On second thought, the cat girlfriend could wait for a little bit. Ooga Booga needed to stay warm, and get a decent meal inside his stomach if he wanted to survive this blizzard.
He may know what hypothermia is called now, but it was still as dangerous as the spirit he once knew it by.
Luckily he had been hunting before the blizzard and had a frozen snow rabbit hanging on his hip, but sadly there was no firewood.
Ooga Booga did have dust to spare, the glacier was chock filled with various types stuck in the walls, but the difficulty using it would be extracting them carefully... And actually using it would be unwise, considering he was inside an enclosed cave like room with dust inside the walls.
It was time for him to get creative, he may have gotten techniques to survive for free, but they didn't help much if you had restricted resources.
Even if he somehow used dust and nothing else exploded in a chain reaction his meat would be black char.
~0~
Jinn had retreated into her lamp at some point, having been either bored or uncaring of freezing time for him to think with.
Atoms continue the natural course and the tempreture steadily drops lower and lower.
Ooga Booga was getting desperate, his mammoth hide doing little to protect himself, he started to think less about how to survive and started more stray thoughts on giving up.
The lamp was looking increasingly appetizing as a delay tactic...
Scooting over Ooga Booga stops just before extending a hand out towards the cold and lifeless looking relic.
What are the chances he would need an excuse to open the lamp? Who's to say the time will freeze when Jinn has no more questions? Too many unknowns.
So what did he really know of the relic? Maybe there were clues to what he can and can't do with it? Hidden amongst the newfound knowledge.
Wait a second... Ooga Booga had done his own testing on it already! Its hollow! A plan starts to formulate as he moves.
"Jinn?" The lamps lid rotates on its threading slightly, opening the slits on the neck, giving the ethereal being access to the world once again.
Interestingly enough, time did freeze once again.
"You still have one hundred years to wait for your next question." Her voice was calm enough, but there was definitely an under tone to it, like she expected better of him.
"Thats not why I called on you... I just want to know how strong the lamp is." His conversation topic got Jinn frowning.
"The structural integrity is far beyond anything in this world, only matched by the other relics." Other relics? That was new to him.
But that was a line of questioning for another day, one where his life wasn't on the line.
"So you don't mind if I put fire dust inside the relic?" Her reaction was priceless, jaw dropping and frown vaporizing as the dark blue eyebrows shoot up towards her hairline... But the most apparent was that time resumed its natural flow.
She took her time trying to figure out a reasonable response to that, but in the end gave up with a "Sure... I guess..."
Ooga Boogas mind goes on a bit of a tangent, if Jinn had all the knowledge of the present and past, and the mental capacity to recall it all, she could make pretty accurate predictions of the future based on all the absolute facts at her disposal... But wasn't allowed to? Whatever god made her was a cruel being.
"Thanks, Jinn." She nods and inspects his actions with interest, watching him look at the slightly blue glow eminating from within the lamp.
Ooga Booga felt the eyes on his back and tried to keep it cool, while carefully trying to open the relic. Thankfully Jinn pointed out that the lid could screw off completely, using the ring handle as a grip to twist.
After getting the size of the hole Ooga Booga moves over to the wall, and with even more care, he used a flint blade to chip away ice flakes around the volatile dust.
He didn't need to take off all the ice, any dust being able to trigger via Aura pulses, so he kept a safe buffer around the raw fire dust.
The first problem Ooga Booga encountered was the dust being too wide for the narrow relic, with all the extra safety ice increasing volume.
Not taking any chances by cutting it further, Ooga Booga went back to the wall to find a better potential fit.
Eventually there was a narrow jagged piece of fire dust, perfectly size for his goal. So he got to work carving it out and ready for the experiment.
The lid was the only real limiter, the pot belly lamp having more than enough space to store dust.
In the end, he decided to start with one small dust shard and find out if it works first.
Rotating the lid back on and putting the relic neck first into the snow floor Ooga Booga readied Aura for a pulse.
He wasn't prepared.
Fire shot out all the small slits in the neck, melting most of the snow on the floor and burning his shoes in the process. The boiling hot steam was next, and he was grateful for the fact his Aura had been up to trigger the dust in the first place.
His hands protested next, feeling the red hot relic he had been holding in place.
Jinn, unfazed by the mortal realm, just watched in amusement as Ooga Booga bobbed up and down shaking his hands and then resorted to placing them on the glacier wall.
He hissed at the initial feeling but soon sighed in content.
Looking back over his shoulder, he could see the relic already starting to cool down as well, no longer being a bright cherry red.
While the relic was indeed cooling down, the rest of the rooms tempreture was still higher than it had been before.
The burnt shoes now letting him feel the room temperature easily enough.
"It worked Jinn!" He may be imagining it, but he swore she had a small smile.
Quickly moving to the lamp he places the snow rabbit on top, wanting to defrost it ontop the toasty relic.
By the time there were no more icicles on the fur the lamp had gotten too cold to cook the meal, so Ooga Booga got to work carving the next dust shard.
Maybe this time he wouldn't burn himself in the process.
~0~
After gutting and cooking his meal there was nothing much to do but wait out the storm.
At least he didn't have to do it in uncomfortable temperatures due to the bursts of flame making the cave warmer.
It was also nice that the floor had long streaks of smooth stone where the flame had melted away the snow, so sleeping on the floor was no longer going to keep him wet.
hopefully tomorrow the blizzard breaks up and let's him try find his way back to the village.
He had fellow cavemen to teach.