“Why, why would you get this stuff!?” Chien fumed, trying to cut the sheet of rubber back a bit.

“Goodness, use magic, this stuff isn't that bad.” I of course was using only magic, because it was in fact that bad, the material was like trying to cut through wood, which made sense, since it was bark.

“Do you even know how to use it?”

“I've got a few ideas.”

He made a chopping motion, sending a magical blade to slice off the strip he was trying to cut. “Ideas he says...”

“We can probably sew it together.”

“No,” Isha said from a corner where she was prepping some other plants for dinner. “Not unless you're doing it, because I don't have a needle that will go through that and you're not ruining one of my good ones. A thick iron one maybe, but that seems nonsensical.”

“Well, maybe it melts.”

“Will it remain waterproof afterwards? And even if it does, this stuff is heavy.” Chien had spotted the same problem I had.

“Sure, but we can make a boat out of it, maybe one to go along the top of the marsh.”

I'd written off air-boats as impossible, but if we worked it right, this stuff might just work for a raft that we could then push like we had the sled. Well, at least that was the best I was coming up with unless someone had a bunch of helium sitting around, and even that would be iffy.

“Changing the plan again then Justin?” Isha teased.

“He does do that a lot.”

“Enough, both of you. We have to work with what we have, unless you want to spend the next couple of years trudging through bug and monster infested mud.”

“...”

“...”

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“That's what I thought.”

“Do we have to go though?” Isha asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, we could just go home. Nobody knows if there even is an ancient in the swamps, and they never talk to anyone anyways. Or we could stay here, it's fairly nice Justin, it would be easy. Is there really anything back there other than a few friends? And we could just wait awhile and go home later too.”

I looked at her, and I could see it in her eyes. She was tired, we all were, all of us just wanted to go home. Sure, I knew that we might be some trouble on this journey, but nothing like the environments we had. The other two, they probably didn't even know how to parse the tundra we'd been through, or the rivers of lava. Anyone else might just call it and pack up, go home, however I had a stubborn streak a mile wide.

“We could, but we're so close, I just want to finish right.”

“Alright, but you're going to owe me something when it's all done.”

“Sure, name it,”

“I'll tell you later,” she said with a mischievous smile before taking her work and leaving us.

“I'm with you till the end boss,” Chien told me once she'd left, shrugging.

“Oh? No demands?”

He tapped his chin for a minute. “When you take over I want to be in charge of the treasury.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “Assuming I do.”

“You will boss, one day.” He said it without the smallest hint of doubt, like it was just a fact, the truth.

“Fine, you can be minister of finance when I rule Atal. Now let's get back to this.” I really didn't want to argue with him about the fact that I never wanted to rule anything, so I just pointed to our project.

The rubber, for I was simply going to call it that, did in fact melt. It was at a pretty good temperature, not forge hot, but fire hot, so I wasn't worried about it doing so in the short term. Even once that was done however the seams weren't perfect, and were very prone to breaking from each other. The stuff was at least still tough everywhere except the joints, enough that it took a sharp knife and a lot of effort of just magic to slice it up.

Since just melting had failed we went for a series of connections. Sewing it first didn't seem to solve everything, after taking a day to make the needle we needed and some thick twine. The next one involved sewing a reinforcement strip over every joint and melting it all. The joined pieces were huge too, since we'd just cut the tree-sized strip in half and sewn the edges, it was about fifteen feet wide and just as long, really they were monstrous trees. However that try the joint looked good.

“Think it'll hold?” my assistant asked, smacking the bouncy surface.

“Have to test it.”

“We're gonna be going over dirt and water fast if what you're saying is true. How to we even test it, hold it out and slam something on it for a few hours?” he quipped.

I chuckled under my breath. “Yes, that's exactly what we're gonna do. Can you gather up the kids from the town? Maybe the adults too since it's getting later in the day. I bet they're all done with their work for today.”

“And bring them here?” he asked, looking around the small, old hut that we'd managed to barter for access to. The village elder had offered to keep hosting us, but it felt wrong if we were going to be here for a couple of weeks.

“No, just outside the village, near the nearest trees. Get Isha too, wherever she's run off to.” I didn't look back as I grabbed some of the rope we had from our things and hauled off the huge rubber tarp.

I found the perfect spot in minutes, several trees with a nice big opening between them, nothing too sharp nearby, soft grass and mud below it, and easy to see from the village. Preparing was simple enough, a few holes, a few ropes, the fact that I had no springs would make this passable at best, but it would still be fun.

“Hey!... We need to!.. Test how strong this is!.. Want to help!?” I said between jumps at the approaching group of elves. They all thought we were a bit weird, but we traded well, and seemed to think anything we wanted to show them might be neat.

“He is such a child sometimes,” I heard Isha whisper, shaking her head as I tried to get higher and higher on this world's first trampoline. She still joined me though.

The village's children, what few there were, showed their emphatic agreement by all bouncing on moments later. The adults gave them a bit of time before switching out, letting the little ones tire themselves out. This continued well into the night, with some of those capable of magic sending up lights and food appearing from somewhere. It was fun, and by the end of it I was satisfied that our material would hold up.