-=Forest Woman=-
--under a large overhang of rock--
to ALL
: It had been a torturous few days and the meat I had killed and cooked three days ago was gone and I knew if I was to get north without succumbing to the hunger I would need to hunt today. I had marked out places for traps and having set them yesterday I returned to them more in hope of seeing tracks left by the jungle game, rather than expectation of a quick kill. As expected my crude attempts to trap an animal had gone untouched, wily beast mocking my pathetic attempts my creating a new track around my hidden trap, perhaps my own smell marked the trap.....I wasn't sure but with a resigned sigh I pushed branches closer to the trap tunneling a beast towards it. The unslinging my bow and bending the wood to string it, having been concerned the damp conditions of the jungle might stretch by bowstring, I notched an arrow and slipped off into the shadows in search of game.
(00:43:24 )
RISSA
[PIC]
=RISSA=
-=Forest Woman=-
--under a large overhang of rock--
to ALL
: I'd learned since fleeing Schendi, creditors hot on my heels and heading north across the jungle, that the best way to capture game in this priest king forsaken land was to work out where the beast fed or watered and wait for them to come to me. No matter how silent I was when moving the slightest pressure on a twig underfoot seemed to be more like a Turian bugle call announcing my presence for pasangs, the result was usually mass exodus of all food in every other direction but towards me, followed by another day of hunger. I had already worked out that the rock overhang offered a number of advantages to a woman hunting alone, shelter to sleep and avoid the incessant rains of these parts, as well as a hard rock surface to walk on without twigs to snap or leaves to rustle...so I swiftly and more importantly silently moved to a cleft in the rock face the overlooked a small watering hole fed by a spring the trickled down from the tumbledown pile of rocks close to where I hid.
(00:49:48 )
RISSA
[PIC]
=RISSA=
-=Forest Woman=-
--under a large overhang of rock--
to ALL
: I kept the bow lose fearing that if I pulled on the string for too long it would eventually stretch in the humid atmosphere, the arrow selected for its perfect straightness and balance was notched and held in place on the bow by my left fingers where the gripped the bow and my right fingers in the middle of the string....the majority of the arrow was to the front.....the metal tip had been covered with a thin layer of mud lest the sun catch the shiny metal underneath. I settled back to wait, the only noise the occasional rumbling of my empty belly and the splashing of the water as it cascaded over the rocks and landed in the pool below. My arms and back aching from the period of immobility I had to occasionally flex the muscles trying to keep myself lose and ready lest the chance of a kill be missed because my body had petrified into the stone around me.......dark eyes surveyed the bushing as I listened for the slightest indication that I might have a chance to eat this day.
(00:56:43 )
RISSA
[PIC]
=RISSA=
-=Forest Woman=-
--under a large overhang of rock--
to ALL
: The first sign of potential food was when I heard what might have been the cough of a child but was in fact the call of a tarsk common to this part of Gor, it seemed to differ from the beast in the north by being slightly sleeker and lower to the ground yet no less dangerous if left with an arrow in a place that wasn't fatal. I braced myself against the rock but remained silent...steadying my breathing eyes alert I was watch the young tarsk nervously cross the warn ground, mud packed hard, that surrounded the pool. His head lowered, then raised nostrils twitching as if drinking the air around him. I had bathed earlier and then covered my skin with the mud of the stream hoping to make my pale skin less visible but it occurred to me it might have made me stink....or perhaps the stink was one less threatening to this task than my cleanly washed smell. I kept frozen as the nervous beast scented the area listening for danger before moving forward to the water's edge.
(01:05:23 )
RISSA
[PIC]
=RISSA=
-=Forest Woman=-
--under a large overhang of rock--
to ALL
: I had chosen my hiding place well, the dark shadowed cleft almost made me invisible and the tarsk, his nose lowered to drink, was sideways on to me offering a perfect shot to his heart which I knew to be just to the rear of his front legs. The bow was slowly effortlessly drawn back, arm muscles that once might have only been used to heft a roll of cloth now well developed and bulging with firm muscle under soft skin, drew back the arrow as I raised slowly but steadily. My breathing seemed to stop yet my heart was thundering in my head temples throbbing with its beat, I let out my breath raised the arrow beading it on my target a few paces away....and let lose. The sudden squeal must have been heard for miles for the arrow pierced the beast where I had intended it to and it fell to the ground feet kicking almost instantly. I knew I had made a clean blow but I was a bit squeamish about suffering and so with a quick check that mama tarsk wasn't about to gorge me I strode to the side of the beast and using my bone handled blade sliced open the throat killing it quickly. Slicing open the gut I cleaned out the innards....digging a hole nearby and burying them with a few rocks over the top....then washing the dead beast clean I hefted it over my shoulder with a painful grunt and staggered back up to the overhang where I hade been living these past few days.
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