With the box open, Urist started looking through the items stacked on top of one another. He found clothes, food, water, and books.
Why books? He questioned as he picked one up and read the cover.
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Realization struck him as he guessed this was a care package for them to use as a start to survive in this world. The thought made him frown inwardly as he knew someone had forced him into this position, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten those foreign memories.
Don't fuck with me! I should be at home playing video games and lazing around, looking for a job! Eh? Video Games? What are those? Aak! Blasted, my headache is back.
Clutching his now pounding head, again, he felt the loss of his previous life keenly; that he had failed something important, but with encroaching migraine growing he stopped thinking about it. Gritting his teeth, he dealt with the pain and picked up the books one by one to read their titles.
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He tried to identify the plant life around him. According to the cover illustration on the bamboo book, some of the weird bushes were bamboo. With the knowledge that this book provided, they should be able to make some use of it. The fishing and foraging books could also help with finding food, as they talked about what was poisonous and non-poisonous to dwarfs.
The rope and trap books could help them with catching small game, or defending themselves if necessary. And since he didn’t know how to cook, this book about cooking was a godsend. It would allow them to eat when the pre-packaged food ran out.
However, the most pressing thing on Urist’s mind was that their water supplies. As it stood, currently they only had enough drinkable water to last them for ten days, or three weeks if they rationed, but that wasn’t ideal. Thankfully they had a river nearby to draw water from and a pot to boil it in so they didn’t have to dig a hole and throw hot stones in to get drinkable but muddy water.
They had this cave to protect them from the natural elements and extra clothes to keep them warm at night, they could make some basic bedding before the day was over for added comfort. And by tomorrow, they could build a doorway out of bamboo to keep rodents and other animals out.
‘Still, what’s up with this scenario? Did I die? I know from those new memories that I’m in a brand new world untouched by civilization. But why am I here? Whatever. If I’m alive then I’m going to keep living. When I know that I’m not in danger, I’ll go searching for answers.”
After mulling it over, Urist stood up and turned to his fellow dwarfs. One was picking his nose with the others listlessly standing around, unsure what to do. Seeing this, Urist sighed at how these fellows were reacting. It wouldn’t deter him from whipping these guys into shape.
“Alright, guys, let's start gathering plants.”
“Eh?”
“Why?”
Murmurs full of questions were expressed from the dwarfs, not understanding what Urist was trying to get across. Only Uria seemed to somewhat understand what he wanted them to do.
“Do you want to sleep on the cold hard floor with nothing to keep you warm? Come on, let’s go find something suitable for bedding.”
Keeping the survival book on hand, Urist put the rest down before heading outside. He shielded his eyes while looking at the sun’s current location. Urist wondered if this planet was the same as Earth, if yes, they had about eight hours of daylight left. It wasn’t much time to prepare for the night, but he would take what he could get.
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The others left the cave as well, following after Urist. The group of dwarfs watched him look up at the sun for a bit and mumble to himself. When the dwarfs thought to declare him crazy for staring at the sun and talking to nothing, Urist suddenly turned his attention to the book he held and started to read.
The book looked slick in the daylight. Its green binding looked very out of place given their surroundings. It was quite big and the text inside was neatly ordered. Opening to the index, he looked at the subject matter.
With some quick glances, Urist searched for a plant that they could use for their bedding. He also offhandedly saw a section that talked about nearby poisonous and nonpoisonous plants that were safe to handle in their vicinity.
With that knowledge, Urist began to examine the plants nearby until he chanced upon a tall and sturdy tree. Its leaves were long, with thick and soft hair on them. In the book, it said that these leaves were called winter leaves. The reason they had such a name came from them their nature of basically being a blanket grown from nature.
“OK guys, these will be used as our bedding for today. You, you and you,” he pointed at the following dwarfs, “will follow Uria and pick these leaves. Remember we don’t need too many with how large they are; we only need a few dozen.”
One of the girls in the crowd went up to touch the leaves in curiosity. Feeling the soft surface of the leaves her hazel eyes sparkled. “Guys you gotta touch this leaf. It feels so good...”
And so, Urist watched them all huddle around the soft tree leaves touching them with bewilderment and fascination.
‘I haven’t ever seen a plant like this, but is it really that amazing?’
Eventually, Urist felt they had enough fun and decided to get things moving along.
“Alright guys, that’s enough touching the leaves. If everyone does their jobs then you can touch them later all night long.”
Watching the dwarfs regretfully leave the tree while the excited chosen dwarfs began plucking the leaves, Urist said “When you're done with that, come back to the cave. Next, the rest of you follow me.”
Returning to the cave, Urist saw the chickens and dogs lazing around. At some point soon, he would have to make a coop for the chickens and a kennel for the dogs. That could wait though, now was the time to make sure their living space was smooth and leveled. Urist had noticed that the cave's floor was very uneven and wouldn’t be good for sleeping on. Picking up the bronze shovel, bronze axe, and bronze knife, Urist faced the five remaining dwarfs.
He said, “This cave will be our home and where we will sleep. We need the ground we’re standing on to be flat. This is a very important job so you, and you, take this shovel and work in turns to flatten this ground. Can you do it?”
“Should be simple enough.”
“Yah, easy enough.“
Handing over the shovel to them, Urist went back into the cave and took out the book about bamboo. He put the survival book away since he finished referencing it. He just wanted to see if the bamboo was of the poisonous variety. As he glanced up from his reading, Urist noticed that the dwarfs were having an easy time wielding the shovel.
‘It seems these bodies are naturally strong despite their small stature.’
Urist led the rest of the dwarfs to a grove of bamboo that was lush and full of life. He was intrigued by all how bamboo could be used. He could study it later in detail, but he already had some ideas on how to use it well.
‘What a miracle material.’
Turning to the three remaining dwarfs, Urist announced, “We’ll be needing this bamboo. I need you two to start chopping down this bamboo. Use this axe in turns and cut down around twenty large bamboo. Close to the base look for a line that connects the joints and aim for that, it’ll be easier to cut that way. And be careful not to cut yourself. We have no way of fixing a wound here.”
“Why? Can’t we go touch the soft leaves instead?”
“I agree, I don’t see the point.”
Urist massaged his forehead. ‘These lazy dwarfs.’
“Let me ask you this, do you want to be eaten in your sleep by some wild creature in the night?”
“No?”
“That doesn’t sound very fun.”
“Then we need something to cover the entrance of the cave. Bamboo will help us make a door. Do you understand now why it’s important?”
“Yes, but can we touch the leaves afterward?”
“Aye. Can we?”
Urist replied with a sigh, “If you do a good job you can touch them as much as you want.”
The two stocky dwarves hastily started and went to work on the bamboo. Urist smiled as he turned to the last person awaiting orders. She was a girl that seemed very immature and frail despite being a dwarf.
“You’re with me. We’re going to gather some tinder from the trees and bushes for later, though I don’t know if we’ll be able to make fire by that time.”
“O-o-ok.” the girl stuttered as they made their way to some trees that were safe to strip the bark off.
They also gathered fallen leaves using Urist’s shirt as a pouch. He regretted not bringing along a bag of some sort, because that meant he had to show his pitiful body with its lack of glorious muscle.
‘No beard and no muscle? I want my old body back,’ Urist silently cried inside as he went to work, using the bronze knife to cut away at the bark.