Chapter 51: Starting a Fire
Ren arrived by the riverside and carefully scanned his surroundings. The murmur of the stream was calm.
When he glanced toward the river, shadows occasionally darted across the surface, breaking the water. Monster fish. Getting too close would be dangerous, but keeping some distance from the river would be fine.
Ren let out a small breath and sat down on a fairly large rock.
He took out a mortar and a pot. The mortar had a chipped edge, and the pot was dented on the side—both were things he had bought cheaply from the village tool shop.
Using fire inside his room at home seemed risky, and in the grasslands, if you let your guard down, horned rabbits would attack. There were surprisingly few places where he could calmly focus on making recovery medicine.
“I wonder if it’ll go well today…”
He sprinkled the healing herbs he had picked along the way into the empty pot.
“Water!”
Splash, splash.
He poured water into the pot with water magic and lightly washed the herbs. After shaking off the excess water, he picked off only the leaves and placed them on a dry cloth. Once he wiped the moisture from the surface of the leaves, he put them into the mortar.
Grinding carefully, he crushed them with a gritty motion. Green juice slowly seeped out of the leaves and pooled at the bottom of the mortar, forming a thick, green paste.
“Alright, next is fire.”
He gathered several fairly large stones, selected ones of similar height, and carefully arranged them in a circle. He tried placing the pot on top. After confirming it was stable, he removed the pot and placed some dry branches he had collected inside.
He held out his right hand and focused.
“…Fire!”
Whoosh.
A flame burst from his palm and struck the dry branches, making a faint sizzling sound as the surface caught fire—but the flame quickly died out. Smoke rose, carrying a burnt smell.
“Fire!”
Whoosh.
He tried again. This time, a thin branch glowed red as it burned. He watched with hope, but before the flame could spread to the thicker branches, it went out. A thin trail of smoke drifted upward.
“Hmm… Guess that won’t work…”
Ren made a bitter face. He picked up a branch and snapped it.
It broke with a light crack, but the core felt slightly damp.
“I need something drier…”
He stood up and looked around. There was dead grass at his feet, but it seemed damp. Nearby, among patches where green grass had begun to grow, he spotted tall, withered weeds that had lost their color. When he plucked one of the dried leaves, it made a crisp, crackling sound. He diligently gathered only the parts that seemed dry.
“This should work!”
Carrying an armful, he returned, set aside the branches for a moment, and loosely spread the dry leaves. Then he carefully placed the branches on top.
“Fire!”
Once again, he concentrated and produced a small flame.
The dry grass began to smolder. Thin smoke rose, and a faint orange glow appeared.
“Alright! It lit!”
Ren’s eyes sparkled. However, the fire was weak, flickering as if it might go out at any moment.
“Not enough, maybe…”
He hurriedly looked around and noticed the burlap sack at his feet. The sack that had held the moss rabbit had torn, so he had brought another one, but he had kept the torn sack in his “item box.”
“If it’s the torn one…”
He took it out. The torn parts were frayed and ragged, and in places, it was darkened—perhaps stained with the moss rabbit’s blood.
“…For now, I’ll use the string.”
After a brief hesitation, he cut off the end of the sack’s string with a knife and loosened it. He rolled the fluffy hemp fibers into a small ball and held it near the fire.
A faint flame caught onto the hemp bundle. A moment later, it flared up.
With crackling sounds, the dry grass and hemp burned more strongly. The flames began to spread to the dry branches placed on top, so he quickly added more thin branches. The fire gradually grew larger.
“I did it! …Oh, the pot!”
He poured water into the pot using water magic, took a moment to steady his breathing, and then carefully placed the pot over the fire.