NOVGO.NET Chapter 2041 Would That Work?
Chapter 2041: Chapter 2041 Would That Work?
— Kat —
Hedera was still sleeping when Kat made her way inside. Shrugging, Kat moved to the kitchen to prepare something for everyone to eat with Lily as ’assistant’ chef. Technically she was just sleeping cutely in the corner but Kat considered that an important job. Kat was working on three dishes. A bit annoying, but everyone wanted something different. Kat herself wanted something heavy. She hadn’t eaten all day and while that wasn’t bothering her, if she was going to eat something Kat felt it should be substantial.
The issue with that was her lack of proper knowledge when it came to vegetarian dishes. If she wanted something heavy without just eating a massive amount of food… Kat kinda needed to add meat. She knew that was more of a limitation in her cooking knowledge then fact but it wasn’t like Kat was going to go out and buy a cookbook just for that. So she was going to make up two dishes…
But Lily was probably going to eat in Memphis form and if she was already going to the effort to do two different dishes up she might as well do a third for Lily. Considering her girlfriend could appreciate nicely cut and displayed bits of meat that were barely cooked… if they were cooked at all? It was easy to just portion of a section of her own meal for Lily’s enjoyment. Perhaps a bit of salt of spices but that was her entire plan.
An hour later when the food was done… Hedera still wasn’t awake. Kat glanced over at Lily who was sleeping peacefully. Frowning, Kat strained her ears to try and hear Hedera but the noises outside were far louder and it was hard to separate Lily’s breathing and her own from any noises Hedera might be making. Best go check just in case.
Kat carefully went upstairs and peaked her head into the room Hedera was staying in. It looked like a cyclone had been through it and Kat was worried for a moment when she noticed a leg sticking out of a pile of blankets off to the side of the bed. Kat frowned and looked around the room again. The bed sheets were messed up completely and there only seemed to be one pillow on a bet that normally had at least two. One of the closets had been opened, its contents dumped on the floor… and of course a bunch of extra blankets everywhere.
Kat slowly moved into the room and looked at the leg. It was clearly still attached to someone… but unlike Lily, she wasn’t interested enough in anyone’s legs to be able to pick out who it belonged to just at a guess. *I mean… this has to be Hedera right? There’s no reason for it to be anyone else… and I think she’s the only one in here? Now that I’m in the room I can definitely hear her breathing so she’s not dead. Do I wake her up?*
Kat shrugged and decided it was probably fine to leave her. Of course, with Kat deciding on that course of action all she needed to do was back out of the room and leave but what she hadn’t been prepared for was a shirt that had somehow ended up above the door falling down on her face. With a startled yelp, Kat sprung backwards, shutting the door loudly as Kat pulled the shirt away.
Inside, she could hear Hedera jumping to her feet, and Kat winced. “Woops,” sighed Kat as she gently knocked on the door. The sound of panicked scrambling from inside the room continued, followed by a curse word or two. Eventually the door opened to reveal Hedera, hair a complete mess but otherwise looking fine.
“Good morning, er, evening Kat. How can I help you?” asked Hedera.
“Ah, I was just coming to check on you. It’s later then you’d normally be sleeping, someone got eliminated, possibly from the nightly fight… and I didn’t really know what you were up to. I was just checking in when this dropped over my face and I panicked a bit. Sorry for waking you up,” explained Kat as she handed the shirt in question back to Hedera.
“It’s fine, I ended up getting to bed late anyway,” admitted Hedera.
“Oh? Why is that?” asked Kat.
“I ended up going to see Steel to see if I could requisition materials to make some more arrows with. He said yes, and then dumped a whole bunch on me. Like, a slightly concern amount if I’m being entirely honest,” admitted Hedera.
Kat nodded, “Ah… well good luck with that? I could help maybe? I’ve got nothing else to do.”
Hedera slowly nodded as she stepped out of her room and gestured for Kat to follow downstairs. “That’s… maybe fine? How good are you at woodworking?”
“Um… decent? I don’t really know what I’m comparing myself to. I got a bunch of practice on a previous Contract so I can probably manage standard arrows,” said Kat a little unsure.
“Well, I’ve got enough supplies for you to show me your work. I wouldn’t trust you to enchant it at all, and the arrow heads are already made so we just need to pop those on,” offered Hedera.
Kat nodded, “Well assuming we’re not called on that sounds fine.” With the plans for the day sorted the trio calmly ate their ’breakfast’ and waited for orders. When none were immediately forthcoming they got started on the arrows. First order of business was moving to the backyard so that they weren’t filling the living room with wood shavings. The second step was to turn on the lights so that Hedera could see properly.
That had actually been a slight worry as they were heading outside but the lampposts were pretty obvious and the method for turning them on wasn’t too bad. They nearly missed it, but there was a switch beside the back door that controlled them all. They didn’t really need the entire backyard to be lit up, but without any known way to limit it to one or two lamps they had to just deal with that part.
Hedera dumped the supplies to the side once they’d left her storage device. It was another thing that had been foisted off on her. Though at the very least it was jut on loan… though Hedera also couldn’t remember when she was told to bring it back. Just that it was technically a loan. Hedera waved that thought up and quickly started to show Kat what the best way to make arrows was.
“Alright so, I’ve got these bundles of sticks,” Hedera slapped the barrel filled with bundled sticks as well as gestured around at the ones nearby. “They’re not perfect but they’re good enough. First… actually hang on.”
Hedera put a hand out and tried to summon something but failed. “Alright, looks like I don’t have any. I was hoping to find a blank but that’s fine, I can demonstrate and then leave one for you. So first, we pick out a stick.” Hedera pulled one up at random. “Now, most of these are straight and picked out specifically for arrow crafting. If they were just random branches you’d want to investigate more… but as it stands this should be fine.
“Firs step is to strip the bark and remove any major notches,” Hedera pulled out a carving knife and tapped the bumpy bits of the stick and then started to slice off the bark. She did a rough job of it, but was clearly trying to rush through. “So no perfect but I want to get you started. You want the whole branch to be completely stripped, none of the debris that I’ve left on.
“Once there, you’ll be cutting them down a bit. You want to see where the stick is the straightest and try to cut it down to size avoiding those bends. I know it by heart but, this,” Hedera sliced off the two ends. “Is the perfect size for me. Once that’s done, you make a slight cut here in the back,” Hedera sliced open the end. “That’s so where I insert the bow string. I’ll also do some more fiddly stuff to apply the fletching but that’s not your problem.
“Now… it seems simple, and it is. It’s just time consuming and getting things perfect, or close to perfect can be a bit of a pain. If its too bendy or has too many notches just toss it. Even with how annoying it is to make extra arrows that don’t make the cut, it’s far worse to miss a shot because your arrow was curved. Just try your best, ignore the really bad sticks, and try not to ruin any good ones.”
“That’s it?” asked Kat.
Hedera nodded, “That’s it for you anyway. As I said, I’ll do the fiddlier bits and the enchanting. Might do one or two more properly. The important part for you is to keep them to this size,” Hedera tapped the guide stick. “And to make sure the ones of poor quality are clearly away from the rest. Otherwise, just stripping the bark and removing the bumps is all I need. Trust me, it’ll get annoying really quickly.”