It was in a season of rain, the forest is green and lush, all filled with berries and fruits to pick, but Aruz and Gilim wasn't there to forage, they are there to hunt. it was three winter's end after their talk and the revelation of Aruz's parents'- or his kind's history.
Gilim brought a strongbow, sturdy enough to be pulled only by the likes of Gilim, and Aruz brought a shortbow as he didn't grew physically stronger like his father but instead his face started to look like his mother's, his tusks are shorter than average boys his age, his hair is cut into a bob and his jaws are smooth, smooth enough to mistake him for a lady unlike his father who have bigger tusks, hair tied into a bun, and rougher jaws.
They found a morotusk and they decided to use it for practice.
The morotusk is casually digging on the base of a tree and it's red eyes are busy looking for crops to eat, Aruz found this as an opportunity to draw his bow, with the guidance of Gilim, a famous hunter of multiple orc clans. Aruz shot his bow accurately into the morotusk's neck, but it's thick reddish black fur didn't let it get penetrated by Aruz's arrow and the animal started to panic and started to run away.
Gilim drew his bow, in quick succession he pulled a long arrow and pulled the string of his bow as quick as he loaded his arrow, he shot his arrow, the bow produced a wave strong enough to make the leaves sway and Aruz's blue tabard shiver as it pushed the arrow away, the arrow's wings whistled across the trees and nailed the poor running morotusk on a nearby tree.
Both of them went to the nailed morotusk, Aruz was a little frustrated that he didn't- or infact can't kill a morotusk as he is too weak to draw a bow at it's full strength.
"Aruz" Gilim called.
"Yes?" Aruz nervously replied, he was expecting his father to criticize him for his failed attempt to incapacitate a morotusk.
"You did good on your first morotusk." Gilim announced which made Aruz shocked in surprise, "The arrow penetrated deep in the game's throat, if I wasn't impatient, you could have that kill."
"You're not angry that I didn't kill it in one shot?"
Gilim turned and look at Aruz in shock and confusion, "Why would I? It's your first morotusk." He kneeled and grabbed Aruz's shoulder, talking to him face to face, "Besides, not everything can be dealt within one shot, that's why we brought ten arrows each" He pointed to Aruz's quiver, "Sometimes it takes five arrows to incapacitate a beast, sometimes we miss, but as long as we have arrows we can't give up, can we?"
It helped Aruz clear his mind, but it didn't completely subdue his frustration.
"Now we caught a morotusk, just as Kilin Herbak requested" Gilim brought the dead morotusk on his shoulder, "We can go home and-"
"But I haven't caught anything yet." Aruz interjected, bothered that he haven't caught anything.
"Not every hunter must have a game in their hunts" Gilim announced, "Besides, you're supposed to become a scribe, are you not? hunting isn't really a profession of a scribe."
"I am a scribe of my own experiences." Aruz said, "I write my own experiences on paper so that someone like me who's not the image of an good orc, those who has it worse can read our experiences in the comfort of their own homes" Aruz stood his ground proudly, but next words that come out his mouth were shy "A-and our hunting trips together is an important memory to me that I want it to be read by everyone first..."
Gilim laughed, "I would be very flattered if I didn't know your first notes were about ships."
"I-"
"I'm glad that our time together is important to you as for mine, and I get your determination. You may have inherited your face from Milim's, but you definitely got my determination from mine. With that, I think you will become a great orc, greater than I am." Aruz doubted Gilim's words but Gilim smiled happily, "But, if we were to hunt again this day, we can't hunt another morotusk, we can't find one unless we camp here for at least two days."
"And why is that?"
"Morotusks secrete a smell only other morotusks can smell on their death, the other morotusks must have evacuated the area and we can't find any of them unless we go across the mountains until the smell subdue..."
Gilim noticed Aruz slightly agitated, lightly tapping his right thumb against his middle finger. Gilim sighs, "You're free to take notes, if you want"
"Really?" Aruz's eyes glittered in excitement.
"Yes, I'm not an elder, I'm your father, you're free to do whatever you want near me."
"Thank you, iku" Aruz quickly took out his notebook, and drew an outline of the morotusk, and wrote the information that he recently experienced and got from Gilim, his father as quickly as he can.
"Are you ready to go, Aruz?"
"Yes iku!"
~~|~~
Hours later
~~|~~
They left the corpse of the morotusk behind, hanged it on a tree nearby so that scavengers such as kelfoxes or vinwulves can't steal it.
Aruz found a white taphare, nibbling on some fresh grass, its size is as big as a cycle old orc baby, and dangerous when agitated because of their sharp single horn. They're nimble and hard to hit with melee.
Aruz drew his bow silently, with slow breath he shot his arrow and it landed directly into the taphare's throat, killing it in a shot.
Gilim pat Aruz's back as he celebrated his first clean game.
Both of them went back to their clan, the Kane clan, home of the greatest archers of the orc tribal kingdom. The huts are better renovated with stone foundations and bigger stone structures. They went to Herbak's hut, which is more of a tavern than a hut.
"Herbak!" Gilim announced as he pushed open the curtain on the doorway and entered proudly, it was near sunset yet the tavern-like hut is filled with orc men and women with their work done, "I got your morotusk!"
"Ah it's Gilim! I'm gonna place this in, wait right there" Herbak said, an old orc with hair gray and dry, his stomach is round but his muscles are no joke as he carries a barrel of wine with one shoulder. He placed the huge wine barrel and walked behind the counter where he presents glass bottles of various wines of various fruits and berries.
"Hand it here!" Herbak motioned towards the morotusk that Gilim brought, arms waiting to receive. Gilim handed the morotusk and Herbak almost squealed in glee. Herbak handed Gilim a pouch of silver chips as payment for the request.
"Now that the payment is done" Herbak announced, "What can I do with the great Gilim and his daughter?"
Aruz's brows raised in confusion.
"Stop teasing my son Herbak, he may be beautiful but he's still my son."
"Now you're the one teasing me, iku" Aruz retorted, which brings a couple of laughter from the two adults in company.
Being treated as a girl or mistaken as one either on purpose or accidentally wasn't an insult to Aruz, in fact, it wasn't an insult to the orcs. Orc women are fighters as much as men are, they are strong and handle heavy work as much as men are, unless they're pregnant. Women in Kane are fronliners, carrying a shield and a single handed weapon of their choice to protect Kane archers, Kreimholds they're called.
"Ahh, I still remember Milim winning the Kreimhold tournament cycles before, she was a beauty in that fight" Herbak recalled.
"I still remember it, I was carrying little Aruz on the bleachers on his 5th spring star." Gilim recalls, while patting Aruz in his head.
"Aye, everyone was surprised that you brought a child after six cycles of absence." Herbak then looked at Aruz, Aruz was shorter and frail than both Herbak and Gilim. Herbak then tilted his head and said, "He really does look like his mother, doesn't he, Gilim?"
"Do I really look like mother, iku? I thought you were just teasing me." Aruz turned to his father, with confusion on his face.
"Aye, it's a shame we can't compare you to Milim now" Herbak said, seconds later he realized the words he just uttered, "Ah velat, that was mighty sensitive subject, I didn't-"
"It's ok ekum Herbak, I know you don't mean it." Aruz interrupted Herbak, he already moved on his mother's death.
Herbak is still feeling guilty about it.
"It's fine, me and Aruz already talked about this long ago." Gilim added, "She died trying to protect our dignity, if she didn't, Rogam would've died."
"Aye, she could break the enraged Rogam's neck if she didn't try to incapacitate him instead of killing him, she was too kind for our sake." Herbak remorse, until he saw a pouch that Aruz was carrying, "What are you carrying little man?"
"Oh this?" Aruz raised his pouch, carrying the corpse of the taphare he hunted, "This is just a taphare."
"A TAPHARE!" Herbak shouted, making every customers in Herbak's tavern turn in shock. Herbak climbed his counter and whispered to Aruz, "Is it really a taphare? horn and all?"
Aruz was confused, do he opened his pouch and reveals a white taphare with the horn in perfect condition.
Herbak was in shock and awe, "Gilim, I'm buying your taphare!"
Gilim shook his head, "Don't ask me, I didn't hunt it myself, you know what I hunt, Herbak."
"So little Aruz hunted this white taphare." Aruz was nervous, thinking that Herbak couldn't accept that he hunted a taphare.
"I'll give you a proposal, I'll pay you 20 chips for the fur and horn, and I'll give you a meal with the 3rd of the meat, mine's the breast part."
"Straight to negotiations, Herbak?" Gilim mused.
"You know the worth of taphares, I'm taking chances."
Aruz, confused turned his eyes to his father, almost begging for help, Gilim found this amusing, therefore he smiled, as if he's approving a permission unsaid.
"T-the meat is a deal, but I can't just hand you the fur and horn in good condition for 20 chips, I'd say 30."
"Bargaining already, did your father teach you that?" Herbak glanced at Gilim, and Gilim responded with a shrug, "I like this already. Then I'll stay with 20."
"30, the quality of fur and horn doesn't deserve 20, it's smooth like a baby's skin, just like its horn"
Herbak touched the fur, as Aruz said it is smooth, with little roughness to make his point valid, and the horn is sharp and shiny that it looked pristine.
"That's fair, 25." Herbak offered.
"25? that doesn't seem fair for my first clean kill, there's little to no damage to the fur."
"25, take it as me accepting your 30 and taking 5 chips as butcher and the ingredient used fee for your meal."
"T-that is fair. Alright ekum Herbak, 25 chips."
"You got a deal, good bargain." Herbak took the pouch with the taphare, checked the entire taphare's carcass for impurities. "Gilim, I think your boy could join the freben, they got an initiation going on two days from now."
"Freben?" Aruz asked, curious.
"They're Kane special archers, Aruz." Gilim replied.
"I-I don't think I'd be qualified to be a freben."
"Nonsense." Herbak retorts, "With clean kill like this in a taphare, you're already a great archer at this point."
"Whenever he wants to be part of it or not, I'd support it." Gilim added, "Beside, he want to become a scribe."
"A scribe? Then why the hell are you hunting then?" Herbak asked.
"I record my experiences and the things I know about." Aruz answers.
"Admirable. Anyway, I'll leave this conversation for father and son, I got a taphare to butcher." Herbak left, with the morotusk and taphare in tow, leaving both Gilim and Aruz on the counter.
"Iku, do you think I'd be qualified as a freben?" Aruz asked out of concern.
"I'm sure you can handle it, you've been with me on my hunting trips ever since your mother died."
"But what if I fail?"
"You're a scribe, fail or not, is an experience you would write down." Gilim straightened his posture and changed expression to imitate, "'Another event, another story to tell!' your mother would always say whenever she sees an obstacle, she rushes head front just to get a story out of it to tell. You may get your determination from me, but your curiosity and stubbornness is definitely from your mother."
It helped clear Aruz's mind, feeling motivated from words alone, "Iku, I would join the initiation."
Gilim's eyes widen as in response, then closed them, smirked and sighs, "You are definitely our child. You didn't even wait a day to decide." Both Gilim and Aruz was offered a cup of sweet wine by the barmaid working for Herbak, they both drank it simultaneously and both got a laugh at each other's froth beards.
"Here's my masterpiece! Taphare Roast!" Herbak enters with a plate of roasted taphare, the meat almost glows red as the light from the torches reflects against the meat, and the smoking hot steam carries a mouthwatering odour. Herbak placed the plate in front of Aruz, alongside a small pouch with 25 silver chips. Aruz split the taphare roast in half and offered half to his father.
"Aruz, I-" Gilim's words were interrupted by Aruz's glare, Aruz already knows that Gilim would initially decline an offer. Gilim lost and received the offer and both of them ate the taphare together.