We decided to stay in the town a bit longer than originally intended. I wanted a better way to cross the divide than we had before setting off, even an imperfect one, to reduce the amount of time it would take. I didn't delude myself either, there was no way this was going to get us all the way, but even part would be a boon.

An air-boat would've been the perfect thing, but sadly that was probably impossible. There were other options though, we could try making something seaworthy and sailing around. However I knew there were monsters in the sea, and didn't know how to make anything even approaching seaworthy. Canoes were another good option, giving us at least the option to skip the mud.

“What about using the shore like we have been?” Chien suggested as I bounced ideas off of him.

“Might work for parts of it, but I've been told there are a lot of seaside swampy areas once you get a day or two down the coast, also wouldn't solve our trouble getting further inland to find those cities.”

“Shame we can't all just fly.”

Now that was an idea... planes were beyond our ability at the moment, and not anywhere close even, but what if we could fly? Could a glider be made? Probably not, for the same reason as the plane. I needed something a bit simpler in the whole building department. Something easier, less joints, if we had fabric enough a hot air balloon would be perfect.

“If only we had something that could hold air,” I moped.

“Don't know something like that, ask the locals maybe?”

“Good call,” I said, praising that advice. There were still a lot of things I didn't know.

As I walked around town asking questions I thought about other options. Carbon fiber sounded cool, and might be light enough to work, but I didn't know how to make it. Cloth just wasn't available, at least not the quality and types we'd need for something like this. Leather? No, leather was far too heavy, even at its thinnest, and who knew if I could get that. What about leaves or something then, grow one? No, somehow I doubted that would be possible.

“Actually, I do know of something,” one of the townsfolk said as I asked about air holding things.

“Please do tell,” I answered with a smile and a nod.

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“There's a tree just on the edges of the swamp, the inner bark is pretty light, and you can get huge sheets of it. It should hold air too, it's all weird feeling and the like, like soft skin.”

I was over the moon, hot air balloons here I come! He even had the time to take and show me, because it wasn't like there was a rush on any of his business. All he asked for was that I help him cut some of the wood for his own purposes, something I could do in seconds. A deal struck we headed out of the town and towards the edge of the marsh.

The trees we were looking for weren't uncommon, but I got the feeling nobody really thought about them holding air or not, so nobody had noticed. Each was wide and squat, with a look that almost reminded me of cypress otherwise.

“These them?” I asked my guide.

“Indeed, just need to cut it down and strip the limbs and we can get the bark for you. They make great firewood too!” He hefted his ax, having brought it along. I didn't bring any such thing, but I assumed he wanted to trade off, that didn't work for me.

With a quick series of hand motions a series of sharp cuts, almost like a chainsaw would make were made into the lumber. My guide stood back, sputtering as in seconds I felled a tree that would've taken an hour or so by hand. Kinetics was one of my favorites, and so it was no issue to slice where I wanted, though I could tell that it was significantly more durable than most trees I'd run into. Next came the limbs, sliced away and piled to the side.

“Well... that's one way to do it. Er, how close did you say you were to becoming an elder?”

“Not at all. Now, for the inner bark, can I just slice along the length and peel it like a fruit?”

“Yeah, that would work.” The man was still stunned by the quick work, answering almost in autopilot.

Doing just that the outer bark cracked and fell away, leaving a long sheet of brilliant orange. Just from the cuts I'd made I could tell the stuff was tough enough for my needs and I smiled, until I tried to pick it up.

“Something wrong?” he asked nervously.

“I thought you said this was light?”

“It's very light for something that keeps air out, and I know it does too, I've seen bubbles get trapped in it before.”

The sheet in my hand was about a quarter inch thick, but rather than canvas or nylon it was like rubber, thick rubber. Consistency wasn't quite the same, with a bit of a grainy feel to it, but rubber was the closest thing I could compare it to. Even if I sliced it into thinner sheets I doubted it would make a good material for balloons.

“I uh, don't suppose you'd help me get some of this back to town?” the would be woodsman asked hesitantly.

Technically I'd more than fulfilled my end of our bargain, but goodwill was worth it and getting it back if you lost it wasn't easy. If I told him to kick sand he wouldn't be able to complain that I'd reneged on our deal, but I knew he'd never help me again, and some of the people in town might not either. Small towns were rumor mills and I was decidedly an outsider. Maybe I wasn't planning to return, but our kind had long memories.

“Well, you helped me out, so I can help a bit, but this is a lot even for me. I won't be able to get it all all the way there.”

“Can you get the main trunk back? The limbs I can do trips for.”

“I can do that.”

It was a sizable tree, and even if I wasn't taking all, or most of it getting this much back was no light task. Several breaks were taken through the day, and it occurred to me that had I not been here this would be a task for a good few men. Well, either that or my companion would've had to make a lot of runs back and forth. It also wasn't lost of me that he didn't want the tree cut into more manageable lengths. Perhaps at the beginning he'd been thinking of firewood, but with the thing whole he could hew planks from it, a much more valuable use for any wood.

When I finally made it back to our rooms Isha looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I'd not been planning to be gone for the whole day. In response I hauled the tied up roll of rubber-like bark over my shoulder and before me, where it jiggled up and down suggestively like rubber was keen to do.

“I swear you do the weirdest things.”