Industrious Jayde

The next morning after feeding the two wyrmlings, Jayde collected all the loose rocks that she could find around the cavern, using these rocks she built a fire pit near the entrance into the cavern, after yesterday barbecuing marathon, she realized that her small campfire was not sufficient to cook for Reiko and Yinxin — they seemed to possess bottomless pits instead of normal stomachs in Jayde opinion.

After taking out a pile of wood from her spatial ring, Jayde set it alight. Looking at her dwindling stores of wood in her ring, Jayde made a note to collect more wood, might as well try to make coals later on she thought. Since she was going to stuck on Telia for just under a month it would be worth the effort, and Jayde was enjoying trying out all these ancient methods that she had only read about.

Using her fire magic, she fashioned some hooks out of the ready-made iron that she had collected from the small cave where she had found the fire spirit. Once her hooks were ready, she attached the crudely fashioned hooks to a metal pole.

Taking out the raw meat leftover from the two Albatross-Bighorn carcasses that she had cleaned up the day before, she spiced them then she attached the spiced meat to the hooks, with Yinxin help she hung the pole with the hooks of meat onto a platform she had built out of sturdy wood over the heated coals.

While the meat was cooking, Jayde checked on the emerald grass, happy to see that the grass had dried out nicely, she took out another barrel of water, then putting the grass into the barrel to soak, she would need to soak the grass for forty eight hours, to ensure that it would not crack or break when she sewed it into baskets.

Once the meat was cooked and three of them had eaten breakfast, Jayde was happy to note she still had meat leftover for lunch. While Yinxin nursed Tianxin, Jayde removed the soak skins, she was really happy that she had upgraded her strength as she struggled to lift the heavy skins out of the barrel, without the upgrade she wouldn't have had the physical strength to lift the wet skins.

Draping the skins over wooden planks that she had already made, she took out one of her sharp daggers, then patiently she scrapped off all the excess flesh off the skin, careful not to cut the actual skin. Once done, Jayde soaked the cleaned skins in a barrel of water that she had added lime too. She was glad that she had stored the barrel of lime that she found in the old man's cave in her spatial ring.

Feeling grimy after her labors, Jayde collected the barrels of dirty water, as well as Yinxin empty barrel and with Reiko in tow, she left the cave for the nearby river to bath.

***

Before bathing and with time to burn, Jayde foraged around looking for anything she could use for spices as well as vegetables.

The forest was chock-full of various herbs and vegetables, thankfully most of the items were the same as what was found on Doha, and with the previous soul memories, Jayde was able to recognize many of the herbs.

Jayde collected bushels of oregano, sage, rosemary, and thyme. She found cumin fruit which she picked, once the seeds of the fruit were dried she would have cumin spice, as well as bell peppers — which once dried and grounded could be turned in paprika.

With a small stick in her hand, she dug out tubers that were similar to potatoes as well as yams, she also found onions and garlic as well as root vegetables similar to carrots.

Looking up at the sky to gauge where the sun was, she estimated that she still had four or five hours before the sunset. Taking out her axe she cut up fallen logs that she found along her way. As she explored the area looking for more logs for wood, she came across different fruits growing. Happy to see something that looked like cayenne peppers she picked the bush clean.

While Jayde was looking for wood and foraging for herbs and vegetables, she also took note of the trees growing around her, she needed to find bark that contained tannin for her skins, it was the one thing that she didn't have. Testing various barks in a small container of water, she was really happy when she found that one of the trees had a bark that changed the color of the water to a tea color, this meant that the bark contained a large amount of tannin, which was just perfect for her.

Jayde collected all the bark that she could find on logs near the trees, she didn't want to scrape off the bark off living trees as this would harm the tree itself. After placing the bark and stripped off logs into her spatial ring, Jayde decided it was time to head to the river.

Arriving at the river, Jayde noticed that there were long stretches of a clay-like soil, seeing all that clay gave Jayde a wonderful idea. With this clay, she could build a reusable coal making oven.

Moving to an open area, she set up a fire breaker, the last thing she wanted was to set the forest on fire, once she had a decent size square area cornered off, she used her fire magic to burn the grasses growing.

After the fire died, she cleared the area. Then taking the wood she had collected earlier she placed the wood into a large igloo shape carefully so it didn't collapse. Once her igloo shape was ready, she then collected large dried leaves that had fallen on to the forest floor.

Using these dried leaves she covered her wooden igloo with these leaves, once the whole wooden igloo was covered in leaves, she collected the clay soil, and starting from the ground took handfuls of clay and built a mound of clay around her igloo. Patting and smoothing the clay out. She left a hole in the top of her igloo. Take a sharp stick she carved a half moon door into her clay mound — this would make it easier for her to dig out her door when the coal was ready.

Once her clay igloo was built, she dug out small holes in the bottom a couple of hands length away from each other. Using fire stones to heat up the area quickly, she dried out the clay. Once the clay had hardened, she collected the fire stones, then placing small twigs and leaves in the hole on top of the mound she set it alight.

After a while she checked on her coal oven, seeing that the wood was burning slowly, she filled in the small holes she had made at the bottom with clay. She also closed up the hole in the top. Filthy but happy with her efforts, she took out her soap and towel as well as a clean set of clothes, then walking into the icy river she bathed, and washed her dirty clothes.

After her bath, Jayde changed into her clean clothes, she hung up her washed clothing to dry, then taking the barrels of dirty water from her spatial ring, she emptied the dirty water onto the nearby grass, then filling up all her barrel with fresh, clean water she stored them in her spatial ring.

While waiting for her clothes to dry, take removed her fishing rod from her spatial ring, and while Reiko napped on a nearby rock, she spent the next hour catching fish. Seeing her hoard of fish, Jayde decided that tomorrow she would make a smoking hut. Storing away her fish, she collected her dry clothes, then waking up Reiko Jayde returned to the cave.

After dinner, Jayde placed a clean barrel of water near Yinxin, then she hung up the herbs that she had collected in the corner where she had dried the grass, after placing down the fire stones, she played with the wyrmlings for while. Shenxin and Huaxin were a lot more active now that they had gained some strength.

Tried from her busy day, Jayde curled up next to the sleeping wyrmlings, feeling content and happy she fell asleep with a small smile on her face.

========================

Hope you enjoyed today's new chapter, if you are interesting in supporting me

Buy me a coffee: http://ko-fi.com/djrogue

or you can donate directly at

https://www.paypal.me/djrogue1

=======================

Check out my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DJRogueAuthor/

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DJRogue2

=======================