to a tree, swaying back and forward. As Roderick walked closer the hunter didn't react. A few more steps later and he was standing right in front of him; still nothing.

He took his bow in hand and nudged the man in the chest with one end.

[Wade]

Wade awoke as he felt a pressure on his chest. Leapt from his slouching position, every muscle in his body tense as his eyes darted about to see what had touched him. There was a ringing in his ears and his heart was pounding so loudly that he could hardly hear the trees behind him rustling in the breeze.

Then his eyes fixed on the longbowman from last night, who had apparently poked him with the ridiculously large chunk of wood. He snarled and slapped aside the bow, the headache from the hangover temporarily held at bay by his anger over the "insult." The man before him looked to be suffering from as bad a hangover as he was and smelled perhaps a little of vomit. At the same time, he held his bow like he truly knew how to use it and appeared just as prepared as Wade to go out and hunt.

Wade stood up straight and picked up his own bow, much smaller than the longbowman's ridiculous bow-spear-thing. "Ah, you made it! And you brought your spear." He smiled at his own cleverness. "I believe your name is Roderick?" His nose crinkled as he recalled the name of his adversary, the adversary that had forced him to get up this early in the morning in this bad of a condition. The fact that Wade had been the one to issued the challenge didn't mean a thing to him. It was all Roderick's fault.

[Roderick]

Roderick looked at Wade for a moment and then smiled slightly as he looked his bow up and down, "It feels as heavy as one" he said as he weighed it in his hand.
He returned his gaze to Wade and looked his shortbow over; it was better suited for travelling through the wood, though Rod's longbow would be able to beat it in terms of range.

Looks like he's as hungover as I am, Roderick mused, then said "Who challenged who again? Last night's a little groggy..." one eye clouded over so he rubbed at it with the heel of his palm until his vision cleared.

[Wade]

"It was... ah.." Wade stammered. He did not want to admit that he had been the one to challenge Roderick and that it was he that forced both of them to come out here in these conditions. True, Roderick had been boasting, but everyone does so when they are under the influences of drink. Wade at the sinking feeling in his gut that he was the villain of this tale, but he knew that if he came home the victor that he would be hailed by a hero! He might even get a few free drinks at the end of the day if his tale spurred the tavern patrons on enough.

"I did!" he finally declared. Wade shoved his hangover as far out of his mind as possible and stood straight before the longbowman. "And I plan to make good on my challenge. Whoever comes out with more meat by the time the sun is at its highest point will be the winner." He purposely omitted the part of his challenge that said he would catch twice as many animals and hoped that Roderick would not remember.

Without waiting for an answer he turned and ran into the Bronze Wood, ready to find himself a herd of deer. He was certain that not a single deer would be able to escape his grasp.

[Roderick]

"It was...ah..." the other hunter seemed a bit hesitant, so Roderick figured he must have been the challenger. He was proved right when wade declared "I did!" and stood up straight, "And I plan to make good on my challenge. Whoever comes out with more meat by the time the sun is at its highest point will be the winner."
Could've sworn it was twice as much last night... Rod thought as Wade spun on his heel and rushed away in the Wood, obviously planning on getting a head start. Spitting again Roderick gripped his bow more tightly and headed off into the wood after Wade, veering to the right so they wouldn't run into one another while hunting.

[Wade]

Wade stopped as soon as he was certain he was hidden by the underbrush, dropped to the ground, and perked his ears up as he struggled to catch the sounds of Roderick and his ridiculous longbow. He heard the sounds of a man moving somewhat to his right. Roderick had evidently planned on giving Wade some space and letting this be a righteous and fair competition.

But Wade figured it was hardly fair if Roderick's bow was twice as large as his and could probably fell a bear just but smacking it on the head.

Wade turned in the direction of the sound and hurriedly put his bow in its resting place on his back. Then he snuck along Roderick's trail as quietly as possible. He grinned from ear to ear as he considered the look on the longbowman's face when it was Wade's arrow and not his that transfixed his prey. He had developed his devilishly clever plan while he had been dozing off at the edge of the wood.

This plan allowed Roderick to do all the dirty work of actually finding the unfortunate animal and cornering it while letting Wade do the fun part of actually shooting it. That would also mean that Wade got the profitable part as well. Since it was going to be his arrow in the dead beasti it was only fair that he would be the one to take the creature home. Then he would be able to turn the meat and fur in for cold hard coin.

If he was able to snipe Roderick's first catch then he would be assured victory in their bet and he would prove that the shortbow was superior to the longbow. It would all be done in one great, poetic shot. Wade suppressed a chuckle as the image of Roderick's face erupting in surprise came to his mind.

This would be absolutely perfect.

[Roderick]

Roderick kept walking deeper in, looking for signs of any animals that might be in the area. He came across a bush with trampled leaves, hoof prints stamped into the mud. They meandered up onto a little hill, then vanished for a while amid the leaves. After a little searching he found more prints where the beast's hooves had pressed into the muddy earth beneath the carpet of leaves. From the shape of them he assumed it was a wild boar. With that possibility in mind he followed the tracks as far as they went, then returned to looking at the area around him. The boar wasn't being very cautious as it went about; it left a trail of crushed leaves and snapped twigs behind it.

Finally he reached what seemed to be the place where the boar was living. There was a sizable amount of dung piled up under a tree; it's home was probably nearby. There were a ton of tracks around the place; it obviously came by here often. He notched an arrow to his bow and continued to follow the tracks.

[Wade]

Wade struggled to keep up with Roderick while moving as silently as possible. At times he could not hear the man ahead of him went silent, either from stopping to look for tracks or from getting far enough away from Wade that his passing made no sound. At other times he feared that he had snapped a twig and surely gotten the man's attention. He was sure he could just pawn off his reason for being nearby was just that he was tracking his own prey but then it would be difficult to resume the chase.

Ahead of him, Wade heard Roderick bustling about. He heard the slight clink of wood tapping against wood. He figured that was the other hunter readying his stupidly massive bow. Wade looked about, wondering where the tracks were that the other hunter had obviously picked up on. Wade himself had been looking about but had spotting nothing. He stared more closely at the ground and, now that he knew what he was looking for, he spotted some hoofprints in the underbrush. They were large, but Wade could not identify what they belonged to. Perhaps a large buck or a wild boar?

Wade crawled to the left to distance himself somewhat from Roderick, keeping the hunter's sounds to his right as he continued to shadow him. He would have to act fast when they came across the prey. If he could get his arrow into a major artery before Roderick fired his shot, then it would be all Wade's.

[Roderick]

There was a slight incline from the boar's dung to where it made its home in a cave. There was no sign of it as he edged forward towards the entrance. He paused at the entrance and listened for movement. He thought he heard a faint scuffling inside, so he took care as he walked in. It was dry earth inside so he didn't have to worry about making any noise with his feet.
The tunnel wove back and forward a few times as he went deeper, before opening out into a sizable chamber; it was at least two, maybe three times as big as his apartment in Syliras. And there in the center was his prey...
With a trio of piglets clustered around it. It seemed he'd been tracking a female.
Though where there was a mother there surely had to be a father too... it was nowhere to be seen, so he assumed it was foraging for food.

He drew back his string and aimed for the mother's head. The sight of her piglets squealing as she died stirred a base amount of pity from him, but he'd long since gotten over killing piglets. Carrying them back to the city would be difficult, but probably more profitable than bringing their corpses; they'd probably be raised til they were bigger and fatter, then have their throats cuts and be sliced up to make bacon. If they were lucky they might be used to breed more. The city probably wouldn't mind having a few extra sides of ham for sale.

He laid his bow beside him, then took his cloak and pack off, setting them on the ground. He pulled his rope out of his bag and dumped it beside him, then put his cloak inside. He slung his bow around his chest, took the pack in one hand and the rope in the other and walked over to the piglets and their mother. He dumped them on the ground and grabbed the nearest two, putting them in his bag on top of his cloak; hopefully they wouldn't soil themselves in there, but if they did his cloak was cheap and he could wash it or get a new one, rather than bear the thought of there being shit in his comb.

The third ran from him, but he caught up with it easily enough and gave it a light kick to knock it over, then pinned it under his boot til he could grab it by the neck and put it with the others. He tied his pack off tightly and then went over to the dead boar. He laid his bow on the ground so he could get his pack on properly, then slung his onto his back again.

He picked up his rope and tied up the boars legs, winding the rope about its body. Once he'd knotted the rope he began dragging the boar out of the cave.