Forest Girl

Chapter 19

Chapter 19 - The Hunt

Kiara had an arrow knocked in her mother's bow as she walked carefully through the forest, and looked ready to shoot anything that looked like prey. She felt alert and her ears seemed to feel hyper sensitive. A burst of wind blew past her ear.

"She will have the hunting skills of her clan guardian."

Kiara turned to Koda, "Koda, did you say something?" she whispered,

Koda shook his head "No," in response.

"She will know the forest as if it spoke to her." She heard another burst of wind say as it blew by her ear.

Kiara shook the thought out of her head. Suddenly she heard a snap, and looked in the direction it came from. A small movement caught her eye and she headed in that direction quietly as possible. Then she saw it, the big beautiful buck in the clearing about twenty paces away. Koda turned to see that Kiara was stalking a buck, it was too far for her to hit, and she couldn't get close enough.

Kiara knelt down on one knee and pulled back the string on her mother's bow. Kiara lifted her bow and took aim at the grazing buck. "May the guardian run with me." She breathed onto the arrow feathers as she let go of the string. The arrow flew and hit the deer directly in the heart. The deer hobbled around a bit before collapsing on the ground. Kiara turned around to see a shocked Koda, but she had to admit, she had shocked herself as well.

"H-how d-d-did you?" Koda stuttered,

"I don't know the wind and forest spoke to me, and I did what it said." She replied,

Koda walked over to the buck and pulled out the arrow. He handed the arrow to Kiara and hoisted the buck onto his shoulders. They walked back to the camp and Koda set the deer near the fire pit as Kiara woke a fire. Koda wrapped his arms around her and placed his Knife in her hands.

"You shot it you get to make the first cut." He whispered into her ear.

"Will you do it with me, I don't know where to cut it or how."

"Alright, we will do it together." He said as he placed his hands over Kiara's hands. He guided her hands as they cut the deer's bell together. They offered part of the liver to the clan guardian and cut the rest into strips, and set it aside to dry. Koda then skinned the deer and handed it to Kiara, who washed the hide in water mixed with crumbled oak bark to loosen the hairs. She then stretched it between two trees and scraped off the hairs. She then softened the hide by rubbing it with mashed deer brain. Then she soaked it again for the last time and hung it to dry.

Meanwhile Koda cut the deer meat into thin strips and hung them over a smoky Birchwood fire. When they were dry he pounded them between stones to make them thinner. After he finished rolling the meat into small, tight bundles, he washed the deer's organs and soaked them in oak-bark water, and draped them over a bush to dry. When they were dry he made the stomach into a waterskin, the bladder would make a tinder pouch, and the guts would store nuts. He would also use the lungs to make glue. When Koda finished that both he and Kiara worked on cleaning the bones so they could be carved into tools.