Chapter 2:
When I was about 14 months old the thing that I had been waiting on since my birth finally happened, I managed to grow my first tail. It was a stunning silver tail that reached up to the top of my head and I couldn’t help but to play with it and try to control it, which was surprisingly easy. I also noticed that my claws hardened and my fangs grew a little more. I was so excited I ran right passed Aisha went to my parent’s room and jumped onto their bed, waking the both of them. With my jumping skills opening doors and jumping on their bed is no trouble. Needless to say they were both surprised and a little annoyed that I woke them, that is until I brushed my tail against mums face, than they were shocked in a good way and forgot their annoyance.
After both of they started grabbing and playing with my tail for about 10 minutes they finally calmed down. They then went on to tell me that fox beastman like us don’t usually grow our first tail until we are about 5 or 6 and the first tail is a sign that we have the strength to hunt a basic animal, such as a rabbit, naturally I knew this as I had read a couple books about the different beastman races. After telling me that they were proud and such we went to breakfast and ate our fill then I returned to my routine while mum and dad went out for the day.
Mum and dad didn’t return until lunchtime the next day and when they came back they had cages full of rabbits which they dumped into a pen in the yard. Aisha informed me that the pen is a training field for when the young for grows their first tail. When mum and dad came inside they told me that the rabbits would have two months to adapt to their new habitat and then I would be able to enter the pen and hunt myself. It may sound easy but the pen is huge, and there is both forest and plains in it, not the mention the rabbit burrows.
The two months passed rather quickly, I was still reading in the morning but in the afternoon my parents were training me in the basic hunting tactics. The first time I entered the pen it was less than impressive, I spent 6 hours in the pen and I didn’t even graze a rabbit. The next day I did my reading, training with my parents and then entered the pet for another six hours. I had the same result as the previous day; however I stuck to it, because despite my failure it was still quite fun to chase the rabbits around.
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This training regime continued for three months without me catching a rabbit however every day I was getting faster and stronger and I was better applying the hunting techniques. Then it happened, while using the hunting techniques I managed to corner a rabbit, while I swiped it with my claws it jumped past me but I managed to get a deep hit on its back leg which made it unable to escape. It still tried to hop away but it didn’t get far, I pounced and snapped it neck in my jaw. Needless to say I enjoyed devouring that tasty rabbit.
As my training continued I slowly became more capable at rabbit hunting. The day after my first kill I failed to catch a rabbit, but the next two days I caught a rabbits by injuring their lags then going for the neck. After that I was able to go straight for the neck and kill the rabbits in one go. After I continuously killed rabbits in one attack for two straight weeks my next task started. Mum and dad told me to catch a rabbit alive without harming it so that they could teach me how to get all the useful parts from it.
I had no problem catching rabbit so that afternoon I took two captive rabbits to my parents. Dad took one and I had the other and he told me to follow what he does. First he cleanly snapped the rabbit’s neck, and then he used his claw to skin it and started to cut it up into the different useable parts. There was the skin, meat and bones that we could use from the rabbit, and so I copied his example and began on my rabbit; however mine was a little messier than his. After that I was taught how to prepare the skin for leatherworking purposes and how to cook the meat.
For the next couple of years I continued to catch rabbits and dissemble them, and then use the different parts until I could do it flawlessly. Between the physical exertions of hunting, the delicate control needed for dissembling and using the rabbit parts and the daily reading in the library I could feel myself growing in all areas. So the day after my fifth birthday when my parents told me that we would go out to the forest and hunt other animals so that I could get the experience of different opponents I felt that I was ready.