I waited patiently for the trap to finally work. After my encounter with Terror I knew that continuing eating what I had been eating was impossible... the only problem, the only things that I could feasibly catch were birds, since Terror was hunting on the ground. Due to that I now lived in the trees instead, it wasn't easy maintaining the wood elven magic with the weakened state my body was in but it worked nonetheless.

There was one problem up here... my reactions to sounds no matter how familiar I had grown to them. I still mostly sat there on branches, cowering, trying to ignore everything around me. But that didn't work. I had to eat, and to eat I need to listen to my surroundings, no matter how many times the wind laughed at me or no matter how many times a bush rustling in the wind was pointing a gun at me. I was waiting, listening to any sound, drowning out the mocking voices and instead focusing on the singing of birds, or maybe a squirrel that climbed at the wrong spot, hoping that at least something would get caught. I had also bound a make-shift rope to my wrist that would pull on it when something was caught. There was no way nothing would fall for the trap, right?

I waited for hours before I finally felt something pulling on my wrist. A sigh of relief escaped my lips when I noticed that it wasn't some beast trying to wake me before killing me but the make-shift rope I had managed to craft with various plants I had found around the area. Filled with excitement I looked up to the rudimentary trap, through the side made up out of bars made with sticks I could see a large, fat squirrel sitting inside, peacefully, with a nut in its little paws.

Finally...

I ignored the growling of my stomach as I took out one of my two daggers, and climbed up to the trap. With one dagger at the ready, I opened up the trap and grabbed the squirrel with my free hand, hanging onto the tree by having my legs wrapped around the tunk as best I could. With a quick motion, I slit the throat of the squirrel, a smile creeping across my face as the warm blood spread across my skin.

I climbed back down to the branch I had been waiting on and began skinning the animal, remembering what my father had taught me back when I was beginning to get into hunting.

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"So, you want to lie down the animal on a flat surface if possible, on its back of course. Now the next step-" my father took out a sharp-looking knife that hung from his belt "-take a sharp object, preferably a knife or a dagger and remove the genitalia if necessary."

Ilmar let out a chuckle, my father, I and Alyra looked at him with deadpan expressions.

"S-Sorry," he said, looking at the ground as my father continued his explanation.

"Then you cut open the belly, from tail up to the throat-" my father took the knife and cut along the middle of the belly, nearly perfectly, indicating he had done this countless times before. "-make sure not to cut too deep so you don't cut away any of the precious meat."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

My father then put down the knife and pressed down on the animal's sternum with his hands.

"You the open up the rib cage and start removing organs and all that."

The smell was disgusting, nearly making me puke.

"Ah, you'll get used to it," my father said as he watched us holding back our breakfast that was trying to escape our stomachs.

Once my father was done removing the organs and putting them down on a large piece of cloth he walked over to a low hanging branch of a tree, took a rope and bound it to the hind legs of the animal carcass, then he bound it to the branch and let it hang there.

"Now you have to drain the blood," he explained.

We didn't have to wait long, talking about things in the meantime, like how to best repair a broken bow, things like that.

"Now that the blood is drained you'll want to remove the hide."

My father made cuts along the inside of the legs to just above the hooves of the animal, then took his knife and carefully cut the hide off of the animal.

"And that's how you skin an animal," he said proudly, wiping a bit of sweat from his forehead. "Never forget, you can use most parts of the animal for at least something."

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Remembering what my father had taught me made me sad and feel empty inside, for a few seconds I just stared of into the distance, my eyes widened and twitching a little as I still heard a few voices in the wind and the rustling leaves, they were too weak for me to make out what they were saying... but their tone... their tone sounded like they were still mocking me. I made a grimace as I ignored them, focusing my attention on skinning the animal in front of me. It took longer than I remembered it taken with a much larger animal. But eventually, I had a skinned animal and was looking around for a safe spot to cook it...

I can't make a flame here... maybe I can put the organs somewhere to keep Terror occupied...

I wrapped up the organs in large leaves I had picked from a plant and jumped from branch to branch until I reached an open spot that was sunken in, about four metres lower than the rest of the ground around it. I threw the organs there and then jumped back to where I had been before and further, looking for a spot I could use to cook the meat.

After a while, I found a spot completely surrounded by trees, with just a little space in between, enough for me to build a campfire without setting the forest ablaze and cook the meat. I settled down and built a campfire as quickly as I could. When it was lit I was immediately overcome by a feeling of comfort from the warmth, a feeling that I could not enjoy for long as I began hearing rustling in the bushes and leaves above me, making it hard for me to calm down and enjoy the warmth at all. Every moment I was expecting something or... someone... to jump out of the bushes, or fall down from the trees or something like that.

I watched as the meat slowly cooked, my knees on my chest, waiting patiently as I looked around hectically. And there it was, a loud roar. A roar I recognized. The roar of Terror. It came from the direction where I had planted the organs.

Should buy me at least enough time to cook it.

Once the meat was cooked I grabbed it and put out the fire before I jumped up to the branches hanging above me. There I ate the meat. It was gone far too fast and left me hungry, but it was better than having nothing at all. I felt stronger than before.

The biggest problem now was that Terror was in the area, luckily for me he smelt the organs before the meat I was cooking but he was still too close to me so I decided to move in a random direction.