POV Mavis

Mavis woke up with the sound of Thrasher bellowing like a rooster at the crack of dawn. Jack was snoring like a bear beside her, and she was covered in mud and grime. Overall an improvement from the night before, but not by much. Her stomach grumbled with hunger and it felt like every muscle was screaming in protest. She hadn’t hated the times Jack had dragged her out hiking, but her favorite part was usually when she got home and had a renewed appreciation for air conditioning. Sadly, there was no air conditioning on Kittis.

Step one for the day was a shower. She had been walking through a jungle and sleeping beside someone who regularly got himself covered in blood while fighting dinosaurs. She had been dressed in jeans and a t-shirt for the majority of three days and was desperately in need of a change of clothing. Unfortunately, there were none spare, as half of the men in the tribe were already topless. Everyone needed a long shower, and at least now they had a waterfall that wouldn’t crush them to death if they stood under it.

She waved good morning to Soren and Jade who had taken up the morning watch. They waved back from their position around the main fire. Mavis walked to the edge of the pond and studied the waterfall. If she were to take a shower under the waterfall she would need to stand in the middle of the pond. That was fine in theory, but the water would be up to her shoulders and she might as well just take a bath. She could ride Thrasher under the waterfall, but that wasn’t a reliable solution and he would probably be of more help doing other things. She would need to figure out some sort of bridge across the pond that passed under the waterfall.

Jade came to join her after a minute, offering what looked like a chicken wing. Mavis took it and gave the older woman a curious look.

“Is this a chicken wing?” She asked as she took a bite. There was no seasoning and the meat was a bit chewy. But it tasted almost exactly like chicken.

“Nope. That is Compy. There were a bunch of them that wandered into camp earlier. They stopped caring about the fire and one of them hissed at Taressa. Soren stabbed it and they scattered. We cooked it up, but the smell brought the pack right back. They seemed to have completely forgotten that we had killed one a few minutes ago, and started begging for scraps. They are pretty lean, and from what we can tell they will eat just about anything but mainly go for the small bugs everywhere.” Jade smiled as Mavis finished the meat.

“I wonder if we could fatten them up?” Mavis thought aloud.

“Probably not all that much. It's not that efficient to farm carnivores. You have to feed them more meat than they will produce. I suppose it will depend on how many bugs they can eat. It would probably be a good idea to have some tamed ones around to help keep the mosquitoes and flies down.” Jade responded. Swatting at a fly that had followed her over from the fire. Mavis nodded.

“I saw on the encyclopedia that there are giant frogs somewhere in the wetlands that would probably do well to help keep the bugs down as well. But they have poisonous skin and mucus, so we should probably at least try to see if the Compy’s will make good enough bug repellent.” Mavis said, still focused on the waterfall.

Jade watched her with curiosity.

“What are you thinking?” She asked.

“I want to find a way to make a shower out of this waterfall. I am gross and I want one. I think if we knock down two or three trees and lay them across here. If we dig notches into the bank of the pond we can secure them enough to be safe enough to walk on and shower. Honestly, the biggest problem is that we don’t have any additional clothing, and I don’t think anyone here has any ideas how to make them. I mean, I know how to sew, but we don’t exactly have any needle and thread. And knowing how to use a tool we don’t have doesn’t help us make clothing.” Mavis explained.

Jade tapped her chin as she looked thoughtful. She looked over her shoulder to glance at the clothes that the morning crew was wearing, then back to Mavis.

“You are right that we need showers. That cave smells disgusting, and I am tempted to just toss everyone into the pool myself. But the clothing problem will need to be solved. We can’t risk hypothermia, and I don’t think we want to start a prehistoric nudist colony.” She smiled at the joke.

Mavis shook her head.

“That might not be a joke if we don’t figure out more clothes. Half the people arrived in pajamas or without shirts. And everyone has new cuts and gashes in their pants. We need to figure out how to repair and make new outfits. Preferably ones that won't make us so fucking hot in this humidity.” Mavis mused.

Jade looked at the woods, her mind working on the problem.

“You want to make that your project? Marcus asked me to assign everyone a project of some kind today. Getting some buildings and a wall up are top priority. Miles is going to have most of the men running around with rocks today, Skye and the gatherers will be searching the surroundings, and we are sending Jack and Mattock into the woods to hunt. Do you want to be in charge of trying to make better tools and clothing?” Jade wasn’t holding a clipboard, but she flicked the air in front of her on each point as if she was.

“I would love to. What is top priority?” Mavis agreed quickly.

“Well, Miles can keep the guys busy with rock duty for a few hours. But we need a way to cut down trees to make any real progress. So if you want your shower, we need an ax. If you can figure out the clothing issue along the way that's great. Otherwise, we can just have different bathing times and send the men off for a bit. That will probably cause problems as well, but we can address those when we get to them.”

Mavis nodded.

“Ok. We need axes and some sort of twine. I’ll see what I can do. Give me an hour and I'll have some sort of plan. I want to test some things.”

Jade nodded, and started walking back to join Soren by the fire.

“I’ll send some people your way when it looks like you have a plan.”

Mavis pulled her hair back into a ponytail, cringing at how filthy it had gotten. She still had one hairband, and mentally added making more to her to-do list. Step one was an ax. Simple in theory, find a sharp rock, find a stick, tie them together. But therein lies the problem. She had nothing to tie them together with. So to make an ax, or any tool more complex than a sharpened stick, she would need to figure out how to make some sort of thread or rope.

In the survival games she had played, plant fiber could be collected from ferns and used to make everything from clothing to bowstrings. She doubted it would be that easy, but it was worth a try. Many of the prehistoric ferns they had been walking through for the past two days did have a lot of stringy veins running through them. She grabbed Taressa and two of the others on watch and walked down to the tree line. The watchers carried spears and torches, and they would stay on watch while Mavis and Taressa gathered the ferns.

“Why do we want these?” Taressa asked as she ran a hand across one of the large fern leaves.

“I want to see if we can make anything useful out of them if we pull them apart. If it turns out to be worthless we could also use them to make more lean-tos or try and make bowls to catch rainwater or something.” Mavis explained as they tore off some of the larger leaves. They were surprisingly tough, to the point where they needed to cut the base of the fern with one of the spears and pull for it to come off. Mavis thought that was a good sign that her plan would work. Even if it was going to be a pain in the ass.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

They carried their collected leaves up the hill and made a pile of them beside the fire. Each leaf was between three and five feet long, making them difficult to carry for Mavis. Once they sat down she started to pick at the leaf, trying to isolate one of the long fibers that ran through it. She got a nail under one of the fibers and managed to pull it up enough for her to grasp. She slowly ran her hand down the leaf, pulling the stringy fibers out. She was left with a single long green thread that snapped easily, but she knew that her plan would work.

Jade and Skye came by to check on her about half an hour later, and she showed off her single long piece of twisted twine. She had pulled five of the fibers out, tied them in a knot at the base, and started to twist them together. It was rough work, but she had figured out a way to make the simplest of threads.

“I think with enough of this, we could make larger ropes and maybe even nets. The fibers are pretty tough, but it's just going to take a long time. I think with practice we could do it better, but I can start trying to sew together some clothing with this thread and a bone needle.” Mavis passed around her creation, and all of the ladies were impressed.

“What would we make the clothing out of? I haven’t seen any wool or cloth around?” Skye asked as she tested Mavis’s twine.

“I think we could make some simple skirts out of the ferns. I am sure with enough time we could figure out how to make a full shirt with the plant fibers, but I’m nowhere near good enough to do something like that. With practice, I could probably figure it out, but that would take months. So instead we can do simple skirts and kilts made from the plants. That shouldn’t be too hard to make, and will give everyone a change of clothes so we can do laundry without things being too awkward.” Mavis gave her pitch. She was never very interested in fashion, always having preferred simple jeans and plain t-shirts, but if she could get this project started she could pass it along to one of the people who actually knew about stuff like style and fashion.

Jade nodded and handed the twine back to Mavis.

“Alright. I'll gather up everyone with hurt legs or who need breaks. They can start making the twine. Skye, can your group start gathering more of the ferns? Try to leave some leaves alive on each plant so they will grow back. Once we have a good stockpile you can swap over to gathering firewood and berries again. Mavis, teach everyone how to make this stuff, and then see what you can do about an ax. Marcus is up and working with Miles. It won’t be long until the men are running around moving rocks. We will need a way to cut the trees down soon.”

Skye smiled and ran off to get her people working, and Jade and Mavis started to collect the twine crew. Mavis gave an explanation of how she made the twine, and they started working. It was mostly the people without shoes, but amusingly Haden had joined them due to the large cut on his leg from the Baryonyx’s claws. He claimed that he felt fine, but Skye had just given him puppy eyes until he sat beside Mavis and started working. His knife sped things up drastically, letting people remove the fibers from the leaves quickly and then pile them for the next group to start tying knots and twisting them together. The knife was used again to trim the ends of the twine, and in a few cases to cut the knot and restart.

Once her group was working, Mavis pulled out the bones and teeth that Gordon had given her the day before. They would not make the best needles, but they would have to work. She borrowed the knife and started sharpening the smallest bones. It took an hour of careful work, but she got the bone sharp enough to pierce the large fern leaves regularly. They were thick enough that she wasn’t worried about them tearing, but that also made them heavier. Once she was satisfied that her needle wouldn't break from just puncturing the ferns she started trying to drill a hole into the back of the needle. This proved much harder. She returned the knife to Haden, and started to use the Nomingia teeth as tiny drills. She cracked five of her practice bones before she eventually managed to figure out the correct amount of pressure to apply. She passed the bone needle to Taressa for her to use as the woman had much more experience with sewing and had been leading the others in twine making while Mavis had been drilling.

They got into a rhythm, with Mavis making more needles, Haden leading the team stipping out the fiber, and Taressa leading the team twisting the fiber into twine. By the time Miles' group had finished clearing the immediate area of large stones, Mavis had enough twine to make some experimental axes.

Jack stopped by to say good morning, and then he and the rest of the hunting team left minus Haden and Lottie. Haden stayed behind to let his leg heal and Lottie was taking care of Gordon, who had gotten a fever and was resting inside the cave. Mavis checked on him a few times, but the sad truth was there was nothing she could do for him. The venom of the Arthroplura was noted in the encyclopedia to paralyze dinosaurs, however, there was no information on what it would do to a human. Gordon wasn’t paralyzed but reported feeling nauseous and dizzy. All they could do was keep him hydrated and let him rest. Mavis had asked the artifact what they could do to help him but had gotten no response. She couldn’t do anything to help him directly, so she put her effort into helping the tribe. Maybe if they did well the Aliens would provide some sort of medicine.

She started searching through the rock pile the builders had created and eventually found five rocks about the right size for her needs. Each stone was a bit smaller than her head and in the rough shape she wanted. She carried them back to the campfire her crafters had claimed, then went and collected some sticks from Skye’s group. This only took her one trip, and she was finally able to sit down and experiment.

She had two problems to overcome. First, the ax head would need to be firmly attached to the stick. She had twine but wasn’t sure of the best way to secure all the parts. The second problem would be the stone’s shape. She would need to chip away part of each stone to make the edge sharp enough to actually be useful but without breaking the edge.

She started by handing Haden the rocks and asking him to try and shape them. He was much stronger than Mavis, and didn't make a fuss about it. He started banging the rocks together, knocking bits and pieces off until he found the hardest rock out of the bunch and started to make real progress. The final design for the ax head was a flat oval with a sharp edge. Haden figured out a reliable way to sharpen the ax heads, but it was a lot of work and by mid-afternoon he was exhausted and had to lay down. The ladies built him a shade structure using sticks and the fern leaves.

Mavis experimented with tying sticks and rocks together. Her first thought of making a modern-style ax by attaching the stone to the end of the stick was quickly shown to be an exercise in frustration. Each time she thought she may have succeeded ended the first time she swung her prototype. The rock would shift, the twine would break or stretch, and the entire thing would fall apart. She wasted an hour on various attempts before giving up on making that style of ax. Instead, she spent some time playing with the sticks. There were six types of trees they could find in the valley, and two of them made very sturdy branches. She pulled the bark off each one and used one of the rougher stones to try and smooth some of the rougher parts down. It wasn’t the best sandpaper substitute, but it got rid of some of the smaller bumps and made them easier to hold. She then grabbed the top of the stick and started to cut a hole about six inches down. She started with the knife, but quickly swapped to the ax head she was making the hole for. With it, she spent a full hour cutting away at the hole, being careful to not break the stick and ruin her work. Eventually, she was able to wiggle the ax head into the hole and through the stick. Then she was able to secure the stone in place by tying twine around it and knotting it. Finally, she used the knife to trim away the extra twine. And her first ax was done.

It was rough, but it would work. She passed it off to Miles who looked at her like she was a genius. He quickly passed it off to one of the teams that was assigned to clear trees, and an hour later the first of the thin trees fell. The ax was far too small and inefficient to cut down the larger trees, but it worked well enough for the smaller ones, and the camp started to come together.

Requests for better spears, shovels, pickaxes, and bandages came into the crafting team, but Marcus stopped by to tell them to focus on the axes. Once they had four or five working ones they could start working on shovels or some sort of saw. The one request that Marcus did agree was worth splitting the crafters was to try and make baskets out of the thinner branches that had been collected. Taressa took some of the women and started working on weaving baskets. They started out small, but that was fine. They were being used to collect and store berries, and the small size meant that each gatherer could carry one and fill it up on their own. By the time night was falling and the hunters came back, they had managed to make a single large basket that could be used to store whatever was needed.

Mavis smelled the cooking meat over the fire and sighed, she was exhausted. She may have been sitting for most of the day, but she had been working hard. Three successful axes, a shovel, as well as a small basket full of thread. Her fingers were raw from working the thread, and she knew she would develop calluses with a few more days of work.

Two of the smaller trees had been chopped up and installed as a bridge under the waterfall, and people were taking turns showering off and doing laundry in the pool. By the end of a long work day, no one even made a fuss about the nudity, and Mavis was thankful for the cool water as she scrubbed herself clean.

Small improvements to life would make the difference in this world. A shower after a long day's work and a hot meal were the perfect reward. She fell asleep feeling accomplished. Despite the frustration of many failures, they had made real progress today, and they would continue to improve their crafts. Maybe one day, Mavis could reinvent air conditioning.