《Two Brothers》03: Welcome to The Stone Age
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"We abandoned the Damned Land and crossed The Vast Ocean once, our land was sick and it could not produce any more crops, swarmed by beasts we where decimated. We rode our ships and after months of hardships we arrived at the promised land, full of life and resources, we created settlements which turned out to be kingdoms, we prospered, but in the decades to follow we faced war with the natives. Elves, Orcs, Giants, Mermaids and countless other beasts. we can only hope and pray for peace. A peace that might never come since we are the invaders."
-History of the New Age By Archmage Rebren year 136 of The New Age
Brandon looked around and scanned the forest in detail for the first time. Some trees had purple or blue leaves, others where the normal green, leave shapes and sizes differed greatly, and in all it seemed like the trees where put in placed there randomly. a tall tree near them was blossoming and his pink leaves contrasted with the white flowers that inhabited the entirety of its circumference. 'beautiful' he though
meanwhile jack picked up a few rocks and started smashing them together knapping big flakes out of them.
"what are you doing?" asked Brandon confused
"you remember that hippie bullshit mother brought us to when you where five?" said Jack without stopping to hit and adjust the rock along his palm
"well you where still a kid, but mother forced me to take part in it too, there was a woman (who stink of weed) teaching how to make arrow heads and other tools from stone like the native Americans did." Jack finished his statement and kept shaping the rock while Brandon got closer and look at the work.
the flint shaped object was the size of an average human head, he was striking the sides of it revealing a light brown color pointing out it was flint, with each strike the stone became thinner and shallower, the edges reflected the light already showing how sharp they where.
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Brandon trusted his brother and he understood what he was doing. they needed edged weapons. he had his folding knife, but it was not going to be enough, he knew his brother kept a boot knife and another one in his belt, was it enough? he doubted it. His train of though got interrupted when his brother suddenly stopped hitting the rock and looked in front of him with a 1000 yard stare
"what is it?" Brandon looked in the same direction but seen nothing, only some low underbrush and trees.
"i just felt something pop... i don't know how to explain, it was like... like i can understand the process better... here" his brother handed him the two stones. the flint blade was definitely sharp and his awkward handling of it drew blood from cuts in his fingers.
"ill be back in a second" Jack lounged in to the forest and disappeared from Brandon's field of visions shortly after.
"well, nothing to lose trying" Brandon put the already worked pice of flint on the floor and picked up a different rock, he did not wanted to mess up the work of his brother since he definitely did not remembered how to Knapp stone. he tried imitating the way and where his brother hit the stone, making sure to think logically where he hit, why and what happened after he hit it.
he came to a conclusion, the reason his brother was adjusting and flipping the rock so much, when you hit the side, invert the rock and then hit it from the oposite side you remove big flakes but kept the edge line centered, this way you thin out the blade but at the same time keep a steady edge. also, bigger flakes make bigger edges, but those edges curve a little bit, and superposed with the next one will create a drag, similar to a saw like feeling, smaller flakes will creates smaller edges closer together giving it a more knife like feel to the blade. it was a downward process, you start by removing big flakes and gradually making them smaller and smaller until the point where you have a steady and thin blade with many small edges that will be sharp as razors.
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Jack returned carrying a couple of straight sticks. a few of them where thinner and longer for what would seem spears and the second half ones where thicker and shorter, probably for an axes or clubs. on his other hand he had a military style bayonet, the edge was skillfully honed, reflecting the light of the sun while the back side had a serrated saw like edge, Brandon knew that it was Jacks boot knife.
for the rest of the morning until evening they keep looking for stones to transform in to blades and they worked them quickly. Brandon felt the "pop" as his brother described it two times during that morning. he could not explain it ether, but it was definitely something strange. at least it was something he never experienced back on earth. their skills improved and by the time the sun started to set down they where finishing their new and improvised weapons.
During the last stage of the weapon making process Jack had collected some resin from the trees around their improvised camp and heated it up on top of a stone by using the fire pit, he mixed some ash in to the resin and collected the end result on the tip of a small stick forming what seemed like a big black egg of glue to hold down the spear tips to the shafts. after finding some fibrous grass like plants they made some improvised rope and fixed the rough flint spear point to the shafts. the remaining big sticks where carved in to heavy Greenwood clubs.
"we will need to hunt something down tomorrow" said Jack while shaping a large pice of wood in to something resembling a crude bow. "we should find some river or some other kind of body of water and try to set camp close to it"
Brandon agreed, all animals had to drink water, and being near a river or a lake might make it easier to find tracks and hunt.
"Go to sleep, ill wake you up when its your turn on the watch"
Brandon did not realized how tired he was until he laid down on the moss and closed his eyes. he was definitely running out in fumes and doubted he could have stayed up for much longer. before he fell asleep he saw his brother sitting behind the fire looking in to the forest, a Greenwood club laying on the floor in front of him while he was holding the stone spear with his both arms.
Slowly the fatigue took over him and he was surrounded by darkness, his dreams where a mix of memories of him and his ex girlfriend and vague memories from when he visited that historical town that used to be in the frontier between the east and the wild west in the USA.
"Wake up" Whispered Jack while shaking Brandon, Bosco was on his feet with his fur erected and showed aggression by snarling. "there is something in the forest" Jack said while Brandon got up and picked up his crude stone spear.
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