The Artificer and the Genie: A Harem Fantasy Adventure (The Tales of Shattered Zemyah Book 1) by Janiak Cyrus

Author:Janiak, Cyrus [Janiak, Cyrus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The Magical Bamboo Boat

T rue to my word, I did start construction on a boat the next day. Though, truthfully, not much actual construction got done, as I was stuck in the planning stages, particularly with figuring out what types of materials I had to work with. Actually, Soraya ended up doing the real work, seeking out bamboo groves, as well as other vine-plants that I could use to lash the bamboo poles together.

The bamboo groves were a fantastic find. Like I mentioned earlier, bamboo was strong, light, and naturally buoyant, due to the hollow chambers inside every cane. It would be simple enough to lash a bunch of bamboo tubes together in a two-layer rectangle and have a functional raft, but I didn’t want to stop there. I didn’t know the geography of this shardworld at all. It seemed like we were in the middle of a shallow, tropical sea, and the spell I’d put on the Hauer box should’ve taken us somewhere close to civilization, but I couldn’t bet my life on either of those assumptions before setting out into the unknown. I wanted to build something more robust than a simple raft.

The problem was, I had no real knowledge about how to do that, and neither did Soraya, despite her extensive life experience. The best I could get from her was that she knew it was possible to make a canoe by hollowing out a tree trunk with fire, or do the same with two trees to make a catamaran, but the specific details about how to do that escaped her.

So, after much dithering, I decided to keep it simple and lash bundles of bamboo together to form pontoons, and stick a bamboo lattice deck in between that, and then hope for the best. It felt a bit dicey, but it seemed like that should work, and I didn’t see what other option I had.

So I began experimenting, and Soraya had the excellent idea that I should try building a more permanent shelter for myself before working on the boat. That let me get used to working with my available materials in a lower-stakes project. In other words, if my hut fell over, I wouldn’t drown.

It was a good move, as there was a learning process that went along with bamboo cane construction. Some of my previous experience with magic-item crafting did help out, as some of the principles of binding jewels with wire also applied to binding bamboo canes with vines. However, there were still a lot of little details that were different, and it took practice to get the hang of it.

I finished my first small hut, and immediately tore it down to make a much better one. I was tempted to tear that one down and make a further improved one, but decided against it, reasoning that the effort would be better spent on raft construction.

Along the way, I learned all sorts of interesting ways to use the canes. I was working primarily with five-inch diameter logs.

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