Completed A Day of Celebration

[Azira]

   

66th Fall 513AV

It was not a good day for hunting. The wind pulled her katinu from her body as she emerged from the city, a light rain thrown against her face in the early dawn light. It was bloody cold that was for certain and the huntress pulled her clothing around her more tightly than before, wrapping her arms around herself. She balled her hands into fists and shoved them under her arms in an effort to keep warm. If the weather didn't improve then Azira wasn't likely to catch much of anything; she'd be too numb to shoot.

Hunting hadn't been good all season, the game had become scarce as if they were leaving ahead it some impending event that only they could see coming, some disaster or something. She was probably just imagining things, fantasising, but she couldn't be sure. It certainly seemed that way to her but what she knew for certain was that it wasn't a good sign for them to be vanishing this early. Winter was still more than two market days away. 

There were rumours circulating that the gods were in someway involved with the unusual circumstances surrounding the city as if the Inarta had somehow incurred their wrath but the teen didn't believe it. They hadn't done anything to deserve the possibility of starving. Perhaps the animals were leaving because of the unusual weather or the abnormal activity of the mountain. Then again it could have something to do with the Djed storm the previous winter, perhaps everything did, but they still couldn't be sure of all the storm's effects. Either way it wasn't worth dwelling on; she had more immediate matters to see to.

The Avora wasn't all that optimistic, however as she made her way down the mountain, heading for the sheltered valleys at Mount Skyinarta's base. All the game seemed to be heading away from the mountain so she knew there was no point wasting time trekking the mountain slopes for something to shoot. If there was anything for her to catch it'd be somewhere down there. It was going to be a long day.

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[Azira]

   

A bell and half brought the huntress to the bottom of the mountain that held her home. She'd gotten better at navigating the terrain over the years. This journey would have taken at least twice the time only two or three years before. Now she knew to move at a steady pace, her steps confident as she moved down the mountain. It was important to test her weight on any ground that looked unstable and that her feet had to mould to the shape of the terrain in order to move more easily on it than when she walked flat. It was particularly helpful on rocks.

Once she reached the flatter ground of the valleys, Azira slowed her steps, placing her feet down from heel to toe so as to walk more quietly. If there was any game around, she wasn't going to frighten it off by stomping around the place. She began to look for signs that she'd read about in the Enclave a few days before. The Avora was hoping that her new knowledge would help her to bag some game today but there was no guarantee. She was going to be optimistic though.

She examined the trees and bushes looking for signs of snapped branches or missing foliage to show the passage of animals. There was nothing to suggest any large game had passed through but crouching down she found that something had been gnawing on the roots of the vegetation and there were slight depressions that might just be hooves. Boars. Boars were very aggressive, better gotten at a distance

Her bow, which had been slung over her back to leave her hands free on the mountain, was retrieved, an arrow taken from its quiver. The girl nocked the arrow in readiness, holding it loosely with a finger above and two fingers below, the bow pointed towards the ground. It was a little awkward to walk like that, gripping the bow but she quickly grew used to it, hardly noticing it at all after awhile. 

She set off in search of the creatures.

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[Azira]

As she walked, bending down on occasion to examine the ground beneath her, the huntress thought about what day that it was. In theory, today was supposed to be a special day, a day for celebration and merriment and all that shyke. Azira didn’t have anybody to share it with, didn’t even have anyone who could wish her a happy birthday: nobody knew. The teen was long accustomed to the idea that her birthday was something to be celebrated, or rather endured, alone. It wasn’t by choice that she spent her birthdays alone, she just didn’t have any friends. The idea made her sad but there was really nothing that she could do about it.

The last birthday celebration that she had was for her seventh birthday when her mother was still alive. It was that day that she had received her ocarina as a present, the only thing that she had to remind herself of the woman and it had happy memories attached to it. After her mother had died, her eighth birthday had passed without any cheer and she’d still been in such misery at the time that not many people had paid attention to it either. The rest of her Yasihood, Azira had been “the weird one” so birthdays and people to share them with were out of the question. Nothing had changed much.

As she moved, the occasional crunch under her feet, the Avora wondered if there were people who would have celebrated with her if she’d asked them. Kovac, the hunter whose presence could bring out the worst of her, was very compassionate and willing to understand her even if she did bite his head off most of the time. Lavira, the Endal who she had so grievously offended by mistaking her for a Dek, she had no idea what to make of. The woman was being extremely kind to her, even having brought her hunting just prior to the last hunting day. Perhaps if she’d asked her, she would have found her willing. Syveris wasn’t a likely option. They’d met again for the first time since their Yasihood just a few days before. They’d both been extremely uneasy then and they didn’t really know each other so that was out.

To be perfectly honest, she’d been better at causing animosity lately than forging friendships. Between her tongue and her hunting knife, she wounded the pride of some Endal, upset and frightened a Yasi, sliced into one of her fellow Avora hunters and frightened some Chiet half to death by prodding them with a knife. In hindsight, her behaviour was absolutely atrocious and it was amazing that she hadn’t gotten or herself killed or something. The girl supposed that it was only a matter of time.

The sound of snuffling somewhere nearby pulled the huntress from her thoughts and reminded her what she was about. Stopping, she cocked her head to the side, listening. She held her bow ready and began to advance towards the sound cautiously.

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[Azira]

   

As she moved forward the snuffling grew louder and Azira took that as a good sign that she was heading in the right direction. She knew that she needed to be hyper aware if she was going to take down a wild boar. Hogs were vicious and dangerous, one moment of lax attention could result in serious injury something that wouldn't be good for the huntress. She was out here alone so if anything serious happened to her nobody would ever know about it. It was another painful reminder that there was nobody waiting for her back home.

Cautiously moving forward, she peered around bushes and tree roots as she tried to find the pig. Mid-fall was their breeding season she knew so she hoped that she didn't run into a male though that'd be just her luck. A female probably wouldn't be much better especially as they tended to move in little family groups though if there was one wandering on its own...

A twig snapped and she froze, quickly realising that it had broken under her foot. She listened with bated breath. The snuffling had stopped but there was now the soft sound of running feet. The girl thought it had run away but when the beast came crashing through a bush to her left, she nearly screamed in fright, backing away quickly to have a better shot.

Her eyes took in the tusks and the obviously aggressive behaviour of the boar as it charged. It was definitely a male and he was pretty pissed off. He was moving too fast as well for her to aim properly. Firing a quick shot in her panic, the Avora watched in horror as the arrow missed its head and sailed past its rump, slicing a shallow cut into it as it passed. The squeal from her quarry told her that she'd hurt it but as it dropped its head and ran flat out at her she realised that she'd probably only made things worse. If the pig had been angry before now it was out for blood.

Knowing she'd never get another arrow nocked, let alone get off another shot, the huntress turned tail and ran, the hog in hot pursuit as she crashed back through the trees. Maybe she could try to get it with her knife but she wasn't sure if she could keep out of the way of its tusks in order to kill it. She'd need to get behind it to stand a chance and that wasn't going to happen. She could probably outrun it but that would mean defeat and the girl wasn't sure if she wanted to face that. Plus she needed this kill, needed to bring food home but what could she possibly do?

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[Azira]

   

A flash of inspiration made the girl hopeful of getting the pig but it'd be risky and success wasn't guaranteed. Actually she'd say that success was pretty slim but maybe the plan might just be worth a shot. Glancing round as she ran she searched for a tree that had low but sturdy branches. She needed to scale a tree and try to shoot the hog from there. Azira was very uncertain about the shooting part, not having ever shot from a position before that wasn't a standing one. She assumed that it was possible with a short bow but whether or not she could do it was another question altogether.

The teen spotted a tree that had a number of branches that met together in one spot to form a sturdy looking shelf. Well it was a very small shelf but she supposed that she could perch on the edge of it and it would support her weight. Only problem was that it wasn't that low and so wouldn't be easy to climb up to in a hurry. It was at a height  a little higher than her head but maybe she could throw her arms up and haul herself up? Not likely. 

The first time she passed it, she threw her bow up onto an overhanging branch knowing that there was no way that she could climb with it. Looping back around with the pesky pig at her heels she sprinted at the tree, hoping that her momentum would help her a bit and the spurt of speed should also keep the boar at bay for long enough. She hoped so anyway. Running as if her life depended on it (which it did), Azira jumped as she came within reach of the branch, stretching her arms up for her hands to grab at the thick and twisting branches.

Her hands scrabbled at the wood, trying to claw her way up the surface. Her legs hung uselessly just above the ground, the hog running straight for them. With great effort, she managed to lift her ankles far enough away from the ground so that the hog missed them as it ran past. For those few seconds when it had no idea where she was, a new plan formed. 

Letting go of the branch, she dropped to the ground, her knees bending to absorb her impact before she sprang at the boar, landing on top of it. The creature squealed and squirmed under her and she had a job to hold it down as it thrashed beneath her. Scrabbling for the knife at her belt, she tugged it from the leather and drove the blade into the pig's flesh. She stabbed it again and again, her movements wild as she killed the thrashing creature, its blood spurting everywhere.

When it finally stopped moving, she flopped down, exhausted.

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[Azira]

   

Her breathing was fast and shallow, more like panting than normal breathing. She was exhausted now that the adrenaline rush had worn off and she was also very sticky. There seemed to be blood everywhere, her hands, her face, her clothes, probably in her hair too but she couldn't tell. It probably didn't help that she was basically lying on a bloody boar carcass, a pool of blood still spreading out from it as she watched.

Pushing herself up and off of the pig, her hands squishing into the blood, she surveyed the damage. The huntress had perhaps been a little too enthusiastic in her attempt to slaughter the creature. All she could see were holes though the meat was probably still good. It was meat after all wasn't it so why he picky about presentation? She'd have to hack it up anyway if she was going to carry it, the whole carcass too heavy for her to bring all the way back to the city by herself.

Getting to her feet, she went and retrieved her bow, stretching up on her toes to reach up to unhook it. She slung it across her back and then returned to her messy kill. Knife poised above it once more, she considered how to do this. She needed to skin but if she could do a fair job of keeping the hide intact then she could carry the meat back in that. Yes that was probably the best way.

Kneeling beside it, the teen set to work.

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[Azira]

   

Now although Azira hadn't skinned a boar before she figured that the tricky bit would be the legs so she began to work out how best to deal with them. Starting on the back legs, she cut seams down them to allow the skin to slip off easily. However it turned out that the skin was tighter to the body than she would have expected so the girl had to pull it away bit by bit, cutting through the layer of fat to free the skin from the boar flesh. It was amazingly time consuming and by the end of about half a bell, she'd managed to separate the skin and hooves from the two back legs and was making good progress on removing the skin from the rump.

When she was finished with the back end, the huntress tried to work out whether to cut through the creature's belly or along its back in order to remove it from the middle section. In the end she decided that she'd do neither, she'd treat it more like a squirrel skin and roll it off the carcass, cutting through the fatty bits as she went. 

It was difficult to manoeuvre the arcade but she managed to roll it from side to side according to which bit needed cutting, pulling the hide down the boar's body inch by inch. When she managed to pull the covering back as far as the front legs, the girl took her knife and set to work repeating the process that she'd used on the creature's hind legs. It went a lot more quickly this time as she learned what to expect and knew not to try to cut the fat too close to the hide because that was nearly impossible to cut through.

The skin around the head posed problems until the Avora realised that she'd just be able to pull all the skin over the head however it wasn't as easy as it looked. It took close to half a bell to just pull the skin over the boar's head, being extremely wary of the tusks as she worked. All in all the skinning had take close to two bells and Syna's rays were coming down from nearly directly overhead; Azira was losing hours. In spite of that, she allowed herself a few chimes for her to get her strength back before she tackled the meat.

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[Azira]

   

Once she was sufficiently recovered, the huntress took up her knife once more and set to work cutting into her skinned boar. She began to slice through its belly, hoping that her wild stab wounds hadn't ruptured its guts. If she'd hit the guts then she would have ruined a lot of the meat. 

Her blade cut along the belly in a straight line, peeling the flesh back to either side. She removed the pieces carefully in strips and laid them on top of the hide. They didn't smell acidic so she was hopeful that the meat hadn't been destroyed. Even so, she was very careful when she removed the intestines and the stomach looking over them closely to make sure that they weren't in any way ruptured. Everything seemed to be in all right so she began to pull organs out of the cavity and separate the useful organs from the others. 

When that was done, the Avora began to cut the choice pieces from the carcass, slicing pieces off its legs, its hips, its side and its shoulders until she had a sizeable pile in the boar's hide and her hands were bloody. She wiped her hands and her knife on the grass around her and then tied the hide in such a way that it was easy to carry. Lifting it up, she was staggered a bit by the weight but she found that it was manageable.

The girl set off feeling delighted with herself. This had turned out to be a great birthday. She'd actually managed to catch something, a very sizeable something. Azira was also extremely pleased with herself because she'd never caught a boar before. Only a few days before she'd researched the creatures and their habits but she had never expected to come across one so soon. The huntress also knew that she was very lucky not to have been gored by those tusks. If she went boar hunting in future she'd have to have a different method of catching them that didn't involve jumping on top of the brute as it thrashed.

The teen put some serious thought into her boar weapon as she headed back to the city. Distance between herself and the animal would be key so she'd need a weapon with a fair bit of reach. It'd also have to be light enough to hold but yet strong enough to be used in an attack. A sword was probably out and she didn't have one anyway. Maybe some sort of spear? A spear would definitely have the reach. Could she get a hold of a good branch of wood and attach a knife to the end of it? She supposed that she could although the knife couldn't be her hunting knife, she needed that for skinning and carving her kills. The Avora would have to think on it some more, maybe discuss it with someone else...

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[Azira]

It was a long journey back to Wind Reach and her bundle was heavy so the huntress had to stop and rest a few times before she could continue on her way. When she finally reached the city her arms ached and her back was sore but she dropped off her burden and headed out again hoping to pick up something nearer to home. She had only been out about four bells altogether so the day wasn’t over yet, she still had a few bells of trekking to do.

The girl traversed the land where she usually hunted for rabbits but she found no sign of them there. There were no droppings, the grass was higher than normal so they hadn’t been eating it and their burrows didn’t seem to be in use. It was as if the creatures had vanished without a trace and Azira couldn’t help but wonder where they had gotten to. Admitting defeat, she headed back down into the valleys, unable to navigate the tougher terrain higher up the mountain where they goats walked. Sometimes the teen wondered how the creatures managed to walk around so easily; it was irritating.

The Avora wondered if she’d find anything else today. She knew that she could probably find another boar around the first place as the first but she didn’t feel like having another encounter of a pig persuasion so that was out. There might be some deer around but she would never bring one down herself and even if she did, she wouldn’t be able to carry it, or even its meat back home. She could hope that there might be a rabbit or two about somewhere down in the valleys but there was no guarantee. There had only been a groundquake two days before and when those happened a lot of the game went into hiding. That boar had probably only been out and about because it had a pressing need to fulfil its natural obligations; it was mating season after all.

After a bell of fruitless searching, the huntress decided to call it a day especially as she still had a long walk ahead of her to return home so there was no point staying out much longer. She had no real reason to be disappointed though because at least she’d brought in something today and it wasn’t exactly a small something either. That meat could be smoked or salted for winter, something that would be vital especially late in the season when the food began to run out. Hopefully it would actually be late in the season. They couldn’t have the Dek eating each other again.

When the girl stepped through the Sanikas gate, she shot the gatekeeper Val a distracted smile and headed into the city.

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[Azira]

   

The huntress had somewhat of a birthday tradition. The girl could never reach a new age without thinking of her mother.A birthday seemed like an important life event to her and so she always connected her mother with everything important because it was a reminder of what the woman was missing out on. Her mother had missed out on her becoming one of the Yasi, one of the Avora, a hunter in her own rite and now here she was at age eighteen. 

So she did something to remember the woman by, she played her ocarina on her birthday. It had been a birthday present after all, the last one that her mother had ever given her. So she played the last song she'd ever learned on her last birthday present and wished herself a happy birthday.

The girl went to the baths first. It was her birthday after all so why not treat herself? It would loosen her tight muscles anyway and would relax her. Maybe the bath would make her go to sleep faster than usual in spite of the fact that she would be crying later. The hot water did do wonders for her body. The pains that had plagued the muscles in her arms and back faded as the water released the tension.

Afterwards she felt wonderfully refreshed and clean and headed to the Kitchens to get some dinner. The Avora took her time getting her food and eating it because she was dreading going back to her room. Once she was alone, without anybody to hide her true feelings from then she was going to fall to pieces. All day, even though, she'd been alone she'd known that there was a possibility she might see someone. Then she could remain strong but not when she was certain that she'd be alone then she'd show her true feelings.

She dragged her feet the whole journey to her room but finally it was inevitable. She slipped into her room, moving to the chest at the end of her bed. At the bottom of the chest there was a small cloth bundle, that was squishy to the touch. Azira unwrapped it carefully to reveal the beautiful glass instrument. It was beautifully crafted, the surface smooth with filigree designs etched into it.

The girl carried it and perched herself on the edge of her bed. Pressing her mouth to the blow hole and her fingers to the right holes, she began to blow. At first she played slowly, her fingers moving from the different holes, pressing down hard on some and releasing others. As the instrument became more familiar in her hands the teen began to play faster. The sound wasn't perfect and she made the odd slip or mistake but she'd gotten better over the years. It sounded very close to how she remembered the song and that brought tears to her eyes.

"Happy birthday to me," she whispered, wiping at her eyes before wrapping the instrument up again. Returning it to its hiding place in her chest and then got ready for bed. Climbing into bed, she pulled the covers over her head and hugged herself tightly.

"I miss you, Mama."

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