Just another Day

Chapter one

Daro'aranji, a five foot seven inch Khajiit crouched up in a tree with a bow in hand. A seemingly harmless elk stood below grazing on some foliage. Daro'Aranji unsheathed a single arrow, her ears rotating back, quietly flattening against her head, her piercings softly clinging together making a quite metallic sound as the brush up against each other. The Khajiit's ice blue eyes narrowed as the sun hit her fur, giving off a reddish brown tint. Aranji took a silent deep breath in as she drew her arrow back with her hunting bow. "Aranji.. May the gods help you make this shot.." She spoke inside her head as she let the drawn arrow go.  The elk's ears perked up as it lifted it's head. The arrow sliced through the air, a whispy sound could be heard until the arrow pierced deeply behind the shoulder blade of the elk and through it's heart. The elk had let out a bloody shriek gasping for breath, it tried to flee, unfortunately, it had taken only a few steps before collapsing on the ground. Breathing heavily it had laid there slowly dying.

Aranji put her bow on her shoulder, she had stood up on the branch she was perched on, her tail helping her balance, she walked to the end of the tree limb and had jumped off. The Khajiit had grunted as she landed harshly on her feet. It had took her a second to recover. She had taken out her iron dagger then walked up to the injured elk and kneeled on one knee, placing her hand on the frightened elk's muzzle. Aranji began to speak in a loud enough tone, "Many thanks kind spirit, For your body will not go to waste, Your spirit shall now rest easy, May Talos guide you to your resting place." she had pressed her dagger against the elks throat and slit it's neck open, cutting it's flesh all the way to the neck vertebrae, The elk letting out one last blood curtailing scream before going limp. Blood had rushed out of the elk's neck it started to pool around the corpse. Aranji quickly stabbed her dagger into the ground and had taken out an empty glass bottle and nimbly placed the opening of the bottle under the direct blood flow. The clear glass bottle had quickly filled, making the container a dark red, Aranji had corked the bottle and set it aside. 

Grabbing the dagger from the ground, she had wiped the dirt off by running both sides of the blade across her wolf fur armour, Each brush from the blade had stained the tan fur armor. Pressing hard enough to pierce the skin and nothing more, Aranji had begun to skin the elk. She took the time to be careful not to pierce any part of the hide, for she had planned to trade it to the Khajiit caravan for goods. A good ten minutes passed by before she had completed the task of separating the skin from the muscle tissue. Aranji had wiped her forehead, oblivious to smearing elk's blood across her forehead, she had only done so to wick away sweat that had dewed upon her brow from the sun beating down on her. She had worked vigilantly to cut up the meat, quartering the bloody carcass into smaller sections, snapping the joints out of each socket, The scavenger used her dagger to cut around each limb detaching it then placing each haunch on the hide. She had planned to cut the meat into smaller parts then placing it on the hide for easier transportation.

Off in the slight distance, a wolf's howl echoed.  Her ears instantly perked up, keeping her dagger close. "By the gods please don't allow predators near..." Aranji had mumbled to herself. Trying to focus she cut through the rib cage, working her blade between the chest cartilage, jiggling and bending the bony substance until it cracked. Working her blade through the stomach area, slicing it open, Aranji reached her hand up inside and pulled out the intestines and other organs. Setting the intestines and stomach aside in a small neat pile, she took out the heart, the kidneys and liver then placed them on the side for the time being, taking a small but decently sized burlap sack off from her hip, she had opened it up and threw the heart, kidneys and liver inside. Sinching the bag shut, she then tied it onto her leather belt. Aranji had stood up and started to bundle up the meat in the elk hide. She reached across to her left bicep, hooking one of her claws into the knot of the long leather strip she kept tied on her arm. The leather strip slipped right off once the knot had came undone, it unravelled and straightened itself out. Aranji had held onto the strip by holding it in between her teeth as she started to form an over the shoulder makeshift bag with the meat inside.

Tying the strip around the bottom securely, cutting the excess leather off, doing the same to the top once the top had been tied off she tied the leftover strip to the top and the bottom. Putting her dagger back in it's sheath, she had taken off her hunting bow setting it down for a moment, she put the makeshift pouch across her shoulder. Aranji picked up her hunting bow and started to head back to her campsite. Crows had started to gather around the gut pile to pick at it. Mid-day had come around she had finally arrived at her site. Propping her bow up against a log, she sat her quiver next to it. Letting out a soft sigh pleased that she had a successful hunt. With no time to rest, she took the meat out of the well-made pouch and had placed it into a pot, Taking a small chunk of it for herself setting it aside. Aranji threw salt and sugar into the pot, added a layer of meat and repeated the process until she had decided that it was full, She had placed the lid on it and let the meat cure.