Thinning the herd (p)

With his fight against a giant octopus nearly having cost him his life, Solmar had been able to take solace in the fact that he had come out of it alive. More than that, he had come out of it while having earned the trust of the Kappa of the western coast. Because of his struggle to kill the creature and how it had caused it to no longer pose a threat to the Kappa, he had at the same time brought them a new, albeit temporary source of food that just might last them an entire week. Shortly after, he had taken a team of four along with him to forage and bring in alternative sources of food, which was highly needed due to how they were no longer able to survive on their regular source of food. Thanks to Cedar's overfishing of the water so their fishing communities could thrive, the Kappa had been driven into a state of near-famine. But with the death of the octopus that was preying on them and an influx of apples from the forest above their caverns, they were starting to get back on their feet.

Before Solmar had gone down in one of the tribal tents belonging to the Kappa villagers, he had taken the liberty of speaking to the leader. Claiming that he thought it wise if the Kappa started building something of an outpost near the surface entrance to their underground dwellings, he believed that from there, they would be able to send out foraging teams more effectively. Seemingly agreeing with Solmar, the Kappa leader told him to get some more rest and regain some of the strength he had lost. While it had not at all been his intention, he had slept for the next twenty four hours after that. Apparently, the fight with the octopus, the hike through the caverns and teaching the Kappa foragers which types of food were edible or not had taken far more out of him than he had been willing to admit. So when he woke up, got dressed and left his tent, he was somewhat startled by what he saw, rubbing his eyes a bit in disbelief.

Seeing several groups of Kappa being assigned different roles, it seemed that a large portion of the village tents had been broken down for resources and were being carried up towards the exit leading into Sakuramori. Trying to find the leader of the village, Solmar started hiking through the caverns, noticing far more activity within those regions than there had been in the days leading up to today. Probably being because they could eat their fill in the last day and upcoming days, the workers seemed to be far more energetic, which was truly a good thing. By the time Solmar found the leader, he saw how he was instructing the others to start building up tents in the area directly surrounding the cave exit. When several Kappa brought in wood from outside, he saw how resourceful they were when they started working the trees they brought down and turned them into beams with which they were building a crude type of gate and watch post. Watching all of it unfold, there was one thing he knew for sure.

He had overestimated how much these people needed him. While it was true that he still needed to teach them more about the local flora, as in which types would be edible and which had to be avoided at all costs, what he did not need to help them with was building. From the looks of their tribal huts, it seemed like they had never worked with wood before, and that was most likely true. However, their resourcefulness had allowed them to quickly adapt to working with this newer and more sturdy natural material, one of which the forest had plenty. What made the young mage feel better about the cutting of the trees was how much these people seemed to care about nature, making use of every single piece of wood they had brought down. Using the bark for makeshift pieces of armor, drying the leaves to use as tinder, using the thicker sticks in order to make crude spears and more, Solmar remembered one of the things he wanted to do with these people at some point.

Though now was not yet the time for it, he went through the gate that was still in progress in order to get some clean forest air into his lungs, something he really ached for after spending two days down in a damp cavern. As he did, he heard something approaching, gliding through the air towards him. Turning his head, a small white feline bumped into his chest, hugging him tightly after not having seen him for almost a week. Knowing the white fur ball to be Fellis, Solmar hugged him back as tightly as he could, finding it hard to believe that things had happened this way. Having already started to believe that he might never see the cat again, Fellis brought about a rather interesting story for him. Telling Solmar that he had gone to where they had agreed to meet, Fellis had gotten lost and arrived a day late. Starting to follow his scent from there on, the feline had been all over the place as Solmar had not exactly been standing still while he waited for Fellis to get back to him.

Doing one job after the other, Fellis arrived everywhere just a little too late to actually find the mage, a feat which became that much harder when Solmar went down into the Kappa caverns for a day or two. When he could not find Solmar in any of the spots he frequented, he just started flying through Sakuramori every couple of hours, hoping to catch his scent or spot him from above. While he did, he had come across other people who had been going through the forest in hopes of, believe it or not, finding Solmar. Being a group of people that had invested money in the group that had Solmar putting Sakuramori's dangerous zones onto the map, they were from a preservational society. Claiming they needed Solmar's expertise with a task that they were willing to pay quite a lot for, Fellis had taken the written agreement from them for Solmar to read, if he ever found him again. And now that he did, after an extended hug, he gave him the pieces of paper that had been bestowed upon the flying cat.

Reading that the preservation society had come to find that there was an overabundance of deer and pike within the forest, they needed someone capable to trim down their numbers. Getting into the letter further, he encountered a pair of documents, one for each species. Stating numbers in great detail, it was added that too many deer meant that a lot of young saplings would not get the chance to grow, shrubs and plants would get decimated and grass would get shortened. This took away the hiding spaces for smaller animals such as rats, rabbits and mice, who became targets for falcons and other predatory birds, mammals and reptiles, thus causing their numbers to dwindle if left unchecked. More than that, it also meant that the forest would not get to renew the amount of trees that got logged in the regions closer to the human towns and settlements. As for the pike, they were hunting and killing too many of the species of frog, salamander, fish and aquatic mammals. Apparently being responsible for eviscerating species that lived in the ocean but laid their eggs inland in fresh water, they were also put on the list.

While Solmar was more than willing to help out, the sheer number of deer and pike he would need to kill seemed daunting, not to mention senseless as he had no use for them. But that was when one of his older ideas got sparked. If he did things the right way, he could use this as a means of teaching the Kappa more about spending their lives on dry land, as well as how they should be living off of said land. Running back into the cavern, he discussed with the leader of the Kappa how he had been given a task that required him to kill quite a bit of animals, which meant a lot of pelts and meat if they were to aid him. Claiming that he would be able to teach a small group of them how to hunt properly, the Kappa leader gave Solmar a couple of fit aquatic folk that he could spare from the construction activities. Arming them with some of the crude spears they had made from the leftover branches, Solmar took the three of them with him and headed into the forest along with Fellis. Using Fellis to scout the area ahead of them, he sat down with his followers.

(1500)

Taking one of their spears and teaching them a bit about how to use them as effectively as possible, he wanted to make sure that every blow sent at a deer would kill it. He did not want to risk it running away with a spear still inside of it, or with a gaping wound in its body, not wanting the animals to suffer any more than they actually had to. While they had to take down a good amount of the animals, that did not mean that they had to be heartless about it. Nature was something he had been taught to respect, and if nothing else, he was going to teach these future hunters the same thing. Because of the things he had learned during his upbringing in a small town being limited, yet at the same time useful, it was because of what he had learned to do with his own two hands that he truly considered valuable. The same could be said for these Kappa, as all he could do was tell them how he did things and actually show them how to do it themselves.

But at the end of the day, what mattered most was how they adopted his teachings and adjusted it to make it work out best for them. So, with spears in hand, Solmar and his team set out deeper into the forest. Doing his best to steer them away from the places used as hunting grounds for wolves, bears or worse as he did not feel like they were ready to tango with those just yet, it did not take them long before they got to the first place where there was always an abundance of deer moving about. As soon as they did, his ears could clearly hear as the hands of the aquatic folk wrapped around their spears more tightly. This was one of the perks of having enhanced hearing and sense of smell as it allowed him to get the jump on the situation before anyone got any ideas and decided to just rush into things. Not wanting one to ruin it for the rest of them, he took it upon himself to quiet them down and call them into the treeline.

Making it clear that one of the prime goals of hunting was learning how to stalk their prey, he had them place themselves in locations they deemed "strategic" and "beneficial" to their hunt. Claiming that they would need to work together in order to chase down and trap one of the animals, they would all need to be in position and ready to help out the members of their team, after which they would give their target a quick death. Having stressed this point quite a bit in the last couple of minutes, Solmar believed that he had done enough to pummel that much into their skulls by now. Now that the time for talking had come, he gave the signal and told the four Kappa to act. Starting with Solmar himself starting to herd at least two deer into the direction where his four henchmen were located, he looked as two of them dashed out of the shrubbery. With one stabbing the animal in the throat and the other getting it in the side, they worked it down as quickly as they could.

While he had some things to say about their takedown method, there was still another animal that had to be taken down. Continuing to chase it, the remaining two that had strategically placed themselves went for an altogether different method of attack. Being entirely uncoordinated, the first one tried to sweep the leg, which did not work as the creature just leaped over it. As it did, the second tried to hit it by throwing his spear at it. Lacking any training whatsoever, the spear aimlessly flew through the air and almost hit the other Kappa, had it not ducked down when it did. Stopping the chase when he watched the deer make a run for it, Solmar knew that he too did not have the skill when it came to throwing a spear to hit it from such a distance. Making the choice not to bother trying, he had the team come together where the first two had taken down their first kill. Seeing no point in scolding the two that failed, he instead decided to focus on what had gone right.

Talking them through how the positions they had chosen to take were all successful enough to the point where none of the animals had seen them coming while in their distressed state, their chosen manner of execution still left a lot to be desired. While the first two had done a good job by going for vital spots, if they wanted to make the most out of both the meat and the pelt of the animal, they had to make sure not to poke any unnecessary holes into the torso. Feeling like they understood what he meant, he continued by elaborating on why the initial kill had been successful because they had used the pointy end of the spear to run through their target. Making it clear that sweeping the leg was seldom a thing to be used in hunting, if ever at all, the two that failed in killing their prey were starting to come up with excuses as to why they had failed and why they would be successful if they tried again.

Not really feeling like these two were cut out for the job, he felt like he had found his first picks for the fishing crew. After all, aside from hunting deer, they also had to do some pike fishing, and pike fishing was not exactly similar to fishing for your average fish at all. Making sure the deer got carried back to the cave entrance of the Kappa settlement, he told his henchmen to take a short break while he went to have a chat with the leader. Talking him through what had happened so far, he made it quite clear that two of them seemed to have a knack for hunting, while the other two were simply not cut out for such things. Though he did not want to go as far as saying that they did not seem like the people that could be trusted with their own lives when out in the field, Solmar did say that he wanted to take them on an entirely different kind of hunting trip that did not involve using spears or weapons of any kind.

Allowing the two successful hunters to take on two trainees of their own, Solmar would go on and teach them more about hunting when he had the time, feeling like those two already knew the basics of spear-based hunting to the point where they could teach someone else. For now, he would focus on teaching the drop-outs how else to make themselves useful to their community, and to prove to them that there was still some kind of hunting they would qualify for. Using their crude spears as a base, he applied a thin line to it while making hooks out of some spare iron lids he had in his duffle bag. Turning the spears into makeshift fishing rods, he then took them to the stream he himself fished in quite often along with Fellis. Knowing that they would need live bait if they were going to fish for pike, he started digging around in the dirt for some worms they could use to catch smaller fish that might attract the predatory fish towards their hooks. Using the worms in order to catch small fish, what they needed to do now was be patient and remain as still as possible.

Since they had no sinker applied to the line, they had to use their eyes by just looking down into the clear water instead. The fact that the water was so clear made it easy to see when fish were approaching the bait, though that was a two way street. While they could see the fish, if they moved too much or too abruptly, they would just chase them all away since they could see them too. As much as the two Kappa sucked at hunting with actual spears, he hoped that they could at the very least bring up the patience needed to hook and land a fish. Solmar knew that this type of fishing was not the preferred means of doing so for the Kappa, being used to just swimming at high speeds and catching them with their hands. To them, doing things this way must have seemed silly, though the streams in the forest were simply not deep enough for them to swim and maneuver in it properly. Besides, all the needless splashing would just chase off the fish and attract potential predators to their position. That said, all he could really hope to do about it was wait and see how things would pan out.

(1510)

When the first one landing a fish was actually one of the two Kappa and not him, he was somewhat shocked to be truly honest. Watching as it pulled it out of the water and onto dry land, he came over to look at it and determine whether it would work as bait. Feeling that it was of the proper size to be functional live bait, he re-attached it to the line and let the Kappa put it back into the stream. Due to the size of the average adult pike, as well as their green and brown colored scales, they were not altogether hard to spot in the stream. This was because of all the pink petals that came down from the trees, sinking to the bottom of the stream and covering the bottom of it in a brown and pinkish hue. Compared to a background like that, the natural green color and the size of at least one meter meant they could be spotted. Aside from that, Solmar knew that Pike were territorial fish, even going as far as attacking humans that got too close to them.

More so, in open waters such as fresh water lakes, a pike could get as large as two meters, some even growing beyond the two meter mark if they did not have to contend with other aquatic predators venturing into their domain. But due to the stream being rather limited in size compared to a lake, these pike did not get the chance to grow to such sizes, which provided them with more agility to navigate the more shallow waters. When the second Kappa also got a fish hooked, it was not long before Solmar got one of his own. Attaching the live bait to their lines, the three of them continued as they were, albeit more spread out along the waterside. Because of the territorial nature of the pike, it would not help them if they just stood two or three meters apart as they'd literally all be trying to hook the exact same fish.

Putting some distance between them, thirty minutes went by before Solmar actually managed to latch on one of the pike in the area, which started frantically tugging at the line. Calling the other two over to witness how it was done, he showed them that just using brute force to bring it in would not work. Fearing that the line might snap or that the fish might get away with both the bait and the hook, he occasionally gave the fish some room to make a swim for it, following it along the waterside. Once he could feel that the fish was getting tired, that was when he would start a tug of war to bring the fish close enough for him to snatch it out of the water with his bare hands. Making sure the Kappa could see how he did it, he took out his sword and cut the head off of the pike, killing it in a single blow.

(507)

Again, this was another attempt at showing the Kappa that, no matter the animal, one had to show mercy when killing them by making it as quick and painless as possible. Tossing the head of the pike far into the woods instead of tossing it back into the water as some fishers did, he figured that tossing it far enough away would lure predators to that point. If the Kappa remained here as fishermen, it would be best to keep predators away, or so he hoped. Showing them how to gut the fish with a knife and take off the scales with some swift motions that kept most of the meat intact, he spent the rest of the afternoon watching as the two continuously tried hooking a pike and failing. As dusk started to set in and Fellis returned, telling Solmar that the hunters had already returned to the settlement, one of the two Kappa managed to catch a pike with the help of the other, who had already planned on heading back.

With their success and experience, they could at the very least take on one apprentice of their own the next time they went out fishing. Upon returning to the settlement, Solmar took a moment to debrief the hunters on how things had gone, claiming they took out two deer on their hunt. Praising them for their efforts, he then went to the head of the settlement in order to put some last things in order. Discussing how they now had a potential fishing crew and a hunting team, both of which were able to teach others how to do it properly, the time had come for Solmar to move on. Having delivered upon his promise several times over, the young mage gave these people that were on the brink of extinction the means to save themselves from such a fate. Now that they had access to wood for building, fish, meat, vegetables and fruits for eating and pelts for making clothing, one could argue that they were doing better than ever. All they had to do was adjust to their new lifestyle.

Striking a deal with the Kappa that would benefit him too, he would be allowed to go there in order to trade, eat and rest if the need for it arose. Aside from that, they would keep accurate count of the pike and deer they killed so Solmar would be able to go to the preservational society and maintain balance within the forest. This would make his life a whole lot easier, as well as earn him the kind of money he needed in order to prosper greatly. Knowing that the Kappa wanted to remain hidden from humanity, Solmar would be able to do just that by taking the credit for the things he and the Kappa did together. If everything went well, no one would ever be any wiser about what had been happening here, and the Kappa and Solmar alike would be able to live out their days in Sakuramori in peace. With that, he started heading back to the nearest city as there was still work to do and money left unclaimed.

(530)

-End of Jobs-