13 Learning to Craft

Key Stroke walked beside the old man who was carried a short distance from him by four tribesmen. If traveling north from the Househill campsite could be said to be the direction that the Divine Door area was located, then the source for the Water of Stone was in the opposite direction.

Thankfully, it wasn't half a day's travel like the Divine Door. After all, time was the thing he needed most right now. He had already taken steps to measure what was required to be done and how fast they were to be finished.

He had seven days to get the students and tribespeople to build houses as well as make a few extra for the gathering tribespeople that would be forced to come soon. If the time limit to grow weren't so short, he would have preferred to strengthen their group first.

The only thing he could do now was to hope the three he had chosen, and himself would have enough strength to keep the other tribes in line. Passing the grass stems by, a clearing finally came in view with a lake in the shape of a child's foot from past standards.

Surprise filled Key Stroke at the sight. The overall look had steam rising from the liquid as bright majestic colors hovered over the top of the lake and giving the impression of looking at flashing rainbows that wouldn't cease to end.

It even had a small cloud forming at the height of the tallest grass stems while trying to create shads and darkness to minimize the brightness of the scene. Looking closer at the lake, not only was it shaped like a foot, but the cause seemed to come from a stomped footprint in the same way as mud, or wet soil would cave in if pressure was applied.

While the Water of Stone wasn't bottomless, it was larger than he had expected. He was hoping for something more portable and could be refilled on its own. "Tribe Leader, how do you go about using the Water of Stone in the usual way? Will it affect its quality if we try to carry small batches to the Divine Door?" Key Stroke asked.

"Well..." The old man hummed, taking a moment to think about how to respond. "It can be carried in our baskets, but the effects will leave in a day's time if it goes unused." He explained.

24 hours? The time was too short for the plan he wanted. "Tribe Leader what about the procedures taken to transform it into hard stone. How does that work?" He asked next. "Simply wetting the area you want to harden and letting it dry until the Water of Stone lose its magic will work." The old man replied.

"Okay, I think I understand now. Can we first take some back? I want to study it a little on our way to the Divine Door area." Key Stroke questioned. "Young Tribe Leader, you are now the Hill tribe's Tribe Leader. Simply telling us what you need is an enough, you need not ask." The old man reminded.

Key Stroke nodded as they made their way back to the Househill campsite. Still, he had to question if the Queen was really clueless about the lake and its whereabouts or did she have something much more significant in her possession. If it was the latter, then he was still greatly underestimating the Queen's strength.

Hopefully, he was just thinking too much, and she just found the Water of Stone useless.

By the time they had got back to camp, it was getting late, and everyone had made their preparations to travel in the morning. Also feeling the strain on his mind with having to think and focus all day, Key Stroke went to eat and sleep so he could be fully rested for the next day.

...

Surprising enough, moving and traveling almost 40 people wasn't as hard as he was thinking. Their time was only slower because there were still people hurt and wounded. Once the group of people came upon the Divine Door area, he took the crafting women and students to the side.

Of the women he had taken to the side, there was four of them. Two were dark in skin color like rich milk chocolate, while the other two was a lovely peach color and the latter being a closer shad to pure and white. All of them could be said to be beauties but not overly so.

Just the difference in colors, one could tell who had come outside from the hill homes and who didn't. Not everyone would have the courage to be above the surface were death could happen at any moment.

He quickly got to explaining what he wanted them to do. "Hello, I'm sure you know me already, but I will still inform you as is customs. My name is Key Stroke and the current Tribe Leader. The skill you have to make grass garments is precious and what we need most at this time. What I hope for, from the four of you is to teach the group next to me how to craft and make grass garments. The time limit for this is one day. If by chance they can't learn by then, do not worry about being punished." He said, trying to relax the nervousness he saw in them.

They were probably worried he considered them to be useless because crafting garments were the only thing they were good at doing. Taking a look back at the students, Key Stroke gave them a question. "Now who wants to be the first to learn a new way of sewing? Any of the girls?" He asked.

"Wait! We're choosing to fight or build right? I will help build then. I had always been good at art and designing stuff in my spare time." Said Shaw Caine, the boy who would usually ask questions when something is about to happen.

"Okay, I don't see any problem with that. But I need everyone to try and learn except the four of us." At this time, Key Stroke pointed at himself, Black Bourne, Donn Kell, and the before delirious boy. The reason he decided his last pick was because the boy had a lot of pent-up emotions and had been one of the few to respond first during the giant wolf spider incident.

"We will use this as a starting point to build homes that will leave the other tribes questioning their status to ours." He finished. Of course, he didn't say what they needed most was in fact strength. There was bound to be a few rowdy tribespeoples in the gathering soon.

And nobody would obey a weakling even if their things looked impressive. Seven days! In seven days he and his group would have the power to suppress the other tribes. If not, the goal to save everyone would stop there.