Chapter 16: Change of Heart

Elder Ahote and Alfred immediately wanted to start doing pottery after they received the clay soil from the Arrows. They came outside the shelter because they needed to use a lot of fire to heat the clay. After that, Elder Ahote ordered some tribesmen to bring him water.

While waiting for the tribesmen to return, they started a fire to use later to bake the clay. After a while, the tribesmen finally returned holding some kind of big turtle shell with water in it. When Alfred saw the big shell, he was a little perplexed, he wanted to ask what kind of monster had that kind of shell, but before he could, Elder Ahote scooped some water using his hands and poured it onto the clay soil.

Elder Ahote hurried Alfred to show him how to do it. When Alfred saw the eager look of Elder Ahote, he set aside the question he had and started showing Elder Ahote how to shape the clay soil. A lot of tribesmen noticed Elder Ahote and Alfred doing something weird.

A lot of them wanted to know what the both of them are up to. So, they stopped what they are doing and started to gather around the two. Elder Ahote including Alfred ignored the crowd surrounding them and just focused on shaping the clay soil to make it look like a pot.

Elder Ahote and Alfred made two sets of clay pots. The first set was a pot made by just using clay soil, and the other one was a pot made with clay soil with the addition of wood ash. They simultaneously put the pots in the fire. When the tribesmen saw what the two are doing, they became even more confused.

The tribesmen thought Elder Ahote and Alfred were destroying what they just made by putting it in the fire, that was why they are confused. A few minutes had passed, and a lot of tribesmen were getting bored or impatient with the two who were just watching the fire and doing nothing.

When the tribesmen were about to leave, they saw the two finally move and took out something from the fire. The tribesmen became surprised when they saw what the pair took out. it was the pots the tribesmen thought were destroyed by the fire.

The tribesmen noticed something different about the pots. When they saw the two put the pots inside earlier, the pot was still muddy and soft, but now the pot looked like it was made of some kind of stone. After Elder Ahote and Alfred excitedly took out the pots from the fire, they both saw the changes in the pots.

They compared the two sets of pots. Both of the pots dried up, and their surface hardened, but the noticeable difference was the cracks. The pots with wood ash had lesser cracks than the pots made only with clay soil.

Elder Ahote was very happy and satisfied with the new things he learned, but Alfred was a little disappointed with the outcome. The pots were not hard enough for his liking, and there were too many cracks on the surface of the pots. When Elder Ahote saw the disappointed look on Alfred’s face, he comforted him and said.

“You do not have to feel disappointed young Alfred, this is only our first try and for me, this enough is a success. We just need to try new things and sooner or later we will get it right. What important is, that this new thing will change everything.

“Maybe you are right elder Ahote, what do you think we did wrong?” Alfred replied.

“I do not know too, maybe the fire is not strong enough, we take it out too early, or we take it out late. There are too many possibilities that maybe we did wrong, that is why we are going to try different things and improve little by little.”

Elder Ahote and Alfred repeatedly made a pot with slightly different procedures. Like elder Ahote said every time they made a pot the quality became better little by little. When the sky was dark, all the people watching them were already gone. Elder Ahote decided to stop and continued tomorrow, besides the clay soil was almost gone.

“You should go back for now young Alfred, we will continue tomorrow.”

“Ok, I will come back tomorrow.” Alfred replied.

When Alfred entered his tent, he saw Aponi playing with Leo and Amra. The two White Lions became a lot livelier than before, they also became comfortable with Aponi that they let their guard down and started playing with each other.

Alfred couldn’t help himself but smile at the view, he felt like he was coming home from work and seeing his family playing around each other. While Alfred was standing at the entrance smiling on his own, Aponi noticed him, she smiled and called him.

“Oh, you are finally here, we have been waiting for you”

The two lions also noticed Alfred. So, they stopped playing. Amra ran back to Aponi while Leo ran towards Alfred, then he rubbed his body on Alfred’s remaining foot. When Alfred saw Aponi smiling at him, his heart suddenly beat faster than usual, he tried to force himself to calm down by exhaling a large amount of air.

He lifted Leo in his embrace and walked closer to Aponi. When Alfred was near enough to Aponi, he felt nervous and didn’t know why he was feeling this right now, because he saw Aponi so many times, and he never felt this way towards her before.

Alfred replied to Aponi, but because of his nervousness he bit his tongue while talking

“I am sorr- OWW!!”

When Aponi saw Alfred biting his tongue, she got worried and walked closer to him to try to see his tongue. Aponi’s face was so close to Alfred’s face, that Alfred instantly backed off and said while stuttering.

“I- I am fine y- you do not have t- to worry.”

“No you are not fine, your tongue hurt so bad that you are starting to stutter, let me take a look to see if there is a wound.” Aponi insist

“N- no no you do not have to do that. In fact, I am feeling better already, see I can speak properly now.”

“Really?”

Alfred nodded and immediately try to change the topic.

“By the way, what happened when you go to shaman Catori did she say anything?”

“Nothing really, she Is just fascinated with this taming. I think she is happy she has a new family to take care of. I heard that when her husband and son died while hunting, she always been alone, and I am glad that Cari is there now to give her some happiness. Oh, Cari is the name of her white lion.”

“Is that so, I did not know Shaman Catori had a sad past, but I am also glad for her, I think taming these little lions is really a good idea.” Alfred replied

Aponi became a little depressed.

“Well everybody in this tribe has their own sad past, but I think you are right having this little cutie is really a good idea.” Aponi said while cuddling Amra.

“What about your father and Vir? what did they say when they saw you with Amra?”

“My father said to be careful and treat this taming thing seriously because it is for the future of our tribe. Well, my father is always serious when it came to the tribe, but I know he really cares about me a lot.

For brother Vir, I knew when he saw me with Amra, that he would instantly oppose the idea of me taking care of Amra. He is really protective when it comes to the lives of our tribesmen, especially of his family. He is a good person and an even better brother.

Now that I have been taking care of Amra, I feel like I understand a bit why my brother is so protective of us, but even if I can understand him for a bit, I will still not give up Amara if he asked me to.”

“I am glad that I made the right choice to let you take care of Amra.”

“Me too, thank you.”

“Do not mention it, I should be the one who should be thanking you. Anyway, what about my suggestion to your father what did he say?”

“Ahh that, my father said he will announce about the white lions when the hunting party returned, and to the additional foods for the mother who is donating their milk for the white lion. he said he will try, the current food of our tribe is a little tight.”

“I see thank you, oh I am sorry I come back so late and thank you again for taking care of Leo.”

“You do not have to worry I enjoy taking care of Amra and Leo. I should probably go now my father might start worrying, it is quite late.”

“Ahh yes, do you want me to escort you home?”

“No, you do not have to do that, I can walk home myself, and I know you are tired. I heard what you and Elder Ahote did a while ago so you should probably rest.”

Aponi left in a hurry so Alfred couldn’t stop her.