185: Jerky

Entering the butchery room, I pulled out the grarok first. It was the toughest of the three, so it would be the best test for the knife. When I originally butchered it, the knife could barely cut it.

Pulling out the new knife, I went to gently slice along the spine.

I cut immediately straight through the flesh and bone as if nothing was there at all. The knife only stopped because the handle hit the bone.

“That’s… dangerous,” I muttered to myself.

I pulled it forward, and besides the slightest amount of pressure required, it cut straight through the rib bones along the spine, which gave me an idea…

I pulled the grarok to the side. I would deal with that shortly. I pulled out the drake, filling the room, approaching its hindquarter, where the scales seemed the thickest outside of the spine, and just tried to cut straight through the scales.

There was resistance, and simply pressing on it didn’t cut into it. However, as I drew the knife down across the scales, I could immediately feel the knife cutting in, and then through… it cut drake scales in half.

I stored it away. That left one test. Pulling out the dragon’s tail, I looked over my shoulder to make sure that Milo wasn’t watching. If this destroyed a dragon scale, I knew he’d be very upset.

I was just about to touch my knife to the scale when Liane appeared, squatting next to me.

“Ooooh, that knife looks incredible!” she said in awe.

“It’s legendary,” I said in a whisper back.

When I turned to her, she caught a glimpse of the scale mail under my jacket.

“Wait! You got the chest piece too!” she practically yelled. “Let me see!”

“Hold on! Let me test this,” I said, shrugging her off as she tried to turn me.

I put the knife on the scale, right in the middle, and like the drake, pressure didn’t do anything. I pulled the knife down like I did with the drake, and…

Well, I don’t know if I was disappointed or relieved when the blade didn’t cut into it.

I moved the knife back and forth a little, putting a decent amount of pressure, but I didn’t cut through it. With a sigh, I pulled the knife away and was surprised to see, unlike all the other items that had tried to cut the scale, there was a gouge left in it.

“Wow,” Liane said.

“Yeah, it’s not a lot. I was kind of hoping it would cut through,” I said.

“Not a lot? What are you talking about? Cutting an ancient dragon scale is ridiculous. We all tried to cut or even damage it, remember, and none of us made a scratch. You, however, have left a solid gouge out of that,” Liane said, running her finger along it.

“Watch your finger,” I said, just trying to be safe as I moved the blade under the scale, and watched as it cut effortlessly through the skin underneath, removing the scale completely from the tail.

Liane stared at it. “So easy…” she muttered.

I quickly stored the dragon and the scale away, and only after a moment Liane remembered the armour, turning me towards her.

“Open the jacket, let me see!” she said.

I opened it up, showing her the mail as she scrutinised it.

“Is it legendary as well?” she asked.

I didn’t know that, so I just shrugged.

“I really like the drag…” she began to say, but there was a pressure in the room halfway through the word.

“As I was saying, I really like the Lily embroidery on here, and Crisplet,” Liane said.

Looking over her shoulder, I saw Lily sitting there, staring at us. “Lily, you can’t just bully everyone who mentions the dragon on the armour. Remember, the suit has your face on it and not a dragon!”

Lily just let out a huff of breath before moving over to the grarok that was pushed to the side.

“Don’t eat that! It’s for jerky. I’ll make you some lunch when I’m done. I promise,” I said.

I covered the armour back up and got to work, being extra careful with the knife as I cut, though it didn’t help all that much. On multiple occasions I slipped through the bone, and was so thankful to Martin for teaching me to cut away from myself all those months ago, or I might have lost a hand.

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It took me about an hour to butcher all three animals. The hardest ended up being the Miremaw. The bones were just too soft, and I struggled to tell what was bone or flesh. In the end, I cut it in half and practically ripped the bones out by hand. Cutting around it was impossible.

Liane was laughing at my struggles constantly, and Lily had vanished somewhere.

“How thin do I cut jerky?” I asked, looking at Liane.

“Usually you cut it with the grain, and you cut it half a finger thick. It will lose a lot of mass as it dries and loses water. Just remember to trim as much fat as possible because that’s what goes rancid the fastest,” Liane said.

I nodded, carrying all the cuts of meat into the kitchen so I could work on the counters. I got to work and ran into my newest problem almost immediately. The knife was cutting deep into the chopping board with every slice, even when I was desperately trying not to.

“You’re going to need a runescribed chopping board now, or you’ll go through those in no time,” Liane chuckled as she got comfortable in the corner.