Chapter Sixty-Three: Baked Cub (Patreon)

The fire crackles cheerfully as I sit next to it, the tree stump I collected yesterday in front of me, a somewhat sharp flint stone in my hand. Within eyesight, but carefully being kept away from the flames, are the four cubs, happily playing together. I’m keeping an eye to make sure they don’t come anywhere near my fire, and Bastet is sitting on their other side, making sure they don’t suddenly decide to go romping off towards the forest. It’s a strategy that’s been working out pretty well since Kalanthia left to go hunting.

Speaking of, the raptorcats are most of the way through their last lizog corpse, and honestly raw meat shouldn’t sit around for too long anyway; this corpse has already been sitting out for more than a day. The mini-triceratops will keep them going a bit longer, but with Bastet’s appetite added into the mix, my meat supply will only feed us all for a another couple of days. I need to go hunting tomorrow, I decide.

A smile stretches my lips as I remember reading the messages last night. In addition to gaining a point in Willpower – I guess because of the way I pushed past my physical limits during the fight with the insect-spider – I also got a rank-up message about Fade:

It’s my second Skill to properly rank up, and the first which I’ve levelled since Beginner 1. Fade increased through the ranks quickly up to Beginner 9 thanks to my practically constant use of it, but it had been hovering at that level for a good few days; I was wondering if there was a problem or something. Turns out that no, there wasn’t – I just needed to use it slightly differently, I think.

I reckon that it ranked up yesterday when I moved while still under Fade’s influence. I’d been worried that moving like that would break the effect, but perhaps my intent to stay concealed was strong enough that it enabled the Skill to advance. Certainly, it seems too close in time to be a coincidence that I moved under Fade and now have an advanced effect that allows me to move slowly while under Fade. Add that to the way Lay-on-hands advanced and I reckon there’s a pattern developing.

Knowing that Fade is now going to work even when I’m moving gives me a greater sense of courage. I mean, Stealth is good, but Stealth and Fade? Together that should make even moving through dangerous territory safer. The two Skills will be even more invaluable when I have a ranged weapon, and today’s work is a step closer to that.

My pots need to be fired for at least twenty-four hours; forty-eight would be better, but I do need to sleep. I’ve propped my pottery on stones at the bottom of the pit with branches below, around, and above them. Lighting the fire, I actually sent a little prayer to whoever is listening that not too many pieces will crack. I have made more pieces than I really need, but I haven’t bothered to double up on everything – I didn’t have the time or patience to do that.

While I need to keep an eye on the fire to make sure it continues burning steadily, that doesn’t consume much of my time since I’ve already collected the firewood. I’m taking advantage of the rest of the unused time to carve the wood I’m going to need for the filtering container and then later the soap mold.

I’m using a sharp rock to dig out the rotten bits of the stump to begin with. I’ve already used it to chop the trailing roots off its bottom, so I have a roughly level base to start with. I was relieved to find solid wood at the base, as I was a little worried it would be rotten through.

It’s not exciting work, but after my near-death scare yesterday, I’m not against taking a little time to do some calm and boring manual labour.

*****

By the time the sun is once more falling towards the horizon and Kalanthia has returned, I have several items I’m pleased with. The soap mold is very rough but it will do to create a bar of soap. I hope so, at least. The tree stump has also been transformed into a round basin-like creation with a hole in the centre at the bottom and slopes leading down. I’ve tested with a little bit of water and wherever I put it in the ‘bowl’, it drips towards the hole and comes out.

At first, the hole wasn’t the lowest point underneath the tree stump, so it was subsequently dripping along the underside of the container and then dripping off a point where I had chopped away a root. I’ve since pounded away at the underside and solved that issue. Now, water drips through the hole and drops directly onto the ground underneath: perfect.

It’s meant that the base of the stump is a bit angled, so it rolls a bit and lists to one side when I place it on the ground. Never mind – I was going to need to prop it up somehow for it to drop into my container anyway. In short, it’s rough, but if it works, that’s all I need.

Finally, I’ve been able to create something which I’ve needed for a long time. Armour. Well, sort of the makings of, at least. No shining steel mail worthy of a knight is this. I wish, but I don’t have the materials, tools, or time to create something like that. No, this is a lot more rough and ready. But quite satisfying, and not only because I now have something more to protect me than my jeans and office shirts.

The creature which tried to kill me yesterday has proven to be a bit of a goldmine in terms of materials. While the cubs all snoozed with Bastet as their guardian, I took myself down to the river and butchered the corpse. Despite needing meat, I decided not to keep any of the spider-monster’s flesh: it just smelt nasty. I don’t know if it’s because of the venom the spider had, or some other reason, but I didn’t want to risk it being harmful to either my allies or me.

Having succeeded in getting the carapace off the body by using my knife in softer spots, I then proceeded to use a combination of sharp rocks and knife to break-cut the chitin into smaller pieces. Back at the fire, I then managed through sheer determined effort to bore a number of holes in the chitin pieces. I considered using bark fibre to string them together, but decided to wait until I’ve got some sinew cord instead: bark fibre will be far too easily sliced through by the first attack which hits it; sinew is significantly stronger. Of course, I’d rather have some metal wire or nylon thread, but unfortunately those were not things I thought of bringing with me.

I stretch my tired fingers and roll tight shoulders. I’ve really put my hands through the wringer today. It’s actually crazy how much such simple tasks can hurt. My hands hurt from strain and the rub of stone against skin, my wrists hurt from repeated impacts, my arms hurt from repeated activity, and the same for my shoulders. Then there’s the space between my shoulderblades and my back which hurt from tension over time, my legs which hurt from sitting in a single position on the floor, my eyes that hurt from screwing up against the sun, the skin on my face that hurts from frowning when it was harder than I thought...In fact, I think the only part of me that doesn’t hurt is my feet! And all that from just doing some risk-free crafting?

Surely I must have gained a point in Constitution? I go into my message box to check, grinning when I see a new notification waiting for me.

It isn’t a point to Constitution, but Dexterity needs a bit of a boost, so I’ll take it. Not having killed anything today, that wipes out all the progress I’ve made with my daily absorption, but I don’t care. It makes all the pain worth it when I see those little numbers going up, knowing each one is a qualitative improvement on my capacity to do different tasks. And since my next job will be to make some more arrowheads, any increase in Dexterity is more than welcome.

Not feeling up to struggling with them today, I decide to inspect my sinew – now I need it for my armour as well as my bow, the task has moved up in priority. Making sure that none of the cubs looks like they’re currently contemplating jumping into the fire, I quickly pop into the cave to check out my drying rack.

The sinew is actually coming along very well, and I reckon that some of the pieces are actually ready for pounding. Grabbing the driest strands, I head back outside.

“Trouble, no!” I shout as the wretched cub prepares to poke the fire with a paw. At my cry, he jumps back and tries to look innocent. ‘Who, me?’ he seems to ask with his limpid brown eyes and offended bearing. I glare at him. “If you touch the fire, we’re going to be eating baked cub for dinner since that’s what you’ll become,” I warn. He tosses his head as if to say that he has no idea what I’m talking about but that he’s going to be off now to play with his sisters because that’s what he was planning to do all along. And yes, my Animal Empathy Skill has been improving by leaps and bounds since taking in the four raptorcats.

I can’t help but have a soft spot for Trouble, despite the stress he causes me: he’s adventurous and curious, traits that will stand him in good stead for life – if they don’t kill him first. Still, I think that Stormcloud – or ‘Storm’ as I keep calling her – is my favourite. her stubborn, direct nature generally helping her succeed in what she sets out to do. It’s all too familiar... If she gets an idea in her head that goes counter to what I want her to do, it’s a pain, but generally it’s possible to negotiate with her.

Where Storm goes, Ninja tends to follow, so it’s a bit of a two-for-one deal with them. Generally it will be Storm who starts something, or it’s her interest in an object which will arouse Ninja’s curiosity. Trouble is sometimes interested by something that both his sisters want to have, but his attention is a lot less focused and it doesn’t take much to distract him onto something else. It’s interesting watching the interactions of the three cubs and I’m looking forward to seeing them grow up and develop.

My break over, I turn my attention to the sinew I’ve brought out. Pulling out a handful of rocks from my Inventory, I look through them carefully to choose one that’s appropriate for the task. Most of the rocks I pulled out are immediately discarded – I can’t have anything that’s got sharp edges for fear of compromising the integrity of the sinew strands. However, anything that’s too small is also dismissed as I need to be able to get a decent grip without risking hitting my fingers too many times – been there; done that.

Eventually, I find a rock that’s a bit bigger than my hand, and it’s mostly smooth. I just make sure that I’ve turned the slightly rough bit so that it’s not going to hit the sinew. Next, I pull out a flat piece of rock I’ve also stored away for later use. Preparations complete, I pound at the sinew, watching to see the result.

When the dry material starts to fray, the ends of strands appearing under where I started pounding it, I smile. While I’ve never actually done this before, my memories are clear that this is a sign the sinew is ready to be processed, and I set to with renewed energy. Once I’ve got the sinew strand separated, I’ll be able to either put them aside for use in arrow-making, or braid them together to make sinew cord for my armour and a bow string.

I’m starting to get into a rhythm of pounding the sinew and then teasing out the strands, pounding and teasing, pounding and teasing, when there’s a loud bang that makes me half jump out of my skin.