Completed To Build A Home II

[Trevor Hightly]

Date: 56th of Summer
Time: Mid-Morning
Continued From Here

Randal packed his tools and axe back into his backpack. Trevor and the carpenter had spent the past hour and more in the jungle, sourcing wood for the building of the former's future home. The clearing that the two now inhabited was littered with both the rainforest's colorful jungle flowers and the felled bodies of almost a dozen trees laying atop them.

"Alright," Randal said, as he sealed his backpack--beside the bag there were two large spoils of rope, which the carpenter had previously removed from it. "We've got the rope and we've gotten the trees down, let's get those two things put together."

Trevor glanced up to the sun. Mizahar's glittering and bright, morning star had yet to reach the sky's zenith and was still working on rising fully up to it.

"Well, at least we have a lot of day left," Trevor commented.

Randal propped his backpack up against the large tree that the bag had been sitting against for most of the morning while the pair had been chopping down lumber.

"That's true, the cutting and hauling really aren't going to be the thing that takes the most time--that's going to be the building," Randal said, as he stood up from placing down his backpack.

"Let's start getting all the logs into a pile, eh?" Randal suggested.

Trevor looked at all the many trees that the pair had cut; he figured that moving all of them really shouldn't be too much of a struggle, none of the trees were too terribly large, they were more like wooden poles rather than being truly massive as most of Syka's fully grown and giant trees were.

"So," Trevor continued to gaze on at the fallen trees as he spoke, "where do you want them stacked?"

Randal followed Trevor's lead in surveying the landscape and waited a moment to reply to the younger man.

"Let's drag them over to here, so they're near the rope," Randal suggested after his pause.

"It's as good as any place," Trevor offered in good cheer.

Trevor took a step forward. "Okay, let's do it then."

The young man felt cooled sweat pooling and trickling down his ankles as he walked forward, tickling his flesh and hair as it slipped over them. His body was already beginning to cease its production of the perspiration that felling the trees had caused, but in Falyndar's warm and humid heat the water produced by Trevor's body was largely simply cooling to room temperature rather than truly evaporating from his flesh. He felt clammy and somewhat uncomfortable; a part of the young man even wanted to begin working hard again as to have sweat of a higher temperature covering his person--at least that would have felt more natural than his cooled perspiration clinging to his wet flesh.

Trevor crossed over the short bushes of the clearing and around the taller ones, finally making his way to the nearest of the felled trees on his right side. The tree was long but only about as thick as one's forearm. Trevor wrapped his hands around where it had been chopped through and pulled at the thick plant.

Seasonal Wordcount: 539 + 15,282 = 15,821

[Trevor Hightly]

Date: 56th of Summer
Time: Mid-Morning
Continued From Here

Trevor's body had been granted a moment's reprieve to speak with Randal and to recover from his work of felling the trees for his home. But now said body was working once more, as both he and the woodsman/carpenter did their best to drag and stack all of the trees that they felled.

Trevor pulled hard and strong, as he carried the fourth tree he'd dragged in a row to the pile of lumber that was quickly forming up beside Randal's backpack and spools of rope. The young man was doing his best to breathe deeply and to keep his lungs adequately stocked with air; it was not that the job of dragging trees was exactly a task that quickly robbed one of breath, but it was, however, a physically demanding one that slowly seeped one's reservoirs of strength and endurance.

Sweat spilled down Trevor's body, spiraling and intermingling under his clothing. As he worked to drag the trees through the jungle's lush growth and to keep them from getting stuck on the same, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever get used to Syka's heat. Riverfall was hot at times, but it was a heat that could be easily escaped in the city's many alcoves and with its river's cool bounty; Falyndar's heat, however, was much like the work of dragging trees in that it was a slow killer, but one that most assuredly seeped into a man, drained his energy, and baked his tired bones.

Heat aside, Trevor was in good spirits; the morning's work was seeming to go by fast enough, although it was feeling a bit more drawn out the wearier the young man's body became. Nonetheless, as he reached the pile of trees and stacked the short tree that he'd been dragging on top of it, the work of collecting the wood was quickly coming to a close.

Randal, meanwhile, was waiting by the wood pile for Trevor. The man had already collected the remainder of the trees that the pair had logged, leaving the wood that Trevor had been hauling to be the last contribution that was needed.

Trevor adjusted said tree and shifted it atop the pile of its kin, before standing up and drawing in a deep breath of the jungle's muggy and steamy air.

"Is that going to be enough?" Trevor inquired.

"For a simple house? It should be," Randal replied in the affirmative and seeming to take a bit of amusement from his companion's sweaty state. "You look tired."

Trevor laughed. "I'm sweaty, but I should live."

"So I guess we need to get it tied together?" he asked and glanced at the nearby rope that Randal had laid to the side earlier in the morning.

Seasonal Wordcount: 467 + 15,821 = 16,288

[Trevor Hightly]

Date: 56th of Summer
Time: Mid-Morning
Continued From Here

Randal's grizzled and rough hands grasped for the shorter and thinner of the two spools of rope that he'd laid out. The carpenter grabbed the top end of the rope and dragged it towards the middle of the wood pile, unspooling the rope in the process.

Trevor followed Randal, walking quietly beside him to see what the man might do.

Randal lifted the trees in the pile somewhat haphazardly and looped the rope he carried underneath the lumber, pulling it free to the other side of the stack. He then tugged a bit more on the hemp line and made sure a decent amount of rope had been run underneath the pile.

"You always have to make sure that you've got enough rope to tie everything off," Randal explained, while he drew a rather large hunting knife from a sheath at his side. "Carpentry, woodsmanship, I don't care what you're doing--always measure twice and cut once."

The carpenter leaned down to the side of his rope which was still connected the spool that it had come from.

"That has saved me a time or two--literally saved my life," Randal said.

The woodsman brought the blade of his knife to the rope he'd run under the trees and severed it from its spool.

"There was this one time, I was out in the Maw," Randal began to tell his story, as he sheathed his knife. "And there was a gulley, completely covered in vines and flowers. In that sea of green and undergrowth, most folks would have probably have taken it for flat ground... those folks wouldn't have survived the fall into that pit underneath the vines, it was far too deep a drop."

Trevor leaned down beside where the outdoorsman was pulling the two ends of the rope around the tree pile together.

"I'll be honest, I've never been out too deep into the wilds before recently," Trevor said. "I think caution is the only thing I'll have on my side, but I'm learning."

Randal paused.

"Anyone can learn, anyone--we're human, it's in our genes to survive and to thrive if we work hard enough," Randal said. "The world even caught fire and even then we refused to burn."

The way the outdoorsman spoke left Trevor feeling somehow more confident in himself; was it true that his mind and body were as naturally attuned to survival as any creature, somewhere deep, deep inside himself?

"Here, watch," Randal offered after a breath.

The carpenter indicated that he wanted Trevor to watch his hands, which were holding both ends of the rope he'd run under the tree pile. The man began to fold one end of the rope into a loop and then run and tie the other end through and around said loop.

Trevor followed the man's actions closely with his blue eyes.

"You pull the two ends of your rope past one another, and then you make a loop with one end and then the other, before pulling them through themselves," Randal explained, as he tied his knot.

The carpenter demonstrated the steps as he spoke, but stopped just short of completing his tying and undid his work.

"You try," Randal offered Trevor. "Knots can be almost as important as tools in the wilderness, really they are tools--and they can make other tools for you."

Trevor took the rope from the carpenter, eager to learn, but a bit worried to try in front of another person--his mind had always felt more flexible and plastic than his body or fingers.

"So around this here," Trevor said, as he and his hands tried to replicate the first step of what Randal had done with the rope.

Seasonal Wordcount: 622 + 16,288 = 16,910

[Trevor Hightly]

Date: 56th of Summer
Time: Mid-Morning
Continued From Here

Trevor's hands faired better than he had first expected that they might. The young man wrapped one end of the rope around the other, making a large loop, and then pulled said end through itself. He then did the same with the opposite end of the rope, making the same loop and forging another knot off to the side of the first.

"Yes, just like that -- and through again," Randal commented along, giving directions as Trevor did his best to replicate what the carpenter had done.

Trevor glanced up to Randal, having gone through all the steps of tying the knot that the man had demonstrated before he'd passed on the rope to his companion.

"Is that it?" Trevor inquired.

"Just pull the knots around themselves tight and then you're done with it. It should hold," Randal instructed.

Trevor did as he'd been told and pulled both of the knots that the steps Randal had shown him had led his hands to create. Now that the young man was done with his work, the rope that Randal had run under the woodpile was wrapped tightly around the lumber stack's trees and secured by a double set of knots that looked quite sturdy and strong.

"Thank you. Does that have a name?" Trevor inquired of the knot that Randal had shown him.

Randal gave the knots that Trevor had tied a testing tug with one of his hands, before replying to the young man.

"It's a double fisherman's knot," Randal replied. "Not really any good for fishing most of the time, but it's hard to find a better knot to hold two ends of a rope together -- or even two separate ropes together, if you need to connect them for whatever reason."

Trevor looked at his handywork. Before this day, he'd never chopped down a tree or tried to tie anything but the simplest of knots -- now he had done both of those things and more learning was to come. Syka was providing the man with a new start, a new chance, to be something and someone new. He didn't quite know who that someone was going to be yet, but he was becoming confident that he would someday soon.

Seasonal Wordcount: 383 + 23,619 = 24,002

[Trevor Hightly]

Date: 56th of Summer
Time: Mid-Morning
Continued From Here

Trevor and Randal made their way towards the front end of the stack of trees. The carpenter and latter of the two made sure to grab the thicker of the two ropes he'd brought out into the jungle -- and the one that wasn't already tied and fastened onto the small logs that the pair meant to haul.

"Alright, I've got one more I can show you -- at least before we start lashing this wood together into a frame later," Randal said, as the two rounded the tree stack.

The woodsman bent back down to one knee at the front of the timber and unspoiled his thick rope as he did so.

"This one is a bit harder to learn than the double fisherman, but it's just as worth it -- it'll help you drag just about anything that's round enough for you to tie a rope around and it's a sturdy knot," Randal explained.

"I'll watch," Trevor said and mirrored Randal by dropping down to one knee opposite from the carpenter, on the other side of the lumber that they were currently working with.

"This one starts differently than the other. It's called a timber hitch and leaves most of the rope left for you to hold onto and to pull your load with," Randal said. "This rope is a lot longer than the other one I brought anyway, though."

Randal started the act of tying the knot that he'd just described by making a single loop with the end of his rope and sliding it over the front of the logs.

"You wrap it through itself three times," Randal explained and did just as he was saying.

"Then you come up and through the loops that doing that makes with the rest of the rope," Randal said and continued to tie his knot. "Then all you have to do is wrap a bit of the rest of the rope around the logs about three times and you can pull on them as much as you'd like -- and thanks to the knot they'll come after you in a straight path."

For the second time, Trevor followed along with what Randal demonstrated.

"Do you want me to try this one too?" Trevor inquired after the man had finished his explanation and demonstration.

"You can," Randal replied.

"Here," the carpenter said as he went through the process of backtracking and untying his knot.

Once he had undone his own work, Randal offered his once again untied rope to Trevor. The young man took it and took a moment to shift the thick string in his grip, getting a feel for the weight of the heavy-duty chord.

Trevor didn't say anything as he started the timber hitch knot, unlike he had with the first. The timber hitch was perhaps a bit more complicated than the double fisherman's had been -- just as Randal had warned it to be -- and Trevor had to resort to picturing in his mind just what Randal had done before starting to try and tie the knot on his own.

To Trevor, it was somewhat odd the dichotomy and balance that existed between the physical, mental, and arcane realms and the skills which existed within each of these individual spheres. There was truly beauty, joy, and satisfaction to be found within the mundane, preternatural, and psychological worlds -- and not just in any one of these things. Trevor had always been more of an intellectual, but he could not help but feel that perhaps there were those things within the physical that a person needed just as much as they needed thoughts and ideas.

The young man enjoyed himself as he completed and mimicked the timber hitch knot that Randal had demonstrated to him before.

Randal grunted a bit of a mumble in approval.

"That looks strong enough, Trevor," the carpenter said. "What say we start getting back to your parcel? We've spent a good enough bit of the morning here already."

Both Trevor and Randal rose to stand.

"You know a lot about these woods. I would have thought they'd be pleasant for you," Trevor commented.

"They're a lot of things -- dangerous, expansive, mysterious, but yes, they're pleasant too in their way," Randal mused. "Still, there's work to be done -- and you need somewhere to lay your head, eh?"

Seasonal Wordcount: 24,002 + 733 = 24,735