All ships need a berth; AW

Neela Garcia · 12-13-2011, 01:32 PM

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For Temo, but anybody else who wants to join in and lend a hand is welcome.

Takes place along East River, as the point closest to Westville.

Word Count → 503

With a grinding thump the Meria Lea sank into the sandy riverbank, the large ships keel sinking deeply into the muddy sand and sticking there. Quickly and numbly Neela jumped down from the boat carrying an anchor and several reels of rope attatched to the boat, the anchor went behind two large rocks farther inland and the ropes around several nearby trees.

Her work done Neela collapsed onto the floor by one of the trees, laying her back against the wood as she panted in exhaustion. In the several weeks it had been left on the beach the Meria had worked itself deeply into the sand and prying it free had been an exhausting task, especially since she had needed to bring it upstream immediately after.

Her ship had been a problem constantly on Neela's mind after she had joined Ichika no Hoen. She was unwilling to give up the ship, but the logistics of mooring it had been a hard to solve problem; while beaching the ship was fine in an emergency or if she had no other choice, it was far from convenient for day to day use.

The answer to her problem had presented itself to her during her travels around her new territory; a old human pier in relatively good condition.

Or at least as good a condition as anything human made was these days. The wood that made up most of the small pier was so rotten that she hadn’t even needed an axe to remove most of it, but the supporting pillars were concrete and mostly undamaged. Neela had set to work the day before, removing all the rotten wood and leaving the pillars standing in the water by themselves, ready for construction.

Groaning at the ache in her muscles from her earlier exertion Neela opened her eyes, gazing around the clearing. The eight concrete pillars stood bare in the water, Grynn was perched on one of the farthest ones out, the falcon looking at Neela with a distinctly smug air. In the sandy clearing itself was the remains of the bonfire that Neela had made from the old wood and, beside it, the stacks of lumber that she had spent the last few days gathering.

As much as she wanted to just lay down and go to sleep Neela knew that doing so would make it all the much harder when she came to dislodge the Meria once more, so she got up, climbing back up onto the ship to fetch her tools. As Neela retrieved the duffel bag containing her smaller tools, along with a couple of coils of rope, she sniffed the air and her lip curled upwards with disdain. The smoky smell from the bonfire hadn’t dissipated since it was lit yesterday, and the rotten wood didn’t smell particularly pleasant.

Promising herself a nice trip down to the beach and a soak in the sea once she was done, Neela lowered herself back down onto the shore and started sorting through her tools.

Temo Wolfe · 12-17-2011, 01:13 PM

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sorry it took so long, having a bad month writing | +223

There were new areas for Temo to scout around in and he was currently in one of the areas near the river when his nose picked up the faint, wet and pungent smell of rotten wood having been burned. He made his way around the buildings in search of the source of the smell and arrived at the river to find a boat beached and a bag of tools being sorted.

Having found the pile of ashes and spent coals that was the source of the smell, Temo glanced around the surrounding area. He noticed the boat that was aground on the bank with the concrete pilings standing in the water near by and the pile of wood. The churned up ground between the water's edge by the concrete pillers and the pile of ashes showed clear the story that had taken place already.

Then it hit him, Jace had mentioned meeting someone that arrived to the area in a boat and joined the pack, this must be that someone. "Hi, Namaste," Temo said in greeting, "Welcome to Ichika, I am Temo." With a glance at the pilings sticking out of the water and the boat stuck in the mud, then the glance moving around to the pile of lumber, "Looks like you have quite a project ahead of you, could you use a hand?"

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Neela Garcia · 12-19-2011, 07:19 PM

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Word Count → 483

Neela was aware of the males presence a split second before he spoke as Grynn let out a soft call the second he had entered the birds sight. Neela glanced up from her work to investigate the other wolf, a average sized wolf with black fur presenting itself for her eyes.

Neela noted with some amusement that the wolf knew from the offset that Neela was new to Ickika, evidently word of her arrival was spreading. She returned his greeting with a soft voice, the weariness from her earlier exertions with the Meria still clinging to her voice, "Namaste Temo, I'm Neela, it's nice to meet you." Neela let a small glow of satisfaction rise inside her, happy that she had finally remembered the greeting correctly and offered Temo a small smile, pushing her weariness down.

"Yes, and a project I intend to get done quickly if possible. I;ve already had to deal with what happens when the Meria is left like that-" she jabbed her thumb at the beached boat behind her, "-for too long, and it isn't a pleasant job getting her unstuck again even if its done quickly, I'd be grateful for any help, thank you" Once again she smiled, this time much brighter at the thought of help.

Straightening herself up from her tools Neela walked over to stand by Temo, turning to face the docks. "I'd like to concentrate on the end of the pier first; faster I get the Meria unbeached the less work for me later, and it'll be easier for getting tools as well. I have some old tires on-board to put up for protection, just need to get a frame up to hang them from."

Her plans communicated Neela got to work and picked up one of the thicker piece of wood she had collected. The wood was a thick block, shaped into a rectangle and just longer than the pier was wide, made to fit into a square hole running through each of the concrete pillars to hold supporting beams. Despite her burden Neela made her way along the pillars quickly, jumping nimbly and confidently from one pillar to another until she reached the end. Leaning down to inspect the hole she saw that she had cut the wood just right, though it would likely require a fair amount of force to get the wood through the hole and into place.

"Come up here and help me with this please." she called politely behind her, motioning to the hold and the beam that now rested across the pillars until she was ready to put it into place.

Temo Wolfe · 12-23-2011, 10:43 AM

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| +249

Temo nodded in agreement as he glanced over at the boat. "I do not know much about boats but I do know how things can get stuck in mud," he chuckled at his own joke as he remembered his younger days in his home territory in the rainy Pacific Northwest. "At least you can get help now if it does get stuck bad again.

While he listened to Neela outline her plans to him on what she wanted to get started on first, Temo studied the concrete piers and tried to visualize the dock. He did not know much about docks and their construction and it would have been helpful to have seen the original before it was torn down. He mentally shrugged, Neela knew what she was doing and wanted, he could hold and lift and be directed as needed. it would be an interesting learning experience, he thought.

With a slight tilt to his head as he gave it a moments thought, "Sounds like a plan," he said of her plan as he did not have anything to question or add at the moment. Temo watched Neela for a few moments as she worked her way out to the end of what will be the dock with the beam in hand. Thinking that it would take two to maneuver it into place, he already had his bag unslung from his shoulder and laying near her tools and had started out to help when she called back to him.

Image courtesy of randompointoflife@Flickr

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