SFS Chapter 40 Kneading Animal Hides
Chapter 40 Kneading Animal Hides
"Baiyan, come and take a look at this cave, what do you think?" Lu Xiao called out to Lin Baiyan from a rocky hill about ten meters to the left of the cave.
The young man put down the straw rope he was weaving.
They found a type of green vine in the forest these past few days; it was soft and resilient, making it perfect for weaving straw ropes.
These past two days, several male orcs have been hunting occasionally while on patrol, and the tribe has accumulated quite a few animal hides. They haven't been processed for so many days, and when they're stacked together, they're about to rot.
Lin Baiyan thought he should quickly organize everyone to knead a batch of animal hides together.
They are now weaving straw ropes for drying animal hides. They need to make them strong so they can support the weight of the hides.
"Coming!"
The young man walked into the cave on the left. This was a separate cave they had carved out. The cave was about three meters high. Inside was a two-meter-long tunnel, which then turned left and gradually widened outwards, forming a fan shape.
It's about thirty square meters inside, enough to hold the wolf-shaped beast.
This was carved in the shape of Lang Cang, who is currently the tallest beastman in the tribe in terms of beast form. The young man estimated that he was nearly two meters tall.
However, Lang Cang is not yet an adult, and Lin Baiyan does not know if he will grow up, so he temporarily sets the height at three meters.
Adult subhumans are only about half a meter long, but male orcs are different. Their beast form gradually increases with strength and age, making hunting more advantageous.
The enormous beast-like form was used to better protect the sub-beastmen and their cubs.
Lang Cang is already two meters tall, and judging from his fighting prowess, Lin Baiyan feels he still has a long way to go.
Lin Baiyan went inside and looked at the layout. He nodded with great satisfaction and then gave Lu Xiao a thumbs up!
"That's it, Lu Xiao, you're amazing!"
It's great to have a helper who can understand! It's not that orcs are bad, it's just that most orcs are quite straightforward, probably due to their environment, and they only know how to bury themselves in their work.
Hearing Lin Baiyan's praise, Lu Xiao scratched his head shyly and chuckled. His previous gathering skills weren't good, and he had never been well-liked by others; only Lin Baiyan thought he was capable.
"I didn't do anything..."
The young man looked at him disapprovingly, "How can you say that? I think you're great!"
Lin Baiyan happily looked around at the layout again, "This is fine, this counts as a finished product!"
He led Lu Xiao back to the exit tunnel, patted the stone wall on the right side of the tunnel, and said, "We can carve another cave here, which will save us from having to dig another tunnel and save time. We can be neighbors on the left and right!"
Hearing him say that, Lu Xiao's eyes lit up. That's right, this would save a lot of time. Besides, since they're neighbors, if they don't like it, they can just block the entrance. The space inside is also large, so they won't disturb the other party.
Lu Xiao nodded quickly, "I understand, don't worry!"
Lin Baiyan said with a smile, "Then I'm off. Today I plan to take everyone to knead animal hides!"
"Go ahead, go ahead!" Lu Xiao waved his hand.
Lin Baiyan returned to the cave. Tu Lin and the others were already prepared. Today, they were going to move the animal hides to the waterfall on the west side to wash and process them. All the animal hides needed to be washed and dried clean.
He simply couldn't stand these dirty things piled up in a corner of the cave, emitting a foul odor!
They had processed several animal hides over the past few days, and finally found that Fox Shadow's method of processing animal hides was the best.
Rub wood ash little by little onto the animal hide, then soak it in water, and finally add a plant called purple vanilla. The animal hide rubbed with the juice of this plant has a faint grassy smell and much less fishy smell. Most importantly, the animal hide rubbed with this plant is softer and whiter than that made by other methods.
When Lin Baiyan said he was going to pack up the animal hides, he suddenly remembered the long fruit tree he had encountered on the first day. Wasn't that a soapberry tree?
He had picked a whole basket of soap pods beforehand and soaked them. Lin Baiyan figured that wood ash was probably used to remove the oil from fur, and soap pods could do that.
Whether it works or not, we'll find out by trying.
"Let's go!" Lin Baiyan led several sub-beastmen towards the waterfall.
The waterfall to the west was discovered by the cubs. When Leopard Road and Wolf Cloud were practicing hunting and running with the cubs, Wolf Wood came across a small waterfall while weaving through the crowd, and the cubs even went down to take a bath.
He returned home overjoyed and told Lin Baiyan that he had gone to check it out and found that the water flow was quite strong, probably flowing down from the mountain, which conveniently made things easier for them.
Upon reaching the waterfall, the young man scooped up a handful of water and took a sip; it was refreshingly sweet!
This is genuine mountain spring water!
Several sub-orcs found a place to sit down and began to learn how Fox Shadow processed animal hides.
The young man took out an animal hide, first cleaning off the surface debris, then took a soap pod from his basket. The soap pod, which had been soaked beforehand, was much softer.
Lin Baiyan smashed the soap pods into small pieces with a stone, then rubbed them with his hands until white foam appeared. He then spread the soap pod pieces evenly inside the animal hide and began to rub them.
The young man patiently rubbed the bark for a while, making sure to clean every nook and cranny, and then let the soapberry juice stay on the bark for a longer time.
After a while, Lin Baiyan rinsed off the soapberry fragments on the animal hide with clean water, then touched the hide with his hand. It felt rough and the oiliness was greatly reduced, similar to the feel of hides made with wood ash, but even cleaner than hides made with wood ash!
He grinned; it seemed the soapberry's cleaning power was quite good.
The sub-beastmen were curious when they saw Lin Baiyan using soap pods. After the young man beckoned them over, he pointed to the animal hides and asked them to take a look. The sub-beastmen took turns touching the animal hides he had kneaded and were somewhat surprised.
"Was this washed with long fruit?" Fox Shadow's eyes were full of delight. The animal hides were too oily, and every time they kneaded them, their hands were covered in oil, feeling sticky.
This long fruit is quite useful.
Lin Baiyan nodded. "Do you think it would be okay to use long fruit instead of wood ash?"
Fox Shadow pondered for a moment, "Wood ash not only removes oil, but bark soaked in wood ash becomes soft and easy to rub. Can this long fruit do that?"
Forehead…
He really hadn't thought of this problem, so it means it can't be replaced.
"It's alright, this soap pod has quite a few uses, we can keep it for other things."
It was his oversight that he hadn't considered things properly, but Lin Baiyan wasn't discouraged.
Fox Shadow quickly said, "But long fruit can be used to wash fur; it looks quite clean."
He was afraid the priest would be unhappy if he felt he had gone to so much trouble but hadn't been able to help.
Lin Baiyan didn't care much. He was a human, not a god. How could he know everything? There were many things he didn't know or understand. He was busy to death every day. Why would he have time to think about such things?