That’s oddly poetic
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3rd POV
"So my aim sucks huh."
Felix glanced over his shoulder at Sebastian, giving him a deadpan look. Over the last week Felix and Jeongin ran between the village and the crater, training and prepping for the big hunt. And no Sebastian cant aim to save his life. Thankfully he can at least throw somewhere other than the ground.
"No dude you can't throw for crap. That's why I'm going to teach you spear throwing"
Felix continued as the two walked toward the crater ramp, they were the last group to leave on account of Sebastian being taller than anyone in the crater and Amelia needing to jerry rig a spear big enough for him.
"Why is a spear going to help?"
"Our hope is that you are going to benefit from throwing that extra weight which hopefully will keep the throw under control"
"Okay, I thought Amelia was coming with us? Yesterday she said the two of you came in a group"
"Small change of plans, her and I are going on a midnight hunt later, but you and I are going to do what we can until then"
Sebastian nodded, mostly to himself because Felix turned back around. The two climbed the ramp to exit the crater in silence. They had pulled straws with the whole group and they were assigned the south east stretch of forest. Meaning they were supposed to hunt in that area to keep away from the rest of the hunting parties.
The pair walked up the ramp and veered off to the south east. The wind whistled through the trees. All the leaves have gone dormant, drooping down on their stems and dimming in color.
With everything packed together you could hear for miles. As the two walked the grass cracked and crunched under their feet the evening air feeling bitterly cold as the wind whipped past them.
Eventually the two came up to some large bushes and ducked behind them. Felix ensured they were down wind from the easiest shooting position.
˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳૰ꔷ°ꔷ૰˳
Felix perked up frantically tapping Sebastian to wake him. They had been waiting in the clearing for a few hours and the sun was just starting to set. It was the perfect time for animals to come out and he had just realized they were staring at an animal the whole time they were here. A neviat was sitting at the base of a tree only a few feet away. Its grey legs and sides as well as its green and blue dappling along its spine had successfully fooled Felix into believing it was a rock. It must be waiting for an Imak or a bunny to hop by.
Hauling a barely awake Sebastian to his feet, Felix silently held a finger to his lips and pointed at the neviat. It had gone unnoticed for hours and only gave away its position by lifting its large triangle ears.
Noticing that the little mammal was obviously hearing something he followed the ears direction. In the distance about 20 feet away was a naepa, exactly what they were waiting for.
Felix tapped Sebastian and pointed at the naepa and signaled to wait. He really wanted to get both animals but that meant Sebastian would have to get one of the animals and he would get the other.
So he sized up the naepa, it was a large doe, surprisingly she rivaled the size of a buck. The only indication that she wasn't a buck was the lack of a black stripe on her nose bridge. If the boys were lucky Sebastian would be able to hit her himself.
Felix had made up his mind and that was good because the naepa was steadily getting closer.
Yet again he tapped Sebastian, when the boy looked at him he grabbed his spear off the ground and held it out for the boy. Sebastian took the spear slowly, his eyes glinted with hesitation. Felix then pointed at the naepa and leaned over to whisper in Sebastian's ear. Voice barely audible above the wind whistling through the trees.
"You are going to count to three and spear her, do just what we trained, I'm going to get this neviat"
Sebastian looked frantically at Felix, the boy had never been hunting, never killed anything other than bugs, and had barely any practice with the spear in his hand. Heck he had only thrown the thing successfully four whole times. .
Seeing the panic, Felix signaled Sebastian to take a deep breath and whispered in his ear again.
"Go for the heart, if you miss you will at least hit a shoulder or leg to keep it in place long enough for me to back you up"
Sebastian nodded as Felix backed up and carefully pulled his bow off his shoulder and notched an arrow.
Turning so he was aimed right between the neviats ears he looked at Sebastian drew back his bow and nodded.
He watched as Sebastian took a few steadying breaths and silently counted to three.
The spear and arrow flew in tandem. The arrow hit its mark driving straight between the ears and into the ground. Yet the spear missed and landed in the naepas shoulder wrenching a teeth grinding screech from the animals mouth.
Without so much as a second Felix notched an arrow and sent it for the animal's heart as it tried to run with a spear preventing its movement.
"Good job kid, the way you hit it would've let you finish it off."
"Uh thanks, that wasn't pleasant"
"Yeah I know, it gets easier, and as you get better you know the animal is in less pain"
Felix walked over to the neviat as he spoke gesturing to its curled up form. You could've been fooled into thinking the creature was sleeping if there wasn't an arrow going straight through its head into the ground.
"He didn't experience much pain, if he felt any, he probably didn't even realize anything happened before he took his forever nap. If it cuts you up to hear them die, know that the harder you work and the better you get the less they will even notice when they die"
Sebastian walked over to Felix as he spoke watching the boy pull the arrow out of the ground and lay the neviat on its side.
"That's oddly poetic"
"You wanna go find a long stick, well not a stick, a small log maybe two? I will deal with the naepa so you don't have too"
Felix glanced up at Sebastian watching him nod and walk away a bit. Then he stood and walked to the naepa. It had flopped into an awkward forward position, its neck strait out in front of it, both legs on its left side curled under it well it's right legs stuck out at odd angles. It head lolled to the right. Its eyes were wide open and the spear stuck out of its shoulder on its right side.
It broke Felix's heart every time he saw an animal that clearly had gone out in fear and pain.
The boy took a deep breath and pulled the spear out, there wasn't much blood because the spear had simply lodged itself under the naepas shoulder blade. He then moved up to the naepas head and closed its eyes, easing its expression into a sleeping one rather than one of terror.
With a sigh he stood and followed Sebastian off into the woods, the boy was dragging a forked tree branch over to where the animals were.
"Well isn't that convenient"
"My exact thoughts"
Picking up the end where the fork came together Felix helped Sebastian walk the branch over to the middle of the animals.
"Here snap these little odds and ends off, I'm gonna get these guys on this."
Felix walked over to the naepa without waiting for a response. The sound of snapping rang through the silence of the forest. He rolled the animal onto its side and grabbed its two front legs dragging the around two hundred pound naepa over to the logs.
It took a little finagling but he managed to tie the naepas legs to the logs and he walked over to the neviat.
Scooping up the lanky animal was slightly difficult. Roughly thirty pounds of fur, and neviat was oddly difficult to hold but Felix managed. Oddly the mass of fur made him think of Dominic, though the arrow straight down through the neviats head soured the mood a bit.
With a sigh he tied the animal's paws and secured him to one side of the log.
"Alright, you can take the front, I won't make you look at them."
"Thanks, It's a little weird knowing I'm the reason it's dead."
The two hoisted the log up. Sebastian putting the forked end on his shoulders one log on each shoulder. It was weird to think that just about a season ago they were rotting in the district, unable to even see any animals other than the occasional desert bird. Felix placed the non forked end on his shoulder and the two started forward.
"You get used to that eventually. My advice is , just like everyone else here, learn the village technique and you can 'send them off to sleep' as the villagers say. The better you are with your accuracy the less they even know they are dying"
"Once again that's very poetic, do you feel sad when you uh, you know?"
"Yes and no, it's necessary to my survival and well it does end their life. I'm confident in my abilities and I know they aren't in pain."
Sebastian hummed a response as the two continued walking back to the crater.
Felix would occasionally speak, directing Sebastian on where to turn, he eventually started explaining how to get back to the crater. Pointing out certain landmarks, animal breeding grounds, oddly shaped rocks, trees that looked specifically different, streams, and even animal pathways that were worn into the frozen grass.
He would explain how he knew exactly where he was in relation to the crater and by extension the village. Using landmarks and the direction of the sun.