Lu'ca is Ba'ka

1 Month later :

It's been a month since Luca had joined the Sua'jiki tribe and started learning under Sarr'ina. During his time here he's made acquaintances with many of the tribes people, especially after donning the bears pelt and becoming pretty recognisable since he started wearing it. The memories of the bear's roars were fresh in the minds of those who were present and they wouldn't scorn someone who had risked his life to save them, despite them not knowing that nothing was risked at all.

Of course this didn't stop the tribes scrutiny being levelled at him, he was to be a hunter that'll replace those lost in the attack but so far he'd literally not caught anything edible, this has caused the few people that Das'ju managed to convince of Luca's incompetence to become more vocal in their complains towards him, however Sarr'vuln waved them off saying you couldn't expect Lu'ca to learn to hunt effectively in such a short period of time. Though this didn't quell the majority of the concerns towards him and some even argued that having a skilful hunter in Sarr'ina stuck teaching him was counter productive. Regardless Sarr'vuln made his stance known and punished those who'd overstep those bounds.

Luca himself was having a tough time, he had continued learning under Sarr'ina to make things and hunt but his progress was limited in the latter activity. He was clumsy, not aware of his surroundings, weak, easy to tire and a terrible spear thrower. This has Sarr'ina slightly exasperated but continued to try and teach him nonetheless. She had seen his fitness slowly improving over the month along with his hunting skills but it was still far from being "good" in any stretch of the imagination.

Another thing that piqued Sarr'ina's interest was Luca's weird obsession with hunting squirrels? She had tried to ask him about it but he always shrugged her off with an excuse of noncommittal answer. Truly it was an almost baffling thing to watch Luca spot a squirral and immediately scream before running after it... It almost reminded her of one of the Karaskir tribes many wolves.

This leads up to now, with Luca crouched behind a tree, spear raised over his shoulder with his knuckles wrapped so tightly around it's base that they've turned white. His gaze is firmly locked onto a rabbit in a clearing, peacefully chewing on some vegetation, all the while keeping it's head up to watch for the common airborne predators in this area.

Sarr'ina hovers behind him with her bow drawn taut, aiming in-front of the animal in the likely occasion that Luca misses and causes it to flee.

Luca takes a deep breath to calm his nerves before reeling he hand back and throwing the spear at the hare as hard as he possible can. The flint tipped spear whistles through the air at the hare, Luca stifles his cheer as he's sure it'll be a hit this time!

...

*Thump*

It lands in the ground beside the hair, penetrating deeply signifying that it'd be a lethal blow had it been a couple inches to the left. The hare doesn't hesitate and tries to bolt away due to the sound but is shot in the haunch by an arrow that stops it mid-jump.

Sarr'ina pats him on the shoulder as they walk over to it, "Do not worry Lu, you almost hit it this time." she says gently.

He doesn't say anything but just nods with a determined look on his face, this hadn't been the first time she had comforted him for his failure and it certainly wouldn't be the last. It had originally cheered him up and motivated him but due to how many times he's heard the phrase he can't help but feel as if she's pitying him, though she probably was.

He tugs his spear out of the ground while appearing the tip to make sure there was no damage to it, he'd had to replace the flint atop it many times already as it's rather fragile, especially when hitting trees, rocks or dirty... Luckily this time he seems to have hit a soft spot. He's interrupted from from examining his spear when he hears "Lu!" being shouted from his friend.

"Yes Ina?" he replies.

"Come and practise skinning again!" she asks, making him grimace.

Gutting and skinning was by far the thing he disliked the most about hunting, with the lack of sanitary conditions in the wild he found himself worried for the tribe, with how they treated raw meat and preservation of it, it wouldn't surprise him if a disease started spreading. Obviously he wasn't worried for himself as he tried to keep as clean as possible... That and his immortality, an ability he still hadn't told anyone and hopefully would never have to.

He walks over to Sarr'ina and sits next to the still struggling hare that innocently looks up at him, as if pleading for it's life. Ignoring the almost human eyes he grabs it's body and neck before quickly twisting as Sarr'ina had shown him, this breaks it's neck with a loud *CRACK* ending it's life as painlessly as possible. He appreciated the care the Sua'jiki tribe took to mercifully execute animals, while he didn't used to care about animal rights in the past, personally taking a life has changed his perspective on things. There was a time when he'd just haphazardly stab his prey until it died, screaming as it's lifeblood pooled on the floor. Luca shakes his head to try and rid those thoughts from his head, he had nightmares of his first time intentionally killing an animal and he hadn't been kind to it and seemed to haunt his dreams with it's whimpering shrieks of pain.

Obviously with how attuned to nature the tribe is Sarr'ina was appalled with him for a number of days, ignoring all of his attempts to apologise.

"Lu? Is something wrong?" his mentor asks from the side, seeing him contemplate something upsetting while still grasping the twitching hare.

He shakes his head, "Just remembering how badly I'd treated animals before..."

Sarr'ina nods, "All life is sacred, it is not our own and belongs to nature. We must be careful and respectful towards it and what we take from it, lest it sends its emissaries for us." she says, making Luca wonder if something like that had actually happened. He'd seen her use what looked like magic in the past, it was on a woman giving birth who was having trouble, Luca was told to observe as Sarr'ina ran her glowing green hands over the woman's engorged stomach, causing her screams to quieten and eventually stop. Allowing Sarr'ina to easily deliver the baby without any trouble. Luca was amazed that she was not only knowledgeable enough to deliver a baby but also to use some sort of ritual magic to soothe the woman's pain. When asked about it she had told him it was a gift from nature itself. Something he had found deeply unsatisfying and indeed, unscientific.

Again, shaking these memories away he turns his attention to the task set before him. First he makes a cuts across it's belly, not penetrating the skin but instead just deep enough to get a grip on it's fur. Once he's able to get a good enough handhold he tightens his grip before quickly tearing downwards, causing the majority of the skin to come off with one pull. Looking down he notices that he'd forgotten to take the BLOODY ARROW OUT! This has caused a large tare in the skin that'll make it difficult to make much from it, especially clothing.

"Are you sure you are ok Lu? You seem tired?" Sarr'ina asks, wondering why he's stopping so much, unaware that he's having flashbacks in order to give exposition to the readers...

"I-I'm fine. I just made a mistake is all..." he slowly retrieves the arrow from the rabbit, making sure to try and keep the flint intact so it could immediately be used again. Once done he tears the rest of the skin off before proceeding to gut it and dump the useless inedible organs on the floor for scavengers to eat. He hands the skinless carcass to Sarr'ina who hangs it from her quiver as they begin to look around for more things to hunt.