Paige was very patient with her younger brother. Even though she didn't like how he cried all the time, after all, she had raised him herself, so letting him cry a bit to let out his feelings was okay.
She knew that kids nowadays couldn't compare to how things were in her time. One by one, they were all so weak.
Her own body at eighteen had been fragile too, so she couldn't expect a twelve-year-old kid to be super strong.
But things would be different from now on. She was going to help them become strong.
Uziel quickly brought back two wild chickens.
Since there was no hot water to remove the feathers, Uziel just wrapped the chickens in a thick layer of mud.
He threw the two mud-covered lumps straight into the fire. Once the mud turned black from the fire, the chicken meat inside would be cooked.
When it was done, the feathers would come off with the mud. It was the easiest way to cook chicken.
After preparing the chickens, Paige called Uziel over to sit and eat the porridge.
Speaking of the porridge, Winn was shocked. He didn't expect that just three small pieces in the clay pot, after some stirring, would turn into a whole pot.
The most surprising part was how incredibly good it smelled.
He tasted a spoonful and realized he had never eaten anything so delicious. He even thought it was better than rice.
He only ate one bowl before deciding to save the rest. He woke Ely up and told him to eat some.
Ely was still stuck in his sadness, but in the end, he ate one bowl and didn't ask for more.
Paige looked at the pot full of porridge and paused. "You two didn't eat?"
"We did, but Ely just had one bowl. He can still eat a little more," Winn answered.
Ely had cried earlier, and now he was really hungry. Before he could say anything, his stomach growled loudly.
Paige scooped a bowl and handed it to Ely, then realized there were no bowls left.
"Paige, go over there and see if there's still a bowl." Winn saw Paige with her palm facing up and immediately stopped her, then started signaling to her wildly with his eyes.
Paige was stunned for a moment before realizing he was asking her to take something without being seen.
But there wasn't anyone else in the cave, just her younger brother. And he was so small—what could he possibly understand?
What Paige didn't know was that it was because Ely was a child and might speak without thinking, that they felt the need to be even more careful.
They were afraid he might accidentally reveal something, and it could bring deadly trouble to them all.
"In the future, you need to get used to this. If you can avoid taking things out in front of others, that's best. If there's no other choice and you have to take something out, then cover it with something.
Like a cloth bag or a bamboo basket—anything works, as long as no one knows what was originally inside. You can use it to hide things.
Also, it's not that we don't trust Ely. It's just that he's still a small child. We're afraid he doesn't know what should be said and what shouldn't.
When he gets older, if you want to tell him, we definitely won't stop you." Uziel pulled Paige into a corner where they had piled some odds and ends, things they had brought with them, and some firewood Uziel had gathered yesterday.
Paige nodded. She would be more careful in the future. Then she took out four bowls from her space.
The original bowl already had two cracks. Since they had new ones, of course they'd use the new ones.
"Wait a sec." Paige stopped Uziel just as he was about to walk back.
Since she had already taken out bowls, she figured she might as well take out another pot too. That clay jar they were using cooked slowly and wasn't very convenient.
At least with this setup, one pot could be used to make porridge while the other boiled water.
Looking at the shiny new pot, Uziel's eyes widened. He had never known a pot could look so nice.
Its surface was smooth and glossy. It definitely wasn't an iron pot.
"Isn't this thing a bit too good?" Uziel asked with concern.
Paige: Do I not even have a pot to use now?
"It's fine. We're in the middle of nowhere, no one else will be around. We can use it to boil hot water," Paige said.
"Once the water is boiled, just put the lid on. It will stay warm for ten hours, no problem."
With this pot, at least they wouldn't go without hot water anymore.
They used the new bowls to share the porridge from the pot. Each person had their own bowl now, so they didn't have to wait in line anymore when it was time to eat.
After finishing the porridge, Uziel took the dishes to clean, and Ely said he wanted to help too.
At twelve years old, he was already doing half the work back home. No one would stop him from doing what he could manage.
Paige wanted to give her cotton-padded jacket to Winn, but it was torn.
She was a girl, and she couldn't just tie it up with branches like Uziel did. She needed to find some thread and needles to sew it back together.
She couldn't let Winn just stay in the cave next to the fire all day.
He was a strong young man, and it would be a waste to leave him idle in the cave.
In the afternoon, the four of them ate two wild chickens. They were so delicious they even chewed on the bones.
Paige secretly promised herself to get more tasty food. The meat in this world tasted amazing.
Better than the mutated meat.
At night, Paige pulled Uziel outside. The two had agreed earlier to go hunt wild boars.
Uziel brought their only chopping knife and followed behind Paige.
Paige thought for a moment, then stopped and asked Uziel, "Let's go down the mountain. We need to get some food and warm clothes."
Even though she had some food in her space, it wasn't much. And the clothes she had didn't fit in with this time period, so she couldn't take them out.
"Where do we get that?" Uziel asked back.
The village was already poor, and now it had been ruined even more. The families that hadn't suffered probably took their things up into the mountains for themselves. Where else could they get anything now?
Paige thought about it for a while. At first, she planned to get things directly from the military.
She didn't need much, just a few quilts and some clothes to wear would be enough.
But then she thought it might not be right. In her past life, she was part of the military, and this felt like sneaking back and stealing from her own side.
She finally looked at Uziel. "Do you know where those PN soldiers are?"
She couldn't take things from her own people, but taking from the PN soldiers should be fine.
"No way. They don't just have guns—they're like animals. If we go to them, it's like walking right into danger," Uziel said, shaking his head like a rattle-drum.
Paige was a girl. If she got caught by the PN soldiers, the consequences would be horrible.
"Did you forget I have powers now? We're not going after their main group—just a few soldiers on their own. We take their clothes and that's it," Paige said.
As for food, she still had enough stored in her space to last a while. Plus, she could hunt in the mountains every day. They wouldn't starve.
Right now, clothes were the most urgent need.
"That still won't work. All those PN soldiers are stuck outside the city gates. We can't reach them," Uziel said.
"There are so many mountains around here. Isn't there at least one that leads outside?" Paige asked, not giving up.
Uziel shook his head. "If it were that easy, wouldn't the soldiers have come in already?"
This didn't work, that didn't work—Paige was starting to feel a bit hopeless. In the end, it was better to just borrow a few quilts from the officials.
So, the two of them went down the mountain in the dark, heading toward the military camp.
By the time they got close to the military area, it was already after midnight.
If it had just been Paige by herself, she wouldn't have taken so long. But she had Uziel with her too.
And Paige's current condition made it hard to bring along another person.