#earthrunes

She looks apologetic about

"No no, he's healed up well enough" Sir Sergei says "Your focus is on the hawk. She needs to hunt rabbits alone for a bit. you will help her. We don't want her thinking beagles are prey"

"Yes, Sir."

"Sir, since she's hooded again, could you demonstrate the gesture again?"

Sir Sergei displays "You , in a sense, launch her at the target"

Adam watches carefully and nods. "Yes Sir. I have it now."

"Good. Show me while she's still not seeing"

Adam repeats the gesture.

"Good.. now, take her out and try again..."

The pretty bird is agitated.. she's not sure what she did wrong but she's ready to kill herself a rabbit.. or beagle, or wahtever just get it right

"Ssshhhhh....." He soothes the bird and carries her away to try again.

Kansas takes flight as directed

And soon, Adam and she are getting into the swing of things. The woods... the hunt

and the field!

"There you go!" Adam cheers her "You got this!"

And she does. Soon, Adam gets not one, but two rabbits. One a smaller coney, the other larger. He might feel bad about it, but Kansas just looks so proud, and even in the hunt she is beautiful. And..she seems almost grateful to him.Trust in her eyes. He guides her well now

"There you go, you crazy girl..... that's right." He hoods her again and takes the rabbits to Sir Sergei (and Alanza).

And finds Alanza excited. "Adam, I got a rabbit... i mean the beagles did And .. oh!" She sees his "You got two"

Sir Sergei nods approvingly at both "We eat well tonight. I will show you how to skin the fur.."

Alanza nods, but looks unsure "it's going to be gross, isn't it?"

Sergei says "Gross is relative... I assure you, waste, needless decay of that which is unused, is far more 'gross' to me"

"I feel kinda bad for the rabbits but...."

"The rabbits are already hunted. I assure you. There are foxes, owls, and other hunters after them every dday of hteir lives. And it is a good thing, else rabbits would devour every thing of green "

"Yeah. And I guess it's a little more fair? I mean, we're thinking people; we could out-think rabbits. At least the hawk or the dog is another animal; level playing field, right?"

"You might be surprised how hard it is to out think an animal when the animal is a master of evasion"

"Well, then maybe it's more fair to us than the rabbit." He grins.

An amused twinkle in the Varich's eye "Yes yes, you both are learning" He motions them to follow..

what happens next is simple. The animals are rewarded.

And put away

And dressing and skinning rabbits commences. A bit gruesome but fascinating

Adam watches and learns carefully; he's willing to do the work if Sir Sergei will let him.

Indeed, not only let, Sergei does not coddle ,and he insists on focus, and when focus is given, then Adam gets to show he was paying attention

which, he was. Soon the boy is getting the knack

"Good. There is a grain to it"

"Like this?"

"Quite so..."

"Cool! A little gross, but cool."

"Lot of gross, " Alanza says making a face as she tries. The Varich moves to help her

"It's not too bad. And hey, if we're going to kill it and eat it, only makes sense to clean it too."

"Precisely"

From the Varich

Adam finishes up and wipes his hands clean.

And soon Alanza is doing the same "Now, the meat part, please take it to the kitchens. The cooks there are not squeemish"

"I can do it, Alanza, if you want."

"Alanza, if you wish Adam to do it for you, that is your choice, but if you cannot respect the animal enough to see it through all aspects of the hunt, I have little need of your studying" Sir Sergie says

Alanza stiffens at that, then says "I can handle it, Thank you both"

" 'Course you can." Adam supports.

And she rises to head to the kitchen

Adam grabs his carcasses and follows.

The door opens to the kitchen.