TJ jumped to his feet, and activated Divine Transformation. He almost didn’t notice the jeans he left behind, his tongue flicking out to taste the air. Nothing living was nearby, except Stanton. There had only been native creatures so far, and TJ hadn’t expected skeletons, but maybe there were–

At last, TJ actually looked at what Stanton was looking at. Now that TJ had assumed his massive coatl form, Stanton’s gaze was stuck to his own, but his hands were both inside the backpack. The black coyote’s pelt fell from his fingers and half out of the upright backpack.

“What?” TJ asked, his tongue still flicking wildly out of his mouth as he tried to taste whatever might be lurking nearby. More and more, though, he realized that Stanton cared about the stupid pelt and he sighed loud, the sound strange coming from a massive serpent. “We can talk about the pelt later. Would you grab my pants? I don’t want to shift back right now, so I’ll carry the backpack and deer, if you cinch the backpack around me right.”

“You don’t–you’ll just–Eh. Whatever. Yeah.” TJ watched the decision to stop trying to figure it out shift over Stanton’s face before he hauled the backpack up and over TJ’s upper neck/torso/body. The waist strap cinched just enough to be tight, though the shoulder straps didn’t do much to help stabilize the pack. Even so, he could hold himself high enough off the ground not to drag the backpack, and with the deer held in his toothy maw, TJ led the way towards the cabin. With his enhanced Perception, he could hear Stanton grumble, “I’m not a damn maid or your mother,” to himself as he gathered TJ’s pants and followed in his “steps” towards the house.

The journey was quick, and it wasn’t long before TJ relaxed his aching jaws and dropped the heavy carcass to the ground. Then, when Stanton arrived holding his pants, TJ shifted back, swiped the jeans, and walked into the cabin where he began untying his boots. Stanton didn’t hesitate to walk in, but he gave TJ enough privacy to dress himself without being ogled.

“You can lose your pants?” Was Stanton’s first question, the words dry and judgmental.

“Today was the first time I used the stupid Skill, and the first time, I ended up totally naked. I prefer this.”

“Your Skill strips you naked?”

“If I’m not careful, yeah.”

Stanton’s chuckle was dry but mirthful, but it built to a roaring laugh that filled the cabin with an infectious warmth. “I was pissed I didn’t get a gun, but you turn into a buck ass naked snake? Oh, I made the right choice.”

“The transformation doubles my attributes, so don’t look down too much on it!” TJ protested.

The laughter slowly died down, and Stanton levelled a look at TJ. “Fully doubles? That seems unfair.”

“Well,” TJ hedged. “Not all of them. And I can’t always use it. There’s limitations.”

“Like how it takes me ‘MP’ to make arrows?”

“No. I don’t have anything that uses my MP. It’s pretty useless to me for now, even for my Occupation. It’s some combination of other attributes.”

Stanton sighed and looked TJ in the face. “Got no clue what an Occupation is. Everything we say just makes me more and more confused, kid. Can’t say that I think I’ll get used to this. I’ll show you how to actually treat that pelt and send you on your way.”

TJ almost agreed, but a slight pang forced him to speak up. “Look, if you ask the System, it’ll tell you that you need to make it to Pine in the next week and a half. I don’t know how far that is from here, but I think it’d probably be best if we stuck together for this. Two heads are better than one, right?”

“I don’t ask the System any questions.” Stanton’s statement was final.

“But you should. It’s kinda in charge of all this, right?”

A grunt was all that answered TJ. Then, Stanton shifted the subject, his intentions obvious. “You don’t know how to cure a damn hide. You should, if you’re gonna carry one around like that. It’ll rot if you don’t.”

TJ perked up. “You know how? Could you show me?”

“I just said I would, didn’t I? Listen.”

“My bad.” TJ answered. “I would really appreciate anything you have to teach me, though.”

“I haven’t looked through all their stuff, but they probably have something in there to take care of it. Let’s look.”

TJ nearly agreed, but then he remembered exactly how his Occupation worked, and instead, he asked, “Do you know how people used to do it? Like before modern chemicals and stuff?”

“Yeah.” Stanton looked at TJ, and a strange smirk covered his face. “But you won’t like it.”

“Even if it’s gross or whatever, I want to know. It’s for my Occupation.”

“We’ll see.” Replied the old man.

—--

Stanton was correct. TJ did not like what Stanton told him. The first issue with how he’d prepared the pelts was that he hadn’t been thorough enough in removing all the fat and connective tissue from it. Nearly 15 minutes later, Stanton declared the results “passable”, and explained the second issue: TJ hadn’t let the skin dry. Even when TJ said that he'd done it with the ones he’d worn, he hadn’t been believed. The pelt was currently next to the roaring fire, the heat drying out the remaining moisture while TJ grappled with the third issue, the gross one. Like any sane person, TJ had left the bones when he’d finished taking what he would eat and use from the corpse. After all, what was he going to do with the viscera and bones? According to Stanton and Primitive Craftsmanship, that idea was foolishness.

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No, what TJ needed to do was extract the actual brains from the thing he’d killed, boil them, then apply it in a thin layer across the back of the leather once it was dried.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.”

“What would I get from it, other than a sickened city boy?”

“Would you need anything else?” TJ asked.

“Eh. Nah. More than enough for me.” Stanton grinned widely. “Even better that I get to make you feel sick as well as tell you I told you so, and be right all at once. A pretty good time.”

Supposedly, there was enough brains in one creature for just as much hide as they provided, but Stanton offered his deer’s for the task. “Should be about enough for this, and I don’t want you screwing yours all up and then blamin’ it on me when someone asks where you got such a crappy pelt. I wouldn’t be curing these hides this way anyways, so it would just go to waste.”

TJ had refused to use a rock to crack open the deer’s skull, instead using a cleaver in the shed that, with one swift crunch, exposed the gray organ. Under Stanton’s continued supervision, TJ pulled the brain out and dumped it in a nearby pot. With a stick, TJ mashed it into an unrecognizable mess and added water. When he walked towards the fire to boil it, Stanton stopped him.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going to boil the water, like you said.”

“And why not on the range?”

“Isn’t it out of power? Or, gas? The central system’s probably out of order.”

Stanton sighed as he stalked over to the range. With a twist of his wrist, it began clicking, and a fire flickered to life. “It’s a cabin. The propane is in that massive tank outside. It’s all right here.”

TJ ignored the complaints of “ignorant kids from the city” and instead patted Stanton on the back. “Thank you. You’re a lifesaver.”

Stanton literally shrugged TJ away. “The sooner you’re out of here, the better for me. Don’t take your time.” Then, Stanton smacked TJ’s back and walked to check on the drying pelt. TJ tended the nasty juice, stirring the slurry as it gradually rose to a boil. The smell… Objectively, TJ couldn’t say it was horrendous. But knowing what it was and where it came from, TJ’s stomach turned. At last, the special mix was ready, and TJ carried it to the fire to begin applying it.

“Take it outside, you moron!” Stanton demanded as the younger man stepped to do what he’d been told. “I don’t want that stuff everywhere!”

TJ faked a stumble to needle the old man, and accidentally spilled a little bit of the brain soup on the floor.

“OUT!”

TJ didn’t hesitate to go out on the porch. Outside, he began applying the slurry all over the flesh of the pelt, initially trying to apply it with a wooden spoon, but eventually, he forced himself to use his hands to rub the softening/curing mixture into every inch of the skin. The process was long and tedious, but the sticky liquid seeped into the skin, and TJ imagined he could feel it grow more supple as he did so. Eventually, with a sticky schlorp, TJ pulled both hands away and looked at them in disgust. After Appraising the pelt and seeing that its description still hadn’t changed, he left the hide to dry and walked inside to wash his hands.

To his surprise, Stanton was waiting for him at the kitchen sink, and the older man turned it to a steady drizzle. “Wash fast. There’s only so much of the water left before the tank runs dry.” Then, his command issued, he returned to sit in front of the fire. TJ wet his hands, lathered them with soap, and turned the faucet off as he scrubbed. A part of him recognized it really wasn’t that bad, but the idea of brain matter under his fingernails was just gross, and TJ used the dish scrubbing brush to cleanse his hands as best he could.

A couple minutes later, TJ had rubbed and cleaned enough to make his olive skin red, and rinsed both hands quickly under the faucet before drying them on a paper towel.

“You’ll wanna let the pelt air dry.” Stanton called out as TJ walked into the same room. “Using the fire will make it so the fur doesn’t last.”

“Ok.” TJ answered as he extended his freezing hands nearly into the fire. They stood in a relatively comfortable silence for a short time, the popping of the fire the only sound that accompanied the faint whistling of the wind through the trees outside. Stanton broke the silence.

“I’m not comin with you. At least, not right now.”

“Why not? We’ll work together, and I’m sure we both need to go to Pine, it’s the assignment from the System. I don’t like it either, but I’d feel better going it together!” TJ retorted, his voice involuntarily plaintive near the end.

“Kid. I’m still an old man. I’m a bit stronger and healthier than I once was, but I’m old. My knees aren’t great, and we’re lookin at miles of hiking through the mountains. If there isn’t something that changes for me soon, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it.”

“Then you should start now, so you have more time to make the journey!”

“I can’t do a couple nights out in the cold. I know I’m not that healthy, even though I wish I were.”

“I’ll carry blankets and a sleeping bag for you.”

“I refuse to ask you to do that.”

TJ nearly asked why, but Stanton’s voice and eyes were hard, unyielding. And Junior’s face appeared in TJ’s mind. The resolution he’d made to be focused and ruthless to make sure he could see and protect his son again. Right now, TJ was immensely grateful to Stanton for his help and companionship, but if he kept TJ from thriving, or even surviving, because he was a liability, then could TJ say he wouldn’t grow to resent or even hate the old coot? His mind was wavering, but Stanton’s voice and gentle hand on TJ’s shoulder sealed his decision.

“I’m alone in the world. I’m not wantin to die, but I’ve not got much left. You do. Fight for him, do what you need to, make sure your kid’s alright, alright? Let’s see if I’m not along with you before too long, K?”

For the second time that day, TJ swiped the beginnings of tears from his eyes as he nodded. “I’ll be waiting. Learn how to use that bow, too. I don’t know if you’ll get more bullets, so you should be ready to protect yourself. Do a bunch of different things to see if you can get an Occupation, that’s giving me twice as much, since I get levels there. Um, I’m sure there’s something else…”

The old man grunted before picking up the large backpack and handing it over to TJ to cut him off. “Follow the road to the highway. It should tell you which direction the town’s at.”

TJ belted the backpack around his waist before going outside and gathering up his pelt. Though uncomfortable, TJ quickly resigned himself to getting sticky residue on himself. He continued on his path for at least half an hour at a steady jog, his senses peeled and ready for anything that approached. Which was why he nearly jumped out of his skin when the System notification flashed red for the first time.

WARNING: Tutorial adjustment period complete. Additional threats incorporated.