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Tal watched Eron work, adding in words of encouragement or correction when necessary, and when Eron had made all the necessary cuts, he went on to the next step.

"Next we need to start the peeling process," he said, laying the rabbit across his lap and turning it so that the head was towards his left. He took the knife in his right hand and, turning the knife on its side, used the blade to begin to peel the skin away from the neck of the rabbit.

"Just enough that you can get your fingers in there," he added, glancing at Eron.

This was more difficult than the first step, because if they cut into the meat, it would be more difficult to skin it; and yet with knives as sharp as these were, cutting too deep would be very easy to do.

Tal pursed his lips thoughtfully as he watched Eron make the cuts, but he remained silent until Eron had finished that part.

"All right, see here where you've cut deeper than the surface skin?" he asked, peeling back bits of the fur with his finger to show Eron the different layers. "In order to make the last step go more easily, you're going to need to make another cut there to start the peeling."

He showed Eron how to do it, using the tip of his blade to start to separate the flesh from the muscles.

"Good," Tal nodded approvingly, watching Eron make his adjustments. "Now comes the part that sometimes gives the most difficulty. You need to get a good grip on the part that you've started peeling off and pull. If you've done it right, you should be able to peel the whole thing in a single yank for an animal this small."

He set his own knife aside, held the rabbit's head tightly one hand, and got a good grip on the edge of the cut he'd made with the other hand. Then he gave a mighty yank, and the rabbit's skin peeled off in a single piece.

"Like so," Tal grinned, holding up the fur and the now-skinned rabbit for Eron to see.

Tal chuckled softly to himself, though he had to admit that he was actually fairly impressed with Eron's accomplishment. It was certainly far more than he had managed on his first try: then again, he had been very, very young when he had been introduced to the joys of hunting and skinning animals.

"Good start," he smiled at Eron. "If it's very stuck to the muscle, just use the tip of your knife to cut it away a bit. Otherwise, just give if another good yank."

Tal made no more moves to help Eron, and he ended up laughing at Eron's attempts to pull off the rest of the rabbit's skin. This caused the others to look over and see what was going on, and very soon all the men were laughing.

"And there you have it!" Tal beamed at Eron once the skin finally came off. "A bit more work than it needed to be, but at least you got it in the end."

He chuckled again, retrospectively rather than at anything new. "What do you think?" he asked Eron, grinning.

"Good attitude!" Tal grinned broadly, slapping Eron on the back. "Good to hear. All right, now that we've got the skin off - we hang it here on the rack ..."

He led Eron over to where there were several square wooden frames of various sizes and pulled out two of the smallest ones, each one about two feet wide and tall.

"And we tie them on," he said simply. There were strings attached to various places around the frames, and the strings had hooks on them that were dangling loose. Tal showed Eron how to attach the hooks to the skins and then pull the strings tight so that the skin was stretched tautly in the frame.

"Any skill at cooking?" Azok called from where he was sitting next to the fire.

"Hey, he's helping me," Tal chuckled. "Not doing too badly for a beginner, either."

He grinned at Eron. "Care to try something bigger?"