Closing my eyes, I drop into Meditation. This time I make sure I don’t go into myself, figuring that I’m unlikely to succeed in ‘feeling the earth’ if I’m stuck in my Core space. However, even surrounded by the almost visible connections between me and everything, I feel lost.
The links between me and my Bound are the most obvious, of course. If I had to compare them to lights, it would be a normal room light which highlights my connections to the world around; the connections between me and my Bound are like fluorescent tubes strobing right in front of me. Impossible to miss.
However, I don’t get the idea that ‘feeling the earth’ will be helped by focusing on the Bonds I have with other creatures. Instead, I try to ignore them and look at the connections I have with the rest of my surrounding world.
After my official Bonds, the next strongest connections I have are with the cubs and Lathani. Unsurprising, really. My link to Kalanthia is stronger than I would have thought, I realise. I’d always got the sense that she was more tolerating me than wanting me near, but the connection between us is almost as thick as the one I have with Lathani. Very different in feel, though.
Lathani’s is one of dependency, affection, and even a little bit of awe. Kalanthia’s is more gratitude, amusement, and yes, a little bit of affection there. I feel warm inside and suspect that a smile is spreading across my body’s face. Not that I feel much more than an inkling, as detached from bodily sensations as I am right now.
None of that is likely to help ‘feel the earth’, though. Or is it? Kalanthia obviously has a connection with the earth, I muse. What if I can find it? Maybe learning from her own connection is a possibility.
That seems easier said than done, though. Kalanthia is very connected to everything. In fact, unlike the vine-strangler trees in the forest which were so clearly connected to each other and the Energy source below, the area near Kalanthia is basically just a mass of light. Like an aura, perhaps. There are no filaments of connection leading outwards, or perhaps the issue is that there are too many.
It’s possible that if I had higher stat points in Wisdom or my Meditation Skill was higher level that I would be able to differentiate the different connections emerging from her, but as it is, it’s like looking at an intricate painting using a pointillism technique from a distance and trying to pick out the individual colours used.
So that’s not going to help. What about plants? They’ve got to be connected to the earth, I theorise. Even if I don’t have a whole load of vine-stranglers here, there are plenty of bushes and other plants. Even the grass-like foliage that’s cushioning my seat is a plant. My theory is correct; it doesn’t do me much good.
I can vaguely see the connection between the plants around and the earth, but it doesn’t tell me anything more than that they are connected, which I already knew. I see no way of applying their connection my own way, and my attempts to follow the lines of light are fruitless.
Frustrated, I pull myself out of Meditation. Kalanthia looks at me questioningly.
“I’m working on it,” I tell her a bit defensively.
Do not rush, Markus Wolfe, she admonishes me a little. The earth is patient; to connect with it, so must you be. Patient...yeah. I’ll admit that that’s not one of my strong points. I mean, I can be patient and hardworking and all that, but if I don’t see any results, I’d much rather try a different way.
“OK, thanks,” I tell her with a sigh. Maybe I should go and do something else for a bit. Something tells me that trying to meditate while frustrated is unlikely to help. Pushing myself to my feet, I nod at Kalanthia before heading towards Bastet who’s watching the cubs.
“Want to come down to the river with me?” I ask. “Bring the cubs along?” River, Fenrir, and Sirocco are out and the reasonably regular influxes of Energy prove that they’re teaching the forest to fear them. Even when we’d got back to the den, the two males in particular had been feeling a little antsy and they clearly wanted to go hunting. Since all I’d intended on doing was learning earth-shaping from Kalanthia, I hadn’t seen anything wrong with that.
As matters stand now, though, clearly I’m stalled on the whole earth-shaping front and need to do something else to make myself feel useful. Cue deciding to sort out all the corpses which have been piling up in my Inventory.
The fact is that I’ve got a whole load of meat in there which I don’t want to go to waste. Even if it’s not great for my Bound to eat, there’s no reason I can’t eat it. Plus, if I keep some in store, then if we have a situation where we don’t necessarily have anything to hunt, we’ve got some recourse. But the corpses have more resources than just meat and there may even be a few Cores among them, so I need to spend some time processing the bodies. Hence my need to go down to the river.
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Bastet quickly agrees and I just grab a couple of things from our alcove before we set off. Just as we’re heading towards the edge of the plateau, Lathani comes trotting up.
Can I come too? she asks hopefully. I cast a glance at Kalanthia. The big nunda gives off a sense of indifference so I just shrug.
“Sure. But you’ll need to stay nearby and do what we tell you to if there’s danger,” I warn her. She should already know the rules after travelling with us for several days, but she is still a cub at heart…
I understand, she tells me seriously before bouncing happily and trotting down the hill. Come on! Let’s go. Rolling my eyes a little, I can’t help grinning too. Sharing a glance with Bastet, I see the same long-suffering amusement in her eyes. The cubs, of course, have happily followed Lathani’s lead and are trotting down the slope, jumping from rock to rock. We quickly follow before they run too far ahead and accidentally get themselves into trouble.
*****
A few hours later, an onlooker might almost think it’s something of an idyllic scene. Bastet is keeping an eye on the cubs who are having great fun frolicking by the stream. Lathani was playing with them earlier, but is currently prowling through the trees, sniffing at trace scents and inspecting the various marks on the trees. The sunlight is dappled by the canopy above and the stream glints in the odd ray that reaches it directly. There’s even a gentle breeze that serves to freshen the air.
That’s rather fortunate for the very reason that onlookers wouldn’t call it an idyllic scene:
The space immediately around me is far more reminiscent of a slaughterhouse than a picnic spot. I’m in a bit of a state, and the blood soaking into the earth around me is probably enough to nurture a dozen blood-roots, but I’ve made progress.
I hadn’t realised quite how many corpses had accumulated in my Inventory. It’s fortunate that my skills at skinning and butchering carcasses have significantly improved ever since arriving in this world, and it probably would have taken me three times as long to deal with them if I’d still been at the same skill level as when I dealt with the corpse of the first bird to attack me.
Between the previously-butchered salamander meat and all this new stuff, I’m not going to be going hungry any time soon. Heck, I’ve probably got supplies for months. My stockpiles are looking just as good for my various crafting objectives.
Although not a priority, I do want to make a proper bed at some point, and the feathers I collected from the XL killer-chickens will be perfect for a mattress and pillow. The feathers from their wings will also help in making more arrows, something that is a priority.
I’ve done my best to save the hide of as many creatures as seems reasonable: I foresee lots of tanning in my future. Not only have I got the crocodile’s and salamander’s hide that I want to turn into better armour than my chitin plate, but I am seriously running out of clothes. Forget clean, I’m now struggling to find clothes which are even intact. This world has really been rough on my wardrobe and I’m resigning myself to having to start looking like a real wild-man with stitched-together hides.
Sure, I’m still going to do a wash-day – probably tomorrow – and do my best to stitch up some of the more salvageable clothes, but I’m questioning whether it’s worth putting in too much effort as they’ll probably be torn to rags again in a short space of time. At least hides are both more replaceable and might be more hard-wearing. They won’t be anywhere near as comfortable, though, that I’m sure about.
I’m also going to stitch together some cured hides to make the tick for my mattress, so tanning is definitely going to be a major thing in the near future. To that end, I’ve also been collecting all the brains of the animals, knowing that this is a key ingredient in the process. There’s going to be a lot more preparation involved since I’m also going to need racks and somewhere to soak the hides, so I just put the hides and brains back in my Inventory for now.
Although I don’t collect all the bones, I do collect a few which I’m hoping to turn into needles for my sewing needs. As for the other parts of the body, I keep those I think might be useful either immediately or in the future, and then leave the rest. The animals of the forest will be perfectly happy to clear up the rest of the mess. There’s plenty of rejected meat since Bastet and Lathani both decided to wait until the other three come back from their hunt to eat. The cubs sampled a few choice bits, though.
I’ll admit to being a bit disappointed that learning earth-shaping wasn’t anywhere as easy as learning Lay-on-hands; I suppose that’s the difference between a Skill stone and asking for teaching from a practitioner. And Kalanthia was open about the fact that she might not even be able to teach it.
Actually, on that note, I suddenly remember that I need to ask her about whether she’s heard of Flesh-Shaping. River hadn’t, but Kalanthia seems to have had a wider range of experiences than the lizard-man. It’s a decision which nags at me every time I open my status screen. Plus, I don’t know if it’s instinct or what, but I sense that it may not be a choice for too much longer. I have a feeling that if I keep putting off making a choice then one will be made for me, and I don’t know which way the System will go.
Well, I think to myself, looking at the blood and gore around me, I think I’m pretty much done here.
Of course, it’s not quite as simple as that: I need to put things away first, and then I really need to go wash up. I walk straight into the stream fully-clothed, only lacking my chitin armour which I’d taken off when it had kept getting in my way.
As I wash all the blood off, a sudden and very urgent sense of warning comes from Bastet.