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– Chapter starts here –
“Wait… I seem to have not seen you with a dog yesterday?” Silver suddenly realized with a start.
“Yeah, that’s right. I really spent a night in the forest without a dog,” the hunter said with a nod as he sighed.
“It really was nerve-wracking. You can only sleep in the forest comfortably if you have a dog and a small closed base, as long as you do not sleep so deeply. The dog will be highly alert and warn you if there is anything. Thankfully, that roe deer should be enough for my family’s expenses for a long while to come. I really don’t want to go deep into the forest without a dog ever again. Even if it is in the parts where I am very familiar.”
“Well… That’s really something,” Silver responded with a thoughtful look.
“Arf!”
The puppy let out a cute milky bark.
“Oh, this little guy seems to have smelled something,” the hunter said quietly as he started looking around before pointing at a tree.
“Eh… It’s just a squirrel. Let’s not bother with it until before winter, when it would have hoarded a huge amount of nuts. I actually caught one of them before, but no merchant was interested in its fur even though my wife said that the fur was good. This little guy must have smelled that one fur in the house that my wife likes so it could recognize it.”
“Understood,” Silver responded affirmatively.
It took them a while, but the hunter finally found a pheasant.
The hunter was also explaining things to Silver as they moved, with more knowledge and detail than the old mathron.
“Now, you look at me, then you try,” the hunter said as he got into a standard shooting posture.
Then he gestured for Silver to try.
“I got it,” Silver responded with a nod as he tried to do as the hunter did, loading his bow with the wooden arrow he took from the quiver hanging at the back of his shoulder.
The hunter corrected him as he did so, slowly.
Telling Silver how to properly hold the arrow while pulling the bow.
How to steady the arm holding the bow and how to maintain balance when standing on uneven ground.
“Wait, I feel like the target is too far,” Silver suddenly said with wide eyes.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s just more than a dozen meters away. The bow you are using should be quite accurate and fast at this distance. So, you’re good; don’t worry, just aim and shoot,” the hunter said nonchalantly.
“Alright, I’ll just do it then,” Silver said as he breathed and concentrated.
He calmed down in a few breaths and then aimed at the body of the pheasant.
He does not think that his talent is that great to always hit the head, though he does think that he can definitely hit the prey, but it is better to be cautious.
Then he let go of the string and quickly took another arrow and loaded it onto the bow before pulling the string and quickly aiming.
Before he could aim properly, he was patted on the shoulder by the hunter.
“You hit it, kid.
Although Mother Mathron had already said it before, this time you convinced me for real!
Now I also think that you do have a talent for this.
You know, I specifically made you do things on the spot just to see if you really do have talent and how much of it you have.
Well, I am not some master archer, but I can at least see that you are definitely more talented than I am.
I was fourteen when I first started shooting with a bow; at that time, I already had a year of experience using a slingshot.
The most obvious one is the judgment of distance.
When I started practicing with the bow, I had to start with stationary wooden targets from a few meters.
It took me a month to go more than a dozen meters, and then I also had to spend time adapting to shooting on the uneven ground of the forest.
So, as I was saying, kid.
You are good!
You got this!
”
“Hmmm…” Silver just hummed in response as he savored that feeling of shooting.
It was not as good as the second time he shot before, but it was at least like the first time he did.
“Let’s go check it out!” The hunter excitedly ran to the prey and then held it high.
“Well, it’s good that you did not go for the head. Arrows are too big compared to the head of a chicken. Come, let me show you how to take out the arrow without breaking it. Most of the time, the arrows do not break often if you only hunt small- to medium-sized animals. Unless, of course, you miss! The arrow might break from hitting something hard like a stone. This is also one of the things you have to pay attention to, the arrows. They do not come from nothing; you have to make them. I will teach how to make a wooden arrow after we gut this thing.”
“Alright,” Silver responded in agreement as the hunter started explaining as he gutted the pheasant.
The entrails were left on the ground as they changed their location to avoid predators who might have smelled the blood.
“Here, you only need a knife, a few feathers, and some rope.” The hunter started teaching how to make arrows quickly as he took a long branch.
He then started explaining more details as he slashed the knife into the branch.
“Hmmm…” Silver just kept humming from time to time as a sign that he was listening and that he understood.
“As for this arrow head? Well… We can’t make it. This is metal. You will have to buy some at the smithy yourself. You can also not use an arrowhead, but the arrow is too flimsy and easy to deviate from the wind without one,” the hunter explained as he installed the metal arrowhead.
-Word count = 1052-