We finished the tub today. Well, sorta. We finished laying the final two rows of bricks. Honestly, it doesn't look bad considering the two of us are complete amateurs. I mean, it's made of bricks, so 'bathtub' isn't the first thing to come to mind when you look at it. More like an excessively large garden box or something. Still, it looks more or less waterproof.
While the clay we had used as mortar dried, Levy and I moved on to making more clay stuff. The first thing we did was make a lot of long flat rectangles. They were about two feet long and a bit under a foot wide.
"What are these for?" I asked as we stopped to eat lunch, allowing them to sun dry. They weren't very thick, so it wouldn't take them long.
"A lot," Levy said, swallowing the bit of blapple she had been chewing. "A flat surface to work on, a way to carry stuff. But most importantly, they're covers. We'll put them on top of the kiln to keep the heat in, which will make the bake better."
It didn't take long for the slats to dry, and soon Levy had them in the kiln, standing on the edges on top of the bricks, perpendicular to them so they had the most exposure to the fire below it. She then made two copies of the word 'Wood' using her magic, stretching them out long and skinny enough to fit into the shelves on the bottom part of the kiln before using 'Fire' to light them up.
"I'm using actual wood instead of a magical fire because if I just did 'Fire' then the magic fire that would make it wouldn't produce any smoke," Levy explained as the kiln heated up. "The ash and smoke created by burning up wood is important to the process. It will coat the clay and seal it. Normally clay is very porous, but the ash coating will prevent that."
"Convenient," I commented. "Man am I glad to have you here, you really know your stuff."
"That's not true," Levy said, quiet enough that I almost missed it over the crackling of the flames. "There's so much I don't know. We could use glaze instead but I have no idea how to make a glaze. We have to use clay to hold the bath together because I don't know what mortar is made out of. And I can't even make things in a useful shape, except when I can I don't even realize it, and you have to-"
"Hey," I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She jerked, snapping out of… whatever that was, before looking at me.
"No beating yourself up," I said. "No, you don't know everything. So what? If I were here alone I'd be sitting here twiddling my thumbs, because I know way less and would have had no way to do anything. All the progress we've made? It's because of you. I've basically just been an ideas guy and an extra pair of hands, you're the one doing the heavy lifting so far. And I'm grateful, really. There's no one I'd rather have out here than you."
She turned away from me, facing the other way so I could only see the back of her head. "I- I guess," she said, voice sounding a little strained. Unsurprisingly, my little attempt at a pep talk failed.
I took my hand off her shoulder, suddenly aware of how long I had been touching her. "You keep an eye on this. I'm gonna attempt to make a clay pot or two."
She nodded stiffly and we left it at that. Thankfully Levy had left a small pile of leftover clay next to the crate, so I gathered that and started making a pot. Honestly, I was feeling guilty. It was obvious that Levy was starting to get stressed out over the situation, and there wasn't much I could do about it. So I've decided that when the portal opens I'll take her clothes shopping, book shopping, and we'll eat somewhere nice. Twenty-four hours is a long time, surely we'll have time for that much, right?
I actually had to squash my first attempt at a pot because the bottom was too rounded and it wouldn't sit on the ground without tipping over. So, after wetting it with a bit of water, I made a flat circle to act as the base and just built walls, not unlike how we made the bath. It was slower than what I had been doing before, which was just bending it into shape, but it worked much better.
I set the pot aside and reached for the clay to make another when I noticed that there was less smoke coming from the kiln. I looked over to find Levy carefully peering into it, a smile on her face. I remember being surprised, because I had expected her to still be down. But I guess the slats must have come out nicely, because she looked pretty happy as she examined them.
She spotted me looking and gave me a smile. I smiled back and picked my pot back up to show her before walking over to her.
"The slats come out good then?" I asked.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, they look fine," she confirmed.
I frowned as I got closer to her and noticed something off. "You might not want to be so close to the kiln next time," I told her. "Your face is looking a little red."
"I-is that so?" she asked, sounding surprised. I guess she didn't notice the heat. "I'll be more careful. Is this the pot you made? It came out pretty well!"
"Uhh, thanks," I replied, probably sounding like an idiot. "I had to scrap my first attempt. But this should hold… well, whatever we need it to hold?"
"If we make two more this size we can fit all three in the kiln at the same time," she said. "And maybe some smaller things."
"We still have those bricks we made. Might as well bake them."
She nodded at that. "That'll work. Come on, while those slats cool off you can show me how you made this pot."
She definitely seemed more cheerful than before, and I had no idea why, but I wasn't going to question it, just thank my good luck.
With experience and knowledge of what not to do under my belt, the second pot went by quickly. Rather than stand across from me on the other side of the crate that we were using as a table like she usually did, Levy stood right next to me, cheerfully humming as she copied what I was doing.
Again, I didn't know why, but I didn't hate it, so I accepted it without questioning it.
We finished making those and brought them over to the kiln, which we carefully poked and determined it had cooled down enough to pull the slats out.
They weren't pretty, that's for certain. The kiln and the slats both were blackened and looked burnt. But they were sturdy, and a bit of summoned 'Water' cleaned them up surprisingly nicely. And when Levy tapped them they made a satisfying ringing sound, which Levy said was an indicator that they hadn't cracked during the baking.
We had way more slats than we needed to cover up the kiln, so after placing the pots and bricks inside of it and starting the fire again, we brought the remainder to the bathtub.
"Lay the slabs over the bathtub, but leave room for one on either edge," Levy instructed me. "Make sure there aren't any gaps between them."
The edges of the slabs weren't as uniform as the bricks, since we didn't have a mold for them. But they were straight enough that the gaps between them were minor at best. I started stacking the couple extra slats we had on top of the largest ones, but Levy shook her head.
She conjured 'Wood' again, this time making it a bit bigger, and put it in the tub, right next to the drain hole, which had the cork removed. She then set it on fire and put one of the slats over it.
I raised an eyebrow. "I thought this was a tub, not another kiln?" I asked.
"Funny you should say that, this is actually remarkably similar to a different kind of kiln," she said. "Air will flow in through this drain hole, over the fire, and then up through the gap not covered by the slats on the other end, creating a draft. And that draft will spread the ash through the entire thing, making sure everything gets baked and sealed. Normally you'd have a door on the side to place your unfired clay inside, but we only care about making sure the clay we used as mortar is baked and sealed."
"We'll have to clean it before we can use it to clean ourselves then," I commented. But I could see the logic.
Levy shrugged. "I would have cleaned it anyway. Some extra soot and ash isn't a big deal."
"Fair enough," I replied. "Does that mean that by this time tomorrow, we'll be able to bathe?"
The smile on her face was practically radiant. "Yes! Sooner, really." She looked up at the sky, where the sun was starting to approach the horizon, the sky slowly darkening. "This will finish firing a bit after the sun sets, and we'll let it cool overnight. Tomorrow morning I'll clean it, fill it up with water, heat the water up with magic, and then enjoy a nice hot bath."
She let out a content sigh just imagining it, and I had to admit, it did sound nice. I had been trying not to think about it much, but after nearly three days of working and sweating, we were both starting to smell. It wasn't gross, not yet, but it was noticeable.
As I write this journal, Levy is finishing up both of the bakes, alternating between the kiln and the tub and feeding them more wood. After that, it will be time to sleep again. Time really flies when you keep yourself busy.
I've gotten more used to sleeping in a tent, both to the rough terrain and being so close to Levy. Humans are pretty adaptable like that I guess. Still, we're probably going to want to build some proper shelter soon. Building walls out of bricks is pretty easy, but we don't really have anything to use as a roof. Hmm. Something to think on and talk with Levy about.
Looks like Levy is letting the fires die down now, so I'll leave this entry here. Until tomorrow, I guess.
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AN: Unreliable narration is a hell of a thing to balance.