38. Looking ahead

For real, it was not all that funny.

Blaze looked at his newest wall decoration that he got as a gift from Floreo. It was a shallow carving of his historical battle against a bear.

While observing overly detailed realistic depiction of a big bear running away on all four from a human figure standing akimbo on a hill above it, Blaze's eyes hooded and his lips twitched. Floreo sure had talent. Practiced skill and persistence. He stared at 'King of the hill' carved over background.

Blaze was aware that he got carried away a bit. That bear was so fluffy and cute, and his fingers itched to pet and cuddle it. But then he got provoked into a fight, and well, he did win. Being as strong as a bear was no longer just a saying. It was a proven fact.

He hanged the carving onto the wall and pilfered a bit of dry fern roots, his favorite snack this days. Today he will join Echo, Jone and Ivory in their food gathering tasks.

Ever since that storm and meeting with that bear, they made it a rule that they always move in groups, with at least one of them being a soldier.

Where that bear came from, they did not know, but soon they figured that it made a den in the cave they first found, over on the east hills, where Cid hunted for goats.

They did not go there for hunting any more.

There were deer on the west hills and rabbits all over the place, so Ivory made a few traps. Catching a rabbit or two a week was enough. They preferred fish anyway.

By vegetation, they figured that they first arrived in late spring, just before summer. And now, as chestnuts started to drop, they were already in autumn.

Concept of seasons was something that Ivory explained to them, pointing out that they should really hurry up and finish their mission. Autumns had rain, and winters have snow.

Valley was nearly completely cleared of trees. Useful logs were dragged out of the way, leaving chopped branches and low quality wood drying in the sun. After a few days of rain, they were back to hot and scorching.

Mani and Floreo teamed up to gather dry branches for burning. After they made one pile, they moved a bit further to make another pile.

Yax and Cid followed them, adding bigger logs on top of their branches. That way they were building pyres, planning to create an event out of burning all that. Sort of a celebration to mark end of their efforts.

After a week of that, looking from their camp, the huge square area in the valley looked as if chewed by some monster. Only thing left to do before burning it all to the ground, was to clear out the mud pool around that stone obelisk in the middle.

Thanks to the dry spell they endured, not only lumber was dried up, that swamp in a pit around obelisk dried out as well. Digging all the sediment out of that fake pond was much easier done now, than it would be when it was all wet and sticky.

"Great planning," Blaze said and everyone laughed while digging in and pulling the dirt out.

This was their last big task, so they decided to do it all together. After that, they will start fires, burn everything, and activate mechanism inside the obelisk to call home.

As they dug, at first they thought that edges were vertical. Then they reached first step. As they went deeper they realized that steps went all the way to the bottom, making the pool progressively smaller. If it was a square, it would be like upside down pyramid.

When they cleared it all the way to the bottom they found the doors, carved into the obelisk.

"It looks a bit like those doors in the basement back home." Jone traced carved surface with his fingers.

"Over there it was carved into trees and leaves," Ivory added "this here only has geometry shapes."

They all looked towards Mani. He pointed at one of the triangles mixed among many other shapes.

"This one is the keyhole." Only that one was green.

"We will leave it as it is for now," Yax decided, "after everything else is done, only then will we open it."

"Right," Ivory agreed "if we activate it before all is cleared out, pyramid might not land correctly."

They all nodded their heads, but thinking completely different thoughts.

Some were planning to have a barbecue by the fire, some wanted a bath to get rid of the soil that stuck on their sweaty skin. Some were wondering if it would be a good time to propose, and some just wanted to cuddle, eat and sleep.

Cid and Blaze went to hunt a deer for fresh meat, while Yax and Mani emptied the traps, both for rabbits and fish, then took a bath in the river while at it.

They used soap plant and scrubbed each other head to toe. Mani was very proud of his progress in raising intimacy levels. Just a month ago, he would not be able to bathe with anyone like this. After bathing, he helped Yak to comb his hair. It was left free to dry out, making Mani swoon every time he looked at Yak.

When they returned, they saw that Blaze was already back, and deer was tied to the pole over fire where it will be roasted whole. Some traditional recipe Ivory dug out from his archives. With 'everything should be tried at least once' attitude, they went for it.

When they saw them returning with wet hair, Floreo cried for injustice, and dragged Cid to the river to bathe as well. He passed peeling chestnuts job to Mani, he did half of it already anyway.

Ivory called dibs for the next turn in the little pool they made in the river. Water levels were lately too low for proper bath, just enough for washing feet and hands, so they dug a small hole in the river bed to bathe in it. He dragged Jone with him to help him wash his hair.

Jone lately felt that there is definitely something wrong in how Ivory treated him.. but he did not want to rock the boat. He was getting smothered with attention, even though his broken bone healed within a day, as he said it will. If Ivory was happy, he was happy as well.

Blaze took Echo to take a bath when everyone else was done. By then, most of the food was in the finishing stages as well, rabbit was roasting on the grill, fishes were being cooked in the pot with chestnuts, so it could be left to others to supervise.

Even though they took a bath together, they did it separately. Echo rubbed soap plant over his hair, while sitting in the water and pondering whether his relationship with Blaze was making progress or not.

He fed Blaze regularly, identified all his favorites and made them for him exclusively.

Blaze treated him very touchy-feely, but it was very hard to say if it was just platonic friendship thing, or something more. Should he really ask Floreo for advice? Nah, his brother was way too shameless, nothing good would come from listening to him.

He dipped his hair in the water and started rinsing the soap out. As he was leaning back, suddenly sky above him darkened and Blaze walked into his field of vision. Standing above him. Naked.

"Do you need help with that?"

Blaze confusedly watched Echo sinking backwards into water, until he lied on the bottom of the pool.

'That thing deserves a name of it's own. Blaise, it shall be called Blaise.'

Echo was fished out of the water, rinsed and then dried before coming back to his senses. Blaze was both amused and confused by him.

He knew for a fact that Echo turned twenty cycles already. And that he used to visit Game Room. It was mentioned to him when Ler and Kane found him to give him orientation regarding personal relationships options available, when he himself turned five cycles.

He had no interest whatsoever at that time, so he just declined and kept to his basement workshop and chitchat with Jone. Now however, after over three months of sharing a room with Echo, he started to think about opening that chapter of manual and explore his options.

When everything was ready, Blaze and Cid went to start the fires. As wind was blowing from east to west, they started at southern cornerstone, setting fires to the pyres at the edge of cleared area as they went towards eastern cornerstone. While they started setting fires to the pyres along the edge going towards north, behind them roared a sea of fire.

They sat high on the slope above the inferno, eating, joking, watching wind carry flames from one pyre to the next. They really did it. A job meant for 10 000 was done by the eight of them.

'Is this the end, or just a new start,' Mani wondered, cuddled with his Yak.