Chapter 15 - Tailoring requires hunting
Yue was woken up with her blankets being torn away and a large shout.
“YUE! Wake up. Its time to start crafting. I only have you for five years so we are going to use up every spare second. Meet me in the back yard.” Brian raced out the door excited that he could finally teach his techniques to one of his children. He had expected Kevin to become the heir and when he went off to be a mage Brian had been devastated. Luckily his daughter showed interest, but Brian had been afraid that once she had magic she would want to be a mage instead. Now that his worries were over Brian looked forward to teaching her.
Yue quickly got out of bed and dug though her dresser. Grabbing her training garments Yue rushed to put them on. She fell trying to put her pants on in a rush, but once on Yue ran though the door after her father.
Yue found her father in the backyard holding two bows and quivers. “Father, I thought we were going to craft?” Yue’s disappointment was obvious.
Brian gently whipped Yue’s head with a bow, “And how are you going to practice tailoring without animal hides? And although we have a garden of herbs you still should know where to find them normally if you want to do alchemy.”
Yue rubbed her head then nodded.
“Okay, from now on you will spend an hour on archery, two hours hunting and gathering, prepare your hides, then you have time to go to that friend’s house. After you come back we will work on tailoring for four hours, that’s it for today. We will switch crafts each day, tailoring, alchemy, blacksmithing, enchantment, and when you get to intermediate we will add blacksmithing enchantments.” Brain handed Yue the smaller bow and quiver.
Taking the bow and quiver Yue followed her father into the forest out of the village. After walking for a short while her father stopped and pointed. “ There on that tree I put up a target. Now I am going to put you in the correct stance and you are going to aim and shoot till you can do it. Practice makes perfect after all.”
Looking at the bow Yue thought of how much work she has put into the duel blades and asks, “I don’t think an hour a day is going to get me to mastery in archery?”
Brain nodded. “You are right but you don’t need to be a master you just need to be able to hunt with a bow for the small, quick animals that would run away. I know that you are practicing weapons with Sir Arthur and when you get to the point that animals chase you then you can use your swords, but when you chase hares you need a bow.”
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And so for an hour Yue aimed and shot the bow at the target but was only able to hit the target a once and far away from the bullseye.
Brian laughed, “It’s nice to see you fail at something for once, don’t worry till you can hunt on your own I will provide your hides to work on.”
Feeling slightly disappointed in herself Yue slung her bow over her head and shoulder to follow after her father. Normally it would be idiotic to put your weapon somewhere you can’t reach it fast but Yue figured that even if something attacked it was unlikely that she would be able to hit it with an arrow anyway.
Yue walked behind her father the fallen leaves crackling under her feet. Brain stopped suddenly causing Yue to hit his back and fall down. Brain turned and faced his daughter, “I almost forgot but your stumbling racket reminded me. If you intend to hunt something you have to make as little noise as possible. I know you won’t be able to do it right away but even a little bit helps. Watch where you step and try to touch your toes to the ground first and then step down with a roll of your outer area of your foot to the heel.”
Following her father’s directions Yue found that she did make less noise but compared to Brain it was still like night and day. Since walking the new way was hard Yue slowed down considerably, but this prevented her from knocking into her father again when he stopped.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Brian slowly lifted an arrow from his quiver and rested it on his bow which was lowered near his thighs. Yue watched as he raised the bow and arrow then pulled it back, his fingers level with his eyes. Yue followed where he was looking and saw a gray hare eating some grass. A tang resounded and then in the next moment the hare was dead an arrow piercing its body. Yue couldn’t help stop a tear falling before she quickly wiped it away. She didn’t have a problem seeing the poachers die but the hare was innocent. Yue knew that if she ever wanted to tailor or adventure then something like this will be common. Yue kept repeating to herself, ‘this is part of the circle of life nothing is wrong with this’, as she followed her father to the hare’s corpse.
Yue watched, fists clenched, as Brian cut open the hare allowing its blood to drain into a hole he had dug. When it was done draining Brain placed it into a pack they had brought and filled the blood filled hole over with dirt.
Brain and Yue continued though the forest, every so often Brain would point out herbs and explain what it was, did, and what the characteristics of where you find them. He also found and shot another hare before the two hours were up and they headed back home.
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Brain laid out the two hares on the work bench in the back yard. “All right, I am going to go step by step on skinning the hare. Yue you copy me with the extra hare, ask if you need help.”
After that said Yue started skinning the hare with slightly shaking hands. They started with cutting straight down the belly and outwards from that slit to each arm and legs. Then Yue followed as her father cut the hide around the wrists and ankles. From there they slid a thin knife under the hide and cut the muscles connecting it to the body. It seemed to take forever before the hide was finally off.
After the hide was off Yue had to scrape off all the extra fat and flesh sticking to the hide. They then went to a large water barrel that was out and washed the hides. Finally Yue was given her brake once they placed the hides up to dry.
Yue didn’t ask her father what he was going to do with the bodies since she didn’t really want to think about it. Sure knowing how to cook them might be great knowledge but Yue had enough mental pressure from cutting the hide off. Maybe later after she got used to the killing and tanning process.
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Training was the same as usual except that Yue had to spar with Sir Arthur since Nik had extra tutor classes today. Once home Yue found her father once more in the back yard.
Spotting Yue, Brain nodded to the hides and a bucket filled with some weird goo. “The next step is to rub this boiled brain water onto the hides. After that we will put them into a cold spelled container till tomorrow.”
Yue grimaced at the goo but held firm as she dipped her hands in it and rubbed the hide. She had seen her father do this before but never knew it was brain, it is sometimes better to be ignorant.
Once they placed the hides in the cold box Brain led Yue inside and into his tailoring workroom. There Yue thanked god that her father moved on to sowing and outfit making using pre made cloths.
Four hours past from the time Yue had come home from Nik’s house and she now had free time. Looking at the sun Yue determined that she had about an hour to two hours till dinner so she headed back into the forest to find Ink. Using her searching magic Yue found Ink napping in a clearing. Sitting next to Ink, Yue meditated for an hour then practiced magic until she noticed the sun showing that it was about dinner time. After dinner Yue read in bed about the adventures of Theo until falling asleep.