Chapter 9: Caring for a Cub

As I began the trek back up the pathway to the city, I paused a moment thinking of a solution to keep my hands free while keeping the cub safe. Kneeling mid trail and settling the little one in my lap, I pulled out my bag. Digging through it I set aside one of the ore bags and the rope. Tying the rope to each end of the bag securely and strapping it around my body with one part over my left shoulder with the other end running down to just above mid waist. In front of me was like a small hammock made from the bag itself. I gently raised the still sleeping cub and placed it in the makeshift hammock which had the added benefit of hiding it from view.

Finally I was ready to go. Walking past the usual sentries they didn’t say anything this time except to briefly nod their heads in greeting. Only a look at the bag strapped across my chest garnered any curious looks, but nothing was mentioned of it. ‘Yea!’ I thought to myself. Score one for the accepted eccentricity of Travelers!

Coming closer and closer to the trading district I started to think this was not such a good idea to head directly to the apothecary shop. Maybe I should do some research on my own so that I could “bring some knowledge to the table” as some might say, before facing Victoria. With the happy thought of changing my destination, my drastically slowed pace sped up again and off I went to the library.

Stepping in through the doors to the library, as soon as I saw the librarian at the front desk, my stomach dropped. ‘Oh crud, how was I supposed to tell her about the magic stone not working?’ Was my sudden thought. “Too late now.” I muttered to myself. Walking up to the front desk with a friendly smile I hoped that she had forgotten about me from before.

“Jade!” She exclaimed. ‘No such luck’ I thought. “It’s good to see you again. You left so abruptly last time that I never got a chance to see how you handled the Magic Stone.” She paused for a moment as if realizing that it could be a touchy subject. “Um . . . so did things turn out okay?” She asked while fidgeting slightly. I sighed inwardly trying to find out a quick solution to my dilemma. As I thought it was actually the slightly rough stone counter that made up the front desk which gave me the idea.

“Instead of telling you, how about I show you?” I said. Flexing my hands I began pressing upon the rough surface, smoothing it out into an even almost polished surface, spanning the entire length of the counter which was about 4 meters that formed in a semi-circle. Once I finished the task, the librarian’s eyes shone with joy. “You . . . how . . . you did Silent Casting Earth Magic!” She finally exclaimed.

While she gazed in wonder at the now gleaming counter, I was suddenly very grateful to the distraction as the little cub I had almost forgotten about had begun to squirm a little. Reaching a hand into the little hammock, I was rewarded with some sharp teeth that had begun to gently nibble on one of my fingers. Trying to hide my squirming, I desperately sent ‘what I hoped to be’ calming waves of energy towards the cub. For I felt anything but calm at that moment. Thank goodness it seemed to work, and soon enough the hammock was still.

By then, the librarian had finished with her admiration of her improved desk top. “How in the world did you ever manage to gain such an ability?” She enquired. I groaned inside. ‘Was there no end to the questions?’ “Okay, I’ll tell you as long as you don’t ask any more on the subject, because it will be too painful to tell you all the details.” I took a breath as I knew I’d be fudging the truth quite a bit while giving some extremely misleading information. “I happened to get my hands on quite a bit of Earth Stone, about 2 handfuls and ate all of it, all at the same time.”

Her eyes bugged and she reflexively clasped at her stomach in imagined pain. “I . . . I see.” Swallowing back her desire to ask more she just nodded her head in silent sympathy. “Well, um. . . onto other subjects. What brings you here today?” she asked me. With quiet gratitude that the inquisition was over I told her what I was looking for. “Anything on tigers would be extremely useful. I caught sight of some in the area and wanted to do some research up on them.”

“Oh, certainly, give me just a moment and I’ll get right back to you with some books.” Motioning me over to a nearby table I took a seat while she went off to one of the many random book shelves. I was entirely grateful that she was the one to search through the library rather than me. I guess considering how few of people ever come here, it is more time consuming to go over all the books after everyone is done with them to make sure they are in the right order rather than just get them for the patrons and then put them back yourself knowing that they will always be correctly organized.

While she was distracted, I quickly checked in on the ball of fur. Bright quiet eyes stared up at me and it began licking its lips. With quick motions I pulled out my water canteen, poured some into my cupped hand while offering it to the little one. Setting right to drinking, all the water disappeared in a short moment before the cub settled down to relax once more. I wondered if it was able to understand my desire for it to be quite for now. ‘Naw,’ I thought to myself ‘It couldn’t be that smart could it?’

Soon enough, the librarian returned with just 2 books at my table. Thanking her before she returned to her desk, I quickly began reading. The first book had a lot of information about eating habits, territorial tendencies, estimated land speeds, and methods of attack. Very little spoke of the growth rate or the habits of the young. Nothing said how to raise one, that’s for sure.

The second book that I looked through was much shorter and had many different species of tigers with a brief description of where they generally could be found and what kinds, people had managed to claim as companions or pets to some degree. There were tigers that were white with black stripes, but nothing that was totally white. With a frown I closed the book.

Returning to the front desk, I handed the librarian back the books she had loaned to me. “Did you find what you were looking for?” She enquired. “I learned a little, but I saw nothing on White tigers in there.” I said morosely. “Haha,” She seemed to find that funny. “I doubt you saw a white tiger,” she went on to explain, “But, in this world you never know. Hold on a moment and I’ll be right back.”

Thrumming my fingers on the now smooth finish of the front desk it wasn’t very long this time till she came back with a single thick book. “You’ll find mention of White Tigers in here among with many other incredible creatures.” Handing the book to me, I quickly took off to the reading desk I was at before.

The title of the book was aptly named ‘Creatures of Myths and Legends.’ She wasn’t kidding when she said that there were a bunch of interesting creatures. As I skimmed through it alphabetically I came across, Dragons, Firebirds, Mermaids, Pegasus, among several others, till I finally reached White Tiger. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t listed under the T for Tiger section. The drawn figure that graced the first page directly below the name was almost a perfect image of the mother Tiger that I had just met. The section read as follows:

White Tiger: A mysterious creature of which many legends have made reverent mention of. It is said to be the embodiment and representation of those that seek personal truths. Those rare few that pursue the ideology of the White Tiger are known for gaining their power through conviction honed by personal experience. What truly sets these magnificent creatures apart from others is their ability to embrace the opposing elements of Light and Dark. Although they are naturally beings of fire, they have the ability to assimilate many different elements of which water and ice are the most rare and difficult for them. It is believed that White Tigers are drawn to individuals that have a powerful sense of conviction and inner strength.

It continued on to say many other thing, of which included the suggestion that you should Not get on their bad side and that it is considered great luck to see one while in the wild And survive.

“Wow” I whispered to myself. Peeking in to check up on the bundle in my lap I gazed in wonder at the ball of fur that was now playing with a loose thread in the bag it lay in. “It looks like I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me in regards to taking care of you.” It was past time to go since I desperately needed to feed this thing. Hurrying up to the front counter, I was fortunate to catch the librarian away as I placed the book on the front desk. Already the makeshift hammock was beginning to move in funny ways and I didn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.

Out on the street I no longer hesitated as I made my way to see Victoria. To calm the growing anxiety of the cub, I placed my hand in there with it playing around by scratching its tummy and playing with its whiskers. Too soon it had grabbed hold of my hand and begun ‘playfully’ chewing on it. I got many odd looks as I could only imagine what I looked like running down the street with my hand seemingly in my pants making painful expressions.

I was never happier than I was now to see the front doors of her shop as I saw Victoria alone in there, among the many jars working on a potion. As soon as I stepped through the front door she looked up. After the briefest glance at my rigid facial expression due to the shooting pains from my hand, her eyes fixed upon the bundle in front of me. “What sort of creature did you just bring into my shop?” She asked point blank. It had to have been her more advanced spatial awareness that allowed her to know. It couldn’t have been that the bag was squirming much more aggressively, now that I was trying desperately to extract my hand which I could swear would have many tiny puncture marks on it once I took the time to look at it.

“Um, I need your help and advice on something.” I explained as I finally gave up on getting my hand gently away. Just reaching in with my other hand I then pulled the white bundle of fun out into the light. In that instant as I glanced up at Victoria, I’d have to admit that I had lost count of all the different expressions her face went through. The top three that were vying for being dominant seemed to be surprise, exasperation, and complete and utter adoration.

It would have been quite enjoyable to have been able to keep watching her face, but I was currently thanking the stars that the blasted animal had finally let go of my hand as it stared about the store taking in all the sights and sounds.

After a few brief seconds of silence Victoria finally spoke. “How . . . Where . . . no hold on a moment.” She said as she turned away from me. Pulling down a myriad of different supplies involving what looked like a crude bottle of sorts and running into her house to pull out a glass jar of milk, she began preparing an odd cocktail of ingredients. Soon she poured them into the bottle, covering the tip with her finger and vigorously shook it.

Coming over to me she reached for the cub with that adoring look in her eyes during which she continued to shoot different looks at me. As soon as the cub saw her coming closer, it jumped onto me digging its tiny claws into my shirt. “Ghhhhh!” My bare hands clenched at open air as I struggled to suppress my desire to scream out as 18 needle sharp claws dug into my chest. With an expression I could have sworn to be a pout, I watched as Victoria stopped reaching out and instead just handed me the bottle.

With careful and pained movement I accepted the bottle and gently pressed the nipple of it against the mouth of the bundle of fun. “Ahahah.” I moaned in relief again as the claws retracted and the cub settled into a comfortable position in my arms to begin suckling in earnest at the bottle. Now with all her attention on me, Victoria finally began to speak. “You are going to tell me exactly what happened that led you to acquiring this cub. And you had better have a damn good reason for bringing it back with you.”

Although she said that with fire in her eyes, I could still see her hands clasping each other as if fighting to not reach out to grab hold of the suckling infant. I sighed as I decided the whole truth minus the part about building the cave would be necessary in this case. And so I told her Everything, from the time that I first saw the Mother tiger, to the confrontation, the onslaught of feelings, the subsequent communication, and finally the promise I made to the dying mother.

By the end, she too had tears trickling down her lightly wrinkled face of which she quickly wiped away before turning back to me. Speaking in a much more gentle tone she then enquired. “What are you going to call her?” My eyes rose in surprise at that revelation. All this time that I had spent with the cub and I hadn’t really taken the time to look at its gender. I guess it just comes with a woman’s intuition. Now that she was near the end of downing the contents of the bottle I had the opportunity to gaze more intently at the beauty of the creature I held in my arms. Soft white fur without a single blemish covered her body, adorable pink paws, with an occasional lightly batting paw that tried to better grip the bottle would swing out pulling on my gaze, but what really grasped my attention was the piercing blue of her eyes that contained the most amazing hue. “Azure.” I whispered softly. “Her name is Azure.”

“Well Jade . . . “She said sounding a little choked up. “You’ve got your work cut out for you. I’d guess that she is just under 2 months old which means that you can actually begin weaning her from the bottle into eating meat.” Victoria said this with utter conviction.

“How do you know so much about tiger cubs?” I inquired of her. She paused a moment as if to question what she should tell me. Then she slowly began to speak. “I . . . have seen many places in my travels during my younger years. One such bit of traveling took me with a group of individuals that were seeking to train their various animals that they had just acquired from a city of breeders. One of the members had a brown and black striped tiger cub of which they spent a lot of time with. I learned a lot about the needs of those animals but so too did I watch them do many things that I felt were not kind during the process of their training.” With a hard gaze at me as if to let me know that she wouldn’t allow such a thing to occur this time around, she continued speaking. “I learned that tiger cubs need the guidance of their mother in teaching them how to hunt. They don’t learn those skills on their own and so a motherless cub is in great danger of getting killed in their youth without the proper care and teaching. . . ”

This was a lot to take in as she continued to tell me all that she had learned of baby tigers. By the time she was done talking, Azure had fallen fast asleep in my arms, letting the bottle slip from her grasp. Now Victoria got up close to take a look at the sleeping form. Reaching out a finger she lightly ran it over her whiskers, letting out a gentle chuckle as Azures mouth twitched unconsciously in her sleep.

“What do you plan to do now?” Victoria enquired of me. I hardly had to think to answer that. “I plan to go back to the falls to bury the mother.” I said with a resolute tone. Nodding her head in agreement, she motioned for me to wait before turning around to go through the back door into her house. I assumed that she was getting something for me, so I did nothing to waken the creature in my arms.

Soon enough, she came back with 2 small packages that she set on the counter in front of me. Then as I curiously opened the cold parcels to reveal that they were some kind of meat, she had begun shaking up a new batch of fortified milk for me to take with me.

Once everything was packed up, I debated about leaving Azure with Victoria, but remembering her reaction the first time I wisely decided on taking her with me. Tucked safely in the hammock in front of me again with new supplies, I set out to the cave once again.

Arriving at the bend in the lower pathway that separated with the falls on the left and the cave on the right I turned the corner to see various vultures tearing at the corpse of the mother tiger. In anger I rushed forward spreading my arms out and screaming. They took off in a hurry since even as a beginner I could have beaten those frail birds down.

Furious with myself for having taken so long that scavengers had come in that time, I gazed over at the still form. Thankfully it was hardly damaged any more than it had been upon death. I know that the dead don’t feel, but it felt like a grave desecration to her memory. Weary in spirit at the task ahead of me, I set aside my pack and gently eased the rope and bag hammock out from around my body to the ground just inside the cave. Azure continued to sleep without interruption. As I gazed downward in admiration at the white haired creature, I heard a new sound that set every single hair of my body on end.

Turning around ever so slowly I looked in the direction towards the water a few meters off where I heard what sounded like an irregular scraping noise. The water had begun shifting in odds ways as a single enormous black claw broke the surface to come slamming down on the stones, just at the edge of the water. To my horrified eyes I took in the most hideous and grotesque creature I had ever thought to lay sight upon. The closest thing I could compare it to, would be a hybrid between a human and a praying mantis. Dark black chitin scales covered its upper body while vigorously moving mandibles could be seen where you’d hope to be a regular mouth. Though to describe it just as such would not be enough to do encompass the nightmare that lay before me.

Had I seen this horrid abomination while coming down the pathway, then I would have turned and ran in the opposite direction, even at the loss of the mother’s deceased body. As it was, the creature seemed to be only using that single scythe like claw as a means to draw itself out of the water. *Slam* *drag* *slam* *drag* I shuddered inside as I saw the remainder of its body being pulled out of the depths of the turbulent water. Entrails that oozed yellow and black viscous fluid dangled loosely behind the creature. Where one would expect to see another scythe like claw on its other limb could only see a bare nub that blindly thrashed against the ground gaining it little if any effect on its movement forward.

I wasn’t paralyzed with fear so much as at a complete loss as to what to do to get Azure and I safely out of this situation. Suddenly the choice seemed to be taken out of my hand as the claw came tearing down into the dead carcass of the mother tiger. Fury filled my eyes as I watched the creature begin to slowly drag the still body towards its even more rapidly moving mandibles.

“NO!!” I screamed with all my might!

No longer thinking of myself, I only planned to take this creature down with me to save both the mothers body from being desecrated and hopefully keep Azure alive. I knew Victoria would find this place if I happened to not return by tonight assuring Azures safety so that meant I only had to take this thing down even if it cost my life.

Resolve filled my heart and once again blackness began to fill my vision, just like that time from before when watching those that would seek to steal the innocence of another by force. I didn’t remember what I did before stepping towards the nightmarish creature but I found my left hand encased in stone up to the fore arm and my right hand tightly gripped the adamantine pickaxe. With an inhumane scream I rushed forward fully intent on stopping that creature from biting into the white haired flesh of the mother tiger.

A mere handsbreadth away from the salivating mandibles was the dead body when I brought the broad end of the pickaxe crashing down on the black scythe. The rebound vibrations were terrible as they flowed upward from that single clash. Looking down at the now fully enraged creature I couldn’t see a single mark on the black claw. ‘At least I had gathered its attention.’ I thought to myself.

No longer was it reaching for the dead carcass but it had its eyes locked firmly on me. I didn’t see any hatred in those eyes, but neither did I see any intelligence. It seemed driven by pure natural hunger. It was hungry and I was keeping it from eating. That meant it had to kill me to eat. Simple as that.

The only thing that kept me from dying right then was the fact that it only had one working appendage. I would have long since been in its stomach if it was fully or even halfway in top condition. The maneuverability of that single appendage was abysmally versatile. As I tried to smash the pickaxe down on its scythe like claw again, it jerked it out of the way only to continue its movement to just barely miss hooking that very claw onto the pick to tear it away.

I wondered what I could possibly do to end the danger once and for all. It was like an insect zombie that just . . . wouldn’t . . . die. Keeping out of range from its claw was easy enough when not trying to damage it, but that was all I had going for me. It seemed content to stay where it was, blocking the only escape from the little alcove I was in. Somehow I was certain that this was the creature that the Mother White Tiger had been fighting before. And if my intuition served me correctly, I guessed that the surprised hope that had flashed through the mother in our emotional exchange had to have been when the smaller nocturnal Kraken that lived in these waters had woken up from its daytime sleep only to attack both intruders. That is what must have allowed the Mother to escape with her child and take refuge in the cave I had built. That also meant that I had to finish this before dark, or else we would all become food.

Somehow this Nightmare had managed to survive and escape the Kraken and come to finish the job. And like Hell was I going to let that happen! Stepping forward just out of reach, I then brought down the pick only to jerk it out of the way before making contact. Instead of meaning to attack the creature, I decided to watch it’s method of defense and counter. This time I braced myself. Instead of bringing the broad end of the pickaxe down, I brought out my left arm that was encased in stone. *Slam!* I was almost knocked back and though I kept on my feet, my arm almost felt like it was broken. Despite these feelings I quickly brought the sharp end of the pickaxe down on the joint where the limb could maneuver the direction of the scythe like claw. I could have sworn I felt something give and a hissing sound that came from the creature gave me slight comfort that something indeed had happened.

Jumping back out of the way I took a few seconds to look at my left arm. The stone had a huge crack running down the bottom length of it that I had used to block the upward swing of the scythe. Had it been the sharp edge, then I’m certain I would have lost my arm no matter how much protection it had. Pausing to place that same arm against the stone wall, I re-infused the armor with reinforced stone making it even heavier than before. Stepping forward again I successfully managed to stop the upward swing of the claw and slammed the sharp pick down onto its joint. Another hiss of pain issued from its mouth and I could see that the mobility had been greatly reduced in that remaining limb.

Wasting no more time, though my left arm once again had fissures growing throughout it, I brought it to bare, blocking the now familiar movement of the single minded creature, and slammed the pickaxe down on it one last time, managing to sever the scythe completely from the rest of the limb.

Oh that truly pissed it off! Had I not seen for myself that all of its limbs had been rendered useless then I would have thought this to be a lost battle with the hunger that I felt coming from that thrashing creature.

Now fully stranded on the land from our battle it continued to gnash its mandibles in my direction. Only now did I sense something right beside me. Almost jumping out of my skin, I looked down only to feel great relief as I saw Azure glaring hatefully at the creature that lay helplessly in front of us. Dark shadows seems to pulse through that previously white fur and blue tinged flames were being weakly emitted from what looked like her aura. I cautiously reached down to see if the flames would harm me, but they caused no pain as I gently touched her back. I would doubt their effectiveness except that I could see the ground beneath her slowly charring black.

“You know what Azure, I think you’ve got a great idea.” I exclaimed. Having intended to go through my regular routine of sitting beneath the falls after taking care of the mother’s burial site, I had brought with me some firewood.

Setting out the bundle beside the creature I carefully organized it so that it would catch fire easily. Pulling out my flint and steel to strike the spark, I stopped myself as I watched Azure step right onto the wood pile causing it to catch flame much more quickly. With a fierce smile and great determination, I closed my eyes and began to focus on the now hotly burning fire. Gathering the heat with my Soul energy, I condensed it the best I could and sent the flames the short distance I seemed to be able to reach with them towards the jerking body of the soon to be dead enemy.

Loud sizzling and popping noises could be heard in harmony with the screeching noise that came from the shivering mandibles. This was sweet justice! Taking much longer than I had thought possible, finally all movement stopped from the now crispy monster. Making absolute certain it was dead, I brought the pickaxe to bare, slamming it down repeatedly on the face, the back, the abdomen, and the various limbs, hearing creaking and cracking with each impact. Finally I was satisfied that it was dead.

*Ting*

A New Title has been acquired: Terror Slayer. Despite the greatly weakened condition of the . . . . . . Your actions in the final subjugation of this terrible beast will become known throughout the city. These . . . . . .’s as they have been called, have been known to wreak great havoc and destruction wherever they go. Unchallenged but by the greatest of heroes they carve their way through history leaving a black mark on everything they touch.

“Wow.” I exclaimed to myself. I didn’t need the computer to tell me that I had just vanquished one Hell of a Nightmare. And that was in a severely weakened state. The mother tiger had taken it on in prime condition. “Ughh” I shuddered at the thought.

One thing I had remembered though, was the durability of the scythe that I had managed to separate from the rest of the carcass. Picking it up, I carefully handled it while looked at it against the light of the sun. Not a single scratch marred its black surface. Pressing my left arm against stone, I once again formed a small covering of thick stone over some of it. Carefully and gently I pressed the sharpened edge of the scythe against the stone and it began to sink in like a hot knife to butter. Carefully pulling it back I stared wide eyed at the simple cut within my stone armor. I was very glad that I had followed my instincts.

Carefully storing away the claw for now, I took in the sight of the mother tiger. I now knew of the intense battle that she had to have fought to reach this point, resulting in her death but still saving her child. She did not deserve to be picked away by vultures or consumed by previously vanquished foes. She deserved a memorial that would protect her remains.

Making my way over to a semi open and stony area beside the entrance to the cave, I bent down to touch the stone and form the outline I had in my mind. Then I began pounding away at it with the pickaxe to make that plan a reality. Hours went by while Azure silently watched me as I worked. I only paused a few times to open a package of meat to give to her before going back to the work I was doing.

Finally, I had reached and smoothed out a depth that would hold the sheer mass of the mother White Tiger. With great effort and trying to maintain her dignity as much as I could, I pulled the body to the depression in the stone, pulling it in to settle beneath the surface of the surrounding floor. Now I began carefully placing stone fragments on top of the body till it was obscured from view. Bringing my hands to bare, I began shaping and reconnecting the stone fragments till they had created a single slab of stone perfectly enclosing the body beneath its mass. Now, no wild creatures would be able to sense or know to dig in this area to pull out her body. Later I intended to bring the book of Mythical and Legendary creatures and copy the image of the White Tiger on the stone tablet, but for now, this would have to be enough. Turning back to look at Azure I caught her walking over to the stone tablet, jumping up onto in to then settle down. For a short duration, she flared blue with her fire aura streaming out all around her, but then it disappeared shortly before she jumped off. Left in her place was a black mark reminiscent of her shape, showing that she had been there.

Finally having done all I could, I packed up everything that I had. Picking up Azure, I settled her into the hammock and started out to the city.

Knowing that I still had to return the pickaxe to Kade, I made my way to his shop first. It was still light out, though night would soon be here. As I approached his forge he was busy hammering away at another weapon or other. Keeping back at a distance to avoid the flying sparks, I carefully set down my backpack and pulled out the pickaxe holding it in my left hand. In afterthought, I figured I should ask him about the claw/scythe as well since it seemed immensely durable. Pulling that out and carefully holding it in my right hand I then raised them both to easy view.

Glancing up briefly from his work, Kade looked as if to nod his head at me but then he just stared. *Clang . clang . crash!* Kade . . . dropped . . . his hammer. He never drops his hammers. And yet, this time he did. “Holy . . . . !” He exclaimed. “Do you have any idea what in the world you are holding?!?”

“Um, not really.” I claimed. Sure I knew it was dangerous but I wanted Kade’s take on it. “Whatever it was, it was severely weakened when I found it and finished killing it.” I told him.

With the metal of the sword he was working on cooling and his hammer laying on the ground forgotten, he just lay his head down into his raised hands looking as if he was about to cry. “I give up . . . I can’t take it anymore.” Pausing a moment to take a breath and look up, he continued. “I don’t know what to make of you.” He said as he shook his head. “That!” He said while pointing at the scythe, “Is from a Reaper.”

“Even if what you said about fighting a weakened one is not true,” He held up his hand as if to keep me from arguing. He continued. “To have found such a thing is either the best or worst of luck in the entire world. However I do believe you and it scares me to no end to know that such a creature got so close to our city.”

“What do you intend to do with it?” He asked me finally. “Well.” I paused for a second thinking. “How about I sell it to you? If you make a really sturdy door for the man cave that I’m making then we call it a deal?” I asked. “Hahahaha . . . . hahahah.” He couldn’t seem to stop laughing at what I assumed to be a ludicrous deal.

“Okay, okay . . . phew” he said as he finally seemed to catch his breath. “I dare not try to take THAT much advantage of you.” He paused as if to think of a reasonable solution. “How about I make the best door possible with the materials I have a hand, install it, and give you that adamantine pickaxe you’ve been using?” My eyebrows shot up in surprise at that. “It is worth that much?!” I exclaimed.

“Oh, it’s worth more than that, but no one here would be able to use its materials as well as I could, and anyone able to pay more would just keep it as a trophy. How about you can also freely use any of the raw materials and my tools from my forge from now on as well?”

Having started off with so little at the beginning, I felt this was too good to be true. So, of course I accepted. “Deal,” I said as I carefully handed over the black scythe. “You are still coming in tomorrow aren’t you?” He enquired as I began to leave with the pickaxe in hand. “I wouldn’t miss it.” I called back as I walked away.

Making my way back to a very anxious Victoria, I refrained from making mention of the Reaper that I had run across. Making one last meal for Azure and myself, Victoria let us retire for the night without asking any questions regarding the burial of Azure’s mother.

I didn’t know where to create a bed for the little cub, but soon enough she found the answer for me as she jumped up onto my bed to then settle down. Moving over slightly as I reached over her to lay down as well, she promptly went to sleep.

That night though I did log out to get some things done in real life, I had nothing major to do and soon enough I logged back in to face the morning

* * * * *

Back at Kade’s shop early in the morning with Azure in the makeshift hammock, I hoped he didn’t make a big deal out of it. Seeing that I still had the odd bulge at my stomach, he just shook his head mumbling something about giving up and just led me to a different part of his shop.

“Yesterday, I managed to get a mixed shipment in of raw ore and ingots.” he said. “I was going to hold you accountable to any of the ore you might mess up, but with our deal yesterday, you can do whatever you like.” Then pointing to various piles of differing colored ore with a single ingot in front of each pile he spoke again. “I got all of this so that you can gain a sense and understanding of what each type of metal feels like in its raw and finished forms. This is how my friend who also gained the Spectral Analysis skill trained his ability.”

Going on to point at each pile, he then told me their names. Two were quite obvious, gold and silver, but the rest were ones I was not readily familiar with appearance wise in this world or the real one. Among them were tin, mithril, truesilver, adamantine, titanium, and lead. Sure I recognized the names, but hearing of them and recognizing their raw form are completely different. He went on to tell me that there was more in this world, but that he just couldn’t afford to get me examples of all of them.

With all of instructions done, I set to work feeling out each of the raw and finished ores. They each had a distinct feel to them that I worked to imprint on my memory so that I could recall them as I needed when digging in the future. As I had begun work on studying the ores, Kade told me he would immediately begin work on the door to the cave. Without a word more than that he left the smith in the hands of his apprentices. I guess he had to go and take measurements.

Forgetting about his missing presence soon enough, I gathered all of the necessary equipment that I had used before when refining the copper and Iron ores. Then I began trying out the various ores. Excitedly I started with silver and gold, both of which formed quite nicely into perfect pure spheres of their respective element. Next I tried tin and lead which was also easily done. I finally ran into problems as I got to mithril, truesilver, adamantine, and titanium. I had partial balls of them but the insides were nowhere near the shape they needed to be in. Even after repeated exposures to the fire in the furnace, I was unable to separate them from their surrounding stone and accompanying slag.

The problem was always the same. The plaster would get much too hot before I had gathered enough heat to melt the inside metal. Several times I had to apply burn heal ointment to fix the damage I had done to myself in trying to reach to melting point.

Resting my hands in the bowl of plaster dust with an unfinished ball of titanium ore, I began to wonder. With a simple effort of will, I coated my hands and upper arms in the plaster material. Creating a solid quarter inch thick layer that could more evenly spread out the heat. The hardest part was actually creating a method that would allow me to still move my fingers, but after several bouts of trial and error, I had worked out the kinks and could now even place my plaster covered hands in the deep portion of the fire. Of course that is not what I needed to do, but rather just be able to handle the heat that I drew to the spheres of raw ore.

It worked perfectly! Finally able to sort out and melt down the other elements after pouring insane amounts of heat and fire into them they broke down into their respective parts. Throughout this entire activity, from the confines of her lap hammock, Azure seemed to stare in fascination at the work I was doing. Seeming as if she was following my every movement and action her eyes were aglow with anticipation to each outcome. “You are a weird tiger,” I muttered under my breath. “But I love you just the same.” She was either too absorbed in the actions I was taking or she didn’t feel that what I said was any surprise to her. In any case, I was soon done with at least a single pure sphere of each metal before Kade got back from checking out the cave. I even had time to go back to the mostly hidden area behind the smith to feed Azure some meat and give her some now very warm milk.

Shaking his head at all the raw ore I had refined, Kade just gave a chuckle. Staying till the end of the day with occasional breaks to feed Azure in which the others continued to give curious glances at me whenever I left, I had finished all of the ore and sat to watch Kade work on the door.

It looked to be a very solid piece of work that once finished would be worthy of the cave it would be protecting. Too soon it got dark and I returned back to the Apothecary to sleep for the night. Once again after a great dinner, Azure settled down to sleep next to me and we both fell fast asleep.

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Current time in game about 9:30 pm of the 7th of October. Day 37 in game time. 60% pain level. Real Life May 30th about 9:10pm.

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Phew, Once again done. I promised myself I would finish it before the end of my birthday. Well looks like I missed that goal by 35 minutes. lol oh well. Yeah it's 12:35 am where I'm at right now.

Hope you all enjoy it. I'm glad I was finally able to put in a fighting scene. Also as always, detailed advice is always welcome and wanted.

http://www.royalroadl.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=12357