The Burning Sword Read Online Free
Author: Emily Williams
delicate girl; she was small and slender, with long hair and large blue eyes. However, she proved everyone wrong by capturing a rabbit in her net with a quiet sort of efficiency, and neatly slitting the neck of the creature, making very little mess.
The look on Margaret’s face when they came home with a rabbit, despite it being just one (and a small one at that) was enough to instil in them all a highly positive attitude. All of them were sure that soon they would be bringing in half the warren, and as their optimistic nature increased, they soon found that they were indeed catching more rabbits; Faith and Martha caught their first one together, Martha using her new spear, while Faith held the net firm.
By the end of their first month, they were bringing home an average of three rabbits a day; plenty for stew or pie, and everyone was grateful for their efforts. Without the meat, there would have been only the very basics, and the meat helped them to feel as if they were still eating enough.
Faith wanted them to catch more, but a lack of edible creatures meant that it was near impossible. When Isabel, a cheerful, but rather clumsy girl, caught the elderly badger for the third time, they decided perhaps it was hinting at something, and killed it, taking it back. However, the meat was indeed tough and chewy, and had an odd flavor to it. They left the badger meat idea, resolving only to resort to it in a case of emergency.
The wild boar that lived in abundance in the forest presented a challenge to the hunters. The men who had hunted before had given them up as impossible, as their sharp yellow tusks and hooves presented far too much of a trial, and they had more injuries after attempting to catch them than was worth it.
Faith could still remember the one delicious day when they had caught one, however. Someone had had a broken arm after catching it, but nonetheless, the smell of bacon frying, and gammon cooking on the fire after it had been cured, still lingered in Faith ’s nostrils. The taste had made rabbits seem dull, and berries seem tasteless. They all longed for that again, and she thought it would be a fitting morale boost for all of the women, who, at first had been amply distracted by their new tasks and routine, but were now getting anxious and depressed, wondering when their sons and husbands would return.
So they devised a plan. Martha suggested that they hung in the trees above, waving their spears at the wild boar as they ran through the forest, while others waited with spears at the bottom.
At first this seemed like the only way, until Sibyl suggested using their nets. She showed them how tying small rocks to the sides would weigh it down, and, if thrown accurately, and preferably from above, this could capture the boar, so that those on the ground could kill it with less of the risk.
Intrigued, they tried it out, Faith assigning Marian and Annie to run through the forest in turn so that they could practise catching them in the net. They rather enjoyed this, squeaking and grunting as loud as they could in an attempt to make their role as prey as realistic as possible. At first Faith ’s slow count of one, two, three, drop didn’t work. They were too fast, too slow, a little to the left, a little to the right. It seemed as if it would never work.
Annie and Marian lay collapsed on the ground, legs and throats exhausted, as the others reviewed their plans. Martha suggested that they dug a trap; Isabel wondered if they could hurl knives at it, which rather worried the others, who thought the pig would probably be the safest if Isabel was aiming for it; but Faith caught sight of some wild mushrooms, and suddenly realised what they needed to do.
They waited. Faith clung onto a branch, her face rubbing against the familiar smelling bark as she watched. Martha was in the tree next to her, gripping her corner of the net tightly in her hand. Across from them, Sibyl and the strongest girl in
The look on Margaret’s face when they came home with a rabbit, despite it being just one (and a small one at that) was enough to instil in them all a highly positive attitude. All of them were sure that soon they would be bringing in half the warren, and as their optimistic nature increased, they soon found that they were indeed catching more rabbits; Faith and Martha caught their first one together, Martha using her new spear, while Faith held the net firm.
By the end of their first month, they were bringing home an average of three rabbits a day; plenty for stew or pie, and everyone was grateful for their efforts. Without the meat, there would have been only the very basics, and the meat helped them to feel as if they were still eating enough.
Faith wanted them to catch more, but a lack of edible creatures meant that it was near impossible. When Isabel, a cheerful, but rather clumsy girl, caught the elderly badger for the third time, they decided perhaps it was hinting at something, and killed it, taking it back. However, the meat was indeed tough and chewy, and had an odd flavor to it. They left the badger meat idea, resolving only to resort to it in a case of emergency.
The wild boar that lived in abundance in the forest presented a challenge to the hunters. The men who had hunted before had given them up as impossible, as their sharp yellow tusks and hooves presented far too much of a trial, and they had more injuries after attempting to catch them than was worth it.
Faith could still remember the one delicious day when they had caught one, however. Someone had had a broken arm after catching it, but nonetheless, the smell of bacon frying, and gammon cooking on the fire after it had been cured, still lingered in Faith ’s nostrils. The taste had made rabbits seem dull, and berries seem tasteless. They all longed for that again, and she thought it would be a fitting morale boost for all of the women, who, at first had been amply distracted by their new tasks and routine, but were now getting anxious and depressed, wondering when their sons and husbands would return.
So they devised a plan. Martha suggested that they hung in the trees above, waving their spears at the wild boar as they ran through the forest, while others waited with spears at the bottom.
At first this seemed like the only way, until Sibyl suggested using their nets. She showed them how tying small rocks to the sides would weigh it down, and, if thrown accurately, and preferably from above, this could capture the boar, so that those on the ground could kill it with less of the risk.
Intrigued, they tried it out, Faith assigning Marian and Annie to run through the forest in turn so that they could practise catching them in the net. They rather enjoyed this, squeaking and grunting as loud as they could in an attempt to make their role as prey as realistic as possible. At first Faith ’s slow count of one, two, three, drop didn’t work. They were too fast, too slow, a little to the left, a little to the right. It seemed as if it would never work.
Annie and Marian lay collapsed on the ground, legs and throats exhausted, as the others reviewed their plans. Martha suggested that they dug a trap; Isabel wondered if they could hurl knives at it, which rather worried the others, who thought the pig would probably be the safest if Isabel was aiming for it; but Faith caught sight of some wild mushrooms, and suddenly realised what they needed to do.
They waited. Faith clung onto a branch, her face rubbing against the familiar smelling bark as she watched. Martha was in the tree next to her, gripping her corner of the net tightly in her hand. Across from them, Sibyl and the strongest girl in
Readers choose
Julia Talbot
Catherine Asaro
Kaitlyn Dunnett
Lee Weeks
Steve Almond
Parker Kincade
P. J. Belden
Christopher Stasheff
Brian Delaney