Beauties and Beasts

Chapter 112: brought to you by balls

Step One: Harvest the clay. Step Two: Make the clay into balls. Step Three: Try not to piss off the balls surrounding you because if you have to live through one more argument so help you gods...

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After convincing Benedict to go back out with her (two males were better than one) she showed them how to 'harvest' the clay. They'd have to take turns, but hopefully there would be minimal water waste. Lawrence brought a large skin full of water and, after dropping it off, quickly disappeared back to the castle, complaining about a headache from the sun.

"So fill this pot up to this line with dirt." She marked it with a dusty fingerprint. Tony dumped it in before Benedict could move, his eyes rapidly blinking in displeasure. "Now fill it the rest of the way with water. Not so fast, Tony!"

Tony sloshed most of the water into the bucket, spilling it out the sides in his haste to listen, or maybe do it before Benedict. The precious water disappeared into the ground, leaving only a dark mark that quickly shrunk in the heat. "Sorry, Agatha."

"Yeah, let's make water undrinkable. Great idea, Agatha." Benedict paused deliberately before saying her fake name, like he always did.

Neara ignored him. "It's ok, we'll use what we have. Now stick your hands in and break up the clumps of dirt, make it so it's all like finely ground fl...rice." Maybe they'd ground rice for a female before? Well, Tony maybe; Benedict probably hadn't seen another female besides her.

"Like this?" Tony dug both of his hands into the water, the surface instantly clouding. When he pulled his hands out, a thin film of dirt clung to them. As they sat in the sunlight, it dried to a light grey color that flaked away as soon as he moved his fingers. It had to be clay.

"Yeah, that's right. We have to wait a little for the soil to hydrate, otherwise we're just going to get a lot of dust." After a few minutes passed (she counted the Mississippi's in her head) she said, "Move the other bowl over here. Now take the cloth and fold it... put it on top of itself a few times. Yes; Benedict, carefully pour the water through the cloth and Tony, you hold it steady over the other bowl. We don't want to waste anything."

"Anything else." Benedict added. He poured slowly, though, so Neara didn't scold him.

Tony held the cloth like it was the most important thing in the world, the surface quickly stained a dark grey.

"Ok, stop pouring. We don't want the layer of sand and rocks at the bottom. Ok, so Tony, gather the corners like this," She gently placed her fingers on top of his and showed him how to ball the soil in the middle, water squelching through the fabric as he squeezed. With as little pressure as possible, she directed him to wind the fabric tightly around the clay, squeezing clear water into the bowl beneath. "Keep squeezing until it stops dripping." After a few seconds, he was incredibly strong after all, he opened the cloth and let a hard ball of clay roll out.

"Done!" He looked at it with a smile. "Now we can play rugby!"

"Play what?" Benedict looked at the ball and set the other bowl down.

"Rugby! It's not the right size, but I smashed it into a ball, so I bet I can make it into a rugby shape!" He eagerly took the clay and began molding it in his hands, palming it until it resembled a rounded football. He turned to Benedict with a smile on his face. "Want to play?"

"Play what?" Benedict looked more annoyed at being uninformed than irritated at Tony. "What the hell is a rugby?"

"You've never played?"

"Of course I've played a rugby, it's just been a few years, so I don't remember everything. I basically invented the rugbies. I'm just... surprised you knew what they were."