As the dwarfs got into groups, Urist took note of who took what book and who grouped with whom. With everyone paired up, the groups looked like this.

Urist and Uria: Survival Rork and Rat: Fishing and Foraging Lun and Ariel: Bamboo Uroa and Briana: Care and Medicine Making Ormila and Urmom: Rope and Trap Making

When Urist asked Uroa why she picked up Care and Medicine Making instead of tending to the fire, she responded simply.

“‘Cause those leaves are so soft!”

'I wonder if our medical care is in the right hands...'

Urist wanted to cry, but he held his emotions in.

Now that everyone had their books and were reading together, Urist nodded in approval. Sitting around the cave area where the light shined well, he and Uria started to get to work reading. Since they were focusing on making a fire first, they decided to skip the other information and work on that.

Looking at all the methods to make a fire, they settled on the most primitive way. It was the hand drill method that used a long straight stick and two hands moving back and forth, up and down the shaft to try and create an ember. He wished he had some rope to make this easier but with no worked plant fibers he had to use good old elbow grease.

Urist started sweating bullets.

He remembered being somewhere outdoors, wearing his boy scout uniform. He tried his best to start a fire with this method, but he failed over and over. His scout leader yelled at him for his incompetence.

This event had left him emotionally scarred from ever trying to create something with his hands. And now he had to try and make fire once again.

‘What if I can’t do it this time? What if these dwarfs look at me as useless and kick me out. If they do how would I survive? What if—’

Seeing Urist acting strange, Uria poked his nose startling him from his thoughts. “You ok Urist?”

“I’m fine. Totally fine! Nothing’s wrong at all. Why would you think so? Making fire? Easy.”

He reassured her while standing up and lending her a hand. “Come on, let's go find a good firestick so we can use to start a fire.”

Dragging Uria away into the forest by the hand, the two started to look a nice piece of dry wood and a straight stick. It was also a good chance to gather more twigs and firewood and this time Urist didn’t forget to bring a second shirt to use as a bag.

A firestick was a very important piece to make a fire using the drill method. Looking for a nice dry branch below and along with dead trees, the duo managed to find some nice wood to start with after doing a quick search.

With sticks and logs in hand, the two-headed back to the cave to see the other dwarfs intently reading their books and talking with their respective partners. It seemed that the learning was going well.

Urist and Uria got to work on making a fire stick without disturbing the reading dwarfs. Urist retrieved the axe and started cutting up the sticks to make them thinner to work with.

Next, he used a straight stick to make some pilot holes in the wood followed by some “V” cuts with his knife to use as channels to allow the coals to fall through. While he was working the wood, Uria made a firepit with some stones. She cleared the area like the way described in the book. By keeping it contained, hopefully, they wouldn’t start a forest fire.

While making the firestick, Urist was shocked at how well his hands handled the wood and axe. It was as though it was second nature to him. Soon enough, he had a basic firestick that would help make their first coal.

The fire stick they choose came off a fallen tree that Urist and Uria had found. What surprised Urist’s about the fallen tree came from finding a naturally made hill shelter that the dead tree now sat. He made a note to file that information for later use in storing firewood from the elements.

The stage was set. He had a stick in hand, a firestick below, a dry material to catch the coal, and twigs along with dry tree shavings beside him. Facing him was Uria who at any time could switch with Urist to take over drill duty the moment he felt tired.

A drop of sweat appeared on Urist’s forehead, his hands trembling and eyes wide, he shouted, “Let’s begin.”

“Un!” Uria nodded her head.

With their eyes on the prize, the two dwarfs began paving the path onto pioneering the first steps to civilization: fire!

-----------

Urist sat up, rudely awakened from a weird dream. His breathing was heavy as he scratched his chest. Getting his bearings straight, he looked around to see the dwarfs soundly sleeping around him. He could also see that the guards were doing their jobs and watching out into the darkness. Hey, lay back down staring at the ceiling while opening and closing his hands. Only the full moon and stars illuminated the darkness. His expression was bitter, ‘As expected, I couldn’t light a fire… How useless can I be?’

He and Uria had given it their all to get a coal from their firestick for hours on end. Only at the end of the day did they get some faint smoke. But that faint success meant nothing because they had to quit as it started to get dark.

They covered the cave entrance with bamboo by sticking them into the ground, using the shovel to dig some holes. Despite that, Urist made sure that there would be shifts in the night that would change every two hours using the moon’s spot in the sky as a time reference.

He made sure the dwarfs wouldn’t be lax even with a defense in place. With this time to reflect within, he tried to think about his past and why he was here. Did he die? What was his real name? Where was he? Who were these dwarfs?

With so many questions and no one to answer him, he felt helpless. He decided he might as well go back to sleep, after all, he had the fourth watch.

When he closed his eyes, some text appeared in his mind like a picture.

Time: 6 Days 2 hours 23 minutes until Market opens

Points Gained: 372