Chapter 8: Introducing fire.

Act 1: Smoke house.

It's been a few days since we joined the herd, and today we start building what we'll need to keep our food, well for more than a few weeks. "And this is how will keep are food through the year"

I showed a small smoking pyre, with salted, sun dried and smoked cuts of water-tubers being cured, while I held a bowl of already-cured tuber slices, giving them to the crafters that volunteered to help me build my smoke house.

"It's good Sage Lazir, are you sure this will last until the next sun season?" One of the crafters said as her companions ate the slices, as a snack.

"And more, if the smoke is tended well." I said as I turned and walked they followed me to the work site.

"My people don't really sleep through the snow season, so we developed ways to keep excess food for longer, and one of those ways as I showed you is curing." I told them as we walked.

"It's part of your fire magic?" She asked, as I felt a fire puffing on my forearm, as I hid it using my cloak.

"Yes, part of it, but you girls can do it now, I've already shown you how to make fire." I told them as we made it to the site.

"Grumble noises." "The one we make and use is different from your's and unlike yours ours hurts when we touch it." I nodded still unsure how my magic works or how anything in this world works. . .I haven't used the hole, ever since I got here, and I've never seen the girls excuse themselves to answer the call of nature.

They started arguing with each other why it's different but in the end they thought that I was just special, and it was fine. "Alright let's start digging." I told them as I told them where to dig while they transformed to so.

We made it so that it would be like a ditch, where the ash could settle and easily be cleaned out. Next they transformed back and helped me set the sticks and logs to frame the smokehouse.

Then with the internal place with shelves and sealed with sealant of charcoal dust and melted sap. Only the door and the roof had vents, after that we covered the entire thing with earth making it look like a dirt mound with smoke coming out of its top and front.

I smiled as I looked at the first of the projects I would be doing to improve my new home. What do we need next? I looked at the tents they used and felt sickened by it, and I know we could build better.

Act 2: Weapon training. Pov Amber.

A week after we joined our new herd, I was training with the warriors of the herd and boy they were strong but oddly much slower than I thought. I dodge another swing of and then trust my staff to her chest pushing her down.

"Alright, alright, you can be a warrior, Amber." I nodded happily as I finally got accepted.

"And in congratulation here you go warriors. New weapons made by me and the crafters." Lazir appears out of nowhere with a basket filled with weapons. I count six flint spears, and ten flint knives and five clubs fanged with sharpened stone edges.

"Woah, how did you guys make so many!" The Head-warrior shouted excitedly as she and the other warriors came to look at the newly made weapons.

"The crafters work fast, the only reason they were slow before was the quality wood takes a long time to get sun hardened, and worked into shape." As Lazir I noticed the wood in the weapons were dark brown, unlike the ones the warriors used to use, did he use his fire magic on these?

"Alright girls, I'm no powerful warrior, and fighting me is very different from fighting a cursed beast but it's good exercise, now pick those up and fight!" He said as he charged at a warrior holding a spear, with staff.

The fight ended quickly when the warrior stabbed at Lazir, but he just deflected it with his boar-hide cloak and then swung the staff at the warrior, sending her a clean few meters away. I heard her bones creak.

"Why?!" The Head-warrior asked angrily, but before she charged Lazir was already on the warrior girl in pain and his fire burning into her. . . burning away her wounds.

Then she was standing confused. "I can heal wounds so, now we will be training as hard as we can with these new weapons while the crafters make new ones." I gave out breath, holding my new spear. It looked so pretty, it's a shame it'll break in a few hours.

I charged in and we fought, he was playing with me for ten moves before tripping and downing me, all I heard as I laid down was the screams and howler of pain of the others as they tasted what Lazir lovingly called blood exercises.

"Damn, and here I thought I'll have normal warrior training." I said as I stood up as my leg corrected itself, as I felt his fire flowing in me for not more than a second before it was gone.

"Dream on Amber, you this is effective." Lazir said as he smiled and swung at my head holding a stone clawed club, and a bloodied flint spear in his other hand. Gods, where lucky he hates violence, those were my thoughts as I dodged the blow for my head and felt my throat filled with blood, as a flint spear stabbed through it.

As I choked. "Da. . .nm, ha. . te, blo. / exce. Cough!" Blood splattered my face, from the Head-warriors leg as it was almost cut clean off. Hate this.

Act 3: Torches. Pov Ash.

"Are you sure this would scare off the monsters?" A younger forager asked me she seemed to be only a few snow seasons younger than me.

"Yes, it's one of the reasons we made it this deep into the forest." I answered as I held a torch as I watched over ten foragers that agreed to venture with me outside their foraging grounds.

We were harvesting salt from what used to have been a pond. Using basket bags made out of vines, some of them dug the others held torches and others filled the baskets with the dugged out rock salt.

The work was quick as we filled our bags, and started moving back to the village, each with a short wooden spear used as a walking stick and a torch in there other hand, we walked quickly with jogging pace.

"What are we using this for?" One of the foragers asked.

"It's used to stop food from spoiling." The forgers became excited at that.

"Really? Why had no elder said so before? The crafters said these rocks were useless!" They talked among themselves as we moved. I gave a laughed as their excitement was contagious, but then smelled it, motioning for us to stop.

"What. . . something's hunting us!" One of the foragers said as they naturally made a circle around me.

"Everyone stay close and move slowly with me and keep your torches outward." They agreed and we kept walking. They were tense, their legs twitching and ears upward listening for danger.

We smelled the dried blood of the predator for another few more hours before it was just gone. Everyone gave a relieved breath. "See it's fine we keep moving like this until we make it to the village." 

"Yes! I can't believe this works! We don't need the warriors anymore!" They cheered as we continued walking at a slower pace, the wind changed. I'm not sure if the predators actually left or not.

Then I felt it, danger. "Everyone to my right forward your torches." Not all reacted as fast as I did, as I pointed my torch to the right as Black-claw appeared from the shadows, and tried to bite at one of the foragers.

"Gaahh!" The Black-claw was burnt as it retreated back to darkness.

"They've surrounded us. Keep moving and stay sharp." I said, commanding them as we continued to move in a tight formation like how Lazir had shown me and my sisters.

"Yes! It worked! We can do this! Where near home!" The foragers cheered as they saw the Black-claw easily fought back.

"Sigh. . . this would take awhile." I said, as I already felt tired of what we would need to do, as we started moving, fighting back ambushes of the Black-claws, and moving through rough terrain, while being in a sleeping pile.

Act 4: Reflection.

It was night, the skies were dark, the stars twinkled and everyone of them, now that I had the time to thoroughly study them, made me notice that they looked much smaller than what I had seen on earth.

Like many other children of the Human Federation of Stars, I was given the chance to live on earth as a wild child for a year, only observed and supported when needed by the conservation and social research factions.

I lived with others close to my age, surviving, enjoying, and honoring the experiences of our very first ancestors. On the great plains with my starseeker friends we laid and looked up every night before sleep.

And we saw them, the jewels our late 21st century ancestors fought so hard to secure for their descendants to be able to see. The milky way and beyond. Now that I look at this moonless skies, on this new planet I was given the mission to change for the better.

I know it in my heart and reason, the stars are very distant which is not normal, is this system a rogue? It's possible if the local star was dislodge by another bigger star system or by a black hole constellation anchor.

I then looked down and saw the children and the adults of my new family trying to light a bonfire tinder using the starter rocks I've gathered in the hills. They were having a hard time with it. 

But Ash was there freshly arrived from her foraging mission, using a fire plow to heat the materials hot before using the sparks of the rocks to light the tinders soon they made a red-orange campfire, 

I looked at my hands, I held tinder made from dried vines, with a thought of my time trying to protect those I now care for the tinders sparked and then burned with blue flames. . . "my magic grows stronger, but I'm still not sure why." I said to myself, as I dropped the tinder to another group's unlit pyre, making their campfire glow with blue rather than orange.

Is it the battles? Is it the bonds? The mystical connection I felt every time I befriended a spirit or person. Or is it the meat? I felt something odd when I started eating that boar. . . Sigh. . . First it was talking to spirits, then the empathic reading and then fire. . . I wonder what else my leviathan self had given me.

"Brother! Come on, let us sing again!" It was Spark as she held my hand dragging me out of my thoughts and joining them for another night of singing and feasting under the stars warmed by fire and family.