Kismet’s Tale

      Alden returned to the orphanage and saw the kids waiting as usual. They took the bread from the basket, ran off to the living room where they watched their morning educational show.

It was produced by the Holmian government to introduce  a fun way for the kids to get educated while having fun. Some of the characters were hand-drawn animated with real-live action stars playing a silly role.

Alden left the kids alone, and placed the breadbasket in the kitchen. In the kitchen he found Nana and Thomas having a conversation with a cup of coffee in their hands.

Thomas turned to Alden. “Good morning, Alden.”

“Yo there, Nana, good morning.”

“Good morning, dear. Early as always.”

“Ah, I better get this out first. They want me to take Thomas here to hunt a wild hog and the game to every block captain, if that’s alright with you, Thomas.”

Thomas looked worried. “Should I do it?”

He asked Nana for advice. Nana took a long sip of her cup of coffee and answered. “It should allow you to get closer to the community, of course it would be decided by you, sweetie.”

“I do know how to forage and hunt. If it will make the people feel close to me then I accept it.”

“Cool, then we can go now. Nana, do you mind if you lend him your rifle?”

“It’s a six-shot revolver rifle, so it might take time for you to load it.”

“A six-shot? Haven’t wielded one.”

“It’s mostly a reminder of my time in the military. It was given to me when I retired from the service crew. It has rather expensive ammunition, being a .300 caliber. So use it wisely, dear. How about I’ll show you my baby?”

She went upstairs and carried her rifle case alongside and placed it on the kitchen table. It was a revolver with the barrel of a rifle, but it was still a solid rifle with a rather well-built and polished frame.

“Here she is, made from the Wilde back in the Old Empire, Angelus Company, one hell of a brand. Here, look at this, I even got the signature of Ms. Rosa, the Lady Angelus herself, a shame that I couldn’t get the signature of the founder of the shooting club. Take care of her now, will you? There are many rifles, but this one is mine. And I’m handing my life to you by letting you use it.”

Alden moved closed to Thomas’s ear. “Take it. She made me hunt when I was a newbie, and I scored a deer from 150 yards away during that time. Nana here had been trained by one of the shooters from one of the snipers in the West of the Old Empire so be careful not to damage it.”

Thomas gingerly accepted the rifle, hovered his pointer finger on the trigger, and felt the weight of the rifle. “Well-balanced, and quite the sight. I think I could shoot a target easily with this. Do you mind if I adjust the magnification?”

Nana nodded. While Thomas was doing that he took his .30-06 rifle that he was using.

 

***

 

The two entered a trail leading out of Lano. The town itself was surrounded by forestry. It was a rather dense and forested rural area, far from the concrete and steel skyscrapers of the new era.

They followed a dirt trail leading deeper into the forest where a game might be.

“Well, I’d asked you to practice with a few rounds, but you'll have to pay for the ammunition,” he thumped his shoulder. “You can take the lead if you want to.”

Thomas stopped walking, and looked down. “There are a lot of animals here.”

“This forest here is full of game. Melia actually had me come here before, and had me hunt down my game to offer to the block captains. See, the block captains can be rather...wary of strangers, but you offer them some peace offering, they’ll think more of you than some newcomer. Well, expect some jokes about your race, but as long as you tolerate them, they’ll keep it down.”

“Discrimination is a thing here?”

“It isn’t as bad since we had the demikin to put our hate on. Nonetheless, there are days where they can’t keep their mouth shut, and they’ll say some things that will either get pissed off or laugh it off. My advice? Laugh it off, and be better than being angry. I learned that lesson hard when trying to deal with some of the residents here. Block Three’s street is quite unwelcoming, but they don’t take it that far unless you keep on minding them.”

Thomas nodded. Alden and Thomas continued to follow the trail leading deeper into the forest where they eventually got into a place with giant ferns that were blocking their way. Thomas followed behind Alden who hacked away the ferns blocking their path, when they reached a certain point that was marked with a signpost, Alden started walking on a fallen tree, before making Thomas pause by holding his hand out.

“You’re a magiborne, so you can keep up, right?”

“What?”

“We’re taking the faster trail, are you okay with that?”

“Sure.”

“Tie your rifle then, try not to drop Nana’s rifle, okay?”

Thomas nodded. Alden held his breath for a second, before he started using the tree branches to go over the fern trail, behind was Thomas who effortlessly grabbed onto the branches, vaulting, swinging, and bouncing off the trees to jump while following Alden who was like a monkey himself.

When they arrived on a rather thinner side of the forest. Alden landed on a clear area and scanned the area. Thomas landed softly, and did not make a sound.

“Hmm, you are pretty athletic yourself, Alden.”

“I did somehow survive a boat incident despite banging my head. So in a way it made me realize that I should keep myself fit since who knows what can happen in this life?”

“That makes sense,” Thomas looked around, then took a sniff of the forest. “There seemed to be something moving.”

“I do smell animal scat,” Alden traveled his gaze on the vegetation. “Hard to shoot here, I really don’t like shooting beyond four hundred yards. I prefer two-fifty yards since it's clear, and I don’t have to worry about shooting through debris and trees.”

“Makes sense, so you want me to take the shot, right?”

“Course, you’re the one presenting the game to the block captains, so it’d be better for your shot. I’ll be your spotter, and you take the shot.”

Thomas nodded. The two started stalking the forest area, rolling the balls of their feet, and moving silently in a low-position, and sometimes crawling through the woods.

They followed the smell of animal droppings, watching for tracks, and looking at any plants and berries that have been bitten off by any animal. Alden recalled that there was a hog terrorizing the forest, but there was a fat chance that they could encounter this hog in this forest unless they dedicate an entire week to catching one.

The two spent two hours in a position before moving to another. It was then that Alden spotted a three meter tall white elk that was taller than most of the animals they’ve seen so far.

Thomas gawked at the beautiful creature before firmly grasping on his rifle. He took a prone shooting position while Alden kept his rifle’s scope on the white elk.

“That’s two hundred yards. Only thing you have to worry about is that bush right there, can you hit it?”

“It’s fine,” he adjusted the magnification of his scope before he took a precise shot that went through the eye of the elk.

The white elk stood for a moment like it didn’t know that it was shot before it tumbled over. Alden was the first to rush out, and followed by Thomas who looked at the giant elk with a rather elated look on his face.

“Never seen one before, this big, and white.”

“I’ll be, Mr. Lucas always said that there’s some white elk here roaming around, damn, you lucky that you found this.”

 

Alden circled around the big beast. “Damn this one should weigh almost seven hundred kilos. Umm, guess we’d be dragging this out of this field first.”

Thomas nodded. He held on to the neck area and lifted the neck and torso area of the beast. While Alden lifted the bottom of the beast. His hands were tightly gripping to the fur of the white elf, and the two slowly traversed the forested area, taking a stop when their hands were aching. It took them three hours to move the gigantic beast out of the way, and it was only when they were close to the area that a local spotted them carrying the giant white elk who then whistled at the sight of the beast.

The local offered some help, and brought his truck to help them carry the white elk to the tagging station where the local ranger stared at the creature.

“Damn, that is one hell of an elk. You shot this?”

Alden thumped Thomas’s shoulder. “This here shot him right in the eye, first shot. I’m only the spotter, Chief.”

Ranger Zackary inspected the eye, and saw the revolver-rifle. “So you that magiborne?”

Thomas nodded.

“Seemed like Nana trusts you enough to loan her rifle. Very well, I’ll keep my promise. Well, what’s your name, lad?”

“Thomas.”

“Very well, Thomas. How about you process this beast, then I’ll endorse you to the people around here?”

“I’ve been hunting, but I haven’t learned how to process.”

“That so? Yo, Alden, you think you can process these monsters?”

“If you let me borrow that knife of yours, then I’ll serve you the tenderloins of the damn thing.”

Chief Zackary took his knife, flipped it, and handed the blade to Alden. It was a slick hunting knife that was about seven-inches in length.

“Do you mind if we use your butchering station?”

“Be my guess!”

The local named Reno drove his truck to the butchering station, and asked Alden and Thomas for the backstrap of the elk. The horn of the elk was going to be sold to add to the funds of the orphanage, which the Chief clicked his tongue at, but understood how little the funds the orphanage had.

Alden, Thomas, Chief, and Reno hauled the giant elk to the butchering station. Alden started by skinning and gutting the elk. He took the organs he wanted to keep such as heart, kidneys, liver.

Alden then made his first cut from the tail to the back of the head. Then he peeled the hide from one side, Then he started working on the hind quarter, backstrap, tenderloins, and front quarter. And lastly peeled the meat off in between the ribs. Then he started to do the other side and remove those quarters.  After that, he sawed off the neck behind the head and at the top of the torso.

It was already night by the time he was done processing the elk, and during that time some locals saw what was happening and started to gather around.

Some even brought beers, chairs, and asked the Chief if they could start a campfire. It didn’t take long for the word to spread about the giant elk that the newcomer caught.

Seeing that there was now a crowd, Chief brought out some of the wild vegetables he foraged, and told one of them to take out some big pot for them to make a stew. Alden meanwhile worked on cleaning out the guts of the elk, planning to make sausage casings from them.

The rest of the leftovers of the elk became part of the big pot while Alden had asked Reno to help him in loading the rest of the meat on the truck. Since they were the one who hunted it, he took the liberty of procuring enough meat for them to last for a month or two. The rest of the families in the community were going to get two kilos of meat while the block captains were going to get five kilos to show their sincerity.

After loading the meat on the truck, he and Reno decided to join the campfire.

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