Completed Uniting the Sea and the Land

Tazrae builds a dock.

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Syka is a new settlement of primarily humans on the east coast of Falyndar opposite of Riverfall on The Suvan Sea. [Syka Codex]

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Uniting the Sea and the Land

Postby Tazrae on September 26th, 2020, 5:29 pm

Timestamp: 40th of Fall, 520 A.V.


Tazrae woke up looking forward to the day. It was a day she'd been planning for a while. It was a combination of necessity and need. The Protea Inn needed a dock badly, not only to accommodate the Svefra that came and went from the settlement and overcrowded the main dock but for the visitors to have a nice place to fish.

Fishing was part of the draw of Syka. It was a sport that was popular and helped feed hungry mouths. And the dock off Swing Beach attracted big fish - groupers Mathias had called them - which hung around in the shade of what the fish must have decided were huge mangroves. The Innkeeper hoped a new dock for her place would do the same and attract big fish. Tazrae also looked forward to crab pots and lobster traps off the dock as well. It would be a super helpful source of food for her and her guests. After all, Tazrae wasn't opposed to cooking for the whole Settlement if they needed meals.

The young woman stretched out of her comfortably warm sheets and half sat up. She grunted for her legs were thoroughly pinned down by the half-grown pup that was sprawled at the foot of her bed. And naturally, her right foot was completely asleep. She loved waking up in Syka, though... big dogs and all. A breeze wafted through what constituted windows in Syka. Tazrae basically lived in an open-aired building that only became enclosed when storm shutters were closed and bound down tightly. The rest of the time, offshore breezes blew in during the night cooling the interior while onshore breezes did the same work during the day. Wildlife came and went, this time in the form of small jungle sparrows that were chirping on the window seal, pecking at the berries Tazrae had left there earlier in the form of an offering.

She could hear the lulling crash of the waves and the slight rustling of palm fronds and other vegetation scattered around The Protea. She slipped back the thin blanket and sheet, stretched, and laid her bare feet on the floor. The hardwood planks were warm, welcoming, and she smiled at the slowly lightening sky in the east.

The sunrise would be perfect.

It was such a beautiful morning. Tazrae skipped a morning shower because she was going to definitely get wet repeatedly today. And took a moment to walk out on the deck barefoot and still wrapped up in the oversized men's shirt she slept in. She rose on her tippy-toes and saw the growing pile of lumber Lars had kept delivering all week. They had eight big tie-off pilings poles, a huge pile of four by fours for the understructure. Then there were big hardwood planks after planks laid out for Tazrae to cut to size and nail on the understructure.

And then, there was Puk. Lars had promised the big guy would deliver the last load and what would be considered a huge crate of nails and big anchor rings that would affix the floating understructure of the dock to the tie-off pilings Puk was going to help drive. Taz looked forward to seeing her friend. He'd be bringing the last four biggest pilon logs for the end structure that Tazrae wanted to be covered. They would be enormously long poles to be driven into the sea and rise up high enough to hold up a roof.

She could already picture it. Tazrae closed her eyes and dreamed a moment.

Image


But there wasn't much time for dreams. As she waited for Puk, Tazrae went about her morning routine. She put fresh bread in the oven after starting the kitchen fires. Then she cooked breakfast for all the guests - porridge this time - with a great deal of fresh fruit and juice on the side. She also made pastries with apples from Riverfall and cinnamon from Lhavit.

Then she laid out the feast and visited with her guests, suggesting things for them to do all day. It wasn't until nine hours into the day that Puk was supposed to be there and they'd get started on the dock. Tazrae was excited as she went about her morning chores, caring for the chickens, feeding Creech, and seeing to her newest family member Bree. Bree namely took care of herself, but she was shy around the guests and liked to spend part of the day submerged in the sea or soaking in one of the streams. Tazrae didn't mind her coming and going. The settlement was getting used to the giant riding lizard too.

So everything was all but done and Tazrae was taking a break when the appointed hour rolled around. The Innkeeper waited for her new friend, hopeful that he hadn't forgotten or had gotten sidetracked.

Word Count: 802
Last edited by Tazrae on October 12th, 2020, 3:33 am, edited 2 times in total.
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
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Medals: 5
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Uniting the Sea and the Land

Postby Tazrae on October 11th, 2020, 3:29 pm

The bells ticked by and Puk never showed. The delay gave Tazrae time to set up the sawhorses she’d used on building her decks and to lay out all her tools. She even premeasured and used her miter box to start to pre-cut planks for the top of the dock. She’d need so very many of them that it was good for her not to waste her time waiting. When she had more than enough planks for her deck boards, Tazrae began to cut her rim joists out of the larger timber. S

he laid the deck out using big rocks to form where the posts would be and instead of extending the dock out into the water, she extended it up the bank the opposite way so she could visualize the whole thing backward and make the correct cuts. She used exactly twenty rim joists per side and connected them to two ledger boards across the front and back. Then, she began to cut the intermediate joists which would fit between the rim joists at four-foot intervals to make it strong.

From there she cut all the noggins that would space out the intermediate joists from the rim joists and act as spacers. It was hard work and a lot of pulling on her saw, but she didn’t let it stop her. Tazrae understood Syka having lived here a few seasons now. If she wanted something, such as a dock, she had only herself to depend on to get it. All others aside, in the end, it was herself and herself alone that she could count on. So the Innkeeper cut wood until her back ached, her muscles burned and laid all those cuts out on the sand without fasteners since that was what she was waiting for delivery on.

As the afternoon grew late, Taz had most of the deck cut out. It was just simply not assembled. She was glad to get the subframe cut out, laid out, and waiting for it ate a bunch of her project time that she could just get busy with once she somehow got the tie-off pilings put in.

In fact, she was taking a break, sweating hard, when she noticed two figures coming up the beach walking with an Ashta Cart between them. Tazrae had worried, fretted, and was finally relieved when she saw the remainder of her lumber being pulled down the beach full of the rest of the supplies she needed to finish the dock and the fasteners that were required to nail the wood together. Neither figure was Puk though. Instead, Lars and Duncan walked with a young elephant and stopped shy of the high tide mark to begin to unload her crate after crate of fasteners. There were nails, screws, bolts, and a whole host of things Tazrae would need to complete the project.

She met the men with a smile, shook both their hands in turn, and listened quietly while Lars explained Puk had gotten busy elsewhere and would not be making it. The Innkeeper nodded, understanding that things came up, and glanced at her pile of tie-off pilings and then at the water stretching out into the sea. “How do I get the tie-off pilings driven then? I was counting on his brute strength to carry them out and drive them deep.” She admitted, disappointed but not deterred.

Duncan smiled. “That’s where I come in. I might be blind but if you guide me, I’ll set them exactly where you want them, Taz.” The big Svefra mage said lightly. “I have ways of seeing.” He added, offering her a sightless grin.

Word Count: 602
Last edited by Tazrae on October 11th, 2020, 3:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
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Uniting the Sea and the Land

Postby Tazrae on October 11th, 2020, 3:35 pm

Taz nodded, glanced at Lars, then pointed outwards. “If you see where the end of my layout of wood stops well above the waterline, there are stones staggered to either side after two large stones at the very beginning. Those two will be my footers, then every other side gets a tie-off pilings until we go thirty feet out and there are four tie-off pilings together where we are going to drive the four longer tie-off pilings. These are all twenty-foot tie-off pilings but the last four are forty foot. The water level here averages fifteen to twenty feet at the deepest. I want a ten-foot clearance for a covered area at the end. So we need to drive these tie-off piling four out there, two up here then staggered every other side on the way out. If we stagger them, it leaves room for a fairly significant sized ship to tie up to just the dock where I add cleats too. You did bring my cleats?” Taz added to Lars, who had picked up her order of fasteners from the smith along with bringing the last four overlong tie-off pilings.

“We brought it all.” Lars added, then walked to Duncan and the two men discussed strategy for a moment or two.

“It’s a solid plan.” Duncan praised, then nodded to himself. The man had built the water area where most of the city bathed and did their laundry so he was no stranger to swimming. In fact, Tazrae knew him from taking lessons there herself. She liked the mage though she had no idea how one blind stranger was going to sink all her tie-off piling safely and easily.

She shouldn’t have worried. As soon as Duncan and Lars finished their conversation, the mage lifted his hands and began concentrating. One after another, as if the tie-off piling were light as a feather, they began to float up from their pile in delicate order and marched across the sky as if carried by invisible workers. They turned straight up and down and once they positioned themselves over where Tazrae’s marker rocks were, the sand and land beneath them opened up and the tie-off piling slid in almost soundlessly. Once set at the level Lars indicated was a good one at Duncan’s side, the land closed tight over the tie-off piling and they were driven in.

Tazrae watched the mage work with her jaw slack. She’d been taught all her life that magic was evil and that it corrupted those who used it, but there was a clear cut example of someone using magic to ease the burden of the world around them without any sign of the corruption stories often told her about. The tie-off pilings kept rising, floating into position, then slipping themselves into the solid sand and earth beneath as easily as Stu would slip a reed straw into an alcoholic beverage before passing it to a customer. The Innkeeper was amazed because it wasn’t more than half a bell that all her tie-off pilings stood tall firmly rooted in the ground… her pair of footers, her staggered supports out to what would be an open-aired end-of-a dock palapa for her guests to fish from.

And when he was done, Duncan sat back, brushed sweat off his forehead, and shook his head. “Easy does it. That should help you get started and no elephant has to wade into the water and pound sand.” He said, as something of a joke.

Tazrae wasn’t shy about offering him a hug nor Lars. Then she invited both men to drop by for food at the Inn anytime they wanted too on the house. Taz had no idea how much she owed Duncan in trade, for he’d turned a huge project into an easy half bell’s work.

Word Count: 627
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
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Medals: 5
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
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Syka Seasonal Challenge (1)

Uniting the Sea and the Land

Postby Tazrae on October 12th, 2020, 3:30 am

Before Duncan and Lars left, Tazrae was sure to hand Lars a bag of coin. The dock’s material cost was 500 gold mizas, and there was no way he could eat that much food. She paid him straight out and let the offer of meals at the Inn stand for his trouble and for delivering Duncan to her which saved her a lot of work – impossible work really – that she could not do on her own.

Puk had been her other option, but she was glad there were multiple opportunities to get things done. Tazrae was also glad that so much time had passed the tide was going out and the depts were manageable to hang the shackle bolts around the tie-off pilings so she could at least get that sorted out. So, she did, when Lars and Duncan left her to it. Only Bree was left, splashing into the shallows with her. The young Innkeeper laughed as she fastened the metal shanks around the pilings, providing a place for her to anchor the rim joists. She had them neatly laid out so it was nothing to use the new fasteners to nail the joists together.

The work was hard, building a frame, but not one solid piece. She had to do it in sections because she was just one woman… a small woman at that. Tazrae wasn’t a strong woman, not by a long shot, but she did have a good head on her shoulders. She took it one nail at a time. The nails were long with broad heads. Each one took real effort to pound into place. Truth be told it was grueling work.

She switched arms often and it took her not bells to build the sections of frame but days. She pounded four nails on each joint for the rim joists were made from 6x2’s. Once she had the basic rectangular shape done on each form, she added the intermediate joists connected to the noggins that acted as spacers. The intermediate joists ran lengthwise up the dock pieces, every foot, with the noggins running parallel every three feet.

Once she got an entire section together, she waded out and attached it to the anchor shackles that held the piece in place. Once that section was completed, she worked on another leaving off the end rim joist that faced out into the water. Then, once that backbreaking labor was done, and another section completed, she floated it out with Bree’s help and stood in the water to hammer one section to the other using the end she left open.

It didn’t take bells. It took days. Time passed and Tazrae devoted her late mornings and early afternoons to the task. She ended up building the dock in two sections. One, the vast majority of the dock, was floating and attached to the shackle bolts via the pilings. The second was fixed to the shore and two pilings Duncan had set deeply there. One section – the fixed – lead out to the other and gave the dock flexibility to rise and fall with the tide.

Tazrae got better at building. It couldn’t be helped. She was the only one on the project besides her animals and that meant she had to be the brains.

Word Count: 546
Last edited by Tazrae on October 12th, 2020, 3:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
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Medals: 5
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
Syka Seasonal Challenge (1)

Uniting the Sea and the Land

Postby Tazrae on October 12th, 2020, 3:32 am

Bree helped quite a bit as the girl was able to get the sentient Ixam to hold the sections steady as she joined them. Then, once all the frames were done and floated in place, Tazrae was able to start using the pre-cut planking to nail down the actual dock planks. That was by far faster work than the sections had been, though it required far more nails.

Taz sank a nail into each intermediate joist as the board crossed, then affixed the end of the boards to the rim joists. The girl felt like she was on her knees forever, pounding in nails, over and over. She made sure the work was balanced, so she wasn’t consistently driving nails with one arm and neglecting the other. She switched off every other board. She left the beach each and every afternoon, then a shorter stint in the evening with her arms aching from the strain. But after five days… she had the dock assembled and the piece attached to the land leading down to the dock done as well. All she had left to do was roof the palapa on the very end of the dock.

The next step was challenging for Tazrae. It meant trips to the fringe of the jungle to find bamboo poles. She needed sixteen foot poles, two of them, and then a pair of twelve foot poles to make the square frame. Then she needed another sixteen-footer to make the peek of the roof, and many many eight foot poles.

She was lucky to have Bree.

Without the Ixam able to drag the poles like a draft horse down the cobbled pathway… or without the patch of bamboo she could harvest from by the Isuas fields… there’d have been no hope for her to acquire what she needed. Then she had to buy enough twine at the mercantile and them climb the taller ten-foot sections of pilings at the end of the dock. Bree’s back came in handy there.

Tazrae stood on the flexible lizard to notch and bind the bamboo into a square frame… then stood on that square frame to create the peak. She ran the roofline with another sixteen-foot pole and connected it to the frame with alternating rafters forming the trusses. Then she squared up the whole thing with a king post with a pair of struts on either side forming a Y. That took two more full days of climbing and nailing more bamboo together.

Another two days, the pair gathered palm fronds. Bree was gifted at climbing the bigger trees and stripping the dried fronds off the trees and tossing them playfully down to Tazrae. The Innkeeper hauled load after load of fronds off to the dock, leaving them in large pile at the entrance to the dock until she had enough to thread them into the roof.

Then, that final day she spent that day getting boosts up from Bree to weave the fronts into a roof that would provide both shade and protection from the rain for those working on the edge of the dock. People could fish, throw traps, and tie up their casinors and small boats easily enough. Tazrae could even get one of her own and have plenty of room to tie it off once the palapa was done.

A finishing touch was a simple plank table that she added to the back corner that was big enough to clean fish, and a bench she bartered from Randal which she added to the very center of the palapa for those that wanted to watch the sun set.

It took her a great deal of the season, but when it was done, it was something she’d built and something she was certainly proud of.


Word Count: 629
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 5
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
Syka Seasonal Challenge (1)

Uniting the Sea and the Land

Postby Tazrae on April 27th, 2021, 2:38 am

Tazrae-

Planning +5, Carpentry +5, Construction +5, Body Building +5, Endurance +3, Leadership +2, Architecture +5

Planning: Providing Habitat To Lure Fish, Planning: Providing Moorage for Bigger Ships, Magic: Can Be Used To Build, Carpentry: Planning and Building A Dock, Endurance: Pacing A Project To Get A Big Job Done, Reimancy: Setting Pilings Without Pounding Sand, Architecture: Designing A Dock To Suit One’s Needs, Architecture: Designing A Palapa, Architecture: Designing A Roof, Carpentry: Building A Palapa, Leadership: Guiding Workers In A Conceptualized Plan

Expense: 500 Gold Mizas
Image
"A mark of an open mind is being more committed to your curiosity than your conviction.
The goal of learning is not to shield old views against new facts, but to revise old views with new facts.
Ideas are possibilities to explore, not certainties to defend."


Garden Beach Syka The Protea Inn

"Listen to the wind, it talks. Listen to the silence, it speaks. Listen to your heart, it knows."
User avatar
Tazrae
Be savage, not average.
 
Posts: 1335
Words: 1916653
Joined roleplay: May 3rd, 2020, 2:02 pm
Location: Syka
Race: Human
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Journal
Plotnotes
Medals: 5
Mizahar Grader (1) Overlored (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
Syka Seasonal Challenge (1)


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