The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 178: The soap was a success

"Eureka!" I squealed in excitement, my cry echoing through the quiet, pre-dawn clearing, and startling a few morning birds.

I held the small, rectangular mold up to the fading moonlight and the gradually rising sun peeking out of the horizon, my heart thumping with a triumph I hadn’t felt since... well, since we made that troller move the way I wanted it to.

In my hands sat a bar of light pink soap.

It wasn’t perfect—the edges were a bit crumbly and it wasn’t as hard as a store-bought bar—but it was soap. I had spent the last few hours hunched over a small, intense fire, meticulously rendering the boar fat into clear oil, straining out the impurities, and carefully mixing in the lye I’d created from wood ash.

I brought the bar to my nose and inhaled deeply. My eyes sparkled. It didn’t smell like gamey boar or heavy grease. Instead, it carried a faint, sweet tartness. During the cooling process, I’d mashed in some of the wild berries I had tucked away in my pouch, praying the acidity wouldn’t ruin the chemistry.

It had worked. It had a delicate, natural fragrance that made me feel human again. I couldn’t resist rubbing the smooth surface against my cheek, savoring the cool, waxy texture.

"I did it... I actually did it," I whispered to myself.

I looked down at the pink bar, a sudden burst of impatient energy bubbling up in my chest. I didn’t know how the lye-to-fat ratio would affect my skin yet, but I was too excited to wait. I needed to know if it lathered. I needed to know if it cleaned.

"I’m so excited! I’m going to go try it out now!" I chirped, not even caring that I was talking to myself.

I grabbed a piece of cloth from the hurdle on the jige. I hadn’t planned for this but it seems this cloth would come in handy. I scrambled toward the stream, my tail swinging happily behind my back. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Behind me, at the edge of the dying campfire, two sets of eyes tracked my every move. Fenric and Damar were sitting up, their hair tousled and eyes half-lidded with sleep. They had watched the entire midnight alchemy session with a mixture of bafflement and adoration.

As I dashed toward the water, Damar’s long tail uncoiled, and he started to shift his weight as if to follow me into the brush.

"Wait," Fenric murmured, reaching out a hand to catch Damar’s shoulder. He let out a long, bone-stretching yawn, but his gaze remained fixed on my retreating back. "Let her be. She looks like she’s having the time of her life. Let’s not interrupt her moment."

Damar paused, his silver eyes narrowing slightly as he watched me disappear behind a thicket of ferns near the bank. He huffed a soft, warm breath but settled back down onto his coils.

The stream wasn’t far—barely thirty yards away. From where they sat, they could still hear the splash of water and catch glimpses of my golden hair through the leaves. They were close enough to reach me in three bounds if I so much as gasped in surprise, but for now, they gave me the one thing I hadn’t had in days.

A moment of pure, fragrant privacy.

I knelt by the water, the morning air nipping at my skin, and dipped the pink bar into the stream. I rubbed it between my palms, my breath catching as a thin, white, berry-scented lather began to bloom.

"Oh, thank god," I laughed, a real, giddy sound as I began to scrub my legs. "Goodbye, boar scent. Goodbye, dirt. It’s time to bring in an era of cleanliness."

It was too bad I couldn’t make another bar, but if we catch another boar in the future, I can do it again. And I’ll get some berries, ones that smell very nice so I can have different fragrant soap.

With that, I had made one more invention that I am most certainly proud of.

By the time the sunlight began to shine its rays through the branches and leaves of the trees, I was practically vibrating with joy.

I felt like I was walking on air, humming a catchy pop song under my breath that I hadn’t thought of in months.

Joy can truly make you remember stuff.

The pink bar of soap was tucked safely into a dry leaf, clutched in my hand like a precious jewel. My legs felt tingly and incredibly clean—the lather had been rich, and so far, there was no stinging or redness.

’Just give it a day,’ I told myself, trying to be the voice of reason. ’If my leg doesn’t break out in a rash or start peeling off by the time we reach the plains, then we’re golden.’ my eyes glinted.

Even with that caution in mind, I couldn’t stop the grin from stretching across my face. I felt refreshed, more like ’Arinya the science Student’ and less like ’Arinya the Jungle Predator who was once an art student.’

Robi was the first of the rabbits to stir. He sat up from the pile of leaves, rubbing his eyes with his paws and twitching his ears to shake off the morning dew. He froze when he saw me, his head tilting so far to the side it nearly touched his shoulder.

He looked at the dying embers of the fire, then at the two massive, half-sleepy predators watching me with soft eyes, and then back to my beaming, humming self.

"Um... Ms. Arinya?" he asked, his voice small and genuinely baffled. "Did... did something happen? Did the morning bring you a gift from the Great Beast god?"

He looked so confused, as if he couldn’t wrap his head around why someone would be this energetic before breakfast—especially someone who was supposed to be dreading a tunnel full of rats.

I laughed, a bright, clear sound that seemed to startle the forest awake. "You could say that, Robi! It’s a very good morning. A very, very ’clean’ morning."

I caught Fenric watching me, his ruby eyes tracking the way I moved with a look of pure, hungry adoration. He didn’t understand why the pink brick made me happy, but seeing me happy was clearly enough for him.

Damar, meanwhile, was flicking his tongue, likely picking up the scent of the berries on my skin instead of the heavy musk of the forest.

"Alright, everyone!" I clapped my hands together, the ’savior’ in me taking charge. "Let’s pack up. We have grain to find and a tunnel to explore. And since I’m in such a great mood, I might even try not to scream when I see the first mouse." I smiled.

Yeah, let’s not step on those little disgusting creatures once we see them and smile the whole day with no interruptions.