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Tírdinen Duinion Raedor |
Recruit Trastion Leithor
Forested Area within the Training Grounds
Survival Training - Food
Urimë 15
“You said something about wildlife earlier,” Duinion remarked. “How are you at hunting?”
Trastion hesitated. “Good enough to keep myself alive, if needed.” He answered, a little uncertain. “My archery is.. a work in progress.” He added sheepishly.
Duinion smiled. “Well, luckily, you needn’t always rely on your archery to get yourself some food.” He assured the recruit.
Trastion tilted his head, looking a bit curious at this. “How else can one hunt for food?” He wondered, vaguely thinking of how their downstream neighbor, Lady Azrubel, liked to use hawks for hunting, but that was more of a leisure sport. He couldn’t imagine being stuck out in the woods, and capturing a wild hawk, then training it to hunt for you…
“Traps are usually fairly reliable,” Duinion replied, curious that the recruit had not thought of this. “But wildlife isn’t the only source of food. There’s also foraging for plants. Meat is useful for protein, but it isn’t the only food the forest can offer you.”
“Oh… right.” Trastion blinked a little tiredly. “But we didn’t bring any traps.” He frowned, thinking of those metal traps that the foresters found sometimes left by poachers.
Duinion laughed lightly. “Have you got any string?” he asked with a glint of amusement in his eyes. “That’s all that you need, usually. And a knife, to cut sticks if needed.”
“String? Yeah, I think I have string,” Trastion, intrigued by this thought. He went to his pack and dug around for a moment before finding a length of coiled string. “I do have string!” He declared, pleased that he hadn’t used it all for other things.
“Good!” Duinion grinned and stood carefully, making sure not to put much weight on the one foot. “Let’s go over to the stream. I want to see if you can find any sign of wildlife on your own.” He said with a small grin.
Trastion grinned, excited at the thought of learning something new. “Ohh, tracks! Yeah, I saw some on the opposite bank earlier!” He announced eagerly, and took off for the stream.
“Hold up,” Duinion called, frustrated he couldn’t move as fast. He had to be more careful with the crutch here in the woods, too. Trastion was obviously eager to get to the stream, but Duinion insisted that he stick close. “If we were actually going to set traps, then you don’t want to go rushing through and frightening away any prey in the area. You want to be slow and steady, calm, and patient.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Trastion sighed, looking around at the forest as he was forced to maintain a slower pace. He watched the leaves flutter in the breeze and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself. Passing under a low-hanging branch, he reached up and grabbed it, using it to swing forward, leaping through the air to land on the ground, as if he'd jumped over an imaginary chasm or something.
Still rather amused, Duinion shook his head slightly and continued along toward the stream.
At last they reached the streambank. “There, see?” He said in a loud whisper, pointing across at the opposite bank. It was lower than the one they stood on, and looked like an easy access point for small creatures to drink from the stream.
“Good,” Duinion nodded, coming up behind. He could see the tracks well from here, and wondered how the recruit was at identifying. “What animal is it, do you know?”
“Um,” Trastion studied the tracks from where he stood. “Might be a rabbit?” He frowned, a bit less familiar with those sort of things.
“Indeed, you guess right.” Duinion smiled. “So if we were going to actually set a trap, we’d need to go over there and get a closer look at the tracks, and-”
“Alright!” Trastion saw no trouble in this, and eagerly leaped across the stream before Duinion could stop him, or even finish his statement. What he didn’t realize was that the stream bed consisted of slippery stones and mud, so the moment he landed on the lower, far bank, his feet went flying out from under him, and he lost his balance and went sprawling backward. With a startled yelp, he fell splashing into the water. Though a bit embarrassed, he quickly tried to scramble back to his feet, trying to grab onto a moss-covered log nearby for aid, but fell back in clumsily and ended up laughing. “I’m alright!” He called out to assure the older ranger.
(
about like this)
The whole incident took only a few seconds to play out. Too fast for Duinion to do anything but watch in shock as the recruit fell into the stream in the most comical way possible. Hearing that he was alright, Duinion couldn’t help it. He started laughing. Leaning on the crutch, he laughed hard for a long moment before wiping away the tears of mirth. “Well, luckily, we weren’t trying to actually catch anything today. Otherwise you’d have just run off any chance of supper.” He informed Trastion, still grinning despite his mild scolding.
“Sorry,” Trastion managed to climb out of the water at last, and stood dripping with mud and water. “But hey, at least I tested the stream and found out it’s slippery.” He grinned as if this should make up for the whole matter. “It’d be much worse if you ended up slipping or something, right?”
“Right, I apprecitate that.” Duinion laughed. “I suppose you’ll claim you were only thinking of my safety, then?”
“Uh, sure.” Trastion grinned. “Need help getting across?”
Duinion’s pride instinctively flared up with a desire to say no. But he fought that, thinking of how much it might hurt if he did slip, and how much longer his recovery time would be if something like that happened. But it wasn’t even necessary, he remembered. “Actually I thought you might come back over here with me,” He laughed lightly. “I was about to say that we didn’t have to go over there since we’re not actually going to trap anything today. We'll just practice making traps.”
“Oh.” Trastion blinked and looked down at his drenched clothes, and laughed. “Well. Alright then.” He took a bit more care now as he crossed the stream again, and scrambled back up the bank to rejoin Duinion. “Alright. So what do we do?” He wondered.
Duinion paused then. This might be difficult with his injury, but he’d make it work somehow. “One of the first things you want to take into account is making sure you don’t leave any more of your scent around the area than you must. We don’t want the prey to smell us, and decide to avoid this area, after all.”
Trastion nodded. “Yeah, I know a bit about that. Despite.. you know." He motioned down at himself with a little amusement. He did remember hearing about standing upwind rather than downwind when attempting to hunt, for example. And now, he listened as intently as he could as the ranger explained about how to make a snare, and tried to see it in his mind. Once he began to actually tie the knots and arrange the sticks, under the guidance from the Tirdinen, it began to make more sense however. He carefully made a mental note of the man’s warning not to get his fingers caught in the trap… it was easy to imagine how bad that could be. Soon, he stepped back from the trap he had made, and smiled.
“Looks good,” Duinion remarked, having observed him setting it. “Let’s see if it really is,” He grinned and handed him a stick. “Use this to test it.”
Getting the trap to spring took a little more effort than Duinion liked, but Trastion was impressed. “I wish I’d known how to do that sort of thing before,” He mentioned, thinking about the years he had spent surviving on his own. But at least it could be useful for the future.
“Yes, well, I think this one needs a little work.” Duinion decided. “I’m only going to show you a couple of simple trap types, today. And I want you practice them a few times. By the time we leave today, I want to be sure you can do them on your own without me having to give you any guidance. That way you can practice them on your own over the next two weeks. Alright?”
“Sure, sounds good.” Trastion smiled, though with less energetic enthusiasm than he would have shown an hour ago.
“Alright, let’s find a different spot, so you get more variety in where you put your snare.” Duinion suggested, waving a hand to indicate Trastion should pick out the spot this time. “I think we need to pick a stronger sapling this time, and you need to work on making your notches a little smoother, I think.”
Trastion nodded and chose a sapling little closer to their campsite, and they went through the process again. And again. And again. By the fifth time, Trastion needed no assistance from the ranger, though he was finding it a little harder to pay proper attention to what he was doing.
“Good, you’re doing well.” Duinion glanced at him. “A small snare like that can work for small animals like rabbits and such. A bigger one will work for bigger game, and so forth. I used a snare similar to it to trap a man, once.” He added. “But today we’re focusing about catching food. And another easy food option is to catch fish. And I don’t mean sitting on the bank for hours with a pole and line,” He added with a smile. “There’s an easier way, which enables you to be more efficient with your time. Let’s go back to our ‘camp’ and we’ll reuse some of those sticks you used for the shelter.”
And so they sat down comfortably on the ground and Duinion showed him how to make a trap out of sticks, although there didn’t seem to be any fish in this part of the stream. They weren’t going to try catching anything, since there was no need.
After he’d made finished making it, Trastion handed it over to Duinion to inspect. “So how does it work exactly?”
“You find a spot in the stream where you either know there’s fish or hope there’s fish, tie a string to the trap, and then drop it onto the water. If it needs to be weighted, you can put a stone in it. And then you wait. When you want to check if there’s any fish, you pull on your string and haul it out.” He explained, handing the trap back to Trastion.
Trastion found it intriguing to hear how it worked, and nodded as he listened to Duinion talk about he could make this trap bigger or smaller as needed, or make the gaps closer or wider apart depending on the trapper’s needs, and so forth. Still, he was feeling the weariness creeping in and found himself struggling to stay focused on what Duinion was saying.
“So, now, take it apart and make it again, taking more care.” Duinion suggested, although he thought it seemed like he was having a little more trouble focusing.
Trastion did as Duinion said, trying to make the trap neater this time. Then he took it apart and remade it a third time at Duinion's suggestion. Trastion continued to feel his focus drifting, but made an effort to pay attention to what he was doing. By the fourth time, he decided it looked best, and he felt pretty confident in making this sort of trap in the future. “Can I bring it back to the dorm, and practice making it later?” He asked, thinking it might be better to do this during a time when he wasn’t exhausted.
“Absolutely.” Duinion smiled. “Good plan. You might try making it with wider or narrower gaps, depending on what sort of fish you want to trap in it.” He added.
Trastion nodded thoughtfully and laid it aside with his pack. He was half-tempted to lay down and rest ‘for a little while’, feeling a bit of fogginess creeping into his mind, and his limbs felt a little heavy, but he tried to shake it off. He’d be fine.
The next style of trap that Duinion showed him was a deadfall type, and that seemed fairly simple, yet it turned out to be a little less simple than it appeared. Rather than simply propping a stone up at an angle with a stick, there were intricate mechanics involved in making the trap work, and yet fall at the slightest amount of pressure on the carefully placed string. It took Trastion a couple of tries before he made it work properly, but before long, he had practiced this technique enough times that he was pretty confident he could do it later, without the ranger’s guidance. Still, his alertness was fading, and he felt like he was dragging more and more.
“That’s all for now,” Duinion declared after a while. “You’ve done very well.”
Trastion smiled, rubbing his eyes wearily. “Thanks. I’ll practice these between now and next time.”
“Good,” Duinion smiled. “just remember, always, always, always keep safety in mind when you’re practicing this. So yes, probably best to wait until you’re better rested first. Keep your hands and other body parts clear of the trap… and when you’re finished with it, always disable it so no creature gets trapped in it by mistake. If you’re using the trap to catch food, that’s one thing, but just doing it for practice…”
“Right.” Trastion nodded a little, thinking about some poor rabbit getting caught in a snare when he had no intention of coming back to retrieve it. “No leaving active traps lying around. And no poking around with my fingers and all that.” He nodded wearily. “I was paying attention, I promise.”
“Good.” Duinion smiled. “And, when you’re setting a trap for real use, where do you set it?”
“Look for like… a trail or something where the animal...comes often, you know. Like the rabbit trail we found by the stream. And set the trap there.” He answered quietly, fighting a yawn. “But first you need to.. you know, check that the animal is gonna to be coming around.” He said, repeating the general idea of what Duinion had told him earlier.
“Good.” Duinion nodded with a smile. “And now, about foraging, how much do you know about that?”
Trastion blinked, trying to force his attention to remain on the ranger. “Foraging.” He paused and tried to think. “Plants and stuff. Right, I know a bit about that.”
“Alright.” Duinion stood up with a bit of aid from his crutch, then glanced back down, expecting Trastion to hop up and rush off, but instead he took longer getting up than Duinion did.
Trastion wanted nothing more than to just stay where he was and lay down, but he struggled to his feet with a bit of effort. “So, what, just go find stuff that’s safe to eat?”
“Yes, if you’re up to it..?” Duinion raised an eyebrow. He had noticed that over the last hour or two while they were working on traps, he had been acting more and more fatigued and lethargic.
Trastion took a deep breath, and with a bit of effort managed to keep his eyes open. “No, I think I’m good.” He nodded, and then looked around, trying to smother another yawn.
“Hmm.” Duinion frowned, noticing the recruit’s obvious weariness, but thought he’d wait and see how it went. “Let’s take a quick look by the stream here.” He let Trastion lead the way, and found his energy level drastically lower than when they set out a few of hours prior. Duinion had no trouble keeping up with him now, and even noticed Trastion nearly tripping on things as he walked. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yeah, fine.” Trastion mumbled, though he figured he wasn’t very convincing. He paused though, spotting something familiar. “There, queen’s lace.” He nudged the head of one of the flowers.
“And what can we do with that?” Duinion asked, though he knew perfectly well.
“Eat it.” Trastion laughed faintly, resisting the urge to lean against a nearby tree. He gave a little shake of his head, trying to clear away the tiredness. “Sorry. So the root is like a carrot. And the top,” He paused, taking a long moment to remember stuff that forester had taught him and Aearon about this. “You can eat the leaves, like put them in a salad. Same with the flowers I think.” He shrugged. “And seeds can add flavor to soups and stews.”
“And how can you be sure that is a safe plant to eat?” Duinion asked, leaning on the crutch.
Trastion paused, having to take a longer moment to think about that. “Oh. Well, poison hemlock looks a lot like it. But it’s..different.” He was trying to remember but felt like his mind was trudging through thick mud by this point. Obviously, the effect of the coffee had worn off.
Duinion nodded, waiting patiently for him to continue.
“Poison hemlock gets a lot taller than Queen’s Lace. And this has the fuzzy leaves. Hemlock’s is smooth. Hemlock has splotches on the stem, this is green. So.” He paused as he briefly lost his train of thought, and then did another tiny headshake. “Yeah. it’s Queen’s Lace.” He concluded.
“Yes, and now I think it’s time we wrapped this up.” Duinion decided. There wasn’t all that much time left before supper anyway, and it was getting increasingly more obvious that Trastion was losing the battle to stay awake and alert. An indistinct mumble was all the reply he got from Trastion, but it seemed the recruit wasn’t protesting.
Trastion was feeling so tired he thought he might just fall over when he leaned down to grab his pack. All of his gear was stowed away again by now, and it was heavy. He groaned wearily as he hoisted it up on his back, and wondered how he managed to carry it out here to begin with.
“Unalmis,” Duinion called. “We’re heading back to the mess hall for supper. Would you like to ride back with us?”
Trastion blinked at him in confusion, wondering if he had heard him right, or if he’d missed something. Then, following the ranger’s gaze, Trastion blinked harder and rubbed his eyes. And then saw what Duinion had spotted right away; the young ranger was hidden up in the high branches of a tree right close to where they had made their camp! “Wait…” Trastion blinked again. “He was there the whole time?”
Duinion laughed lightly. “Yes.. I imagine he was doing a bit of.. stealth training,” He added with a sly glance toward his young friend in the tree. That wasn’t exactly what Nal had been doing before they came along and disturbed him, Duinion knew, but ‘stealth training’ sounded better than ‘napping in secret’.
“I gotta learn to do that.” Trastion muttered, somewhat impressed as he looked back up toward where Nal had been ‘hiding’. Although, at the moment, it was hard to feel much of anything besides complete exhaustion, and wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed and sleep for a week solid. He’d settle for one night of rest, however.
Seeing Trastion sway slightly on his feet, Duinion figured it was definitely time to get him back to the barracks. It was getting a bit dark out anyway, and he didn’t want the two young men to miss supper. So, whether Unalmis chose to join them or stay there, he set off to exit the training grounds, keeping a close eye on the recruit who looked like he might nod off at any moment.
(The end)
(
Mention of Unalmis was plotted in advance with Ercassie)
