WORLDS WE HAVE NOT KNOWN
The weather here, as usual, was perfect. Birds hung in the sky as if they were on strings, peering down into the tall grasses below in search for breakfast. A few young ones chirped as they frolicked around trees, pleased by their newfound ability to fly. Golden light was strewn across the fields by the sun, which was hesitating a little above the horizon at just the perfect angle, and an almost imaginary breeze was tipping the heads of the grasses to and fro. In the distance, a small group of wapiti was grazing peacefully, likely appreciating the calm of the morning.
Hemming was sitting crosslegged in the grass, bent over a thick stick and holding a sharp rock tightly in his left hand. He had found a rock at the coast, and split it using another rock to get a sharp edge. It had taken a fair bit of time and much experimentation, but eventually he had a good technique figured out. One had to strike the stone in just the right place to get the rock to break along a fault, and a good amount of force was needed. Hemming was good at doing things in just the right way, but the application of force as well made it quite difficult for him. He had spent a lot less time finding the wood that he would use; the scattered forests were full of discarded branches that would be suitable.
Now that he had all his materials, he slowly and carefully scraped the bark off of a stick that was about the width of his finger, and started to smooth its surface. For his purposes, it was necessary to remove any notches in the wood; it would have to be perfectly smooth. Once he had a general rod shape scraped out, he place the piece of wood to his side and picked up a much thicker branch. It would be more difficult to do this part, because he needed a wide base and wasn't quite sure how easy it would be to remove some of the wood from the end of the branch. The natural round shape of the wood spared him from having to make it circular, at least.
The male sat, listening to the songs of the birds and enjoying the light wind that was ruffling through his fur, and worked away at trying to saw a piece about an inch thick off the bottom. It was, perhaps, a tedious task, but the flawless land around him made time slip by all the faster.
