《Calf the Furless (First Edition)》Chapter 19: The Hunter's Knowledge I - Harvest

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Calf held on as the rooster fell backwards. It landed with a thud and silver leaked out of the rooster's pierced globe. Calf's body ached and stung all over, but he would see his objective complete before entertaining any thoughts of rest and recuperation. He rotated the spear handle before pulling it out of the rooster's breast. It came out coated in a thin layer of shiny silver that seemed to solidify and harden upon exposure to the air. He felt for the hot tube feeding from the globe and delicately made deep cuts around it to the left and the right. Using the broadhead's handle he coerced a section a few inches from the globes curvature into a crook before twisting the shaft and using a leather strip to tie a knot around it. Some of the silver was forced out as a consequence, immediately crusting around the mouth of the globe. Fearing the worst, he reinserted the spear in efforts of preventing the silver from hardening before he was done making use of it.

Alighting the downed carcass, he ran for the charred forest and searched for a stump marked by a cluster of rocks. He retrieved the bundle of new arrow shafts and the surviving arrowheads before searching for his long spear. He wasted no time in bonding it to him the moment he'd found it. The wily old hare had deliberately shot it towards the rooster's congealed blood in their encounter, making it impossible for Calf to bind it to himself until its demise. Though he'd had to go through the most and had on multiple instances of the attempt almost died trying, he'd prevailed and was glad he could fully claim the spear as his own now. With all his possessions in hand he ran back to the rooster’s corpse.

He dug a hole and perforated the area inside it before slitting the rooster's throat to allow it to bleed out while he inspected the rooster's corpse. He scoped it out from all angles before stripping it of all the parts he'd deemed immediately valuable, or at least of some conceivable use later on. He started with the feet and cut off each finger at the second knuckle. He cleaned the meat off the bone all the way down to the beginning of the talons where he left enough to avoid grating the talon's sheath. He then collected some of the pristine feathers and tied them into bundles before placing them to the side for future use. He cut the membrane connecting the tongue to the mouth and removed the beak off the rooster's head. He scrapped the beak and though he didn't have a use for it, he'd just set it aside for later consideration. He punctured the tongue to allow him to grip it before pulling it out with all the strength he could muster. Next, he took his long spear-point to the eyeballs and pried them out, severing the connection at the back before letting them roll.

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He went back to inspect the globe and jabbed it gently with a finger to ensure the silver had not crusted inside. Satisfied, he worked his way up the tube to where it opened into the mouth of the rooster and gently carved it out. With care he tied its end before rolling the tube back towards the globe. He gathered all the objects he wanted to coat and dipped them in order of priority. He started with the arrow heads which he intended as a gift to the king. He curled a thin cut of membrane around one of his newer shafts before lodging it into the socket of one arrow and dipping it all the way to the exposed membrane. He twisted it inside before airing it out and repeating the process over again till all of his selected points were coated.

Next, he attempted to silver a trimming from a wing feather he'd cut through and the attempt failed as the silver slid off the feathers. He quickly wrung the silver from the feather before it solidified and though the attempt had been a failure, it had been enough to inform his future strategy with the feathers which he bundled and left for later. He moved on to the talons he'd extracted and started with the hallux and the inner talon. First, he removed all the meat from the talons leaving the bone and keratin sheath. He twisted the point of the long spear on the bone furthest from the edge till a circular hole was formed. Looping rope through the hole he dipped the talon to within a few millimeters of the hole. The sheathed talon had gone the way of the feathers as the silver had failed to catch. A thin line could be seen on the bony section that had dipped into the silver though and that forced Calf to strip the talon down to the bone.

Though he'd lose the natural edges provided by the sheath, he hoped the silver coat would more than make up for that. He sharpened the bone along the inner and outer curvature and added cutting edges along either side of the bone. He dipped it again and the silver caught onto the bone structure. He flipped it over and dipped the blunt side while holding it by the tip using two shafts. He repeated the whole process for the final talon and moved on to the middle and outer talons.

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He preserved the left pair as-is and opted to process the right pair. He removed the sheath and used the spear-point to create a small gap between the talon and the scales where they met. He dipped each talon up to the starting point of the scales before quickly taking them out and tilting them upwards. The drying silver only slid halfway down the gap between the talon and scales before completely drying. He used the crook of the sheath to collect a few droplets from the pouch and dripped them into the gap. Although some of the silver crusted before delivery, enough was administered to seal the gap. Satisfied, he opened the silver pouch along a line he intended as an opening for a future sack before pouring the silver into a hollowed branch. The leftover silver solidified inside its new container.

Done with the now empty silver pouch, he carved it out, including a bit of fluff around it, and removed it to a bed of feathers. He undid the knot at the top of the tube and turned the pouch and tube inside out before digging a few branches into the ground and hanging it by the inside of the pouch. While it dried off, he busied himself with the rest of the carcass. He went back to the head and severed it before cutting the rooster down the center and investing a bit of time and effort into partitioning the breast meat. Using the tarnished feathers, he made another bed to set the meat on before returning to the carcass. He pried the rib cage open for easy access to the vital organs and innards.

Returning to the dry pouch he prepared to fashion it into a utility bag for his own use. He knotted the opening of the tube for a better grip before crouching to step onto the tube with both feet. To test the durability of the tube, he pulled it up with all his strength as he tried to straighten his bent back. The length of tube held against the tension test, informing him it would make good material for a sling. Next, he made a small cut onto the mouth of the tube and attempted to extend it by pulling each split end in opposite directions. The tube still held. He righted the pouch and tube to their original faces and cut a small slit just after the opening on the pouch's swell to admit the pouch's handle. He measured one and a half arm-lengths up from the pouch's swell and tied off the tube tight before separating it from the rest of the tube. With the working length of the handle now selected, he labored to fit it for both utility and comfort. For comfort he removed the quills from many of the damaged feathers before stuffing the softer parts into the section of the tube he expected to hang from his shoulder. He added a leather strip inside before folding the section upon itself. He tied off both ends of the section, curved the open end to face the pouch and slid it through the slit, securing it using a knot. For utility he cut the tube into strips at both ends of the pouch's handle and knotted them, effectively creating a sling pouch.

"Quite the haul you got there!" boomed a voice from behind him as he put the finishing touches on the pouch.

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