Hayoon took a look.
As a werebeast, Minho naturally was not especially skilled at delicate work like this.
His work was not as refined as Immo's and the others', but it was still much better than Hayoon's.
"They are pretty good. They can be used for storing food or water."
"Mm," Minho said. "Then if these fire successfully, I will give them to you."
Hayoon froze. "But I am still making my own... do you not want them?"
"The open fired batch from last time can still be used for a while."
Hayoon was about to refuse again when Minho added, "Once we bring them back, we will be using them together anyway."
That was true.
Hayoon stopped refusing his kindness and smiled brightly. "Alright then. I will just pretend I made them myself!"
Everyone was gathered in the open area not far from the kiln shaping pottery blanks, and many nearby people overheard their conversation.
While lowering her head to finish the pottery blank in her hands, Immo said, "Hayoon, wait a bit. After I finish this one, I will make a couple for you too."
Beom and Jinsan's pottery attempts were honestly hopeless, so even though they wanted to help, they were powerless.
Chief Baek's pottery actually looked fairly decent, but his age made his eyes tire quickly after shaping only two pieces.
At the moment, he was standing nearby watching Chorong and the others load firewood into the kiln.
Hayoon smiled gratefully at Immo. "Thank you, Auntie."
Seeing this, Ahri's eyes turned thoughtfully.
She picked up one of the pottery blanks she had already finished and placed it in front of Hayoon.
"Hayoon, this one is for you."
Hayoon froze and quickly tried to stand up. "Ah, I really cannot accept that."
Ahri waved her hand for Hayoon to stay seated and said seriously, "There is not enough time today. The kiln has to be fired before dark, otherwise you could slowly shape your own pottery. Since we already promised that you could take away whatever pottery you made, we cannot let you end up with too little. That would make our tribe seem too stingy."
Afraid Hayoon would refuse again, Ahri hurriedly added, "Anyway, do not try giving it back to me. Even if you do, I will not take it!"
Then she immediately ran off.
Hayoon watched Ahri's retreating figure and could not help laughing helplessly.
"Thank you!"
Ahri turned back with a grin and waved her hand.
After Ahri took the lead, more and more people from the Voz-Karr Tribe came over one after another, each giving Hayoon one or two pottery blanks they had shaped themselves.
One of them was even a werebeast.
Hayoon had noticed him during the meal earlier, though the two of them had not spoken.
Without saying much, he quietly brought over the best pottery blank he had made and placed it beside Hayoon before giving her a cool nod.
Hayoon looked up and thanked him, only to notice that even his ears had turned red.
After the werebeast left, Hayoon seemed to sense something and instinctively looked up, directly meeting Minho's deep gaze.
For some reason, she suddenly felt awkward and subconsciously touched her nose.
Feeling the cool clay on her nose, she finally remembered that her hands were dirty.
She hurriedly wiped it with her relatively cleaner wrist, though she had no idea whether she actually cleaned it properly.
Thanks to everyone's help, when they finally counted the pottery blanks, Hayoon had unexpectedly become one of the "major pottery owners" with a total of forty three pieces.
While moving the pottery blanks, Hayoon noticed that most of the Voz-Karr Tribe members had already left as if it were completely normal.
The ones remaining behind were probably the tribe's core leadership.
It seemed the structure of the pottery kiln was kept secret from most ordinary tribe members.
The people from the Ur-Shet Tribe followed Chorong and the others back into the kiln and carefully learned once more about the correct arrangement of pottery blanks.
After everything was prepared, everyone exited the kiln, and Chorong signaled for the fire to be lit.
The flames rose fiercely.
Even standing outside, Hayoon could feel waves of heat rushing toward her face.
Mm.
Chorong really had not been exaggerating.
This kiln truly consumed an incredible amount of heat.
"Alright, I left two people here to keep watch. Let us head back first."
Covered in ash and dirt after a full day of work, Chorong clapped his hands and called out to the equally filthy group.
Immo asked, "Will it keep burning until tomorrow morning?"
"More or less," Chorong replied while walking. "After the firing is done, we still need to wait for the kiln to cool enough before opening it. Even at the fastest, it will probably be tomorrow afternoon. We can all come together then."
He pointed toward the right. "There is a river over there. I am planning to wash up."
Beom immediately said, "Me too. I am covered in sweat, and I need to wash my clothes as well."
In the end, everyone agreed to wash up first before returning to the tribe.
The river was not very far away, so nobody transformed into beast form.
They simply walked there quickly.
A crescent moon had already risen above the treetops, casting bright silver light across the land and reflecting softly over the flowing river.
The river that was dozens of meters wide stretched across the earth like a shining ribbon, both majestic and beautiful.
The werebeast consciously headed toward the downstream area, while Hayoon and the other sub-werebeast stayed upstream.
Without much hesitation, Hayoon dove straight into the river and swam several laps back and forth first.
Afterward, everyone thoroughly enjoyed washing themselves and also removed their clothes to scrub them carefully.
Once her body was soaked, Hayoon took out a piece of sulfur soap from her storage space and rubbed it over her hair, arms, and chest until foam quickly formed.