Chapter 88

"Still, do you want to go? Around here."

Cloudy sat on the ground, items collected from the rainforest yesterday spread out in front of her as she tried to sort through them. Titus had just returned and not finding Cloudy inside the house, he went out to the backyard to look for her. Seeing Cloudy sitting on the ground sorting through things, he sat down to help.

Earlier today, Cloudy and Titus both underwent a round of "inspection" at the longhouse, which was more like a check-in than an actual inspection. They were asked about any pains or discomforts, and after that, they were fed a bowl of mysteriously sour and bitter hot medicinal broth, somewhat like Chinese medicine but not as strong.

Feeling a bit resentful about the "broken leg incident," Cloudy had not initiated any conversations with the Matriarch or other mothers. At one point, they even thought her tongue was cut off and had to pry her mouth open to check. The Matriarch didn't delve into her escape, instead continuously thanking her for bringing Titus back once again.

After the inspection, the Matriarch fetched a small leather-wrapped package from the longhouse and handed it to Cloudy. Upon opening it, Cloudy found her down jacket and some personal items. Perhaps they thought she and Titus had perished, so the Matriarch had started sorting through their belongings... After returning her items, the Matriarch gestured for Cloudy to head back first, while Titus stayed behind to discuss matters regarding external hunting.

"I don't need to hunt outside. The previous group that went out didn't go far. They stayed nearby, with many people remaining in the village to guard against enemies." Titus tied together the supple vines Cloudy had brought back and placed them beside her. "For the next few days, I'll need to search for prey around the village, heading out at sunrise and returning at sunset."

"Alone?"

"Yeah."

"Can I come with you?"

Titus thought to say no, but then wondered why not? The area around the village was already very safe for the current Cloudy. During the cave dwelling period, Cloudy used to hunt alone outside. "Sure, will Cloudy be coming with me today?"

"Not today, I want to go tomorrow!" With a lot of collected items still needing sorting, she couldn't break away today. After organizing the items, she might also need to check on the warm house and charcoal situation. The sudden kidnapping of Titus had left her with no time to figure out how to mass-produce charcoal.

"In that case, I'll head out now." Titus stood up. "Bring back meat for Cloudy!"

"Okay!"

Watching Titus' disappearing figure like a whirlwind, Cloudy felt very content. She had expected to face many troubles upon returning to the settlement, with the pressure increasing... but things went much smoother than she had imagined. Titus didn't have to continue long-distance hunting after being kidnapped, Ma...
Triarch did not deliberately make things difficult for her to escape, everything remained the same.

"..." Cloudy hummed a tune, continuing to organize the collected items. Most of what she brought back were plants, with 60% being edible and those with unique flavors that she thought could possibly be used as spices, and the remaining 40% were items she believed could be used as tools, like the thorns of rice fruit and the long, flexible vines on the large tree platform.

There were 8 types of plants with unique flavors in leaves and roots, with scents ranging from pungent spiciness to sourness and fresh astringency. In short, the flavors were very strong and strange. Cloudy spread them all out on the large stone slab in the backyard, which was previously used as a model for a warm house and had been sat on by Titus' big butt, now Cloudy planned to turn this "ruin" into a drying rack for making spices.

After placing the scented plants on the drying rack, Cloudy began to process another part of the edible fruits, which had a slight sweetness. She didn't bring them back to eat but to get seeds for planting. It was a waste not to use the large piece of land behind Titus' house for planting, especially considering the land use in the settlement... Although there were some people planting, they mainly cultivated herbs, and the growth was very poor. Probably because of the poor growth, the locals didn't pay much attention to planting.

Cloudy didn't have the confidence to become a large-scale planter, but... she felt that she had at least one more piece of knowledge than the locals - that feces can be used as fertilizer.

So, she should be able to grow something after all! Many ferns and shrubs in the rainforest can bear edible fruits, and according to the speed of ecological recovery of shrubs after the rainy season stops... the growth cycle is very fast, with many shrubs able to flower and bear fruit in 10 to 20 days.

After about an hour, Cloudy separated all the fruit seeds. The flesh was put into a clay pot for an extra meal with Titus that night. To prevent dust from falling in and the fruit from softening and rotting due to high temperatures, she brought a stone to cover the clay pot and then moved it to a cool place behind the house.

The fruit seeds were placed on different leaves according to their variety. Cloudy remembered that the seeds needed to be sun-dried briefly? However, she was not very sure, so she split all the seeds into two parts - one part to be sun-dried and the other directly planted in the soil.

Before planting the seeds, she loosened the soil with bone chips. It was physically demanding work, and after loosening about one square meter of soil, Cloudy felt her neck was about to explode. Kneeling on the ground, using bone chips to till the soil was inefficient and tiring. She discarded the bone chips and went back to the room to pick up a thicker wooden stick, split the front end with a stone axe, wedged the stone axe into the crack, tightened it, and then grabbed a suitable length of vine to tie it securely. Cloudy assessed her makeshift hoe and felt very satisfied.

The hoe was a bit unstable at the front end when used, sometimes it would loosen.
Here is the translation of the provided text:

Cloudy leaned on the hoe, satisfied with her small field. She hoped to see tender seedlings sprout in a few days. The remaining task was to organize the tools she had collected and put them back in the house. She felt more and more nimble; after drying the plants and seeds, loosening the soil, and planting, it took her less than two hours. She even found time to make a hoe.

Next, she was supposed to check the warm house, but since her mother hadn't come looking for her, she felt a bit lazy and wanted to sit inside for a while... Without much hesitation, she swiftly returned to the house with the materials and sat at the worktable.

She started working with the bristles and soft vines. There were a lot of animal hides in the house, and now she had time to figure out how to make a leather bag. She decided to hide at home making bags until Wahben or another mother came looking for her.

Titus's hides were all placed on the large rack at the door. Cloudy chose a smaller piece of softer hide for her first attempt, a dark brown one, about three millimeters thick with a thin fur layer similar to cow hair.

With the current materials, the simplest thing to make was a drawstring bag. She spread the hide on the table, roughly cut it into a 20x20 cm square with a bone knife, punched holes along the edges every half inch, and made the holes slightly larger as she decided not to use vines as thread but the leather offcuts.

After punching holes on all four sides, she started cutting the leather offcuts into thin strips, tied them together to make a rope, and then threaded them through the holes one by one.

It was very ugly, but a functional drawstring bag was now ready!

Cloudy eagerly placed a few small stones inside, tightened the rope... a perfectly shaped primitive drawstring bag. She tied a knot in the rope, then held it in her hand and swung it around wildly; the stones didn't fall out, and the leather rope was very strong without any signs of loosening.

She measured the optimal opening diameter of the drawstring bag, then tied a huge knot at the exposed ends of the rope on both sides. This knot couldn't pass through the holes, so the drawstring bag wouldn't fall apart due to the rope loosening.

Great!! Cloudy proudly held the drawstring bag, planning to add a shoulder strap later so she could carry it diagonally to collect things outside.

She needed to make one for Titus too. Cloudy excitedly went to the wooden rack to carefully select the materials for the bag. For Titus, she would definitely make a larger one, making it very convenient for him to take things when going out. What made Cloudy even happier was that no one came looking for her in the settlement even after she had made the second drawstring bag. So, she started cutting the hides that were too small into shape.
Until nightfall, Titus ran back home with food.

Inside the house, a fire was already burning in the brazier. When Titus arrived, Cloudy was eating the leftover fruit from the morning. "Cloudy, don't eat that!" he said, holding a large chunk of fresh red meat in front of Cloudy. "I brought meat back! Today, we're lucky."

Cloudy was even more eager than Titus. She took the meat and placed it next to the brazier, then quickly handed Titus a crossbody bag specially made for him. "I made this for you! Try it out!"

Confused at first because the bag looked ordinary and the Matriarch also had a similar leather bag, Titus didn't find it particularly special. But following Cloudy's instructions to sling the bag across his body and then... using the drawstring to open and close the bag, Titus realized how convenient it was.

"Did Cloudy make this?" He filled the bag with stones, then opened and closed it again. "Wow, this is amazing! It opens and closes quickly."

"After putting this on, it's convenient to store food for the journey and things you collect." Pleased with Titus's praise, Cloudy, taking advantage of Titus playing with the bag, began preparing dinner for the two of them. With nothing else at home, they would have a simple grilled meat dinner that night.

Using a bone knife, she first cut off the white fat from the meat and smelled it. Not detecting a strong fishy odor, she placed all the fat in a small clay pot and tossed it into the brazier to render the fat. While roasting the fat into liquid in the pot, she started cutting the meat into chunks, laying them flat on a stone slab before placing it over the brazier.

Once the oil in the clay pot turned into a fragrant liquid, she instructed Titus, who wasn't afraid of the heat, to remove the pot and pour the oil over the meat on the stone slab. As the oil sizzled upon touching the hot slab, the aroma of the fat filled the air.

"So fragrant! It's been so long since I smelled something so good!" Titus's attention finally shifted from the bag to the meat. Both he and Cloudy couldn't wait to start flipping the meat pieces with wooden sticks. When the meat turned a crispy brown, they both started devouring it eagerly.

"Mmm... so delicious..." Cloudy, tears welling up in her eyes, was finally moved to tears by the deliciousness. She didn't want to remember the taste of the meatworm from a few days ago. "Cut a little more, just a little more."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Titus, cheeks puffed, continued to cut and throw the meat onto the stone slab to roast. "Delicious, delicious... It's so good to be able to eat delicious food with Cloudy."

Outside, in the darkness and silence, their house was the only one with a faint glow of fire, the crackling sound of firewood mixing with the aroma of the meat, enveloping the two of them as they ate hungrily.