Just pluck the scales off the cadaver of the damn beast. That had sounded so easy. That alone should have made me realize that it would be anything but that. In the end only two of us were busy pulling the scales free at any given time. And that usually included me. Eld'tide was off hunting and gathering. I didn't mind. Quite the opposite. I really hoped that she would be able to get us something to eat. And if it only was some berries or nuts I would be grateful. That left me with my sister and Khuzan and one of them would usually be on lookout duty. Even if we didn't expect to be disturbed it was better to be safe rather than sorry.

Pulling those scales free wasn't exactly easy work either. If it were, they wouldn't have offered the beast with such formidable defenses. The stench of the dead beast didn't make things better. It was weird. It wasn't the stench of death and decay as I would have expected it from any common animal. This too was different. There still was the smell of blood lingering, although the creature had bleed dry hours ago. And on top of it there was the sharp, biting smell of the poison it had execrated from its stinger. That stuff had formed a small pool where the stinger had ended up. It was slowly seeping into the ground and everything around it had withered and died.

We took great care to stay clear of that stinking puddle. None of us wanted to find out how that stuff would affect us. The blood wasn't much better. I could see plants along the creek wither and die, where the water had carried it. Just not as fast. And I had gotten some of it in my mouth. That thought alone was almost enough to make me sick again. I focused on pulling the next scale free to ease that urge. Distraction was the key. In the end I had to use my hunting knife a little to get the task at hand done. I just hoped that I wasn't dulling its edge too much. I wiped some sweat of my brows.

Kaele had decided to take it easy for a change. I couldn't really blame her. She wasn't physical like me. She had neither the strength nor the endurance to keep plucking the remains of this oversized, flying lizard for long. Instead she had decided to search the ground all around the clearing for more scales that had come loose during our fight. For some reason I was almost certain, that most of those had come loose during the beast's landing as it smashed down quite a few trees. We hadn't really hit it hard enough with most of our attacks. Despite this she still had managed to gather an armload of scales. I was surprised.

I paused in my own efforts to catch my breath. “You wouldn't happen to know a spell that does for strength what Cat's Grace does for agility, would you?”I paused briefly. “What kind of animal would be associated with strength though?” I was kind of embarrassed that I only thought of that possibility now. How much more work could I have gotten done with a spell like that? I really should get into the habit of thinking of things like that in a timely manner instead of only bemoaning them afterwards. If only that were a bit easier to do. My hopes were dashed right away though, as she shook her head.

She dropped the scales she had gathered next to the pile of those we had plucked from the wyvern's cadaver so far. “Actually there is a spell like that. It is called Bull's Strength. I just didn't think that it was a top priority for you.” She dusted off her hands and eyed the remains of the monster with disdain. “I'm sure you could benefit from it. I doubt you would benefit to the same degree though as someone whose fighting style is based on brute strength. Like a certain brother of ours.” She gagged. She must have caught a whiff of the pool of poisonous acid that had formed around the creature's stinger. “Say, can't we stop this already? We ought to have enough for a suit of armor by now. No?”

I shrugged. “I'm no master armorer. The scales have to overlap though and actually I wanted to gather enough for two or if possible even three suits of armor.” I eyed first the pile of scales and then the remains of the Wyvern. “Maybe I was a little optimistic in my estimations. I thought that the thing would have enough scales for three suits of scale mail for sure.” I sighed and gagged myself as I took my next breath. Was the stench getting worse? I shook my head. “I guess we will have to settle for two.” I set about prying the next scale loose. “Lets keep going a little longer before gathering up our loot and getting out of here.”

By the time Eld'tide returned I was pretty sure that we had enough scales. I certainly had had enough of prying them loose. She appeared atop the waterfall. “I made us another fire up here. Was your hands. Then wash them again. Do you have some more soap, Keza? I'd advise you to use it. I don't want any of you to poison yourself by accident.” She huffed, obviously not liking the stench of the place either. “Sadly we'll only have some nuts for lunch today. I think we scared just about any living thing away from here.” Well, that was too bad but there wasn't anything we could do about it.

I did as she told us and washed and scrubbed my hands throughoutly. Then I watched Kaele and Khuzan do the same. Sadly I had no more soap. Instead we used sand we gathered from a spot atop the waterfall, well away from the Wyverns spreading corruption. I could only hope that it would be enough. I didn't want to get sick again and I didn't wish it upon any of my comrades either. There just wasn't anything else we could do. Once we were satisfied we climbed the cliff to join our Gorgon comrade at the fire she had gotten going up there. The nuts she had mentioned turned out to be chestnuts. She already had them in the coals around the fire. That was a pleasant surprise.

“Oh, thank you!” Khuzan was the first to speak up. He was about as pleasantly surprised like the rest of us. “When you first mentioned nuts I was afraid that we would have a cold meal.” He fished one of the nuts out of the coals and pulled it open along the incision Eld'tide must have already made. I nodded in agreement as did Kaele. I pulled one of the nuts from the fire as well and handed it off to my sister once I had pulled it open. I kept going like that and only ate every second or third chestnut myself, watching the others eat in the meantime.

Sadly it didn't take us all that long to finish up with our meal. I patted Kaele's head as was leaning against me with a content sigh. My mind was already on the monsters remains again though. “I'm pretty certain that we have just about enough scales by now. Which leaves one question. What should we do with the rest?” I paused to give them some time to think before continuing. “I can't imagine that leaving the remains of that vile beast just like that will go over well. They are already poisoning the surrounding area. I think we have to do something. I'm just not quite sure what.” I looked at them, hoping one of them would provide a solution.

I met only blank stares from Khuzan and my sister. Eld'tide was the only one who spoke up in response to my question. “We could try to burn it. I'm not sure though if it will work. Or how long it might take us. We would need to gather plenty of dry wood. We probably should clear some of the growth around it away as well. Otherwise the fire might spread. The risk should be minimal after the recent rain, but I don't want to take a risk in that regard.” She paused. “And if we manage to light it on fire we should stay well away from it and the smoke. I can only imagine that it will be downright noxious.”

I nodded. That sounded sensible enough. “Let's give it a try! Any objections?” As I didn't receive any I got up and looked around. There was plenty of dead wood around. Calling it dry might be a bit of a stretch though. Never mind though. It probably wouldn't really matter if the fire produced any more smoke because the wood was wet. It probably would produce a particularly foul column of smoke anyway. The thought alone made me shudder. Hopefully we wouldn't end up spreading the miasma caused by that beast even further by burning its remains. Well, whatever. We had to do something about it. We had to at least try! Doing nothing most certainly wasn't the right approach.

It took a while, but mid afternoon we had a fine pile of wood heaped up all around the carcass of the Wyvern. It had helped, that the creature had created plenty of kindling itself. I had the scales in my backpack and in general we were ready to go. We stood atop the cliff again. None of us wanted to spend any more time here than necessary. I was wondering if I should get the fire started, but in the end it was Kaele who took action. “Step back.” I could feel her draw upon the ambient Mana and going by the look on her face she was building a spell matrix.

Was she going to show us a new trick? Or would she light the fire with Magic Missiles? Could you light a fire with that spell? As I was wondering she finally called out the name of the spell she was casting. “Burning Hands!” The spell produced a fan of fire shooting out from her cupped hands, without actually touching them or even just coming close, towards the makeshift pyre. The wood caught on fire just nicely and before long the fire spread all around the monstrous corpse and we left before the wind could blow any of the rising smoke our way.