Chương 153: 150. Hunting Parties

Feroy thought about it for a while before replying, "Since the hunters would already be armed with bows and arrows, I think we should add two swordsmen in each group. And with four men in each hunting party, they should be able to take on most of the animals there."

"Alright, four it is then." Kivamus looked at Duvas.

"You mentioned that there were a couple of hunters in the village. Send a servant to them so they can get ready to leave within an hour."

"We've already hired Yufim - who used to be a hunter - as a guard," the majordomo replied, "but I'll send a servant to the other one. There aren't any more hunters in the village though. No one had the money to buy too much meat anyway, so even those hunters only brought in barely more than what was necessary to feed their family, not that they wanted to venture into the forests alone any more than necessary."

"But that's still only two archers." Kivamus added, "We need two more to form a second group."

"Well, Nurobo is our other archer," Feroy commented, "so we can send him as well. Apart from him, there are a few more guards who are decent shots with bows in their hands, so I'll add the best ones amongst them to the other hunting party. The warbows we got from the bandits would be very helpful for us here. And I'll also provide a few spears to each group as well."

"Good idea," Kivamus said.

"While one group can choose which direction to go, the other group should always go to the east for now, so that they can also keep an eye on the local plants and see if they can find any losuvil vines there. They should also be on the lookout for any sheep, which are likely to be found only in the east, between the hills, or maybe even further in that direction." Feroy nodded.

"I'll let them know about it."

"But how will they carry the animals back to the village," Kivamus asked, "especially if they get lucky and catch something big like a deer? What did they do about it in the past?"

"Usually they only caught rabbits, squirrels and such small game," Duvas replied with a shrug, "since there wasn't much of a demand for meat here." Feroy suggested, "We could make some simple stretchers here which would allow the hunters to carry back a lot of meat, especially since there will be four men in each group. It'll just need two straight pieces of strong wood, and some sturdy pieces of ropes to tie between them.

I'll go and tell a few servants to find some suitable ropes for this, and to bring in some straight pieces of wood from the north of the village."

"That's a good idea, you should do that immediately after this meeting," Kivamus said. He continued, "When Taniok gets some free time, we'll tell him to make the stretchers properly, by cutting straight pieces of wood, and with proper handles. Later on, we will even get a few sledges made for bringing in even bigger animals after some snow has gathered on the ground. But for now, those wooden sticks should do the task well enough.

Also, make sure to give some rope to the hunters to tie those animals to the stretchers."

"Of course," Feroy nodded.

"Every hunter takes some rope with them anyway, even if only to use as a snare."

"That reminds me," Kivamus said, "why aren't we setting up such traps here?"

"The hunters are already doing that," Duvas replied, "and that's how they get most of their meat - including what we ate earlier in the feast. I did tell you earlier that they don't go too deep in the forest, but they do put some traps and snaps just inside the tree line. Although, now that we are clearing the forest all around the village, that tree line keeps shifting away, so they have to keep searching for new places to put those traps, which has reduced the amount of meat the village is getting."

"Alright, we can't stop clearing the forests, but we can certainly try to make it more sustainable," Kivamus suggested.

"For example, we can capture some wild rabbits and create an enclosure to raise them here. Even putting half a dozen of them inside a rabbit pen would mean we would start to get a lot more of them after they start breeding. And after the rabbits in the first litter have grown up in a few more months, we will regularly be getting meat and fur from them." This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He added with a shrug, "I'm certainly not an expert in this, so I'm just giving some rough estimates. But I am sure one of the hunters would know a lot more about this than I do, and he can help us in raising the animals. Still, it's very much doable and the rabbits could become quite productive for us within a few months." Then he noticed that Gorsazo was smirking at him.

"What?" Kivamus asked him with a frown. Gorsazo tilted his head and grinned.

"Nothing. I am just surprised to hear that there is something you are not claiming to be an expert in." Kivamus knew that Gorsazo was saying this even after knowing about his origin and the reason behind most of his knowledge.

He had even told him many more things about life on earth in some free time, and Gorsazo had seemed completely fascinated with everything about life on modern Earth - including the internet and the kind of information that was available there, so he realized that the jibe was only meant as a joke. He laughed.

"Yeah, yeah. Even I don't know everything, no matter how much I enjoyed reading in the past." Others gave good natured chuckles as well at his reply, even though they had no idea about the thing called internet.

"Anyway," he continued, "I'll add making a small rabbit pen inside the manor to the ever-growing list of things we need Taniok to build. He will need to add wooden bars on all sides including the floor, so they don't just dig their way out. Once we have it ready along with a few rabbits inside it, one of our maids can take care of them with the help of a hunter - perhaps even Yufim."

He added, "And later on, we could even make a dedicated barn or a warehouse to raise the rabbits at a much larger scale, but that's far in the future."

"I can already see the benefits in that - not to mention it might become another small source of revenue for us," Duvas replied.

"I'll tell the hunters not to butcher any rabbits they catch from now on. And we can just keep them inside our cattle feed storage barn or maybe within the cattle shed itself until that pen is made."

"That'll work," Kivamus agreed, "although I think that the enclosure should be made inside one of the barns or maybe as a covered extension of the cattle shed, since it would be too cold for them outside in the snow." Duvas nodded.

"We'll ask the hunters for their suggestions before we build it, but either way, we will have to keep the rabbits indoors." Kivamus gave a nod, but then he remembered something.

"Actually, now that we will be regularly sending all our hunters out of the village, who will take care of the traps from now on?" Duvas shrugged.

"It's not really a problem, my Lord. Once the hunters have found a good place to put the snares, putting up any new trap barely takes any time. And then they only have to check the traps once in a while to see if something has been caught. So I'll tell the hunters to put traps every time before they leave for hunting with the other guards, and then someone else from their families, or maybe their wives can check the traps occasionally."

"Alright, that should work," Kivamus replied. But there was something he was getting curious about. He asked, "I know the previous baron wouldn't have allowed you to raise rabbits when he was here - for the same reasons he didn't allow you to keep too many animals here - but why didn't you do it in the past few months? At that time, you already knew that he was dead and couldn't stop you from keeping more animals here." Duvas sighed.

"We just couldn't afford to keep any hunted animals alive for too long when most of the people were already starving here. Anything the hunters caught was usually consumed on the very same day, and it simply wasn't feasible to keep them for the future when everyone was close to starvation."

"Right... Well, that's in the past now," Kivamus replied, trying not to think about those dark times in the village.

"Now that everyone is getting proper meals every day, we can easily afford to do this." After a moment, Feroy said, "Milord, I have a suggestion. I think we shouldn't send the hunters too deep into the forest for now. They don't have much experience in going too far inside the forests - which will be much more dangerous compared to the edges they go to put the traps in."

He continued, "Also, it has started snowing here now, and even though we got many new fur coats from the bandits, we have already given them to Hudan and the other guards who left for the quarry. And without such fur coats it would be difficult for the hunters to brave the freezing nights inside the forests, you know?"