Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 31

Xun scratched his head in confusion. He knew they were flighty animals, but had never imagined they could be killed so easily. He hunkered down to double check, but there was no heartbeat. With a sigh, he began to skin and clean it. This was not what he had intended to do today, but he couldn’t pass up the free meal. He moved over to the side of the cliff overlooking the valley, and was pleasantly surprised to see a small trickle of water. It probably wouldn’t last long, with winter coming soon, but he took advantage of it by washing his hands and knife.

Returning to the carcass, he looked over the guts. He could wash and cook just about everything, and he seriously considered it. Glancing back at the trickle of water, he thought about all the work that needed to go into it. The goat was large, and unless he planned to take it back to the compound, he would need to prepare it to keep it from going bad. Studying the area, he finally decided to go ahead. Besides, if he tried to take it back to the compound he might get in trouble since hunting wasn’t actually his job.

This ledge was pretty difficult to get to, afforded him a great view for a long way, and there was enough stone along the back wall where the other goats had climbed so nimbly to escape him, he almost considered making a shelter. Gathering wood at the bottom of the cliff and hauling it back up took effort, but it gave him a perfect opportunity to think. The people in charge of the kitchens and the food, were extremely picky about him taking food away. No one had said anything about it yet, but based on what Rick had said the other day, he could see it getting him in trouble.

The fact that he would have to sleep in the barracks with everyone else, really didn’t sit well with him. He couldn’t imagine the leaders sleeping in a large open room like that, and figured it was just another way that the outsiders were treated differently. As he got a fire going, he sat back and looked at the tumbled pile of rocks. They probably fell from above, so building against the back wall probably wasn’t a good idea. He didn’t want to have a rock crash through his roof and land on him. If he could dig down some, then pile rocks around, maybe the structure wouldn’t be as noticeable from a distance. Scratching at the ground, though, very quickly dispelled that idea. It was all rock. It would take him all winter to get a hole deep enough to be worth it.

With a sigh, he began to cook some of the meat. He used the water to clean what he could, then fashioned a type of tripod with some sturdy branches, and made a cook pot out of the stomach. Cutting up the various organs and throwing them in the water, he soon had a good smelling soup going. It would take a while to cook, so he moved to the edge of the cliff and began to study the valley.

The compound spread over a good part of the center. A nice wall stretched all around it, even the fields and trees that they were using to produce food. He could clearly see huge fields thick with tall grass, but it was all the same grass. He could also see dots that had to be a herd of animals. Max had mentioned that they raised animals, so he had to ȧssume that’s what they were.

Moving his gaze over to the west, he stared at the ocean for a long time. It was beautiful. For as far as his eye could see, there was nothing but water. He could see small boats along the coast, probably from the fishers. The more he watched, the more he realized he could see indistinct shapes moving in the water. He rubbed his eyes, thinking it was a trick of the light, but the more he watched, the more he could see them.

Could they be large groups of fish? Like herds of fish? The boats that were above the shapes seemed to be getting more fish, or so he thought. They were using huge nets to pull the fish aboard. He could bȧrėly make them out, they were so far away. He knew that it was his job to let the fishermen know where the fish were, but how could he talk to them from here? The fish would have moved by the time he could get to them.

Giving up on the idea, he decided that was an aspect of his job that he wasn’t going to be able to figure out. Maybe if he brought it up to the leaders, they would have an idea.

His eyes wandered further north, along the coast and he saw that there must have been a huge rock slide recently, because a ridge from the base of the mountain all the way to the water had formed. Just north of the ridge, he could see a huge herd of elk, grazing peacefully in the fields, but the ridge appeared to be blocking their access to the valley where the hunters were.

Gazing back over the valley below, the heavily wooded space was very difficult to see through. He figured he would have to actively explore that area in order to determine the movements of the animals. As his eyes moved south, he saw movement, but it was too far away for him to really tell what it was. Getting a bad feeling in his gut, he checked on the meal. Glancing back to the south, he could see the movement flickering just outside the reach of what he could discern. Beyond movement he couldn’t tell anything.

Xun wanted to wait on his food to finish, but he knew that wasn’t an acceptable option. If there was danger to the compound, it was his job to report it first, to make sure people didn’t get hurt. With a sigh, he began to stack rocks around his food. The fire would continue to burn for a long time, and the smoke, if he did it right, would start to cook the meat he hadn’t put near the fire yet. He finished by draping the fur over the top to hold in more of the smoke and placed more rocks over the top of that.

Looking over it one last time, he hoped it wouldn’t be ruined when he got back.