Next morning with first birds we woke up and went to the Hunter’s camp where Nimrod and other hunters lived. The camp consisted of a few human height tents made of leather. We figured that might have been elk’s hide. Senka told me that hunters wake up really early to find places for hunting. He also thought that it is much easier to hunt for sleepy animals, but that didn’t make sense to me somehow. Hina refused to come, because she thought that this would be a waste of time for her and she would better spend time gathering berries in the field, rather than watch us humiliate ourselves.
The first person to appear from a tent was strong man with a graceful posture. However, his beard was fluffed up on the right side that gave us the clue that this was the side on which he was sleeping. First, he did not notice us, because he was scratching his eyes with knuckles and passionately stretching. When he finished his morning routine, he finally noticed us and a warm smile appeared on his face,
‘Hey, Senka! What brings you here so early? Oh, you have a friend with you as well! That makes it even more intriguing! Tell me, boy.’
Senka immediately looked away from Nimrod and I understood that I have to take the lead.
‘Good morning, sir! Senka told me that his uncle is a hunter and I always was curious about how hunters live, so we couldn’t and ran her as soon as we woke up!’
‘Haha! That sounds promising. We need more hunters, animals are breeding much faster than we can kill them! Haha!’ he sounded too cheerful for this time of the day, but his attitude encouraged me to ask him about everything straight.
‘If it doesn’t bother you much, we would like you to show us how hunters live. Maybe how you hunt or what stuff you do. Like, we won’t bother you much… Yeah! My name is Tarynn, by the way…’ Nimrod looked at both of us as if he already imagined how we grow up to be new hunters of this village. ‘Haha! Of course! We need some fresh blood here; would it be animal’s blood or human’s!’ by the looks he was definitely pleased with a joke that he made.
That morning Nimrod’s lecture started something like that,
‘First, we will need to find materials. There can’t be a hunter without a weapon, right? So, we start from something simple. Bow consists from two main pieces – wooden arc and a string. The only tree perfectly suitable for making bows in Wind Valley is yew, but you can also consider making hunting bows from willow or oak, but actually it doesn’t matter! Haha! As long as your branch is hard and somewhat flexible. Make sure that your piece of wood is not completely dry, because bow will snap instantly when you try to shoot. Then the length of the stick must be equal the distance from the top of your head to your tights. This way your weapon will be most effective. Then you will need to find a string for your hunting bow. This time we will be using rawhide, as we have plenty of it stored in our tents you don’t need to worry for this time. However, you won’t be always lucky. Next time in the wilderness if your string breaks, try to find something that is not too stretchy like strands of cotton, silk or even a fishing line. Remember that the power of the shot comes not from the string, but from wooden arc. That’s all for the hunting bow, now materials for the arrows…’ and so on and so on.
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In the end Nimrod turned out to be a respectable man. He did not tell our parents about our plans and taught us everything that he knew about hunting. We were coming to see him almost every morning after that day and he showed us something new each time. Then during the evening fathers would teach us how to take care of our cattle. After few months, we could make bows, rabbit traps, and pocket knives on our own, as well as, how to herd cows and make food for them. Nimrod thought us how to start a fire in the wild and how to prepare and cook meat and on the other hand our parents taught us how to milk cows and how to bargain with wandering merchants. In these months we rarely saw Hina, she wasn’t interested in our endeavors. Sometimes we saw her in the field, sometimes she came to ask how we are doing and how much have we learned.
At first it was difficult to get used to kill and flay our pray, especially for Senka. He is a peaceful creature and finds violence unappealing and would have refused killing animals at all, but he did not have a choice. Senka had to accept that people are animals too. If he wanted to survive in wilderness and have a long-lasting adventure, we had to be on top of the food chain.
Nimrod was proud of us, he genuinely thought that he is raising new hunters for this village. And we on the other hand, were hiding our hunting equipment beneath a huge rock on the edge of the forest, so that when we would need it we could easily get it and take off for our adventure. It was hard to decide when we were ready to break off. Senka was always full of doubts and I was afraid of leaving behind my family and the village where I grew up. If we won’t succeed and return right after we go missing, punishment will be unavoidable. It was early autumn when we started visiting Nimrod, so we decided that easiest time to start our adventure would be early summer. There would be no need for heavy clothes, and we could take more food with us.
Last time we saw Hina was in May. The closer we got to achieving our escape, the less she appeared to say Hi or ask how we were doing. It felt as if she was just a dream that me and Senka saw one day and then decided to prepare ourselves for the adventure.