Hotaru ‘s flirtation sparked conflicting feelings of mistrust and amused pleasure in the bard. Mistrust, for the blight was very, very good at making even the words of allies feel like insults, and she was still a stranger. Pleasure, for the positive attention was welcome, even if it brought up the nostalgic memories of Edrei’s flirtations with him over his first seasons on Caido. ”I hope that I will be able to greet you in better state next time as well, lady Hotaru,” he murmured sincerely. Even her attitude as she tried to order them about was reminiscent of Edy, though without the vulgarity that would have accompanied such a statement, and some of the bard’s temper shifted towards melancholy as the blight fed and amplified his darker emotions, regardless of their source.
Not wanting anyone to waste magic needlessly when they might need it for fighting off some of Caido’s less friendly beasties, Jigano had intended for them to chop trees down the old-fashioned way. He had thought they would simply find good trees, call each other over, knock them down, and drag each tree back between the four of them. He had planned on using his horse form to add a little muscle to the proceedings and knew that Deimos was plenty strong enough to shift heavy things alongside him. With Hotaru and Loren to smooth the path ahead and guide them around obstacles, and the snow to more easily slide the trunks over, he had thought they would be able to manage things fairly efficiently.
He should have been less caught up in his blight-fueled brooding and more clear in his plans, perhaps.
”The wheels will sink into the snow,” he’d said quietly to Deimos, once he realized what the Sword was doing with the carts. ”In this season we’ll want runners on them. Sledges, to glide over the snowpack. Snow shoes so we don’t sink as well trying to pull them, and harnesses rather than handles, so we can get our full strength into the hauling.” His home of Numeria had been largely flat, a tundra to the north, and Jigano had helped his father drag his forge-wares to market in the winter on such sledges his entire childhood. The chill was still in his voice, but it was a few degrees warmer than the ice at the Sanctuary as he saw how Deimos was not merely present, but actively trying to help.
As they parted ways he missed Deimos’s transformation, and Loren heading off alone. The bard went his own way, walking the familiar Woods at a slight angle from Hotaru and trying to remember where he had seen a perfect crossbeam bole…
The sounds of axes rang out through the quiet winter woodland and the bard paused to groan. No one had called out that they’d found a tree. Not one. They were going to end up with posts of different thicknesses and woods at this rate, each pursuing their own separate find without communication, and he gave up his own search to jog towards the source of the noise and see what was going on.
Two sources of chopping had already stopped by the time he found the closest; Hotaru was hard at work, and he paused to catch his breath before approaching. ”It looks like a sturdy pine,” he said approvingly. ”Shall I start weakening the other side? It should go down faster with both of us making a dent in it.” Indeed, beneath his heavy cloak and loose sleeves the bard was lean and lacked Deimos’s obvious strength. Combined with the shaking of his blight-stricken hands, he looked like he needed help more than Hotaru did. If the lady was kind enough to agree, he would set to work with his own axe, the two of them falling into a steady rhythm that soon had the tree falling towards a clearing with a creak, a groan, and a thunderous crash into the snow.
Loren ’s chopping had been first and loudest, with the ogre’s strength backing the axe. The metal cut into the wood far more easily than the mage might have guessed, sinking deep and having to be muscled back with each swing. Though his summoned beast was by far the most efficient at taking down a living tree, luck was not on the mage’s side. As the tree toppled the odor of decay pervaded the area around the cut ends of the bole, revealing heartwood gone black with rot. With no leaves in winter to reveal how far the disease had progressed it had been invisible on the outside, but the tree he was dragging back to the edge of the Woods would likely crumble under the weight of the crossbeam, or the Sparkbird herself.
Deimos had picked a tree that was only recently fallen and may have been sound, but it was also still inhabited. As his axe impacted the tree an angry hooting came from a hole towards the top of the trunk, though it now lay propped up by some of the smaller trees the fallen giant had taken with it. A great horned owl burst from the cavity in a flurry of wings and feathers and she dove at Deimos’s head with murder in her large golden eyes and sharp talons while a second tufted head poked out of the hole in concern for his mate, one wing held against his body at an awkward angle.
Jigano joins Hotaru and they manage to fell a tree! Time to start taking those branches off so it can be dragged back.
Loren(‘s ogre) chops a tree down, but his luck (roll) wasn’t with him and the tree is rotten!
Deimos finds a good tree, but it’s already in use and he's attacked by an angry Great Horned Owl!
Post Order:
1. Deimos
2. Loren
3. Hotaru
Not wanting anyone to waste magic needlessly when they might need it for fighting off some of Caido’s less friendly beasties, Jigano had intended for them to chop trees down the old-fashioned way. He had thought they would simply find good trees, call each other over, knock them down, and drag each tree back between the four of them. He had planned on using his horse form to add a little muscle to the proceedings and knew that Deimos was plenty strong enough to shift heavy things alongside him. With Hotaru and Loren to smooth the path ahead and guide them around obstacles, and the snow to more easily slide the trunks over, he had thought they would be able to manage things fairly efficiently.
He should have been less caught up in his blight-fueled brooding and more clear in his plans, perhaps.
”The wheels will sink into the snow,” he’d said quietly to Deimos, once he realized what the Sword was doing with the carts. ”In this season we’ll want runners on them. Sledges, to glide over the snowpack. Snow shoes so we don’t sink as well trying to pull them, and harnesses rather than handles, so we can get our full strength into the hauling.” His home of Numeria had been largely flat, a tundra to the north, and Jigano had helped his father drag his forge-wares to market in the winter on such sledges his entire childhood. The chill was still in his voice, but it was a few degrees warmer than the ice at the Sanctuary as he saw how Deimos was not merely present, but actively trying to help.
As they parted ways he missed Deimos’s transformation, and Loren heading off alone. The bard went his own way, walking the familiar Woods at a slight angle from Hotaru and trying to remember where he had seen a perfect crossbeam bole…
The sounds of axes rang out through the quiet winter woodland and the bard paused to groan. No one had called out that they’d found a tree. Not one. They were going to end up with posts of different thicknesses and woods at this rate, each pursuing their own separate find without communication, and he gave up his own search to jog towards the source of the noise and see what was going on.
Two sources of chopping had already stopped by the time he found the closest; Hotaru was hard at work, and he paused to catch his breath before approaching. ”It looks like a sturdy pine,” he said approvingly. ”Shall I start weakening the other side? It should go down faster with both of us making a dent in it.” Indeed, beneath his heavy cloak and loose sleeves the bard was lean and lacked Deimos’s obvious strength. Combined with the shaking of his blight-stricken hands, he looked like he needed help more than Hotaru did. If the lady was kind enough to agree, he would set to work with his own axe, the two of them falling into a steady rhythm that soon had the tree falling towards a clearing with a creak, a groan, and a thunderous crash into the snow.
Deimos had picked a tree that was only recently fallen and may have been sound, but it was also still inhabited. As his axe impacted the tree an angry hooting came from a hole towards the top of the trunk, though it now lay propped up by some of the smaller trees the fallen giant had taken with it. A great horned owl burst from the cavity in a flurry of wings and feathers and she dove at Deimos’s head with murder in her large golden eyes and sharp talons while a second tufted head poked out of the hole in concern for his mate, one wing held against his body at an awkward angle.
Jigano joins Hotaru and they manage to fell a tree! Time to start taking those branches off so it can be dragged back.
Loren(‘s ogre) chops a tree down, but his luck (roll) wasn’t with him and the tree is rotten!
Deimos finds a good tree, but it’s already in use and he's attacked by an angry Great Horned Owl!
1. Deimos
2. Loren
3. Hotaru
