Chapter 10 There Was Honey

Confused, Keith entered his own cave and lay on the stone bed. In his head, he was still reviewing what he did.

He had no idea why he gave food to that female. It felt strange that he cared about her.

Puzzled, he shook his head to remove the weird thoughts he had.

The little female would've starved to death if she didn't eat anything. If that happened, Kasha would indeed hold him responsible.

He talked himself into believing that the only reason he gave food to that young female was that his mother would reprimand him if he didn't.

The following day, Kira woke up rather early. She passed by Keith's cave and realized that he already went out.

'He might already be in Kasha's place.'

While walking down the path, Kira noticed that several people were assembling in front of Kasha's cave. It seemed that they came to share the food.

As she went closer, she suddenly heard a conversation in the crowd.

"There's not much food for everyone. Moreover, some families have a lot of kids. We have a lot of people to feed. May we have more, please?"

an elderly man begged. Soon enough, everyone else said the same.

The situation suddenly became awkward. Kasha looked at the crowd and explained, "You are all aware that we always allocate food equally."

It was a troublesome position for Kasha. The food they had wasn't enough. So, the tribe members were always starving. The children became skinny since they didn't have enough to eat.

After she heard their complaints, Kira finally understood the commotion.

Everyone was fighting because they only had a small amount of food. As such, everyone had very little to eat.

Kira approached Kasha and held the latter's hand. Then, she nodded her head as a gesture of her desire to help.

Kasha turned her head and faced Kira.

She knew that Kira couldn't help much even if she wanted to do so. However, Kasha still explained the situation to the young lady.

"I'm sorry, my dear. There's no way you can help us. Other tribes have invaded some parts of our territory in the past years. Moreover, the climate has become worse recently. Since there are only a few animals available for hunting, there's not enough food for all the tribe members. To make matters worse, it's getting colder. We have no idea how we can survive the winter."

Meanwhile, Keith was standing next to them. A frown flashed across his face as he looked at the noisy mob.

Their main source of food was meat and fruits.

Winter had yet to come, but they had already lacked food. Things would get worse when winter came.

The animals would hibernate during winter. In that case, there would be fewer animals to hunt. Keith feared that their situation would worsen during winter.

When she heard Kasha's explanation, Kira signed with her hands, gesturing, "You should just hunt more animals before it gets cold. You can store the meat and eat them during winter."

However, Kasha looked at her and explained, "I already tried that. In the past, I tried to dry the meat so that it may last longer. Although it lasted a few more days, it will go bad in the end. As such, it's already spoiled by winter. When the tribe members ate it, they had diarrhea. Some people even died."

Kira was in disbelief.

After all, in modern times, bacon had a long shelf life. It wouldn't go bad even after a long time in the storage.

When she noticed the doubts in Kira's expression, Kasha showed her a piece of meat.

"See for yourself. Look at this meat."

Kira leaned closer and stared at the meat.

At that moment, she realized that the dried meat of this tribe was very different from the bacon she knew.

After a while, she finally realized why it didn't look the same.

The dried meat she was looking at wasn't salted. Without being salted, the meat wouldn't last long enough.

Immediately, Kira waved her hands and asked by gestures, "Why don't you use salt to preserve the meat? The meat won't go bad easily if you rub salt in it."

Unfortunately, Kasha didn't understand what Kira was gesturing.

It seemed that Kira wanted to put something on the meat. But what was it?

Suddenly, Kira realized that the tribe couldn't even make fire. As such, they must have no idea what salt was.

During her time as a student, one of Kira's teachers said that the primitive age didn't use salt. It seemed that the daily salt intake they needed came from meat and the blood of animals. Fortunately, Kira remembered these.

Meanwhile, Keith and Jayda also approached Kira.

"What do you mean?"

Kira faced them and gestured, "Salt is something that can help preserve the meat. If we use it, the meat won't easily go bad."

"I understand. So, where can you get such a thing?" Kasha curiously asked.

If what Kira said was true, then they could survive the winter.

An expectant expression painted Kasha's face as she stared at Kira.

Since Kasha, Jayda, and the others were staring at her, Kira grew anxious.

Unfortunately, she shook her head to tell everyone that she wasn't sure about her idea.

It wasn't because she didn't know. Instead, it was because she wasn't familiar with this world yet. After all, she had only been here for a few days. At that moment, she wanted to prove herself.

As such, Kira firmed her resolve.

A sigh escaped Kasha's breath. "I hope we can find this thing. It's our only hope for our problem with food."

Kasha's expression boosted Kira's determination.

At that moment, Kira remembered that she hadn't eaten any salt lately.

After all, she refused to eat raw meat. Without any salt in her diet, her health would deteriorate.

Moreover, they also needed salt during winter.

Since Kasha was nice towards her, Kira decided to help in whatever way she could.

For a while, she thought of a way to help. Finally, she gestured and said, "I can help you look for it. However, I'm not sure if I can find it."

When Kasha heard that, she became excited. "Fantastic. I'll find Jayda later and she will accompany you during the search. If there's anything you need, just tell us."

Then, she gave Kira some tools and equipment.

Since they were at the Stone Age, several of the things they used were composed of stones.

They had stone axes and some other stone weapons.

The woods contained various kinds of danger. As such, they needed such tools for protection.

Before Kira headed for the adventure, Kasha advised her to be vigilant. Suddenly, Keith proposed, "Mama, I better accompany them."

A thought came to his head.

The foreign girl proposed an adventure all of a sudden. Keith suspected that she must be trying to contact her people. As such, he planned to follow her and catch her in the act. If that happened, the girl would lose Mama's trust and protection.

When she heard his suggestion, Kasha misunderstood that he was anxious about Kira's safety. A smile flashed across her lips. "Since you care about her, you might as well accompany her. Jayda can stay here. Take care of K."

Kasha had the wrong idea about Keith's intentions.

Nonetheless, he didn't correct her. With a nod, he followed Kira.

Based on her survival knowledge, Kira remembered that there was also salt available in the woods.

The four types of salt were sea salt, lake salt, well salt, and rock salt.

Since she hadn't seen the sea yet, all she could do was look for a well or a lake.

She followed the river to see if it might end up in a lake.

Meanwhile, Keith became more suspicious. It seemed that Kira wasn't heading for the Edgars' territory.

At first, he thought that she was going to the Edgars and inform them about his tribe. After that, the Edgars could loot them and invade their territory.

However, she was heading in a different direction.

For a long time, she strolled and searched.

Her eyes wandered around the vast forest. Several kinds of trees decorated the riverside.

There were a lot of tall and thick trees.

Suddenly, Kira noticed a bee hive on a nearby tree.

A happy smile appeared on her lips when she realized that there must be honey available.

Moreover, it was pure wild honey. Such a thing wasn't available in the markets during the modern era. However, now, it was right in front of her.