Experimenting Around The Fire

JP with Lorem, Bandorchu and Cindy.

Islana looked up briefly as she spotted, a now clean Gonyaul, return to the group. The young woman never knew what the man might know about, he had a tendency to be surprising at times.

"Gonyaul, have you ever tanned a hide using the animal's brains?" Islana asked, curious to see if he had.

Gonyaul smiled as he was invited into what they were doing. He repositioned himself so that everyone had comfortable sight lines and sank into a meditative cross-legged seating position. He shook his head no to her question.

“I use my brain to do things, not other brains from animals” he laughed jokingly. Or at least he was trying to make it obvious he was joking.

On a more serious note, “All me clothes made from plant or silk from worm. Tan hides is new thing to me when first saw.”

Alexis simply sat down on one of the logs doubling as seating around the fire and watched all of them with a faint smile, enjoying the quiet moment.

She gave a smile to Gonyaul's joke and nodded to him saying what his clothes were made from. Islana knew he wore cloth all the time but figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

Islana looked down into the pot, the brains were boiling down but she had no way to know if it was correct. Taking a stick, the young hunteress half poked, half stirred the pot. Pulling the stick up, a globby mess hung off it, making a trail back into the pot. It still had some cooking to do but that looked nothing like paste to her.

Gonyaul was eyeing her process with curiosity. The brain hanging off the stick resembled slime a little and he wondered if slime was also good for tanning a hide. His imagination got the best of him, and not knowing how tanning worked naively asked Islana.

“You use slugs to tan hide before?”

That particular question caught Islana off guard and she almost dropped the stick, she was holding.

"Slugs? No. I have to say using slugs never crossed my mind."

Islana wondered where Gonyaul had come up with that idea, then looking into pot. Oh.

"This is actually supposed to be more paste like. I think I have messed it up."

Pulling the stick out one more time. Nope that definitely wasn't a paste, it was too thick and globby.

"Maybe, more water?" Almost more thinking outloud, to try to figure out the problem.

“Maybe good accident? Like time I find sea salt and water make plant grow more and keep pests off.”

Gonyaul jovially shrugged “I not know this till accident and now I know new way.”

"It does?"

Distracted for a moment by the new information, Gonyaul had imparted.

"Unfortunately, I don't think that is the case here. I need to be able to brush it on and cover the hide."

It wasn't like she had another brain to start over but too thick was better than too thin in this case because that would be harder to fix. The woman added more water, stirring it, a little more time over the fire and maybe.

Gonyaul nodded in understanding.

“Yes, does. Going to use on planting smell nice flowers all around outhouse.” He smirked.

“Not that I know more about this than any of you, but if this is supposed to become a paste, would it not make sense to mash the brain?”

Alexis suggested with a shrug. Tanning had not been quite among her duties so far, but this was definitely a time to try new things.

When there was a pause, Gonyaul tilted his head and asked the entire group.

“Do you think smarter deer brain figure out how to be? No smart brain is confused which way to go?”

He was trying to say, does the quality of the deers brain effect the preparation and final outcome of the tanning process.

Islana nodded to Alexis's suggestion. It made sense and certainly couldn't hurt. "That might work."

As the young woman got up to find something to mash the brains with, she was stopped in her tracks by what Gonyaul asked. She honestly had no idea what the man was attempting to say.

Smarter deer? What does that mean?

Out of sheer guessing, Islana responded to the man. Hoping to answer his question.

"I don't think the better the brain the better the paste but I really don't know."

Said in a way, that made it seem like the question was interesting and might be worth more thought later because it might. Islana shoved the idea into her mind though unclear how anyone could test such a thing.

With that she went to get something to mash the brains with.