Ari

Chapter 4: Silkworms and Farming

Grandma Lony used to bring me up to the mountain to gather some medicinal herbs every morning.

She taught me how to identify plants and their uses. She also taught me the effects on the body of the herbs depending on how it was processed. She was quite strict, so I tried my best to pay attention to all the important details she was explaining.

I was only 5 years old at that moment when I accidentally saw a few silkworms feeding on some herbs. It was autumn and it's almost time for the silkworms to turn into a cocoon.

I hastily took all of the silkworms I saw without asking for the elder healer's permission and placed them in my basket, which was full of herbs I picked prior.

When we got back home, the elder healer screamed as she threw my basket unconsciously when she saw what's in my basket. I suddenly remembered the silkworms and hurriedly caught the basket.

I checked the worms inside and I felt guilty upon seeing that the silkworms devoured almost all the herbs inside my basket.

I felt guilty as I looked at Grandma Lony's reaction.

She was obviously irritated while nagging, "Why did you bring those pests? Look! They ate all the herbs inside your basket and now we need to gather more herbs after lunch time under the scorching sun to ensure we won't run out of medicine for the tribe."

"I'm sorry Grandma Lony—I thought they were cute, so I brought them back to learn how to raise them as my pets. I really liked them. No one was playing with me so I thought it would be better to raise a pet instead."

I cried in front of her as I begged for forgiveness. I was trembling as I tried to explain my action. I didn't lie, though I didn't tell her the real reason for my action. It would seem more like a lie if I tell her that I will use their cocoon to make threads out of the blue.

"*sigh* Okay. It's alright. Sorry for shouting at you. Just promise me to ask for my permission next time when you're going to bring home something from the mountain beside the herbs we were gathering—so that I can help you contain them properly. Also, promise me not to let them roam around the house. They might feed on the rare herbs I've been keeping in the storage. I already explained how hard it was to obtain them so you have to be very careful. Do you understand?"

I nodded excessively in agreement as I wiped my tears with my hands.

The elder healer informed my father about the worms so the two of them made a basket-like cage for me to contain the worms. I fed them with cabbage every day until they started to create their own cocoon.

I was frustrated when I saw that their cocoons were not in good shape so I waited for them to become a moth to let them lay eggs and multiply in number. Fortunately, I was able to safely breed the moths and they produced hundreds of eggs before dying briefly after. I struggled on hatching the eggs, then I remembered eggs were hatched in incubators so I placed the container of the eggs near the fireplace and kept on observing them for about a week. I tried my best to sustain the heat near the fireplace so that it won't be too hot or too cold.

The eggs hatched after 6 days of incubation and I fed them with buds so they could feed on it easily—they were too small to eat regular leaves. Although not all of them hatched successfully, I still managed to hatch most of the eggs.

The newly hatched silkworms grew bigger and bigger as the weeks passed, so I asked my father to prepare a few sets of equal size small cups made from bamboo. He didn't ask me why because he thought I would use it as a toy for making my own concocted medicine.

I only transferred the silkworms similar to the number of cups my father made then I covered all of them with the winnowing basket to prevent them from crawling out and eating the elder healer's herbs. I separated the remaining silkworms that were also already cocooning for breeding purposes since I can only place a single silkworm in each cup.

"Will it be a success?"

I wondered as I waited for a few days for the silkworms to finish making their cocoons.

The cabbages I fed on the silkworms were wild ones I found during autumn.

I wanted to plant the remains of the cabbage, which was the hard white center part and grow them myself so that I can harvest cabbages without worrying about where to look for them. So, I decided to grow the cabbage by planting them in an old cooking pot right before the spring time arrives. I diligently watered the pot and placed it on the windowsill in my room.

Soon, spring time arrived and new leaves started to grow from the cabbage remains that I planted. I turned 6 years old that day, but since beastmen don't celebrate birthdays, I decided to celebrate it by showcasing my talent in planting. I was so excited so I looked for my father to show him the plant.

I brought the pot with me and looked at the tribunal meeting place and saw them having a meeting.

Beastmen were still not knowledgeable in farming and in breeding animals to produce staple foods so starvation was the number one problem of all the tribes during winter because of the cold and terrible weather conditions. Also, most animals in the wild hibernate to conserve their energy and survive the harsh season.

Due to this reason, most cubs and a few females die of starvation every winter. Even though the fatalities in our tribe during winter were lower than the other tribes due to my father's thorough organization of prey hunting, storage and distribution of food—there were still a few numbers of reported deaths during winter.

It's saddening to hear the talks of the elders, especially my poor father, who was diligently working hard to protect the tribe.

I suddenly clung to my father right after a meeting and asked, "Father, why don't we grow our own food? There were many edible herbs and crops in the mountains. It's just that they grow separately so it's hard to harvest them. If we plant them in one location during spring, we can grow them and harvest them around autumn season and just enough time before the winter arrives, then store the seeds to grow them when the springtime comes again. Look! My cabbage was already growing!"

I proudly showed him the pot that I was holding while smiling cheerfully.

My father was surprised and started to contemplate my suggestion. He dismissed the tribesmen before lifting me in his arms and brought me back to my room.

"We can also take care of some animals inside the tribe that we can breed that feed on vegetables and are less aggressive, just like my worms and then their number can multiply and we will only cook them once needed so their meat won't rot inside the storage room just like every winter."

He attentively listened to my suggestion and placed me back on my bed, then took the pot from me. It was quite dirty, so he wiped my hands using a clean cloth.

"What a smart hatchling we got here, I am so proud of you!"

He praised me with a bright smile while patting my head.

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The next morning, he didn't accompany the hunting group to join me and the elder healer in gathering herbs on the mountain.

We found a huge field with low growing grass and checked if the soil was suitable for planting vegetables. The soil was quite rocky in some parts, but we saw a spot where the soil was soft with less rocks. We plowed it using tree branches. It was extremely exhausting because we did not have the right, so my father took over and finished plowing in just an hour. I was so amazed and speechless at how efficient he was doing the job alone.

We looked for the vegetable seedlings that we can transplant in the lot we found. We gathered and replanted cabbages, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, yams and corn on the other areas of the mountain.

I taught my father how to take care of the plants, so he held a meeting with the others to delegate a team who will manage the planting on the vegetable garden we made on the mountain.

My father also made a fence around the lot to prevent the wild animals from destroying or eating the plants we've planted. It took him a while to finish so he called the other tribesmen after lunch to continue with the construction.