Two days till adulthood.

The night was relatively quiet apart for the occasional howling, and some snuffling at the edge of the camp.

We go through the morning routine. I notice that all of us siblings have grown again, nothing amazing but definite growth. Mainly muscle mass and definition, with the most muscle going to Basalt. All the girls breasts grow as well, but Lily’s are now massive, not enough to become a problem but for a goblin they are like 2-3 times bigger than most.

Even Thesa looks quite jealous, it’s quite good I made the all the clothes adjustable. The others have grown about an inch each, and I have grown about 2 inches, I’m now the same height as Thesa.

Today I’m having Thesa and myself show the others how to track properly. I split us into two groups me and Norm’s group in one and Thesa and my siblings in another. Having an idea before we leave, I show all of them how to make snares.

Using the bolt of cloth I have the others cut and make a good two dozen 2 meter length braids more than enough for traps. While they are doing this, using the brains of the hares we caught yesterday, I tan the hides from all that we have caught to date. Then I show them how to make the triggers, using two small sticks one bigger than the other.

The bigger one I carve a defined notch into and make the other end into a point, the peg. And the other I carve so it resembles a crooked finger and can catch on the other, the trigger. You tie the braids on to the smaller bit the end that doesn’t have the notch, I carve a small grove onto this end to hold the braid better. And nearer the notch I add a slipknot loop and firmly tie it, the noose. With everything prepared, I walk over to a sapling and bend it over and tie the braid near the top about 6” below.

Using the back of my axe as a hammer I tap the spiked peg into the ground and the bending the sapling and place the trigger on the notch of the peg and slowly raise the sapling till the cord is taut and the trigger is holding it all together. I then carefully arrange the noose so it can be caught and disturb the trigger, letting the taut sapling snap it up off the ground*1. Using a stick I catch the lop and BAM.

The others look shocked.

“ Ok. While we are tracking if you come across any well used small trails that rabbit sized critters use set a few of these along it. If you can't find a sapling but there are big branches near tie a sizeable rock to the cord throw that over the branch and use that as the counter weight, but tie an extra bit around the rock and tie it to the tree branch but it has to be about half as long and the main cord. This will stop the prey from going up and over the branch if the rock is to heavy.” I instruct them.

Thesa looks ecstatic at the new hunting method, the others still look shocked l. “ And rub some mud or dirt and leaves into everything to help hide your scent, if you place a bit of the veg which I think that the smaller critters eat it will increase the effect.” Thesa’s eyes shine even wider at this. We now split into the groups after I have every one carve some pegs and triggers and make sure that they are good enough.

My group take the track nearest to where i heard the snuffling, as these guys are going to be harder than the others to teach, my siblings picked up this type of stuff faster than Thesa before her rank up. So these guys should learn quicker from me with my racial skill.

I have them take notice of the tracks and what they look like, and we start from there, following the tracks. Once we get to a bush that whatever we are follow went though. I have us stop.

“What can you tell about what we are hunting from what we have seen so far.” I ask norm and his group.

“ It went that way” One of them reply pointing through the bush.

“ Apart from that.” I want to facepalm.

They all look around dumbly.

“ It’s not to big.” Norm replies.

“ And how did you come to that.” I counter.

“ The footprints are smallish.” He answers.

“ Good. Anything else.” I Ask the group.

“ It’s not to big.” Another answers as he smiles.

“ How do you know that.” I inquire.

“ The hole small.” He points at it.

“ Ok. How do you not know that’s it's a bigger creature that crouch a bit.” I question. They look a bit scared at that thought.

“ Come I’ll show you more. You are both right it isn’t too big, the size of the paw prints do show that it’s a smaller animal, look at the distance between the tracks they show that it doesn’t have a long leg length which shows it’s smaller. And if you look near the bush that tracks do not get closer together which indicates that it didn’t crouch as nearly all creatures get closer when they crouch. Secondly if you look at the prints themselves they are deeper in the ground and mud than some of the others we have came across meaning what?” I ask.

“ That it bigger.” One of the females ask.

“ Ummmmm. Yes and no. Normally deeper can mean bigger, but it actually means heavier.” I tell them.

“ So what does all this tell you so far?” I question them.

“ That it small, not big, but heavy.” Norm answers.

“ And it went that way.” The other male pointed again.

*sigh*

“ That was all correct. Now look at the hole again. You can see that it went straight through, but there is no hair on any of the branches, this means that it either has no hair or it’s very short and/or tough.”

We continue following the trail, when we come to harder ground I show them to look for broken or trodden things down to show the way it went.

After I while I can hear a sound I have us all slow down and start to follow the sound.

I sounds like something is shredding bark. I peek through a bush. What the fuck.

It looks like a porcupine but with the facial structure of a pig. It’s rubbing a tree with the quills, they must be hard for them to do that without breaking. It turns around then starts eating the bark. Having a look around the area I see a low reaching branch, an idea forms. It’s going to be harder to kill then the hare, because of all the quills.

I make a proper noose from the stuff we have, I tell the others to climb trees in the area. I take out the cinnamon smelling bark we use for tinder, and scatter small amounts of it and lead a trail to the branch I saw earlier, I place the pouch open under it. Then clamber up the tree. I lower the noose just in front of the bark.

After a few minutes I hear excited snuffling coming this way and the pigupine yeah that’s what I’ll call it for now. It bursts through the bushes sniffing the ground and air as it goes then it’s eyes fall on the prize. It tries to dash over but it’s not that fast. Just as it get to the bark its head goes through the noose and I jump off the branch with the other end of the noose in hand. And it works the animal is caught.

“ Get down here and grab the rope.” I shout. The thing is heavy and is now struggling to escape.

Once they grab hold of the makeshift rope and dash over and whip out a fire hardened spear and jam it straight into the brain via the soft palate.

Once it’s death throes are finished I have them let it down. I have a look at the quills, the larger ones are hollow and the smaller ones are solid, much like the porcupine back on my world. I’m going to harvest the quills and we’ll take the carcass and offal as well. After skinning, gutting and the harvesting, I have the others lug the carcass and we make our way back to the campsite, having the others take turns in setting up snares and using the pigupine skin to try and remove our scent from the traps.

Once back at the site I inspect the quills the smallest ones are solid, while the bigger they get the more hollow they become. I plan to make some poultices soon, I plan out and give the others that have returned a exercise routine. Now I go get a rock that I can use as a pestle.

Once I find a suitable one, I start up a fire and place the metal container back near it to soften the fats inside now that’s done I place a load of the green leaves into a wooden bowl and grind them up, I add a small amount of the moon shine to help the process a bit and I do this until it becomes a thick paste. I realize that I have no containers to put the poultice in once I make it. Fuck. Hang on I can just make some drawstring pouches give it a wax coating and the place more green leaves inside for a lining to place the poultice on.

Once I have done this I add the fats from the container to the bowl and stir it till it thickens and I divide it into three and place it into the pouches. With that used up I make a couple of dozen pouches for the next batches.

I then proceed to mix the blue and green leaf together and then do the same process as the last lot.

The others have now finished their exercise I have them careful cut out the centre vein of the stink leaves.

Thesa and the siblings return they have more leaves and a couple of rabbits. I give them a routine to do. But I have Lavender come over and sit with me, I have her find a rock to make a suitable pestle with and then come back, I show her what I’ve been doing and have her finish it, while I go onto the next project.

I place the moon shine container near the fire, and set up the last hare to cook with the fat container in place to catch more.

With the moon shine heating I take the red leaves and place them into the bowl and give it a quick grind, then I take some of the quill and the wax candles out. I cut the tip off of one of the larger quills and then take a smaller one that fits down the centre of it. I rub it into the candle and then place it back inside and get a bucket of water. I test out my new toy.

And it works basically it leaks a bit but I just made a very crude syringe. Not good enough to use on people but good enough to transfer liquids short distances, and by short I mean feet not meters or more. Now I take another quill and use one of the smaller harder one to pierce a hole near the tip of a larger one, I give I a quick blow to clean out the inside and make sure there is a hole in it. Taking another but slightly smaller one again I make another plunger making sure that’s it’s tighter than the last one.

I also carve a small wooden disc with a nub that will go into the quill to make the end of the plunger for the thumb. I then draw the plunger once the tip is in the water it sucks up the water then quickly waving a candle through the flames to soften it I drag it past the hole it the tip and then around the plunger and syringe base to make a watertight seal. I take it over to one of the rabbits and then jam it into the neck area and press the plunger, with a bit of resistance it discharges its load into the rabbit.

Good it works. By this point everyone is watching me. I make enough so that each group has about 3 of these. With that done I take the moonshine out using the tongs and tip some into the red leaves and then continue to grind them. I make a smaller pair of tongs and quickly grab another bowl and tip in some moonshine then take the red leaves out using the new tongs then place them into it. I then add some blue and green leaves to the mix as well and give it a quick grind and take a hot rock out from the fire and place it in the bowl. Going back to the other bowl I take the quill needles I just make and fill them all and then seal them as I go.

“ What you doing there.” Thesa and Lavender ask at the same time.

“ I made a more concentrated form of the red leaves i made these so you can stab them into something to make it go numb quickly so it can't move. After some tweaking I might even be able to make arrows from them.” I tell them actually I’ll give everyone 2 each and the rest to Lavender, so me, Thesa and the siblings that was 3 each so now lily will have 9 I’ll make things like this here main weapons and a quarterstaff with a hollow at one end and a cap so she can place the needles in to attack at longer range. I cut a candle into pieces and then use them as bungs for the ends and hand the out explaining what they are. Norms group look a bit annoyed to be left out.

“ If you want things I’m happy to show you how to do things, but if you want them you have to make them yourselves.” I tell them.

For the amount Lavender has I’m going to have to make a rig for them. Calling her over I show her how to make one by taking a candle and leather and sewing it around the candle leaving it barely exposed to act as a bung. Then taking a strip of leather and sewing it down leaving opening like the elastic you have in a pencil case to hold things down. And then I place the needles in with the tips in the candle to stop any accidents. And then I add it to her nurse coat.

“ Now you know how to make all of this you can do it and in the future you can add more when we have better stuff.” I tell her. “ Take out you vials and tip the contents back into the container please.”

I grab a smaller twig and some bandage material and make what looks like a surgical sponge, the ones I used to spread iodine. I dip it into the bowl with the three leaves in, and then rub it on my skin. After a few moments it starts to go numb. Good it will work.

Using the crude syringe I made first I fill all of the vials including my own with this and make a few stick sponges as well for both of use. Most of the day has gone now so I have the others go and check on the snares they placed. They come back with a couple of rabbits and norms lot come back with a pigupine and some more leaves which they plan to use themselves I give them a couple of bowls.

But I have them put 6 stink leaf veins onto some cloth and then roll and cut and tie them into small bundles first. These are all divided equally amongst us all. So all of us have about a dozen or so of the stink bundles to use now. We all eat. I have my group make pouches to put the leaves into for easier transport.

I have every one break a stink bundle and throw it around the perimeter of the camp to hide our sent and deter predators. For the rest of the evening I let them all do what they want. Most make weapons or improve what they already have. For myself with all the sewing stuff I have I make myself some basic trousers using the leather, with enough room for me to grow again .

I also make a sleeved jacket . And using the bolt of cloth I make myself a couple of t-shirts. I can't really make shoes yet so I don’t. This is the last night out here I hope the others have gotten enough to be able to survive the passage. I have a bad feeling that thing may go out of control soon that even I won't be able to change. We all settle down for the night.

1 day left till adulthood