Chapter – 19
Red Clay Bricks and a Gaze Toward Iron
After their first attempt at pottery succeeded, handmade bowls and plates — each carrying the warmth of the maker’s touch — began to adorn the dining table in Akio and his companions’ hut. Unlike the wooden ones, these clay vessels had a reassuring solidity, and they were easy to handle even when filled with hot soup. It was a small but certain improvement in their quality of life. The children proudly used the dishes they had made themselves, and mealtime became an even more joyful occasion.
“Now that the pottery’s proven so useful… the next step is obvious,” Akio murmured one day, gazing at the walls of the hut. His eyes rested on a few gaps still patched only with bark and clay.
“Bricks, right?” Ayane asked, as if reading his mind.
“Yeah. With that same clay, we should be able to make sturdy bricks. If we had bricks, we could reinforce these walls, level the floor, and maybe even build something larger down the line — like a proper storage building or workshop.”
Sylvia nodded in quiet agreement. “Ancient elven architecture also used baked clay blocks. They were durable and fire-resistant — a logical choice.”
Her words gave Akio’s idea a reassuring weight.
Brickmaking turned out to be a much larger operation than pottery. First, Akio crafted several wooden molds, each shaped to form a uniform rectangular block. Then, everyone — children included — helped carry loads of clay from the stream they had discovered earlier. They mixed it thoroughly with water, and Sylvia shared ancient elven wisdom on materials: “Add sand and finely crushed dry grass in the right proportions. It prevents cracking while drying and increases strength when fired.”
The clay mixture was packed into the molds, shaped carefully, and laid out in the shade to dry. The work was simple but required patience — there were hundreds to make. Still, the children worked diligently, imagining how much stronger their home would become.
A few weeks later, they had hundreds of sun-dried bricks ready. Akio expanded the pit they’d used for pottery and modified it into a larger, makeshift kiln capable of baking many bricks at once. Because enormous amounts of firewood were needed, Alto and Kenta made daily trips to the forest to gather fuel.
Then came the day of firing. The kiln was lit, and for several days, flames roared red-hot. Maintaining the temperature was even trickier than pottery, and Akio and Sylvia took turns watching the fire, barely sleeping.
When the long firing finally ended and the kiln had cooled, the moment of truth arrived. Inside were bricks of many kinds — some blackened with soot, some warped, others cracked from the heat. But among them were many perfect, reddish-brown bricks — heavy in the hand, ringing with a sharp, metallic sound when struck.
“We did it! These are solid!” Akio exclaimed, holding one high. The children cheered loudly. Sylvia picked one up, tapped it with her finger, and listened to the sound. “…Not bad. These will stand firm against wind and rain,” she said with a satisfied smile.
They immediately tried paving part of the hut’s floor with the new bricks. Compared to the bare earth, it was far easier to walk on and to clean. Rainy days would no longer mean muddy floors. When they reinforced one of the windward walls with bricks, the hut’s warmth noticeably improved.
“This is amazing, Akio! It’s going to be so much warmer this winter!” Ayane said happily.
The joy of making their home safer and more comfortable with their own hands — that was a feeling beyond measure.
As Akio took in the success of their brickmaking, his gaze naturally drifted toward a lump of reddish-black stone in the corner of the hut — what he believed to be iron ore. Pottery was done. Bricks were done. The next challenge was to extract metal from that stone — a task far more difficult than anything they had attempted.
“To draw iron from that rock will take more than an ordinary fire,” Sylvia said, seeing through his thoughts. “You’ll need a special furnace, a great deal of good charcoal, and a way to force air into the flames.” Her words carried the weight of warning, but in her eyes glimmered a quiet resolve — the same determination to face this new challenge together.
If they could harness iron, everything — from tools to blades to buildings — would change dramatically. Civilization itself would take a leap forward. It was only the beginning of a long journey, but in Akio’s heart, a new and brighter flame of hope had begun to burn.
