Chapter 342 - Muscle Memory

Eiro stood in the cave and proceeded to cut the boars' corpses up into the different parts properly. Of course, mainly he wanted to cut the meat off of the bones so that he could prepare it well, although there were some parts that were better when the bone was still attached.

When it came to the cuts that were meant for the children, however, Eiro made sure to remove all of the bones. Sure, they would probably be able to simply crush the bones into pieces, but it should be more pleasant for them this way.

Eiro sorted out the bones that he wouldn't need for now, hoping that he would find some other use for them later on. Especially the tusks should be something that Armodeus would be happy with. He probably wouldn't integrate them into any of the items that he was crafting at the moment, since they were obviously of a far lower quality than the materials he was currently wroking with, but he should still be able to make some rather neat trinkets using the boars' tusks.

Either way, after Eiro cut the boars up into the right pieces, Eiro tried to start cooking them. He technically had everything that he needed for that in the carriage, but the main thing he wanted were the large metal bars that Armodeus brought as raw materials. The Dwarf would melt them down to use for certain items. 

But right now, Eiro manipulated the rock floor and created a hole in the ground that he placed those bars onto, fixing some of them in place with earth magic. Through the larger gaps that he left open for now, Eiro placed some wood and lit it on fire. He made the flames slightly die down so that they weren't blazing on full heat, so that he wouldn't burn the meat.

But once he was done with this, he fixed the rest of the metal bars into place and started to grill the meat for everyone. They luckily had quite a bit of salt with them already, and Eiro found some different herbs that should go well with this meat in the forest as well.

Soon, the scent of grilled meat was filling the cave, and Eiro heard a heavy figure approach him. She was the only one that was currently awake, and Eiro didn't have the chance to have a private conversation with her yet.

The Dragon of Chaos, Krista. In her draconic form, one that seemed to keep changing ever so slightly whenever Eiro blinked, she approached the Demon casually, "Oh, you are preparing food for us?" She asked quietly.

Her voice was weird to listen to as well, since Eiro wasn't sure what kind of voice it truly was. It was hard to grasp considering Krista's raw chaotic nature. It sounded mature and kind, or young and vicious at the same time. But for now, Eiro tried to simply ignore this for now, and looked at Krista with a smile on his face.

"Lognir is helping me out quite a bit, and he's even allowing Armodeus to make some items using his scales. I figured I should try and be at least a little helpful." Eiro explained, and Krista laughed quietly, as if she knew something that Eiro didn't know. That might have just been an effect of her random nature, though. Anyway, the Dragon of Chaos looked at Eiro with her large sparkling eyes that turned matte and dead the next time the Demon blinked, and spoke, "That is rather kind of you, child. But I must say, I'm surprised that you were able to figure out our favorite dish." 

"It wasn't that hard to figure out, if I have to tell the truth. There are quite a lot of things that hint at it here." Eiro explained, "Anyway, that's not important right now... Do you have any part you like in particular? Usually I would try and make a guess, but I'm afraid that's literally impossible."

"Are you sure about that?" Krista asked, and Eiro looked back at her a bit surprised, "What do you mean..?"

The Dragon slightly shifted the weight of her body as she sat up in front of Eiro, "While I certainly am chaos itself, is it truly that hard to sort through that chaos and see the truth behind it? It was possible for my dear Logir. It was what made me love him in the first place, you see?"

Seeing through Chaos..? Would that be possible? Eiro thought back onto everything that he could in his memories, onto everything that he remembered about Krista. About how she acted, and about how she carried herself in the different 'versions' of herself.

The way she interacted with her children, and how much they loved her. It made Eiro realize... While she certainly was a chaotic being from the grounds-up, largely, the things she interacted with were not random. Through the world around her, it was possible to analyze the chaotic nature, and see a bit of the true form beyond it.

Especially when he looked back onto the bones that he looked at to figure out what the favorite beast of these Dragons was.

"...The legs, maybe?" Eiro suggested with a wry smile on his face. It was hard for him to realize this fact in the first place, but it seemed like a certain few bones were randomly changing their position sometimes, as if they were moving around. But rather, it was just the effect of Krista's chaotic nature affecting them.

Either way, the bones in question were those that could be found in the legs, mostly.

With a broad smile, or at least Eiro thought it might have been a smile, Krista laughed, "Most certainly, child." She replied, and Eiro raised his brows a bit surprised, especially when he heard the Dragon's next words, "Interesting... Maybe I should show you a trick or two after you are done with my mate's training..."

"...Excuse me?" Eiro replied surprised, not having expected this sort of development, and Krista softly smiled, "The powers of Truth and Order may be useful to you, but so should the powers of Chaos be. It will make sense to you soon. I will not explain any more to you until Lognir does not acknowledge your training as over."

Eiro looked back at the Dragoness with wide open eyes. He wasn't sure why, but he certainly did want to receive this training from Krista. Abilities constructed through the powers of Chaos? How could he say 'no' to that?

The next big opponent that Eiro was planning on fighting was ... The being known to be the greatest schemer of all time. Having a bit of chaos within his actions couldn't hurt Eiro in overcoming whatever plan that monster had constructed.

Eiro smiled broadly as he continued to cook food for Krista, and Lognir soon woke as well, followed by the newborn Dragons.

It didn't take long until Armodeus woke up either, and as everyone ate the meat, Eiro prepared some food for the horses and Lognir. They obviously couldn't eat the meat, so Eiro gathered some different plants and herbs that should be good for them.

After eating as well, Armodeus made his way back to his items, while Krista kept taking care of the children. And Lognir and Eiro continued the Demon's practice.

He looked inside himself and continued the work that he stopped at last night. Noting down anything that he could from the books. He did this all day and all night, and then another half a day. Until Eiro reached a point where nothing more could be done.

The Demon finished noting down everything that he could, making use of the few scraps of paper that he managed to find within the library of his mind to fill in the blanks. He luckily managed to complete a handful of memories, confirming that this truly worked to help him remember that which he lost.

But then, he couldn't continue. There were no scraps of paper left anymore.

Seeing the Demon struggling like this, Lognir chose to give Eiro one more tip. A silent one. He threw a rock at Eiro.

Of course, Eiro noticed the rock being thrown at him in such a straightforward manner, and instinctively was able to catch it without much thought to it.

He looked back at Lognir confused, and his mind raced for a few moments until the Demon realized what the Dragon was trying to say.

"Memories aren't always only made up of the mental sort, huh?" Eiro asked, in reply to which Lognir simply continued to smile silently. Eiro felt dumb whenever Lognir pointed these obvious things out.

Eiro couldn't only concentrate on the raw knowledge. Many of his memories that were lost were those in which Eiro learned wood-carving, or where he was fighting beasts, monsters, or other opponents.

Muscle memory was also something rather important. So how should he show this within his library?

It was simple. There was a large empty space in the center of the library that simply appeared there without Eiro actively putting it there. It was just naturally part of this space, maybe because Eiro subconsciously already knew that this was something he had to do at some point.

The Demon grabbed one of the books that seemed to be a good fit considering the parts that were missing and flipped to the first page. And just like that, Eiro started to act out that which was written on this paper.

Normally, he would be able to dive into his memories to experience them properly, but in this case, he couldn't. The memories weren't really there all the way, after all. So, Eiro had to act like he could dive into them, and act them out like this as accurately as possible.

Soon, it seemed as if the book was slowly guiding him along, and he started doing things that weren't written in the books. Small tics that Eiro had sometimes, like tapping his leg when he was nervous, or cracking his knuckles when he was waiting for something to happen.

These were things that Eiro didn't actively register in his mind, so they weren't important enough to be noted down in the book, but they were still part of this particular memory. And soon, Eiro reached the first part that had a piece ripped out. It was as if Eiro froze there for a moment. He was standing still, until he wasn't. As if in slow motion, his body started to shift and move in the way that it needed to for this memory.

And when he got through that, a scrap of paper fell from the ceiling down onto the ground.