Chapter 169: Thoughts

The Council soon left along with Finn. However, Serena made sure to tell the rabbit beastman to come over in the afternoon. She was planning to test out making and possibly firing the pottery she made.

Granted that the pottery dried within that time. If not they could just move onto it tomorrow. Finn agreed to come over, wanting to learn the rest of the pottery making method, soon leaving afterwards.

Once everyone was gone, Serena quickly cleaned up the grinder once more and packed away the bucket of flour and last bit of wheat berries. Those along with another basket in her subspace would be kept for farming.

When she was done, Serena headed over to the front of the hut. There stood two wooden poles with a vine tied between them - a makeshift clothes line.

Strung to it were the clay filled pillowcases. Serena had Theo help her build it yesterday, not wanting to leave the clay on the ground where dew could be a problem.

They had yet to completely finish processing the clay using the wet method, but Serena wasn’t too worried about it. Liz had warned her beforehand that it could take a couple days to a week for the clay to properly dry.

Especially as it was the cold season and temperatures were at its lowest. Thankfully though, they were experiencing a dry cold season, so they weren’t fighting against humidity on top of low temperatures.

Despite it going to take some time to fully dry, Serena would periodically check on the progress. She wanted to make sure it was actually drying out and not just going to stay a wet lump forever.

After checking on the pillowcases, Serena headed back over to Theo, who was preparing a simple broth for lunch. The smell of the cooking broth entered her nose as she got closer and her stomach growled with eagerness.

"It smells good." Serena couldn’t help but say as she walked over to her drying noodles.

Theo glanced over at her and responded, "I hope it tastes just as good... How long do those need to go in for?"

"Just a few minutes." Serena answered. "When I come back with Kiro, we can add them in."

Theo nodded his head in understanding and with that Serena went to take the vegetable scraps to the wild birds. Their coop didn’t need any cleaning as Theo had handled that this morning, so Serena only needed to add some extra food to their bowl along with some water.

Once she was done, she grabbed the extra flat bread that she had and headed over to Emma’s hut. The rabbit beastwomen were all eagerly awaiting her return, wondering what good food she had brought for them this time.

Grace was the first to notice the hand basket in her hands and asked, "What do you have there?"

"Stuffed flat bread." Serena answered, coming to a stop in front of them. "There isn’t a lot here, so you’ll have to share."

"That’s fine." Emma nodded her head in understanding. "It is the cold season, so you can’t give out too much food. You’ll need to keep some for your family too."

They had offered to give Serena something in exchange for the new food, but Serena had refused. She’d only demand some payment if they wanted to exchange for more.

"Hmm..." Serena hummed out before bringing the hand basket forward. She then pointed out the flat bread and explained, "This is flat bread. I’ve added some vegetables inside it, but the bread is made from a mixture of water and crushed wheat berries."

"Crushed wheat berries?" Wilma frowned.

"The overripe wheat!" Emma suddenly exclaimed, recalling the conversation Serena had with them about the wheat. "You crushed it to make this right?"

"Yes." Serena nodded her head. "It makes this powder called flour that you can use to make lots of things. Anyway, you guys should try it out."

"I’m not sure how you come up with these crazy ideas." Wilma shook her head. "But I can’t say no to what those crazy ideas produce."

"Agreed." Grace added in.

Serena pursed her lips and murmured, "It’s not really my ideas... Just stuff I heard about."

For some reason, Serena didn’t feel it was right to take credit for something that someone else invented. It just seemed wrong to her.

The one time my warped conscience decides to come out... Serena couldn’t help but think to herself.

After splitting the flat breads among the rabbit beastwomen and getting their two cents on the matter, Serena went home with Kiro. The cub was a little excited for lunch, wondering if his sister had made something new.

Theo added the noodles to the broth to cook upon seeing them while Serena and Kiro washed up for lunch. Kiro then grabbed their bowls, it becoming a ritual for the cub.

Serena, meanwhile, moved over to Theo to check on the noodles. They needed to cook for a bit more, so they left them in a little longer. It seemed she had cut them a little too thick.

I’ll need to make note of the lengths and widths that I cut them into. Serena mused to herself, noting that they weren’t all the same size. Also make sure they keep to the same length and width.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t cook the same, some undercooked while others overcooked. Soon enough though, the noodles were mostly done and Theo served lunch.

They only used spoons whenever they ate, so they found that the noodles were a bit hard to eat. However, things were easier if they brought the bowl to their lips and they drank it.

They just had to be careful not to choke on the long strips. It made Serena wonder if there was a special way to eat the noodles and if there were shorter versions of the noodles.

It was something that she needed to look into later today.

Despite that issue, the noodles were surprisingly good and soaked up all the broth’s flavour. Some were a bit chewy, but for the most part Serena found herself enjoying them.

Kiro seemed to like them too by the way he was already asking Theo for seconds. The tiger beastman dished up another bowl for the cub, warning him to take it slow because the broth was hot.

Theo noticed her gaze and asked, "Want some more too?"

"No thanks." Serena shook her head. "I need to finish this bowl first.... Is it good?"

She could easily tell when Kiro liked something, but Theo was a little harder to read. He liked to hide what he truly felt at times which was sometimes annoying because she had to drag it out of him.

Not that she was any better... Perhaps worse.

But she was trying to learn to be more open. However, some things were just hard to say aloud and she rather not face. Perhaps one day. But right now.

Thus she quickly added, "Be truthful. It’s important."

"Hmm... It’s not something I’d normally eat." Theo mused after a moment of silence. "But I do like that it tastes like meat. It’s strange that a plant can taste like this."

Serena had to agree with that. She didn’t really understand how it worked, but she supposed if it worked then it worked.

"I like it too!" Kiro exclaimed, wanting to join the conversation.

Serena smiled at the cub. "Yeah... Then we can try it again."

The snow leopard cub nodded at that, asking what else they could make. Serena tried answering as best as she could, but her recipes were limited mostly because of ingredient availability.

Soon they were done with lunch and quickly cleaned up. Once they were done, Serena got out the clay and got everything set up to make some pottery. Kiro joined in, interested to know what they were making.

The snow leopard beastwoman noticed his curiosity at the clay she was splitting up to make different things and cut a small piece for him.

"You can play with this." Serena said, handing over the piece of slightly wet clay. "Just don’t eat it okay."

Kiro nodded his head in understanding, sitting next to his sister as he messed with the clay. He liked the way he could make it into different things, a little more solid than when he played with mud.

He bet his friends would like to play with this clay too. The thought made him turn to his sister and asked, "Can we keep some for my friends? I think they’ll like playing with this too."

"Um... We’ll see." Serena mused, thinking it was best to talk to the rabbit beastwomen about that first.

Serena wasn’t sure if they’d be okay with their cubs playing with clay. It wasn’t dangerous, otherwise, she wouldn’t let Kiro get near it. But others might have different opinions.

And she didn’t want to make promises to the cub that she couldn’t keep. Kiro pouted, but didn’t argue about it thankfully. Finn arrived before anything else could be said and they all quickly got distracted with making some pottery.