Making A Pot

Hao Shen went through the herbs that was left laying around, he saw some ginger in the corner, of course it was also piled up with ginseng, tumeric and some other medicinal roots, looking at how disorganized the whole thing was, rose up his anger.

Hao Shen liked to see things properly organized, especially when it came to items for cooking. seeing things mixed up would drive him crazy, but then again, this was neither his house nor his kitchen, so he swallowed down his anger and picked out an amount of ginseng, garlic and liquorice roots. If he wanted to make the Sheng Hua Tang, he would need some ginseng, safflower, liquorice root, dried peach kernel and szechuan lovage root. But he was only able to barely find some liquorice roots and ginseng, how was he supposed to find the others.

After Hao Shen brought out the ginseng, ginger and liquorice roots he wanted to use, he put them to the side before going to look for other herbs. By now Hao Shen understood a little of how Vince had arranged his herbs. the beastman would put all the herbs that looked alike in one pile, and this knowledge helped Hao Shen searched faster.

Hao Shen was only able to find ginseng, ginger, liquorice root and some safflower. And it was obvious that liquorice Root was not even considered a herb in the mix, it seems that Vince found it interesting and picked some of it on the way, there was just a few piece here.

In the end they were not enough to brew, but since he had no choice, he would use them anyway. what stressed Hao Shen out the most, was the fact that he couldn't find all the herbs needed for the tea, and if he brewed the tea with the little he could find, the herbal tea would turnout incomplete. Hao Shen didn't know if the incomplete form of Sheng Hua Tang would do it's job properly, but without a choice, he just had to make it and hope it helps Lisa.

While Hao Shen was still going through the piles hoping he find the remaining herbs, Reid had returned with the rock that Hao Shen asked for and place it on the floor.

Hearing the ruckus, Hao Shen came out to see what had happened. Reid had carelessly dropped the rock on the floor, thankfully only some  small stones broke off the rock, Hao Shen hoped it hadn't gotten weak in the inside, if it had, the pot would brake apart while it was still being made.

Hao Shen didn't say anything about Reid's mistake and asked "Kevin can you shape this rock into a circle?", Kevin didn't answer as he didn't know what shaping the rock into a circle meant, he just kept looking at Hao Shen sporting a confused expression.

'This beastman can't even understand this simple instruction, how do I explain making a hollow in the rock, sigh', Hao Shen smacked his forehead in defeat at Kevin's cluelessness. he looked around and found a tree branch, he went ahead and picked it up, then used it to draw a circle on the floor trying his very best to make it a perfect circle.

When he was done drawing the circle he pointed at it with the stick "like this, make the rock look like this".

Finally understanding what Hao Shen wanted, Kevin extended his nails into sharp claws and started scraping at the rock, slowly chipping away the rocky edges.

Beast men naturally found these kinds of things easy to do, after all, they had to carve out their own homes and ensure the walls are smooth, just so their female don't get injured.

Hao Shen ensured that Kevin wasn't having trouble carving the rock, before he left him to speak to Reid showing him the branch in his hand, "Reid, I need you to find some dry branches, they have to be as dried as this one, but they don't have to be the exact size or length, just make sure it's a dead wood." he handed the branch to Reid and focused on his own task.

Hao Shen went back to the cave and brought out the ingredients he found, he put them next to his backpack that was laying on the floor, opening his backpack, he brought out the knife and refilled plastic bottles, he had planned to use the water for something else but with the current situation, he had to use them now.

He only had three refilled water and two bottle waters left, Hao Shen calculated how he was going to use the water and it was clearly not enough, even if he manage the water appropriately he still wouldn't have enough.

It was obvious he couldn't use the bottled water as that was for his own consumption, and Andri had worked hard to create clear water for him so he couldn't use that for washing the herbs either.

He needed more water, but going all the way back to the lake was a waist of time. Hao Shen paused to mull things over, in the end, he decided, asking Reid for water when he gets back was his best option. Hao Shen started pealing and cutting the herbs, deciding to wash them later.

.....

It didn't take long for Kevin to finished making a big round ball out of the rock, Reid was yet to return, and Hao Shen decided to move to step two of making a pot out of a rock. Hao Shen asked Kevin to put the rock on the floor, after he did that Hao Shen instructed him to cut a straight line off the surface of the ball, to make that part of the rock flat.

After Kevin did that, Hao Shen asked him to put that flat part on the floor, he looked at the rock while thinking of the next steps, Hao Shen asked Kevin to do the same to the other surface, but after Kevin did that Hao Shen felt it didn't look wide enough.

Despite it being exactly the same as the other, Hao Shen had decided that this would be the top of the pot and as the top, it had to be wider than the bottom.

Calculating how wide he wanted the pot to be, Hao Shen showed Kevin were to carve from. After Kevin redid the carving, Hao Shen was satisfied with the current result.

It was time to make a lid for the pot. At first, Hao Shen wanted Kevin to cut out the lid from the pot but looking at the pot he realized it wouldn't suffice, deciding to use another rock, Vince's door in particular, Hao Shen explained to Kevin how to make the pot lid out of Vince's bolder.

As Hao Shen was explaining in details, his eyes lit up when he saw that reid had returned. "you can drop the wood on the floor, I'll attend to it later, for now, I need you to get me some water, it doesn't have to be clear water, but it doesn't have to be dirty either, please hurry, we don't have that much time". Reid put down the woods and left for the water.

Hao Shen watched Kevin making the lid as he made adjustments here and there, not long later,  Reid came back holding two bowls in his hands and a sea shell on his head, he was walking slowly but steadily not to spill the water in the bowls he was carrying.

Seeing those bowls Hao Shen was surprised, the two bowls in Reid's hands were made out of large clam shells, joined together with some smaller clam shells, and the sea shell on his head was quite big with a flat bottom to make it stay still, they were all intricately designed, like an artist took his time molding them, but knowing the kind of place he was Hao Shen believed that this was naturally made with some modifications by the beast men. All in all the bowls looked amazing, and Hao Shen wanted to admire them.

But without much time, Hao Shen walked forward and attempted to help Reid put the bowls down, but with how heavy the bowls were and how frail Hao Shen was, he was only able to take the sea shell from Reid after Reid had bent down a little to let him reach his head.