When Solmar opened his eyes, he was somewhat shocked at doing so in the first place. Never really having been the kind of person that believed in an afterlife for humans, he had imagined that when his light went out, it wouldn't be lit again. To say that he had not imagined that he would have survived by the time he could no longer breathe or move was quite the understatement, though he was quite happy about being wrong. Looking around in what seemed to be a tent, he felt some serious pressure originating from inside of his chest, meaning it most likely wasn't a very good idea for him to be moving around just yet. Still, he tried to look around and see where he was, finding that he had been taken back to the Kappa village. Coughing loudly when he tried to breathe normally, the leader of the Kappa quickly made his way in through the main entrance. Checking up on him, he claimed that it was he who had saved Solmar from drowning.
Momentarily feeling like Solmar was now even more indebted to them, the Kappa continued by stating that he had experienced a great deal of shame when he turned away from the young mage and had allowed him to fight the large octopus on his own. Claiming that he had fully planned on turning back to the village, but had come around when he heard the fighting start, he had only reached the fight by the time a flaming blade pierced through the eye of the large octopus. In response, he had gone down to see if Solmar was okay, and thus ended up dragging him out of the water and back to the village where he had been resting for the past couple of hours. Making it clear that his debt to the Kappa had been repaid when he had gone out of his way to slay the octopus monster that was threatening their very existence to a similar extent as their lack of nourishment, Solmar suddenly had an idea.
Fighting through the pain just to get up, by the time he got to his feet, he did not feel it nearly as much as he did before. Thinking that it was most likely just the lower ribs that got injured the most, as long as he did not repeatedly have to get up and sit or lay back down, he was most likely going to be just fine. If not, he figured that someone here would just drag him back to bed if he did end up passing out. But now was not the time to think about such things, as he had an idea that just might end up being the saving grace for many of the Kappa here. Seeing how skinny some of the younglings looked compared to the others, he could tell that they were truly facing a catastrophe at the hands of humans. As such, it was up to him to show them that not all of them were bad and self-serving, just like he had tried to do when he slayed the octopus. Hand-picking a bunch of the stronger and larger looking ones from the bunch, Solmar started leading a group of Kappa along with him to the octopus' corpse.
Making sure they were all armed with whatever weapons they had to spare, as well as several ropes they had made out of fibers found either underwater or in the caverns, he had them dive in and attach ropes to the tentacles and bring the ropes back up to the surface. Judging from their primitive tools, he figured that there was still more that they could come to benefit from having him here. He was after all a human who had grown up working with his hands for a living, and ended up having to rely on just that to survive in the wilds. There, they would work together in order to drag one of the large tentacles onto the shore and start cutting it into chunks of about half a meter each before taking them back to the village. Because Solmar had grown up in a village that had to survive mainly on the bounties of the ocean, he had seen time and time again how his parents or neighbors cooked up things like octopi or fish. And while he had personally grown to detest the taste of fish due to what had happened during his childhood, he figured that this octopus alone could feed the entire village for at least a few days, maybe even a week if they spread it out a bit.
If they could do such a thing, it would at the very least give him some time to think. After all, just because they had some food now and were no longer being threatened did not mean that no other threat would end up coming in the same way the octopus did, nor would it solve their long-term troubles of having no places to get food from anymore. Doing the best he could to tell the locals how best to prepare octopus in a way that wouldn't make it taste like chewing on rubber, he was annoyed that he did not exactly have the means to teach them about proper seasoning or side dishes, simply because the chunks of octopus meat was literally all there was for these people. So while the octopus was starting to get prepared for it to be cooked with several others now being in tow to cut up the remains of the beast and bring the chunks back, Solmar had come up with an altogether different idea. Because the way through the caverns and into Sakuramori wasn't all that long, he figured that he could make it out there even in his debilitated state of being.
Speaking to the leader of the Kappa, who was still busy organizing teams for the carving and hauling of octopus meat, he took him aside and started up a bit of a conversation with him. Bringing up the matter of herbalism, Solmar claimed that if he could get about four or five villagers, he could teach them how to gather herbs, nuts, fruits, vegetables and berries from the forest. If he could teach some of them the basics, such as which plants were dangerous and which could be eaten from, it would provide them with an entire forest's worth of food. He did however make it very clear that there were dangerous creatures living within Sakuramori, and that if they were going to make a living by scavenging food from it, they'd need to know how to protect themselves from them. At the notion of having to protect themselves, the leader of the Kappa nodded a bit before pointing at four of the Kappa that had just finished stoking up a fire.
Telling them to go with Solmar and listen to what he said, he made a small introduction so they would know a bit of what to expect before he started guiding them through the cavern system and out into Sakuramori. While his body was hurting quite a lot now that he had to hike up and lift himself up through narrow crevices, he started to wonder how long he would actually be able to keep this up. Feeling that he might end up putting the lives of these Kappa in danger if he ended up passing out somewhere, he decided to lead them to some of the safest locations in the forest that he could possibly think of. After all, it had not been too long ago since he had gone throughout Sakuramori in order to map out the territories of dangerous wild animals. That said, even before that time, he had come to figure out quite a bit about the terrain and the local wildlife by living in it for the better part of a year.
Making sure each of the four Kappa under his care memorized the route he took from the cavern, it wasn't at all that far to the first location which he had come to call the orchard. Because it was a place where wild apples grew, there were always a lot of birds and smaller herbivores there, as well as the occasional deer that happened by there to eat the ones that fell onto the ground. Figuring that this would be the best place to take the foraging Kappa first, he let them have a taste of these fruits that were quite foreign to the water dwellers. When spending an entire life living off of what the oceans provided, eating something like an apple must have been quite strange as many of them seemed to not really enjoy the sour taste of it at first. Luckily, one or two of them came around to it and continued eating, finding the taste to be rather enjoyable once one got over the initial sourness. This was a good thing, because he would have had quite a bit of trouble getting the Kappa to buy into this new food if the ones bringing it in didn't even enjoy it themselves.
(1534)
Momentarily feeling like Solmar was now even more indebted to them, the Kappa continued by stating that he had experienced a great deal of shame when he turned away from the young mage and had allowed him to fight the large octopus on his own. Claiming that he had fully planned on turning back to the village, but had come around when he heard the fighting start, he had only reached the fight by the time a flaming blade pierced through the eye of the large octopus. In response, he had gone down to see if Solmar was okay, and thus ended up dragging him out of the water and back to the village where he had been resting for the past couple of hours. Making it clear that his debt to the Kappa had been repaid when he had gone out of his way to slay the octopus monster that was threatening their very existence to a similar extent as their lack of nourishment, Solmar suddenly had an idea.
Fighting through the pain just to get up, by the time he got to his feet, he did not feel it nearly as much as he did before. Thinking that it was most likely just the lower ribs that got injured the most, as long as he did not repeatedly have to get up and sit or lay back down, he was most likely going to be just fine. If not, he figured that someone here would just drag him back to bed if he did end up passing out. But now was not the time to think about such things, as he had an idea that just might end up being the saving grace for many of the Kappa here. Seeing how skinny some of the younglings looked compared to the others, he could tell that they were truly facing a catastrophe at the hands of humans. As such, it was up to him to show them that not all of them were bad and self-serving, just like he had tried to do when he slayed the octopus. Hand-picking a bunch of the stronger and larger looking ones from the bunch, Solmar started leading a group of Kappa along with him to the octopus' corpse.
Making sure they were all armed with whatever weapons they had to spare, as well as several ropes they had made out of fibers found either underwater or in the caverns, he had them dive in and attach ropes to the tentacles and bring the ropes back up to the surface. Judging from their primitive tools, he figured that there was still more that they could come to benefit from having him here. He was after all a human who had grown up working with his hands for a living, and ended up having to rely on just that to survive in the wilds. There, they would work together in order to drag one of the large tentacles onto the shore and start cutting it into chunks of about half a meter each before taking them back to the village. Because Solmar had grown up in a village that had to survive mainly on the bounties of the ocean, he had seen time and time again how his parents or neighbors cooked up things like octopi or fish. And while he had personally grown to detest the taste of fish due to what had happened during his childhood, he figured that this octopus alone could feed the entire village for at least a few days, maybe even a week if they spread it out a bit.
If they could do such a thing, it would at the very least give him some time to think. After all, just because they had some food now and were no longer being threatened did not mean that no other threat would end up coming in the same way the octopus did, nor would it solve their long-term troubles of having no places to get food from anymore. Doing the best he could to tell the locals how best to prepare octopus in a way that wouldn't make it taste like chewing on rubber, he was annoyed that he did not exactly have the means to teach them about proper seasoning or side dishes, simply because the chunks of octopus meat was literally all there was for these people. So while the octopus was starting to get prepared for it to be cooked with several others now being in tow to cut up the remains of the beast and bring the chunks back, Solmar had come up with an altogether different idea. Because the way through the caverns and into Sakuramori wasn't all that long, he figured that he could make it out there even in his debilitated state of being.
Speaking to the leader of the Kappa, who was still busy organizing teams for the carving and hauling of octopus meat, he took him aside and started up a bit of a conversation with him. Bringing up the matter of herbalism, Solmar claimed that if he could get about four or five villagers, he could teach them how to gather herbs, nuts, fruits, vegetables and berries from the forest. If he could teach some of them the basics, such as which plants were dangerous and which could be eaten from, it would provide them with an entire forest's worth of food. He did however make it very clear that there were dangerous creatures living within Sakuramori, and that if they were going to make a living by scavenging food from it, they'd need to know how to protect themselves from them. At the notion of having to protect themselves, the leader of the Kappa nodded a bit before pointing at four of the Kappa that had just finished stoking up a fire.
Telling them to go with Solmar and listen to what he said, he made a small introduction so they would know a bit of what to expect before he started guiding them through the cavern system and out into Sakuramori. While his body was hurting quite a lot now that he had to hike up and lift himself up through narrow crevices, he started to wonder how long he would actually be able to keep this up. Feeling that he might end up putting the lives of these Kappa in danger if he ended up passing out somewhere, he decided to lead them to some of the safest locations in the forest that he could possibly think of. After all, it had not been too long ago since he had gone throughout Sakuramori in order to map out the territories of dangerous wild animals. That said, even before that time, he had come to figure out quite a bit about the terrain and the local wildlife by living in it for the better part of a year.
Making sure each of the four Kappa under his care memorized the route he took from the cavern, it wasn't at all that far to the first location which he had come to call the orchard. Because it was a place where wild apples grew, there were always a lot of birds and smaller herbivores there, as well as the occasional deer that happened by there to eat the ones that fell onto the ground. Figuring that this would be the best place to take the foraging Kappa first, he let them have a taste of these fruits that were quite foreign to the water dwellers. When spending an entire life living off of what the oceans provided, eating something like an apple must have been quite strange as many of them seemed to not really enjoy the sour taste of it at first. Luckily, one or two of them came around to it and continued eating, finding the taste to be rather enjoyable once one got over the initial sourness. This was a good thing, because he would have had quite a bit of trouble getting the Kappa to buy into this new food if the ones bringing it in didn't even enjoy it themselves.
(1534)
