Chapter 8

"I like your food. I want more of it," Rual told Lucy.

"We need metal tools to get more food," Lucy stated, "It's time to find more copper ore."

The process of making copper metal had started over since doing it at Hess village. Semal showed Lucy where to find malachite. Many days were spent mining and crushing malachite into green dust. Lucy and Rual's hands were coated in green. Lucy's kiln was filled to the brim with wood many times, and processed into charcoal by burning the wood in a low oxygen environment by closing off the openings on the kiln with mud. Lucy was confident with turning malachite into copper, but she needed to form a tool. She could either forge the copper into shape by hammering it, or cast it into shape.

Lucy chose the casting process, because fewer impurities would remain in the copper. Forging would hammer them into the metal. Lucy formed the clay with the tool shape hollowed inside of it. Small channels called risers for gas escape were added, so the metal would completely fill the clay hollow. The tool head was a combination ax and hoe. The blades rotated 90 degrees to each other in opposite directions, and connected to a thick ring between them for the wood handle. The malachite was first processed into copper metal as Lucy and Rual had done before, and then it was fired again to cast it into the dried clay mould.

The copper was melted with calcium oxide in a large clay cup called a crucible. The calcium oxide came from burning limestone to a red hot state previously. Without adding water to the calcium oxide, it was unslaked quicklime. The quicklime acted as a flux for the molten copper. Metal impurities stuck to the quicklime floating on the molten copper. Lucy didn't have tongs to carry the crucible, so a special furnace that could split into multiple pieces was used. The copper was melted in the crucible inside the furnace. Then the furnace was broken apart, exposing a glowing red crucible on a plinth.

The clay mould had been cooking in a open fire to completely dry it. Lucy used two sticks to carefully tip the crucible, and pull out the flux on top, which fell on the ground. Then the clay mould was placed on the ground below the plinth. Lucy tipped over the crucible, and the molten copper poured into the mould. The molten copper flowed down the pouring cup of the mould, filled the cavity, and pushed the gas through the holes called risers, which also filled with molten metal. This process was stressful for Lucy. If the mould had water remaining inside it, the water would instantly heat into steam from the hot metal pouring into it, and cause the mould to explode.

"Keep far away," Lucy instructed Rual as she poured the metal.

"I want to see it," Rual complained.

"I don't want you to be hurt if something happens," Lucy said.

Rual stepped back a few meters, and watched Lucy tip over the crucible. The molten copper flowed like honey. Lucy ran to Rual after she tipped over the crucible. She didn't want to be covered in molten metal, if the mould exploded. The mould didn't explode, because it was dried completely, and heated in a fire to remove any remaining moisture. The hot mould also kept the molten copper from cooling too quickly, and failing to cast completely inside the mould.

"Now we have to wait," Lucy stated.

"Why are we waiting," Rual asked.

"The liquid metal has to cool into a solid."

"Why does rock copper become wet like water," Rual asked.

"Not all hard non-plant and non-animal solids are rock," Lucy replied, "Copper is a metal that is hard like rock, but can also bend like soft wood. Copper can be made softer by heating it, and eventually turns into a liquid. There are 3 basic states of material, solid, liquid, and gas."

"I don't get it."

"Solids are like rocks, rocks cant be pushed through another rock, without breaking the rock apart. Liquids like water are like sand, you can push the solid rock through the sand, because the sand moves around the rock," Lucy said, "but sand isn't a true liquid, it's a bunch of small solid rocks with a lot of air between them. Air is a gas, it's what you breathe, and what you feel on your skin when you blow air or feel the wind."

"Why is this so complicated," Rual groaned, "and why do I need to know this stuff?"

"What would your spear be, if you didn't know how to use it," Lucy asked him.

Rual thought, and said, "A spear."

"But you don't know that," Lucy responded, "You'd just see it as a pointy stick, and not know to use it to protect yourself, and not know to use it to injure. It's a useless object to you, but it's a tool to a person that knows how to use it as a spear. Nothing is truly useless. We just don't know what its use is yet."

"When am I going to need to know about rock, wet, air," Rual asked.

"Solid, liquid, gas," Lucy corrected him, "Follow me."

Rual and Lucy walked to the stream near their house. Lucy dropped a rock into the water, and asked, "What happened?"

"You threw a rock," Rual stated.

"What happened to the rock?"

"It sank in the water."

Lucy held up a empty water pot, "What is this?"

"Water pot," Rual said.

"Is it heavier than that rock?"

"Yes."

"Watch this," Lucy said.

Lucy pushed the water pot into the water without submerging the mouth. Every time Lucy let go of the pot, it would float up in the water.

"Why won't the water pot sink like a rock," Lucy asked, "They're both heavy."

"I don't know. Why does it matter," Rual asked.

"We can visit the other side of an ocean without walking around it," Lucy stated, "If we make a pot big enough to fit inside, we can float on the water like this water pot. It's called a boat."

"We can't make a ceramic clay pot that big."

"It doesn't have to be made of ceramic clay. We need the right materials and knowledge," Lucy stated.

"Why do we need a boat?"

"If we build it right," Lucy began speaking, "we can travel on water faster than we can run on the ground. We can travel to Hess village faster than ever. We need something to offer them to entice them to change their ways."

"Are we giving Hess village a boat," Rual asked.

"We will share knowledge, and resources."

"Why will they stop hurting men, if we give them stuff for free?"

"It won't be free," Lucy responded, "We will make trades."

"You wanted to trade with Hess village before," Rual commented, "But they just took your stuff."

Lucy filled the water pot with water, and walked over to the mould. She poured cold water on the hot mould, which caused it to crack. Lucy broke apart the cracked mould with a large stick, and held up the copper hoe/ax with it.

"Tools are weapons of knowledge," Lucy stated while staring at the orange tool.

"I want to see it," Rual tried to grab the copper metal.

Lucy threw it away with the stick while yelling, "It's still too hot to touch. You'll get burned if you touch it directly."

"But it wasn't glowing like fire," Rual stated.

"It doesn't have to glow to be hot," Lucy told Rual.

Lucy poured water on the copper metal, and it sizzled because it instantly boiled against the hot metal.

"It's still very hot," Lucy stated, "That could've been your skin."

Rual had seen Lucy cook meat in a hot ceramic pan. He knew what heat could do to flesh when exposed directly. Rual swallowed his nervousness.

"I'm not trying to scare you into fearing everything," Lucy told him, "You need to have knowledge to handle things safely. It's like your spear. It could hurt you, if you didn't know how to handle it."

"What are we going to eat," Rual asked as his belly growled.

"I'll boil some pickled fennel with wild vegetables and meat."

"You put fennel in everything," Rual complained.

"It's good for you," Lucy responded.

"I want craw fish and mussel soup."

"I'd have to go to the river for that, and there are alligators there. They scare me," Lucy told Rual.

"Why can't you scare the alligators away," Rual asked.

"I'm not scary, and they are very brave," Lucy responded.

"You're scary when you're mad."

"If I tried to argue with an alligator, it would eat me."

"I don't want you to get eaten," Rual stated.

"I don't want to be eaten by an alligator," Lucy responded.

'I want a woman to eat me,' Lucy thought.

Lucy sharpened the ax/hoe blades with a stone the next day. She used the sharper ax blade to debark and smooth a one meter stick used as a handle for the ax/hoe.

"This is the power of metal," Lucy stated to Rual.

Lucy chopped down branches with the metal ax much faster and easier than a stone ax could.

"Do you want to try," Lucy asked.

Rual nodded, and took the ax. He chopped down a few branches, and switched to the hoe side to hit an oddly placed branch.

"That part isn't sharp enough to cut wood," Lucy stated, "It's used for breaking up the dirt."

"Like for digging vegetables," Rual asked.

Lucy nodded, and took Rual root vegetable hunting. They found wild carrots and very small potato tubers. Lucy kept the whole carrot plant. She asked Rual to help her till the earth next to their home with the hoe. It took them 2 hours to break apart and clean up 1 square meter of earth. Lucy cut off the carrot tops from the roots, and cut off the greens from the tops. Lucy dropped the carrot tops in an extra water pot with water to sprout new roots.

"Why did we attack that area of dirt," Rual asked, "There are no edible plants there."

"We're going to grow plants ourself."

"Why don't we just wait for them to grow in the wild?"

"We can grow more, if we take care of them," Lucy told Rual, "And they can grow more food."

"But we have enough to eat by foraging," Rual stated.

"What if you didn't have to forage, and someone got the food for you, and you did things to help the person that grew the food with your extra free time," Lucy asked.

"What do they want," Rual asked.

"We won't know if we spend all our time foraging. What do you want?"

"I want to go play with Mala," Rual stated.

"You can play with her tomorrow. It's getting too late to go out," Lucy responded.

They ate a dinner of boiled carrot and carrot green soup.

"Why aren't we eating the potatoes?"

"We're going to replant them to grow more potatoes," Lucy answered, "We have to wait for them to grow sprouts."

"Farming takes too much work," Rual complained.

"It's easier than foraging, once we get things set up."

"We work too much. Everyone gets more time to rest, but we're always doing something."

"I'm trying to build a comfortable life," Lucy responded.

"Everything is already comfortable."

"Things will get better than you can imagine."

"All this extra work is a waste of time," Rual complained.

"Our labor will grow fruit," Lucy responded.

"Are we growing oranges?"

"No, it's a phrase of words, like "the sun always rises in the east." It means our work will give us results we desire."

"I want to eat more oranges," Rual stated.

"Me too," Lucy laughed, "This food tastes bland."

"I think its okay," Rual responded.

"Someday I'll find some flavorful herbs and spices, and then you'll know what good food tastes like."

"Is that why you're always randomly chewing on plants we walk by?"

"Yeah, I'm looking for things that taste good," Lucy responded.

"How do you know it's not poisonous," Rual asked.

"Um."

Lucy didn't have to poison test with the aid of her deity system.

"I tested them earlier, when you weren't around," Lucy lied.

"I want to know how to poison test."

"First you rub a little bit of the plant on a small part your skin," Lucy said, "If your skin gets red, itchy, or sore, you shouldn't eat that plant."

"Then what?"

"Just start with that, and get used to it."

Lucy didn't know anything more about identifying edible plants without her system.

"But don't eat a plant just because it doesn't bother your skin," Lucy spoke quickly to prevent an accident.

"I'm gonna find something that tastes good," Rual stated.

"You're not allowed to taste things you don't know about," Lucy replied.

"But you do it all the time."

"I already tested them to know if they're safe, before I eat them."

"Are we going to attack the ground more tomorrow," Rual asked.

Lucy nodded, and said, "It's called tilling the earth."

"Why do we do it?"

"There's food in the dirt plants eat," Lucy responded.

"Why don't we eat dirt then," Rual asked.

"The food in dirt is good for plants, but not good for humans. Everything eats different things. Birds can eat berries that are poisonous to us humans. You could eat something and be okay, and I could eat the same thing and get sick from it."

"How can plants eat, if they have no mouth?"

"I don't know how to explain it."

"How do you know that plants eat," Rual asked.

"I learned about it from other people."

"How do they know?"

"Did Semal give you all these questions," Lucy asked.

Rual shook his head.

"We can learn about this complicated stuff someday, but let's stick to the simple things first," Lucy stated.

"Things are going to get harder," Rual asked.

Lucy smiled and didn't answer.

"I want things to be easy," Rual complained.

"We have to work harder now to work less later," Lucy replied.

"You always say that. When does later come?"

"Sooner than you think."

"You say that too," Rual commented.

Lucy and Rual went to sleep. Lucy made a chamber pot for them to use at night to prevent Rual having to venture outside in the dark. There weren't any walls for privacy, only the darkness in the dim firelight and the other person not staring out of courtesy. Sounds and smells didn't care about personal space. Lucy hated it.

"Can I go see Mala," Rual asked as soon as Lucy stirred.

"Don't you want to eat," Lucy asked.

"We'll come over later to eat."

"You want to bring Mala over to eat," Lucy asked.

Rual nodded.

"She can help us till the earth for the food," Lucy responded to an extra mouth to feed.

Rual came back an hour later with Mala.

"Where is the food," Mala asked.

"Your not going to greet me first," Lucy responded.

"Hello, Lucy. What are we eating?" Mala said.

"Carrot stew with pickled fennel, and iguana meat," Lucy stated as she handed a bowl of it to Mala.

"Why didn't you cook iguana meat last night," Rual complained.

"You would eat everything til it's all gone, if I let you," Lucy responded, "I was brining it in pickle juice for flavor."

"It tastes really good," Mala stated while eating with her fingers.

"Salt is one of the secrets to the flavor triangle," Lucy responded.

"What is the flavor triangle," Rual asked.

"Salt, fat, and sugar," Lucy recited.

"Sugar," Mala asked.

"It makes things like fruit sweet," Lucy answered.

"Do you have any oranges," Mala asked.

"Everyone wants oranges," Lucy complained, "I don't have any oranges left."

"She ate a bunch of oranges," Rual whispered to Mala about Lucy.

'Christian you keep giving me trouble,' Lucy complained in her mind.

"Rual said you can help us work," Lucy stated.

"I did," Rual asked.

"I should be helping my mom find food," Mala answered.

"Don't worry," Lucy grabbed Mala's arm to prevent her from running away, and said, "I'll send some food home with you, after you help out."

Mala got a hands on experience with learning to till the earth with a hoe. They were all sweaty and dirty after hours of work. All three of them bathed together in the stream. Lucy gave Rual the side eye to see if was staring at her or Mala. He wasn't interested in admiring the female form yet.

"Thank you for the help, Mala," Lucy stated as she handed over a small pot of stew for her to take home.

"I'll walk you home," Rual stated.

"Mala can find her way home safely on her own," Lucy said, "You have to help me find wild plants."

"But Mala's family is cooking," Rual complained.

"You just ate. You don't need another meal," Lucy shot down Rual's hungry eyes.

'You can't fool a fat girl with eating tricks. We invented them.' Lucy thought.

"Say bye to Mala."

"Bye, Mala," Rual responded dejected.

Lucy took Rual with her to search for wild edible plants.

"Holy shit, it's parsley," Lucy said excitedly, "try some."

"It tastes like I won't want to eat a lot of it," Rual stated.

"We'll use it for flavoring other foods," Lucy replied.

Lucy dug up the whole parsley plant with the roots.

"We'll add this to our garden," Lucy said.

"Don't we have enough things for the garden?"

"16 square meters is too small," Lucy replied.

"I know what a 16 is, but what is a square meter," Rual asked.

"It's about this big," Lucy said and drew an invisible square on the ground.

"It took 2 days to turn 16 squares into a garden," Rual complained, "I'm tired of making a garden. When do we get to eat everything?"

"70 days," Lucy said plainly.

"Why would anyone wait that long to eat!"

"Some food takes years to make," Lucy teased.

"Does it even taste good," Rual asked.

"It's delicious," Lucy replied.

"I want tasty things."

"Our garden will give us many tasty things," Lucy told him.

"Can we make more copper things," Rual asked.

"Copper takes a lot of work to handle."

"I want a copper spear."

"You already see the use of metal," Lucy smiled.

"Then I'll kill an alligator, and we'll have a huge meal," Rual boasted.

"If you go near those alligators, I'll kill you," Lucy responded.

"I can win with a metal spear."

"Never fuck with alligators," Lucy yelled at Rual.

"Okay," Rual said looking down.

"It's good to be brave," Lucy comforted Rual, "But there's also stupid. Alligators are stupid, and stupid beats smart any day of the week in a fight."

"I don't get it," Rual replied.

"When you get smarter, you'll know how dangerous stupid is," Lucy told him.

"Are you going to marry a man in Semal village," Rual asked.

Lucy started laughing, "Marry a man?"

"What's so funny?"

"Have you ever seen me talking about being attracted to men?"