I awoke to the sound of the boys playing in the far corner of the tent. It seemed pretty normal, as far as I knew. Until, that is, I heard a yelp of pain. I shot up, peering intently into the corner, trying to discern what was going on.
“Kids, are you okay? It sounded like someone just got hurt.”
“We’re fine, Mr. Ivor. Ahte-naah lost a scale, that’s all.” Ahte-tan called back.
“Lost a scale? How in the world do you lose a scale? Is it like losing a tooth? Or, do lizardfolk shed their skin as they grow?” I had gotten up and was walking over to their corner.
“I think it got bent backwards somehow. Then just ripped off. I don’t know.” Ahte-tan replied.
I reached the wounded boy, and knelt down. “Show me, Ahte-naah.”
Ahte-naah was clutching his hand to his abdomen, looking sick. I reached out to take his hand when suddenly he pounced on me, mouth wide, and claws poised to rip at my flesh.
“RRAAAAAGH!” He roared and dug his fingers into my sides, and clamped down on my arm with his pointy teeth.
I yelped and fell backwards, stunned. Quickly I realized that this was simply play for him, as he started wiggling his fingers into my sides, trying to tickle me.
“Oh no! I’ve been chomped by a big bad dragon! Whatever shall I do? Ow! Ow!”
Ahte-naah giggled and worked his jaw slightly and growled, then tried tickling me again, to no avail. “I eats all the humans! Raaar!”
I laughed at the absurdity of it, and decided to retaliate. “The dreaded dragon has me in his mighty claws! How can I free myself? I know! I’ll turn the dragon’s tricks on him!” I reached up with my free hand, and started tickling his ribs, making him laugh and smack at my hand. “Aha! It works! Take that, dragon! Raa!” I tickled him again, and his brothers decided to join the fun by pouncing on me.
“Ack! The dragon brought friends! Oh no! I’m gonna get eaten!” The three attacked me with renewed vigor, and I wriggled and tried to free myself while they gently pummeled me with tiny fists and teeth.
“Get him, brothers! Today, we FEAST!” Ahte-tan cried out.
I laughed, and started crawling towards the flap, the boys scurrying all over me, jumping on me and attempting to tickle me. “Must. Get. To. Safety.” I coughed weakly. “Must. warn. Village.” I reached the flap, and opened it, to find Blainaut standing there with a look of fear on his face.
“Blainaut! Save yourself! The dragons have come to devour us all!” I reached out with a trembling hand, as the boys, giggling, attempted to drag me back into the tent. “Oh gods, help! They’re going to eat me!” Ahte-ukum had jumped onto my back, and roared in his tiny voice, then began to try and tickle me again.
Blainaut stood there for a moment, then threw his head back and roared with laughter at the sight of me being jumped on and attacked by three little scaled children.
“Okay, okay. That’s enough, kids.” I stood up, Ahte-ukum dangling from my left arm, and Ahte-naah wrapped around my right. “This was fun, but I’ve got some work to do, if I’m going to have you three in decent clothes before noon.” Blainaut’s laughter continued outside the tent.
Ahte-naah dropped down, landing lightly on his toes, and I set Ahte-ukum down. Ahte-tan was attempting to sneak up behind me. “Ahte-tan, don’t. I have to get this done, and we need to be on our way. We will have plenty of time to play later on.” I said in as stern a voice as I could manage.
“Awww. I was sure you couldn’t hear me. Oh well. Maybe later.” Ahte-tan plodded out of the tent, his head down.
I patted his shoulder as he went out, then stuffed my feet into clean socks and into my boots, and headed out, myself. Blainaut had collapsed in a chair, and was wiping tears off his cheeks. “You alright there, Blainaut? I mean, you look like you’ve never seen anything like that.” I laughed softly, and started to get the fire going.
“Goodness, no. I’ve never seen anything like that before.” He laughed again at the memory. “It looked like you were honestly having a good time with them, playing like that. I thought you didn’t have any kids?”
As the fire sprang back to life, I sat back on my heels, fanning it gently, and adding fuel as needed. “I don’t, but a couple of my gaming friends do, and I was always the weird uncle that they would play with from time to time. It became something of a ritual. Play with the kids for a few minutes, sit around and talk with the guys for a couple of hours, play the game for six, and drive back home, hoping I didn’t fall asleep.”
Blainaut sighed wistfully. “It sounds like a wonderful time, Ivor. I am sorry that you will miss it, being stuck here for who knows how long.” He looked at me with true apology on his face.
“Thank you, Blainaut. I appreciate that. Now, I have some ideas about making this process go faster, and I don’t know how it’ll all work. First things first, I need to check on the meat.” I hurried over to the smoker, and opened the box, releasing heat and smoke into the air.
Taking a piece from the top of the rack, I checked it for pliability and moisture content. It seemed like it was just about right. I closed the box, and laid the piece of meat out on a nearby stone to cool, then went to check on the pelt. I hoped it would be okay.
As I approached, I could see that the water level hadn’t gone down much, if any. There was a thin mist hovering above the water, and the entire tub felt warm to the touch. I nodded. The first step was done. Now to see about making it into actual leather. I sat down, and placed both hands on the ground. “Seek spring.” I said, and sent my consciousness out into the earth, hoping to find a mineral spring. After a few minutes of searching, I had found a spot on the water table, not too far away. I Drew a handful of water and sipped it. It was nice and cold, but more importantly, it was slightly bitter and salty. This could work.
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I conjured the Hands of Air again, and pulled the hide out of the bath, stretching it out once more. I Drew the pickle out, and deposited it back into the tub, leaving a slightly moist skin. I made another Blade of Air, and scraped it once again. The leavings were significantly less than before, and the skin side was nice and white. Duplicating the skin, I stuffed one into my Bag, and the other I placed back into the pickle, and crafted a box of earth around it. Time to test a theory.
First, I checked the meat. It was pretty well smoked and dried, and didn’t taste too bad. I ate a few pieces, and then went to the box. Figuring I needed to cram a couple of days into as short a time as possible, I did a little math, and figured I’d need to increase time by 700% to make it take as little time as possible.
I stepped to the box, placed both hands on it, and whispered “Time dilation, seven hundred percent, duration forty-five minutes.” Immediately, the box began to hum slightly and grew warm under my hands, and I felt dizzy. I managed to stay upright, and went back to the drying rack on shaky legs. I crammed as much meat into my stomach as I could, and sat down to wait for about forty-five minutes, trying to recover.
Ahte-naah came over and sat beside me, curious. “Are you okay, Mr. Ivor? You look pale, and kind of sick.”
I gave a weak smile to the kid. “I’ll be okay in a few minutes. What I’m doing is taking a lot out of me. That’s all.”
He poked me in my midsection. “I can tell. You’re not as fat as you were when I met you.”
“Am I not? Huh. I should get my fat back sometime soon, shouldn’t I?” I grabbed what fat was left at my stomach and gave it a little shake, eliciting a giggle from the scaly child. “Okay, back to it.” I heaved myself up off the ground and walked back to the box, and he ran off to play with his brothers.
Placing my hands on it, the hum was gone, telling me that the spell had finished. I Removed the top of the box, and peered in. The pelt was still submerged, but only just. I conjured my Hands, and carefully removed it. I repeated the earlier process of Drawing and scraping, this time seeing almost no leavings. I placed the pelt back, resealed it, and repeated the spell, selecting a duration of twenty minutes. The weakness and dizziness returned, and I stumbled to the rack once more, and ate a bit more meat. I sat and rested for a bit, recuperating as best I could. After a while, I checked the box. No more hum. Using the Hands, I extracted the pelt, and Drew off all the pickle. I dumped the tub, and Drew water from the spring I found earlier to fill it. It didn’t take long, thankfully. I rinsed the pelt, then dumped and refilled the tub, submerging the pelt once more. I set a Hand to stir the pelt in the water, and ate some more.
The sun was reaching into the sky by this point. I thought about repairing their clothes, but the more I thought about it, the more I disliked that idea. A new life needed new clothes. I dug into my Bag, and pulled out a change of clothes I had packed for myself. I Duplicated it twice, and cast an Automatic Sizing on them, just like I had the rings.
“Hey boys! Come here. I have a gift for the three of you.” I called from the opening to my tent. Blainaut looked up, and watched the three kids run up to me. “Here is one for you, Ahte-tan.” I handed him a bundle, “And for you, Ahte-naah, the fierce little dragon.” I handed one to him, seeing a smile creep over Blainaut’s face from the corner of my eye, “And last, but definitely not least, is one for Ahte-ukum.” I handed the smallest child a bundle, and watched as they opened them. “Those will fit you, guaranteed. Go ahead and put them on.” I watched as each child slipped on a pair of blue jeans and a tee shirt.
“How do we fasten them, Mr. Ivor? I’ve never seen this before.” Ahte-naah asked, holding the pants up.
“Well, it’s like this.” I showed the three of them how to zip and button the pants a few times, and watched as they each practiced until they had it correctly. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to check on the pelt. It’s almost done, and I think I’ll need another hour or so to get everything finished. Then, we can be on our way.” The boys’ faces lit up, and Blainaut nodded.
I pulled the pelt out with my Hands, and Drew the water off of it, and dumped the tub. I suspended it in the air to dry, and worked on tying up and storing the dried meat in my Bag.
Once the drying rack was clear, and the meat was stored, I draped the pelt over the rack and closed the box. I repeated the time dilation for another twenty minutes, and sat back down to eat more. Once the box stopped humming, I opened it to find a mostly dry, but still tacky pelt, and retrieved the grease I had bottled the day before. Using the Hands, I stretched and spread the grease liberally on the skin side. Satisfied, I placed it back on the rack, and sped time for forty-five minutes again. This was going to kill me if I wasn’t careful. I had already lost most of the fat I’d grown accustomed to having. I ate even more meat, hoping I only had one more use of this spell to go. Once the box stopped vibrating, I opened it, examining my work.
The pelt was tanned, sure enough. Now I had to break the skin. I removed the rack from the box, and then I conjured several pairs of Hands, and set them to stretching the pelt this way and that, then stuck them in the box. I heaped on the rest of the wood chips onto the skillet, closed the box, and repeated the spell. This should make for an extremely soft and supple, waterproofed pelt. I was exhausted, and ate more meat, and some fruit. It was time to finish these cloaks.
The sun was high in the sky when the box finished vibrating. I opened it, and found that the Hands had indeed done a fantastic job of breaking the skin. I retrieved the pelt, finding it to be extremely soft and supple. I took my knife, and began working on crafting the cloaks. Having magic just made it that much faster. I made two, one large and one small, cast an automatic sizing on each, and Duplicated them. The small one twice, and the large one once. I rolled the pelt up, and stuffed it into the Bag. It barely fit.
“Okay, guys. Let’s strike camp! Kids, you three get to clearing out and taking down our tent, and I’ll make sure Blainaut has his done.” The boys leapt into action, and I taught Blainaut how to take down the tent, and stuff it into the bag. I then handed each of us a cloak, explaining that just like the clothes the kids wore, they would fit us easily.
The entire camp was cleared and ready for travel in about ten minutes. I touched each of the boxes I’d made, and Pulverized them and the stones.
Turning to the group, I asked “Ready to go?” and was met with nods. I looked around and saw nobody out in the meadow, and dispelled the Dome, only to be met with an explosion of feathers as a murder of crows took flight from around the area I had dispatched the bear. “Sorry, guys! I didn’t see you. We’re leaving now, and you’re welcome for the feast.” I turned to Blainaut. “Blainaut, if you would, please?”
“Absolutely.” He looked around, and got his bearings, then set off in a more southerly direction. “Alfknavia is this way, and in it, we will find their home.”
“Ready to go home, boys? See your mom and dad?” Their excited shouts were music to my ears as we began walking behind Blainaut.