The Hunter's Son

Sasaki and Ryoushi sit around the fire, chomping on the fresh goat meat. Through bites, Ryoushi talks about his past.

He and his father had a bond as close as a father-son bond could be. He was the son of a successful hunter, and one day, when he was only five years old, Ryoushi accompanied his father during his hunt for the first time.

“All right, little man! Let’s set off!”

Ryoushi’s father had a booming voice that seemed to reach the far ends of the earth. Ryoushi had brought a homemade trap with him and successfully caught a brush mouse with it. He took his first kill back to his mother to show off.

Ryoushi’s mother was kind, yet could still rival his father in an arm wrestle. She was shocked to see the two boys return covered in mud.

“Gar!” his mother yelled. “I thought I told you he was too young to go out with you!”

Gar shrinks a bit from her tone, but tries to hide it.

“Oh, Kari, please, look at what the little man caught!”

Ryoushi, sensing his turn, holds up the dead mouse by its tail. Kari smiles forcefully, trying not to show her anger.

“Oh Ryo, that looks lovely!”

Ryoushi beams with a toothy smile.

“Is this dinner tonight?” he asks.

“Well, we can definitely add it to the rest. How about you go clean up while I talk to your father.” She shoots a glance at Gar.

Ryoushi lays the mouse alongside the rest of his father’s catches and skips away to the other room. He turns the corner and immediately leans against the wall to hear their conversation.

“Gar, I swear to Ullr, what if the boy got hurt?”

Gar starts beaming with pride.

“Hun, he’s a natural! I was only going to show him the ropes, but look!” Gar shows the small trap. “He made this himself! AND caught something! I have to say, I think our son might be a genius.”

“Genius or not, he’s five. He’s just learning how to patch his own clothes.”

“And he can! I’m sure this mouse skin will make a perfect patch on his pants.” Kari punches Gar’s arm.

“You know what I mean.”

Ryoushi rounds the corner. “Tada! All done!”

Ryoushi’s mother looks at him and his still-dirty hand and instantly knows.

“Yeah, right. Were you listening in on us again?” She moved towards him. “You know what that means?”

Ryoushi does. He tries to scramble away, but his legs are too tiny to outrun his mother’s might. Kari scoops up her son and noogies his head.

“Noooo Mama stooop,” he groans.

“See. The kid can’t even break my grasp. He’s too young for the forest.”

Gar dismisses her concerns with a wave of his hand.

“Let’s go clean these animals off for supper; why don’t we?”

“With my mouse?” Ryoushi asks expectantly. His mother sighs.

“Sure, you can put your mouse in.”

—---------------------------------------------

Four more years pass. Ryoushi was now nine and becoming an expert hunter. Every time his dad set off, so did Ryoushi. His livelihood was based on the forest’s blessings. Their main income came from the impeccable quality of the furs they collected, so they needed specially designed traps to kill without damaging the pelts.

For smaller prey, a trap that crushed their insides was all they needed. But for larger prey, they caught them live and executed them along the pelt line. Ryoushi absorbed all that his father taught.
When his father talked about the intricacies of hunting, his eyes were as bright as the stars. He would share grueling stories of his biggest catches and show off the corresponding scar. The rule of the land was give-and-take. You can only take so much before you must give back.

​“But how do you give back?”

“Well, that’s the easy part. You love those close to you, you care about them, you break bread with your friends, and help those without it. And though your mother doesn’t like it, that means you must take as well!
You can give all you want, but eventually you’ll end up with nothing left to give, and nothing for yourself. If you do, you end up a hollow man.”

Ryoushi realized in that moment that his father was wiser than he'd once thought.

“That’s why you must dream, Ryoushi. Dreaming gives you the perfect balance between give and take. To want is to dream.”

“What’s your dream, Dad?” His father leaned back, gazing at the stars; the sparkle he saw seemed to go on forever.

“Well, I got to say, I’m close to living it. I have a great life. I hunt just as I always have, but now I get to provide for you and your mother. I thought my whole life that all I needed was to go for a bigger catch each day. But when I met your mother, that started to change. She loves to cook and is always looking forward to whatever type of meat I’d bring next.” He chuckles.

“That woman can make a bear taste like a farm bread chicken!” He gazes upon Ryoushi.

“And then we had you, and my dream just kept getting bigger and bigger. Without you two, I might have obeen a man who only takes.”

“And the statues?” Gar turns towards his son, a little embarrassed.

“You saw those, huh? Ah, well it's kind of embarrassing for a man’s son to see him make stuff like that.”

“Well, I think they’re cool!” Gar rubs the top of Ryoushi’s head.

“Ah, thanks, little man.”

“What are they?” Gar laughs a belly laugh.

“Well, it comes with a story. Do you wanna hear it?”

Ryoushi sits up, eyes wide.

“Well, when I was a young man, about your age actually, my father took me into the city. It was one of the last things we did before he passed. We went down this bustling street; there was about everything you could imagine down there. But there was one shop that caught my eye: a taxidermy workshop.”

“Takusee-demy?”

“Taxidermy. You know how we take the skin and fur off of the animals we catch? We soak and apply special liquid so it’ll keep people warm for a long time. Well, they do that to the whole body! From the face, down the legs and to the tail. And once they’re done, they wrap them around a statue until it looks exactly like it was when it was alive.”

Ryoushi began to look puzzled.

“But… why not just keep the animal alive?”

“Do you want to feed a Tree Bear every day?”
Ryoushi violently shook his head.

“Haha! Exactly. When we hunt, we do it to survive. But I don’t know, there’s something there that perks your old man’s interest. Your mother calls it ‘appreciating art, but that sounds like B.S. to me.”

“B.S.!”

“Yeah, no, don’t repeat that to her.”

Despite his father’s reservation about the craft, Ryoushi couldn’t help but notice him working more with his statues in the coming days. As soon as they got back from hunting, he would retreat into his workshop. Ryoushi would occasionally peer in and watch him work with a smile on his face. 

When they went into town together, he made a new stop along their route. This shop had tons of nicely dressed women perusing, making his dad’s dirt-covered overalls stand out. The bag he bought was always small, but the amount of coin he handed over was massive! Ryoushi never got to figure out the contents, but he knew that once they got home, it would go straight into his workshop.

Ryoushi would watch him count their monthly earnings with his head in his hands. Ryoushi could always tell if their catches made them enough money to splurge. If the pelts were in good condition, Gar would spend days in his workshop, but in the other months he would hardly enter it. It became clear to Ryoushi it was time for some give and take. Once they finished hunting for the day, Gar would retreat into his workshop, and Ryoushi would ask to play outside.

But little did his father and mother know, he would take the bag of hunting tools and dart off to the forest to continue hunting. He would catch, kill, skin, and treat the animals all together in the forest, then return, sneakily adding them to the pile to be brought to town for sale. Ryoushi could tell his plan was working as the amount of coins grew and his father spent more time in his workshop.