Path of Dragons 3 - Chapter 4 - Brains, Fat, and Bear Hides (Patreon)

Upon arrival in his grove, the first thing Elijah did was to return to his treehouse and collect a few things he knew he would need. The hide, which he’d left there for the past few weeks, was the most important bit, but there was a sealed cask he’d gotten from Kurik that was equally necessary for what he had planned. The rest of his materials could either be found in the forest of his island or he’d already collected them in his pack. So, gathering the massive pelt, he descended back into the grove, where Nerthus greeted him.

“Hey, Nerthus. Sorry I can’t talk right now. Got a lot to do.”

“Indeed,” the tree spirit said. “I am here to inform you that the sapling you planted across the strait is nearly connected to the grove. It will only be a few weeks more.”

“Oh, nice. I knew it was growing pretty quickly,” Elijah said, adjusting the huge hide on his shoulder. Even rolled up, it was enormous, but then again, its owner had been the size of a rhinoceros, so that shouldn’t have been surprising. “Anything else?”

Nerthus shook his head, which looked disturbingly human. He’d continued to grow and evolve during Elijah’s search for his family, which meant that he’d reached a height of almost four feet tall. “No,” he said. “But you should check your cave sometime soon.”

“Oh?” Elijah asked. He rummaged in the facet of his Quartz Mind that he’d dedicated to monitoring his Domain, and he quickly found the underwater cave. To his surprise, it had developed quite a bit since the last time he was there. Before, it had been a hollow cave without any significant life, but now, it had already begun to develop its own ecosystem. It was still in its infancy, but Elijah suspected that it would become quite lush sometime in the future. “That’s awesome. I think I could transplant some sea plants down there, too. I bet it would really…no. Not right now. I’ve got other things to do first.”

He couldn’t afford to get distracted, so after only a little more casual conversation with Nerthus – about the grove, which was all the tree spirit seemed to care about – Elijah left the area behind, making for the cabin that had once been his salvation and home. When he arrived, he found that it was just as overgrown and dilapidated as it had been the last time he’d visited, though that was no surprise, considering that it was missing a wall and half of its roof had been caved in.

Yet, Elijah had little interest in the cabin itself. Rather, he only wanted the area surrounding it, largely because it was clear of debris or vegetation. So, once he’d arrived, he set the hide and his pack down before heading back into the woods to find some lumber he could use to build a frame from which he could stretch the hide. Considering the hide’s size, it would have to be a large frame indeed, but Elijah had already identified the proper branches and limbs via his locus, which made the search feel unsatisfying and a little like cheating.

Not that he was going to complain. While he enjoyed the process of making things, he was more interested in completing his projects efficiently and well. So, over the next hour, he gathered the appropriate branches, then carried them back to the cabin, where he deposited the bundle by the hide.

After that, he laid them out in a rough square, then notched the ends so they would fit together properly. Soon enough, he’d tied everything together with cordage he’d bought back in Ironshore. Standing back, he admired his work; he’d always enjoyed building things, and that had grown even more poignant during his time stranded on the island.

A couple of minutes later, Elijah retrieved the hide, then laid it out in the center of the square. Fortunately, he’d remembered to take proper measurements, or he was certain that he would have misjudged the size. As it was, the hide ended up being almost fifteen feet long and almost as wide.

“You really were a big guy, weren’t you? Wish I could have saved you,” Elijah muttered, imagining bringing the bear back to the island. Would it have allowed that? Probably not. And it might’ve created far more problems than it solved. Yet, it was a nice fantasy that occupied his mind as he began the tedious process of tying the outer edges of the hide to the frame he’d built. By the time he was finished, it was stretched taut.

Luckily, the hunters had already done a tremendous job of fleshing the pelt, so that was a step Elijah didn’t have to worry about. That allowed him to skip a few steps and jump right to salting the hide. So, he flipped the frame so that the fur faced down, then retrieved a huge, burlap bag of salt from his pack. It was on the edge of what the container could handle, but Elijah hadn’t wanted to underestimate just how much he would need. So, with that in mind, he started spreading the salt across the inner part of the hide. Once that was done, he stepped back and admired his work.

The next step couldn’t be completed for around fifteen hours, so he had two other projects meant to occupy him until then. The first was that he was starting to run low on soap, and he wanted to make some more. However, instead of using his previous method, he wanted to change things up a little in the hopes of making something that was slightly more magical than mundane soap.

So, he set out to create some lye. With that goal at the forefront of his mind, he used the same method as before, which involved burning a lot of limbs, collecting the ashes, and running water through it multiple times until he’d created an alkaline solution. The biggest difference was that his forest was subject to much denser ethera than ever before, so he had reason to expect that the ash would be a bit more magical in nature. Yet, he wasn’t certain, so the only thing he could do was give it a try.

And over the next fifteen hours, he did just that. Using the same hollowed out logs that he’d made the last time, he repeatedly filtered water through the ashes until, at last, he had what he needed. But by the time that was finished, the hide was ready. So, Elijah turned his attention to that.

Over the next few hours, he used a large stick to scrape the salt from the hide. It was stubborn, but he was persistent, and over that time, he finished that step of his project. That left him with the most important phase: the tanning.

Elijah knew the theory behind brain tanning, and he’d confirmed the steps with both Biggle and Mari. However, he’d never done it before, so he was a little hesitant. Still, he forged ahead, hopeful that he wouldn’t screw things up too much. Yet, he did consider paying Mari to come to the island so she could supervise.

Not that she would have consented to come, given the history of people who’d visited his island. Of the fifty-two people who’d done so, only three had survived. So, Elijah chose to abandon that notion. Instead, he pushed ahead with what he knew.

Fortunately, he was well-prepared, and he had everything he needed to make the solution. With that in mind, he gathered the sealed cask of brains that had been taken from the orc warlord, then emptied them into a large pot. They came out slimy and more than a little pungent, but he could tell they hadn’t turned. Next, he spent a few frustrating minutes separating the yolks he’d taken from a few dozen eggs he’d found on the island. He added those, then retrieved the last ingredient from his pack.

Normally, Elijah would have preferred to make everything himself, but he simply didn’t have access to mineral oil. So, he’d been forced to buy some from Biggle. Fortunately, the little gnome alchemist was predisposed to working with Elijah after buying the mushroom flesh that he was using to make cultivation potions. Because of that, he didn’t rip Elijah off.

Not too badly, at least.

In any event, the mineral oil had been incredibly expensive, which meant that Elijah was very much invested in making certain that it was well used. So, once he’d emptied the right amount into the huge pot, he started mixing it over a fire. He didn’t intend to boil it, but instead, he just wanted it warm enough for all the ingredients to coalesce. Which they did, giving him a warm, white liquid that he hoped would do the job.

Positioning himself on all fours atop the stretched hide, Elijah spread the concoction across the surface. He made certain that there wasn’t an inch uncovered, and before long, he’d finished. After that, he took a few large sheets of waterproof cloth he’d gotten from Mari and covered the whole thing up.

Needing to leave that overnight, Elijah turned his attention back to the soap. So, for that, he returned to his treehouse to gather another cask that Kurik had given him. This one contained fat harvested from the orc warlord. As his kill, Elijah was entitled to every part of the monster. Yet, he’d only wanted the brains and fat. The rest, he wasn’t certain he wanted to know where it went. Perhaps the bones would be good for weapons, but he didn’t think the people of Ironshore would eat orcs.

Yet, he wasn’t certain of that, which made him rethink eating any meals there for some time. The creatures weren’t really much more than animals, but they were far too human-like in appearance and intelligence for him to completely dissociate from the notion of cannibalism. That probably made no sense, but he’d have felt the same way about eating an ape. Or a dolphin. Or any of a dozen of the more intelligent animal species.

Stupid, probably. But that was where he drew the line. Though, if he was honest with himself, he would have admitted that that line would quickly become very blurry if he grew hungry enough.

He didn’t want to think about that, though.

Instead, he started melting the fat over the fire, and once it was liquid, he strained it over and over again until all the impurities were gone. Then, he set it aside to harden. The next step was to gather some aromatics, for which he turned to his grove. Fortunately, lavender grew naturally there, so he’d picked some the week before and left it to dry. Now, he just needed to infuse it.

So, Elijah took the dried lavender and shoved it into a huge jar, then coated it with some oil he’d bought from Biggle. Elijah had no idea what it was, but it had a similar consistency to coconut oil, and most importantly, it had no odor. So, it would have to do.

Throughout the process, he’d continuously flared Nature’s Bounty – not to encourage plant growth, but rather, to blanket the area in his personal ethera. Fortunately, the spell played extremely well with the natural ethera – probably because it was already infused with his own due to the Domain – so it created a potent bubble of energy that he hoped would serve to augment everything he was trying to make.

However, he’d finally reached the point where he could only wait for the two projects to progress to the next step. The pelt needed time for the brain solution to tan it, and the ash needed to increase the alkalinity of the water in the lye hopper. Finally, the lavender needed time to infuse the oil.

But that was always going to be the case. His plan wouldn’t be completed overnight, so he’d already come up with another project to occupy his time. In short, he needed to create another staff to replace the Staff of Natural Harmony that had been destroyed during the battle with the orcs.

First, he wanted to go back to his treehouse and sleep a bit. He’d been at it most of the day, and at some point, the sun had set without him even realizing it. So, with that in mind, he headed back to his grove, climbed into his treehouse, and into his bed. He was asleep in moments, and that night, he dreamed of soap and bear hides.