Not long after everything had been moved inside, a fine drizzle began falling outside. Everything down at the base of the mountain now sat completely empty, getting caught in the rain was a genuinely dangerous thing for a chick. Adult Feather Clan could tough out an illness and shake it off, but chicks couldn’t.
The little cluck-birds, previously kept just outside the cave, had been herded into a corner inside by Bai Shuo, and were chirping away now while he scattered some chopped weeds for them to eat. The little cluck-birds could eat grass now, despite hatching only a few days ago, their appetite was surprisingly enormous, and they seemed to grow visibly bigger by the day, in just ten days, they’d already doubled in size since hatching.
Once the little cluck-birds were fed, Bai Shuo picked up a pointed stick, planning to skewer the marinated meat.
The trouble was, the meat had been cut into pieces a bit too large for skewering, he’d need to trim it down further. Bai Shuo looked at his own hands, then at his brothers beside him, and decided neither of them was quite up to the task either, Bai Le had plenty of strength, but he was only three, cutting meat was still far beyond him.
Bai Shuo looked down toward the base of the mountain, hoping to spot whether the gathering and hunting parties had come back yet, and noticed a figure approaching in the distance. Looking closer, he realized it was Wu Yan, and his eyes lit up. “Wu Yan, want to come warm up by the fire?”
Wu Yan had been up in the back hills just now, quite far off, and hadn’t heard Cailin’s call at all, only when raindrops started falling on him did he realize it was raining. He’d meant to head back to the cave to sleep, but hearing Bai Shuo’s voice, he looked over, and even from that distance, the Feather Clan’s remarkable eyesight let him make out the hopeful look in Bai Shuo’s eyes. He thought it over and agreed. “All right.”
Rather than heading to his own family’s cave, he made straight for the mountain, and the moment he reached the entrance, he heard Bai Shuo say, “Come on, wash your hands first.”
Wu Yan did as told, washing up and drying his hands with a piece of hide, but before he could say anything, a stone knife was already pressed into his hand.
Wu Yan blinked, taken aback.
“Cut these into pieces, over by the fire, it’s warmer there,” Bai Shuo said, pushing the bowl of meat slices forward. After the stone slab had been repurposed for grilling, Bai Xun had made two more slabs specifically for cutting vegetables, smaller than the main slab, but taller, better suited for standing and cutting. One stayed up the mountain, one down below, the one up here had been used lately for chopping grass for the little cluck-birds, and right now it sat just a bit further in from the cave entrance, close to the fire.
Wu Yan fell silent for a moment, then picked up the meat and started cutting, following Bai Shuo’s instructions to divide each slice into four pieces.
Bai Shuo and Bai Su handled the skewering, while Bai Le’s job was to gather the finished skewers together.
Once they’d skewered four, Bai Shuo held two in one hand and set them over the fire to roast. After a while, his hand started to ache, so he gave up holding them and instead built a simple grilling rack out of hemp rope, sticks, and stones, he could just lay the skewers across it and turn them occasionally, and this way, he could grill seven or eight at once.
Skewered meat had a completely different texture from pan-fried meat, carrying a distinct hint of charcoal smoke, nothing like the old smothering, smoky flavor of before, just a faint woodsy fragrance mixed with rich, savory meat aroma that made your mouth water the moment you caught a whiff of it. The only downside was there was nothing to drink alongside it, leaving their mouths a little dry, but after trying it, all four chicks were left wanting more, and immediately started grilling a second batch.
And so, by the time Bai Xun and Bai Yun got back, they found their chicks huddled in the cave, eating grilled skewers.
Bai Xun immediately said, “I’ll go get the slab.” Ever since they’d started eating pan-fried meat, their family hadn’t touched grilled meat again, seeing what a rough time the rain had given the chicks, he felt for them.
Bai Shuo pulled out a couple of already-grilled skewers. “Papa, Mama, try these first.”
Bai Xun took one and ate it, and instantly decided he wasn’t hauling the slab back tonight after all, this would be dinner.
Bai Xun polished off three skewers in quick succession and still wanted more, but they hadn’t finished cooking yet, so all he could do was wait, asking every so often if they were done, sighing, “So good, just too slow.” Only a few skewers fit on the grill at a time, and two bites was all it took to finish one off.
Bai Shuo said, “It’ll be quicker down at the base next time.” With rain falling outside and the fire kept inside the cave, Bai Shuo worried about carbon monoxide levels rising too high, so he’d kept the flames modest, otherwise, he could have built a few more racks. Making charcoal was a bit of a hassle, but for the sake of good food, it was all worth it.
Just then, Hua Yong’s voice drifted up from below. “Bai Xun, do you still want the little cluck-birds?”
Hearing this, Bai Xun immediately smacked his own forehead. “How did I forget about that, Shuo, wait right there, Papa caught you two batches of little cluck-birds, I’ll bring them up right now.”
Now that the tribe had backpack-baskets, the hunting party had started bringing a few along whenever they went out, and Bai Xun had caught some little cluck-birds and handed them straight off to whoever in his party was carrying a basket that day. He’d simply forgotten the moment they’d sat down to eat.
Bai Xun left the cave and, before long, came back carrying a basket, holding it up right away for Bai Shuo to see. “Shuo, look, do you like them?”
Ever since discovering that the little cluck-birds Bai Shuo had raised hadn’t gone on hunger strike, Bai Xun had kept an eye out to catch more, it was just that the past few days, whether from bad luck or the wrong location, he hadn’t come across any. Today he’d finally had luck on his side, catching two whole broods at once.
Bai Shuo looked over and found, at the bottom of the basket, some twenty-odd little cluck-birds huddled together, perfectly still.
Bai Xun noticed something was off, picked one up and gave it a shake, and seeing its legs dangle limp and unmoving, frowned. “Starved to death already?” That didn’t seem right, he’d only caught these that morning.
“No, it’s still breathing.” Bai Shuo hurried to rescue the little cluck-bird from his father’s grip, alive for now, but there was no telling how much longer that would last.
He carried the little cluck-bird over to the corner, along with its basket, herded them all into a large crate, then set the crate inside the enclosure where the home-raised little cluck-birds already lived, letting the two groups get acquainted through the crate’s barrier for now.
In fact, there wasn’t anything really wrong with them, they’d simply been scared out of their minds. Even the little cluck-birds raised at home, who’d been around Bai Xun and Bai Yun for a good while now, still tensed up whenever they heard their voices, which just went to show how easily frightened little cluck-birds truly were.
Once they’d put a bit of distance between themselves and the Feather Clan, the newly arrived little cluck-birds, while still not as lively as the home-raised ones, at least stopped playing dead.
Bai Shuo poured them a bit of water, planning to mix the two groups together the next day. The newly arrived little cluck-birds were about the same size as the ones at home, counting them up, there were twenty-three, adding the original seventeen brought the total to forty.
Forty little cluck-birds, there was no way he could keep penning them off in some makeshift spot at the cave entrance like before, he’d need to figure out a proper long-term enclosure.
……
After dinner, Bai Yun went down to collect the plants the gathering party had brought back, checking through what they’d gathered had become Bai Shuo’s daily task these past few days, anything useful, the gathering party would remember to pick more of, next time they came across it.
The rain during the growth season tended to be mild, even after falling steadily for a good while, it stayed a gentle drizzle, nothing at all like the pounding downpours of the actual rainy season that could leave a person’s head spinning. So a healthy adult Feather Clan generally had no fear of walking around in weather like this, though anyone currently brooding eggs would avoid the rain regardless, to keep from getting the eggs wet when they got back.
Bai Yun had no such concern, and before long she’d carried up two backpack-baskets, some filled with leaves, others with whole plants.
Bai Shuo took them out to look through.
Just from this one stretch of land near the base of the mountain, Bai Shuo could already tell their tribe’s territory held no shortage of plant variety, but with the chicks’ range of activity so limited, and anywhere further out simply too dangerous for them, this was really the only way he had of learning more.
Food that tasted bad or wasn’t edible had never been brought back before, everything here now was something Bai Shuo had never seen before. Most were weeds, inedible to people, but decent enough as feed for the little cluck-birds.
Bai Shuo found couch grass among the pile and mentioned it to Bai Yun. “Mama, the root of this plant is sweet, it’s edible.” Couch grass root had a faint sweetness, good as a snack, and more importantly, it was also a medicinal herb.
Besides couch grass, Bai Shuo also spotted cocklebur and patchouli, and immediately said, “Mama, next time you come across these two, make sure to dig them up.” There was already some cocklebur nearby, though most of it had already been picked over by chicks playing with it, as for patchouli, it went by another name too, “blood-ends-worry”, extremely effective at stopping bleeding.
The Feather Clan’s claws were sharp, convenient for catching smaller prey, but risky against larger animals, since the claws couldn’t deliver a lethal blow through tough hide and thick muscle, they had to fly in close to precisely slash a prey animal’s throat, and even that was a gamble, a large animal’s hooves and legs were dangerous, and their bite force wasn’t weak either.
It wasn’t just the moment of the kill that carried risk, the chase itself could cause injury too, when fully focused on pursuing prey, it was easy to overlook a nearby branch or a sharp rock and end up scraped or cut.
Since there were useful medicinal herbs growing right around the tribe, Bai Shuo figured it was worth gathering some in advance, just in case.
Bai Shuo went through the whole pile of plants, cross-referencing them against what he remembered, and didn’t stop until it had gotten dark.
Because of the rain, the temperature had dropped a bit compared to the past few days, staying right at the cave entrance felt colder than usual, but lighting a fire inside the cave itself was far too dangerous, so once night fell, everyone settled in to sleep.
Outside, the soft patter of rain lulled everyone into an even deeper sleep. By the time Bai Shuo opened his eyes again, the sky had already brightened, and the rain had stopped.
Probably because he’d gone to bed so early the night before, Bai Shuo woke up earlier than usual today, everything outside was quiet.
The weather after rain always felt especially pleasant, the air crisp and clean. Bai Shuo stepped out of the cave and stretched, planning to build a coop for the cluck-birds beside the cave while the other chicks were still asleep.
The growth season brought rain every few days, he couldn’t keep carrying the birds back to the cave every single time.
A coop didn’t need to be large, since before too long he’d be moving these little cluck-birds down to the base anyway. Bai Shuo first found some sturdy branches and used hemp rope to bind together a frame, then used four more branches to tie together a roof, laid out branches to form a resting area for the little cluck-birds, and finally bundled leaves tight to cover the roof and all four sides.
This simple coop could keep out the rain, and once midday came and the sun grew hot, the little cluck-birds could go inside to cool off too.
By the time he finished the coop, the other chicks had already woken up. The group had grown used to receiving their day’s assignments from Bai Shuo each morning, and seeing he hadn’t come down the mountain yet, they couldn’t help calling up to him.
“Bai Shuo, what are we doing today?”
“Bai Shuo, why aren’t you coming down?”
“Bai Shuo, Bai Shuo, come down already.”
With each round of calling, the chicks edged further up the mountain, clearly ready to march right up and find him if he didn’t come down soon.
Bai Shuo answered back, and as he headed down, thought it over and decided to take advantage of the still-damp soil to plant the first batch of Redroot tuber seedlings.
Of the seedlings they’d transplanted back, nearly every side branch and bud had already been snipped off and used for cuttings, and by now those cuttings had grown into fresh seedlings of their own, beginning to sprout side branches. The original growing area had grown too small, it was time to move them to the actual planting field.
When Bai Shuo had first planned out the layout for planting, he’d designed it around their home mountain as the center. The innermost ring was, naturally, where everyone lived, just beyond that lay the stretch of grassland used earlier for seedling propagation, and beyond that still, where the chicks usually played, was the real large-scale planting zone.
For this first batch, the planting spot obviously needed to be close to home, to make monitoring their growth easier and to catch problems quickly if any arose. Bai Shuo decided to plant them right beside the wheat field.
A few days had passed, and the wheat seedlings had already grown to about a hand’s length, because the sowing had been done carefully, hardly any spots were missing seedlings, at a glance, it was a lush, thriving green, growing beautifully.
The wheat field had been a spot Bai Shuo had picked with real care, and the land right beside it wasn’t bad either, fewer trees here than elsewhere, and the ground-level plants worth using had already been transplanted away by Bai Shuo, while the useless ones had been cut down by the chicks and chopped up to feed the little cluck-birds. All that remained now were the fresh weed seedlings that had just sprouted after the rain, nothing serious yet, easy enough to pull with a light tug.
There were over three hundred rooted Redroot seedlings in total. Bai Shuo had the chicks use small hoes to dig out planting furrows, and he handled the actual planting himself.
With the ground freshly rained on, the soil was soft, and digging and planting both went smoothly, without much effort at all. Bai Su led the other chicks off to gather branches, a few, still not satisfied after digging what Bai Shuo had asked for, kept going and dug up the weeds around the area too, just for the fun of it.
Bai Shuo watched them enjoying themselves and, seeing it was harmless, didn’t say anything, after all, that ground would need to be planted with something else eventually anyway, so turning it over ahead of time was no bad thing. The result of letting them run wild was that by the time Bai Shuo finished planting the Redroot seedlings, several of the chicks were absolutely caked in mud from head to toe.
Compared to the other chicks, Bai Shuo stayed a bit cleaner, though that only applied above the waist, below the knee, he was coated in a thick layer of mud just like the rest.
Bai Shuo: “……”
Genuinely not wanting his parents to come home and find a little mud-monster, Bai Shuo had no choice but to head to the river along with the other chicks for a wash. The midday temperature was just right, and the river water wasn’t too cold either, there was a shallow stretch of riverbed perfectly suited for the chicks’ daily washing.
Once in the water, the chicks grew even rowdier, splashing each other and taking playful swings.
Bai Shuo didn’t join in the water fight, he quickly scrubbed the mud spots off himself, put his hide clothing back on, and walked along the riverbank, scouting out a spot to build his pottery kiln.
He planned to build the kiln somewhere close to the river, for safety’s sake, so that if anything ever went wrong, he could get to water immediately, and it would make day-to-day use more convenient too.
Because the tribe regularly washed food and butchered kills right along the riverbank, there was a wide stretch there kept clear of weeds, but firing a kiln here would disrupt everyone else’s activities, so Bai Shuo continued along the river, heading toward the back hills, since he remembered fewer people ever went back there.
Eventually, he settled on a spot toward the back, the very same place he’d fallen from that day, just a bit further along. There was a fair amount of weed growth here, but that was a minor problem, easily solved. Bai Shuo chose this particular spot because, three or four meters up, a section of the mountainside jutted outward, forming a natural overhang that would shelter the area from rain, meaning if he built the kiln here, he’d never have to worry about weather again, not even on rainy days, and there was plenty of open space alongside it to stack firewood.
This location had another advantage too, there were no inhabited caves on the mountain’s back side, so smoke from the firing process wouldn’t bother anyone else. The only real drawback was that hauling branches over would mean walking a bit further.
As he walked, thinking things through, Bai Shuo made his way further out, since hardly anyone ever came back this way, he moved carefully, watching for any sharp branches or stones underfoot.
Walking along, Bai Shuo suddenly spotted an uncommon kind of food.
Mushrooms.
Bai Shuo, who hadn’t eaten mushrooms in who knew how long, couldn’t help but crouch down for a closer look, and after a careful once-over, realized it was a variety he recognized from his past life, and non-toxic besides. He could hardly contain his excitement.
Mushrooms. Edible mushrooms.
Ever since coming to this world, he hadn’t had the chance to eat mushrooms even once.