An Improvised Belt and Knife-Sheath for Astra

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 47609

"The only b-belt I have is the one I am w-wearing," Hesht told Astra, "and without it my b-breeches would fall down. There's a rope in my p-pack. B- but I m-might have something better..." He rummaged in his pack, and drew out a red silk scarf and a clod of purple clay about the size of a grapefruit.

"You have some unlikely things in your pack," Astra commented. "I can see that I could use the scarf as an improvised belt - it seems to be long enough - but what is the clay for?"

"It is very g-good for sticking things together. I thought you might f- fashion a loop of the scarf into a sort of s-sheath and use a small lump of clay to h-hold it together."

"Couldn't I make a sheath out of the clay instead?"

"That much clay would be rather h-heavy, so it might work f-free from the scarf and fall off. B-besides, you wouldn't be able t-to use the knife in a hurry if you did that, as some of the clay would be bound to stick to it when you t-tried to draw it."

After a little trial and error, Astra managed - rather to her surprise - to produce a satisfactory sheath. The knife seemed to be held in place quite securely, so that it was unlikely to move around sufficiently to pierce either the scarf or Astra herself.

They had breakfast using the supplies that Hesht had brought with him, and then resumed their journey.

  1. The track which they were using seemed to be very little used, but after a couple of hours they encountered someone traveling in the opposite direction.
  2. Dark clouds soon began to build up, and Hesht became concerned. Heavy rain could quickly turn what were normally easily fordable brooks into raging torrents, especially in the case of the one that flowed through the ravine.
  3. The morning passed uneventfully. After about four hours' walking they stopped for lunch.

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JH

12/14/2004 3:02:23 AM

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