Based on the weight listed for the Goddess’s Lending Library, Demi surmised that it would be a large object. When she selected it to pull it out of her inventory, it had a footprint almost four times the size of the chest of emergency snacks.
And once she placed it on the ground, it became clear why it was so large and heavy.
The thing was very nearly a room all by itself, with two enormous shelves that met in an L shape, a secretary desk with a small stool, and a step-up library ladder, all of which was absolutely crammed to bursting with books. It was all apparently one unit, and while Demi could take books and documents out of it, she did not seem to be able to remove or rearrange the furniture. It was all one massive thing.
Unfortunately it did not have walls, a floor, or a roof. Briefly Demi considered trying to build some sort of temporary structure using the shelves as a center support, but her care for books was too great. She could not allow them to be damaged in case of storm, inclement weather, or just the ordinary wetness of morning dew.
After pulling out the books and documents that seemed most important at the moment, including some marked with little green and pink flags that Demi could only assume were the tutorials, she loaded the entire knowledge complex back into her inventory.
First order of business: Figure out how to make some basic tools.
When she found the section of the tutorial with recipes for her first tools, she almost sat down and laughed until she cried.
“These are all rock plus stick,” she announced with a (slightly unhinged) laugh.
Well, it was time for a Neolithic agricultural revolution, then.
I think I need a hammer before anything else. Not like a proper hammer with a handle and all, but just a hammerstone, she decided. Something to knock other stones into a suitable shape. I don’t really need a specific type of stone for a hammerstone. The size and the shape are the most important parts. I wonder if I can find one the same way I found water.
She closed her eyes and concentrated, and after a moment, she had located one that was likely to suit her purposes. It was only a few dozen feet away, so she went and retrieved it, along with a few deadwood sticks that she hoped were sturdy enough to withstand the demands of testing exactly how the recipes worked.
Hammerstones were among the very first tools used by any tool users in the human lineage: practical, simple, and effective. They were rounded stones that felt comfortable in the hand, which could be used to bash things: nuts, bones to get at the marrow, and of course, other stones to make more sophisticated tools. Demi was relatively well-versed in the making of stone tools, at least for a school-age girl from the modern era. This was because she had gone through a wolf girl phase at a certain age, after watching a particular influential animated movie.
She had been so inspired to run off into the woods and become a wolf daughter that she had devoured every book she could find that she thought would be remotely useful to her new life in the wilds. And then it had turned out that she had found the subject of early toolmaking quite interesting, so she had continued on with it for some time.
(Due to her voracious appetite for books, Demi’s mind was a bizarre catalog of knowledge for knowledge’s sake. She read what she thought was personally interesting, never minding whether any of it might become relevant to her daily life outside of the acquisition of merit badges as a Forest Girl. Reading was one of the few vices she protected like a dragon. She might be coerced or harassed into giving up other parts of herself, but not reading. Never reading.)
(The Council of Demi unanimously agreed: Never reading. They would raise their weapons to fight if necessary.)
For proper tools, flint is probably best, Demi resolved as she considered what she needed most. Flint was much easier to shape than a stone she might pick up randomly. It was easier to bring it to an edge with knapping. I wonder if I can hunt for things more specific than just “roundish stone?” she mused.
Demi closed her eyes and thought more specifically about the characteristics of the kind of stone that she was looking for, and she did indeed locate a small seam of flint that was only a short walk away, near a cliffside.
She had already learned how to control the automapping function, so she wasn’t worried about getting lost. She still only had a very basic idea of where she was, but she was confident that she could at least get back to where she had started from.
“Come on,” she said to Glimmer resolutely. “We’re going to go get some rocks.”
“Of course,” he said, posing elegantly. “Beautiful me will accompany and advise you.”
Demi was both surprised and pleased because she thought he might complain about having to take a hike, given that Onagadori were not really made for trekking, but then Glimmer presented himself before Demi.
“Put me upon your shoulder and I will whisper wisdom into your ear, my little goddess,” he commanded, taking a very artistic pose.
Well, I suppose I should have expected that, Demi reflected with an inward laugh.
Despite his magnificent tail, he was not a very large chicken. Whether or not he was some sort of magical beast, the least she could do was carry him. It wasn’t really his fault that he had been born to be ornamental rather than strictly useful.
She knelt to pick him up and settle him on her shoulder.
At first she was a little concerned that he might slip off, given that her shoulder perches were quite diminutive. She was an extremely small person. It was good that the lending library had included a step-up ladder because Demi was not quite 4 feet 10 inches tall. Of course, Hollyhope herself was of identical stature, so she had likely included it as a matter of course.
Fortunately, Glimmer had immediately latched onto one of the decorative ribbons on her blouse and seemed to have comfortably secured himself. Even his absurdly long tail had somehow flipped over her shoulder and was now being handled by whatever magic was also handling her hair. It streamed along behind her prettily, but it did not get in her way.
With her chicken companion secured and pins dropped on the map to mark the flint outcrop and their starting location, Demi set off to acquire her rocks.
It was easier going along the fringe of the woodland than trying to go through the fields. Although the ground there seemed level, the grasses were high, and they concealed little ruts and holes, natural unevenness that would have made walking a challenge even without grass up to her waist.
Having grown up on an estate with a wooded park, managed timber, and a forest reserve, Demi was comfortable at the forest’s edge. She watched her feet so that she would not trip, and so she would not accidentally tread on any small living thing. This was not a new awareness born from having recently become a Harvest Goddess. It was just common courtesy, honestly.
But that, perhaps, was one of the reasons that Hollyhope had been so confident that being a Harvest Goddess was simply in her nature.
It didn’t take much extra care to keep from stepping on things she might badly injure, and observation of the ground kept her steady when she might otherwise have slipped.
Fortunately, she was able to keep at the fringe of the woodland, where the walking was relatively easy for most of the trek to the flint outcropping. The ground did rise gradually, but it did so slowly so that it wasn’t too difficult to walk.
Looking back at the dry, swaying grasses of the dried-up meadow, Demi wondered what they were. She was not particularly good at identifying cereal grains from a distance, something that she would likely have to improve on if she wanted to be a successful Harvest Goddess, she thought.
Were they wild oats? Indian grass? Maybe some kind of domesticated grain that had been left to run wild? Some combination of all of the above? She paused for a moment to rest and focused her eyes on the dry grasses as she thought the question over, and quite unexpectedly, she heard a little chime, something that absolutely sounded like a game event notification, and some words appeared in the air over one of the nearest plants.
Sadgrass.
Sadgrass.
It was such an absurd name that Demi couldn’t help reading it out loud.
As she did, Glimmer turned his head to look at it.
“Ugh. It’s awful stuff. It isn’t from here. It’s come from someplace else and it’s been messing everything up. It’s one of the reasons this place is so dreary,” he complained.
“Oh!” Demi said in realization. “It’s an invasive species. I can see how that would be a problem.”
Out of curiosity, Demi drew her fingers across the plant’s ostentatious name in hope of calling up more information.
She was rewarded with a very technical block of information describing the plant in detail, from its stems (glabrous and slender) to its leaves (pubescent) to its cleistogamous drooping panicle. After this came some information that was easier for her to parse.
It was a prolific seed producer and germinator, meaning that it spread aggressively whenever a disturbance in the environment gave it a foothold. It was also dangerously flammable and highly susceptible to wildfire, and apparently also released a toxin into the ground that functioned essentially as an herbicide. When the plant burned, the flammable sap inside it exploded, and the toxin showered the vicinity.