5 Chapter 5: In A Carousel of Agony

Oliver called the at-home unit over and began teaching them to cure hides. It took about ten days to cure the hides. Once the hides were cured, Oliver made waterskins to transport seawater.

He created straps for each of them out of hide and used them to carry multiple. Currently, Oliver has eight half-gallon waterskins. "Are you prepared to leave, now?" Zaruk asked. Oliver nodded then climbed on her back. "Hold on tight." She said.

Oliver followed her instruction and did his best to hold on. 'Probably wouldn't have been a bad idea to make a saddle...' He thought as Zaruk flapped her wings and took to the air.

Around ten hours later, they reached the ocean. "Do be careful. The ocean is filled with deadly creatures." Zaruk said. Oliver nodded and walked over to the shallows. In the distance he could see a large serpent creature surface, then submerge, dragging its whole length along the surface in an arch.

'Well, at least I can say this isn't Kansas anymore... Not that I'm from Kansas...' Oliver thought. He quickly filled his water skins, then went back to Zaruk. "Let's we will wait here for an hour or two to let you rest." He said.

"Thank you." She said. Oliver walked into the nearby forest and looked around at what was available for harvest. He found a lot of nuts and berries as well as surface minerals.

'We have some of these back at camp, but we don't currently have the ability to do any smithing...' He thought. A couple of hours later, they went back to camp and arrived in the dead of night.

Zaruk transformed into her humanoid form, then Oliver and Zaruk went to their tent. Upon entry, he placed the waterskins on the ground. "Welcome home." Kyla said drowsily as she woke up and rubbed her eye.

"Thanks." Oliver said as he pat her on the head. She gave a happy smile. "Let's sleep now." He said. Kyla nodded as she laid back down. They all quickly fell asleep. In the morning, Oliver began working on making salt.

For his preparations, he had taught the women how to make clay pots and other ceramic objects. Unfortunately, a large amount of the women started their periods, causing them to have to remain still to avoid spreading blood everywhere.

"Ugh, I'm going to have my first period within the next few months, I am not looking forward to it..." Kyla said.

"We should probably make pads for them..." Oliver said.

"And how would we do that?" Kyla asked.

"I have no clue... We need to figure it out though, otherwise, we won't be able to work at maximum efficiency." Oliver said.

"You mammals are an unlucky bunch. Us draconics lay eggs, so we do not get periods." Zaruk said.

"What did she say?" Kyla asked.

"Draconic creatures do not menstruate since they lay eggs." Oliver said.

"Fucking lucky." Kyla said.

"Though this event does worry me. They have been having sex, so you would assume that they would have fertilized eggs, and thus, would not menstruate, this either means they have yet to get pregnant or are not far enough along to prevent menstruation." Oliver said.

"Why do you know so much about this?" Kyla asked.

"Oh, I had skipped grades and was doing college, I was a biology major and my thesis was on menstruation." Oliver said.

"Odd..." Kyla said. "By the way, if being pregnant prevents periods, then you should do some more baby-making with me." Kyla said as she hugged Oliver's arm.

"You do realize taking care of a child is hard work, right? Not only that but having a child purely to prevent your period is a bit... How do I put it... Irresponsible." Oliver said.

"It's fine." Kyla said.

"Not only that but a lot of your time will be spent tending to the child. That means less time for other things such as sex." Oliver said.

"You would be helping me, right?" Kyla asked.

"When I can, but I have to lead the tribe, which means I will only have so much time." Oliver said.

"I see. Definitely rethinking this whole child thing now..." Kyla said.

"well, you did remind me though..." Oliver started.

"About what?" Kyla asked.

"The idiom. It takes a village to raise a child." Oliver said.

"How so?" Kyla asked.

"In the way olden times, before the nuclear family, communities were close nit. A lot of the time, several women would help each other in child-rearing so they could each take breaks when necessary. While they were at home, the men would do many things such as hunt, deal with family business, or other things depending on the time period." Oliver said.

"I don't really get how that explains how I reminded you of the saying, but okay." Kyla said.

"Well, it was more of a lightbulb moment." Oliver said. "But continuing, in ancient roman families, in particular the well of ones, the familial head, known as the pater familias, would work on furthering the name of the family. When a child was born, he would decide whether they kept the child, or if the child was left on the streets." Oliver continued.

"That sounds awful." Kyla said.

"Well, they wouldn't die most of the time, but instead get taken in by slavers. If the pater familias decided to keep the child, the child would be raised by not just the mother, but also the entire family including the slaves, cousins, and whoever else was able to help out. We may need to do something similar to that last part for child-rearing in this tribe." Oliver explained.

"So, essentially, if the family head decided they didn't want a child, they became a slave?" Kyla asked. Oliver nodded.

"Life was rough in the ancient era." He said. "Well, enough of that, right now I need to think of traditions to help our tribe grow culturally." Oliver said.

"Why do that?" Kyla asked.

"People like to have things to believe in and things to do. Traditions help with that." He said.

"I see." Kyla said. "Well, we can say that you are immortal and call you a god." Kyla said.

"Well, I am immortal, but going as far as saying I am a god?" Oliver asked.

"Yes, we would give people something to believe in, plus, you gain influence, it is a very useful move." Kyla said.

"Yes, let me just form ancient China and other Asian countries real quick." Oliver said sarcastically.

"Wait, they did that?" She asked. Oliver nodded.

"Yeah, they were known as god-kings or god emperors. If I remember correctly, my lord can translate as my god or something like that." Oliver said.

"Alright, so we should just copy them." Kyla said. He sighed.

"Well, let's just slowly do that over the course of a few generations." Oliver said.

"Alright, fine." Kyla said.

"Why is this even a compromise that was necessary? What has my life come to?" Oliver asked himself. Kyla giggled.

"One of sex with your daughter~." She said with a slightly teasing tone.

"You know, I would prefer if you did not say things like that." Oliver said. She giggled again.

"Fine~." She said with a smile. "Oh! By the way! You are a leader, so you should probably have a harem at some point." Kyla said.

"I still find it weird to talk with you about this." Oliver said. Over the next few days, Oliver continued to produce salt, gathering water when necessary, and used ceramic containers to store the salt.

Once he had some salt, he began experimenting with curing processes to better preserve foods. After a bit of experimentation, he found a method that seemed to work well and taught everyone in the tribe how to do it.

"In the fall, we will begin to cure meats more often, but as of now, we will only do it sparingly." Oliver said. The tribe nodded. Once he made the curing process, he began to work on finding a way to make more stable buildings to withstand the winter and properly retain heat.

Eventually, over the period of two weeks, he found a way to build that, at the very least, would retain heat for a decent amount of time. He spent a few days getting the stay-at-home unit decently skilled in building, once he deemed them good enough, he had them construct around a dozen buildings. buildings.

Each building has three rooms other than the primary room and is fairly large. Each room could potentially house four individuals easily. The buildings are constructed using logs as the primary resource.

They dig holes and put logs in them to create a stable foundation. They then cut the logs to be even as well as creating small rectangular holes on the top going across the center.

These holes are to allow other logs to fit precisely on the foundation and allow further building. Once the foundation was finished, they filled the interior of the foundation with dirt, then wove sticks around the foundation and covered the dirt with the woven sticks to allow for a solid floor.

They then used wet clay to flatten the floor and used fire to make the floor more durable. They left a few holes for interior walls which would use logs as a grounding point.

From there, they constructed exterior walls using logs as a grounding point and woven sticks as the walls. To insulate the building, they used clay on the exterior wall, then used flaming sticks to fire the clay and make it more durable.

They then placed logs in the interior holes and made interior walls in the same fashion. The roof was formed using thick sticks angled upwards, in the center is a very long stick carve from a log that the other sticks would be tied to using smaller sticks.

From there, sticks were woven between the support sticks creating a roof. To prevent any leaking from rain, snow, or anything else, several layers of leaves were plastered on with clay.

Each home would accommodate three couples, with a dozen houses, they currently have a capacity of thirty-six. Each of the houses was made about three hundred feet away from the fire and their entrances are facing toward the fire. The houses form a partial circle around the fire.

Over the next few days, he had all of the men make five more buildings using the same methodology as well as a larger building with no interior walls meant to house food, water, and other resources.

From there, they began making clay containers to hold water and storing them inside the storage building. At this point, it is nearing the middle of summer, or so Oliver surmises.

Throughout the time of building, Oliver had been teaching Zaruk to speak English. "We've certainly come a long way." Kyla said.

"In just a month and a half as well." Oliver said. "Our next project will be making a pasture and indoor area for animals. We need to start ranching and farming as soon as possible to make this a bit more viable." Oliver said.

"When are we starting?" Zaruk asked with a thick accent.

"Early spring. I'm hoping to spend the remaining time of summer and autumn to find animals to domesticate. Maybe a less intelligent draconic species..." Oliver said.

"Ah, I do know of a species of draconic that is low in intelligence, small, relative to wyverns, and other draconic species sometimes eat them." Zaruk said.

"How quickly do they procreate and how long does it take for them to mature?" Oliver asked.

"They are herd creatures and their herds can grow by large amounts over the course of winter. They are a bit smaller than you humans and omnivores. I have tracked their development before, it seems to take anywhere between six months to a year for them to sexually mature and they become fully grown at two years." Zaruk said.

"These creatures sound rather useful. How much would it require to keep them though...?" Oliver wondered.

"Us draconic creatures use mana as a primary food source, eating food is a secondary and thus, we only eat the same amount as you humans, though we could eat much more if we wished." Zaruk explained.

"Okay, last question, are they creatures with a large amount of meat on them?" Oliver asked. Zaruk nodded.

"They are fat creatures that eat a lot of mana. It just makes them tastier." Zaruk said as she began to drool.

"I see. Then I guess it would be most beneficial to get them by early fall this year.

"I should add, although they are a draconic creature, their hides are much weaker than most other draconic creatures. It's still about twice as strong as a deer's hide, though." Zaruk informed Oliver.

'Given our general stat boost from draconic lineage, that should mean we can still butcher them easily... Replacing hunting would be rather useful about now as it gives us a more stable food source.' Oliver thought.

"So, what's your decision, dad?" Kyla asked.

"I think we should get our fences made now and work on domesticating those creatures as soon as possible. If they grow in numbers over the course of winter, it would be great for us to get them as soon as possible since winter isn't that far off." Oliver said.

"I agree. Logically speaking, we need as much food as possible to maintain our population, which is bound to grow." Zaruk said. Oliver nodded.

"We will also require a currency system at some point given the path we are taking, or rather, blitzing down." Oliver said.

"What does 'blitz' mean?" Zaruk asked.

"A swift ground attack, but I was using it in a more abstract sense, basically meaning to quickly move down a trail for the future." He said.

"I see, intriguing." She said.

"Well, I doubt we will manage to complete the fenced area by the time winter comes, though. At the least, we should get rid of some of the tree-" Oliver started when he was suddenly hit with an idea. "Zaruk, are you capable of ripping trees out of the ground?" He asked.

"Indeed." She said.

"How quickly do you think you could rip all of the trees of a large area out of the ground?" He asked.

"Hmm..." She thought for a moment. "Maybe a week or two?" She said hesitantly.

"Let's get on that as soon as possible, if we are lucky, we can complete the pasture by fall." He said.

"I will begin immediately." She said as she exited the building. Oliver quickly followed her.

"Make sure to make an area for all of the trees that is somewhat nearby to camp, we can use them for resources." Oliver said. She nodded, then transformed into her wyvern form.

She began working and after two weeks, she had cleared an area of about six acres. The land is mostly flat and is rectangular. He quickly had two units, as well as himself, begin working on the fence as soon as the area was cleared.

Around two weeks into fall, they had finished constructing the fence as well as the indoor area for some of the creatures. Oliver had Zaruk take him to the draconic creatures.