Pottery Making
Bai Wu delivered food to Nan Yao’s residence, and took the opportunity to ask him which areas of the bird-beastman territory were safe and which were dangerous.
Nan Yao accepted the food but didn’t answer immediately. “Why did you suddenly think of asking this?”
Bai Wu replied, “I’ve explored the surrounding areas and want to see more distant places.”
“For the sub-beastmen, every place could be dangerous.”
“The same goes for the beastmen.”
Nan Yao scrutinized him, his sharp gaze seeming to peel back every inch of his skin to see what was inside.
Bai Wu quietly looked up at him.
This was the first time the two had truly met each other’s eyes.
Bai Wu saw wariness and suspicion in Nan Yao’s eyes.
Nan Yao, in turn, saw ambition in Bai Wu’s eyes.
Nan Yao shook his head, his voice flat: “I won’t tell you.”
Bai Wu hadn’t expected to get an answer so easily, and wasn’t discouraged. He simply smiled, “Then I’ll ask again next time.”
Bai Wu bid farewell to Nan Yao.
Nan Yao gave him a basket of dried mushrooms.
Even in the basket, the mushrooms had a unique aroma; they would definitely taste good cooked.
It seemed there were still many foods he hadn’t discovered in the bird-beastman’s territory.
Bai Wu happily flew back to his nest with the mushrooms on his back.
It seemed that as long as he stayed here long enough, he would eventually find suitable ingredients to improve his life.
Bai Wu fell asleep quickly after returning home. He had been exhausted lately and rarely slept in the morning; the sun was already high in the sky but he still hadn’t gotten up.
His family didn’t wake him, letting him sleep quietly.
Bai Wu turned over in his nest, intending to take a nap, but unexpectedly, someone came in and kept talking near their nest.
Half-asleep, Bai Wu couldn’t quite make out what the person was saying, only finding it very noisy.
He tossed and turned in his nest. Finally unable to resist, he threw back his feathered blanket, sitting up abruptly, and frowning as he peered out from the edge of the nest.
Chuan, hearing the noise, turned around and beckoned to him, “Awake? Get up for breakfast.”
Bai Wu ran his fingers through his disheveled hair, suppressing his irritation, “Who was that just now?”
“Mu, talking about pottery.”
Mu was Chief Ya’s dad, and sometimes spoke on Ya’s behalf.
Upon hearing this, Bai Wu’s eyes lit up, his voice rising a few decibels, “Is it our family’s turn to fire pottery?”
“Yes, the kiln is ours to use for the next two months.”
Compared to the pile-firing method, the beastmen and sub-beastmen skilled in firing various types of pottery, had already invented the pottery kiln.
Their tribe had one pottery kiln, which was used by the various families in rotation. Only during the annual Beast God Festival in spring did the entire tribe gather to fire a batch of pottery to worship the Beast God.
Bai Wu had wanted to make pottery for a long time and had specifically mentioned it to his dad.
Chuan then went to request permission to use the kiln ahead of time, and to his surprise, the tribe actually granted his request.
Bai Wu, forgetting his sleepiness, scratched his messy hair, “Then shouldn’t we hurry up and make some pottery blanks?”
Making pottery was a very troublesome process.
According to the common methods used in this world, they first had to find clay, then there were a series of steps such as sifting the clay, mixing it, shaping the blanks, air-drying, and glazing.
During this time, they also had to maintain the kiln and find a large amount of firewood, which was no easy task.
Generally speaking, making enough pottery for at least five years was necessary, otherwise it wouldn’t be cost-effective.
Because of this, everyone preferred to fire pottery in winter.
Winter offered more free time, allowing everyone to make more pottery. Conversely, summer is the prime time for gathering and hunting, leaving little time for making pottery.
This is one reason why the tribe readily agreed when Chuan wanted to bring forward the start of production.
Chuan said, “The day after tomorrow isn’t our tribe’s day of worship, and your father won’t be going hunting as a warrior. We’ll go find clay to make pottery then.”
Bai Wu nodded, “Then I’ll finish my chores these next two days.”
Bai Wu raised three sheep and had a vegetable garden, so he had quite a few chores to do.
Taking advantage of the free time, he built a new sheepfold with a higher fence and moved the sheep out of the vegetable garden.
The empty vegetable garden, having housed sheep for a while, had become much more fertile. Digging with a stone hoe, the soil underneath was black and fluffy.
Bai Wu carried a batch of humus from the mountain and poured it into the vegetable garden, which was mixed with sheep manure. He then turned the soil over, made raised beds, divided the land into plots, and dug deep ditches between the plots for drainage. An helped him plant the beans.
Bai Wu dug holes, and An placed two beans in each hole. After that, they covered them with soil, and then An had to fetch water to water them again.
This process was no easier than going out to collect beans.
An looked at the dark soil filling the vegetable garden and frowned. “Will this really work?”
“It should. At worst, it’ll just waste some time and beans.”
“Then won’t it be ready to harvest until next year?”
“Not next year. If nothing unexpected happens, it should sprout in three or four days. No, not necessarily. The seeds might have a dormancy period; it should sprout in eight or ten days.”
An listened to his strange talk, feeling he couldn’t understand anything. He looked at the vegetable garden, then at him, and turned to go to the river to wash his hands.
Two days passed after the beans were planted, and there was still no sign of life. Bai Wu watered them every evening.
While he watered them, Chuan was roasting meat and vegetables by the fire pit.
They were about to start pottery making, so they needed to prepare meals in advance as they wouldn’t have time to cook every day while the pottery was being made.
On the day of the actual pottery making, the whole family got up early, carrying food to the pottery-making site.
Their pottery kiln was downstream, located in a ravine near a riverbank; it had essentially hollowed out the small ravine.
The riverbank was covered with a dense thicket of grass, its edges sharp, resembling silvergrass.
That was the grass that could be cut and dried in the autumn to provide shelter from the rain.
Bai Wu and the others didn’t need the grass, but they still had to cut it to collect the clay underneath for pottery.
The sparser vegetation nearby consisted of grass cut by previous pottery makers; the clay underneath had been washed away, so they had to find a suitable place to collect clay again.
In the sweltering summer heat, the sun overhead was intense. After cutting grass for a while, Bai Wu and An were drenched in sweat.
The grass edges were quite sharp, and Bai Wu’s skin was too delicate; the grass had scratched him countless times, and the sweat stung and itched as it dripped onto these cuts.
Bai Wu straightened up, set aside the cut grass, and wiped the sweat from his brow. “Let’s dig up the mud at the bottom and see how much clay there is.”
An reached down and scooped up a handful of dark river mud, rubbing it in his palm. “The top layer is all there. If you’re tired, sit down and rest. I’ll cut more.”
“I can manage. Don’t the tribe come here every year to collect mud for pottery? How come there’s still so much clay on the riverbank?”
“You don’t understand, do you?” An pointed proudly upwards. “This mud was washed down from upstream. Once we use it all, the river will bring more. As long as the river is here, we’ll never lack clay.”
Looking at the smug expression on his brother’s face, Bai Wu realized he’d misunderstood.
An, hands on his hips, said, “Don’t underestimate this short time; a few months is enough to wash away a lot of mud. Besides, we don’t just use river mud for pottery.”
Bai Wu asked, puzzled, “Then what other mud do we need?”
“Mountain mud too. We go up the mountain, dig up suitable mountain mud, wash it to extract clay, mix it with the river mud, and knead it evenly. That makes the pottery sturdy, durable, and less prone to cracking during firing.”
Bai Wu gave his brother a thumbs up.
The two brothers cut grass and dug mud while their fathers inspected and repaired the kiln.
This kiln had been used for over two hundred years. Each family had to inspect and repair it before using it to ensure its durability.
Once the kiln was repaired and allowed to air dry for a period, the clay blanks would also be air-dried and ready to be fired.
Bai Wu spent half the day cutting grass and half the day digging mud. When he returned to his hut at night, he had to carry the grass he had gathered during the day back to feed the sheep.
When he got home that evening, his whole body felt like it was falling apart; his back, arms, and legs ached all over.
He couldn’t even lie upright when he slept; he had to sleep hunched over to feel a little more comfortable.
The next morning, the family ate a quick breakfast and then went off to collect, wash, and shape clay.
The work was arduous and monotonous.
In just a few days, everyone in the family had become gaunt, and Bai Wu fared even worse. Due to the intense sun exposure, large areas of his body were red and swollen, and his skin had begun to peel.
In reality, this was the daily work of the beastmen and sub-beastmen.
Hunting and gathering weren’t easy tasks either, as they were necessary to support their families.
To protect his fragile skin, Bai Wu was forced to wear a shirt woven from vines and leaves, along with a hat made of leaves, even in the sweltering summer heat.
This shirt effectively blocked the sunlight, but it was heavy, stiff, and very uncomfortable to wear. By the end of the day, many parts of Bai Wu’s body were chafed and swollen.
That day, after taking off his clothes, Bai Wu looked at his swollen and red skin, sighed, and said, “I can’t take it anymore. I have to make a proper outfit.”
“Won’t animal hide clothes work?”
“Wearing leather in the middle of summer would probably kill you.”
“Then leaf clothes will do.”
“That won’t work either, it’s too stuffy and stiff. I’ll see if I can get some softer plant fibers to spin some yarn and make a garment.”
Obtaining soft plant fibers in the wild isn’t difficult; the challenge is obtaining them in large quantities.
Fortunately, the family was familiar with the nearby forest. That evening, Mo and Chuan went and gathered two large baskets of soft, snow-white fibers for their son.
These fibers are somewhat like cotton balls, containing tiny seeds like sesame seeds. When a gust of wind blows, the light fibers can carry the seeds quite far.
Bai Wu had seen them before when he was gathering.
But since they grew on trees more than ten meters above the ground and weren’t edible, Bai Wu hadn’t paid them much attention. Bai Wu needed a piece of clothing.
Besides pottery, he also needed to spin thread.
His family, feeling sorry for him, all came to help.
The sub-beastmen usually spun thread from animal hair; every household had a simple spindle.
Spinning thread wasn’t difficult. The seeds were removed, the fibers were stretched into long strips, and by rotating the spindle, the fibers would spin in one direction, eventually winding into thread.
Bai Wu’s family divided into two groups, and by midnight, they could spin three large skeins of thread.
However, the step of weaving the thread into cloth proved difficult.
Bai Wu knew the principles of weaving, but for someone who wasn’t a crafts enthusiast, turning a skein of thread into a piece of cloth was an impossible task!