Completed [Bronze Woods]Archery Challenge II (Roderick)

[Sei Tendo]

Continued from here.
11 of fall, 10th of Bell, 513AV

After he had helped Roderick drag his game back, Sei had gone home and returned with his longsword. He pressed through the woods, sniffing occasionally to pick up a wiff of the bear he'd killed earlier. His leather boots sank into the mud, and he trudged through it with his long strides, unfazed by the sucking sound as he lifted his feet. He pushed away a low hung branch and ducked his head under it. He was used to the bronze and gold coloring of the tree leaves around him, but it never got old to inhale the smell of the wild. He adjusted the sheathed longsword across his back, and removed the dagger which was always hidden from view.

He fiddled with it, trying to imagine scalping a dead bear. He had never scalped, and usually ate the meat of his catches for supper. But not today. Today, he would skin a bear and sell it, along with two more game from Rod, and they would split the altogether profit. He eased slightly, not sure when he had tensed, and stared blankly at the dagger. He had always wondered what ot was like to scalp, and now, he would have to learn.

He hummed to himself, and kept the dagger in his hand as he walked toward Roderick - and more importantly - his bear. As he stepped on to solid ground, he scraped the mud from his boots, and continued up the path. He broke into a sprint, and tore through the woods, running as fast as his legs would allow, and heading for Rod. He closed the gap immensely, and began to push past the trees in a furry. He zipped through the trees, the constant thmp of his boots hitting the ground growing louder. He slowed to a jog when he smelled the bear more thoroughly. He then slowed to a walk, and calmed his breathing.

He walked up to see the game, and waited for Roderick to say something.

[Roderick]

When the bodies started to attract flies Roderick decided it was time to begin his work; Sei could catch up when he arrived. He never traveled in the wild without some rope; taking it from his rucksack, the hunter bound one of the boar's hooves with it, then wrapped it loosely about himself and moved towards the nearest tree. Suddenly he found himself stopping and looking up at the thing, remembering how he'd almost fallen not long before. Gritting his teeth he closed his eyes and looked down, working to banish the images that began floating into his mind. Deep breaths, Rod. It's just a tree. Taking a step forwards he set his hands against the rough bark of the tree and leaned his weight against it slightly, feeling the hard resistance and strength in the old oak sentinel. He set his boot against one of the root and used it as a slight lift to aid in jumping up to grab at the nearest branch. Managing to catch it on his second try, he began pulling himself up onto the branch, grunting slightly as its abrasive skin scraped against his own; he'd taken his armour off so he wouldn't get blood on it. Pulling harder and harder, he swiveled himself about so he was straddling the branch, It's just like riding a horse. The thought provided some assurance and he took a moment to lean back slightly against the trunk, closing his eyes and taking slow, deep breaths. Everything was fine - just fine. Opening his eyes again he cautiously looked down at the ground below; it didn't seem so frightening now and he felt his confidence returning. Roderick had looped his rope about his chest for the climb and now pulled it over his head and held it in his hands; carefully looping it around the branch to avoid dropping it, he wound it about a few times and then, taking another breath out, he forward to grab the branch. With the bark in hand he lifted his leg up and over the branch, so he was hanging out into open air. Clutching fiercely to the branch for a moment he readied himself and then let go, dropping down the few feet between himself and the ground. Landing with a thud he grunted with the force of his landing and stood up slowly, stretching his ankles out to relieve the slight pain in them. Looking at the dangling length of rope hanging in front of him, Roderick pulled it down further and then went over to the smaller boar of the two he'd caught, grabbing it by its legs and dragging it over to the base of the tree. Tying one end of his crude pulley around the boar's back legs, he took hold of the other side of the rope and began pulling on it fiercely, pulling and tugging at it to raise the boar up into the air. He put so much effort into it he began leaning out at an odd angle. When the boar was a few inches off the ground, the hunter started walking about the tree, grunting as he walked slowly around the width of the tree, slowly pulling, tugging and wrenching the rope around with him. By the time he'd finally finished he took the end he held and led it over to a nearby tree stump, winding it around what was left of the trunk. Checking the knot he made and feeling fairly sure it would hold, he took a dagger in hand and moved to the dangling beast, using the edge of the blade to open it from neck to groin. Slicing away to the sides, he gradually parted the hide from the boar's flesh, working his way up towards its back legs and forward to the front ones. He left the hide there alone, going instead for the part about its rear and shoulders. Taking a moment to hawk and spit as the smells invaded his mouth, the Zeltivan returned to his work, gradually cutting away at its back to finally part the beast from its hide. Hide in hand, he carried it off to the side and laid it carefully on the ground, returning to continue with what he'd been doing. Wrinkling his nose as the entrails started spilling out, he moved them aside, coating his fingertips with blood as he did so. There was no point in wasting anything, so he laid out little cloth sacks on the ground and started slicing off good chunks of meat to sell - and those that weren't so good. Before long the hunter had gone red half way up his arms and he'd wrapped up half a dozen parcels. Hearing the sounds of movement behind him, he turned about to look at Sei, nodding at him, "Welcome back. Thought I'd start on this one while you were gone." Gesturing with his bloody knife at the carcass before him, he hacked his way through the last regions of meat left, taking everything he could. The cuts he was wrapping were hardly the best, but still fairly decent. No longer needing it there, he untied the knot holding the rope and began lowering the useless carcass to the ground.

[Sei Tendo]

Sei groaned, and watched as Roderick went to work, diligently shaving the boar carcass, and getting decent cuts of meat from it before turning to Sei with a few words. "Yeah, yeah. Let's just get this over with." He said, moving toward the bear. He put his dager in his boot, and unsheathed his longsword. He was inches away from the bears neck line, and he placed the blade to the it's neck. He then lifted the blade, and swung it downwards to the bears neck, and closed his eyes when the blade shook as it wedged itself into the neck bone.

He then put his left foot on the blade flat, and pressed his weight against it. The blade severed the head, and he sighed inwardly. It wasn't too difficult at least, and after wiping the blood on the bears skin, he sheathed the longsword and removed the dagger. He took the blade of the dagger under the skin of were he had severed the head, and cut an uneven path of skin from the bear. It wasn't a big dagger, but it wasn't a small one either. They were poor cuts, but there were some decent slabs along the way. "You selling the hide too? Or just the meat?" He asked, still rounding his slices for a larger pelt. He tried to make smooth lines with the dagger, but the blade didn't agree with his hands, and he was struggling to keep his hold.

He used his thumb to press against the daggers' flat, and guided his strokes with the handle. He was finally done with the bears backside, and he flipped it over on it's back, and looked at it's belly. He hadn't realized before, but he was sweating because he was focusing to hard, and he had been holding his breath with every turn of the dagger. He had ripped off the back pelt, and had hung it on a tree branch. It was a decent hide, and would probably fetch a good price after it had been washed. He dismissed his thoughts, and focused on skinning the bear. Starting at the neckline, he worked his way down to the bears' rear, and parted the hide until it was fully shaved. He sat the front pelt next to the back, and looked at his handiwork.

All the fur was gone except the legs, with he would work on now, and with the head detached, the meat was exposed. He put his dagger in his boot once again, and removed the long sword from it's sheath. He then brought the sword to each leg, one by one, and used his foot to help the blade detach them. He pushed them to the side, and groaned. Now I have to get the meat off, he thought, sheathing his sword, and switching to his dagger. He wasn't used to skinning game, and his first slab was thick, and would most definitely be a poor cut. He sawed away at the meat, gradually learning that it was best to hold the blade at a certain angle. He tilted the blade diagonally, making finer slices each time, until he was down to a very small sized carcass, and would leave it here for other animals.

He grabbed a pelt, and laid it on the ground were the fur was laying on the dirt, and placed the slabs of meat onto the pelt. He wrapped it up, and held it in his hand, and shoed away the flies in his face. He grabbed the other pelt and placed it over his shoulder. He wanted to leave, but he decided to wait for Roderick to finish up before leaving.

[Roderick]

While Sei set to work skinning his bear Roderick set about his own business, stringing the second boar up by its legs and opening it up with his dagger. He hacked away at the parts connecting the hide to the flesh; after a few minutes of it he had the hide laid out nearby. Before long his hands were even filthier than before, the ground littered with parcels of boar meat. The first boar had been quite small, so there hadn't been a great deal of meat on it; the slabs he cut were a little too big and rough, so he only had around a dozen parcels - probably not as many, now he thought about it. This newer one was more impressive, though, and he tried to preserve the quality of his cuts while still moving quickly. All the same he knew he needed to work more on slicing up his kills; the only problem was his dislike for coating himself up to the elbow in a corpse's blood. When he felt he'd taken as much as he could from the carcass he undid the knot in his rope and let it fall to the ground, untying the boar and dragging the remnants away to a nearby bush, leaving it for the crows to pick apart. Pulling his deer along to the tree, he glanced over at Sei as he was tying it up; the Kelvic was still working away at his bear, using his longsword in place of a knife to achieve his goal. Grimacing as the Kelvic removed the beast's legs with crude hacks of his blade, the Zeltivan returned to his own business, cutting his deer apart quickly - the cuts became a little crude because of it, but he wanted to be done with this all. He felt a sour taste gathering in his mouth as the blood already on his hands ran down his arms; he hawked and spat again to clear it away, frowning as he continued working. By the time he moved around to the animal's back the muscles in his arms were twinging from all the work they had gone through that day. With a few final chopping motions with his blade, he set the hide down and hacked his way through the venison, parceling the cuts quickly. When he was done he turned to find Sei waiting for him. Scrubbing at his flesh with a few rags he mopped up the blood, leaving sore pink skin behind in place of the gore. Feeling vaguely clean he started gathering his things together quickly, winding his rope back up and dropping it into his rucksack, then gathering the different cuts of meat he'd made and packing them away inside his rucksack. Before long the thing was overflowing, so he improvised by sitting the rest in the middle of the larger boar's hide and gathered the different ends up, holding them them together in one hand. With the other he set the other two hides over one shoulder and wobbled to his feet, his balance put off by the weight he was carrying. Adjusting his hold on everything he straightened slightly and, everything in hand, he followed the Kelvic out of the clearing.

[Perplexity]

Riddled with Rewards!

Sei Tendo

Running	+1 XP
Observation	+1 XP
Weapon: Longsword	+1 XP
Weapon: Dagger	+1 XP
Butchery	+1 XP

Lores :

• Longsword: Decapitation
  
• Tanning: Skinning A Bear

Roderick

Climbing	+1 XP
Acrobatics	+1 XP
Butchery	+1 XP
Tanning	+1 XP
Weapon: Dagger	+1 XP

Lores :

• Tanning: Skinning A Boar
  
• A Mild Fear of Heights…Kinda
  

Notes :

PM me with questions, comments or concerns if you have them.