The soft, refreshing breeze of spring that normally blew through the town of Puden had started to become cold and painful to inhale as winter approached.
CRUNCH!
The disturbing sound of bones being broken rang out through the slaughterhouse as a white haired man with listless blue eyes brought down his large butchering knife, Cleanly severing through the iron–like bones of the flawless ice bunny.
Blood splashed all over the room, no one was spared, not even the one who initiated this gore.
A spot of blood smeared the lower part of his left cheek.
The feel of blood against his skin was oddly cold, contrary to what one would expect from a recently deceased animal.
The metallic smell of blood filled his nose as he temporarily ignored the stain of blood on his cheek and instead removed the inner organs of the flawless ice bunny, staining its pristine white fur in the process.
'Another dud.'
The white haired man remarked as he skillfully and without waste, gutted the innards of the flawless Ice bunny.
When the flawless Ice bunny is killed during winter there was a certain chance of its bones solidifying into a durable piece of flawless ice jade that sold for a lot in the market.
This was the twentieth ice bunny he had butchered today, but not one flawless Ice bunny had solidified into Jade. The air of good luck was avoiding him this winter.
Without wasting time to sulk he moved on to the next ice bunny, He brought down his cleaver in one swift motion, cleanly severing the head of the ice bunny.
This time the blood didn't splash all over the room like last time, in fact it didn't even spill at all. Good luck was on his side, what he had been expecting all morning finally happened, the blood didn't spill out because the bunny's entire body had solidified into a piece of flawless ice Jade.
"It seems good luck wasn't avoiding me after all."
He said to himself, his listless sea–blue eyes resting on the translucent Jade statue that lay on the cutting board, entranced by its otherworldly beauty, but not for long, As time waited for no one, and the icy breeze of winter showed no mercy to the poor, if one wasn't prepared for it's wrath.
He diligently went on to butcher the rest of the bunnies, only managing to get one more piece of flawless Ice Jade.
"Overall, this is a good haul." Sol remarked as he wiped off the blood, that had spilled earlier, off his face.
He had harvested two pieces of flawless Ice Jade, One the size of a palm which sold for twenty–five silvers and another piece the size of six palms sold for a whopping gold coin.
This was such good luck, in his eight years of butchering flawless Ice bunnies — after his mother had died —not once had he got a piece of Jade this big, It was such good luck.
But it was to be expected, he had been doing this for eight years, constantly every winter, in order to one day gain enough money to become a warrior. And now he had finally struck the Jackpot.
A gold coin and twenty silvers was more than enough to buy the average training manual, but if he added the rest of his savings he would be able to buy an excellent training manual.
"A good haul indeed."
Sol wasted no more time relishing in his good fortune, the morning rush was almost over, if he did not get to the market place now, he might not be able to sell the rabbit meat he had butchered. As for the Jade, he had a regular customer who he sold it to.
He swiftly sorted out the different parts of the bunny into a wooden basket; the livers in one basket, the skin in the other, the muscles in another, and so on till there were no parts left.
After he had sorted the different parts of bunny meat into different baskets, he sealed them with a thin layer of cloth, and then put all the small baskets of meat into a bigger basket which he hung on his back.
The weight of the basket was very heavy, so heavy in fact that the wooden straps of the basket which were hanging on to his arms were piercing into his skin.
But even with that amount of weight Sol could easily carry it.
That was the perks of a young body, when Sol was older he could barely stand without having to struggle for seconds on end.
Sol adjusted the straps of the wooden basket that rested on his back before taking off to the market place.
Huh ~ phoo ~ huh ~ phoo ~ huh ~ phoo
Sol panted quietly as he laid down his wooden basket containing the bunny meat.
He had ran all the way here from his house, in order to get here early—before the line got out of hand.
"Little Sol? You still sell meat?" Said the chubby old woman that sat at the meat counter.
"With the amount of money you've accumulated over the years, you could probably live the rest of your life like a king, there's no need to stress yourself to bring meat here every month."
Sol's eyes glazed over her from bottom up.
"I have no interest living like a king, there's only one thing I have interest in and that's to become a warrior just like my father."
That statement was riddled with lies Sol did not truly want to become a warrior because his father was once one and neither was it the only thing he had interest in.
Sol was full of many desires, but he just felt it less troublesome to tell her his true thoughts.
"You want to become a warrior? Why? I've heard the path of a warrior is bloody a filled with countless dangers."
The meat woman meat woman asked sol in astonishment.
"Even so, no matter the difficulties, I still want to be a warrior."