Chapter 17 – Fresco (1/2)

Translated by Sunyancai

Since he was able to come over and be responsible for the teaching, naturally he was not some idiot who only knew how to count from one to ten at his age. What’s more, some old hunters like himself were all experts in counting, even though they perhaps did not know much about other fields. It was because counting was one of the basic skills required for a hunting mission, and the competition among different hunting teams also required that one knew how to count.

Knowing that the children in the cave could skillfully count from one to thirty, the old hunter felt quite happy and content, aside from being surprised and shocked. He liked to teach others, but unfortunately up on the mountain, no kid needed him to teach.

With this rare and precious interest, the old hunter paid extra attention in teaching and he enjoyed it as well.

Since they could learn more numbers, the cave quieted down and they stopped talking about changing the teacher, instead every whelp was listening closely with full attention. Shao Xuan mainly focused on the letters in the tribe, while other kids were eager to learn more numbers. Caesar, who was lying on the straw bed, sleeping, was the most bored one in the cave.

When it was the time for the old hunter to leave, he became quite attached to those kids already, and he felt like that he had more things that he wanted to share. In the past, he would only come here two or three times. Now that the situation had changed and he enjoyed teaching them, he planned to visit a few more times, for after all, he was not capable of getting down the mountain every day. After serious consideration, the old hunter left a roll of animal skin. Not that first one he had taken out, but a larger one with more letters and more numbers written on it. He asked Shao Xuan to keep it and whoever wanted to read may go to Shao Xuan.

All the vents in the cave were already blocked up by straw, so no light could come inside. During wintertime, it was the same darkness in the cave no matter day or night. Also they could not afford to keep the fire all day long. The firewood stored in the cave was brought by the warriors, but still, they could not afford to keep the fire going all day.

Shao Xuan stared at the fire and thought that it would be much more convenient for everyone, if the cave could be brighter inside.

Caesar was eating a raw fish beside Shao Xuan as he did not like cooked food.

The fish-teeth left after they had eaten the meat were not suitable for making other tools. They were too small. And because they were too young to go out for hunting, the fish teeth could not be used as hunting tools. But still, Shao Xuan made a few brushes with those teeth, to comb Caesar’s fur and his own hair.

Those relatively larger fish-teeth were carved up and made into necklaces by kids. They loved it.

Decorations made with the game’s horns or teeth, or anything representative were symbols of ability. And people in the tribe liked to use that to show off their hunting gains. Some warriors would give those kind of decorations to their beloved girls to earn their favors. Girls and women in the tribe would also compare these items, to see whose necklace was more advanced; and whose feathers on the head was from a more ferocious bird. The fiercer the game was, the more admiration one would receive by putting on decorations made from it.

Of course, kids would also compare themselves with others. In the mountain foot district, most kids were wearing necklaces that were made from the horns, teeth, or bones of their parents’ game. In the cave, however, many orphans lost their parents at a very young age, so no one would give them such decorations as gifts. Every time when they went to the tribe and saw those kids with decorations, they would very much admire or even envy them. It was also the hidden reason for most fights between them and the other kids in the tribe.

But now, they could use their own game’s teeth to make their own unique necklaces. How could they not be happy? Now they also had necklaces, which were no worse than the other kids’! Fish-teeth necklaces were another reason why those kids were so fond of fish.

Shao Xuan did not strive for fish-teeth with the others, and he spared all those big fish teeth, which were suitable to make necklaces, to other kids. When Ba was visiting his younger sister, he gave her a big fish tooth, even bigger than the ones he was wearing himself.

Life was not easy on anyone.

As Shao Xuan was considering how to better the situation in the cave, other kids were far less troubled. Aside from sleeping every day, they would only communicate about counting numbers by the fire with other kids when it was time to eat. While Mo-Er sharpened his knife every day. He had already mastered counting, and he had known more letters than the others in the cave. So every time when the fire was lit, he would stay in a corner and practice his knifing skills. He would toss a rock into the air, and then use his knife to chop at it, since in the cave there were no night swallows for him to practice.

After eating, all the kids in the cave fell asleep. Before the wood in the bonfire burnt out, Shao Xuan added another stick in until the end of the stick caught on fire, taking the burning stick as a torch and walked deeper into the cave.

The other day when he was checking out the depth of the cave, he found a stone room that stored sundries. The stone pots that the kids used to make breakfast just came from there after Shao Xuan dug them out. Besides stone pots, Shao Xuan did not pay attention to other items. Anyway he had nothing else to do, so he carried the stick there to see if he could find any other useful things.

Even though they had blocked all vents where they slept, down the cave there were still cracks connecting to the outside. So Shao Xuan could feel icy breezes blowing in as he kept waking inside.

The good thing was that the wind was not strong and the flame merely flickered a few times and was not blown out.

Shao Xuan tightened his animal skin clothes, and followed his memories inside. Caesar followed him closely.

There were many stone rooms inside, and they were distributed like branches. The first room from the right had sundries in it, and was quite big.

The vent in the stone room was also blocked, and Shao Xuan took the torch to go through the stuff inside. Some items were used before, but perhaps the kids in the cave no longer cared to use them and only waited for the tribe to deliver food, so none of the tools were used again and they could only gather dust there.

Aside from some stone stools and things to set up stone pots, Shao Xuan had no interest in the other items.

After some time, Shao Xuan fixed his eyes on the round stone plate. It was a round stone plate, quite flat, with an edge about one finger above the bottom.

To hold food to eat? But who would use this thing since they had a stone pot?

He put the stone plate aside and kept on looking for other items. As he kept digging, he hesitated for a minute and looked back at the stone plate that he tossed to the side. He measured roughly with his hand and then raised the torch high to see the vent.