The river flows with perfect consistency, an artery of blessed water. It fed the place, quenched the thirst of the mighty beings rooted to the rich soil. Together they were almost perfection, the water of life and the community of flora and fauna. If only the thick fog wasn't there to block the morning rays then everything would be considered perfect.
Lev dived back in the deep river to retrieve the hide. By then it was already hard as a piece of thin plywood, and the surface color became a little bit darker, giving hope for Lev that he might complete the task on the same day.
Back in the cave, Lev made sure that the fire was continuously burning by putting firewood from time to time.
By then, Ezio came back from the forest, his grey eyes swept on a corner and he noticed that the firewoods he collected were greatly reduced in number.
"Starting tomorrow, your daily task will be collecting firewoods."
"Huh? Ah— Yes!" Lev knew that he used a lot of firewoods just to keep the fire burning the whole night, and the reason why is because he didn't know how to create a fire. He always depended on Ezio to create a fire so it was fair enough for him to collect the firewood. After all, there was no free lunch in this world.
"Also," Ezio added, "You will be running while gathering the firewoods, the Jäger will accompany you to see you if you are doing the task properly."
Running? What's wrong with walking? Lev inwardly questioned. He roughly guessed the reason, it was maybe because dangerous monsters lurk in the forest so he needed to run while the Jäger would be his security, in case a monster appeared.
Lev nodded, thinking that he discovered the reason why he needed to keep running. After spreading the hide beside the fire, Lev took the small knife and sprinted out of the cave, majestically swan diving to the river.
He needed to find something that could be used as a needle and a thread. The vine that he saw on the stone columns near the altar was his best choice, but he didn't know where the location of the altar was.
There were a lot of types of trees in the forest, but for some unknown reason, the trunk was all curved and twisted. It was really weird, Lev wondered what anomaly caused such a disturbing phenomenon.
The deeper the forest, the thicker the fog, Lev deduced. So he decided not to venture deeper into the forest, and it took him only a few minutes until he discovered a tree that has vines hanging down from the branches.
He approached the edge of the tree and he noticed that the vine had a scale-like surface. As Lev approached the nearest vine, he reached out his hand and grabbed it and tried to cut it off. The vine was warm and it was a perfect fit on Lev's hand and when he started cutting it, blood came out of it, then the top part of the vine instantly came off and fell to the ground.
The other end of the vine that fell from the tree had a broad, triangular head, almost like a bulbous head with a skinny neck. It slowly turned around and deep black eyes looked intently at Lev.
It was actually a snake! Lev quickly released his grip and jumped multiple times backwards.
The snake stood tall as it hissed. Lev already made a distance between them so if the snake planned to chase him, Lev could run back to the cave, but if it didn't, then... good for Lev.
Fortunately, it was only a small cut so the snake chose the latter and climbed back on the tree and camouflaged on the trunk.
Now that Lev was almost attacked by the snake, he noticed that the vines that were hanging around the tree were actually snakes! The trunk and branches were also covered with them. Thankfully, Lev only approached the edge of the tree or else he would be snake food.
I need to be more aware of my surroundings... Or else, I would die a miserable death... Lev gave s self-deprecating chuckle.
After the encounter, he continued to search for a vine. An hour later, he found one. But first, he needed to make sure that they weren't snakes. He grabbed a stick from the ground and threw it at the trunk.
Thud!
Nothing. The sound it produced looked like genuine wood. This time, the vines that were hanging down from the tree were a little bit thinner and woodier from the previous, except, of course, that the previous wasn't a vine, and when Lev cut off the vine, no blood came out.
Lev let out a sigh of relief. The vine was made up of thin thread-like filaments. It was the perfect thing that Lev needed. After cutting a few more vines, Lev went back to the cave.
After pulling one by one the thin thread-like filaments, he bundled it together. Compared to a normal thread, it was a little bit thicker than normal and firmly twisted it to make it stronger, then he tied both ends of the bundle.
It took him a couple of hours to create a good amount of 'thread'. By then, the hide was completely dry and the heat completely darkened the surface of the hide.
Lev was satisfied with his work. Next was to cut the almost-leather-like hide into multiple parts and combine them to make a bag.
Lev measured his back on how big he was planning to create a backpack. After doing so, he carefully cut the leather-like with his small knife.
He cut out 6 pieces: a rectangular shape for the back part and the front part of the bag, and with the same length, he also created two rectangular shapes with half the width for each side of the bag, the bottom part of the bag, and the upper part of the bag with half the length of the front part.
And after all of that, there was still more than half leather to spare. But Lev didn't do so, he cut out another 6 pieces and coated it with the other 6, making it stronger and tougher.
"Mister Ezio," Lev said with a respectful tone, "Do you have any needle-like knife?"
Ezio was busy ruminating over his small diary when he looked at Lev. He unstrapped his upper leather armor and revealed many types of knives from a standard knife to a karambit.
Lev was flabbergasted on what he saw. His respect for Ezio greatly increased and his thirst to learn how to fight greatly escalated.
"I do have one," Ezio replied without looking at his collections, "But I won't hand you one. Learn how to craft one by yourself."
The unstrapped leather armor returned to its former state and Ezio went back scribbling in his diary.
"Cool but rude," Lev mumbled.
It was afternoon and the day was slowly losing its light, Lev needed to finish this task on the same day.
He picked out the thinnest firewood and started scraping its end. He planned on sharpening the edge and used it to make a hole on the edges of the leather-like pieces.
It took him only a few minutes to finish sharpening and pinching holes, and then he started crafting his bag.
After a few hours, he successfully completed his task. Actually, barely completed because the bag was so messed up, but it was still usable.