Chapter 15: Gunnar's Hate
When Alfred learned another use of the Rune, he had an Idea. He grabbed the wooden bowl with water in it, pour it onto the dirt, then scooped the wet dirt and turned it into a ball of dirt. After making a ball of dirt, he imagined the ball of dirt turned into a ball of fire, then wrote a Fire Rune on it without the Formation.
After Alfred was done, he poured enough Monster Blood to activate the Rune, and as he expected, the ball of dirt became a ball of fire. After a while, the fire disappeared, then he saw the ball of dirt hardened and crumbled.
While Alfred was staring at the broken pieces of the hardened ball of dirt, he remembered something that can be very useful to him for making a Runic Tool. He remembered in his previous world that there was a time when he became obsessed with watching a lot of videos on the internet.
Where a person would challenge himself and try to live in the wilderness for a duration of time. He recalled that there were some of them used some kind of soil to make pottery and shelter.
Alfred wanted to instantly run to Elder Ahote to inform him of this important news, but when he saw the sky was covered in darkness, he stopped and finally realized it was already in the middle of the night. He decided to rest and just postpone the news until morning.
Early in the morning, Alfred just woke up and he already wanted to immediately run to Elder Ahote to tell him what his idea was. When Alfred was about to leave, he heard a cry, then he remembered that he has a new companion. He walked closer to the basket beside where he slept and saw Leo crying on his own.
Alfred contemplated if he should go to Elder Ahote right away or look after Leo, but when he heard Leo's pitiful cry, he sighed and decided to wait for Aponi first so he can feed Leo. After that, he will go to Elder Ahote.
While Alfred was calming down Leo, Aponi finally showed up holding a basket in her left hand and a waterskin in another. When Aponi saw Leo was crying, she walked closer.
"I brought the milk, so Leo is crying too, Amra also does not stop crying. I think they are both hungry. How should we feed them?"
"Do not panic as long as we have milk, we can feed them, usually the cubs drink the milk from their mother, but we cannot do that so we just need to put the milk in a wooden bowl and let them drink it from there." Alfred replied.
Alfred put down Leo to get the wooden bowl, after he poured the milk inside the bowl, he placed it in front of Leo to let him know that there was food, at first Leo didn't know what to do, but after a while, he finally figured it out how to drink the milk using his tongue.
When Alfred and Aponi saw this, they sighed with relief. Aponi also put down Amra on the front of the wooden bowl to let her drink the milk with her brother. While Aponi was staring at the two white lions with adoration, Alfred spoke up.
"Can you look after Leo for a while? I need to talk to Elder Ahote, it is very important."
"Yes I can, do not worry I will look after them." Aponi replied.
"Wait, I do not know how long my discussion with Elder Ahote will last, so I think it is better that you should take Leo and Amra to Shaman Catori so the siblings can drink milk together. Maybe shaman Catori can give us some advice on how to raise them. Oh, by the way, Amra is a good name I like it."
"Thank you, I will see you later."
After the talk with Aponi, Alfred walked as fast as he can to Elder Ahote's shelter. While he was walking a group of people blocked his way, it was Gunnar and three other Arrows. Gunnar glared at him with hate.
"Hey! Outsider, why are you roaming to our tribe as if you are one of us? Do you think just because the Elders said you are a part of our tribe, it means you are really part of our tribe? We will never accept an outsider like you, so it is better to pack up your things and leave.
I do not understand the Elders' decision, why would they invite a cripple like you to our tribe? You are just going to waste the valuable food of our tribe."
Alfred didn't know what to say, in his previous world, he always avoided confrontation, you can even call him a coward. Because every time he got into a confrontation, he always apologized first, but now he didn't know if he should apologize or not, because he didn't even know the reason why Gunnar hated him so much.
While Alfred was thinking, Gunnar walked closer to him and intimidate him even more. Alfred started to step back, but Gunnar keep walking closer to him. When Gunnar saw Alfred being intimidated by him, he smirked.
"You are also a coward, you cannot even talk for yourself. A coward and a cripple, what next a traitor?
When the other Arrows noticed the tribesmen were starting to gather and watch them, one of the Arrows with green hair, a mature face, an athletic body, and a calm demeanor finally spoke to Gunnar.
"Gunnar that is enough, the tribesmen are watching."
"Armani, do not stop me, let them watch so they can see how useless this outsider is" Gunnar replied.
"Watch what? Watch you intimidate a cripple? Do you want to destroy the reputation of Arrows?"
"What do I care about the reputation of Arrows, All I care about is protecting the tribe, and having an outsider like him here is putting the tribe at risk."
"I understand you, we also do not like to have an outsider in our tribe, but this is not the right time to deal with him. You maybe do not care about the Arrows' reputation but do not forget that the Arrows' reputation is also the Head Arrow Vir's reputation. Do you want to tarnish his reputation?"
When Gunnar heard Armani's word, he finally stopped.
"Fine let us leave, you got lucky this time outsider."
After Gunnar's group left, Alfred let out a sigh of relief. Alfred finally calmed down after a few seconds, he continued his way to Elder Ahote's shelter. When he finally reached Elder Ahote's shelter he couldn't stop his excitement and immediately yelled.
"Elder Ahote are you here?! I have some good news!"
Elder Ahote instantly went outside and met Alfred.
"Young Alfred what are you doing here? Is this about the container? I still do not have anything we can use to make the container."
"Yes, this is about the container, I think I found what material we need to make it." Alfred replied.
Elder Ahote became excited.
"really? What is it?"
"It is clay soil; do you have any clay soil?" Alfred replied.
"What is this clay soil? This is the first time I heard about it?"
"Oh, do not worry it is easy to find, it is just soil but it stayed clumped and doesn't fall apart when prodded, it is usually color red and can easily find near water."
"I think I know what you mean, but how can you use it to make a container it is too soft."
"Do you know pottery?"
"This is also the first time I heard that word what is it"
Alfred slowly explained pottery to Elder Ahote. When Elder Ahote learned about pottery, his eyes brightened.
"Are you sure we can harden this clay soil by following what you said? How do you even know this kind of stuff?"
"I am not sure if what I remember is the right procedure, but I am sure that is how you make pottery. I do not know how, it just came to my mind when I was experimenting with the Rune, maybe I learn it before I lost my memory." Alfred replied.
"It doesn't really matter how you know it, what matter is this pottery can help our tribe. We should prepare, I will order some arrows to get some clay soil, and then we just need to trial and error until we succeed."
Alfred smiled and felt that he really wanted to become closer to Elder Ahote.