I arrive in my Core space just as the process of gaining a new Skill starts. With excitement, I realise that I’ve managed to arrive in the space quicker this time, probably because I was already in Meditation when it activated. As a result, I see more about the beginning of the process than I did before. The mana, or Energy, which drives the process doesn’t come from my Core; it instead seems to come from…my body? Or the internal matrix itself? Or both?
All I can say is that it seems like particles of light are drifting towards my internal matrix, the attraction triggered by something in the process of gaining a Skill. Once my internal matrix is glowing brighter than usual, the brightness all shifts towards a specific area – where my new Skill will be positioned, I guess.
Interestingly, it seems to be in the same sort of area where my Inspect Skills and Taming Skills are. Actually, the lines which are starting to move are closest to where Tame, Dominate, and Companion Bond are placed.
I watch in fascination as the tapestry of my internal matrix starts weaving a new part to it. As the shape becomes clear, I see hints of fire, but also hints which are similar to…Tame? I mentally frown as I compare the two.
Yes, there are similar kinds of swirls and connections. It’s definitely more like Tame than Dominate – the latter’s swirls are tighter, more constricting. And Companion Bond is more similar to Dominate than it is to Tame, even if there are differences.
As for the Inspect Skills, they are quite different. I mean, I wasn’t expecting to get an ‘Inspect Fire’ Skill, but I suppose it could have been possible – I did spend a bit of time watching the fire heart. But no, this is definitely not an Inspect Skill. Though, as I compare the new Skill with my Flesh-Shaping, I feel my heart sink – I don’t think it’s Fire-Shaping, either.
When the process is done, I pull out of Meditation and check my notifications.
Congratulations!
You have earned a Skill: Fire Taming
Read Skill description? Y/N
It seems like my comparisons were pretty much on the mark. So not Fire-Shaping but Fire Taming. I wonder what difference that will make.
Fire Taming
You have succeeded in forming an agreement with an aspect of Fire and this paves the way for you to create agreements with other aspects of Fire in the future. Beware: the greater the conflagration, the stronger the Will of Fire.
Close messages? Y/N
Well, vaguely ominous, I decide, eyeing the warning. I guess that it’s talking about the moment where I was fighting to hold the bead of mana against the pull of the fire heart. And considering how much trouble I had with a small campfire, I can imagine that any larger fire would be even more difficult.
But what if I already had an agreement with it while it was small and then helped it grow bigger? I wonder, looking thoughtfully at the small campfire still burning merrily.
The Skill description is fairly bare, certainly one of the shortest of any of the Skills I’ve earned so far. I have to guess that it’s because, like Tame, the limits of what I can do with the Skill depend on the agreement I come to.
It’s as I saw with the fire – I promised it fuel to consume, so I could control its movement as long as I gave it that. When I tried to smother it, my ability to control it vanished. I suppose that I’d broken the agreement.
I tap my finger against my lip in thought. This…might change things. It all depends on just how much control I can exert. While what I’ve seen so far might easily be sufficient for easing the process of forging metal tools and weapons, it might not be what I need to help me with my Quest.
Maybe I should still spend some time investigating the fire heart, I think to myself. Just because I’ve got one Skill out of the experience doesn’t mean that it’s the only one I could earn. I’ve got Fire Taming, yes, but does that mean that Fire-Shaping is out of reach? I hope not.
Though, thinking about it, Fire Taming may only be limited by my Willpower – at least, that seems to be the stat it hinges on most. I suspect that Wisdom might be part of it, though, based on the fact that it’s about forming connections.
Alright, I say to myself. Time to test this out.
*****
By the time night falls, I feel like I’ve got more of a grasp on this new Skill. It turns out that a successful agreement means that a subsequent agreement is more likely to work; an unsuccessful agreement, or one which the fire feels I ‘betrayed’ makes it harder to build a new one – the second agreement I made was a little harder than the first as a result of how the first ended.
Something else I’ve learned is that each fire is connected, in some mystical way – even when I doused the campfire after finishing an agreement and then made a new one with a new fire, there was some sort of memory which affected my success. So potentially, if I could build enough of a relationship with smaller fires, I could then create an agreement with a larger fire with less difficulty. Potentially.
At least each time I create a connection and come to an agreement it becomes easier and faster to do. By the end of my attempts, I’m able to form a wide connection with an already-burning fire, and have become relatively practised at resisting the first attempts of the fire to consume.
What I haven’t managed to achieve yet is a way of smothering or even reducing the fire without it strongly resisting. The reason is because of the nature of fire: it wishes to grow, to consume more and more. Although it is perfectly capable of being reduced to embers and then regrowing, that is not its preferred state. If there is fuel for it to consume, it strongly wishes to consume it. I’m going to have to find some way around that otherwise I’m, literally, playing with fire.
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I also spend some time just observing the fire heart as I said I would do. I don’t suddenly get any sort of notification of having earned Fire-Shaping, unfortunately, but I honestly wasn’t expecting it. Already getting one Skill is probably more than I should really be hoping for, but I can’t help being a bit greedy.
Pulling out of my meditative state with a mixture of hope and disappointment lingering a little, my eyes alight on the corpse of the crocodile we killed earlier today. Oh yes. I’d almost forgotten about that, caught up in the excitement of my Fire Taming. I said I would try to get the hide off with one of my Skills.
Walking over, I notice that the belly has already been opened and most of the crocodile’s organs consumed. Kalanthia is lying nearby and must have noticed my surprise.
You seemed very deeply intent on your fire, she rumbles. Lathani needed to eat, but I did not wish to disturb you.
Looking at the carcass I see that the way it’s been opened is with a single, clean cut along from throat to anus, frankly a far cleaner job than I would be able to do with tools.
“No problem,” I respond. “I appreciate not being disturbed. Sorry for not getting to it earlier.” Kalanthia rumbles again quietly, the closest she seems to come to a purr. “Did it taste nice? Or didn’t you try?”
Lathani was happy, she mused. And I do admit to sampling a little, she followed up, a hint of mischief accompanying her words. I grin at her.
“No harm in doing that. So, you approve?”
A good kill indeed, is her only admission. However I will remind you about what I said about if whatever you intend to do spoils the meat….
“I remember,” I assure her. And no way of it going unnoticed either now that she’s tasted the beast herself. Still, hopefully what I’m about to do won’t hurt its value to Lathani.
Going to sit by the dead and disembowelled crocodile, I place my hand on it and start sending in my mana. I’m prepared for this to take a long time, and am not surprised when it does. The paranax took at least eight thousand units of mana to saturate – this crocodile is both much bigger and a higher Tier than the paranax was.
Fortunately, my increased mana pool speeds up the process, as does Meditation hastening my mana regeneration. In the end, I estimate that it takes approximately seventeen thousand units of mana, actually a little less than I thought it might. Given the fact that it is both bigger and higher Tier, I was expecting it to be over twenty thousand.
Still, I’m grateful that it isn’t: even with my faster mana regeneration rate when in Meditation, it’s still taken a good few hours. Full dark has fallen and one of the moons is already rising high in the sky.
Not that the darkness matters too much to me – with my mana saturating the crocodile, I can sense its body as well as I can my own.
I regret not doing this earlier – without the organs still being present, I’m missing a good part of what I could have scanned. Oh well, no point crying over spilt milk. Perhaps we’ll come up against another of these creatures and I can scan it then. At least I’ve been doing fairly well at scanning the creatures my Bound bring back from their hunts. Even if I don’t want to use their hides, it’s worth knowing more about the different physiologies.
With my mana saturating the crocodile carcass, I work to separate its hide from its body, splitting it along seams I sense are already weaker.
I’m gratified when only a few minutes of work allow me to slide the hide out. It requires me to tip the meat of the carcass onto the dirt, but I figure that neither Lathani or Kalanthia will be too fussy about that. The hide comes away remarkably clean, my ability to cut the connections holding it in place far superior to any blade. I’m even able to clear off any dirt clinging to the scales by just letting the thinnest surface layer fall free, the dirt falling with it.
Excellent, I grin.
Working by the light of the moon, I place the crocodile hide into the tanning basin and fill it with the tanning solution I prepared earlier. It’s very simple: I boiled water and then mashed the brains that I’d saved from my previous butchery session. I’m hoping that the brains on this world have the same properties as the ones on Nicholas’ one. Otherwise, I’ll have to try using the eggs I’ve found. I don’t have very many of those, though.
Swishing the crocodile hide around a bit with a stick, I try to make sure that as much of it is exposed to the tanning solution as possible. Leaving it overnight, I hope that it will be well-soaked by the morning.
Returning to the cave mouth, I’m a little surprised that a number of my Bound are still awake.
Bastet has already gone inside with the cubs and I sense that she’s asleep. The two kiina are curled up together near the entrance of the cave, napping. As I come close, Hades raises his head to look at me. The two kiina have relaxed around me a little, but there’s still a distance between us. We probably ought to go out into the forest together – nothing builds a bond quicker than saving each other’s lives.
Fenrir is keeping watch as usual, but his eyes are half-closed. He, too, reacts as I walk towards them, pushing himself to his feet. I’m not sure where Sirocco is, though I sense that she’s still awake – probably in a tree nearby. She sometimes stays inside with us, but usually remains outside: she prefers the freedom of the outdoors.
Looking at Hades, I speak quietly to him, not wanting to wake Persephone since I sense that she’s asleep. She’s been more tired recently – probably the pregnancy weighing on her.
“I’m going inside to sleep. Are you two staying here?” I ask him neutrally, not bothered either way.
For now, he replies shortly. Rain is likely coming later. We will go to the forest.
“Or duck into the cave,” I tell him with a shrug. “It’s drier in there.”
Perhaps, he offers, wariness accompanying the sending. Oh well, if they choose to stay outside in the wet, no problem. I do send a message to Sirocco, though.
Apparently it might be wet overnight. Do you want to come and join us in the cave? I feel a sense of ‘wait’ and then a few moments later, a large shape comes winging out of the darkness to land on my shoulder.
An imperious sense of impatience comes across the Bond from the bird and I chuckle quietly as I walk into the cave. Each of my Bound certainly have their own personalities. I start walking into the cave but before I do, I toss another comment to Hades.
“While you’re still here, could you keep an ear out for any scavengers attracted by my tanning basin, please? Either deal with whatever it is, or wake me and I’ll come out.”
He sends agreement to my request and then lays his head back down on top of his mate, guarding even in his sleep. Actually, perhaps particularly in his sleep.
I consider how the rain might dilute my tanning solution but end up shrugging a little. I don’t have anything to hand that could easily shield it from the rain – creating a little wooden cover might be a good idea, but not one that I’ve already prepared. And I’m too tired to do it now. Hopefully it will be OK, or the rain will happen late enough that the hide has already been fully soaked in the oily solution.
Entering the alcove with Fenrir at my heel, Sirocco taking wing to perch on top of my drying rack, I’m startled to see that River is still concentrating over a mixture near the fire. What’s got him working so late? I wonder.