As we agreed, next morning me and Senka met with Nimrod and he showed us how to make a hunting bow, as well as, teaching us how to use it. I lost my shooting skill a long time ago, because I did not have a reason to use a bow, but at the beginning of our adventure this knowledge came in handy for us.

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That morning Nimrod’s lecture started something like that

‘First, we will need to find materials. Bow consists from two main pieces – wooden arc and a string. The only tree perfectly suitable for making bows in Cold Valley is yew, but you can also consider making hunting bows from willow or oak, but actually it doesn’t matter as long as your branch is hard and somewhat flexible. Make sure that your piece of wood is not completely dry, because bow will snap instantly when you try to shoot. Then the length of the stick must be equal the distance from the top of your head to your tights. Then you will need to find a string for your hunting bow. This time we will be using rawhide, as we have plenty of it stored in our house you don’t need to worry for this time. However, you won’t be always lucky, next time in the wilderness try to find something that is not too stretchy like strands of cotton, silk or even a fishing line. Remember that the power of the shot comes not from the string, but from wooden arc. That’s all for the hunting bow, now materials for the arrows…’ and so on and so on.

In the end Nimrod turned out to be a respectable man. He did not tell our parents about our plans and taught us everything that he knew about hunting. We were coming to see him almost every morning after that day and he showed us something new each time. Then during the evening fathers would teach us how to take care of our cattle. After few months, we could make bows, rabbit traps, and pocket knives on our own, as well as, how to herd cows and make food for them. Nimrod thought us how to start a fire in the wilderness and how to prepare and cook meat and on the other hand our parents thought us how to milk cows and how to bargain with wandering merchants.

At first it was difficult to get used to kill and flay our pray, especially for Senka. He was a peaceful creature and found violence unappealing and would have refused killing animals at all, but he did not have a choice. Senka had to accept that people are animals too. If he wanted to survive in wilderness and have long and unforgettable adventure, we had to be on top of the food chain. The same thing happened with Hina, she was superior to us and we could get her. Speaking of her, she did not appear after that day when we raced her through the Valley. I think Hina would be surprised if she saw how much we grew in past months. Our arms became stronger after each time we stretched a bow, legs became faster after running around the village each day so our parents wouldn’t trace where are we heading, our eyes and ears became sharper after every day of hunting. She would have accepted our crazy proposal if back then we were as strong as we are right now. We wondered if she still lives in the root of the Cold Peak or already left with her parents to explore new lands beyond the horizon. We had a new goal for our adventure – find Hina.

Nimrod forgot why he even started teaching us and our parents had no idea in the first place. We were hiding our hunting equipment beneath a huge rock on the edge of the forest, so that when we would need it we could easily get it and take off for our adventure. It was hard to decide when we were ready to break off. Senka was always full of doubts and I was afraid of leaving behind my family and the village where I grew up. If we won’t succeed and return right after we go missing, punishment will be unavoidable. It was early autumn when we started visiting Nimrod, so we decided that easiest time to start our adventure will be early summer. This meant that we would have time to practice and develop our survival skills, as well as, bear working with cattle for the whole year.

Time went so fast that we almost forgot that we decided to take off to find Hina on the first week of summer, but luckily the scent of blooming flowers and warm ocean wind filled our hears with rebellious desires. It was time to start our ambitious adventure.