Dens clicked No. She wasn’t sure what tagging would do, and didn’t want to drag this poor plant into her mess. The second she did, the box disappeared.

She was still holding the tip of the plant. She broke it off at the stem, and took the sausage-like pod with her. What else did you need for fire? A couple sticks? She grabbed two of them off the ground. She walked back over to the pond. A source of water seemed like a good idea to have nearby, depending on how this went.

She knelt down and set one stick on the ground. She held the other in her hand, and the seed pod in the other. She took a close look at the seeds again.

REEDMACE Would you like to tag this material with Tinder? YES NO

She flinched as the box appeared again. She sighed. Okay, she would play the game. She tapped on yes. Instantaneously, the notebook glowed green. She fished it out of her pocket and flipped it open.

Campfire Relevant Inklings Kindling Level 0

Tinder Level 1

Tinder is made up of small pieces of easily flammable material used for starting a fire. Heat them to the point of autoignition and place them in KINDLING to get one going.

- Reedmace

She blinked. That was… stuff she already knew, ultimately. Having it confirmed this way was sort of nice. Assuming that it was true, at least.

She looked at the twigs in her hand and thought hard about what she was doing. She needed to put them together to create friction, which would heat the tinder to the point of ignition. What was the best way to do that?

Putting down the seed pod and taking the two sticks in her hands, she started to hit them together in the air. She worked at it for a couple seconds, before putting them back down, shaking her head. All she managed to do was bonk some of the bark off of the sticks. She put her hand to the point where the two were hit together. Maybe it was a little warmer. A start, at least. She inspected the sticks again, before rubbing her hands together. The bark dug into her skin when she gripped them. Maybe it would be easier if it was just two pieces of peeled wood?

She nodded. That was a logical step. Plus, it would give her time to think about how to do this. God, did she miss matches. Peeling back the bark was a slow process, but it was coming off in a single sheet, so long as she was careful. It was very flexible, and not all that attached to the wood itself. She’d be sure to keep this in mind. Maybe she could make something from it? She paused, then looked into the notebook.

Campfire Relevant Inklings Kindling Level 0

Tinder Level 1

Tinder is made up of small pieces of easily flammable material used for starting a fire. Heat them to the point of autoignition and place them in KINDLING to get one going.

- Reedmace

She was a bit disappointed. There was a chance that it would have recognized the idea of using the bark as material as a progression in itself. Maybe because it wasn’t connected to making a campfire? Who knows.

She looked at the mostly intact two sheets of bark she had in front of her. It had to be good for something, right?

BIRCH BARK

Would you like to tag this material with Tinder? YES NO

Oh, there was something. She could add it to the tinder pile. She tapped on yes, might as well.

As the message box disappeared, she took a closer look. Did it actually do anything? It looked exactly the same, but so did the reedmace. She had another level in Tinder, whatever that meant. Like a building, she assumed. Higher level meant higher familiarity, maybe?

She inspected the bark again.

BIRCH BARK

X Material Tags

* Tinder - LV. 0

Huh, Tinder was underlined. Maybe there was something there? Usually she tapped on the underlined thing at the bottom to make it disappear, maybe this was similar?

She tapped on it

BIRCH BARK

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Material currently unsuitable for Tinder.

Convert using TINDER LV. 1?

YES NO

All these boxes were making her dizzy. Sure, whatever the box wanted. Go ahead. She tapped yes.

The second she did, the two sheets consolidated into green light, and then reappeared as small shavings in a little pile.

She blinked. She knew what she saw, but whatever that meant couldn’t reach the right parts of her brain. Worrying about this was blocked off as a function at the moment. Please call again later.

Okay, more tinder, great. That’s what she was going to get out of this.

In front of her was a pile of flammable material and two shaved sticks. Theoretically, she had everything she needed to make a fire right here. She had seen it be done. Probably. She closed her eyes.

In her mind, it was simple. The sticks would get hot and the timber would light on fire. She could picture the second part clearly. Timber would just naturally light at the temperature the sticks got to. But how did the sticks get hot?

She dwelled on this thought for a moment. Things got hot when… when what? When covered in warm clothes, when put out in sunlight, wh-

She looked down. Her notebook was glowing again.

Campfire Relevant Inklings Burning Glass

Level -

Inkling locked due to technological limitations.

Kindling Level 0

Tinder Level 1

Tinder is made up of small pieces of easily flammable material used for starting a fire. Heat them to the point of autoignition and place them in KINDLING to get one going.

- Reedmace

The text started to fade after a few moments.

Hmm. Okay, that makes sense. She didn’t have any glass anyway. Not any she wanted to risk on making a fire. What if it “processed” her glasses if she tried to use them, leaving her blind? Or even worse, take her glasses AND not count whatever the result would be.

And then it hit her. Friction. When you were cold, you rubbed your hands together. Of course you’d rub sticks together. The heat generated would be transferred to the tinder, which would ignite.

To confirm her thought, the notebook glowed green again. It felt like approval. Still open, text wrote itself on the open page

Campfire Relevant Inklings Kindling

Level 0

Firemaking (Friction)

Level 0

Rub suitable material together to generate heat

Tinder Level 1

Tinder is made up of small pieces of easily flammable material used for starting a fire. Heat them to the point of autoignition and place them in KINDLING to get one going.

- Reedmace

Okay, she could do that. She took both sticks in hand and aimed them down towards the ground. She crossed the ends and put the point of contact as close to the pile of tinder as she could manage.

She rubbed. She rubbed and rubbed and rubbed until her hands hurt again and the pile of tinder fell over. She went slow and hard, fast and soft, fast and hard, everything she could think of that could work. Nothing. At least, no fire. When she put her finger to where the two met, she winced in pain. It was hot, like touching a mug filled with boiling water.

That was definitely progress, but she just wasn’t strong enough to get it all the way there.

She sat back, wiping at the sweat dotting her forehead. Something had to be different. How many ways could you make something rub against another? She closed her eyes.

Whatever it was, the notebook, her blue boxes, they wanted her to invent things. What could she make that would make something create friction really fast?

Trains made their wheels go really fast, she knew that. She looked at the two sticks in her hands. Okay, pretty far from trains, and whatever made them go, she could admit that.

Things went when they were going downhill, that was true. Maybe she could drop a stick somehow and have it- no. This was stupid. This was stupid and she should just know how fire goes.

She closed her eyes again and breathed. She visualized her notebook. It would have the knowledge in it, somewhere. She just needed to guess right.

Everything you could do with two sticks. She couldn’t get trains out of her head. She missed them. She imagined long rides around England. God, even long trips around the continent. She wished America had a more robust system. It was weird they didn’t honestly. Just the couple going across that middle bit where there was nothing of imp-

Oh my god. You could spin one. Spinning generated friction, surely. She eyed her notebook. It didn’t glow, but it didn’t glow when she thought of how to make tinder, either. She would just have to do it, she guessed.

She got on her knees, setting one piece of wood down, rubbing it into the dirt so it would stick. She gathered the pile of tinder and put a little divot on the top. It looked like a volcano. Perfect place for generating embers.

She took the other stick in both hands. She shuffled it around, so it was between her two palms. Carefully placing it in the divot, she started to spin. Slowly at first, then faster. Then faster. Even faster.

Smoke started to trickle from the pile. So little at first, that she thought it was a trick of the light. Then it was joined by more smoke, pouring out from her efforts.

And then, in an instant.

BIRCH BRANCHES

Would you like to tag this tool with Firemaking (Friction)? YES NO