Elevation of Mana Chapter 28 Winter Part One

The day had been long and I was tired, but there were things that deserved my attention.

I stood back and watched as mother wove the last of her magic, vines flowing and grasping as thorns sprung up along their length.  The inner net was thicker, with larger spars about an inch in width.  From the central bit more sprang out here and there along their length, those were far less controlled.  The whole thing woven around a series of wooden poles in the ground, sunk deep and burned on their outsides, eventually those would fail, but by that time the whole thing should be pretty solid anyway.

We'd gone back and forth on the price and settled on the arrangement thus.  I made a full batch of the little trinkets my mother wanted, fifty in all, shaped by my aunt and then finished by me; since she was better at it, but didn't know how to glaze.  Five I kept to myself, five went to Elaya (for a bribe), since she helped us with getting the poles made and put in place, ten went to my auntie for making them, and mother got the rest of them.

Mother then went on a spending spree, not because anyone had anything she wanted, but because she was smart.  Hoarding that much money to herself in a village this small would only cause problems.  For that reason she made sure that at least one or two of hers made it to each of the huts for their leaders.  Several more were spread around with those she considered friends, and were now something of a status symbol.

Mom and auntie were very tight lipped about where they'd come from too.  People thought that I had been paid off for some special service, like an impossibly hot fire that might be needed for the process, something which I encouraged.  Getting something like a proper furnace or kiln at some point would allow me to really accelerate the technology of this world without too much messing around.  Someone might even figure out how to make metal without my help!

Everyone needed a mission, and mine was to bring about modernity, at least parts of it.  There were some ideologies that we'd be skipping, and I would personally be stomping on as an adult if they ever popped up around me, too dangerous, but many parts of modern life could be brought to this world.  Father mostly wanted us to be happy so far as I could tell.  Mother seemed to be making a run at some kind of stone aged mercantile empire or something.  Auntie Atie on the other hand had found a technology she liked and was now putting her all into its perfection.

Things needed to go slow for now though, it grated, but my first job was to make it to adulthood.  That clearly would be a struggle of its own since our food stores were basically non-existent.  The only reason mother had agreed to my project at a time like this was that she honestly didn't have anything else to do, there were no plants in season right now.  The hunters were on double duty trying to get what they could, but I could tell that they were struggling with the workload.

That was where we boys came into play.  We weren't hunters, and couldn't go after the kind of game they could, but we could trap all around near the village and a few of the nearest water sources.  It'd been weeks since the Twilight Beasts had attacked and the woods were declared... not safe, but enough that we could go out.

Back on Earth that would have seemed like madness, but here, well, not as much.  We didn't go out very far at all, and between Ninden being nearly an adult and my magic there wasn't much in the local area that would threaten us.  The hunters of course were always out and about in groups, and had thoroughly scoured the area near the village at this point.  I was also pretty sure that one was always assigned near the area we were too, just in case, even if they didn't bring back much in the way of meat, letting us experience things on our own was important.

I blew a stray hair from my face as our group trundled up to the central fire pit, it was now pretty long and I often missed a few strands when tying it back.  We'd upped our clothing from the nearly non-existent leather loincloths to something slightly more covering, even tying sewn together pelts on ourselves.  It was still pretty cold though, no getting around it.

There were sort-of shelters all around it now, whatever improvised bits could be put together for comfort.  That was because Elaya and I were switching out in the evenings, each tossing up a weak barrier around the area to keep the wind out and warm it as well we could.  Dad could do something similar to himself with some effort, but didn't get involved, his magic reserved for the hunts and making more tools.

The women were all grouped as they worked on dinner, to decrease the size of the needed protection as much as possible.  They also had the fire going to produce as much heat as possible, shield or not neither of us were very good at it, it was still cold.

"Got something for us boys?"  One of the women, I think one of Olond's aunts or something asked.

We just smiled and held up our hauls.  In all we'd caught only five kennits.  These were a type of rodent or something, looked rather like a capybara, though only about the size of a rabbit.  Nobody really liked the way they tasted, but it was better than an empty belly, and their fur was warm enough that they were still around.

"See you lot found something too."  I observed.

They were all busy right now preparing tubers.  They were mashed into a paste and then cooked on rocks.  These were not particularly flavorful as things went, like a potato pancake, without butter or enough salt.  Again though, it was better than being hungry, and on a lucky day someone might find a few berries that would really sweeten them well, or part with a bit of honey.

I settled down after we passed things over near the fire to warm up a bit.  It was possible for me to warm myself when out, but it took a lot of concentration if I did it on the move to not overheat, and I'd found it was just easier to be a little cold.

"Want one?"  Isha said from the side, she was cooking several of the little cakes, looking a bit sour.

"Sure," I replied, taking the offered food.  "Bad day?"

"I just feel useless.  I get my own light, and it's not good for anything.  Nobody really needs healing, and I can't keep us all warm for more than a few moments yet, and I'm bad at shaping stone like your dad.  There's nothing for me to do," she vented.

"Do you want me to listen, or to propose solutions?"  I asked.

"You're not like me, how would you even know what to do?"  She asked with more than a bit of heat.

"I don't, not really, but I also don't really know what you can do.  Just offering to look from a different perspective."  I held my ground, looking at her calmly.

"Sorry, it's just irritating," she said.

"Be angry all you like.  I did offer to just listen didn't I?"  I asked.

That got me a laugh, if a small one.  "Well, your dad doesn't know how to do much other than heal and mold stone.  Some little tricks like making water, light, heat, or that sticky sap he uses for holding things together, so I don't really know either.  He said those like us are a bit weird, because we can supposedly do a lot of things, just not well.  If I could grow plants like your mother that would be great, since there's lots of call for that, but it's so slow when I try it almost hurts.  We don't need anything else either, other than food, and I can't make tubers or animals, I tried."

"What about salt?  We lost most of ours and I know I can't do it.  Even a little would make the food better, and it's easier than trying to go get it right now."  I'd tried too, but salt, along with metals and anything mineral just drained me.  I could get a few grains, but no more.

"No, I thought of that one, just trying gave me a headache.  Your father said liquids and stuff are doable, but not solid stuff."  She seemed dejected.

"Isn't the stuff you're making these with kind of liquid?"  I asked, waving around the little cake.  "For that matter honey is too.  Have you tried that?  Or did you try to make living plants and animals?"

"Living ones... hold on."  She sang a few bars of one of the songs dad hummed while he worked and a little dollop of paste appeared in her hand, which she quickly deposited on the hot rock.  "It worked... maybe."

While it was cooking she tried honey, which did work, if the way she froze and let her eyes widen were any indication.  She didn't say anything, but the look told me that she'd found something sweet.

"You okay?"  I asked.

"Shh, don't tell anyone," she said.  Greedily hoarding valuable secrets was a running pastime with this crowd.

"You should be the one to do it, we really could use the extra food.  How about the cake?"

She flipped it, letting it cook until well and golden before splitting the little thing in half and making us a bit more honey to go on it.  We bit down at the same time, and I couldn't suppress my smile.  It was a bit off flavor-wise, but still pretty good, and very sweet, something I seldom got nowadays.  At that point, our winter, which had pretty much sucked up until now, got significantly better.