[IC] In the starving time

Talayan silences her mind while she eats and concentrates on the flavours and the texture and the sensation of something warm in her belly. It was never something she paid much attention to before, she would always just swallow her food and run off to the smithy or the fighting pits as soon as the last morsel was sunk. Now eating was almost meditative.

Once she's finished the last stew she turns to Gisela og thank her for the meal. As I said. As good as me mam's. I will go help you forage. Are Bitter Weeds edible, you know?

Talayan wanders the area around the camp, careful not to set off Alfred's traps and forages for edible tubbers. But nothing catches her eyes and she returns to camp downtrodden and upset.

I'm sorry. I was sure I would find something, but I didn't.

At the edge of camp she starts working out her frustrations and feelings of guilt by making a little cairn out of large rocks, carefully weighing and stacking and fitting the rocks until they form a cone. Then she topples it at rebuilds it, repeating it until her arms are sore and sweat runs down her face in streams.

Seeing everyone agreed with the plan he drafted, and went their ways to the tasks at hand, Eldar finished his meal.
"Thanks Gisela for the breakfast, we wouldn't be able to start the day without you!"
Then he turn to Ulf
"Thanks Ulf for keeping the camp together, we all trust it in your hand. And good luck Alfred and Talayan, see you all later."
Walking past the camp, he remembered the bitter and brown drink he used to have at the temple, so long ago... he missed this drink, but never learned where could he find those seed.
He checked his bow, grabbed his quiver full with arrows, and set a swift and silent walk into the 'hills', his mind already focus on hunting.

Eldar doesn't wait a single moment to aim the ram to the right.

He remembers well his shooting training. But specially, he remembers fondly the last shooting contest he took part in his old monastery, in the last round he needed to shoot a 10cm target 400m away, only 3 participants were left. An instant before he would shoot, a giant eagle with red eyes approached at full speed aiming at his master. It was very strange for giant eagles to attack this way! Eldar felt some evil magic involved and, instead of using his last arrow to try to win the contest, he shot it to the giant animal... the arrow pierced through one of the eagles eyes into its skull, and the flying animal crashed-landed in the ground a couple of meter away from his master.

With no more arrows to shoot, he was disqualified from the competition. But his brother and sisters celebrated how he had saved the Master from a very dangerous, potentially fatal, battle.Then he focus again on the target, and fires.
If the first shot is a kill (or at least incapacitaes the first ram), and time allows, he will try to shoot the second too.

Eldar is happy he now can provide good food (and lots of it) for every body. Even some could be dried, in order to pack to eat in the next few days.

With one issue solved, he now faced a different one, how to bring them both to the camp... He remembered a short travel he once did with some of his brothers, one of then got hurt in the ankle and couldn't walk. Eventually they created a sort of sledge, to pull him around, by tying a rope around two long branches.

Using his knife and his own weight he cut a couple of 'straight' branches from trees, and with his rope he tied them to makeshift a sledge. He rolled both rams on the rope zigzag between the branches, lifted the two handles (the branches' endings opposite to the rams) and started to walk to the camp.He reckons he would need to walk back to cover the tracks once he arrives to the camp. But that would be easy to do, with his friends help, while Gisela dries the meat.

It seems that two rams are more he can carry, but timing is of essence...Eldar doesn't wait longer, he jogs for help to the camp.

Alfred get back to the camp after long, long day... and many, many rabbit traps...

The last one was the most promising. When he went to check if there is any rabbit is in it... there WAS some movement in it... but when he got closer, he saw a rabbit OUTSIDE the trap... happy, carefree, eating some vegetable that he used as bait as there wasn't any trap... like ever. He could swear that the rabbit smiled maliciously at him! And in an instant - he was gone in the nearby bushes. But rabbits do not smile, do they?
"DAMN YOU! You little, furry bastard!" - angry to the bone, he shouted with the whole strength of his lungs... hoping that no-one could hear him. He was even more concerned being heard by someone from his camp, then any by-standers. He felt so angry, that he could take on a whole unit of enemies - at least that was what he was thinking right now.

"I will go to the camp right now, maybe others had better luck... so I could help them, and be of any use..." - he said dissatisfied to himself.

Eldar is quite tired for the day..
"Thanks a lot Talayan and Ulf for the help, I wouldn't make it without you. I'd say that, given the size of this ram, we should be able to get between 40 to 50 kg of meat. It would mean rations for all of us for 3 weeks. Gisela, do you think you could either dry it or smoke it? I mean, I'm sure you know better than me how to preserve it for longer times."

Looking at the hanged animal, he adds " And the hide could be used as a gift to the current temple's abbott, if a present is required to get an audience, or to secure the help of new allies if we meet some. Otherwise, we could turn it into something we could use."

"How was your day?" He asks the rest of the team.

"Not as good as yours... as I can see. Really good work Eldarenth!" - Alfred said with a smile.
I hope that I will be more useful for this group in other fields of expertise. - he thinks while tapping on his two swords. Or maybe it was just bad day for me.

Ulfheddin cut both ram's throats, ear to ear. Lividity hadn't onset which mean the blood still flowed, this was a good thing. He examined the ram for scent glands at the joints in its legs, finding none he cut a circle around each elbow joint. Working quickly and expertly. The blood didn't bother him, he wasn't going to cook it but dressing and butchering was something he had grown intimately familiar with.

The strong gamey scent of the meat made his stomach growl loudly. This was a quality meat. He was quite certain that it could be eaten raw, except for the blood shot meat where the arrow had struck.

Then Ulfheddin gut it, cutting it from its posterior to the throat, pulling the intestines out and cutting them free in the same motion, without water to clean them they would go to waste, so he threw them in the fire regretting the loss of high quality tripe. Taking a break he took several pieces of hardwood adding them to the fire then returned to his work. From the circle cuts on the elbow joints he cut up the limb to the tendons holding the legs in place. A cut through the tendon and to the same hole he had gutted the ram finished that part. Next he pulled the kidneys, liver, stomach, gall bladder, cutting away excess fat and stringy connective tissues. The stomach was edible, but with no way to clean it, would go to waste as well. But Ulfheddin had a different plan for it.

Tying it off on one end with its tendons he drained the kidneys and gallbladder into the other, then tied this off and hung it over the fire. It looked like a crude waterskin. Ulfheddin retrieved a pan, finely chopping the kidneys and stripping out the lobes of the liver. These he piled into the pan which he had placed ample amounts of the body fat and covered, sticking it in the coals of the fire.

He went back to the carcass harvesting the bladder which he tied off similar to the stomach and hung over the fire. Then retrieving his axe he split the breastbone using the razor sharp blade like a cleaver. He also decapitated the ram, and harvested the Horns. The head he set into the pot he had been collecting the blood in. Cutting the fur away from its face leaving it mostly intact. When he gave his first direction. "Water. Same as blood, boil into cheese."

He went back to the carcass and began pulling from the back legs up, lifting the skin, cutting through the connective tissues that stopped him and making sure not to tear it apart. It was hard work skinning a ram, and even as strong as he was without a hook to hold it firmly was slow going. But the skin came free after several pulls and cuts. Collecting the fat from under the skin in a pile he prepared the heart, cutting away the excess fat and stringy tissues. Retrieving the pan he had cooked the liver and kidneys in he plated it and then piled the body fat high in the pan. Taking a break he collected several handfuls of pine needles and placed them in the pan of bodyfat, which he had placed next to the fire to melt. Retrieving smoked garlic and olives from his own trail rations he seasoned the liver and kidneys with both, and the pan of body fat. Running out of both in the process.

The third rib down from the shoulder was where the choice cut was located on this beast. A very active ram. Ulfheddin sliced through the spinal cord at the vertebrae beneath this rib then cleaved the entire torso from the carcass in a single cut with his axe. First vertebrae up from the base of its spine a similar cut was made and then cloven from the spine for the hind legs. He bifurcated the hip bones leaving two haunches.

He didn't know what cuts or how to store them long term. This he left for someone else to decide. Instead he served himself some of the liver and kidneys and ate them. They could have been eaten raw but he didn't want to disgust the southern pallates and had learned long ago their sensibilities could get him killed if offended.

He didn't at all mind being covered in blood. It was a bit sticky at first but even his starving skin ate the blood up, cleaning itself in the process. After finishing his share of liver and kidney he rubbed his hands in the soot then washed them clean. Then cutting the heart against the grain cooked it in the oily fat setting it aside. He ate a few strips of the choice meat but it wasn't his kill so he didn't take more than his work was worth.

He worked the other ram in much the same way, though he didn't cook the kidneys, liver and heart on this one lacking the spices to do so. Instead he went to the nearest stream they had found and washed himself and his equipment thoroughly. Checking the bladders and stomachs he had hung over the fire to see the progress they had made in curing.

Eldar wakes up eager to see how the meat cooked, only to find disappointment. The weather was unforgiving despite great effort from the team, but he thought that taking about bad weather is a waste of time, thus he moves on.

He washes his face and hands with some water from the small stream close by, and did a small walk, in the area surrounding the camp like the day before.
He would hate for the camp to be attacked by surprise, so he always do a surveillance round, as silent as every good elven hunter does, very early at dawn. If he finds someone suspicious, he would run to the camp to tell the rest, he will not engage in battle alone (unless under very special conditions like endangering his friends by risking to bring strong enemies to the camp).

When he sees everyone awake, he would go back to planning.

"I still think our original plan is good. Travelling NE through that mountain, then walk that Northern Pass, and the South to the temple. But we still need provisions. I say we try again our luck at foraging here."

Last night everybody had good dinner from the freshed cooked meat, but now it is morning and Eldar is already thinking about breakfast.

Ulfheddin spends his morning licking rocks to find the salty ones. Seeing the lack of salt as a bad thing and wanting to make sure everyone gets some to keep their bodies running.

It wasn't a total loss, two rawhides would make for a good box to smoke future meats. That thought kept him going as he licked yet another salt less smooth stone and dropped it into a bag looking for another rock in the stream bed that could be used in a sling or boiled for salt.

Talayan wakes slowly, bogged down by lingering heavy, guilt-ladden dreams. The cold is nipping at her when she rolls out of her bed and she sighs, then groans as she gets up. The muscles in her back and thighs hurting in a familiar almost pleasant way.

Once up and fully awake she sniffs the air and walks outside hoping to find the large pile of meat well cured, but to her disappointment she instead sees the low embers and the sooty meat. "Shit" she grumbles and follow Ulf down to the stream where she sees the retreating back of Eldar. She fills her waterskin, splashes water in her face and give thought to washing more thoroughly, but make do with checking if she should redo the beard braids. For a while she stays to observe Ulf performing some weird ritual of licking rocks but then walk back to camp.

When everyone is up and they are once again gathered over the map, she nods in agreement to Eldar's suggestion. "We're out of firewood. Staying here would only serve to dig us in a bigger hole than we are in right now."

Alfred had a really bad and tiring night, full of nightmares starring gigantic rabbits with evil faces trying to catch him and making him their toy. He had only few hours of peaceful sleep before the dawn, what is not enough in his opinion but... will have to do for the day. Getting early before most of others, he begin the day with some basic exercises to rise his energy(that he called "rituals") followed by his usual sword training routine. This time he only do the absolute minimum - only set of drills that was necessary to even call it a proper sword training. Luckily even the bare minimum makes him a little more happy and enthusiastic. He goes to the stream, greeting Talayan and Ulf in order to do some "morning hygiene" that is proper for every "noble man"... noble man that he is not sure if he still was.

A the gathering at the map which Eldar has brought, he was sure that they have to move from their current position and look for better place to prepare for the whole journey to the temple.
"I know that it may seem reasonable to stay here and try to collect some more provisions... but I say: we are already too long in this area. It is time to move on. Let's go for the temple, through those mountains at NE. They seem a bit smaller. I think we can make it through. Maybe we will even find some mountain chamois to hunt there. And when we will be at the top, that will be much better position than we are in now - strategically.""I really feel we should go. Now."

Eldar listened to his friends and found reason in moving on.
"You know, now that I hear you, and I think better our situation, I agree we should move on to the mountains at NE. More time here is a waste of time."

Since everyone that spoke is of the same mind, he folded his map and put it in his backpack. Then secure his bow, and got ready to walk.
"Everybody ready to walk? It may take us two days to cross them all. Won't be easy, but probably not that hard either "