"Eureka!" I squealed in excitent, my cry echoing through the quiet, pre-dawn clearing, and startling a few morning birds.
I held the small, rectangular mold up to the fading moonlight and the gradually rising sun peeking out of the horizon, my heart thumping with a triumph I hadn’t felt since... well, since we made that troller move the way I wanted it to.
In my hands sat a bar of light pink soap.
It wasn’t perfect—the edges were a bit crumbly and it wasn’t as hard as a store-bought bar—but it was soap. I had spent the last few hours hunched over a small, intense fire, ticulously rendering the boar fat into clear oil, straining out the impurities, and carefully mixing in the lye I’d created from wood ash.
I brought the bar to my nose and inhaled deeply. My eyes sparkled. It didn’t sll like gay boar or heavy grease. Instead, it carried a faint, sweet tartness. During the cooling process, I’d mashed in so of the wild berries I had tucked away in my pouch, praying the acidity wouldn’t ruin the chemistry.
It had worked. It had a delicate, natural fragrance that made feel human again. I couldn’t resist rubbing the smooth surface against my cheek, savoring the cool, waxy texture.
"I did it... I actually did it," I whispered to myself.
I looked down at the pink bar, a sudden burst of impatient energy bubbling up in my chest. I didn’t know how the lye-to-fat ratio would affect my skin yet, but I was too excited to wait. I needed to know if it lathered. I needed to know if it cleaned.
"I’m so excited! I’m going to go try it out now!" I chirped, not even caring that I was talking to myself.
I grabbed a piece of cloth from the hurdle on the jige. I hadn’t planned for this but it seems this cloth would co in handy. I scrambled toward the stream, my tail swinging happily behind my back.
Behind , at the edge of the dying campfire, two sets of eyes tracked my every move. Fenric and Damar were sitting up, their hair tousled and eyes half-lidded with sleep. They had watched the entire midnight alchemy session with a mixture of bafflent and adoration.
As I dashed toward the water, Damar’s long tail uncoiled, and he started to shift his weight as if to follow into the brush.
"Wait," Fenric murmured, reaching out a hand to catch Damar’s shoulder. He let out a long, bone-stretching yawn, but his gaze remained fixed on my retreating back. "Let her be. She looks like she’s having the ti of her life. Let’s not interrupt her mont."
Damar paused, his silver eyes narrowing slightly as he watched disappear behind a thicket of ferns near the bank. He huffed a soft, warm breath but settled back down onto his coils.
The stream wasn’t far—barely thirty yards away. From where they sat, they could still hear the splash of water and catch glimpses of my golden hair through the leaves. They were close enough to reach in three bounds if I so much as gasped in surprise, but for now, they gave the one thing I hadn’t had in days.
A mont of pure, fragrant privacy.
I knelt by the water, the morning air nipping at my skin, and dipped the pink bar into the stream. I rubbed it between my palms, my breath catching as a thin, white, berry-scented lather began to bloom.
"Oh, thank god," I laughed, a real, giddy sound as I began to scrub my legs. "Goodbye, boar scent. Goodbye, dirt. It’s ti to bring in an era of cleanliness."
It was too bad I couldn’t make another bar, but if we catch another boar in the future, I can do it again. And I’ll get so berries, ones that sll very nice so I can have different fragrant soap.
With that, I had made one more invention that I am most certainly proud of.
By the ti the sunlight began to shine its rays through the branches and leaves of the trees, I was practically vibrating with joy.
I felt like I was walking on air, humming a catchy pop song under my breath that I hadn’t thought of in months.
Joy can truly make you rember stuff.
The pink bar of soap was tucked safely into a dry leaf, clutched in my hand like a precious jewel. My legs felt tingly and incredibly clean—the lather had been rich, and so far, there was no stinging or redness.
’Just give it a day,’ I told myself, trying to be the voice of reason. ’If my leg doesn’t break out in a rash or start peeling off by the ti we reach the plains, then we’re golden.’ my eyes glinted.
Even with that caution in mind, I couldn’t stop the grin from stretching across my face. I felt refreshed, more like ’Arinya the science Student’ and less like ’Arinya the Jungle Predator who was once an art student.’
Robi was the first of the rabbits to stir. He sat up from the pile of leaves, rubbing his eyes with his paws and twitching his ears to shake off the morning dew. He froze when he saw , his head tilting so far to the side it nearly touched his shoulder.
He looked at the dying embers of the fire, then at the two massive, half-sleepy predators watching with soft eyes, and then back to my beaming, humming self.
"Um... Ms. Arinya?" he asked, his voice small and genuinely baffled. "Did... did sothing happen? Did the morning bring you a gift from the Great Beast god?"
He looked so confused, as if he couldn’t wrap his head around why soone would be this energetic before breakfast—especially soone who was supposed to be dreading a tunnel full of rats.
I laughed, a bright, clear sound that seed to startle the forest awake. "You could say that, Robi! It’s a very good morning. A very, very ’clean’ morning."
I caught Fenric watching , his ruby eyes tracking the way I moved with a look of pure, hungry adoration. He didn’t understand why the pink brick made happy, but seeing happy was clearly enough for him.
Damar, anwhile, was flicking his tongue, likely picking up the scent of the berries on my skin instead of the heavy musk of the forest.
"Alright, everyone!" I clapped my hands together, the ’savior’ in taking charge. "Let’s pack up. We have grain to find and a tunnel to explore. And since I’m in such a great mood, I might even try not to scream when I see the first mouse." I smiled.
Yeah, let’s not step on those little disgusting creatures once we see them and smile the whole day with no interruptions.
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