Chapter 35: Ugly Shapes

Ignoring his complaints, Sora grabbed another bowl.

This time she drew a four-legged animal.

"There."

"A tiger"

Ace leaned closer.

"...Where?"

She pointed proudly.

"This."

Ace stared for several long seconds.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"That’s a dog."

"It isn’t."

"It has stripes."

"Those little holes?"

"Yes."

"They’re tiger stripes."

Ace rubbed his temples.

"I thought those were its eyes."

"No."

"The eyes are over here."

"..."

Somehow...

That explanation made it worse.

Lucas eagerly picked up the final bowl.

"What about mine?"

Sora proudly turned it around.

"There!"

Lucas froze.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"A chicken?"

"It’s a phoenix."

"It has feathers."

"You added three lines."

"They’re long tail feathers."

Lucas stared at the tiny bird.

"It still looks like somebody plucked a chicken."

"Birds and chickens are relatives."

"So it’s close enough."

Ace burst into laughter.

"Hahaha!"

"She turned you into dinner!"

Lucas immediately glared.

"At least mine has feathers."

He looked toward Xavier’s bowl.

"You’re literally an earthworm."

"I’m a snake!"

"A segmented snake."

"A worm."

"A snake!"

The two immediately started arguing.

Ace, feeling much better after seeing their bowls, proudly hugged his own.

"Actually..."

"Mine looks the best."

Lucas snorted.

"You’ve become a spotted dog."

"Better than being poultry."

"Better than being bait."

The three argued endlessly.

Watching them bicker, Sora couldn’t stop laughing.

"They’re not that bad."

All three turned toward her simultaneously.

"They’re terrible."

"They’re hideous."

"They’re ugly."

Sora folded her arms.

"You all recognized yourselves immediately."

"..."

"..."

"..."

None of them could argue with that.

After the laughter subsided, Sora quietly made another bowl.

This one received a carefully drawn wolf.

Compared to the others...

She spent noticeably more time on it.

Lucas noticed.

"Who’s that one for?"

"Lukan."

Ace blinked.

"He’s not even here."

"I know."

"But I usually send him food."

"He should have his own bowl too."

Xavier nodded slightly.

"That’s fair."

Lucas looked around.

"What about Ryan?"

Sora didn’t even hesitate.

"I’m not making one."

"Why?"

"He hates me."

"He’d probably throw it away."

"Or smash it."

"I’m not wasting all this effort."

The three looked at one another.

None of them could deny she had a point.

Ryan still disliked Kaelira more than anyone else in the tribe.

Making something for him now would almost certainly end badly.

The afternoon sun slowly lowered.

Rows of clay pottery sat drying beneath the warm breeze.

Sora wiped the sweat from her forehead and smiled with satisfaction.

"This should be enough for the first batch."

Lucas looked over the dozens of clay vessels.

"So..."

"When do they become real pottery?"

"After they’re completely dry."

"Then we fire them."

"And if it works?"

Sora smiled confidently.

"You’ll never want to cook in fruit shells again."

The three beastmen looked at the neatly arranged clay pots.

Even though none of them fully understood how mud could become cooking vessels...

After watching Sora transform ordinary red earth into so many useful objects with her own hands—

They found themselves hoping she would once again prove them wrong.

After all...

She had already found salt where no one thought to look.

Perhaps turning mud into pottery wasn’t impossible either.

After decorating the clay pieces with simple patterns, Sora clapped the dirt from her hands and admired her work with satisfaction. The collection spread across the ground looked humble, but in her eyes it was the beginning of a real kitchen. Large cooking pots, soup pots, bowls, cups, jars for oil and salt, even a teapot—they were rough, uneven, and far from beautiful, but they represented something no one in this world seemed to have discovered yet.

She turned toward the three beastmen, who were still staring at the rows of clay vessels with doubtful expressions.

"Stop standing around," she said, brushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Go gather as many dry branches and logs as you can find. We need enough wood to keep a fire burning all night."

Lucas tilted his head.

"All night?"

"That’s right."

Ace looked at the mountain of clay vessels.

"You mean... we’re going to burn these?"

"Not burn them," Sora corrected. "Fire them."

The three exchanged confused looks.

Sora sighed.

"Just trust me."

Although none of them truly understood what she meant, they had already witnessed too many impossible things happen around her. Popcorn had somehow come from hard yellow kernels. Dumplings had appeared from flour. Salt had been discovered by following mountain goats.

Compared to those miracles, perhaps turning mud into pottery wasn’t the strangest thing she’d done.

Without another question, the three dispersed.

Ace’s panther form darted into the forest with astonishing speed, dragging back fallen tree trunks that would have taken several ordinary beastmen to carry.

Xavier coiled his long tail around bundles of branches and deadwood, stacking them neatly beside the clay pieces.

Lucas flew overhead, breaking dead limbs from tall trees and dropping them into growing piles.

Within an hour they had collected enough fuel to keep a bonfire alive until morning.

Sora directed them to build a circular fire pit with stones before carefully arranging every clay blank inside.

"The larger pots go in the center," she instructed.

"The bowls around the edges."

"The cups near the top."

She left small gaps between each piece so the heat could circulate evenly.

Once everything was arranged, she nodded.

"Light it."

Lucas snapped his fingers.

A spark flew from a pair of dry stones he’d struck together, quickly catching the tinder.

Soon orange flames rose into the evening sky.

The fire crackled loudly.

Warm air rolled across everyone’s faces.

Ace crouched beside it, fascinated.

"So..."

He scratched his head.

"Once they’re burned, they’ll really become usable?"

"They’ll become much stronger than fruit shells."

"And they won’t melt?"

"No."

"They won’t crack?"

"They might if we do it wrong."

"..."

Ace immediately sat up straighter.

"Then we’d better not do it wrong."

Sora laughed.

"Exactly."

The sun slowly sank below the mountains.

Golden light faded into crimson before darkness gradually swallowed the forest.

Xavier looked toward the western horizon.

"It’s getting late."

"How long does this need to burn?"

Sora estimated from her memories of firing pottery during the apocalypse.

"About one night."

The three froze.

"...One night?"

Lucas frowned.

"That long?"

"We’ll just come back tomorrow."

Sora shook her head.

"No."

"I have to stay."

"If the temperature drops too much, or someone disturbs the fire, everything we’ve made today could crack."

She poked another log into the flames.

"I need to watch it."

Silence settled over the clearing.

The crackling fire suddenly sounded much louder.

Lucas looked around with obvious discomfort.

"This place is filthy."

"There isn’t even a cave."

Sora shrugged.

"We don’t have a choice."

Ace didn’t seem bothered.

He had slept in rainstorms, snowfields, and rocky caves before.

Grass was perfectly acceptable to him.

Xavier, however, quietly surveyed the surroundings.

No cave.

No large boulder.

No tall tree suitable for resting.

Only a wide field of grass and a thick thorny thicket behind them.

His eyes slowly shifted toward Sora.

She was already inspecting the fire again.

"...Where are we sleeping?"

She pointed matter-of-factly toward the open grass.

"There."

Ace blinked.

"...There?"

"Yes."

He hesitated.

"So..."

"We’re sleeping there too?"

"Of course."

Sora answered naturally.

"We all stayed behind."

"If we’re all staying, then we’ll all sleep there."

The words themselves were innocent.

The effect they had on the three beastmen was anything but.

Lucas nearly choked.

Ace’s ears twitched.

Xavier’s expression stiffened.

Three beastmen.

One female.

Sleeping together.

Even if nothing happened, the situation itself sounded incredibly awkward.