Try to Start A Fire

After soaking in the creek for a while and drinking a bellyful of water, Kruger finally came out with his body fully wet, and his fur clothing was completely wet as well because he was in a hurry before.

The temperature was freezing at night at this moment, and if he keeps wearing this wet clothing, he might be under the weather even though he is a strong and fit beast. So I immediately told Kruger to come near the fire and make his body dry with a towel, and then put the blanket on.

Thank God he remembered not to damp his own fur in late autumn, or his fur clothing will not be the only thing hanging in front of the bonfire to dry out — as well as Kruger himself, in the animal form. I can't imagine how upset Kruger would be if he accidentally gets too close to the fire and burnt his fur.

All the beasts have changed and put on new fur clothing, now they are sitting in front of the bonfire in a circle. They all look so distressed that their eyes are looking downwards and their lips are red and swelling like some sausages. All the excitement of eating spicy skewers is gone, and those beasts pitiably curling themselves near the fire, looking like several wet puppies.

The whole scene was inarticulately funny to me.

At this time, I can't keep my laugh inside my belly anymore. Secretly hiding my face behind Kruger's shoulder, I began to tremble and chuckle while covering my mouth with my hands. Kruger's gloomy and low voice gradually came to my ears:

"LuLu... Why people in your world are obsessing with torturing yourselves so much?"

He began to count with fingers, "That coffee bean thing I ate before wasn't tasting, either. All I can feel in my mouth is bitterness. But you people are willing to drink it and you even grind those beans into powder to help yourselves drink it, just because you want to refresh yourselves. Now you are telling me that you love eating another kind of thing called chilli, which only makes me cry..."

To be honest, there are more things like some kinds of tea that are also not sweet but taste bitter. However, the reason why some of us drink green tea or coffee as a daily routine is not only do we want to get our spirit on, but we just enjoy the flavour — it feels bitter at the beginning, but then the sweetness will come through your teeth after a couple of minutes — this experience is more addictive than a simple direct sweet.

After listening to my explanation, Kruger smacked his lips and nodded, "Sounds like it's true. Although it was painful to eat that spicy food initially, I can't help to eat more after feeling better!"

Come on, forget it.

You can't eat too much chilli on the first try, your stomach can't stand the harm, and you may even get hemorrhoids!

"What are hemorrhoids, LuLu?"

Facing Kruger's pure and curious eyes, and as we are still eating dinner now, I kinda don't know where to start...

Isn't it inappropriate to talk about ass on the table?

Ah... Why did I mention that?!

....

"Emm... Hemorrhoids... are..."

"So... In a word, there are some swollen veins on that part of your body, and you will feel pain or even bleed..."

Oh, God, I just want to finish my dinner peacefully. Let me change the topic:

"Since you can't build a bonfire all by yourselves, what if you get wet when you are hunting outside? It will happen — sometimes you need to jump into the water or maybe it suddenly starts to rain, right?"

Kruger agreed with me, and then he explained:

"Generally, everyone will be very careful and won't go into the water easily. But if the rain falls and we don't have a place to shield ourselves, we would dash back to the tribe as soon as possible. Otherwise, it will become dangerous if someone gets a fever."

It seems that in the primitive world, a simple fever might kill people these days, no matter if you are as strong and fit as a beast, there's no special treatment for such an illness like fever.

Can I do something to minimize this kind of tragedy?

...

A-ha! I got one!

When I was in the modern world, I saw some YouTube videos teaching people how to start a fire by rubbing sticks, I think I can still remember the basic process and the key tips to accomplish it.

So... Since I watched a lot of videos about making fire, it might not be too hard to put it into practice, I guess?

Whatever, let's just do it!

I asked Kruger to find a few dry branches of different thicknesses collected by them for the bonfire and gathered some dead leaves, kneaded them into cotton-like tinder, and then put them under the branch which I drilled a hole before. After that, I grabbed another branch and make it stand vertically on the hole, and then began to rub the branch from top to bottom as fast as I could.

"LuLu! What are you doing now! STOP! Your hands are injured!" Kruger shouted.

A smoke was emerging from the little hole — which indicated that my victory was coming — while my branch was taken by Kruger with anger. He threw the branch away and held my hands carefully, all his five facial features on his face were wrinkled together like he is the one that was suffering the pain.

"You have such tender and lovely skin! I can't even dare to hold them forcefully! How can you damage it? I can even see some sawdust on your hands, don't you feel the pain?!"

Kruger's voice sounds distressed.

"Of course it is painful, but the point is I want to know if I can successfully start a fire by rubbing the sticks... Aw no, don't you lick my hands!"

I tried to take my hands back from his palms — failed to compete with his strength. Kruger held my hands tightly and licked all my bruises carefully, and then he looked up at me seriously:

"You are not alone. I am here with you, all the time, LuLu. No matter what you want, just tell me, and I will try my best to turn your thought into reality. Promise me, don't do anything like that from now on, okay? I don't want you to suffer this pain..."

That's right, as a real primitive male, he might be able to do these things better.

I nodded, "OK, then let me tell you how to do it. And I am sorry for letting you worry about me before..."

...

Sure enough, after rubbing the branched too hard and breaking some of them a couple of times, Kruger succeeded in making a small spark within one minute.

"That's awesome! Kruger, you made it! You are really a smart beast! If this skill can be taught to everyone in our tribe, you will never need to worry about the rainy days or have to dash back to the rockshelter again!" 

Seeing his success, I was so happy that I praised him loudly. Kruger was also very excited at that instant, he put down the sticks and hugged me in a rush, and even lifted me to the top of his head to turn me around in a circle several times — didn't stop until I kicked him.

"LULU, THANK YOU. THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!"