Limits - Chapter 412

It took her a while of scribbling, before she presented the piece of paper to me. ‘That design… It’s amazing!’ I exclaimed in my mind. A large bow sat atop a platform. From the looks of it, the weapon could be rotated and even tilted up and down. This gave it a great amount of usability. I asked “How do we tension it?”. She replied “See this here? This is a slot for the arrow. This metal underneath is used to make the arrow stay in place, but not only that. The handle is attached below, and connects to that piece. Two or three people would be enough to tension it using that handle. Then there is the release handle, which would release that tray on which arrow rests, and fling it outside. In theory, this would be very powerful… but the complexity is as equally difficult”.

I asked stunned, “How did you come up with this?”. She smiled while replying, “Imagination. Although it looks nice on paper, but we would need a lot of people to actually create it. As you know, we don’t have people. Everyone who’s willing, is already working on the walls. That was priority from what I gather”. ‘Hmmm, I won’t be able to build this by myself. It has wooden and metal elements. Even if we made it from metal alone, I don’t think the blacksmith would be able to accomplish that’ I thought. It was worth a try with the blacksmith.

I took the paper while saying, “I will try with the blacksmiths. Maybe they can help with it, after all they are not working on the wall”. She replied, “You can try. When the walls are done, I will have time to do it… If that is the next priority”. I asked the crucial question, “How long do you think it will take, for the walls to be repaired?”. She thought about it for a while. “Around a month. We already did great progress, and Shades help out as much as they can. Lerry is very hard working, and tries to learn how to do this properly. I’m very grateful for Lerry, he has a lot of motivation”.

‘A month… That’s too much’ I thought. I needed those weapons pretty much now. There was no other way, but to help out as well. Although I wanted to go to Boltier sooner, the weapons would be game changing. “Alright, I will deal with this. Thanks for the design. Oh, and can you spare one or two people for that private house. I need to plant those herbs as soon as I can”. She sighed while replying, “I will make a design, and instruct someone to do it. The walls might take longer to be repaired because of that…”. I said, “Don’t worry too much about it. The walls are already in much better shape”. She nodded, while I bid her farewell.

I went to meet with the blacksmiths. I wanted to get their opinion about the design. After they checked the design, one of them replied “That’s going to be difficult. We only have six blacksmiths in the city. Even if you help out, that’s seven. Don’t get me wrong, it is possible to make this thing, but it would require some time”. That was under the pretense, everything was made from metal. I asked, “What if we use wood and metal for construction? I would take care of wood, and shape it to the precise sizes, while you take care of metal components?”.

They thought about it for a while. The older blacksmith answered, “It would certainly shorten the time needed to make this. We would need to decide on which elements had to be made from metal, and which from the wood. There is one more problem”. I asked “Yes?”. He continued, “Where will you get such a strong string? It would need to be very strong, and those for normal bows wouldn’t work”.

‘Hmm, that is a problem’ I thought, and asked “Any ideas?”. They shook their heads, but I recalled something. “What if we use animal tendons?”. The oldest blacksmith replied, “They would have to be very strong. Where would you get such tendons?”. I had an idea in mind, therefore I replied “I think I know where. Let’s decide on which components you will be responsible for. Tat way you can start working, while I get the string for our new weapon”. They nodded, and we gathered around the design, trying to figure out which parts should be made from what.

A while later, we decided on what to do, and they went straight to work. I on the other hand, left Sedon. ‘Ognars are very big, and should have very strong tendons. With enough of them, we will be able to create the string’ I thought. Although Ognras were much more scarce due to the war, one could still find them in the wilderness. It still took me a while of searching, before I found three Ognars. ‘Hmm, from the look of it, two are a.d.u.l.ts and one is still young’ I thought.

These creatures were already scarce, so I opted for the a.d.u.l.t male. I quickly killed one of the Ognars, while scaring off the other two with my Auras. They wouldn’t fight, if they knew they couldn’t win. I didn’t waste that Ognar either. It’s meat was still rather precious, so I took that as well as the tendons needed for the bow. I checked, and they were rather hard to pull. Of course I used normal strength, if I were to use my full strength, I feared that I would snap them. I didn’t need that.

All in all, I got nine such tendons. The shorter tendons were not useful to us, I only picked the longest ones I could find. With the meat and tendons in hand, I returned to Sedon. ‘We will have to process those tendons, but that is not an issue’ I thought. As I already mentioned. Nathan knew some weird stuff, when it came to making things from… animals. I showed the tendons to the blacksmiths, and told them to test them out. They pulled a few times each, and agreed it would be useful for the bow string.

I had to process them first, we didn’t want for them to rot. For that I needed medicine. ‘While I’m at it, I can show them how to make some medicine as well’ I thought, and headed towards the fields. I called over all the Atols working there, and told them to follow me. There was a small storage house for the harvested herbs, and that is where we headed.

Inside, I set up the equipment while saying “I will teach you how to make medicine from Arran Grass and Oviral Plants. I call it Arran Liquid, and it’s not that hard to make. To make this medicine, you will need a pot with a lid, like this one”. I pointed at the pot I just set up, then continued “This you will get by yourself. One should be enough for all of you, as I want you to do it here, not in the open. You won’t have space for more than one, so you will have to share for now. Later, when the private house is built, all of you can practice inside there. Alright?”.

They nodded in understanding, so I continued. “The recipe is simple really”, I handed them a piece of paper with instructions. They read through it, and nodded their heads. “I will show you now, how it is done. Watch closely”. With water inside the pot, I started the fire underneath. When the water began to boil, I threw both herbs inside. After a while, I took out the dregs, and closed the lid. I told them to wait a few minutes, before opening it. I also said that they shouldn’t worry about the steam, it was intended. Because the lid was sealed, the steam would wreak havoc inside, and escape through tiny holes. This process was necessary, otherwise the medicine would lose its effectiveness.

After a few minutes, I extinguished the fire. “Now we wait a while. Let it cool down properly, then we can open the lid and retrieve the medicine”. They nodded to that as well, as we waited for the pot to cool down. I asked “Do you have any questions?”. One of them seemed a bit shy, so I added “Go on, it’s better to ask than not ask. If you don’t understand something, I can explain it”.

The guy nodded, and asked “The cooking time… What happens if we cook it too much or too little?”. I replied “The medicine will either not work, or you will receive a worse quality medicine. With practice, you will find the right amount of time required. I can’t tell you specifically, because it will depend on the flame below the pot”. He nodded, and another Atol asked “What about the flame? How do we know it’s the right size?”. I replied, “That you have to judge by looking at the pot. For example, when you throw in the herbs required at first, make sure the water boils, but not too much. We don’t want to burn those herbs. When the lid is sealed, look at the amount of steam coming out. If its too little, then the fire is too weak. That is precisely why I showed you how it’s done. You saw the amount of steam coming out from my pot, right? You have to maintain that kind of heat”.

She nodded as well, and they didn’t seem to have any more questions. When the pot cooled down enough, I unsealed it and showed them the finished product. “By the way, you can also tell if the medicine is good by smelling it. The richer the smell of medicine, the better quality it will have. For example, the medicine I made now has around 90% potency. In other words, 90% of the healing properties were retained. This one batch can serve five people. As for bottles or other containers, you will need to ask someone, or make them by yourselves”.

They nodded in understanding, while I poured the content into five bottles. “Here, take one each and use this as a template. You can compare your medicine with my later, but don’t worry too much about it. At first your medicine will be of worse quality, but with time, you will learn to do it properly”. They each took a bottle, and examined it. I continued, “You now know the process of making a simple medicine. Go and get some tools required, then you can practice here. Remember to use enough herbs for one batch only. In case you are unsuccessful, you will waste less herbs”. They nodded, and left the storage to get the tools. While they were gone, I prepared to do another medicine.