Chương 13: Chapter 12: Wood Ash and Lye

Dawn has broken, and the curse is lifted... for now. I didn't dream, which was probably a blessing. Most of the time so far in the world I'd found myself in, I simply forgot my past, but... it had come up again, dredged from the depths of my recollection when I'd allowed the change to simply wash over me, while my mind wandered off to find something to do as my body transformed. The change was... painful. But it was still better than living in post-collapse Milwaukee.

I thought about that when I found myself staring at the thankfully stone ceiling of the inn's intact kitchen. I was human. I could tell - the world tasted different, and I didn't have a muzzle in front of my face. I was laying on the ground, and I was, for the moment, alone. Sitting up, my stomache gave another unhappy growl and I rose to get my morning started. It wasn't even fully light out yet, it was first light - I must have just missed my transformation.

Once I got the flame rune under my soup going to heat up breakfast and the water rune running to get something to drink and wash myself with, Gelidia returned to me. She looked awkward.

"I'm sorry, I don't like to watch you change." the ghost said. Her blank white eyes looked haunted, and I nodded.

"It must be pretty horrible. It feels horrible - I'd believe that." I admitted, stirring the stew.

"Don't worry about it - thank you for helping me sleep. I slept right through it." I said, bare form glistening in the sunlight from the water I'd used to give myself a birdbath.

"I'm... gonna make a comb. I'm sick of my hair being a tangled mess like this. What I wouldn't give for some soap!" Soap! A bath! God... god did I want that. I ached for hot water and sweet scents since the last day I'd had to go without one! Weirdly, or maybe not so weirdly, Gelidia looked sympathetic. She also looked slightly scandalized.

"I can understand your feelings, Emily, I really, really can. But. I hope you can understand mine when I ask you to PLEASE PUT ON SOME CLOTHES." she said with a flatness that had me snrrrking and busting up in a fit of giggles. While soup heated, I started the laborious process of slipping into and retying my second-hand, badly-sized clothing around me.

One shoulder kept slipping out of the huge neckline, and I kind of had to put up with that since it was just way too big, and I tied up the blouse so I had a knot on my side. The skirt hung around my calves, but only because I knotted the excess material behind me like the pouf of a bunny tail. There were no shoes that could even MAYBE fit my feet, and that would just give me blisters. I'd have to go without unless I found a... a shoemaker? Wasn't there a fancy word for that?

Glancing over, I picked up my broom and started cleaning up the kitchen. There were dark, sticky stains on the floor too. Blood. My blood. I frowned at those. What I needed was... was... I felt knowledge coalesce in my mind. Lye. How did I know that? I'd never made soap when I'd been in my world, but... I could feel something in my mind and body leading me forward. I'd felt it before when I'd tried to knap tools, and when I'd made wood glue. My toolmaking skill... was telling me something! I let it guide me.

"You have a look on your face - what are you going to make now?" Gelidia asked, interested despite herself. I had wood ashes to work with. I looked at them critically, and judged that they'd be alright for what I had in mind. I scooped them out into a mug I produced from a cupboard, and clunked them into a pan. Chunks of ancient burnt food were cleaned out too, and I took the chance to clean out the stoves.

Somebody had been smoking food, I realized - they definitely didn't need wood for these ovens, and the shape of them was a little strange, but my Cookery skill said it was quite intentional! This would condense wood-smoke around food a treat! I'd have to remember that! But for now, getting the ashes out and cleaning it up could only serve my good purpose. I got a fair bit of it! A bucket was a thing, but... it wouldn't be suitable.

I got one of the old pans that was still rusty, un-rusted it a bit, and put a fair bit of wood ash in it. Once I'd gotten big chunky bits of old food and wood out, I put it under the faucet. I trickled water into the ashes, and stirred until I had a slurry of the stuff that reminded me of one of the government's nutrient shakes from back home, and nodded.

"What... is that supposed to be?" Gelidia asked.

"Well... I'm gonna make soap. It'll take a good long while to do, but... the first step is Lye." I explained as I washed my hands of the ash. I picked up my broom again, and swept ashes over the sticky bloodstains. They'd at least be dry stains. Your days are numbered, icky stains! This I so-vowed!

"Lye?" Gelidia asked. She didn't know what it was, I could tell.

"Mhm! It's the basis for soap - Lye, animal fat, and... oooh I'll make sage scented soap! That'll smell nice!" I said, getting excited at the prospect! Once the floor was as clean as I could make it, I chased the ash out of the room and into the hole in the basement with the broom, which... really worked quite well. I felt sort of proud of how it was working! Once that was done, I wiped my arm across my brow to chase off some sweat, and returned to the kitchen.

The soup was nice and hot now, and smelled incredible, so I helped myself to a couple bowls of it. I still had half the pot left - wolf-me hadn't been interested in it, weirdly, even if I could feel the wolf inside me enjoy the meal.

"This is interesting... I've always wondered how soap was made, in an off-hand kind of way." Gelidia said, and I grunted, tipping the soup up to my lips to catch the broth and eat the last little potatoes in the bottom.

"We just need the ash sediment to settle down to the bottom of the pot. Then, we get the liquid out and boil that. Once that cools, we fry it up to get excess moisture out to get... crystallized lye! I'll need to be careful - the stuff's caustic." I explained as I cleaned my dishes.

"Caustic?!" she asked, clearly understanding the word. I nodded.

"Yuuup. Lye + water = bad times for your skin." the skill whispered this to me, and I seemed to remember seeing that in some TV show or other in my world. Lye was nasty. Useful! Wicked useful! But nasty.

"With animal fat or some other oil, and some scent, it'll be nice!" I said, and got back to work on my quest for a HAIRBRUSH. I looked at the carcass of the deer... and selected a jawbone. Another pot was cleaned up, and I boiled the bone clean.

"Now what are you doing?" Gelidia asked.

"Hairbrush." I said, and fished out the bone carefully. The deer had given a lot to me, I couldn't help but feel a sense of gratitude to the brave old boy. Wolf didn't seem to understand. Her voice came to me, clear as day. RESPECT? Yes, Respect. Gratitude. Look at all the things he gave us - his skin will make good leather. His flesh feeds us - continues to feed us! I can make good tools with his bones and sinew! And he was strong - strong enough to almost kill us. Wolf-me, she seemed to... process that.

I could feel somewhere inside me that this kind of abstract thought didn't come... easily to her, but she persevered in my heart. YES. AGREE. RESPECT. I smiled as I worked, letting my Toolmaking skill guide me as I shaped the bone how I would need it to be. It wasn't hard, exactly, just... time consuming. I could almost see my wolf watching me over my shoulder. Our belly was satisfied, and my hands were busy - this was a good, good thing. It felt... right.

It wasn't a werewolf 'right' either - I had to imagine the Peasant had things to say, and I figured... that was it. The Peasant core I had... approved. Was this what it felt like, to gain experience? I had no way to know without further work! So, I kept plugging away at my task. The poisonstone was so much harder than the bone, so it would do for this task as I used the gleaming green rock knife to shape the jawbone..

and take material away bit by bit, creating a white powder I collected in a piece of scrap cloth carefully. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. A mental timer went off in my head, and I checked on the pot, discovering it to be full of a... nasty clear liquid, with sediment at the bottom. Grunting, I carefully poured the liquid into the drying pot I'd used to boil up my hairbrush bone, careful not to get sediment into the pot.

That just left the shit at the bottom. I frowned... there was still moisture there. There was still more of that liquid. But NO WAY IN HELL was I going to touch that.

"Whats wrong?" Gelidia said, and I glanced at her.

"I can't get this stuff out of the sediment with my bare hands - it's nasty stuff, and it'll probably hurt if I do that." I explained.

"Oh - for the Lye thing?" she asked, and I nodded. She moved to stand beside me.

"Alright... I think I can help, What do you want to do?" she asked.

"I want to get this liquid out of the ashes. I figure I could use some of the scrap cloth to squeeze the liquid out and act as a kind of filter to keep the sediment from getting back in." and I produced a big piece of scrap cloth from my supply. Gelidia took it from me - she physically lifted the object up. Then, she shrugged.

"Alright... I'll hold it. I don't have skin to burn." she said, and I fretted at my bottom lip a little.. and did as she asked. she held the piece of fabric carefully... and once the ashes were poured in, she squeezed the liquid out as promised at my direction, careful as could be. That left the mostly clear fluid at the bottom of the pot. I had her toss the cloth into the hole in the center of the inn's roof, and nodded.

"Thank you! Now." and I boiled that liquid on the stove. Then, as I let it sit to cool, I went back to my comb making. But not before I got a notification! Your [CRAFTING] Toolmaking skill has improved, and is eligible for rank up! Rank D is a free rank! [CRAFTING] Toolmaking, rank D: 0%, The ability to make tools. Tools you make are very good for their intended purpose, and more durable.

"You know, I've never seen this kind of thing before. That's how society is, I guess, but you never think about soap, or hairbrushes. They just turn up if you pay money for them in my world." she said.

"I get that." I said, as my tool scored line after line in the jawbone.

"You do?" Gelidia asked, and I nodded.

"I figured you were a peasant in your world, given how you're taking to this one." I shook my head.

"There weren't any peasants in my world... there was no magic, either. No World like this, either." I explained.

"No menu screens or... or skill levels, or... levels at all for that matter. It wasn't like this." I said, shaping the handle of the comb... to resemble a leaping stag carefully.

"We just had stores to buy things at before my country's collapse. We'd go to the store and buy things with money that people made."

"Huh. That's what it was like for me, too. Pretty much literally. Guess we have a lot more in common than I'd originally guessed." Gelidia sat across from me on the floor, though I could see she seemed to hover just an inch above the surface instead of actually contacting it.

"But... you didn't have the World? Really? That's strange... I can't imagine a world without magic. Did you have... gods?" I nodded.

"Sure, there was religion... but God, Gods, never gave us anything much, nothing you could like, define as anything but nature going about her business." I said softly.

"I see... there are gods here, and... they're a bit more substantial. Most people regard them as... well, servants of the World, but really, they're just people who became so powerful that they became greater." she explained.

"Most people just worship the World Tree itself." she said.

"After all... she is kind, she is generous to us, and all magic, all life, flows from her. She is kind to us - all of us, even if we are wicked." the ghostly noble girl explained, and I found myself smiling a little.

"... I could see that. Are you religious?" I asked, and she shrugged.

"Not especially... though with some of the most advanced magic rituals, it's hard to tell the difference between the religion and the ritual." she said.

"There's only so many ways you can ask the World to help you, after all, without acknowledging her." she said.

"You said... her. The system, the world, is a she?" I asked, turning my comb this way and that before carefully brushing bone dust into the little pile I'd made of the stuff. Gelidia smiled at me.

"Most people agree that she is female, imagining her as a mother, but some parts of the world regard the World as male, or don't assign a gender to her at all." Gelidia explained"That brush looks pretty good... is it almost done?" she asked, and I nodded. It was a pretty white color, and though I was no artist... there was some inherent artistry in the skill itself that came naturally to me as I worked. It... looked like a deer leaping, with a curved bit of accents for fur. It was comfortable in the hand, too!

It had larger prongs and smaller ones nearer the handle. I felt pretty proud of my work! It was dense, hard, and very, very strong. White-Tail Hairbrush, Good quality, Strong, made by Emily Smith Wow! Good quality! This was the coolest thing I'd made yet, I figured! I found myself grinning broadly, and tried the thing out, starting at the tips of my hair and working my way to my scalp as Gelidia watched, grinning.

It cut through the tangles easily, first the coarse longer prongs I'd made, then the smaller, finer ones. Not one prong snapped, and it let my hair go straight again, locks of gold shimmering in the light. Gelidia, whose hair was spectral and perfect as the day she'd died, smiled at me.

"Lovely... you have such pretty blonde hair, Emily, I'm glad you're taking care of it. It's gorgeous." she said, and I found myself blushing a little.

"... th-thank you." I said.

"Was... your hair naturally dark green like that?" I asked, and Gelidia nodded in return.

"It is. It's a family trait - it's the wind magic in our blood, you see. Most magic users get subtle changes over time as their skill grows and their body's natural mana becomes closer-aligned with their magic." she explained, and went on"Wind is green, fire is red, earth is brown, water is blue, that kind of thing. All life is like that - even the earth and sky, or so the theory goes." she explained, and I thought about that with a smile. The green grass and leaves waving in the air...

sang with wind mana, waved by the breeze and soaked in sunlight. The sky sang with water mana, blue as it was, because it rained! Earth of course was brown, but the rivers weren't - and fire of course was fire! In my head, I could agree.

"Yeah... I see how they get there. That makes a lot of sense to me actually." I sighed.

"I wonder if my hair will change color... I kind of hope not! I mean, that'd be weird for me." I said, and Gelidia shook her head.

"It won't - you don't use any magic, right?" she explained, and I shook my head.

"Then you're good - you're just blonde." I brushed my hair again, simply for the pleasure of doing so... and Gelidia moved behind me.

"Now... let's braid that hair. How's that sound?" It sounded fantastic. I offered her the brush, and my ghostly friend took it from my fingers, her touch cooler than the air around us.

"... This really is a good brush, you know. If I got this as a gift when I was alive, I wouldn't have bat an eye - I'd never think it was made from a jawbone of all things." she said, as she set to work on my hair. I found pride blossoming in my heart, and I grinned!

"Thanks! I'm super proud of it!" I admitted, and she chuckled. When she finished weaving braids together, she tossed them over my shoulder, letting me see! Soon, four or five braids were done, with a thicker central braid around which she'd artfully woven my smaller braids, leaving two to drape over my shoulders. Not a lock was out of place, and I smiled at her with a soft 'thank you'. It felt... SO MUCH BETTER. I still felt a little oily, but, whatever. I'd soon have soap to deal with that! Ding Ding Ding!

Your [LIFE] Peasant class has leveled up! You have gained 1 Peasant skill slot +1 Peasant skill point +10 HP, +15 Stamina Oh! Again the Peasant class seemed to level mysteriously - why? When I asked, Gelidia shrugged.

"Life-tagged classes are social classes as well. Hard to get more social than somebody braiding your hair, Emily." She said with a smile.

"That is almost certainly why." I was growing like a weed! Amidst happy wiggles from leveling up, and a twirl that made Gelidia chuckle softly, I took up my broom, my knives, and my spear. It was time for sweeping the bridge!