Chapter 8: Of Fire and Metal

Day two of working at creating Monroe’s man cave, I had decided on bringing some extra items. In addition to what I had brought last time, I swapped out the two apothecary bags for 5 empty ore bags that I had haggled from Kade getting them free saying that it would increase the amount that I could bring back. However, I was not looking forward to lugging those things back once they got full.

On the way in, I had scavenged some firewood and starter branches to store in some of the empty bags, along with my flint and steel set in my backpack. I planned to sit under the water fall again today for as long as I could, to grow more acclimatized to the experience and I wanted to be able to get warmer much more quickly.

Once at the slowly growing cave, I set all my gear in as safe a place as I could manage before getting to work on seeing what my new earth affinity/manipulation skill could do. Placing my bare hands against the jagged edges of the wall at the entrance, to better feel the element, I pressed my energy upon it willing it to become malleable in my hands. Pushing upon it with my own physical strength as well seemed to add to the feeling that more was getting accomplished.

Soon enough, the stone began to give way as my will overrode its natural rigidity. Smoothing away the sharp edges first to make it flow consistently, I then pushed harder upon it with greater strength as if to compress it further into the stone behind it, to shore up the more unstable parts. Whenever I felt a decent sized fissure deeper in the wall where I was shoring it up, I would dedicate more time to infusing those weakened portions with compressed stone.

With my physical strength alone, I wouldn’t have a chance at budging this granite hard stone, but combined with the mythical energy that I wielded, it bent to my will with my influence slowly growing as I spent more time pressing on and shaping the walls. Though I fully intended to go back over them later, I had managed to shore up the entirety of the wall spaces that I had no more need to dig into. At one point, I did have to flip the ore cart upside down and stand on it to reach the portion of the ceiling that had caved in the last time, but soon it had all become much safer.

Finally with relief, I took a brief break from the work that had taken me close to 2 hours to do. I was nowhere near done with the chipping away at the walls as I planned to go much deeper into the cliff-side, but I now had a good start. Deciding to try something new, I went to the still rough portion of the wall that I planned to break through. Placing my bare hands upon it I focused my mind on the various aspects of it. Those countless minuscule fissures were now going to work for me, becoming what I wanted them to be rather than having to search out the larger workable ones.

Mentally planning out how I wanted to design the area of the cave, I was currently able to shape the flow of the merging cracks that I forced to grow in the walls about a meter deep. Through this entire process I had to meticulously guide the fissures as often they wanted to form their own pathway that could have potentially brought a large portion of the cave down upon my head. With my first fissure creation complete I brought the pickaxe to hand and began to chip away. Combined with my knowledge and active manipulation I intimately knew where to strike each time. It was as if the portions I had changed for the purpose of destruction called out to me, guiding my well placed attacks.

Metal rang against stone time and time again with such veracity and frequency that it prompted a mental note from me to get ear plugs for next time. With my new skills at play, despite having to stop on occasion to shore up the completed portion of the walls, my progress grew at an alarming rate.

Stepping out into the sunlight this time to dump my shattered stone on the ground by the water rather than in it, I gazed up at the sky to see that the sun had barely passed its zenith. “Wow” I said to myself. Mentally going over what I had dug so far into the cliff-side I began measuring what had been created. The entrance way which had long since been finished was about 1 ½ meters in width by close to 2 meters in height, except the portions that had caved in which then extended upward close to another meter in height. The length of the entrance ran about 3 ½ meters in length before expanding outward into the larger room I had begun to work on.

‘So long as Monroe didn’t rush into the wedding, then I was getting a feeling that I’d be able to get this project done in time.’ I thought to myself. Breaking for lunch, I gazed at the falls in somewhat trepidation knowing that I was going to be once again subjecting myself to the chill rushing water in just a few minutes.

With rare insight I decided to organize the larger kindling right now, placing it behind the high mounds of broken stone that protected it somewhat from the misty spray of the falls. Then setting the flint and steel together with the starter tinder in a waterproofed bag beside the piled wood, I resigned myself to the tedious duty of stripping out of my shirt and shoes again to sit beneath the water fall. “Damn that is too cold!” I screamed out in frustration.

I had to force myself to not jump right back out of the water that I could almost swear had dropped a few degrees since yesterday. In knew it was just my imagination since it was still too early in the year, but I started to have creative images forming in my mind of ice shards flowing down the water to cut into me. Once again reaching outward with my mind and power I focused on trying to follow the flow of the water upward and downward as it rushed on its unimpeded way.

Lowering my head as I was reminded to keep my mouth somewhat shielded from the water flow I began to wish that there was some way to keep the water from constantly trying to go up my nose and cover my mouth whenever I breathed in. Suddenly I remembered what I had managed to do yesterday just after stepping out of the falls. Maybe I could focus on pushing the water away just before it reached my nose and mouth.

‘Much easier said than done’ I thought to myself as I began trying to implement that idea. The first difficulty to overcome was in moving a larger amount of water a further distance from my nose and mouth. The second was too soon made apparent as the water I had just managed to move was swept away by the torrent right behind it.

After much trial and error I finally realized that I had to follow the rushing flow much further above me. Guessing at where the specific portion of water that would try to cover my face would come from and begin to manipulate it from further away made for a difficult task. That was just the start of getting it right. Wind and other unknown factors continually interjected in on the water flow making it impossible to simply keep control of the flow at a distance. Stretching out my senses as far as they could go up the falls, I began to spread out my awareness to encompass a wider portion of the water above my head. Taking in the myriads of ever changing flows I began to search less for a pattern and focused more on damage control.

As the rate at which I was able to intercede the water from covering my face increased, I had up to that point not noticed that my extremities had more or less turned blue, having nothing to do with my racial trait. At the time that I gained enough control of the water to trust briefly the opening of my eyes, I happened to look to my right at my arm to see the drastic color change. “Oh!” I croaked out surprise.

The next thing I knew, I had somehow leaned myself over, falling into a heap under the crashing water in my attempt to get myself out of the falls as quickly as possible. With adrenaline finally beginning to make its delayed effect upon my body, I managed to crawl out of the water flow and continue to crawl over to the gathered wood. Getting that distance on all fours seemed like a tremendous task all on its own. Managing to open up the water proof bag to dump the starting tinder under the wood pile and gather the flint and steel in hand seemed like an almost impossibility.

I don’t know how I managed to finally strike up a spark that lit the tinder, but soon enough a small flame began to eat away at the smaller pieces of wood before drying out and catching hold upon the larger logs I had managed to bring with me. Shaking uncontrollably, I just focused on keeping my body from falling over as I waited for the heat of the fire to take effect on my poor body.

Taking far longer than I would have liked, the fire finally grew to a decent size and I had begun to thaw out. I dare not tell Victoria about this latest almost lethal mistake on my part, recalling clearly the results of my last endeavor of having consumed the ‘massive’ amount of earth stone I had gathered. This would be my little secret.

Gazing at the dancing flames, a part of my soul subconsciously reached out to embrace the fire. “Ahhhhhhhh” A moan slipped from my lips at the pleasurable feeling of warmth that seemed to filter to every part of my being. The feeling was amazing! It seemed to greatly help my body to absorb the heat more easily and efficiently. I dare not physically touch the fire, but my soul seemed to receive no damage from the flames.

Sitting there reveling in the warmth I realized that the blood flow had returned to my limbs much more quickly than I had expected. In addition to that, I had almost missed out on the painful sensation of pins and needles that generally accompanies the revival of chilled extremities. It seemed to have lasted but a short moment before fading away into normality. “I could get used to this!” I exclaimed.

Looking up at the sky again I noticed that the sun was probably about 4 to 5 hours away from settling on the horizon. Taking in the mound of stone that I had been leaning against as I warmed myself by the fire, I realized that I had better get to organizing it and breaking it down into differing ore piles since the amount that I had to work with was much larger this time than the time before.

As I gathered my legs beneath me to get up and grab the pickaxe I had a flash of thought that caused me to sit back down. Could I not use the same method of expanding the miniscule fissures within the rocks to separate the ore more easily? With a simple trial I attempted just that. Grabbing a random stone I focused on finding the various trace ores within the stone and then once I had recognized were all the parts were I began linking the fissures to each other separating the various sections. Then with a single motion, I slammed the stone down onto another. *Crack.*

In an instant, the stone shattered into several fragments each of which contained a larger percentage of material be it regular stone, copper, or iron ore. ‘This was going to make thing much easier.’ I thought to myself.

By the time I had finished shattering every hewn rock and placed the accompanying ore into its respectable bag, the sun still had another hour or so before it would reach the horizon. As I had become much more efficient at separating the various ores with the rocks, what ended up taking the most time by far was actually separating the end results into their various piles. With one last chore of dumping the remaining useless stone into the water by the falls, I took in what I had accomplished this day. It was a lot!

Gathering all 5 bags that had been filled almost to being incapable of closing, I placed them in the cart that I knew I’d have to bring back with me this time. Looking at the daunting pathway I had used to get down, I knew it would be much harder to get back up it. With the addition of the heavy and bulky cart, it was going to take some time.

Finally making my way back to the city, I made it to the black smith shop with cart, backpack, and pickaxe in hand. I had to have looked a mess with rock and trail dust all over my pants. I guess I could have jumped beneath the falls again before heading up the trail, but I had decided to forego that pleasure a second time this day.

“Well, well, well!” Kade exclaimed as he took in my appearance. “The cave digger has returned.” “Hello Kade.” I called out in a genial but weary tone. “Where do you want this ore?” I asked him.

Seeing the amount I had brought back this time, Kade came over to again assess the quality and quantity. Opening all 5 sacks with each one causing his eyebrows to raise just a little bit more, he calmly closed them all before looking back up at me. “Dear boy, what on earth have you been doing all this time to have gathered all this ore and Earth Stone?”

Figuring I’d have to trust him at least a little to be able to gain the skills I felt I would need while working with him, I told him everything I had done in regards to the mining ‘without’ mentioning that the energy I used was soul energy rather than magic. Eyes seemingly aglow at seeing what I had been able to do, he just shook his head ruefully. “Boy . . . if ever you decided to become a blacksmith and build a forge here then I’d probably have to worry about my livelihood.” He paused a moment before continuing to speak. “For some reason though, I feel as if you plan to do much more than that, and staying here in this city would hold back your potential. For that reason, with your permission, I plan to make the greatest use of you while you are still here.”

“I’d be honored to work with you Sir.” I replied with a smile. “Ah, you can keep calling me Kade, and I’ll try to stop calling you son. Okay Jade?” He responded. “Deal.” And we shook on it.

Heading back to the apothecary shop after dropping off the ore, Victoria seemed in a much better mood this time around. I wondered if it had anything to do with Monroe. In any case, I thanked the sky for whoever it was that lay responsible for her transformation and took full advantage of it.

With tremendous plans about what I wanted to do tomorrow, I knew I’d need some special materials. The interesting thing about this world was that overall there weren’t many true healing potions in comparison to general pharmaceutical remedies. They certainly existed, but their materials were much harder to get ahold of to gain the desired result of near instantaneous effect.

My goal for this night before I went to sleep, was to create as much burn healing unguent as possible. Delving into her semi-rare materials supply I had been able to attain her permission with a promise of replacing those stores soon and with some monetary compensation. Gathered in there were several cores for fire slimes. Usually it was difficult to find any kind of slime except that they seemed to enjoy certain kinds of water. Fire ones in particular liked hot springs.

Thankfully there was actually a hot spring that fed into the water that went over Niagara Falls. Unfortunately, it was hard to get there. For now though I just went about my business crushing the now dry cores and mixing them with some other medicinal plants I had gathered during a recent trip into the forest. After I mixed several portions together, begin careful to keep to the recipe I felt I had enough burn salve for tomorrow. Soon enough, I went to bed excited about what was to come.

*

Waking up the next morning after having slept in game, I made my way to the smiths shop just before he got there. Waiting in the dim light of morning I watched as the bulky bearded figure that I knew to be Kade, make his way to the doors of the shop.

Never before in a game have I chosen to learn from the black smith profession, but seeing what my skill set had evolved to, it pretty much decided for me that I needed to learn from Kade. As he finally came into the smithing area he carried with him a large bag of coal that he dumped into his forge. After evenly spreading out the coals, he then dug a hole in them to place some starter material which he mostly covered back up with coals before lighting it on fire. Moving over to the billows, he then began to pump them in a steady fashion watching as the flames grew larger to encompass the surrounding coal.

During this entire process I had just stood by in silence watching him do what he did. At the point of the billows, he finally spoke up. “Jade, if you wouldn’t mind taking over the pumping for me, keeping it at the current rhythm, then I can go about preparing some other things.” Nodding my head in silence as I traded places with him, I began pumping the billows up and down just as he had. After several minutes of watching him gather his materials out of various lockers and watching the coals turn bright red all throughout the inside of the furnace he then brought in the bags of ore that I had carried in from digging into the cave.

Pulling one of the elongated pieces of steel that he looked to have been working on before, he then placed that within the furnace, allowing it to heat up to a cherry red. As I began wondering at what point I’d be able to start work on purifying the ore I had brought, it was then that I saw one of his normal apprentices appear.

“Master!” The apprentice called out. “Sorry I’m late. Where would you like for me to help?” He enquired of Kade. With a grunt of seeming dissatisfaction seeing his apprentice appear late he motioned him to the billows where I was at.

“Jade, since my lazy apprentice is now here, you can begin doing what you do with your ore. I would like to watch though if you don’t mind.” He said. “I don’t mind at all.” I replied. “In fact, I was wondering if I could use a space at the furnace to try something out.”

With a hesitant nod of consent, Kade moved the heating metal over a bit as I sided up to the glowing coals. Taking a seat on a small stool that I had pulled over, I then dug out a handful of the ore before slowly reaching towards the hot coals. “What the Hell are you doing?!” Screamed Kade as he rushed to block my hands from going into the hot furnace.

Feeling slightly perturbed I calmly looked up at him. “This is how I’ve been gaining my elemental affinities, through extreme exposure to the elements themselves.” I explained. “Like hell you are! I’m not going to be the one to explain to Victoria that I allowed you to do such a stupid thing as burn yourself in my forge!”

With a sigh I placed the ore back into its bag and opened up my backpack that I had brought with me. Pulling out a large canister with a kind of red tinted paste inside of it, I showed it to Kade. “This is a burn healing paste that I created last night. It was in preparation for the many burns that I expect to receive today. So you don’t have to worry that I’ll be coming back with any wounds once I’m finished in your forge.”

“Oh . . . okay, I guess you can try what you were planning, but I want you to take it slow.” He added before letting me go to return to what I had been trying.

Once again I pulled out a handful of copper ore and reached forwards towards the flames. I definitely did not touch the flames themselves, but I did reach in till the heat became rather uncomfortable. Now while keeping my hands still I reached out with my energy and tried to guide the heat of the fire a little bit at a time into the ore within my hand. Just barely enough to warm it. Then pressing my hands together I began to mold the broken ore into a ball of sorts. As I continued to channel the heat into the ball it began to get incredibly uncomfortable as I mentally rearranged the various materials. It was many times easier and faster using the heat, but as I pulled out the mostly finished ball to look at my handiwork, apparently the price of my focused efforts had the price of scalding my hands. Still holding the extremely hot ball of stone and metal as it burned my hand outside of the forge, Kade having noticed my dilemma and stupidity quickly brought over a plaster bowl for me to place the unfinished ore in.

Now with my mind fully back in the world the pain was becoming unbearable. Opening the top of the burn healing paste I lathered up my hands in a hurry, hoping that it worked its miracle soon. With my hands fully covered in that red paste, I watched as the swelling and pain slowly faded away. While I waited I took the time to look at the plaster bowl that Kade had given to me to place my work in progress in. Though the material on the inside was obviously hot, the outside of the bowl was cool to the touch. With that an idea came to me.

“Kade, do you have any broken plaster that I can use? Oh and another bowl for me to crush it in?” This time he found a metal bowl of sorts after which he went digging through what looked like a junk pile in the corner of his smithy. Dropping the broken plaster into the metal bowl, he continued to watch silently as I started crumbling the broken plaster with my bare hands. His eyebrows went up in surprise at that but he kept his silence.

Finally after I had broken all the plaster into mostly granules and dust, I placed the unfinished ore into the pile. Then, cupping the plaster around the ore I mentally began forming a crust of sorts made of plaster around the ball of ore. Once completed I reached again towards the forge and nudged out some of the heat with my energy.

This worked much better! Being able to draw even more heat into the ball I was working on to sped up the process. I was able to separate the copper from the rest much more efficiently while maintaining the plaster exterior. Soon, but not before I had been able to finish the chore of condensing the copper in the middle, I had to pull out the entire ball before dropping it into the whole plaster bowl due to its becoming too hot. As it cooled down, I picked it up to mentally go through it searching for its various layers of copper, slag, stone, and then plaster. Separating them with my mind I then weakened certain parts of the whole conglomeration.

Holding it over the bowl of dusty plaster I crumbled the now weakened outer edge to make the plaster fall into the bowl with the rest. Then, looking around for something to smash it on I ended up going to the anvil and brought it down against the hard metal surface. A small crack could be heard and the outer shell of slag and stone pulled away to reveal a pristine sphere of copper on the inside.

*ting*

*ting*

Fire Affinity/Manipulation: (Uncommon) Through the repeated exposure of your soul to the element of fire, you have grown in understanding of its properties and gained the ability to manipulate heat and flame to do your bidding. With greater affinity and practice, newer ways of manipulating fire and some resistance may be revealed.

Metal Affinity/Manipulation: (Rare) Through the repeated exposure of your soul to various aspects of metal and the refining process, you have grown in understanding of its properties and gained the ability to shape, strengthen, refine, and weaken the bonds of metal. With greater affinity, practice, and exposure, more types of metal may be discovered, manipulated, and refined.

“Damn!” The apprentice who had also been watching the whole ordeal now sat there at the bellows forgetting to pump them while his mouth hung open. “I have to agree with you this time.” Kade said glancing over at his motionless apprentice.

Walking over to my place at the anvil he reached out a hand at which I handed to him the copper ore that was still stuck in half of the outer shell of stone and slag. With little effort he pulled it out to examine it more closely. The brilliant red core shone clearly without any flaws in color or purity.

“Okay, you are hired.” Kade exclaimed. “Can you be here tomorrow?” He seemed to have forgotten that I needed to work on the cave but I quickly corrected him. “Like I said before, I can work every other day for you for a while.” A look of being discontented crossed his face but he nodded in understanding. With that he moved out of my way to let me get back to work on the ores I had brought.

Completing the refining of all the iron and copper ore that I had brought ended by around early evening. With nothing more to do I simply scooped up all of the outer shells of slag and stone and dumped them in the trash bin.

Bidding my good byes to Kade and his apprentice, I headed back to the apothecary shop to end the day early.

* * * * *

The very next morning, as I returned to work on the man cave, I came upon the ever growing depression in the cliffside with a minor sense of foreboding. It felt like something was in there. Pausing a moment and shielding my eyes from the distracting rays of sunlight, at what I hoped to be a safe distance, I gazed into the dark confines of the cave. Seeing a minor shift of shadows deeper within, out of caution I slowly lowered myself into a crouching position. With my hands pressed in fists against the stone floor ready to dash forward, brace myself, or to dodge and run, whichever needed doing, I hoped this was the best position.

After what seemed like hours while I’m sure only took at max less than a minute a shape began to come out of the darkness. ‘Holy . . . !’ A simple expletive loudly formed in my thoughts. The previously darkened beast began to be revealed as white as it exited the shadows of the cave. But marred upon that whiteness were large streaks of red. As it came to be fully revealed by the light of day, it stopped moving. Together we stared at each other for long moments. This was a huge albino Tiger! A high level of intelligence accompanied the gaze of this beast and terror filled my mind. I felt an odd crawling sensation begin tingling up my arms but I dared not to look away from this obvious threat.

Though scarred out of my mind at the appearance and presence of this majestic beast, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pity for its current state of being. How had it gathered those wounds that marred its perfectly white fur? As we continued to have our quiet stand-off, I decided to take a chance and try something different. Though it is immensely harder to do while remaining completely still and with eyes open, because of the fear coursing through me, I was still able to reach for the well of my power and gently reached outward with it towards the white tiger. I sent it not with the intent to harm but to somehow, hopefully communicate.

At the short distance between us, I could see the eyes of the tiger dilate at the same time that I felt my soul encounter its own. A curious probing sensation touched upon me and then after a short break a wave of sensations assailed me, almost causing me to stumble, but I managed to remain steadfast and upright. Almost as if I could see it, I began to feel the emotions and more as this beast seemed to be telling me a story of how it had arrived in my cave. Fear, fear was the most prevalent emotion. Almost convincing myself that it was my own I was assured that it was not by a simple deviation in its flow. The fear was not for its own safety, but for that of another. Adrenalin seemed to kick in as desperation began to claw for a place in the tumultuous onslaught of emotion. Then time seemed to pass as the sensation of wind coursing through fur that I did not have seemed to fill my mind. Desperation continued to grow and then the sensation of time and wind flowing came to a stop. Resolve had slowly begun to creep in on the edges of desperation and at the point of stopping, had come to create a chilling atmosphere of sorrow. Anger flared intermittently within that all-encompassing world of resolve. Scarlet pain flashed several times during the next few moments and then surprise flared briefly. A spark of hope combined with added fear ignited and then a feeling of desperation and a vital sense of need coursed through our connection. Finally after a feeling of relief that was deeply tempered with trepidation, the later feeling slowly began to fade away to give into the previously ignored pain. Then darkness finally took over . . . unknown amounts of time passed until a slowly growing sense of wary fear, pain, and a feeling of protectiveness once more took its place only to encounter . . . , me.

Though we remained connected, I felt moisture, not from the falls dripping down from my cheeks. With a thought I sent a wave of calming and morose energy towards the terribly wounded tiger. Standing there a moment longer, it began to waver. Slowly turning around, it walked back into the cave limping heavily now as it put weight upon 2 of its limbs. As I dealt with several emotions in my mind trying to decide what I could do, since I wanted to help this tiger but wasn’t sure it would accept my help I just continued to watch.

For a moment as I was curious about what the tingling sensation had been earlier, I looked down at my arms. “What the . . .?” I whispered to myself. They were encased in stone. Beginning at my hands all the way up to about mid forearm they had about a quarter inch thick layer of stone all around them. Attempting to lift them up they gave no problem separating from the stone beneath them. They were definitely a bit heavy, but they were perfectly sculpted over my limbs, offering excellent protection if needed. This was an amazing development and use of my ability, but I felt that in my current situation, they would not be needed. With a simple thought and intent, they began to crack and fall apart, littering the ground beneath me with their many pieces.

Looking back up, I then saw the injured tiger slowly making its way back out of the cave with a bundle of white fur in its mouth. Still being connected emotionally, I felt a sense of resolve and hopeful expectation easing over our joined feelings. Now crawling more than walking I could tell it was desperately struggling to reach me.

Abandoning all thought of my well-being, I met the tiger halfway. Crouching down to kneel down beside what I was certain to be the mother, I waited for her to act next. Turning her head with her single cub in her mouth she gently placed it on my lap. Then as she gazed up at me, I felt a sense of responsibility passing from her to me.

“No.” I whispered while gently shaking my head. “You can take care of your own child.” Reaching out to her while gathering my strength to heal this brave mother, I heard a warning snarl come from her. Pausing in my attempt to touch her, she nosed her cub further up my lap before giving a soft huff of breath. The message through our link, as well as her actions were clear. ‘Please take care of my child.’

I wanted to scream at the mother that I could heal her, but maybe, deep down she felt that her child would be better off with me. Gathering my resolve I then took the shivering cub into my hands and while closing my eyes, I opened my soul to the fullest degree. Enveloping this small weak animal in my arms that was so deeply loved by its mother who now lay dying, I then enveloped it with my soul. Still connected to its mother, I allowed her warm feelings of love to pass onto her cub while letting my power flow unrestrainedly. With a single last look at the mother tiger in the eyes I knew what she wanted.

As the flow of emotions from the mother began to falter . . . fade . . . and then stop, I then began infusing my own feelings into the energy encompassing the tiny cub. I willed a sense of responsibility from myself to cascade over the shivering bundle of fur. Soon, the shaking began to subside and the slow steady breathing of sleep had taken over.

*ting*

You Have Accepted an Animal Companion: Due to a conflux of a series of events, you have accepted responsibility of an Albino Tiger Cub. In your compassionate state of mind while making a connection and due to your unique racial traits you have performed a special action. Albino Tiger Cub has gained special traits in relation to your race. Those traits will be revealed through later actions. Congratulations on your new family.

As I was not far from the curving edge of the lower cliff face, I simple scooted back a few feet, careful to not disturb my sleeping companion till I was able to rest my back against the rough stone. Looking down at the tiny bundle of white in my arms, I couldn’t help but feel a sad smile fill my face. As much as I hated that the mother died, for an intelligent creature such as her to willingly and imploringly ask me to take care of her single child was a sign of enormous trust and expectation which warmed my saddened heart. Though I had no experience in raising children, I would raise this cub as my child and as an equal.

After sitting there for a few minutes, I got back up while carefully handling the still sleeping bundle. As I had yet to really take anything off of my back pack, including the pickaxe, I decided to head back to the city to ask advice from Victoria in how to raise a tiger.

* * * * *

Current time in game about 9:30 am of the 6th of October. Day 36 in game time. 60% pain level. Real Life May 30th about 9:10 am.

* * * * *

I know some of this stuff is tedious but once covered for the first time, I can gloss over it from then on. Hope you enjoy. Please give detailed advice for what you feel I can do better and for what I have done well. Soon, I do plan to apply for and hopefully implement the donation option, but receiving helpful advice is often just as helpful if not more so than receiving monetary support. A balance of both would greatly help with maintaining the flow of chapters though. So please tell me your thoughts. Thank you! :)

http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=12199