12 Training Begins

Elder Tok's demonstration lasted half the day. For him, processing a spirit beast like this would only take about five minutes. He needed to explain everything to the villagers and give them tips and tricks so it took him a lot more time. He even let them come up and help with various aspects of the processing.

The hunters were experienced with processing animals they killed but they didn't realize there were so many profound secrets to the process. Even less did they realize how many uses there were for all of the parts. If processed properly, every part of a spirit beast was useful.

Many were surprised to learn about the benefits of the blood of the spirit beast. It could be used for farming, forging, and strengthening other animals. Elder Tok warned them against drinking the blood of the animals. He informed them that even though it was popularly believed drinking spirit beast blood could strengthen the body of people, this wasn't true.

According to him, many diseases were carried in the spirit beast blood. After describing some of the examples of illnesses which could be caused by drinking the blood, many of the village women started crying. Even Mist's mother started crying intensely.

The problem was they all believe drinking spirit beast blood was beneficial and had given it to their loved ones. It was thought it was a health tonic and given to those who were sick to help them recover. Now, they realized it was the spirit blood which had actually lead to the death of many of their loved ones. Many of the dead children in the village died as a result of the diseases they caught from the spirit beast blood.

Mountain Sprite realized half of her children would be alive right now if she never gave them spirit beast blood to drink. This realization almost drove her crazy. River Snake came and hugged her whispering into her ear, "we didn't know," over and over again.

Mist didn't understand what was going on, he couldn't understand why all the women were crying. Elder Tok knew why, he too came from a village like River Village and they also used spirit beast blood as a tonic. His older brother, younger sister, and even his third child died from the diseases in the spirit beast blood. He truly sympathized with everyone here.

After everyone collected themselves, Elder Tok continued to guide them with processing the beast's body. All of the materials were processed, collected, and neatly arranged near Tik's forging area. He finished setting up his forge and tools a long time before. When he heard all the women crying about the death of their family members due to spirit beast blood he also got a little emotional. His father died from spirit beast blood when he was little. It was because of this his uncle Tok took he and his mother in he was able to become a Forging Apprentice. Elder Tok raised Tik like a son.

After the processing was completed the village separated to eat lunch. After lunch they once more gathered where the beast was processed.

"Okay, now I will start training the hunters. I need all of the hunters, including Mist and the other children to come over here. All the women, elders, and farmers please report to Tik and he will help you process some more parts of the beast. He'll also get your help to create leather armor and such for the hunters," Elder Tok said.

None of the villagers objected to Elder Tok's orders. Even the Village Chief obediently gathered with the hunters. He was the Chief Hunter of the village in his younger years just like River Snake. Although he served as the Village Chief for several years, it didn't mean he lost his pride as a hunter. He was still eager to learn the secrets of hunting. How could he not come and learn from a Master Hunter?

"The thing which all of you lack the most as hunters is knowledge. When the three elders who met Mist for the first time asked if he wanted to learn from them he immediately accepted. He said his father told him the more a hunter knew the better he could hunt. These words are true and seperate Master Hunters from regular hunters.

For the first week of training I will pour into you knowledge about plants, animals, tracking, traps, climate, and the types of animals you can kill and the types you must never kill if you don't want to bring a tragedy upon your village," Elder Tok said.

Listening to the Master Hunter all the other hunters eyes glistened. Everything Elder Tok said was soaked in and taken as absolute truth. They were thoroughly convinced by Elder Tok.

"First, let's head into the Forbiden Forest. Everyone, leave your hunting gear, you won't need it."

The hunters were surprised but without much fuss they took their hunting gear and stored it at their homes before returning to Elder Tok.

Elder Tok and Mist were left alone and while eveyone was gone, he watched as Mist dug into his clothes every now and then and took out a hidden piece of candy. "Just how much candy did this kid manage to hide. He even did it while everyone was watching him. What talent!" He praised in his heart. This was the most cunning, sneakiest, and capable candy monster Elder Tok had ever seen in his life.

After half an hour, the hunters returned. Their wives gave them food for later in case they stayed out late. The married hunters laughed at the single hunters.

"You boys better find a wife at the competition, then you'll know how a woman will take care of a man," one of the hunters ribbed the young hunters. Elder Tok enjoyed this kind of environment.

"Okay, let's get started. I want to intoduce you to your forest. I know you call this the Forbidden Forest, but the truth is this is really a Treasure Forest. What makes it forbidden to you is you don't know enough about it," Elder Tok began.

With a wave of his hand he began introducing the true nature of the forest to the hunters.