The third day started with them learning how to identify if something was edible.
“So,” Warren said, “Yesterday, I taught you how to forage plants that you can identify. But what do we do if we can’t identify anything in the immediate area?”
“Starve?” Dave joked.
“That’s the first step,” Warren answered. “You start with a clean slate by avoiding eating anything. Then, you want to separate the part of the plant to further prevent cross-contamination.”
He pulled out an onion plant from yesterday to demonstrate., separating the stem, root, leaves, and flowers, then handing them around.
“Now, we aren’t going to do this in real time, as we don’t have the time before , but I will demonstrate the steps to you.
“First, you want to hold the piece you wish to test to a sensitive portion of your body, I’d recommend the wrist or inner elbow. You will need to hold it there for eight hours, and only then, if you have no reaction, are you to consider it safe for the next step.
“Next, you want to touch it to the corner of your lips briefly. Wait fifteen minutes, and if you haven’t had a reaction, hold it in your mouth for another fifteen minutes.”
“If you are still unaffected, swallow the plant sample and wait another eight hours. If at any time during this step, you start feeling ill, it’s recommended that you induce vomiting to remove any remaining poison from your system. However, if you make it to the end, you can safely eat whatever part of the plant you are testing.”
He hesitated, then said, “Please note, this example is for plants only. As I said yesterday, don’t mess with mushrooms.”
They then began their hike for the day, gathering more plants as they moved. They had lost another half dozen people last night after butchering the rabbits.
“Today’s hike will be a short one. We will be hiking to a nearby lake, where I will teach you how to catch fish and how to cook any fish you do catch. We will camp there tonight and be picked up tomorrow to be taken to the islands.”
As they hiked, Warren stopped them every once in a while to observe the world’s essence. Whenever he would see a strange or unusual essence type, he would call it out so they could see it.
He called for another halt when they came across a gigantic oak tree that seemed to have had its top shorn off repeatedly. “Everyone gather around, I’ve found a truly unusual essence. If you’ll look at this oak tree, you’ll see that essence drifting through it turns a darker green than it does after moving through other plants. This is because it has attuned itself to wood rather than to life.”
After he gave them a minute to look it over, he gave them a word of warning. “I previously mentioned that this technique optical technique is crude. This is because it is deceptive. In truth, any color could represent a particular element, and you are left blind to the greater intricacies of essence flow. Depending on the situation, you may have poison or lightning essence in the same color. You can only truly distinguish attunements that you are familiar with, and simple-seeming variations you could end up with something unrecognizable.”
The hike ended around midday, as they came across a small, slow-moving stream.
“Okay, everyone set up camp. We’ll spend today fishing, swimming, and cooking. I want everyone nice and rested up before you gi to the islands tomorrow. Meet back up in twenty minutes.”
They swiftly assembled all their tents, before returning just as the sun came out again.
“Today, I’m going to teach you some primitive fishing techniques. These should assist you in getting food in some of the less forested sections of the islands.”
“The first method we’ll explore is what many of you already know as fishing. You just need a stick, cord, hook and bait. You will have cord in your supplies, sticks and bugs are everywhere, and you just need to search to find a hook. Thorns, bone fragments, anything can work it it’s got the shape and some structural integrity.”
He got out some materials and demonstrated how to assemble them. “You’ll need to catch bugs to use as bait. You will likely need around five bugs per fish you want to catch.”
“The next method is building a fishing weir. I haven’t brought any materials for this one, we are instead going to build it using our environment. I want all of you to fan out and gather as many large rocks as you can.”
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They did so, and soon there was a knee-high pile at Warren’s feet.
“Now, we will assemble them into a weir. This will create an area that fish can swim into but not out of.”
He waded into the water and indicated for them to join him. Dev grimaced as he stepped into the cool water and felt the water filling his shoes.
“The weir will consist of a heart-shaped ring of rocks, positioned so that fish can swim into it from upstream.”
Warren directed them as they carried the rocks into the shallow water, creating a boundary with only narrow gaps for water. He then created a gap between the two upper arcs that was just wide enough for a fish to get through.
“This weir should be big enough for fish up to around five pounds. If you want smaller fish, you need to narrow the opening. For larger fish, you want a wider opening. Once they enter the weir, they will be trapped and you can retrieve them at your leisure.”
“The final method I’ll teach you is branch net weaving. This method is exactly what it sounds like, and requires you to weave a net out of flexible natural materials.”
He led them to a nearby willow tree and cut down some branches.
“You’ll want to weave a net around a nice, sturdy frame, and use smaller branches to form the net. Be careful to properly tie the net to the sturdy frame, or it will fall apart in the water. As with the weir, the smaller the openings in the net, the smaller fish you can catch. Unlike the weir, that doesn’t prevent you from catching bigger fish.”
He showed them how to weave the branches together, then suggested some placement locations for the nets, showing them where the stream narrowed to help funnel the fish in.
Afterward, they switched back to normal fishing, using bait and rods that Warren provided.
------
That night, after a dinner consisting of fish they had caught and been subsequently taught to prepare, they spoke more on the trials before Warren suddenly remembered something.
“Before I forget, here, I need to hand out your emergency beacons,” Warren said, getting out a bag. “You know, you all are lucky you get to go on this trial. I originally signed on to test the trials out. It was supposed to just be a thousand members of the Imperial Wanderers. But some emperor decided to open up the trials early, sped us along so we could get here to take advantage of the ascension. But we still get to go after you, so that’s fun.”
“Warren?” one of the others asked.
He shook himself out of his funk, realizing that he shouldn’t be ranting to them like that. He passed around the bag. “Yes?”
“You said you’d teach us tanning. Can we learn that now?”
“Sure,” Warren said, clearly eager to put his previous statement behind him.
Dev wasn’t sure what benefit tanning would give them in such a short time but decided not to call attention to himself by contesting the topic change. There were clearly some important politics hidden behind the trial.
“We start by scraping the hide, we want to remove most of the membrane underneath the skin.”
He got out the deerskin and showed them how, scraping the back of the hide with a knife until it was all cleared. He also placed some rocks in the fire for later.
“Now, we don’t have time to actually completely tan a hide before the trial, so I am just going to show you the steps. After the hide has been scraped clean, you want to let it dry until it has a thin, papery texture.”
Warren pulled out an example rabbit hide, showing how it crinkled.
“Next, we will be using bark tanning, using branches from the same willow tree as we used to make the fish trap. You can also use bark from any number of trees, such as oak and alder. Just test a piece by putting it in your mouth and if it feels like it dries your mouth up, it will work.”
He gathered some more branches and quickly denuded them of their bark, before bringing out a similar, though smaller, bowl to the one that he had used for soup the night before.
“We will prepare the tanning solution using hot rock boiling like we did the stew last night.”
He mixed the bark and water in the bowl, before dropping a couple of the boiling stones in the mix.
“The next step will be the main obstacle for using this in the trial. You will need to soak the skins in the tanning solution for several days to make them soft and supple.”
Warren tossed the dried hide into the solution once it was cooled, then brought out an already-tanned hide.
“Next, you’ll want to stretch and dry the hide. You can use any angled surface to rub it along, you just need to give it some time and dry it out.”
“The final step is oiling the hide. Out in the wild, the most easily available source of oil will be rendered animal fats. Animal fats can be rendered by boiling them after you trim them from your meat.”
He demonstrated how to render oil using the scraps from the deer on the first day, again using hot rock boiling to heat the water.
“You just need to brush the hide with oil and then wring it out. It will be ready after a couple more days to dry.” He clapped sharply. “Now, it’s time to be off to bed. I want you all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the trial tomorrow.”
They all returned to their tents, preparing to bed down.
“Hey, man. Good luck out there.” Dave said.
“Thanks, you too.”
Dave yawned. “Have I ever mentioned how cool it is that you have an axiom. All I’ve got is a dumb lightning aspect.”
“Lightning is still a cool aspect. How many people can have it?”
“I dunno… Still want something different.” Dave said as he drifted off to sleep.
Dev lay in bed anxiously for a couple of hours before falling asleep. He envied Dave’s quick sleeping ability.