Aloe wasn’t an herbalist nor an apothecary, her only saving grace being that she had done well in school and that her father had a sizeable collection of books she had read since her childhood as there was nothing else to do.
“Mortar, mortar.” Aloe sang to herself as she looked for the mortar and pestle.
Some would classify her work as some sort of alchemy or witchcraft, and it wasn’t that far of. She WAS working with magical ingredients, but the process she had elaborated in her mind was quite mundane.
“Ah, here it is.” The hardened clay piece had laid hidden in a drawer of the desk.
But before she could use the aloe, Aloe had to get the base, also known as the grass. Thankfully, after her multiple upheaving efforts to turn the soil arable, there were piles of Cure Grass lying around in the oasis.
Though the place was awfully silent.
“Fikali?” Aloe shouted at the green and golden landscape.
“Huoooo...” The dweller instantly responded with a characteristic grunt, though the sound’s origin was far away.
Aloe sighed in relief once she noticed that her inversion hadn’t run away and rushed to her side.
“Still rolling in the sand?” The human said as she placed her hands on her hips.
“Wuo.” Fikali admitted.
“Well enough for now, I don’t like it to have you unsupervised. Come.” Surprisingly, the dweller obeyed. Making it easy for Aloe to grab the lead dangling at her side and tie it back to the same date tree. “We’ll do the same tomorrow or even this afternoon, okay?”
“Oh!” The desert dweller jumped in her belly in response, causing a little smile to draw on Aloe’s face.
She left Fikali to her own devices and gathered a considerable amount of Cure Grass. But instead of outright working with it, Aloe cleaned the blades in the oasis. Not only some of them were covered in dirt, but surely most of them had a thin layer of invisible sand. And besides, she would have to consume them, this was just basic kitchen ethic.
“I wish I had a basket.” Aloe sighed. “I guess I could use a jar though. The heavens know that Karaim had tens of them.”
Even after saying so, Aloe carried the soggy blades of grass by hand. Unlike sand, water wouldn’t hurt her. The first empty clay piece she found on the house, she dropped all the grass into it.
“Should I dry the grass? Like all, not just the water. Hmm, that would make it easier to mill the grass, but won’t that remove the vitality properties from the plant? Hmm...” Truth was that she didn’t have the answers.
This charade was pure improvisation, but if she wanted to do all the things she wanted to do with Evolution, she would need to consume the Cure Grass. And munching grass was not on her top of favorite activities, but rather on her least favorite activities, and certainly on a high ranking.
“Alright, let’s begin.” Aloe stretched her arms and cracked her fingers like she normally did when she had a long writing session before her.
Extending her hand into the Cure Grass pot, she grabbed a handful, vaguely smaller than the volume of the mortar, and started milling it.
She had no experience with the mortar and pestle, but she had seen her mother from time to time use one to elaborate homemade ointments. And it was quite a straightforward process for what she knew, just smashing the things inside until they became flatter.
So, she did just that.
Smashing her way through the grass was considerably easier than plowing it with a hoe. Once an arm started to get tired, she switched to the other one. Whilst not ambidextrous, Aloe had a reasonable proficiency with both hands, making the switch rather simple.
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After fifteen minutes, a green paste remained in the mortar.
“Yeah, why was I even expecting dust? Grass is wet, if I wanted dust I would need to burn it. Duh.” Aloe traced her finger along the corners of the poultice, the substance was sticky but frail as it quickly fell apart after she grab a pinch. “Well, definitely denser than before, but the problem is still the taste. But this is too few, gotta put more.”
She put the mushed grass she grabbed back into the mortar and poured the contents into a wooden bowl. Then grabbed another handful of grass and started milling it. By the time she ended this second round, the cauldron in the hearth began whistling from the steam. Aloe put aside her experiments and removed the lid from the cauldron.
Before serving herself a ration though, she also visited the cauldron on the oasis on water duty. It wasn’t bubbling, but the steam told her that it was enough, and poured the contents into a new amphora so she had water under boiling conditions to drink.
“Yeah, awful as expected.” Aloe ate from the bowl, her spoon lingering inside. “Let’s forget stew, with this much water it should be considered a soup.”
A single bowl wasn’t enough to satiate her, especially after consuming her vitality on the banana seeds. So, she poured herself another round. It wasn’t like anyone else was going to eat it.
“Huh, does consuming vitality make you hungry?” Aloe pondered between spoonsful. “Karaim mentioned that vitality works similar to stamina, and when someone exercises, they tend to get hungrier faster... And both times I have used vitality I have been hungrier than usual... But I don’t think the first one should count. I was hungry before I even started trying to sense vitality.”
After having eaten and neglecting to do the dishes yet again, Aloe turned back to the grassy mess. It had dried a bit, but it was still relatively wet.
“Alright, how do I do this?” She put the aloe vera sap and the milled grass bowls before her. “Pills are normally small, but how should I make them? Just like baking pastries? Do I grab a bunch of grass and then soak it in aloe? Hmm... Well, I can only see if it works after trying, but first I need a tray to leave the balls to rest.”
Unfortunately, Karaim did not have a tray. It was to be expected because otherwise, what would he carry in this barrel-sized house? Aloe put up with a big wooden plate she found in the cupboards. It wasn’t like she could do many pills currently.
Before starting, Aloe ripped open the aloe vera leaf and removed all the remaining sap. Not only the one on the bowl was drying up, but she wanted to apply multiple coats to the grass balls. Tasting the powdered grass was something she didn’t want to do. She ended up with one grass bowl to the brim and two other filled aloe bowls.
She picked up small pieces of grass and made a single small ball with it.
“Hmm, too big,” Aloe commented after comparing the ball with her mouth. “I should be able to gulp it down easily, and in this current state it will tear my throat.” She pressed on the green mess with her fingertips. “Okay, not actually, it’s rather soft. But I could still choke on it.”
With a sigh, Aloe threw it back into the bowl and picked up less grass. The next one was the size of her thumbnail, small enough to go down her throat.
“Though just in case...” Not trusting the effect of the mortar on the Cure Grass, Aloe checked for the vitality of the ball. “Oh, it works!” Her eyes illuminated; her pessimist self had that nudge on the back of her head that milling down the grass would make it lose its effects. “And it’s also concentrated! This little ball has more vitality than a handful of blades!”
She couldn’t estimate how much vitality actually was on the ball, but she could easily compare it with other values.
“It’s soaking time, now.” Aloe dived the pellet into the aloe sap, the liquid quickly sticking to the ball and her fingertips. “It adheres perfectly, I thought I would have to coat it manually or something, but it just works! It’s almost as if it was meant to be.”
She left the first finished pills on the plate and continued making the rest. It was a simple process, just giving shape to the malleable grass mass and dunking it on the sap. The hardest part of the elaboration was without a doubt milling the grass. But she still had yet to check if the pills were viable.
It took Aloe another quarter of an hour to shape the rest of the grass and put the dripping pellets on the plate.
“Hmm... I still have a whole bowl with aloe... I’ll think I just pour it on top, and an extra layer won’t hurt.”
The remaining aloe sap slowly fell upon the covered pellets, the thick liquid traveled slowly. That proved to be quite helpful as it allowed Aloe to apply layers to every single pellet without needing to stop pouring. The slight brim of the plate impeded the sap to flow away from the plate, which could have ended in a significant mess.
When the sap was finally over, Aloe had applied a fingernail-thick layer to all the pellets, and it didn’t look like it would wash away.
“Now I think I should leave them to rest like candy.” Aloe opened the window door and left the plate on the ledge so the sun could crystallize the sap. “Well, I still have some time to kill before the pills are done.” After stretching her arms, she went outside. She still had a lot of tasks remaining and it was already past noon.