• Solo • Behind the blind, pining for a hind

[Oram Mednix]

5 Zi’da

Oram liked hunting in Zi’da. Even before he ever acquired any special ability to deal with the cold, he had liked the combination of sunlit skies and snow-covered earth that were mostly unique to this season. In many ways, it was ideal for hunting, not least of all because the snow made tracks so easy to follow. And the waterways, while cold, were not yet frozen over, so that he would not need to break any ice to fish in the Whisker nearby. Even now, he had some of his basket traps set. Just that morning, his new snare pen had caught its first hare, its pelt already snow white.

Oram was not here now, however, to fish or snare hare. He crouched behind the deer blind that Skai had helped him make; it was three frames of birch bark stretched between branches to form a simple screen that one could fix to the ground as needed. Skai had set up a wood-framed birch bark sleeping screen around his cot out of similar materials, and with a similar design. The crotchety old attendant had decided that he liked sleeping in the central corridor best, his cot against the wall close to the hearth adjoining the kitchen. With the screens set up, he had all the privacy he said he needed. And it was a warmer place to sleep than any other besides inside the kitchen itself.

Oram’s deer blind was not warm, for there was no fire out here. Thanks to his Ezere mark, this did not trouble him; the hunter could sit out here in the snow for breaks, as long as it took for deer to come for his bait. He had considered setting a trap, but had decided instead that he needed an excuse to come out here by himself, in the quiet woods, with no sound to trouble him other than the wind rustling through the aspens or the occasional calls of crows.

The traveler was, strictly speaking, trespassing, about a hundred paces west of his property line. It was highly unlikely that anyone would trouble him over it, however; the land was old Logging Consortium land, now in care of the Scalvoris Council. In fact, Oram could plausibly claim he was doing his proper job being out here, since patrolling these tracts would likely fall to the Rangers by default, since there were no active logging concessions here at the moment.

What there were, was deer. Also boar. Zi’da brought snow, and snow brought easy-to-follow tracks. It also sometimes brought other hunters, but Oram had yet to see such anywhere around his property, though he had once or twice waved to anglers on the opposite bank of the Whisker.

Oram glanced up through the spiky tree branches at the sky. It was late in the afternoon, a good time to stalk deer. If he chose to wait until dusk, he might even encounter the boar whose scat he had spied earlier. He had set up his blind as best as could be arranged, well-camouflaged and overlooking his baiting station. All there was to do now was wait, quietly.

[Oram Mednix]

Jason’s dead. It’s finally over.

Time passed, as it always did. Few events marked the passage of bits in the quiet forest: an occasional rise in the wind through the in the mostly-leafless trees, the faint groan of such trees as they swayed in said wind, the crackling hiss of snow shaken loose by a nearby bush, the occasional piercing caw of a crow.

Oram relaxed as best he could. It was best not to stare intently at the baiting station for any length of time; the eyes and mind got tired for now profit. Instead, the hunter let his eyes scan the distance unfocused. The trees were close here; one could not see far in any direction, unless one looked straight up, where the spindly trunks jabbed up at the sky like stakes at the bottom of an enormous spike trap. Would things not be so much simpler, Oram thought idly, if his quarry simply fell from the sky in front of him?

Sighing, he shook his head and then lowered his gaze one more to the snow-covered ground. Rather than stare yet again at the bait station, the hunter closed his eyes for a few trills and listened. The latest snowfall had been powdery, perfect for muffling sound. That was great if one was stalking prey, but not if one was trying to detect it. Oram could only hope that some game animal would obligingly snag or snap a tree branch.

It seemed to him as if, the very trill he thought that, he heard a dry snap. Startled, Oram opened his eyes and peered through his blind in the direction he had heard the noise. A decent sized buck approached cautiously. It had a lovely, many-branched rack. This was probably the perfect time of arc to hunt for such, just after peak mating season, and before the bucks began to shed their antlers. It was exactly why Oram was out here.

Oram had practiced keeping his crossbow in line with his silhouette as he elevated or lowered it, and he did so now, even though he was fairly certain the buck would not see him through the blind. He had set up the station upwind so that his smell would not give him away. Only an untoward sound would give him away, and Oram did not make one as the buck reached the baiting station and began to sniff at it. The only sound he made was the pounding of his heart as he waited for the perfect moment to shoot, once the deer had started eating and he could be certain that it was unlikely to shift position. Though it sounded loud in his own ears, Oram knew that the deer would not hear his heart, so he waited, concentrating on controlling his breath.

Finally, he squeezed the trigger, and the crossbow shot its bolt with a quiet clack. The deer’s head jerked up, and it twitched; that was probably from the sting it felt from the bolt that had pierced its flank about a hand’s breadth behind the shoulder. Oram’s aim had been true, although the bolt did not sink into the buck’s body as far as the hunter had expected. Briefly, he wondered if he had struck a rib rather than pierce any vital organs. The deer lunged away, crashing through a nearby bush, causing the branches to discharge a cloud of snow powder. A startled murder of crows raised an alarm at the ruckus, although most of the large black birds, secure in their high branches, did not take flight.

Oram quickly hung his crossbow from a knob on the wooden blind frame -the stub of a branch he had left protruding for just that purpose- grabbed his spear, and set off in pursuit. He did not need to go far; the deer stumbled on for perhaps twenty yards before collapsing, and by the time Oram had caught up with it, it was prone and clearly dying. As the hunter poised his spear for the coup de grace, the deer unexpectedly roused itself and hissed at him, baring fangs.

An oh deer! Oram had unexpectedly encountered one some arcs ago. He had been setting marten traps and was completely unprepared for the confrontation then. It had been a near thing; he had actually fled from the animal and eventually pushed it into Ol’ Tuck’s Run, letting the strong current there take it. Here the situation was quite different; the beast was in no condition to harm him as long as he was careful, though not for lack of will and effort. Snarling at the hunter it tried to rise to its feet, but collapsed again, whereupon Oram struck with his spear quickly, pushing the point in extra hard to overcome the resistance of the stag’s unusually tough hide, and keeping his weight on it until he was certain the stag had expired. He had to put his foot on the carcass to pull the spearhead back out.

Oram took a couple steps back and leaned on his spear. His exertion had only been brief, but he still found himself breathing hard. It took a couple bits for him to catch his wind once more. Then he re-approached the inert body cautiously, gingerly prodding first its hooves, then its belly, and then finally the fanged head with the butt of his polearm, just to ensure that the oh deer was truly dead. At length, the hunter worked up the nerve to lay hands on the thing and hoist it up over his shoulders. He recalled, from his earlier encounter, that as ferocious as oh deer were, they were no more massive than ordinary deer.

It was only about a hundred paces back to his house, however, those hundred paces led up over a small rise, so Oram was breathing hard again as he dropped the deer on his porch and knocked on the door. After a few trills, Skai opened it, frowning at his employer as if to ask why he could not simply have opened the door himself. Oram pointed at the deer. ”Watch this for bit,” he said. ”I need to go back and get the rest of my gear.”

Skai looked at the stag appreciatively. He was no hunter, but he knew a good rack when he saw one. ”Nice one-wait!” The retired ranger bent down to examine the head more carefully, then straightened up quickly with a start. ”Fangs!” he exclaimed. ”You bagged an oh deer?!” Oram nodded wordlessly, wanting to save his breath. He still had to trudge once more over that ridge and back again, after all.

[Oram Mednix]

But what about Jason’s mother?

Oram left the grumbling Skai watching over the stag while he went back to break down his blind and retrieve his gear. The hunter’s thoughts were troubled. An oh deer was a valuable catch; the hide, antlers and teeth would all fetch a good price, and oh deer venison, while a bit tougher than regular deer when fresh, made perfectly fine sausage and jerky, and although he had not tried it, he had heard that the organ meat was quite good as well. Oram would bring the skinned carcass into town to the butcher rather than trying to harvest the meat himself.

The toughness of the oh deer’s hide meant that Oram would need a better skinning knife than the one he had in his normal kit, if he did not wish to ruin the edge. He would pull such a knife from the magical cedar tool chest he had received last cycle, and a bone saw from Mednix’s Book of Useful Things. Such magically-procured tools were effectively single-use, anyway, so it would not matter if he dulled or even broke them while skinning the oh deer’s leathery hide and sawing off its hard antlers.

These were logistical hassles and not really worries. What was more concerning to the hunter was the fact that an oh deer had appeared this far from the Sweetwine, and this close to his property. Were there others? If there was a herd of the things nearby, that could be dangerous, to himself, to Skai, to the animals, to the loggers in the nearest camp just a couple miles away, to anybody who might happen to be in this area for whatever reason. He would notify the Rangers when he went to Darbyton the following trial, and would keep an eye on the situation. If he got any more reports of oh deer this close to Darbyton, he would notify Nir’wei as well, and consider taking more serious actions.

After Oram had retrieved his knapsack and crossbow, and dismantled his blind, he decided to leave the bait station baited. Using a branch, he erased the tracks the oh deer had left in the snow. If any other critters visited the bait overnight, the hunter should be able to identify them from their tracks. Also, such creatures, having once found food at the site, would likely return to look for more later.

[Doran]

Oram:

Knowledge:
[Appraisal] Assessing the quality of a stag’s antlers.
[Combat: Polearms & Staves] Thrusting with enough force to pierce tough, leathery hide.
[Endurance] An intense emotional stress can leave you as out of breath as intense physical exertion.
[Field Craft] Harvesting especially tough body parts from game is hard on your tools.
[Hunting] Using a hunting blind.
[Hunting] It’s important to report unusual and/or concerning animal activity to local authorities.

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 10

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Comments: Ziell’s blessing is definitely useful when it comes to hunting in Zi’da. I like the way that you started the thread, by mentioning that the season is ideal for hunting. I wonder if Oram will sell the pelt of that white hare that ended up in his trap at the beginning of the thread!

I really enjoyed the way you described Oram being out there, in the snow, watching and listening. Oram hunting the deer was well-written as well. You make me want to play a wilderness PC!

I was quite surprised when the animal that Oram was hunting turned out to be an oh deer rather than a normal deer. I like that you used an animal that was developed for ST!

I didn’t realize that an oh deer being far away from the Sweetwine Woods was unusual. I wonder why it had shown up so close to Oram’s place, and if there really are more of its kind.

Will there be a sequel?

Anyway, enjoy your rewards!