Her Beasts

Critical Condition

Finally, Iris and Ember reached their destination according to the map. In front of them was a small mountain range with no signs of caves carved out of it. Ember left Iris at the foot of the mountain as he instructed

"Wait here, I need to be absolutely sure there are no tribes living here and no beast cities that might have staked a claim on the area."

Iris took in the scenery as she checked her map. F3 was higher north and more western than H4. The mountain peaks at the artic wolf tribe would have snow and ice most of the year, even if the ground below was thawed. There were also forests and a river nearby with an abundance of food throughout most of the year.

However, the location of the quest, seemed to have a more barren looking top with slightly less snow. Not far away there was a small grove of trees in which a singular lake rested. Otherwise, it was mostly plains with short grass and little area for animals to live. Iris felt it would likely be difficult for beastman tribes and animals alike to easily survive in large numbers in this area.

When Ember returned after a long while, he confirmed Iris's thoughts.

"I couldn't find any tribes or cities anywhere near here. The area doesn't seem very optimal for living in long term. It's likely that there will be limited wildlife in that forest over there and I'll have to fly out pretty far to get prey for us."

Iris nodded to show her agreement. Iris sat down on the ground and began to pull out all their camping gear. It was only late afternoon now, but they weren't going to be in any shape to begin mining until tomorrow at the earliest. They could move into the mountain after they began to carve a cave into it, but they should rest first.

Ember helped Iris set up the tents and campfire. Since Basil and Caspian weren't here to dig a pit, Iris used the edge of one of the stones for lining the campfire to dig the pit out. Ember saw Iris struggling and took the stone from her to do it himself. Ember hated his shortcomings and was still worried over just how useful he'd be in mining.

As Basil and Caspian still weren't back by sunset, Ember flew off to find them. When Ember came back, to Iris's horror he was carrying a slumped over Caspian on his back. Basil showed up not much longer behind them. Ember transformed and Caspian fell off his back in the process.

At Iris's pained look he mumbled an apology

"I'm sorry. I'll get him put in a bed and then go hunting. Basil can attend to him."

Iris worriedly check Caspian over, but he was passed out cold. When Basil came over to look him over, he shook his head as he explained

"The trip must have been too much for him. He collapsed a short while back from exhaustion. I tried to carry him, but our progress was slowed down a lot until Ember came to help.

He will need to be fed soup and medicine for fatigue for a few days while he rests. He is pretty strong so he should hopefully make a recovery, but his condition is pretty rough right now. I'm sorry, Iris."

Iris felt devastated as she cried while hugging Caspian's passed out form. It was as if she had been told that Caspian would certainly die. Basil couldn't do much to make Iris feel better since there were no guarantees he could make. Basil could only give him medicine, it would be up to Caspian as to whether he would make a recovery or not.

When Ember returned from hunting, he was only carrying a single boar. Ember had already eaten, but he could only carry a single large prey while flying. The prey were truly too sparse in this area.

Basil frowned as he began to prepare the food. Caspian couldn't be fed solids while passed out anyhow. Basil would have to prepare a large batch of tea and soup to keep Caspian well hydrated and then slowly feed him.

Iris saw his worried expression and offered

"You take care of Caspian, I'll prepare our food."

Ember helped Iris as he put the meat up onto the spit to roast and turned it when instructed. The rest was cut into small cubes and boiled in water with seasonings, onions, carrots, and potatoes for soup.

Iris turned to Ember as she made plans for the next day.

"Since your claws aren't good for carving stones, I wonder if you'd even be able to mine? I know a sort of pickaxe can be made from antlers or flint. I've still got the antlers Basil brought me from back in Blue Lake City that first night. I'm not sure if there would be any flint around here, though....."

Ember looked thoughtful as he considered it. For the most part, Ember just punched trees to fell them and then broke the branches off by hand. His claws mostly just left gashes in the trunk and we're useless for such tasks. Ember wasn't sure he could control his strength enough to use the tools his mate was talking about either, but knew his mate would worry if he tried to punch the stone apart.

"We can try to use the antlers, but we should have a few of them made so I have time to adjust my strength so I'm breaking the stone and not the tools."

Basil knew he'd be the only one able to carve the things Iris wanted with Caspian incapacitated. Thus he held his hand out to accept the raw materials as he explained

"I'll carve them, just tell me what you need exactly. Ember, you'll have to take over feeding the soup to Caspian. We can't afford to have him due unnecessarily when there are already so few of us to protect Iris."

Basil explained how to feed Caspian the liquids without choking Caspian to death. Then Iris explained how  the thicker part of the antler would form the handle while a singular outwards sticking portion remained to form the pick portion.

This sort of pick made from antler would only be sufficient for mining soil and stone. If there were metals, they would probably need a harder material like flint. Iris was unsure about what Basil and Caspian's claws could handle metals wise and kind of hoped it wouldn't be an issue she had to be concerned with.

If there were crystals to mine, just removing the stones around the crystals would be sufficient. From there, the crystals could be smashed on the ground to break it into smaller chunks, if nothing else.

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