August watched her go, carrying the [Kick-Wheel] closer to the waterfront with no visible effort. He turned his attention towards the fire again and inspected the clay shelf he’d made—it was directly in the line of fire, so to speak. It already looked as if it had dried through, at least from a surface scan of the material. It hadn’t immediately crumbled from the direct flame, but he doubted it would last forever.

For the structure itself, the top-most layer of clay hadn’t changed too much, except for the outermost layer being fairly hard to the touch. He gave it a few more minutes before beginning to close in the top. Following the shelf method, he took a few branches, using them as temporary braces to work inward for the next layer of clay. Not the easiest of tasks, considering the heat from the fire was rising straight up into his new workspace.

He continued to move inwards, following the pace of the drying clay—the closer to the middle he worked, the faster it dried due to its more complete contact with the fire and the trapped heat building up. He had to tend to the fire several times as he worked, adding more wood to ensure it would continue to burn.

Between the [Kiln Blueprint] and the process of actually making a structure out of similar materials, August had learned a lot about what he needed to do to make an actual furnace. In this case, he was looking to build a draft furnace—something that would take several days to actually finish due to its height and the speed at which clay dried.

Given that the process was going to be a slow one, he moved to get a head start on it early. August moved several feet away from the [Kiln] before drawing a circle in the dirt with his [Wooden Shovel]. With a decent area marked out, he spent a few minutes digging it up before laying a foundation of stones inside the hole.

He kicked the soil back over the stones until the area was level and then turned his attention towards making the base of the furnace—he padded the clay out as best he could, mirroring the structure of the [Kiln] only much smaller in diameter. He continued layering more clay on top until he’d reached about two feet in the air and then stopped.

He moved back to the [Kiln], adding more wood to the fire to ensure it would continue to burn, before stealing a branch with a brightly burning tip. He built a fire inside the base of the furnace and used his stolen fire to light it—then he sat back for a moment to rest.

The main difference between the two structures was height and the materials he’d used to make them. The [Kiln] had large rocks holding most of the weight inside the walls—while the clay itself was only used to fill the gaps and cover the rocks.

The furnace would have no rocks, the walls made entirely of clay and would end up being far taller to allow for natural airflow to help bolster the heat of the fire inside—cold air would enter the furnace, and the heated air would rise quickly. The lack of rocks meant that the clay would hold all of the weight, and wet clay would quickly begin to buckle and sag under that weight. That meant that he would need to dry it, layer by layer, before adding more weight on top of it—a process that would take hours per layer and a constantly burning fire to do so efficiently.

“August?” Rittan said as he approached. “Is now a good time for a meeting?”

August put his weight on the one hand, turning enough to catch sight of the Voithos. Kalter could be seen behind him, making her way towards where Haiko sat near the shoreline.

“Now is as good a time as any,” August admitted, “I’m stuck waiting for this to dry—not much more I can do for now.”

“Yes—we actually ran out of materials as well,” Rittan admitted, “I suppose we will need to reenter the forest.”

There was a spike of unease at the thought of going back inside after he’d been attacked by the wild [Efkini], but he also knew that he couldn’t avoid it forever.

“We should organise a gathering trip,” August said, eyeing the treeline. “Try and get as much stuff as we can and spend as little time in there as possible.”

“Indeed,” Rittan nodded, following his line of sight. “If we are all working towards the same goal, it should speed up our efforts significantly.”

“Right,” August said, standing up.

Kalter and Haiko reached their position a moment later.

“We’re out of just about everything,” Kalter said, reiterating what Rittan had already informed him of.

August nodded at the comment.

“We’re going to need to go on a gathering expedition,” August said, repeating the point for their benefit. “We only have Ladybug to protect us—it’s probably safest if we stick together and avoid spreading out.”

“What type of materials will we be looking for?” Haiko said curiously, looking between them.

“Wood, vines, and those big leaves,” Kalter listed, “Apart from that, I’m not sure what we need.”

“We should probably get some more Sadapples as well,” August admitted, “I think we’re getting low on those as well.”

“I believe we only have two axes currently?” Rittan said, his voice rising slightly at the end. “If we want to optimise how much we can gather, it would probably be best if we all had at least one tool to use.”

“I’ll make two more before we leave,” August agreed, running all of the materials over in his head. “I was thinking about that large undercover area we were talking about.”

“I am not quite sure what that structure would look like,” Rittan admitted. “Or what it would require.”

August took a moment to consider what it might need.

“The main issue here is that you are all a lot taller than I am,” August said slowly, “Having to bend down all the time to avoid hitting your head would be annoying—if we want a decent undercover area, we are going to need some really long lengths of wood to make something at a comfortable height.”

The three Voithos looked at one another for a moment.

“I’m not sure I can put something that big into my inventory,” August frowned, turning to look back at the treeline. “We might need to just down a dozen or so of those thinner trees and cut them to the right length—that way, we don’t need to drag them through the forest.”

“A dozen or so?” Kalter said, following his gaze. “How big is this thing?”

“Pretty big—they would be the uprights, and then we just need to tie down some long branches between them for the roof,” August said, tilting his head, “That’s enough area for all of us to be walking around and not getting in each other’s way.”

“It would also cover everything from the huts to the here,” Rittan said in understanding, “Along with adding another layer between us and any unfortunate weather events.”

“If it protects us from the sun, I will be content,” Haiko said, studying the back of her bottom left forearm. “My poor delicate skin is already drying out.”

“Didn’t pack your moisturiser?” Kalter said, clearly hiding a smile.

“I must have forgotten it in the rush,” Haiko said, rolling her eyes.