After a quick but satisfying breakfast of the last two of my eggs, some of my meat, and some more of those nice berries, I leave the cave and River within it, diligently experimenting with his potion. Time to check on my soaking hide.
Outside, I find the rest of my Bound. It’s sunny, though the wet ground proves that the rain did come as expected. They’re all meditating with an Energy-Heart except for Fenrir, who is apparently the designated cub watcher. I suspect they’ll be heading out on a hunt soon after sparring – that seems to be the normal routine these days. I’ll need to join them in the sparring before they go.
I quickly greet Fenrir but don’t disturb the others in their meditation. Walking over to my tanning basin, I investigate the progress of the hide. Pulling out the loosely rolled crocodile hide, I first note that there is still some Energy held within. Actually, a surprising amount. I only have to top it up by just short of my full mana pool once and it’s completely saturated again.
Interesting. My Bound lose far more of a proportion overnight than this hide has. Is that because they’re living and this is dead? But no – the paranax’s body had lost two units of mana per minute. If that had been the case with this hide, I’d have had to load a lot more than almost my full mana pool to resaturate it. Perhaps it’s because it’s a different species? Or different Tier?
Anyway, that’s a good sign in the sense of potentially investing my mana into it to keep it malleable. With any luck, I might even be able to improve its armour capabilities by keeping it saturated with mana – for later testing.
After resaturating the hide, I send my mind into it again, ‘scanning’ it for the differences the oily tanning mixture has resulted in. Interestingly enough, I come out of the scan wondering if the mana I’ve just had to commit to the hide was actually mostly because of the brain oils now impregnating the skin. The oils I encounter now read like an intrinsic part of the hide – and are already full of my mana.
There haven’t been that many changes in the hide otherwise, mostly just the addition of the oils. At least it appears that the rain wasn’t so heavy that it diluted my solution here too much.
Right, soaking done, next step – drying. Suddenly, I remember that I haven’t asked my nunda landlord a very important question.Temporarily returning the roll of hide into the tanning basin, I go over to where she’s enjoying the morning sun.
“Kalanthia, do you mind if I put up some frames in the main cave? I would do them in mine, but…there’s no space.”
The giant leopard opens one golden eye.
Frames for what?
“For drying hides,” I respond quickly.
Will they take up much space? Will it be for long? she asks casually. I hesitate, thinking about just how much tanning I need to do.
“Uh…probably a fair bit…and for a while. And it might…smell a bit,” I add, wincing. Not that I’ve done this before, but both my ‘memories’ of tanning inform me that, even at the best of time, it honks a bit, and my knowledge of mediaeval practices tell me that the tanning facilities used to be the smelliest parts of town.
Kalanthia scrunches up her nose a bit in distaste.
Why must you put it inside at all? Can it not remain out here? I shake my head.
“If it gets wet, it will significantly impact the progress of the tanning. Basically, it won’t work.”
Kalanthia sighs, the gust of wind from her mouth blowing my hair right back in a rotten-meat scented billow. Lovely.
I want three of your Cores for this, she tells me grumpily. I open my mouth to protest – three Cores just for letting me store some frames in her cave? Then I hear the grind of stone and turn around.
Behind me, in the cliff, a new hole is being created. I look at Kalanthia with my eyebrows raised.
“You’re creating a new space?” She sends me the feeling of a shrug.
It seems the best way to achieve your needs without leading to unpleasantness in my cave. Fair point.
The rumbling goes on for a while before stopping. I look at the hole assessingly. It’s not very big, only about half my height and about the same in width.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I hate to say this but–”
It’s bigger inside, Kalanthia interrupts. You said you did not wish for your projects to be wet. If the opening was too big, they would become so. OK, good point.
“Thanks for thinking about that, then,” I preface, “but if it could be high enough for me to walk in instead of needing to crawl, that would be good….” After all, although I can carry some things in my Inventory, I can’t do that with everything or I’ll lose all the mana I’ve invested in things like my hide here. A rumble of stone later and the entrance increases in height by a foot.
Better?
“Much, thanks. Mind if I take a look?”
Go ahead. But I want my Cores after that – creating so much space took a fair bit of Energy from me.
“Of course,” I tell her. Frankly, I’ll consider them well-spent if I have a good area in which to do my crafting.
Entering the cave requires me to stoop almost double, but it’s better than the crawling I would have had to do before. Inside, I straighten slowly and carefully, finding that past the foot-thick lip, the ceiling is at least high enough that my hair isn’t brushing it.
It takes me a little time for my eyes to adjust to the much-lower light conditions. Even once they have, I squint at the cave, not able to see much. Maybe I should bring a torch? Then I remember something that makes me want to facepalm – I have a way of enhancing my vision in the dark.
Sliding into Fade, I find my vision significantly improving. Now, I can see that the space is roughly oval, stretching away from me at the entrance. It’s a bit like a bubble of air that held its form within lava, the rock walls moulded around it. I take big steps to the other end of the oval, estimating it to be about three and a half metres long, and two and a half wide.
The highest part is right in the middle, at a bit under twice my height. The average is probably my height and a half, though, with the ceiling near the walls swiftly curving lower. The same is true of the floor – I’m going to have to carefully work out how to manage my timber frames since they’re not going to easily balance on such an uneven surface.
It occurs to me that this is exactly where having Earth-Shaping would be useful – as Kalanthia just clearly demonstrated. Well, I don’t have it. Though, after my experience with Fire-Shaping – or Taming, rather – I have more of an idea of how I might approach it.
That’s still a bit far off, though, and my need is immediate so I’m going to have to find another way around it. I sigh, eyeing the space.
I can think of a few possibilities, some stop-gap, others more long-term. I’m hesitant to build for the long-term since I’m hoping to be moving soon. But the reality is that I have a lot of tanning that I’d like to get done and if I choose a less-durable approach, I’ll end up needing to repeat it every time I want to process a hide.
On the other hand, if it turns out that I’m able to use Flesh-Shaping to tan a hide from raw to finished, then my efforts to create a long-term tanning facility will be pointless – I have plenty of other things to fill my time with which would have better long-term effect.
I nod. OK, that makes it clear. I’ll do a stop-gap measure for this first hide, and then, if it turns out that something more permanent will be necessary, I’ll do it then. At least this space has been created now, no matter what I end up doing with it.
Though, there is one change I’m hoping Kalanthia will be willing to make.
Exiting the cave, I go over to her, pulling three Energy Hearts out of my dwindling supply.
“Thanks for creating that,” I say to her, laying down the three faintly-glowing chunks of pseudo crystal. “Just…is it possible to make a small hole above the door, as high as possible while still being able to go all the way through from inside to outside?”
Kalanthia flicks her whiskers.
It’s done, she answers. I turn around, seeing that, sure enough, there’s a hole probably about the size of my head about a metre above the entrance.
“OK, perfect,” I say, smiling.
My main concern had been ventilation. Yes, there was always the entrance hole, but that wouldn’t necessarily help for anything above waist-level and I didn’t want to be accidentally suffocated by something hanging around at head-height. Now that the cave has a ventilation hole well above my head, that worry should be eliminated.
With the way hot air rises, there should be a decent flow of air in the cave – warmer air rising to the top and being pulled through the hole; cooler air being equally pulled in at the bottom to replace it. And to help my hides dry faster, I have the plan to light a fire at the back of the cave. That way there will be even more suction pulling the wind through the cave, and the heat will send any fumes billowing out of the top ventilation hole.
I’ve even got an idea of how to smoke multiple hides later, the close confines of the cave offering some interesting potential methods.
But that’s for later. For now, I need to adjust the frame I’ve already made so that it will be able to stand upright – or at least vaguely so – in the cave.
With a final word of appreciation to Kalanthia, I walk over to where my semi-finished frame is leaning against the cliff wall. It’s a bit wet from the rain, but since all my joints are purely wooden, that doesn’t matter too much.
Eyeing it, I decide to take it into the cave and see what can be done about it. It’s large and unwieldy; I don’t think I’ll get it in through the door. Fortunately, I don’t need to – although it’s heavy, I can still lift it and thus it slips into my Inventory with ease.
Pulling it out once I’m back in the cave – Fade active once more for the sake of vision – I prop it up against the wall. A moment later, I have to grab it as it starts to slide noisily across the ground.
I heave it upwards until it’s leaning at a sharp enough angle that its own friction holds it upright – just. But that isn’t enough for what I need to do with it – the first time I stretch the hide with a stick, the whole lot will slide again.
Another idea occurs. I grab six solid chunks of wood from my Inventory – two longer than the others – and set to work.