"Chop them up, carve the skin, let none go to waste~

Take your time, work with care, ain't no need for haste~

Sort the bits, clean the mitts, work right at your best~

Once it's done, pack things up, time to get some rest~" - Butcher's ditty, an old tune often sung amongst butchers and dismantlers of beasts.

After she took a long bath - the ship didn't have such amenities, but with the mages around it was simple enough to get her a large basin full of hot water, one large enough for her to fully submerge herself into - and a hot meal, Aideen finally returned to the deck of the ship.

They were still roughly two and a half days away from the shoreline, even with how the water and wind mages on the sloops used their magic to speed things up. A worrisome thought came to Aideen's mind in the meantime.

"Would that carcass be fine, grandpa?" she asked when she saw grandpa Aarin standing near the bow of the ship. Two and a half days in the open, half submerged in seawater, couldn't be good for the quality of the sea serpent's carcass, she had thought. "Wouldn't it… decay before we get to shore?"

"That might indeed be the case if this was a normal wild beast, child," replied grandpa Aarin in his usual patient voice. He had half turned and looked at her with the soulfire in one eye socket. "But monsters that have reached this caliber are… different. You had tried to dig into its flesh while it was alive, no?"

"I did. It was harder than most boulders," said Aideen in reply as she nodded. Her hands were still quite sore from all the digging she had done while inside the beast's body. "It had softened considerably after it died, though."

"Monsters like these had their mana permeate and support their bodies. That is the reason why they were so durable while alive," explained the Bone Lord with a nod. "Without their mana reinforcing their frame, a creature this large would have more likely than not collapsed on itself even if nobody touched them."

"The carcass seemed to be holding up fine, though?" asked Aideen as she squinted in an effort to see the massive carcass more clearly. It was already dark by then, and amongst all the things she could do since she became unliving, seeing in the dark was sadly never one of them.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"The beast's mana had thoroughly permeated its flesh and bones for all its life, child," said the Bone Lord. "Just because it's dead, doesn't mean they would dissipate right away. The lack of further mana does make its flesh much softer, but I imagine we'd probably still have to wait another week before we could really harvest the creature."

"Waiting for the mana to dissipate so the flesh would be more malleable?" Aideen asked, as she got the point grandpa Aarin was trying to convey to her. "I assume the mana would also help keep the flesh from decaying in that time, then."

"Indeed so. So long as the mana persisted, natural decay would be halted. For a beast this large…" said grandpa Aarin as he pondered for a moment. "I'd say two weeks, maybe three before the mana disperses completely. Plenty of time for us to harvest the thing properly."

"How useful are these beasts that even you would put so much effort into capturing one mostly intact, grandpa?" Aideen asked the question that had persisted in her mind from when they first set sail. "You said you could have handled it yourself but that would damage it too much."

"Every bit of this creature's body might as well be a priceless treasure for the mortals," stated the Bone Lord nonchalantly. "Its flesh are amongst some of the most prized in the world. Its scales are an excellent material for armor and weapons both. Its skin, when processed into leather, are similarly prized for lightweight materials that are highly durable and resistant."

"Many of its organs could replace other ingredients in alchemical recipes and increase a brew's potency noticeably," he added as he continued. "But I'd say the greatest harvest this time is that you killed it without damaging its bones. I just happen to have an idea for those."

"Do you intend to raise it?" she asked in turn, as she imagined a massive skeletal beast roaming in the oceans. The vision was one that made her involuntarily shudder at the thought. "Wouldn't that be hard for the local necromancers to handle?"

"Aye, I will do most of the heavy work to raise it myself. Will probably need to triple the stationed people in this region so they could keep it fueled with mana, but it would be worth it in the end," said the Bone Lord in a playful tone. "Imagine, child, should some silly fools try to invade us from the seas… then running afoul of the little beauty I am about to create."

"Oh, I can imagine that, all right," said Aideen with another involuntary shudder.

*****************************

The fleet reached the shore in the evening two days later. Good winds had helped them reach their destination ahead of time. The journey itself was uneventful, other than some sharks which were attracted by the carcass and tried to feast on it.

Nobody had to do anything to those sharks, other than watch and laugh. Despite its state, the carcass' scales were still far too tough to yield to the sharks' bites, and all they achieved was to break most of their teeth on the unyielding scales before they slunk away defeated.

When they arrived, the inhabitants of the coastal town had lined the shores and raised a deafening cheer once the fleet came into sight, a cheer that only intensified when they got a good look at the beast's carcass being hauled to port.

Aboard the ship, Aideen smiled at the jubilation of the townspeople. Their joy made the rather unpleasant experience she had been through more worthwhile in her mind, although it remained an experience she would rather not redo if possible.