The trip had mostly been uneventful so far, and we had only stayed in an inn once. On one of the days my uncle grabbed a bow out of the cart and decided that we were going to look for some small game.
Falkr: “Here Charo, let’s see how rusty you are.”
Charo: “I haven’t gone hunting since last year, I probably won’t be able to hit a single target.”
I wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with hunting, there was just little need to do so in town. Normally we just bought our meat from the butcher. Hunting can be dangerous, so I typically avoided it.
My uncle set up an apple on a rock at a good distance away in an open meadow. He’d left the horses to graze in the open field since they’d be cooped up in a stable for the better part of the next week while we were in town for the festival.
Falkr: “Alright, let’s see if you can hit the apple.”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I opened them when I was ready to draw the bow.
「Well, here goes.」
I loosed the arrow and spectacularly missed.
My uncle let out a loud laugh.
Falkr: “It’s fine, we’ve got more arrows. Keep going until you remember how it feels.”
I kept going until I ran out of arrows. I had gotten closer to the apple but I still hadn’t hit it.
「Man, my shoulders are going to be sore tomorrow.」
My uncle and I went to retrieve the arrows. We gave them a quick check to make sure they weren’t damaged from hitting the ground. According to my uncle a cracked arrow was almost as dangerous as being shot at. Even if one had been cracked it, would have been easy to replace. Carving an arrow out of a branch was simple for me, but it took a lot of time to dry the wood.
We kept practicing for a few rounds until I barely managed to knick the apple.
Falkr: “There we go, that should be good enough.”
This time he gathered all the arrows on his own before coming over to where I had been shooting from.
Falkr: “I’ll go ahead and grab something in the tree line, but I’ll be leaving the cleaning to you.”
Charo: “Alright, I’ll sit with the cart and watch the horses.”
I handed the bow to my uncle and he slung it over his shoulder and walked off towards the tree line on the edge of the meadow.
「He’ll probably be gone for a bit, I’ll go and work my carving.」
Before I went to the cart I walked over the horses and pat them down a bit. They didn’t need to be brushed yet because we weren’t hitching them up to the cart, but they still liked the attention. One of the horses nuzzled my vest, looking for any treats I might have. I had actually grabbed the apple we had been using for target practice and had it in the pocket of my pants.
Charo: “There, there.”
I drew my knife and sliced the apple in half, giving one half to each of the horses. They greedily ate the apple from my hands and I wiped my hands on the grass before moving over to the cart to sit down.
The carving I had been working on was nearly finished. It had taken the shape of a star followed by a trail, which was how I imagined the starfall to look. For now, I was cleaning up the grooves in the trail. It was about as big as two fingers, but I wasn’t sure what to do with it when it was done. I had planed the back so that it was flat, so maybe I could turn it into a broach or hairpin.
After a while I decided to rest my eyes, it was a taxing on them to stare too closely at my carving for too long. My uncle had said that I’d be cleaning whatever he caught, so I would need to sharpen and clean my knife. It was a good knife but carving wood dulled the edge.
I pulled out a whetstone from the cart and got started sharpening my knife. My uncle always kept basic supplies like a sharpening kit, which contained a whetstone, oil, and a leather strap in the cart, and since I’d been working with my knife for a few years I knew how to maintain it. Sharpening a knife is slow, monotonous work, and I could already feel the fatigue from using the bow in my shoulders. Eventually I decided the knife was sharpened enough and I grabbed the leather strap from the sharpening kit for the final stropping.
Once I was done I picked a blade of grass to test the edge of the blade.
「Yep, this is good.」
The knife cleanly split the grass without any hesitation or pressure.
When my uncle had given me the knife and taught me to use it to clean game a few years ago he had told me that a dull knife was more dangerous than a sharp one. I didn’t hunt very often, but when I was with my uncle he always left the cleaning of the game to me. I didn’t mind much. Even though we bought our meat from the butcher back home I helped my mom cook often, so I was used to handling meat.
Now that I was done with my knife maintenance I laid down in the grass and closed my eyes. Spring was definitely here and there was a sweet scent in the air. Flowers were blooming in the meadow and there was a light breeze.
「Ahhh, this is perfect.」
Not long after my uncle came back from the trees holding a rabbit by its hind legs.
Falkr: “Got us a bit of lunch!”
He handed the rabbit to me and I got to work skinning and cleaning it. We lightly salted it and then roasted it over a fire my uncle had started while I was working.
Falkr: “Nothin’ like a meal you caught yourself.”
Charo: “Yeah, it’s better than the hardtack and sausage we’ve mostly been eating.” After we finished eating, we packed up, brushed and hitched the horses, and set off again.
