DEER HALA.
I DONOT STAY AT DARA’S. IAM SAFE IN KAR CR CRAVAN.
LERNIN TO BE A HUNTER.
MONY IS SEELD IN THE LETER! IF NOT INKEPER STOLE IT.
NUA
***
The dead animal, which Hessa dumped near the servants’ mats while they were in the middle of eating their portion of dried fruit, was still limp and warm. It did not have any signs of damage other than a single arrow stuck in its eye. Nua stared in shock. She knew that today Hessa had been scouting before she appeared at the midday meal, but certainly, she had not expected that.
“This is a hare,” Hessa stated the obvious. “And we’re going to dress it.”
“Ew”, Zamar said. Bel backed up a couple of steps.
“Dear!” Ashraqat called from the distance. “Mind the others. Not inside the tent!”
Hessa gestured and Nua obediently got up, putting her shawl on to avoid sunstroke. They didn’t walk far. The huntress found a spot in an olive tree shade, beside a large flat rock that was most likely placed there on purpose. There was a trace of dried liquid on the rock, probably spilled beer. The rock’s surface was shaded, and not excessively hot. Hessa put the hare on it.
“That makes it even better”, she said. “You’ve gutted fish before, right?”
“Yes.”
It was a lie. Other people did it so fast that Nua wasn’t even able to get a proper look. In the long run, though, it didn’t matter.
“So this is similar. Other than getting down your basics, you need to learn it before I give you any monster parts to prepare. This, you can do with your bare hands. The monsters, not so much. It could get you poisoned. I use leather gloves for that.”
“You never told me what you do with the monster parts.”
“I did not? I’m sorry. I thought everybody knew, but it stands to reason that you don’t. So, the monster parts are bought by the Alchemist Guild. You’ll get your share, by the way.”
Nua nodded. More money was always a good thing, even though it seemed that it would be hard-earned.
“What do they use them for?”
“I have no idea. I know that their demands are very specific. For example, they only take hearts and fingers from the ghouls, and a specific gland located under their sternum. That’s pretty poisonous, by the way. From the nightscare bats, we get wing membranes. And the ears.”
“… all right.”
“The hearts are used to extract ether if I’m guessing correctly what a ghoul is”, interjected Anki. “The poison gland can be of many uses. It is a source of organic components that are potentially useful after additional purification. I do wonder about the fingers. They also contain venom glands at the base of their claws, but the venom’s composition isn’t that different from the sand viper’s, and the latter is easier to obtain. It makes me wonder if they know their basics, or just repeat the protocols thoughtlessly. The bat ears are probably just a local delicacy.”
Nua paled. Hessa watched her carefully.
“I could’ve thought about it and started before the meal”, she said. “But it’s too late for that. Barf to the side if you must.”
“I’m all right.”
“Let’s start, then.”, the huntress drew a large steel knife. “See this beautiful, majestic animal? Look at these strong legs. It would be a shame to spoil such a wonderful beast, so observe carefully. First, you make an incision here, on the stomach. Then you can peel the skin apart. See how easily it comes off? Then, after cutting off the feet you continue with the rest of the skin.”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Nua was watching with morbid fascination. It looked effortless, revealing the muscles like peeling a fruit. Somehow, she was quite certain that she would mess it up if she tried.
“Now, we need to remove the intestines.”, Hessa made a small cut on the hare’s pink, naked stomach. A bit of liquid came out. “From here you proceed all the way up to the sternum, see, not to damage the innards, open the sternum like that, oh, and we can remove the guts…” she reached with her bare hand into the hare’s belly, plucked the dark, pungent mass, then tossed it away. “Now look carefully where the liver and heart are. Yes, it’s still beating, but that’s just muscle reflexes. Be assured, the hare was shot in the brain and is already dead.“ She took out a red lump, surprisingly large for the animal’s size. “Now this, we can just roast and eat right away after we finish. We will salt the rest of it…” she paused. “Oh, all right. A quick break for vomit, then.”
“I’m… good.” Nua answered after a while and wiped her mouth. This was really not that much worse than the fish warehouse. “River God, they do have a bath in the caravanserai today, I hope?”
“Hah! I’m glad you like the baths.” Hessa laughed. “You’ll be dressing another hare on your own tomorrow.”
***
“Correct the posture. Legs lower. Center the body. Tuck the butt! Now, better. Go forward in that position from here to the end of the courtyard”, Hessa commanded. “Do not lower the baton!”
Nua was standing near the caravanserai’s fountain, holding the fighting stick and trying to keep up with Hessa’s exercises to the great enjoyment of Lykomedes, Idris, and a few other mercenaries that took a break in their own training and came to watch hers.
“It looks like a flea jumping”, giggled one of them.
“I can hear you, Batnaya!” Hessa turned. “So, girl. People look down upon smaller fighters. You have no bulk. You have no reach. Fighting, however, is not a contest of strength. It’s not the Mycean Competitions, and nobody cares about the exact force of your muscles or the length of your jump. The key is survival. Speed. Strategy. Decision making. If you are precise enough, poke their eyes out. Keep your weapon sharp. Cut their tendons.”
“It would be pretty hard with people like Oswald, though”, pointed out Lykomedes, who was leaning on the fountain’s edge, relaxing. The man next to him grunted. He was enormous - taller than Idris, muscular, pastry pale, his limbs covered with such impossible amounts of brown hair that Nua wondered at first if he was human or just a similar species. It turned out that Oswald came from the North. Nua had asked about the Unsagga country, but he didn’t know anything about it. Just a couple of villages, prince Flavius said. The world was huge. They have probably settled in a different area.
Hessa again focused on her pupil.
“If you face people like Oswald, Nua, what do you do?”
Nua’s legs were trembling due to holding the stance.
“Run?”
“Correct! Good decision making. The key is survival. If you can’t incapacitate them, run. Now, go to the end of the courtyard and back.”
***
“I swear, Zamar, if she has me sparring against half of the squad tomorrow again, I’m just going to bail and hide in the baths”, said Nua, scrubbing Shadow’s neck with the loofah. The animal was chirping quietly. “They enjoy humiliating me. Especially Lykomedes, that bastard.”
“Well, you are terrible with the baton”, the boy shrugged. He was focusing on removing a tick from Maximus’ neck, and judging by the uneasy sounds, the musushu’s patience was running out. “Or spear – it’s meant to be a spear, right? It might be because you shot up last week, so you need to find your center again. The training is good for that.”
“Now you speak like Hessa”, Nua leaned over, getting close with the loofah to the steed’s spikes.
Anki kept his promise. After almost two weeks of travel, she had grown about an inch, prompting comments from the huntress, who said that she knew now where all the food was going and asked about her real age. Nua had lied, as usual, and taken three years off her metric. Sixteen was a considerably late, but a believable age for a growth spurt in women. One thing Nua did not like about growing was that once again, she was constantly hungry. It made the fresh hare hearts look almost appetizing.
“Easy now, princess… oh, crap!”
Without any warning, the animal chomped on the loofah.
“Give me that!”
Shadow hissed.
“If you bite me, I bite you back.”
The mount trilled, trotting around the stall with the sponge in her mouth. Zamar was laughing his head off. Maximus gave out a forlorn moan, and bumped at his side, demanding attention. The boy lost his balance, then fell on the pile of straw. The sudden movement, in turn, alerted Shadow, who reacted by jumping up, toppling over the feed trough, and explosively spilling its contents on the stable floor, coating Nua, Zamar, and both steeds in the mixture of cooked barley with grease and morsels of meat. Maximus was reeling, hunched by the fence, and trying to hide. Shadow bristled her spikes at the giant, then, as if nothing has happened, started to lick herself and her surroundings indiscriminately.
This was a scene that Hessa saw when she entered the stables.
“Now what in the heaven’s…”
“It’s her fault.”
“It’s his fault.”
“I don’t care whose fault that was. I expect both of you to clean it up. Immediately. And please, Nua, do not tarry. I expect you to be ready before dawn. I just came in to inform you that we’re going on a scouting mission tomorrow.”