Gathering stone felt closer to hunting than crafting did. Observation, patience, understanding what would hold and what would fail long before weight was ever placed on it ere all things the Sentinel was used to. He moved slowly, testing each rock with his boot before bending to lift it, feeling for hidden fractures and the subtle imbalance that would betray instability later. A stone could look solid and still crumble under pressure. Faith, he’d learned, worked much the same way.
@Nina’s progress drew his attention first. She had an eye for selecting pieces with enough weight to anchor the base, their surfaces worn just enough to nest together without sliding apart. Noah gave a brief nod as he set one of her finds beside the growing pile, approval quiet but genuine. Her patience must have been forged by all of her years of training beneath her grandmother. “Those will hold,” he said, "good foundation pieces."
Erebos, meanwhile, had gathered a scatter of smaller stones that would serve well as bracing pieces, but his focus drifted the moment movement caught the corner of his vision. The ningos darted across the snow in quick, erratic bursts before settling in, and Noah watched the distraction settle in before it fully carried the young man away from the task. Leaving what he had gathered with Nina, he approached the young Ignatius without urgency, but with intent.
“The ningo will still be here when we’re done,” Noah said, crouching to pick up one of the smaller rocks Erebos had dropped. “These altars won’t build themselves, and the smaller stones you’re finding are what keep the larger ones Nina and I have, and the blue goldstone, from shifting once the storms come.”
His gaze softened, but did not waver, and he gave the youth a supportive smile as he helped guide him back towards the next task at hand: beginning to built an altar.
Round 2! Begin building the altar.
@Nina’s progress drew his attention first. She had an eye for selecting pieces with enough weight to anchor the base, their surfaces worn just enough to nest together without sliding apart. Noah gave a brief nod as he set one of her finds beside the growing pile, approval quiet but genuine. Her patience must have been forged by all of her years of training beneath her grandmother. “Those will hold,” he said, "good foundation pieces."
Erebos, meanwhile, had gathered a scatter of smaller stones that would serve well as bracing pieces, but his focus drifted the moment movement caught the corner of his vision. The ningos darted across the snow in quick, erratic bursts before settling in, and Noah watched the distraction settle in before it fully carried the young man away from the task. Leaving what he had gathered with Nina, he approached the young Ignatius without urgency, but with intent.
“The ningo will still be here when we’re done,” Noah said, crouching to pick up one of the smaller rocks Erebos had dropped. “These altars won’t build themselves, and the smaller stones you’re finding are what keep the larger ones Nina and I have, and the blue goldstone, from shifting once the storms come.”
His gaze softened, but did not waver, and he gave the youth a supportive smile as he helped guide him back towards the next task at hand: beginning to built an altar.
Round 2! Begin building the altar.
If this is all the love my spirit can give
Just take it back tonight
