Katniss Everdeen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stillplaying) wrote2012-04-25 06:23 pm
stillplaying) wrote2012-04-25 06:23 pm
Entry tags:
3rd Game
[Action;
Maybe they had caught on, these animals whose whispers she ignored when in the woods. She might not be the only hunter here, but she knows she's one of the more frequent. After all, she's out here every day. Sometimes she wanders further from the western lake but most of the time, she remains close to her treehouse home. Checking traps, gathering plants, losing herself in almost a ritualistic manner. It's the best way to keep memories at bay.
But on days like today, when game is scarce, it's harder. And she remembers. She lists the dead in her head, all the faces that haunt her in her dreams. The way they still all come together some nights to bury her alive. It's a recurring dream, always the same. Except, since coming here, she no longer sees Rue's face within the crows. It's the smallest of reassurances.
She's quietly whispering that list to herself, that list of all those people she's killed. All the deaths she's been responsible for. She has no right to be alive. She should be as dead as the rest of them. She deserves to be. And maybe that's what this is. Being back in a game again. Punishment.
But aside from that one awful shift, that horrible hijacking, it hasn't been so bad. And having Rue back... she doesn't deserve that.]
Cato. [The list continues as she continues to walk quietly in the forest, bow in hand.] Marvel. Glimm-
[The breaking of a twig stops her. She falls silent and looks around until her eyes fall on a young buck a few yards down, not even mature. The antlers are in velvet, barely little more than nubs sticking from the head. He looks as startled to see her as she is to see him. But a year or two older than any yearling. Perfect game. An arrow is drawn before she realizes what she's even doing.
There's only one moment of hesitation. When she remembers the last deer she brought down, with Gale's help, back in the woods of District Twelve. She's never attempted to kill one on her own. And a deer this size, it'll be too big for her to take back on her own. The amount of meat will be too much for two small girls.
But... she can think of people she's met here, potential allies, she'd happily share her meat with. Her arrow goes flying, piercing a lung. The buck bolts and her second shot isn't as true, hitting it in the midsection. And then she's running after it. It's not a long run. The animal stumbles over a log in its desperate flee and falls. She gets in one final shot, right in the heart.
There's a sense of grim satisfaction as she watches the deer exhale his final breath. Then she's on her knees, carefully removing and wiping her arrows. She places her bow on the ground and pushes the animal onto its back. She takes out her knife to make a small incision by the genitals. It's followed by a longer cut up towards the chest. Field dressing first. Then she'll request aid.
Voice;
So by the time she opens the journal, there are a couple of blood smears on her face. She looks uncharacteristically happy, though. Proud. She's never taken down her own deer before. It makes her forget any uncomfortableness that accompanies asking for help. She wipes some stray strand of hair from her face, leaving a small blood trail on her forehead.]
Is there a butcher in town? [An important question. Although she can probably butcher her deer on her own if worse comes to worse, she's never done it before. The first had been nearly attacked in the Hob, the other few taken to Rooba.] I caught a deer. There's so much meat. Too much for me and Rue alone. I'm willing to share. But I'll need help getting it to town, too.
Maybe they had caught on, these animals whose whispers she ignored when in the woods. She might not be the only hunter here, but she knows she's one of the more frequent. After all, she's out here every day. Sometimes she wanders further from the western lake but most of the time, she remains close to her treehouse home. Checking traps, gathering plants, losing herself in almost a ritualistic manner. It's the best way to keep memories at bay.
But on days like today, when game is scarce, it's harder. And she remembers. She lists the dead in her head, all the faces that haunt her in her dreams. The way they still all come together some nights to bury her alive. It's a recurring dream, always the same. Except, since coming here, she no longer sees Rue's face within the crows. It's the smallest of reassurances.
She's quietly whispering that list to herself, that list of all those people she's killed. All the deaths she's been responsible for. She has no right to be alive. She should be as dead as the rest of them. She deserves to be. And maybe that's what this is. Being back in a game again. Punishment.
But aside from that one awful shift, that horrible hijacking, it hasn't been so bad. And having Rue back... she doesn't deserve that.]
Cato. [The list continues as she continues to walk quietly in the forest, bow in hand.] Marvel. Glimm-
[The breaking of a twig stops her. She falls silent and looks around until her eyes fall on a young buck a few yards down, not even mature. The antlers are in velvet, barely little more than nubs sticking from the head. He looks as startled to see her as she is to see him. But a year or two older than any yearling. Perfect game. An arrow is drawn before she realizes what she's even doing.
There's only one moment of hesitation. When she remembers the last deer she brought down, with Gale's help, back in the woods of District Twelve. She's never attempted to kill one on her own. And a deer this size, it'll be too big for her to take back on her own. The amount of meat will be too much for two small girls.
But... she can think of people she's met here, potential allies, she'd happily share her meat with. Her arrow goes flying, piercing a lung. The buck bolts and her second shot isn't as true, hitting it in the midsection. And then she's running after it. It's not a long run. The animal stumbles over a log in its desperate flee and falls. She gets in one final shot, right in the heart.
There's a sense of grim satisfaction as she watches the deer exhale his final breath. Then she's on her knees, carefully removing and wiping her arrows. She places her bow on the ground and pushes the animal onto its back. She takes out her knife to make a small incision by the genitals. It's followed by a longer cut up towards the chest. Field dressing first. Then she'll request aid.
Voice;
So by the time she opens the journal, there are a couple of blood smears on her face. She looks uncharacteristically happy, though. Proud. She's never taken down her own deer before. It makes her forget any uncomfortableness that accompanies asking for help. She wipes some stray strand of hair from her face, leaving a small blood trail on her forehead.]
Is there a butcher in town? [An important question. Although she can probably butcher her deer on her own if worse comes to worse, she's never done it before. The first had been nearly attacked in the Hob, the other few taken to Rooba.] I caught a deer. There's so much meat. Too much for me and Rue alone. I'm willing to share. But I'll need help getting it to town, too.
[Action]
After bringing back over the sack of tools, he's going to work off skinning the deer much like in this guide, sawing through the pelvis and all. When it comes time to saw off the hind legs:]
Ever hear of hockskins?
[Action]
At his question, she shakes her head.]No.
[Action]
That's the skin down here. Most hunters throw it away, because it's thin, but it's very strong. Wrap them around the hilt of a weapon, or that bow, and it'll make a good grip.
[Action]
Is there a special way to get it off?
[Action]
That it's thin makes it troublesome, but you just skin it like anything else. It's a creative process, but if you want to get started on that you can.
[Action]
Every now and then, though, she does glance upward to study the progress being made on the rest of the deer.]
[Action]
Not sure if you'd want to make leather, but if you get another kill, every deer has a large enough brain to tan its own hide.
[Action]
It makes her feel uncomfortable. Dumb. But she tries her best to just pay attention and not give in to her own growing frustration with herself.]
I'll remember that.
[Action]
Still soft.
[Action]
Can you remove the velvet without damaging the antlers?
[Action]
[With his other hand, Shikamaru pulls out a small container from his vest, about three inches in diameter, to collect it in.]
[Action]
Her first solo deer. She needs some memento.]
[Action]
All yours.
[Action]
Thank you.
[Action]
[He walks around to the other side of the now skinless deer.]
We'll get the sinew out for your bow strings, then we'll be good to start cutting up the meat. I brought ice, but you'll wanna get a cool place for it soon.
[Action]
[She'll salt and smoke most of what she takes for her and Rue tonight. What's leftover will be carefully stored in a makeshift icebox to use in the next couple of days. It's not the best of set ups, but it works for them.]
[Action]
Wanna give this one a try, while you have a guide around?
[Action]
Sure.
[Action]
[Which is obviously what they're working on. He hands her the knife.]
Make a shallow slit along the full length of the spine, and just barely to one side of it.
[Action]
The instructions are simple, easy to follow. The cut is neat, the years of practice behind it evident.] Next?
[Action]
Now we expose the tendon. Peel back the meat and tissue along the cut - not too much, just a thin layer.
[The tendon will be under that: a band of wet, blue-white looking threads lying over the deeper meat.]
[Action]
It's easy to see what he's talking about. Her work remains sharp and precise. Confident. And pretty soon, the tendon is exposed.]
[Action]
The best way to get the sinew out without wasting meat is to work it right off the muscle, with something dull. [Like the dull knife he gave her, which he points to.] You slide that under the tendon, and pull and scrape it free.
[Action]
So before she begins to remove the sinew, she gestures to his hand.] What did that mean?
[Action]
This?
[Action]
[Action]