Day 55

I woke up from my bed feeling refreshed, and it seemed like I had been sleeping a while, as it was already well past noon, the sun sinking halfway across the horizon. I got up, and ate my first meal of the day, more meat, and tended my fires. My meat-bone-broth was still bubbling away, having become very smooth and homogeneous, I decided to clear this batch and start a new one, as the flavor was getting lost, and I had new long term stewing ideas.

The first thing I did was go over to my boulder I had been carving out all this while, where I made my plates cups and bowls from, it was about half gone at this point, and with my even more precise use of the Manaphage, I was now gonna be cutting a lot more off of it. I marked out a large portion, and cut it off, making a disk about one foot deep and five-six feet across, and carefully rolled it to the hut. It was super heavy, and very much almost tipping over a lot, thankfully I was able to infuse it with some weightlessness, making it lighter for a bit, the Manaphage slowly and visibly dimming as I quickly rolled it.

It took 10 minutes to roll it into a good spot, and I carefully laid it down, right next to the hut, and got to work carving more. I had to take a couple of breaks to do so, cutting out a section 2 inches in, and 10 inches deep, carving out a giant flat bowl. It was a laborious task and took me all night. I had to bath twice in the snow to clear all the dust off myself. I didn't notice the sun coming up until it was glaring me in the eye, and I was pretty much done. I washed out the bowl several times repeatedly pouring out more and more dust and grime, it was on the tenth cleaning the water was clearer, and on the 20th cleaning did it show clear water for the second time. I cleaned it out 5 more times to make sure and found it was cleaned completely.

I then took a much-needed washing, scrubbing myself fully down with snow as well as my dirty clothes. Eventually with the sun a full quarter of the way past the mountain I was done cleaning, and feeling wide awake. I got dressed and entered my abode, and refilled Lupe's bowl of food, and collapsed onto my stool, and ate a bowl of meat-bone-broth paste stew soup. I chugged several glasses of water and finally felt full. I then got back to work, not that I had much left to do. I stepped outside and propped the door open. I walked over to the giant bowl, and, infusing it with weightlessness, I slowly leaned it back onto its side, and rolled it inside.

I rolled it to a far wall, and slowly lowered it down, and with a fair amount of adjustment, I leveled it out, propping it up on one side with a small chunk of stone and making sure there was no wobble. I then pulled off my huge cauldron of meat-bone-broth paste stew soup gruel and slowly shifted it to the bowl, and started pouring it in. at first, it dripped in and splashed around, but soon like a flood, it poured in all at once, the weight of the cauldron instantly lessening, and soon I was able to pour the rest of it in, completely upending the thing, leaving only remains on the sides, and a surprisingly clean bottom, not much burnt stuff was on the bottom, much to my surprise, I guess it really was a low enough temp to crockpot it rather than boil it.

I then righted the pot, and placed it back on the stand, and started to fill it back up with meat and bones, and threw in melted water, not wanting to cause a drastic temperature shift and crack my cauldron. I mixed everything around, getting the remaining mush mixed with the water. I used a 75/25 mix of the heady dragon meat and the citrus minty snake meat. I wanted to try and make a tastier broth with it, maybe something I could bottle and can, which meant I had to make several other things now, including something to can in, and a pitcher or two that we're able to be sealed.

I finished filling my cauldron, brimming with snow meat and bones and had one last thing to do before entering the forest for hunting and trapping. I placed my left hand on top of the kiddie pool of meat-bone-broth paste stew soup gruel slop and started to absorb all the liquid inside it. I felt a tasted a rush of flavors, and stirred my hand around, mixing it all together, and making sure I got all the liquid, and soon it started to stiffen, and I had to pull my hand out and absorb it from the top, getting the rest of the liquid out more slowly, and after about 5 minutes it was bone dry. A mix of gray was all that was left in the bowl, it was hard-packed, and when I grabbed a chunk, crumbled in my hand. I grabbed a smaller chunk and ate it. It was bland at first, but soon the flavor of it grew and changed, it was concentrated stock essentially, like bullion, or something. I went outside and grabbed a chunk of stone, quickly carving out a bowl about half the size of my hand, and rapidly finished and cleaned it, and made an accompanying tamp to press into it.

I cam back in and filled the bowl with the powder, mixing it with a little bit of snow to turn it back into a paste. I then tamped it into a pancake of sorts and dried it back out. I pulled out my little disc of bullion and took a bite. It crumbled in my mouth and blasted me with flavor. I offered it to Lupe, who took a bite the same size as mine, and quickly took a bite of snow, washing it down. He looke dup to me, tail wagging at hyper speeds, looking like a blur. He seemed to like it too. I was happy with the results of my experiment.

I went outside once more to grab a couple of planks of wood, and welded them together with my finger, making a round lid, and sanded it down to a smooth surface. I brought it back in after washing and drying it, and placed it on the bowl, making a nice lid. I placed the pancake maker on top to weigh it down and stepped away. Making more of those energy cakes was going to be an afternoon kind of thing, and I didn't feel like dealing with that anymore for the day.

I was ready for tomorrow, as much as I wanted to explore the forest today, it was already getting dark, and it felt like the perfect time to get some sleep, fixing my sleep schedule fast, and not having to deal with the many problems of having a bad one. I looked at Lupe who seemed energetic still and decided to play with him outside, maybe teach him to fetch. I stepped out and found that the shadows were already long. I grabbed a sizable bone, one that fit neatly into his mouth, and chucked it down the strip of land between the mountain and the forest. It flew 50 feet before hitting the snow, and like a bolt of lighting, Lupe ran, skidded to a halt, and raced back. I was a little taken aback, he was way faster than I thought, but wait, if he's that fast, how fast was I?

As I was thinking through the new problem I threw the bone again, maybe about 60 feet now, and was once again astounded by how fast Lupe was, he quickly brought it back again, and I hefted it in my left hand, looking at Lupe who almost seemed expectant, and chucked it as hard as I could with the Manaphage without adding any extra magics. It whistled as it flew, soaring an easy half-mile before landing with an audible crash. Lupe looked at me and bolted for the bone, flying across the snow, leaving little divets in the snow every five feet, his back stripe making a straight glowing line, and soon enough turned around grabbing the bone and flew back. Skidding to a halt next to me, he looked up at me and wagged his tail loving the new game. I inspected the bone, imagining that it would be like the spear I had thrown before with full power, close to shattering, but instead, it seemed as strong as usual. I looked at Lupe still ready and got to throw it again and again, well into the night.