Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Fire
She stared at the stone table used to hold at and food, it was covered in greasy stains and dried blood. She wrinkled her nose. "Disgusting."
This was going to take water. Lots of it.
She searched the cave until she found the heavy stone bowl the original owner had used to store water. Normally, soone else had to bring it for her, but Su Qinglan wasn’t about to act like a tyrant and wait around.
"I can do it myself," she said firmly, grabbing a small hide along with the bowl.
The river was about ten minutes away, but she didn’t mind the walk. She made several trips, washing the dirty hide thoroughly in the river, then hauling back bowls of water to scrub the bed and wipe the stone tables clean. Back and forth, back and forth, until her arms trembled from the weight and her back was slick with sweat.
By the ti she finished, she was panting. The heat of the day pressed down on her, and sweat dripped from her temples. She groaned.
"I need another bath..."
So she trudged right back to the river, dunked herself in, and let the cool water wash away the gri and exhaustion clinging to her. The temperature wasn’t cold at all—it was pleasantly warm, and for a mont, she simply floated, enjoying the rare sense of peace.
When she finally returned to her cave, damp but refreshed, she let out a long sigh of satisfaction.
All her hard work was worth it. The air inside was no longer foul. The stink of rot was gone, replaced by clean, fresh air. Even she felt lighter, standing in a space that finally looked livable.
No one in the tribe noticed all her movents, but that was only because her cave was at the very end, close to the river. In fact, now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen a single beast man at the river all day.
"Strange... Don’t they need to bathe? Or wash? Or fetch water?" she muttered, frowning. "Or is it because it’s night? Hmph, whatever."
She shook her head, brushing the thought aside as her gaze landed on the massive piece of at waiting in the corner.
It would spoil quickly in this warm weather if she didn’t do sothing with it. She had already washed it in the river, but now ca the real problem...cooking.
She looked around her empty cave.
Not a single pot or pan. Not even a cooking stone. Nothing.
She frowned deeper, digging into her inherited mories.
And then froze.
The original owner... had always eaten raw, bloody at.
"...What the hell?"
Her stomach churned, and she shuddered so hard goosebumps prickled up her arms.
Yuck.
Sure, she had survived the apocalypse and eaten things that weren’t exactly gourt. But even then, she hadn’t fallen so low as to gnaw on raw flesh like so starving beast.
Her eyes landed on the thick slab of at, and she grimaced again, lips curling in disgust.
"Ugh... there’s no way I’m eating that raw."
But the problem remained, how on earth was she going to cook it?
Su Qinglan stared at the chunk of raw at for a long mont before letting out a sharp breath.
"Fine. If I can survive an apocalypse, I can figure out how to roast so at in this world."
She dug around in the pile of junk until she found the stone dagger the original owner used. It wasn’t sharp like a proper knife, but with so force she managed to hack the at into thick slices. Her arms ached, but slowly a small pile of uneven cuts stacked up on the stone slab.
"Good enough," she muttered, wiping the sweat from her brow.
Next ca the fire. She went outside, gathered up a few dry branches, and snapped them into smaller pieces. After fumbling for a while, she finally struck stones together until sparks caught on the dry twigs. It took a few tries and a lot of muttering curses under her breath, but at last a little fla flickered to life.
Su Qinglan leaned in, blowing carefully until the fire grew, and soon she had a steady blaze going beside her cave.
"Ha! Look at that. Who needs a beast man when I’ve got these hands?" She grinned, rather smug with herself.
Spearing a slice of at with a stick, she held it over the fire. Fat sizzled almost imdiately, and a rich, mouthwatering aroma drifted up. Her stomach growled loud enough to embarrass her, but she ignored it, turning the slice slowly until both sides were browned.
She took a bite.
The taste wasn’t perfect—no seasoning, no salt, just plain roasted at—but compared to raw bloody flesh? It was heavenly.
"Mm... much better."
But one problem remained: she couldn’t finish all of this at alone before it spoiled. The warm air in this world made food turn fast. She glanced at the pile of remaining slices, frowning.
"Smoke it. That’s the only way."
She stacked more branches over the fire to create heavy smoke, then rigged a simple rack with a few sticks she had stripped bare. Piece by piece, she laid the at out, letting the smoke curl around it. The sll was thick, clinging to her hair and skin, but she didn’t mind.
At least this way the at wouldn’t rot overnight.
By the ti the last slice was set over the smoke, her hands were greasy, her clothes smudged with ash, and her hair stuck to her sweaty forehead. But Su Qinglan looked at her work and nodded with satisfaction.
She had cleaned her cave, scrubbed the stone bed, hauled water, taken a bath, cooked at, and even made smoked rations.
"Hah. Who says I can’t survive here?" she muttered, smirking proudly as the fire crackled beside her.
The sll of roasting at curled through the air, rich and smoky and impossible to ignore.
Sure enough, footsteps shuffled closer.
"Mm... What’s that sll? It’s delicious!" a voice muttered near the entrance of her cave.
A few young warriors appeared, sniffing the air like hungry wolves. But when their eyes landed on the small fire crackling beside Su Qinglan’s cave, they froze.
Their expressions shifted from curiosity to pure horror.
"F-Fire..." one of them stamred with wide eyes.
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