• Solo • Burning out a Trough

[Jachiel]

14 Zi'da 716

Jachiel halted his ox at the agreed meeting spot halfway between his own farm and the other farmer's farm, and walked back to unhitch the log that the ox had been dragging. The other farmer, a grizzled, solidly built man called Arik, showed up a few bits later, also alone, also bringing a log. He nodded a greeting, unhitched his log, and led his ox off to the side where it could graze on what grass was left at this point in the arc. Jachiel did the same, then came back to help Arik roll the logs over and check them for knots. It took both of them, and Jachiel began to understand what Arik had meant when he said that this was a two person job, and since they both worked alone and needed new water troughs, they might as well make them together. Knots, he gathered, were a bad thing, and if left on the underside of the log would result in holes in the resulting trough. Finally, Arik got both logs positioned to his satisfaction and stepped back. "Right," he said, "time to start a fire."

"I can do that," Jachiel replied, reaching for his own fire starting kit. He pulled out flint and steel and tinder, cleared a patch of ground, and began to lay out a fire. He arranged things so that he could strike sparks one handed, then struck sparks into his tinder until it caught. He slid it under the A-frame of the fire he had laid, added tiny pieces of kindling, and blew until the fire grew enough to be self-maintaining to a certain extent.

Meanwhile, Arik had pulled out an auger that looked like a giant corkscrew and was pacing the length of each log in order to measure where to drill holes. Jachiel watched, trying to absorb and memorise as much of what he saw as he could. Arik was the expert in this, after all. Arik didn't leave Jachiel hanging around for long, but sent him clambering up on top of the log and handed him a bit of chalk, then pointed out where to mark the log. Jachiel put his cold hand on the log and half jumped, half scrambled up. The log rocked under him, and he knelt slowly, trying to let either the log or his flapping bad arm send him off balance. He marked the log, then had to crawl shakily along it to make the other marks as Arik paced and pointed. It was a relief to jump down when he reached the end, but that only lasted long enough to feed the fire. Then he was climbing up onto the other log to do the same task there. The cold bit through his clothes as he worked, and the fire wasn't close enough to make any difference. When he finished the second log, he took a moment to thaw out a little and make sure that the fire had enough fuel to create plenty of coals for later.

[Jachiel]

He was still chilled when he had to return to the log. This time, he needed a more secure pose than kneeling on top of the rocking log. He considered the options for a moment, then mounted it like a bareback horse, and gripped it with his knees. Taking the auger in his hand, he set the point against the first of the chalk marks and twisted it. It skidded sideways and he flinched, trying to stop it from hitting his leg. He set it back on the chalk mark and pushed down as much as round. This time the auger bit into the wood and slowly chewed a narrow hole down into the log. He hauled it out again, brushed the shavings away with the back of his hand, and shuffled foward to the next chalk mark. This time he was ready for the auger tip's desire to skitter off the wood rather than bite into it, and it didn't get nearly as close to biting into him as it had the first time. He repeated the actions for each of the marks and his hand and arm ached with a strain that grew fiercer with each mark and each hole. He was immensely relieved to reach the end of the log, climb down, and hand the auger over to Arik, who clambered onto the second log and began drilling holes in the marks there.

Jachiel flexed his fingers, shook out his hand and his arm, and rubbed it against his leg in lieu of being able to rub the aching muscles with his other hand. The cold didn't help of course, and there was no real way he could linger at the fire while Arik did all the work. The other man must surely be just as cold and sore as he was himself. Instead, he held his hand out to the fire until chill and the aching subsided enough that he could use it almost as usual. Then he turned back towards the logs.

Arik had almost finished and was using both hands on opposite ends of the handle to lever the auger around as it drilled its holes rather than a single hand on top of the handle. Jachiel waited until he climbed down and then took the auger while Arik went, in his turn, to thaw out. The next stage was going to take both of them. Once they were both ready to deal with the Zi'da cold again Arik took the auger back. Jachiel braced his hand and body against the first of the logs to steady it while Arik drilled a matching hole into the side of the log. As well as holding it steady, Jachiel also had to watch down the vertical holes until the tip of the auger appeared, and the pair of holes connected up to make a miniature L-shaped chimney. The wood rocked slightly as Arik worked, despite Jachiel trying to hold it still. The movement made it harder to watch down the hole, and he almost missed the auger the first tme it appeared.

[Jachiel]

When all the side holes had finally been drilled, both Jachiel and Arik straightened with a sigh of relief and made for the fire. This time though, the thawing was only brief, and then they dismantled the fire to get at the embers and coals in its heart. Jachiel dropped a small coal down one of the holes in his log, blowing gently and feeding it with wood shavings from the piles created by drilling the holes, until it gained enough strength to burn the wood that surrounded it. He repeated the process on the next hole, and the next, and the next, until they were all alight, and tiny plumes of smoke rose from every hole-chimney. Behind him, Arik did the same with his log.

Then all that was left was the waiting. The oxen had settled side by side on the ground and at least one was chewing the cud. Jachiel picked up a stick and scraped the remains of the fire back together, tossed the stick on to burn, and followed the oxen's example. Arik joined him, and propped a small pot of water on the edge of the fire to heat for tea. They drank in companionable silence.

Breaks passed, and the smoke coming from the logs dwindled, then went out completely. Arik sat up. "Good," he said. "The sapwood took care of it. Sometimes you have to put them out with mud over the holes."

Jachiel gathered his legs under him and stood. "Why does that help?"

"Fires need air as much as people do. If you cover the holes, then it can't breathe, and out it goes." Arik examined the logs, and then fetched a saw. "It's partly through along the holes, but I'll help it the rest of the way." He set the tip of the saw into a hole-turned-notch, and began to cut, working his way along the log. Once he was finished, he handed Jachiel a lever and took another for himself. They wedged the ends of the levers into opposite ends of the long cut and heaved. The log groaned, then gave way, as the top part lifted off like a lid to reveal the burned out interior of the new watering trough.

Jachiel grinned. All it needed now was cleaning out and filling with water. The grin remained as he helped to lever the lid off Arik's trough.

Arik grinned back. "Nothing quite like making something, is there?"

"No," Jachiel replied, as they each roused their ox, and harnessed up both parts of their log. "No, there isn't." It wasn't, he decided privately, quite the same or quite as good as watching a crop come to full harvest under your care, but it was similar. There had been nothing, and now there was something brought to fulfilment by your own hands. "Thanks for - everything," he told Arik, and turned for home.

[Kaladis Anar]

Treasure Time!

Name: Jachiel

Knowledge:
Acrobatics: Trying not to Fall off of Logs!
Animal Husbandry: Allowing Oxen to Graze on the Precious Remaining Grass.
Carpentry: Remember to look for Knots in your Wood.
Carpentry: Learning to Accurately Measure a Drill Hole.
Carpentry: At an Angle an Auger Skitters and Doesn’t Always Bite.
Climbing: Handling an Auger while you Balance.
Endurance: A Good Tiring Days Work.
Fieldcraft: A Well Laid Fire.
Fieldcraft: Remembering to check your Fire Regularly.
Fieldcraft: Loading the Proper Amount of Coal and Shavings.
Fieldcraft: Fire Needs Air to Keep Burning.
Resistance: Working in the Cold.
Socialization: Camaraderie Built Through Shared Experience.
Tactics: Teamwork, you took turns in the Cold.
NPC: Arik, an Old and Hard Working Farmer.

Loot: One excellent quality, well made wooden water trough.
Injuries: Jachiel was sore for the next trial but nothing major.
Fame: +1 For a Good Days Work.
Devotion: None

Story: 5
Collaboration: 0
Structure: 5
Magic: No points here may be used for magic.

Comment: Really down to earth character. I was able to follow the thread easily, and the technical detail you put into the construction, definitely deserved an excellent quality product at the end of it. With the addition of the NPC showing you how it made sense to give that much.

Any questions, comments or feedback please pm me.

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