The Coming-of-Age Ceremony, Part II
Chester had given her a choice of tasks, and Monia had chosen to build the storehouse. Though it was called "building a storehouse," it was far from simple. Chester had only agreed to accompany her on explorations; he had never said he would help her gather the materials to build it. From harvesting the bamboo to every single detail thereafter, Monia had to do it all on her own. And what was she given to start with? Absolutely nothing. The challenge was to accomplish everything from start to finish by herself, which meant she had to work without the aid of any of the tools they had crafted so far. It was harsh. Yet, rather than complaining about the severity of the task, Monia simply wanted to prove she could do it.
And so, the first day of her coming-of-age ceremony began.
"I'm here!"
Monia arrived at the riverbank to craft a stone knife.
"It's been so long since I've done this!"
She hadn't needed a stone knife ever since they made the claw knives. Closing her eyes for a moment as if reminiscing about the distant past, Monia smiled as she recalled the very first time she had tried to make one. Looking back, I was absolutely terrible at it! Well, that didn't matter now. Monia settled down by the river, searched for a suitable stone, and began to knap it.
Clack! Clack!
She struck the stones together, fracturing them and shaping the pieces into a usable form. Grinding it against a flat stone slab would yield a more refined and sharper edge, but she didn't need that level of precision for this task, so she didn't bother.
"Ouch."
A sharp flake nicked her finger as she knapped the stone, drawing blood, but Monia paid it no mind. She casually rinsed the cut in the river and resumed her work. She was used to this by now. Though the healing properties of the river water kept her scars faint or nonexistent, her hands were now calloused and bore numerous tiny marks. The soft, flawless hands of a highborn lady—meticulously pampered since a childhood she could barely recall—had vanished long ago.
Crack!
Once she had chipped away at the stone's circumference to her satisfaction, Monia gripped her newly fashioned blade and headed into the forest. Stepping into the trees, she peeled the fibrous bark from a small plant growing near the river. Next, she approached a fallen tree nearby, scored a suitable branch with her stone knife, and—
"Hup!"
Snap!
She grabbed the branch with both hands and stomped down hard, snapping it. After breaking the wood down to a manageable length, she returned to the riverbank, cleaned up one end of the branch, and carved a notch into it with her stone knife. She slotted the stone blade into the notch, fashioned a cord from the plant fibers she had gathered, and lashed the blade securely to the wooden handle.
"Done."
Having quickly finished her basic stone knife, Monia began chewing on some smoked meat Chester had packed for her as she moved on to the next step. She had her basic cutting tool. Now, it was time to craft a stone axe to fell and process the bamboo. A machete would make this so much easier. But there was no use crying over what she didn't have. Brushing aside her lingering regrets, Monia gathered all the materials needed for the stone axe and returned to the riverbank. There was no longer any trace of the helpless girl who, on her first day on the Floating Island, had struggled to take even a single step through the forest. She was entirely resilient and full of grit. At first, the prospect of operating entirely on her own without Chester had filled her with pressure, anxiety, and fear. But her fierce determination to succeed and earn Chester's recognition overcame those doubts, serving as the driving force that kept her moving forward.
"Yes!"
After quickly knapping an axe head, Monia carried it back into the forest. She gathered some suitable firewood and prepared to build a campfire. It was time to use the hand-drill friction fire method—a skill she had painstakingly mastered, only for Chester to render it obsolete by inventing the push drill. I may not have needed it lately, but I practiced diligently!
"Fufufu."
Monia let out a sly chuckle as she scraped her stone knife along a branch. She shaved off the outer bark and scraped the inner wood into a fine pile of tinder. Then, she flipped the hearth board over, carved a small notch on one side, and positioned her spindle branch inside it. Holding the hearth board firmly in place with her legs, she gripped the spindle between her palms and began to spin it furiously.
"Nnngh!"
No matter how much she had practiced, and no matter how skilled she had become, friction fire by hand was never easy.
"Haaah!"
Even Chester had to break a sweat to do this. Monia grimaced, pouring every ounce of her strength into spinning the wood.
"Yaaah!"
After what felt like an eternity of spinning, pushing through a burning pain that threatened to tear the skin right off her palms, Monia finally succeeded in producing a glowing ember.
"I did it! Pant... pant..."
She hurriedly tapped the glowing ember out of the notch and onto her tinder bundle. Lifting the bundle to her face, she began to blow on it gently but steadily. Monia blew on the tinder bundle repeatedly. Fed by the oxygen, the ember flared a brilliant red, consuming the dry fibers as thick smoke began to billow. Once the smoke thickened, she gave it a few more strong puffs, and the bundle suddenly burst into bright, crackling flames.
"Yes! Woohoo!"
Cheering at the sight of the fire, Monia quickly placed the burning bundle into a small teepee of twigs she had prepared. As the flames caught the smaller twigs, she fed larger pieces of wood in careful succession, quickly building a robust campfire. Once the fire was burning steadily, Monia pumped her fist in the air, basking in a deep sense of accomplishment.
"Alright! I made fire!"
Without Chester by her side, even a basic survival milestone like this brought her immense joy.
Gazing happily at the campfire, she let the wood burn down to produce hot coals. She used a hot coal to burn a hole through a thick branch, then wedged the stone axe head into the opening to assemble her axe. She bound the wood tightly above and below the socket with cordage to prevent the handle from splitting. Armed with her completed axe, she walked over to the fallen tree she had spotted earlier. She swung the axe, cleanly lopping off a few branches, and smiled with satisfaction.
"Not bad!"
It wasn't perfect, but that was only because her standards had been spoiled by the steel machete and the superior stone axes Chester had helped her make. Monia knew that for a tool crafted entirely by her own hands, this stone axe was an exceptional piece of work.
Satisfied with her axe, she extinguished the campfire, gathered her tools and remaining cordage, and ventured deeper into the forest. As she walked, she plucked any edible wild fruits she found to keep her energy up, and whenever she spotted a tree suitable for making rope, she stripped its bark and carried it along. Gathering resources as she went, she eventually located the bamboo grove she had scouted previously and prepared to harvest.
"Felling bamboo on a slope is a first for me."
The place Monia had chosen was the very bamboo grove Chester had considered back when they first discussed building a firewood shed. At the time, frequent rains had left the ground in terrible condition, so they had quickly abandoned the idea. Although the recent dry spell meant the ground was dry, the steep incline made it incredibly difficult to maintain her footing. Every time she tried to do anything, her feet would slip, sliding her down the slope.
"Whoa!"
Monia grabbed a thick stalk of bamboo to steady herself, looking down at the steep terrain with a grimace. I thought it would be fine as long as it wasn't raining... Simply standing still on this slope was an exhausting battle. Now I see why Chester always goes somewhere else when we need bamboo. The issue wasn't that the bamboo itself was hard to cut. With a slope this steep, she risked tumbling all the way down the hill while trying to swing her axe. Should I have gone across the river instead? There was probably some leftover bamboo from their previous construction efforts over there. But Monia was no fool. No, that's a bad idea. She didn't have the confidence to wander around the unfamiliar territory across the river all by herself. That would be reckless and arrogant. Therefore, she had no choice but to fell the bamboo on this steep slope. Well, then. How should I handle this? To solve the problem, Monia began to think the way Chester would. What can I do with what I have right now to solve this?
"Hmm."
Chester stared at the clay sitting before him. He had pondered various ways to weaponize the chili powder, and had ultimately decided that clay was the answer. A sphere would be the best shape. It'll be easier to throw. To put the chili powder inside, it needs to be hollow. The concept was simple enough. The execution, however, was a different story. Even their thick, large clay pots frequently cracked during firing. Now he had to make something small and thin-walled? There's no telling how many attempts this will take. Muttering to himself, Chester set to work. He had no idea if he would succeed or how many trials lay ahead. But when a potential solution presented itself, it was always wiser to keep trying than to sit idly by. The moment I successfully craft a chili powder weapon, we'll have a reliable way to escape even a bear. Once they had that, nothing would hold them back from exploring further. The unexplored Ant-wolf Territory, the other Bear Territories—they would be able to map them all. With that goal in mind, Chester kept his hands moving, shaping the clay into hollow hemispheres. I wonder how Monia is holding up.