Call Me MacGyver

After dropping another suitable stick to the ground, Amadeus paused to answer Ashiel's question and pick at the sap collecting on his hands. "What I lack in strength I make up for in technique. If you wedge the rock you're working on firmly between two other rocks, or in the hollow of a branch or something similar, and then use a harder rock to strike the one you're working on as hard as you can, you can chip at it little by little." It was hard to explain how he did it exactly. He was small and oftentimes the rocks were very, very heavy, but if he used just the right part on the "bashing" rock and hit the "catching" one at just the right angle, it worked.

Jupiter scooted close to Ashiel again so he could admire his handiwork. "Very good! I bet you'll be able to do both sides at once soon." Okay, time for the next step. "Next thing you gotta do is find two short little sticks about as fat around as a woolly worm." He selected two such sticks and showed them to Ashiel. Both sticks were straight, roughly 3 inches long, and devoid of nobs and offshoots.

"This part's also kinda hard 'cause the sticks don't want to work together, BUT the next step is easy, promise." Carefully he began to work one of the small sticks sideways down one of the splits with his teeth. Doing this divided the tines into two sets of two with one set held open and the other held together. He pushed the small stick down the split roughly seven inches before it would go no further. "The first stick goes in easy 'nough, but the second one will fight you."

He began to work the second stick into the second split sideways like he'd done the first. There was enough tension in the tines thanks to the first small stick that the second one was much hard to push down. It squeaked down the gap in uneven spurts and Jupiter found himself struggling the closer it got to the first stick, but finally the second one rested about an inch or so about the first one. All the tines were now held open. "There."

"Jupiter"   "Amadeus" ”You”