Trail of the Gods_ The Morcyth Saga Book Four - Brian S. Pratt [127]
Once she’s done eating, she begins hunting through the woods for sticks just the right length. If one meets her needs, she picks it up and continues in her search for more until she has a dozen.
Returning back to camp, she takes her pack, along with the sticks, and settles down on a fallen log close enough to keep James in sight. Using her knife, she carefully carves off all excess protrusions and evens the stick out. If one is too long for her needs, she trims it with her knife until it’s absolutely perfect.
Two of the sticks have to be discarded after discovering flaws while she was trimming them. When the remaining ten sticks are arrayed next to her, she reaches into her backpack and pulls out a neatly rolled up envelope of leather. Unrolling it, she examines the feathers she acquired days before James and Jiron arrived. She already has them separated into sets of three, each set of exact length, breadth, and width.
She takes one set from within the envelope and sets them on the log next to her before picking up the first of the ten sticks. Using her knife carefully, she cuts slits into the wood at one end and slowly and meticulously inserts the feathers into the slits. Once all three feathers are embedded securely within the wood, she sets it down and picks up the next stick, repeating the process. One after another, she continues until all ten sticks are fledged.
Before rolling the envelope back up, she checks the remaining feathers and sees she has enough for a little over a dozen more arrows. Going to have to hunt for more soon.
Placing the rolled up envelope back in her pack, she then pulls out a leather pouch with a drawstring securing the top closed.
Opening the drawstring, she carefully upends the pouch and pours arrowheads out onto the log. She has many different types and styles, even some crossbow bolt heads which she could use in a pinch, though they wouldn’t be greatly effective.
Picking up one of the sticks which has been fledged, she finds a matching head which will work and then secures it onto the end. Once she’s made sure the head is secure and won’t fly off when the arrow is released from her bow, she sets it down and picks up the next one.
As she works on the arrows, getting them ready for what she’s sure will be a deadly run to Kern, she wishes she had acquired more of the heads when she had the chance. But how was she to even have known she was to be in such a situation as she finds herself in now.
Sighing, she just works on the arrows until she has ten lying on the ground at her feet. Putting the unused arrowheads back into the pouch, she closes the drawstring and replaces it in her pack.
She gathers the ten arrows and carries them over to her quiver where she places them with the ones already within it. Twenty two arrows are now in her quiver. She’d like more, but she made that mistake before. Grinning, she remembers a hunt with her father.
She had been so young and wanted to show him how well and how fast she could fletch an arrow. So she worked at it until her quiver had been jam packed with them. When she showed the quiver to her father, he gave her a smile and told her how good she was. Oh, she was simply aglow from his praise.
Then it happened. From out of the trees ahead of them, a wild boar had emerged and charged. She reached into her quiver for an arrow, but they were so tightly packed in there that it was hard to get one out. So she pulled hard on an arrow and suddenly, the entire contents of the quiver had come out, arrows flying in all directions.
Placing the single arrow left in her hand to her bow, she sighted on the charging boar just when an arrow from her father flew past and struck it in the neck, killing it. She can still remember the embarrassment at seeing thirty five arrows scattered about from where they had all been pulled from her quiver. The amused smile her father gave her