He was shyly proud of the house he had made with the help of his new friends. It was small cozy and a little weird unorthodox, but it was home in a way the rough lean-to in the jungle and the rented room in Haulani could never have been. There had been little to distinguish it from the rest of the jungle when he had led Rance to it except for the cleared area beneath a large rainforest matriarch of a tree, where he had built a rough worktable and areas for skinning game and tanning hides. About ten feet up, however, a rope ladder had been hooked to the side of the tree, and when he used his magic to nudge it free it led to a structure built into the arboreal giant's branches.
The ladder led to a trapdoor in the floor that opened to a room with a chair and table for reading or working, and a shelf with a few badly battered books. A curtain on one side separated it from the small kitchen, where a basin could be flushed with water from the water tank in the branches above and counters built into the walls gave places to prepare food. Beyond that was a semi-open space on the platform, almost a small porch, where another pipe to the reservoir allowed for quick showers, and a bar of lye soap was kept in a box. The other side of the living room was also separated by a curtain leading to a small sleeping room with a hammock strung between the walls.
The windows were large, some opening outwards and upwards, some opening in the middle, wooden shutters sturdy enough to keep beasts and weather out. There was no glass in them yet, only thinly woven screens to keep the bugs out, but the kept the air flowing during the day and the little house warm in the cooler evenings. The roof was made of thickly woven large palm leaves, overlapping to create a watertight surface that angled from the center of the tree down towards the tops of the walls so that the center of the rooms was peaked.
It was rough and rustic but it was Kel's and he had been glad to invite Rance to stay with him. His friend took up almost no space at night perched in his raven form, and the hunter had taken comfort from his friend's presence with the approach of the confusing LongNight.
And then it had arrived and it had been everything they had said... and nothing Kel was really prepared for.
Oh, he had candles stocked, and oil for the lanterns. He had strung a safety line of rope from his clearing to the edge of town so he could find his way through the pitch black jungle, but the overpowering darkness was emotionally exhausting and eerie as hell. He had finally suggested to Rance that they do something to burn off the nervous energy and had set up a ring of tiki torches around the little clearing at the tree's base. He stood there now, barefoot and wearing loose linen pants and a sleeveless top, grinning at his friend as he diligently stretched his arms and torso.
"Got any ideas for what to play?"
Rance
The ladder led to a trapdoor in the floor that opened to a room with a chair and table for reading or working, and a shelf with a few badly battered books. A curtain on one side separated it from the small kitchen, where a basin could be flushed with water from the water tank in the branches above and counters built into the walls gave places to prepare food. Beyond that was a semi-open space on the platform, almost a small porch, where another pipe to the reservoir allowed for quick showers, and a bar of lye soap was kept in a box. The other side of the living room was also separated by a curtain leading to a small sleeping room with a hammock strung between the walls.
The windows were large, some opening outwards and upwards, some opening in the middle, wooden shutters sturdy enough to keep beasts and weather out. There was no glass in them yet, only thinly woven screens to keep the bugs out, but the kept the air flowing during the day and the little house warm in the cooler evenings. The roof was made of thickly woven large palm leaves, overlapping to create a watertight surface that angled from the center of the tree down towards the tops of the walls so that the center of the rooms was peaked.
It was rough and rustic but it was Kel's and he had been glad to invite Rance to stay with him. His friend took up almost no space at night perched in his raven form, and the hunter had taken comfort from his friend's presence with the approach of the confusing LongNight.
And then it had arrived and it had been everything they had said... and nothing Kel was really prepared for.
Oh, he had candles stocked, and oil for the lanterns. He had strung a safety line of rope from his clearing to the edge of town so he could find his way through the pitch black jungle, but the overpowering darkness was emotionally exhausting and eerie as hell. He had finally suggested to Rance that they do something to burn off the nervous energy and had set up a ring of tiki torches around the little clearing at the tree's base. He stood there now, barefoot and wearing loose linen pants and a sleeveless top, grinning at his friend as he diligently stretched his arms and torso.
"Got any ideas for what to play?"
