Urist finished talking with the bamboo team, leaving them to their work. Headed back over the fire to see how Uria was handling it. Pushing some brushes aside while walking through the forest, he noticed Uroa and Briana coming back from the forest with plant shoots of various colors in their hands.

Since medicine wasn’t his forte, he had to work together with the other dwarfs to learn medicine making. All he knew was basic first aid from his supposedly forgotten past life. Add the fact that there weren't alcohol or band-aids presently available, even his small knowledge didn’t suit the situation.

He came to a sudden realization that if any of them caught an infection, they would have no way of fighting it. They had to start making some medicine or they could be wiped out from disease!

He followed Uroa and Briana into the cave.

“Hey girls, what did you gather? Anything good?”

“Un. We gathered some helpful berries that should help with diarrhea if we boil them and make it into a tea.”

Briana then started to explain more by plucking out a berry from a shoot. “And this type of plant with the yellow tips can be ground into a powder to cure insomnia. These blue leaves can be boiled into a tea to help ease pains. While this purple colored can be crushed into a gel to help clean wounds and ease burn pains and…”

Briana went on and on, showing off different types of plants with a passionate expression while Uroa sorted the plants in the containers they ate from the yesterday. He had made sure they cleaned the dishes in the river, so it should be fine to store things in them until they got something better.

With them talking his ear off, Urist felt his worries dissipating. But although they seemed so happy gathering the plants for their applications, Urist felt the need to remind them one thing.

“It’s good to gather medicine but make sure not to over harvest alright? Or we won't have any future medicine down the road.”

“Understood, boss.”

“Got it, boss.”

Urist said his goodbyes and left to see how headed back to the fire with a question sticking in his brain. ‘Why are they calling me boss?’

Fire Keeper

Coming out of the cave, Urist saw Uria stoking the fire with a good-sized stick in her hand. She moved the fire around and tending the coals. She also added new logs to feed the fire when it demanded it. The fire wasn’t too big that it hurt to stand by or small enough for the wind to blow it out.

The fire was nothing new to Urist, but the lustrous eyes of Uria were something else entirely. The orange reflection of the fire danced around, clashing with her blue irises. Instead of looking chaotic, the flickering light lent her a natural beauty. A few moments passed by as Urist stared at her, transfixed. Fortunately, Uria was too focused on the fire to glance at him.

‘We just met. What am I thinking? We have to survive first before thinking about those things.’

Chasing such thoughts away, Urist walked towards her. “Hey, Uria. How’s the fire going?”

Uria turned to him and smiled. “The fire is doing great. Though I wonder if what I’m doing is important.” She resumed tending the fire but her smile was slightly melancholy. “The others are making traps, medicine, rope, and doors while I’m here watching this... thing.”

Hearing dejection made Urist feel a pang of guilt in his chest for not explaining why her job was the most important. Instead of talking, it would be better to show her that her efforts were not in vain.

“Trust me, by tomorrow you will see why your job as firekeeper is so important. I’ll go prepare now. Just wait.”

With that, Urist left the confused Uria. Picking up the bronze hammer and the bronze pot from the cave, Urist walked out of the camp. He picked a fairly clear area of land somewhat away from the cave, closer to the river, and set down his tools to find some rocks.

He found what he was searching for seconds later: a nice, large, sharp, rock that needed two hands to wield. He would be using it to throw against another rock planted in the ground. Next, he hunted for large, dry logs, then gathered smaller sticks until he had a good amount of wood.

Now it was time to get his hands dirty. Urist proceeded to dig a hole in the ground since he forgot the shovel a while ago in haste and was too embarrassed to run back. This would be his pilot hole for the starting log in making his charcoal mound.

After he finished digging, he placed the largest log inside the pilot hole and embedded it a few inches deep to hold it in place. He then broke up large sticks to the length of around a foot and half and then layered it around the pilot log. He kept putting more layers around the center log, each a little shorter than the next. He took a step back to admire his work that looked much like a campfire ready to be lit. Now it was time to gather dry leaves and plants to cover the logs. And the final piece was to cover the entire mound with good, old mud.

Urist mixed mud with his bare hands and carried it to his mound from the riverbank. He slapped it onto the mound until he covered the entire thing. The last step was to make eight holes in the bottom of the mound to let air inside, then to carve a hole at the mound's peak to allow the fire to be lit.

Now done, Urist headed over to Uria, not caring to clean himself off, and went inside the cave to get a shovel. Grabbing the shovel, he walked over to the fire. “I’m going to need some coals.”

“Ok...?”

Thoroughly confused at Urist’s appearance and why he needed to ask her for coals, she moved out of the way and watched as he got a shovel full of coals and headed off in a certain direction.

“Oh yeah Uria, tell Uroa to find me in that direction when it’s time to eat. I’m going to be making charcoal.” He pointed to his worksite.

“Ok…?”