Armour Acquired!
The next day Luca is woken up yet again by Sarr'ina who excitedly shakes him awake, "Lu! It's almost ready!"
...
"What's ready" he says through a yawn while rubbing the dust from his eyes.
"Your pelt!"
He lays down for a moment... Before his eyes springs open, now wide awake. He finally had some sort of clothing and didn't have to walk around naked! He quickly gets up and glances behind him at Sarr'ina, "What are you waiting for!? Let's go!" he says while briskly walking out of his hut.
Sarr'ina leads him to a place beside the river that.. Smells a bit off?
"What's that smell?" he asks, holding back the urge to gag.
"It is what we use to make pelts last..." she say with a small grimace.
She leads him to a large wooden bath? It's big enough to hold many people but when Luca steps closer he almost vomits, inside is filled to the brim with a yellowish liquid... Wait, there a large brown thing in it... That better now be the bears pelt! He mentally screams.
"This... That isn't my pelt right?" he questions Sarr'ina with a grim look.
"It is..."
"Why is it in a bath of piss?" he asks, clearly knowing by it's smell alone of what it is.
"It is how we stop it from rotting... After we dry it in a pile of salt we all pee into this before adding a lot of salt and river water, it makes pelts last a lot longer than just using salt..." she says.
"And how did anyone find this out? Did they accidentally piss themselves while wearing a pelt and found that it lasted longer!?!" he exclaims, not feeling as excited about wearing this thing now...
"Er, I do not know... It is knowledge passed down from our ancestors." she says with a confused expression.
Eventually a couple of old looking women come over and plunge their hands into the bath, grabbing the pelt and pulling it out before they hang it to dry in a tree.
One walks over to Sarr'ina and says "Once dry we will wash it in the river, then Lu'ka can take it."
She nods rapidly with a smile and looks back at him, "Are you not excited!" she exclaims.
...
"Yep..." he says, managing to hide the frown that appears when he thinks of wearing the piss cured hide.
As they wait for the hide to dry they get back to what they were doing yesterday, with the nettle fibres dry they are now usable to tie things with, that is, after they're processed. Sarr'ina pulls him aside and sits him down while she shows him how to bundle the fibres and turn them into string and if you wish, eventually rope.
Obviously, as Luca is like a bull in a China shop when it comes to tasks that require a high amount of dexterity like this, he completely fails to even twist the fibre's properly for the first few hours of trying it. Thankfully, Sarr'ina sits next to him, patiently helping him along and showing him various tricks and techniques to make the process easier.
Luca was happy with who he had teaching him as he didn't think he'd be able to do half the things he'd been taught without Sarr'ina's constant excitement fuel'd enthusiasm for teaching. Not to mention his motivation to improve as he didn't wish to be torn apart by an animal again... Now that he's apparently immortal he found his thoughts always being drawn towards the most grim and depressing things, like what it'd feel like to start to death and whether or not it would be worth it to just kill himself to avoid feeling hungry... These thoughts made him feel powerful but also apathetic and less "human", if that makes sense.
Eventually it was time for them to bring down the pelt to see if it was okay to be worn, though Luca was sure he would wash it in the river a number of times before actually wearing it. Sarr'ina pulls the massive furry pelt from the tree and onto herself, she grimaces slightly at the smell still lingering on it but they find that it's dry enough to be washed. Needless to say they toss it into the river and scrub it with their bare hands for almost an hour before they are happy with it's smell.
After drying it yet again, Luca throws it over his shoulders which reveals just how warm he feels while wearing it. The brown fur scrapes across the ground due to how big it is but if he grows a bit it'll eventually fit him perfectly.
"Are you happy?" Sarr'ina asks as she sees him smile while wearing his new pelt.
Luca nods, "Very... It feels good to own something valuable again.." he says, wondering how much a pelt like this would cost back in England... Probably a couple thousand considering how big it is, though it did have a few holes from the tribesman spears.
Eventually they sit back down on the ground to continue twisting the nettle fibres into string, the bear hide sits across his shoulders keeping him warm from the occasional breeze that used to make his body retract his "precious" area into his body. They continue twisting string for a couple more hours until they end up with an adequate length that Sarr'ina nods at in satisfaction.
"What now?" he asks, assuming they'd be using this to tie the flint spear head to the branch.
"Now we make your spear." she says with a smile, confirming his suspicion.
After Sarr'ina shows him an effective way to tie flint to wood to maximise the strength and stability of it, Luca attempts to do the same with his own... Due to him not thinking of the future, the flint he was using as a spearhead didn't have any outcropping bits that could be used to tie string around, thus making it a more stable spear. Instead he had to just tie it as hard as possible without accidentally cutting the string on the rather sharp edge of the flint.
With some assistance from Sarr'ina and a few cuts to his fingers Luca eventually finishes his first weapon, ever! The sense of relief and satisfaction that washes over him as he sees his primitive looking spear finally assembled fills him with absolute joy. He jumps up and hugs the equally as excited Sarr'ina as they hop around and dance with each other in the clearing.
Five minutes of dancing later Luca finally realises his hands had been roaming all over her body, though it appears as if she didn't notice or didn't care... This wasn't the strangest thing however, that'd belong to why he had been so excited about creating this piece of trash in the first place... It's literally the lowest thing a human can create, just a stick and flint tied with plant matter, and yet he felt so happy after finally completing it... He glances over Sarr'ina who's still giggling and grasps his mothers necklace, a warm feeling making his chest feel strange.
An hour or so later after they had calmed down Sarr'ina hops up and exclaims, "We can finally start hunting!"
"Really?" Luca asks with an eager smile.
She nods rapidly. "We will start with small animals first, I will show you how to track, sneak, kill, skin and harvest!" she quickly says in one breath.
...
Luca gives her a funny look and asks, "Say Ina, do these "Small Animals" include squirrels?..."
She nods, "Of course... They are one of the easiest to catch." she says, backing up slightly when Luca shouts "FINALLY!"
"Finally what Lu?" she asks confused.
...
*Cough* "Nothing, I just got a little too excited... When will we start?"
"Now. First I will show you how to not step on branches and ruin hunts..." she says with a smile that doesn't reach her eyes.
"Er, Ina?" he asks, backing up from her weird expression and accidentally stepping on a twig that loudly snaps...
"Let us begin." she says, whacking him in the leg that'd stepped on the twig with a branch. Causing him to jump away, crunching yet another twig.. "Maybe we could talk ab-OUCH!