They couldn’t always rely on using the plastic utensils as they were fragile and brittle and given time, will prove useless as cutlery meaning that they had to prepare alternatives. Unfortunately, the dwarfs didn’t have any metal or an even a basic smith to mold said metal meaning they had no choice but to make it out of wood.
Though that raised a question of how to make said items, tomorrow they could try looking for clay to make simple pottery. Even though he only had made some failed pots in art class, with his survival skills he should somehow come up with the design for the pots.
For the forks and spoons, they would use their knives to whittle the branches of trees making sure that they weren't sap producing. For the bowls, he had two materials and two methods to use.
Of the materials, he could try to find some old deadwood or use bamboo since it was already hallowed in the middle. And the two methods to make the materials into bowls was to burn holes into them with cherries or use their stone knives and chip away at the center and make a big enough hole.
After thinking about it for a while, Urist decided on using dead trees, the reason being since it was already dry, the material would be easier to work with.
Why he didn’t use bamboo was for a few reasons. For one, they were using the bamboo as cook pots. Number two was him venturing on using the burn method to make the bowls making it take a while for it to burn and use bamboo for other projects.
And number three, he wanted to impart the knowledge he gained from using the burn method to make the holes on the handles that would hold the flint ax heads he made. He figured that it would be a good thing to teach the others on how to do it as well once he refreshed his memory.
But this endeavor would come after dinner, which was looking pretty hearty with all the fish they caught today. They wouldn’t need to dip into their pre-packaged food stores. Thanks to the knives he had handed out to everyone, the time to prepare them had shortened. Although with no way to store new fish, they would most likely have to dig into them come tomorrow morning.
Urist headed over to the trio who was currently building the chicken coop out of stone and mud, mixing it with their hands and feet they had gotten pretty dirty.
Taking off his shirt so it wouldn’t get dirty, Urist joined in on the fun in making the coop. Only to realize that around him most of the male dwarfs were going bare-chested. He had forgotten that most of the male dwarfs had started copying him when they saw him take off his shirt to work. Now they started this fad of working without a shirt, walking around bare-chested exposing their bulging muscles.
Only Urmom was different in that he tore off the sleeves of his shirt and wore them as a headband for some unknown reason. Still, his arms were bulging muscles that shined in the sunlight. Urist held back his tears of envy when he compared the toned dwarfs to himself. The only thing that comforted his contrite spirit was the fact that they were the size of children.
Uria looked up from her work and saw Urist's black mood eliciting a bemused face on hers.“Is something wrong Urist?”
Startled, Urist turned his head away thinking fast of an excuse and found something to latch onto. “Nothing’s wrong! I just wanted to tell you that I made these knives for everyone and wanted to give them to you guys to use. They’re pretty sharp so be careful with them.”
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Hearing that the boss made something for them, the dwarfs dropped their work and huddled around him. Being surrounded by everyone made Urist flustered so he told them to get in line to receive their knives. One by one, they picked their knives all entranced to have something to call their own.
Uroa beamed under the cover of mud, “Giving me a knife boss? I don’t deserve it! But I’ll gladly take it!”
Giving a chuckle, Urist shook his head, “I see that you also have a shameless side Uroa despite your usual quiet demeanor.”
His offhand remark caused Uora to become flustered, making her fumble in her response. “Uh. I-I mean. I-it’s so pretty that I. Um w-what I meant was that-”
Seeing that he made the poor one so flustered, he decided to help out the struggling girl, “I’m just messing with you a bit. Haha! Go enjoy your knife Uroa!”
“Y-yes boss!”
Feeling a weight off her shoulders Uria gave a quick bow and scurried away near the fire to admire her blade. Laughing inwardly he turned back to the line and turned to Briana who stared intently at the knives awaiting hers.
Briana moved over and took the ebony knife from Urist’s hand, giving it a nice long stare. Holding the knife in the sunlight she became amazed at how the blade absorbed the light, “What a beautiful blade. I shall call it Night.”
Uroa went up next and picked out a small gray knife, “Eh? Are we naming them? Then I shall name mine Morning Dew!”
Urist’s eye twitched at how badly he was dying inside, ‘Why must they all give their knives weird names! I didn’t raise them to be Chuunibyous!’
He didn’t know how it started but every dwarf seemed to give the knives he made weird names. For example, Urmom called his ‘Fire Poker’, Urork’s was Black Steel, and Uriel named hers Bamboo Cutter.
Urist wanted to run far away and laugh his insides off at their bad naming sense but kept his composure calm and smiling. If they wanted to name their stone daggers, he would let them. After all, he couldn’t bring himself to take away such a joy from the dwarfs seeing how their eyes sparkled when naming them.
While he was resisting the urge to laugh, Uria walked up and picked up a knife with a strange flower pattern on the blade’s side. Urist didn’t chip it on its side when he broke it, it was naturally made making him curious about how the stone was formed.
In contrast, Uria played with her knife while Urist lost himself in his thoughts. Slowly moving her hand flat she stared in wonder at the flower pattern design. Suddenly she looked away from her knife and turned her gaze at Urist making him slightly blush.
“Wh-What is it Uria?”
Biting her bottom lip, she slightly blushed turning her gaze away, “Thank you Urist I shall name this knife… Flower petal.”
His mind went blank at that moment as if his mind completely shut down. The way she looked at him made his mindset set off alarm bells and his heartbeat like he was on a marathon. He almost jumped at her in a fit of passion, using every ounce of his being to resist.
Urist remembered suddenly that Uria and for an instant, he saw an image of his past girlfriend face before it faded away from memory. Perhaps she was, maybe she was… She said Flower petal, could it be a coincidence? No, it couldn’t be possible unless… ‘Ack! Damn these headaches and memory loss, stop it!’ Sighing, he decided to take some time later tonight to sort through his thoughts. He didn’t wish to bring up useless things when everyone was in a good mood.
Before heading back to work he figured he should say some words. “Alright, those are some pretty good names guys! To celebrate after we finish work today we'll take turns on washing our arms and faces at the river. Then we’ll eat dinner, does that sound good everyone?”
A unified “YES!” came from the women while the men shrugged their shoulders until the mention of food came up.
Uria nodded her head, “Un. We’re almost done we just need to layer the roof with split bamboo. Urist can you handle the splitting?”
Urist hit his chest with confidence, “Leave it to me!”