Solo To Build a House

[Alea Davenport]

The 31st of Fall, 512

The last thing Alea wanted to do that morning was to wake up. She could just barely tell that the ambient light was beginning to get brighter than pitch-black, which suggested that it would soon be sunrise. With sunrise came daylight, and with daylight came the working hours. Alea did not want to work, especially not this early. But Sharai had said they start as soon as they can see, and if the giant apes built Alea’s house without her, they might charge her money she didn’t have.

With a feeling so miserable it seemed like an apocalypse, she dragged herself agonizingly out of her bedroll. The warm fluffy fuzzball that was Tom sleeping beside her head did not make it any easier, but with a force of will she hardly knew she possessed, she forced herself into a sitting position. She sat there for a good several chimes, feeling only half awake and very sorry for herself, before finally managing to drag herself out of her tent and into her boots.

By the time she arrived at the site of her future house, Alea was feeling marginally more awake, enough to feel mildly confused and overwhelmed by the piles of funny-shapes logs. Sharai and her team were already there, and though no one said anything, Alea couldn’t help but feel like she was late. This did not put her in the most cheerful mood, but she decided she was here to build her house, not to worry about what Jamoura thought of her work ethic.

She stood around for a moment, wondering what she should be doing. Was she supposed to wait for instructions? Should she go up to Sharai and ask for something to do? Somehow Sharai seemed more intimidating giving instructions to her crew than she had when Alea was working on plans with her. Luckily for Alea, an older Jamoura called to Alea, saying, “You there, bring me that piece, will you?”

After looking around to make sure he wasn’t talking to someone else, Alea moved uncertainly toward the piles. She had no idea which piece the Jamoura was referring to, so she pointed to one at random and gave him a questioning sort of look. (It seemed she was still too nervous to try communicating out loud.) He shook his head and said, “No, the one closer to me.” Alea moved her hand. “To your left. No, sorry, my left. Up a bit, the one above--yes, that one.”

Alea’s hand rested on one of the least crazily shaped logs, but it still had bits sticking out of it that got caught on thee other logs when she tried to slide it out of the pile. She tried lifting it, but it was made of a particularly sturdy--and heavy--type of wood. After a bit of fussing she moved around the pile and tried lifting the log from the center rather than the end. It was still heavy, awkward, and unwieldy, but she found that if she could balance it well enough, it was possible to lift, and even disentangle it from the other logs. Without toppling the pile over, no less.

After slowly swinging the logs around away from the pile, she carried it over to the one who’d asked for it. Her arms were already starting to get tired; she hadn’t shoveled manure in ages, and holding onto the heavy log seemed to be using different, untrained muscles. Despite the burning sensation in her arms, she kept walking, perhaps a bit more quickly than was quite safe, dropping the log as soon as she was within the Jamoura’s reach, and panting heavily.

[Alea Davenport]

The Jamoura set the wooden beam in place and sent Alea for three more and a strong-smelling bucket of resin before it occurred to him to introduced himself as Groth. He showed her how the grooved on the ends of the pieces fit together, and told her where to spread the resin so that the pieces would stick together for all time. He held the beams steady so that she could focus on dealing with the resin, rather than trying to do it one handed, for which he was greatful. The bucket wasn't exactly stable, and trying to keep it from spilling while using the resin was harder than it looked.

Holding the top of the bucket with one hand, she used her other to slowly tip it from the bottom, so that the resin would slide out into the grooves of the desired beam. The resin fell from the bucket in thick glops, and Alea quickly righted the bucket, not wanting to make a mess. The last thing she wanted was to get that sticky stuff on her hands; who knew if it would ever come off? She looked up at Groth expectantly, waiting for further instructions.

Sadly, it seemed fate, in the form of Groth, had other plans. "Are you sure you want to leave it like that? It is your house, but I believe it will hold together better if you spread the resin evenly." Alea glanced around, wondering what she was supposed to spread the resin with. When Groth offered no suggestions, she realized with a dawning horror that she would just have to use her hands.

Part of her mind refused, drawing the line at getting covered in sticky, smelly gunk. But this house was to be hers, and she wanted it done right. This was the price she had to pay. She would just have to suck it up. These phrases were familiar; they were exactly what her mother told her every time Alea was forced to gut fish, a process possibly even more smelling and gross than this. She took a deep breath (pointing her nose away from the bucket as she did so), and with a wince, plunged her right hand into the resin she had dumped onto the branch, spreading it out evenly over the grooves.

When she was finished, Groth wordlessly took the beam and fit it onto place against another one, making sure the grooves lines up perfectly. He nodded to another set of grooves and said, "Now that one." This time, Alea just pulled handfuls of the resin out of the bucket and smeared it onto the wood. If she was already going to make one of her hands dirty, there was no reason to risk an even bigger mess. She could feel the resin hardening on her hands already, and whe wiggled her fingers just to make sure she'd still be able to move them when this was over.

The next beam was to go parallel right up against the first, which meant one whole edge had to be covered. Alea grimaced, trying to hold her breath against the smell. She worried that if she didn't go fast enough, the resin where she started would dry before she finished, so she splashed it on a little more sloppily than before. Groth said nothing, so either whatever she was doing was fine, or he was planning to blame it on her when she screwed everything up. She really hoped it was the former.

Soon they had used up all the beams Alea had carrier over before, and Groth sent her to fetch new ones. She set the resin bucket down and walked over to the pile, but when she got there, she hesitated. Her hand was still sticky from the resin, and if she touched a beam in a place resin wasn't supposed to go, it would be all sticky... She voices her concerns to Groth, but he waved them off. "The resin will dry hard and clear. If there is any where it shouldn't be, no one will notice, especially on the exterior of the house. You should not worry so much."

[Alea Davenport]

Alea, Groth, and the other Jamoura continued their work, doing much the same thing for the rest of the day. It wasn't until the daylight was beginning to wan that Alea started to get bored with the repetative nature of the task. Soon, Sharai called a halt, and Alea's shoulders slumped in relief. She rubbed and stretched at her sore muscles, not relishing how they would feel the next day. She helped Groth clean up, puitting all the empty resin buckets in a pile where someone else could do whatever it was one did with empty resin buckets. Her hands were so sticky...

She looked at the structure that was slowly forming. It was still skeletal, bearing only the outlines, but she could just make out that the outline sort of almost resembled a stag's head. She knew she and Groth could not have done all that by themselves. When she voiced her confusion, Groth chuckled. "The other Jamoura were working on the rest of the house."

Something felt suspicious to Alea. "Wouldn't they have had to use the resin as well?"

"Yes, of course," Groth answered.

"So then... if there's no reason a Jamoura can spread the resin, why did I have to do it?" She had thought that her having to suffer that horrible gunk was a necessity, that somehow she had to be the one to deal with sticky hands.

Groth tried to hide a grin, but Alea was not fooled. "Well, someone had to hold the beams steady and fit them together when you were done with the resin. Besides, that stuff sticks to my fur and takes forever to get out."

Alea was speechless, caught between being annoyed at having suffered unnecessarily and appreciating Groth's audactiy to use such a flimsy excuse on her of all people. She used to be so good at coming up with excuses to avoid doing unpleasant things. How had she managed to let this overgrown monkey pull one over on her like that?

Eventually, she just let out a grunt of disgust, and walked away to the sound of Groth's quiet chuckling, trying to rub the resin off her hands. All she succeeded in doing was to spread it around. None of it really came off. On closer examination, the damage was worse than she'd feared. She found spots of resin on her clothes, all down her arms and legs, and patches of the stuff hardening into her cloak. She grumbled, wondering if having her own house was really worth all this trouble.

[Capricious]

Alea Davenport

Award

Skill	XP Earned	Lore Earned
Observation	2	• I Have to Use My HANDS?!
Body Building	2	• Is it Really Worth It?
Construction	2	• I Helped Built the Structure of My Home

At sporadic spots throughout the thread, I did chuckle aloud… which earned several strange looks, but still! I find Alea’s reaction to the resin extremely amusing and adored Groth’s reasoning. I did give you the skill of body building for the lifting Alea did and using her muscles. For the next three days, Alea can expect to be sore. This can be lowered to one to two days by the use of herbs. The smell of resin will linger on Alea’s clothing for quite some time.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, please send me a PM and we can figure it out.