Chapter 69

"What are you doing, Cloudy?"

Titus watched Cloudy bustling around behind the house, moving stones back and forth. By now, the sky had darkened, and many people in the settlement were either resting and chatting in the longhouse or heading home early to rest.

After hastily rushing back home in the afternoon, Cloudy efficiently cleared the weeds from the backyard, creating a space of about ten square meters. Then, she moved all the rocks from Titus's house outside and arranged them in a small circle on the cleared ground, roughly one square meter in size.

When Titus returned home, she was stacking the fourth layer of stone wall. "Come on, you're back just in time!" Cloudy picked up a stick lying at her feet. She had already prepared materials for a fire but hadn't had time to start it. Considering she hadn't prepared fire starters or a fire board in the past few days, sending Titus to fetch fire from the settlement was the quickest option.

"Why do we need fire?" Titus took the stick thrown to her and walked around Cloudy's "masterpiece" twice. "Are we going to roast something to eat?"

"No!" Cloudy shook her head. "I have a new, warm idea. I'm not sure if it will work, but I need fire and a flat stone slab."

Titus widened her eyes. "Is Cloudy planning to roast a newborn in the fire?"

That couldn't be possible.

Cloudy waved her hand, urging Titus to fetch the fire, and then squatted down again to contemplate her super primitive hearth. "Also, are you hungry?"

"Yes!" Titus's voice was loud, and she seemed a bit impatient. "Cloudy doesn't even ask me how it was outside. I just got back."

Cloudy suddenly raised her head, feeling a bit strange, unable to describe it. Titus's tone was not gentle; it was quite impatient. But she knew Titus didn't mean any harm. Could it be that those words just now were a kind of playful teasing?

She slowly turned her head slightly, glancing at Titus standing not far behind her. It was quite dark around, and her poor eyesight made it hard to see clearly. She only knew that Titus was staring straight at her, looking somewhat dazed. "Titus, are you done outside? How was the training?"

Before she could finish asking, Titus came over with a smile, squatting next to Cloudy. "Not good, we kept arguing."

If it's not good, why is she still smiling...

"Is it because of Uro's matter?"

"Yes, Uro wants to become a hunter and is mad at me."

Ah, so the child indeed wants to become a hunter... People in the settlement must all have an innate sense of responsibility. Once designated by the Matriarch for a role, they would wholeheartedly fulfill it. If obstructed halfway, they would surely be displeased.

Cloudy fiddled with the stones in her hand. "But Titus seems happy now? Isn't she angry because of this?"

Titu
Shaking his head, "Don't get mad in front of Cloudy, I'll play with Cloudy, then get mad at them."

Such clear division of labor... Cloudy chuckled twice, "Then you go get the fire quickly, and bring some food over if there is any, we'll have a meal. Then I'll tell you what I plan to do, okay?"

"Okay!" Titus jumped up, grabbed a jar from home, and hurried off to get the fire.

After Titus left, Cloudy began to tinker with her fire pit. The four-layer stone wall was about half a meter high, serving as an experimental model; this size was sufficient. She left an opening at the bottom left to insert firewood. As for the most important tabletop of the fire pit, she dismantled the bed in her house with Titus on her back.

At this time, the middle of the bed at home was concave. She temporarily filled the pit with other small stones, covered it with animal hide, hoping Titus wouldn't notice. After ensuring that the four stone walls were securely built, Cloudy went to the side and brought over a stone slab, carefully placing it on top of the stone walls, creating a square... let's just call it a fire pit for now, born in such a rudimentary way.

After it was completely dark, Titus returned with a torch. He also brought a pack of fresh meat slices and a few fist-sized fruits.

Cloudy had already prepared the fire pit and once the fire was started, the two sat around the small fire pit to start grilling the meat. Due to the lack of any seasoning reserves and the plants familiar to Cloudy, tonight's barbecue was very simple, just skewered on small sticks and grilled by the fire.

The light from the fire pit enclosed the two, gradually fading into the darkness in the distance. The meat slices were a tender red color with yellow fibers, emitting a unique meaty fragrance after being licked by the flames. Before the meat was cooked, Titus started peeling the fruits for Cloudy to eat.

These were fruits Cloudy had never seen before. The outer skin was an unattractive earthy yellow color, thick-skinned, and filled with cotton-like substance inside. Titus dug out those cotton-filled parts and threw them into the fire pit, saying, "These are very bitter; eating them will make you uncomfortable."

Seeing those things resembling cotton, Cloudy grabbed some to examine. However, upon contact with her body temperature, the cotton-filled core gradually melted into a dark brown liquid, emitting an unpleasant bitter taste, "Ugh..."

"This is edible." Thinking Cloudy wanted to eat it, Titus handed her a small fruit pulp dug out from the cotton, "Try it."

The edible part was very small, somewhat like a damp almond, just a bit lighter in color. Chewing it in the mouth didn't have much taste but was crispy. There was a slightly oily feeling between the teeth, but chewing for a while would turn slightly bitter. Cloudy didn't dare to chew for long and swallowed it directly.

Not as tasty as tree insect eggs... Cloudy smacked her lips, waiting for Titus to finish bringing all the fruits.
After that, the meat was ready. The two of them picked up sticks and began to enjoy their meal: "Is this meat from a wild animal?" She knew there was a 60% chance she would hear, "No, this is insect meat," but Cloudy couldn't resist asking.

"It's meat from a wild animal that others caught around here."

"... " Incredibly, it wasn't insect meat. Cloudy found the meat in her mouth suddenly very delicious after getting the answer.

"Cloudy, what are you doing?" After finishing the meat in her hand, Titus wiped his mouth and looked at the pile of stones nearby. "Is it the one that can keep us warm?"

"Yes." Cloudy hadn't finished eating, but she couldn't wait to experiment. She stood up with the skewered meat, ran to the side, picked up a bundle of pre-prepared firewood, and then stuffed some into the side hole of the fire pit in proportion to its size. Next was... lighting it up!

After placing the fire starter stick under the fire pit, the other firewood slowly started to burn.

"And then?" Titus bent down curiously behind Cloudy. "Does this make it warm enough?"

Cloudy gestured for Titus to wait patiently. About ten minutes later, Cloudy reached out and touched the stone surface, which had already begun to warm up. "Titus, sit on this." She didn't go up herself because it was very hot for her.

Titus obediently sat on the fire pit, and then... the originally stable stone wall couldn't withstand the massive weight and collapsed to the ground with a crash.

Since there were stone slabs under Titus's bottom, his heavy rear end at least didn't directly touch the flames. Realizing he might have messed things up, his eyes widened in nervousness as he looked at Cloudy, who was standing nearby with her mouth wide open. "... What do we do?"

I should have sat there myself a long time ago!! Cloudy looked mournfully at the collapsed fire pit.