B+Bs: To Stand In A Beast's World

58. Informant

My need for information decreased because the perfect supplier constantly came to me for chitchats.

Thanks to the leopard queen, I stayed in the loop on what was happening in the city. Things weren't looking so great for the ape king.

Sickness was running rampant, killing both females and males alike. Bart was acting in his father's place, and the tiger throne remains inconsistently occupied. It's quite the mess.

The leopard king had to assist in expanding Camel Hump Valley to accommodate those fleeing from the city, but getting those beasts to quarantine properly has been a headache. Her information matched with Harvey's while adding the bits about the other kings.

Harvey and I consulted about how to handle this, but I just wasn't the most educated in this area. I did my best to help though.

I had no intention of moving back to the city with things the way they were, but the Valley wasn't suitable for permanent living. Especially not with how crowded it got. The city was still out of the question.

Considering the current events, I tried my hardest to remember a discussion I once had with a colleague. He was an enthusiast of alcohol who made his own vodka. I knew what the ingredients were considering how often he talked about it, but I struggled to remember the process since it wasn't anything I was interested in.

Unfortunately, no matter how many times I wracked my brain, I couldn't recall something I didn't pay attention to. That meant that any experimentation was really going to be that: an experiment.

It sounded like a fun project, but not when lives were on the line. I took it seriously and started giving it a go. Winston built a shed that sat next to our new smoking shed for my experiments.

I threw ground-up wild grains in honey water and let it sit. Without a guide, I'm not positive about how to make yeast, but I did have a general idea from a fiction book I read once. Yeast needs grain, sugar, and water... that's what I vaguely recall anyway.

If I get yeast, I should be able to turn juice into alcohol. Well, theoretically that is. I'm going to have to give it a few tries, and hopefully, I strike gold. But if I fail, maybe I can ask the ape king how to make his version of wine.

Aside from that, I assisted the epidemic efforts by grinding herbs for Harvey to use. He was running around so much, I barely saw him anymore. And I'm not entirely sure how, but Harvey even managed to rope Curtis into his efforts.

It was an unusual combo, to say the least. But if anyone was going to get along with Curtis, it'd be Harvey. I'm wondering how intentional it was on both their parts.

Curtis's reputation was growing, and it was shockingly positive. Well, there were a few complaints from the beasts that were manhandled by him... Why would Curtis agree to something like that anyway? I know my curiosity will get the best of me one of these days, and I will ask.

I can sort of understand what Harvey might be thinking. Keep Curtis busy and useful while getting him used to the village life. That's my guess anyway.

Once the ape king 'discovered' the problem that caused the disease, it was immediately addressed. The bodies of the fallen were already far along in decomposition. The decay leached into the soil which leeched into the water source, contaminating it. They had to be burned and removed, but the ground would need to be given time, and the water source avoided.

The leopard king earned recognition for his foresight, but he turned the praise over to Harvey. That much attention was crossing the lines of comfort, but I couldn't control the leopard king.