4.11

For almost half an hour, the only sounds in the clearing were Ladybug and his own breathing. Rittan had returned once already, with five logs, each with a diameter approaching thirty centimetres. How the guy could cut down that much in such little time stumped him—pun intended.

The pain was slowly vanishing; either the hit wasn’t quite as damaging as he’d first thought, or his boosted health regeneration was much more efficient than he’d expected. He’d turned around only once in that time and found Kalter sitting crosslegged on the other side of the structure, watching him through the branches.

August wasn’t game enough to turn around a second time after that, so he kept his head down and focused on the twine in his hands. He was getting better at making it, or at least faster, to the point where he was starting to eat into his remaining sheet of bark.

Getting low meant that he’d need to go get some more, but given how time-consuming stripping the bark had been, he was thinking about stepping down in quality and using something that was easier to gather.

The knowledge the [Cordage Blueprint] had gifted him had revealed that there were almost as many materials he could substitute for bark then there were trees in a forest. For instance, the Bulrush growing halfway around the lake was prime material for this kind of thing. The lemongrass that practically carpeted sections of the forest was another. Fibrous material—even something as common as grass, would work to make rope, albeit with varying levels of tensile strength.

August tied off the last piece of twine before carefully rising up, first onto his knees and then onto his feet. His stomach pulled painfully, but he managed it with some effort. He paid no attention to the sound of Kalter shifting and set off towards the lake at a slow pace. Ladybug stumped along after him, able to keep pace without much effort.

He had to actively keep himself from looking back at camp, but it wasn’t as difficult as he expected—his eyes were instead drawn to the motionless lake and the unknown number of [Mitikos] that must have been resting, just out of sight. He skirted the edge of the lake, squinting at the water beside him, trying to spot any white that might denote one of them, but the angle was wrong for it.

It took him almost five minutes to actually reach the Bulrush, a result more closely tied to his slow pace than the distance involved. He took his [Flint Knife] from his inventory and then carefully knelt down. He pulled a handful of the stalks near the outside edge, the ones that were growing brown with age, and separated them from the rest before using his tool to cut them off above the water. August placed them inside his inventory before moving on to the next section, repeating the process.

Unlike the bark, the narrow leaf of these plants would require a different process. It would also not be nearly as strong. He hoped to fix that issue by doing a second layer of twinning for each piece.

Once he’d gathered enough to last him for at least a couple of days, he turned and headed back towards the camp. He could see that Rittan had returned again, and Kalter had joined him by the growing pile of logs. Rittan seemed as expressive as even, gesturing with multiple arms as the two of them spoke. Kalter’s own body language remained far more closed off, two sets of arms folded over, one behind her back and one in front. The hands of the third pair were pressed into the flesh of her hips, hard enough that he could see visible dips in her skin.

“That’s a lot of wood,” August said in greeting, returning to his space by the [A-Frame Hut].

“I’m afraid I broke the axe you made for me,” Rittan admitted, ducking his head.

“Bound to happen eventually,” August said, “Do you want me to make another one?”

“I think I would like to attempt to make one myself,” Rittan said.

“Alright,” August said, somewhat glad. “If you need to borrow mine in the meantime, just come grab it.”

“August, you were walking around—how are you feeling?” Rittan asked, giving him an overt look over.

“I’m feeling a bit better,” August said, not looking in Kalter’s direction. “I’m not sure how the health regeneration works, but it seems to work pretty fast.”

August removed some of the bulrushes from his inventory and began stripping the narrow-leaf away from the stalk.

“What is he doing?” Kalter murmured, voice low.

“I’m not sure,” Rittan answered. “August?”

“I’m making twine,” August said, “I ran out of bark, so I went and got some of the plants that are growing around the lake.”

“Would you mind if I sat in to observe the process?” Rittan said, about as subtle as a rock.

“I’ll show you how to do it if you want,” August said, folding the leaf horizontally until the spine of it cracked. “Come sit down.”

“Kalter?” Rittan said, now smiling.

“What?” Kalter said stubbornly.

“Would you like to join us?” Rittan said, raising his eyebrows.

“Stop looking at me with that stupid expression,” Kalter insisted, stepping into view. “I’m watching, aren’t I?”

August ignored the conversation instead of separating several long, narrow-leaves out and placing them in two more piles for them to use. He held up his own and cracked the leaf in half before waiting. Rittan sat down in front of one of them before patting the ground next to him. Kalter grunted but sat down after a moment.

“The leaves suck, so you have to make them more flexible first—fold them over like this,” August murmured, watching as then each took one and copied him. “Hold it against your thigh and then roll it up with your hand—be gentle, or the material will splinter.”

August watched them, placing his own folded leaf against his leg and rolling it up to his knee by pressing his palm against it. Once it was somewhat twisted up, he took hold of the middle of it with his index and thumb in a pinch.

“Hold the middle tight, and then use your other hand to twist one of the strands,” August nodded, making sure they had the right idea. “Don’t let it go; now twist the other strand in the same direction—perfect.”

Rittan’s thin fingers seemed to be good for the task, but even Kalter’s smaller hands worked well. The fact that they had four other hands to help accomplish the task left them each having a much easier time.

“Now, holding both twisted strands, rotate them,” August explained, performing the associated action. “That’s literally all you have to do—just repeat it.”