Kael and his father steadily walked deeper into the woods as Iradin lectured his son about tracking. “Animals all tend to gather into the same areas creating habitats, you can think of these areas as islands to get an idea in your head. With the sea being the area between the islands where animals do not live. Right now we are too close to the village to run into anything larger than rodents, rabbits, and a few birds. So we need to to find the habitat, or island if you will, that the animals are living in.
Mainly you will find them in two places, the first being a place there is a lot of foliage for herbivores to eat and hide in, and the second being a transition area between the forest and the plains or mountains, etc. Water sources are actually not important for herbivores as they get most of their water from the plants they eat. You only want to hunt around a water source if you are looking for a predatory or large animals.”
Seeing Kael’s bored appearance Iradin slapped the back of his head. “Pay attention! At the rate we are moving we have a good 2 hours or more until we get to a hunting area, plenty of time to teach you while walking.” Hiking deeper into the forest after his father, Iradin continued his lecture.
“Now if you look at the way these twigs are broken you can see which direction a creature was moving and ….”
“See how the grass and dirt are depressed, you can see the weight by the depth compared to your step, also….”
“See how the bark is rubbed off here, as well as the chewed on leaves and shorter branches, that means...”
“See all the rodent dropping here, that means we will see wolves and other small predators as they mainly eat mice and...”
“Good, we are deep enough to find something to hunt and we got lucky. See the brush there, it has been pushed down. If you look closely you can tell it has been pushed down many times. This means it is a trail, usually to the den of the animal. Lets quietly follow and see what we get.”
Carefully stepping into the brush, the father and son followed the tail for a short while before sliding up to a few trees rimming the edge of a small opening in the forest. Looking into the opening, Kael could see a 500-foot meadow of soft grass with hundreds of fuzzy ball like dandelions spread throughout the area.
On the far side of the meadow, there was a small herd of deer. The herd consisted of one buck, two doe, and 5 fawns. Two of the fawns were obviously just birthed, while the other three appeared to be more lively, bouncing around, nipping the dandelions, then frockling after the puff of white seeds that would be blown into the air.
Iradin took out a javelin from the quiver on his hip and prepared to grab himself some dinner. Seeing his father actions Kael reached out and softly placed his hand on his father's throwing arm. Whispering to him he said, “Dad, let's not hunt them, we should go find something else.”
Hearing his son's words Iradin quietly scolded him, “Keal, this is the way of the world, it is eat or be eaten, just because they are cute does not mean they will get a free pass in life.”
Knowing that his father was right, but still finding it impossible to murder the cute family, Kael changed the track of his discussion. “I understand that father. I wanted to find something else because that doe just gave birth, without the buck they will have no protection. I feel that sometimes not wasting heavens gifts does not just mean being wasteful with what you have, but also letting new lives grow and spread. If we kill the buck now, the herd will die out, but if we let them live next year there will be 2 or 3 bucks and 4 or 5 does.”
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Iradin gave his son a long look of contemplation before accepting his proposal. “Ok, son we will give them a chance. What do you want to hunt?”
Happy that he was able to convince his father he whispered, “Dad, the village always hunts herbivores. This is why the village has magic beasts that intrude. The people eat all the big game, the predators leave or eat each other, then the weak beasts from the deep forest have to eat people, as rabbits are too small for them. So we should go find a large snake or small cat.”
“Son, let me think about it while we leave this area. Quietly now so as not to disturb them.” The duo began to gingerly creep back the way they came. During the walk, Iradin seemed to have lost himself in contemplation.
When they finally reached the starting point of the hidden deer trail Iradin gave his child a shock. “Kael, everything you see today is to be kept a secret. Birds die in pursuit of food while people die in pursuit of wealth. This is a very important lesson of life for you, you must keep your belongings hidden or they will cause the greed of others.”
After saying that, Iradin reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a folded grey cloth. The cloth was made of the finest materials Kael had seen in either of his lives.
Iradin unfolded the cloth, which turned out to be a pouch and said, “Son, this is an interspatial bag and a high-quality one at that. The internal space is 10 cubes high and 5 cubes wide. That is about 30 feet in height and about 15 feet in width.” Reaching into the pouch Iradin pulled out a small sheet of paper.
The paper was square, made of fine paper, and about the length of a finger. The surface was covered in strange symbols written with some kind of thick brown ink. Iradin folded the paper into a tiny origami crane and placed it on his upturned palm. Bringing it near his mouth he said, “Varah, we are spending the night in the forest, we will be home tomorrow, all is well.” before blowing on it which sent it into the air.
As the crane took flight it flapped it’s little wings while flying in circles above the duo’s heads. Seeming to get it’s bearing it took off at a quick pace back towards their village.
Excited, Kael shouted, “Father, what was that!” Chuckling, Iradin replied, “That was the lowest level talisman, a messenger crane. You should ask your mom to teach you. The papers I have are keyed to your mother, while the ones she has are keyed to me. This way we can send emergency messages to each other as the crane will home in on the person it is keyed to.
“Awesome, I’m finally going to learn magic!” could be heard ringing through the forest as Kael lost all of his decorum with the thoughts of butterbeer and magic goblets floating through his head.
Unfortunately, he was immediately scolded for his outburst. “Kael, quiet down, this is not the place to shout! Also, that is not magic, it is not even a technique, it is just the most basic artisan skill of the lowest level of talismans”
Wait, artisans can make magic, that is even better Kael thought. Iradin's look of annoyance at his son's outburst soon turned to confusion as he could swear he momentarily saw the image of piles of golden coins in his son's eyes.
Breaking his son from his immersion in whatever happy dream he was having, Iradin said, “Kael, we are going to do something dangerous, so it is best not to tell your mother.”
Hearing this was like a bucket of cold water being poured on him, snapping him out of his fantasy of opening a magical convenience shop. “Uhh, what would be so dangerous you would hide it from mom, dad?”
“It’s simple, the technique your mom wanted me to pass onto you is called The Internal Furnace. Your stomach acts as a furnace, burning off the impurities of your food, leaving only the energy, nutrition, and blood essence behind for your body to absorb. The first time you use it, the stronger the creature the better the effect is. Instead of hunting for a small cat, we will go find a rank 3 or 4 magic beast. As long as you stay back, I’ll be able to kill it.”
“Uhm, ok, but let's head back towards the village outskirts first, I have something that might help.” Without waiting for his father's reply, which he knew would be a no, Kael began to jog back towards the village. He could hear his father's sigh behind him as the sounds of his light footstep quickly caught up and remained in pace.