72 Tardide Feas

After waking up, Jayde prepared breakfast for everyone, after everyone had eaten, she then spent the morning skinning and cleaning the Albatross-Bighorn and Bronze-Nosed Zorse carcasses in her spatial ring, after storing the meat and soaking the skins, she left the cave with Reiko to go to the river to clean up.

On the way to the river, Jayde dug a pit and buried the viscera, once she arrived at the river Jayde bathed and washed her clothes, changing into a clean set. She and Reiko spent the rest of the day foraging, collecting wood and hunting. Since Yinxin was omnivorous, Jayde also collected whatever fruit she could find, with her spatial ring brimming with food the pair returned to the cave.

That evening Jayde took out a large clay pot and placed it over the hot coals, then adding meat and vegetables Jayde made a delicious stew for them. Yinxin and Reiko thoroughly enjoyed their dinner, Since Reiko wasn't interested in the fruit, only Yinxin and Jayde had some fruit afterward as a desert.

Jayde spent the rest of the evening using the emerald grass that was now ready — sewing baskets.

The next day after ensuring that the dragons were cared for and leaving them enough food, Jayde and Reiko set off for Tardide. Today was the third day and she had promised Elder Ryunzo that she would attend the feast that he wanted to throw for her.

Arriving at the village, most of the villagers came up to Jayde — they all wanted to chat to her and were grateful that she had destroyed the Direwolves pack that had terrorized them for so long. Since there were still a couple more hours until the banquet started, Jayde spent her time chatting with the villagers and trading some goods for products that she needed.

Jayde managed to stock up on items like salt and pepper, she even managed to get some soft linen that she could use to make some underclothes for herself. Seeing some finely made needles she managed to trade some metal ores for them as well as some cotton thread.

Most of the villagers had just wanted to give her the goods, but Jayde refused — she could see that the villagers were poor as they had been unable to plant sufficient crops to trade during the past couple of years due to the Direwolves. That Jayde refused to take advantage of the villagers only endeared her more to them.

Jayde enjoyed her time socializing with the villagers, she found them honest and hardworking. What amazed her was how the villagers had pulled together over the crisis of the Direwolves, with all of them sharing what little they had with each other. It was this sharing of resources that had allowed them to survive.

That afternoon, Jayde drank and ate with the villagers, Behro and his brother had been able to finally enter the forest to hunt and had supplied meat for the whole village. The old women had baked bread and some of the younger women had foraged for vegetables and fruit. While the fare was simple it was tasty and Jayde and Reiko had a wonderful time.

Once the feast was over, Jayde bid farewell to everyone. Most of the villagers were sad to see her go, and nearly every single household offered her a room to stay in. Touched at the generosity of the villagers, Jayde explained that she wanted to stay in the forest to cultivate, the villagers knew that cultivation was very important for mages, so they didn't insist, but they did get Jayde to promise to visit them again in a couple of days.

With her arms bulging with gifted cakes, tarts, loaves of bread and even a bag of porridge, Jayde returned to the cave.

After returning to the cave, Jayde shared some of the cakes and tarts with Yinxin, who by now had become addicted to human food. Seeing Reiko and Yinxin devouring the cakes and tarts, Jayde made a note that the next time she visited the village, she would ask one of the ladies there to teach her how to bake.

***

The next couple of days were busy for Jayde, after removing the skins from the lime bath, she had to remove all the fur, then making a tannin solution she placed the skins in it – the skins would need to soak for a couple of days.

She collected her coals from the river bank and started a new batch wood to be turned into coals. With Reiko's help, Jayde spent a couple of hours every day hunting to replenish her meat stores. With Yinxin recovering — her appetite had increased and she was eating a lot of meat every day.

Now that Jayde had coals, she dug out a large pit near the cave, which she layered with hot coals, she placed large chunks of spiced meat over the hot coals, and covering the meat with dried leaves, she placed clay tiles that she made over it. This way she could cook a couple of carcasses at a time to feed the bottomless pits in her care.

With all her herbs dried Jayde had managed to stock up her stores of herbs, and whenever she went foraging she would collect more herbs to dry.

Jayde had also thrown some of the Lily Pods seeds into the nearby river, she needed to replenish her stock, and she didn't think it would harm Telia if she added them to their ecosystem. It had done no harm to the Dark Forest.

***

It had been four days since the feast, and Jayde decided to return to the village, Yinxin had been hankering for some fruit tarts and Jayde wanted to buy some porridge, she had really enjoyed eating the bag of porridge she had been given for breakfast, eating meat three times a day had become a bit too much for her.

Reiko and Jayde set off early in the morning for the village, they arrived just before mid-morning and all the villagers were happy to see Jayde. They all came up to her and greeted her enthusiastically.

"Jayde you just in time" Elder Ryunzo called out as he walked up to Jayde.

"Today we are going to start plowing the land so we can start planting next week" Elder Ryunzo explained.

Asking Jayde if she would be interested in joining them, Jayde agreed — she wanted to see how these villagers farmed, she had read about ancient Earth methods, so she was interested in comparing the methods.

Most of the villagers had gathered, it looked like everyone in the village took part in farming. The old woman had prepared food for everyone, Jayde was informed that the young men had already taken the tools to one of the cleared fields.

Everyone walked together gossiping and talking along the way. Jayde could feel the camaraderie between everyone as the strolled to the cleared fields where the young men were already hard at work.

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