I sleep all night and I work all day
#1
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WC:+8 Don't worry about matching the length. Mine will be shorter from now on, just an accidental ramble here..


It had taken some time, but it had eventually been necessity that drove Caprica to make up her suitably capricious mind as to what craft she planned to focus on as her Abigor rank indicated she should. For months she had dabbled, flitting from one thing to the next: cooking, brewing, beadwork, leatherwork, jewellery, tanning... but nothing had caught her interest enough to warrant spending more time on it and losing out on hours to pour into other fields of expertise.


Then a clue had been nudged her way, with the advent of the Thackary Village project and the need to put her constructive skills to the test - although she hadn't ended up really building anything, due to the simple need to dig fence post holes and knock in the posts as well. This task had occupied all her free time while the enigmatic Rakeeb was absent, and then when his spell of - whatever it had been, a strange disappearance after Matteo left - was over, it was her turn to take leave from the lands and travel to pick up her new mare from Aniwaya... and when she had returned, the project was completed, and she'd been distracted by her new equestrian duties from poking around inside the village buildings and realising that here was a useful place she could turn her hand to crafting furnishings and decorations and so forth.


The one thing Caprica had spent most time doing was working on her jewellery making, for it was the best thing she had to trade with, and she found both her nimble fingers and her acute sense of good taste were both stretched and put to good use. Still, she couldn't quite justify becoming a jeweller by trade. It was a little too impractical, and she was happy to leave it as a hobby. Besides, she was running out of room to store everything. Her deer skull which guarded the cavern entrance was so festooned with hanging strings of beads, teeth, bone carvings, varnished pebbles and plaited cords that the antlers were no longer visible. Her floor was starting to resemble a plate of spaghetti, and now and then when she misstepped she found reason to yell and curse through seeing a delicate object crush beneath her clumsy foot.


So, then, this was the necessity which had driven her to finally make a decision. She needed space, more room to keep everything and a much better designed den - no, a studio - where she could work and keep all of her squirrelled away trinkets and knick-knacks. She needed shelves, boxes, cupboards... she needed to learn to build, to form and fit wood and treat it so it would not rot or stain. The possibilities here were endless - she could eventually learn enough to make an entire building, she thought with a great sense of anticipation. But she had to start somewhere, and she reckoned that shelves were the simplest thing. After poring over slate with chalk for what felt like hours, she had a design, which was tucked away neatly in her head - no carrying required. Simple enough, just wooden posts nailed into H shaped frames, and planks laid across. The hardest thing would be splitting a tree into posts and planks, but this was exactly what she knew she must learn in order to progress. If she just went and scavenged some ready-human-made ones, what would she gain from the process? Nothing whatsoever.


Caprica made her way down the foothills of the Anatheman mountain riding her bay horse, who was wearing a leather collar and few other bits of harness ready to be tied to whatever timber she managed to retrieve. The tall wolf was dressed in sleeveless overalls that were baggy (even on her! they must have been owned by a simply enormous human), with a fierce-looking axe belted to her waist - she'd found it by the fire in the common room and for one delightful moment thought it was the Viking's, but the smaller tool wasn't a patch on that weapon - and a yellow builder's hard hat sitting jauntily on her head, discovered in the rubble of an old construction site. Caprica rode through the trees of the forest that tinged the foothills of Anathema, full of cheery optimism for her new project and determination to find the most perfect tree possible for her first project. The stately horse glided patiently from tree to tree, her rider passing over the more common species until she found a beautifully straight and not-too-large cherry tree. She knew she should be starting with pine, really. The wood would be softer and more manageable. But she wanted to have shelves she could be sure to load up - they would need to take some capacity, she knew full well - and not have them buckle or warp on her. Cherry was hard, and a gorgeous dark red colour. Tying the horse a little way off so she wouldn't be accidentally hit by any falling wood, Caprica approached the young tree, eyeing it balefully like a combatant. She squared her paws, lifted the axe and swung hard. After a few swings, she had a good notch and was beginning to get into her stride. One particularly Herculean swing sank the axe-head deep into the wood, maybe too deep or maybe the tree shifted a little from its position, for suddenly the gap seemed to close tightly around the tool and no matter how she tugged, the dusky woman could not extract the axe from the tree's heartwood grasp. "C'mon, c'mon," she growled, using her legs as leverage, but to no avail.


Image courtesy of Ant Jackson@Flickr; Table by the Mentors!

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#2
Merlin was enjoying his walk, it had been about a week since he had broken his foot from his fall, and he wanted to test out the new boots he had enhanced to provide an ultimate comfort for his cracked sole. He did limp a little, but he wasn't fussed, as long as he could walk in a straight line, he was happy. He had travelled a fair distance, and was determined to find a nice spot to pour out his artistic needs. He was wearing his leather trousers, blue scarf and his torn jumper. It wasn't the coldest day, but Merlin feared cold more than hunger or heights.
He made a small jumper over a fallen log and was surprised that his foot didn't even flicker with pain. He was impressed with his self-made boots, it brought out an inventive side to him that he never thought he had. He had always been able to draw and paint, but inventing wasn't something he thought would be on his speciality list.
As he continued to walk along, his mind full of ideas about his new inventing talent, a sudden cracking noise broke away his thoughts. He look towards the noise and waited for it to return. Once he had heard it a couple more times, he headed in its general direction. Passing trees he finally saw the centre of the noise. It was a she-wolf. She was hacking at a cherry tree, and seemed to be struggling to remove her axe from it nestle in the tree trunk. Merlin walked calmly up the she-wolf, hoping he could help in some way.
"Hello, you look like you're havin' trouble, need any help?"
#3
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Simple pleading quickly tranformed into ugly cursing as Caprica became more and more riled up at her ineffectual attempt to remove the axe-head from its deeply embedded predicament. She was just muttering words of the utmost obscenity under her breath when a sound behind her startled her enough to freeze in place. A voice rang out, and she screwed her eyes together briefly. Oh, what a pleasant situation to be discovered in. At least the offer was one of help, so she could overlook the embarrassment for now, as long as their arrival was truly worth it. In any case, she could at least rest for a moment. She turned on her heel, dusting woodchips from her paws and mustering up enough bravado to dazzle out a flawless and welcoming smile despite her self-consciousness. He was a earthen-coated creature, with a splash of cream around his front view and a sizeable enough build to give her hope that his less-tired arms might manage where she had failed. "Usually," she said conversationally, although she was skipping all the polite formalities such as name and introduction, "I would refuse your kind offer and insist on tryin' to do this thing, because I don't wanna seem like a weakling who can't handle her own shit, but..." she heaved a huge sigh. "I've most pulled my arms out their sockets and bored of this damn tree. Anything you can do would be appreciated. I should explain that my axe is stuck," she added mournfully, "so if you happened to bring a saw on your highly well-timed journey, well, you might just be my new favourite person."


Image courtesy of Ant Jackson@Flickr; Table by the Mentors!

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#4
Merlin smiled, "Well you don't look like a weakling for a start," He looked at the tree, "Unfortunately I don't have a saw." He felt a little stupid for asking her if she wanted help but not being sure if he could help. He wouldn't be able to just pull it out, maybe with enough strength, but with his foot, he doubted it. He looked at the tree, and studied the axe. He pulled slightly, it felt pretty stuck. He mumbled to himself and looked at the axe process into chopping down the tree, it looked deep, deep enough for a good enough hit to knock it down. He walked around to the back of the tree, and pushed it slightly, it gave a little under Merlin's pressure on it. He mumbled so more and looked behind at the trees opposite the cherry tree.
"A big enough push-" He mumbled turning from the large pine tree next to the cherry tree to the cherry tree's trunk "-should provide enough force to knock down the tree."
He didn't know if the she-wolf heard his plan, but he was too busy thinking through his little experiment to tell her properly. He dropped his pack to the ground and pulled out a long, sturdy rope and his grip glove. He had invented the grip glove a couple of days back, just after the boots. He thought that a better grip would help him stay in trees and not fall out of them like he did when he broke his foot. He strapped on the metal-clawed glove and grabbed the rope with his non-gloved hand. He walked up the tall structure of the pine tree. He swallowed hard, aware of what happened the last time he climbed a tree.
He dug the glove into the strong bark and lifted his weight up and over a low branch. He continued the steps until he climbed up between two similar sized branches, one above the other, and both pointing towards the damaged cherry tree.
"Ok then, here we go." Merlin said to himself. He got the rope and tied it firmly to the higher branch. He then tied the other end to the tip of the lower branch, and carefully stepped back on the lower branch until he was holding the trunk.
He looked down at the she-wolf and smiled, "No, I haven’t got a saw, but-" He reached down and pulled out a blade, "-I have a blade"
He knew the blade wouldn't cut the cherry tree, but the branch was thinner, if he cut the branch just in front of his feet, the branch will fall, and the rope that was holding on the front of the branch would pull back, causing the branch to fall forward and, (hopefully), hit the cherry tree with enough force to knock it down.
"You might want to back up." He said and waiting no longer he swiped the blade across the branch. He hit it a few times until, with a crack it broke away from the tree. He followed its movements, just like he predicted, the unbalanced weight forced the branch to swing towards the cherry tree, but not long enough to reach.
Merlin held his breath, thinking his plan had gone wrong, but the rope tied along the branch's tip lost its grip, and the branch flew out of the rope's hold and threw itself at the cherry tree. Merlin swore that he felt the tremors as the branch came into impact with the tree.
After a few second of silence, as the branch rolled down the cherry's trunk, and the cherry finally gave up and toppled over. Merlin watched, his grip-glove dug into the trunk, as the cherry tree landed on the ground. Merlin laughed with success, and looked at the she-wolf, "I guess the axe is out of the tree now, and I suppose the tree's a bonus" He said cheerfully.
#5
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5+



She waved her hand impatiently at his compliment, but then gave him a sidelong smile which proved she'd in fact appreciated it. Seemed her charms were indeed great enough for him to linger, and pour his full attention into the conundrum she'd provided. Caprica was happy to stand back and let the other wolf take over, although as he leant weight against the tree and she saw it shift, she was struck by the feeling that it would maybe go down if the two of them worked together at it. However, the idea of shoving for what could be quite some time against a small area with a stranger didn't exactly appeal to her, or to her aching biceps. Plus, it looked like the mysterious stranger was having further thoughts, and who was she to interrupt a deep and meaningful thought process like that?


The elegant thing to do was clearly to provide refreshments for whenever the job was done, or they just gave up. She wandered idly over to her horse, checking the knots - firm as everything tied by her crafter's hands always was - and then delved into her saddlebags, bringing out some strips of crispy dried venison and a bottle of mulled wine, still warm from its well-wrapped insulation. When she turned around again, the man was halfway up a tree. Cautiously she moved to stand below him, a package in each hand and peered up: what was he doing with that rope? She studied it for a few moments until she figured what he was doing, and she had to give it to him: it was an intelligent design. Considering the task as good as done, Caprica backed up well in advance of his warning, to sit on a patch of moss with her legs neatly folded and begin chewing absent-mindedly on the venison, hat at a jaunty angle as she observed the process unfold. He was striking the rope with his blade, which looked sharp enough but probably wasn't a patch on the last one she'd handled: the mighty katana belonging to her leader, Alaki. She hadn't been cutting into a rope, though, but a massive and furious bear. His tool was good enough for this task, and perhaps up-close it would prove to be worth even more than that. She wished she'd been able to handle the vicious samurai sword more effectively - it had taken some time to bring the creature down, although by the time she'd lifted the sword it had already been too late to save its owners eye.


Lost in thought, she'd almost missed the moment the tree actually fell down. She came back to herself with a start as it hit the ground, and offered a congratulatory smile up at her dashing saviour. The axe had indeed fallen to the ground, freed from the clasp of the wood. She stood up and picked it up, then leant on the handle and looked skywards towards the clambering wolf. "Thanks, that was an impressive feat of engineering! You hungry? Thirsty? I must reward your efforts. You saved me a lot of time today," she smiled up at him.

Image courtesy of Ant Jackson@Flickr; Table by the Mentors!

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#6
"You're very welcome" Merlin called back with much enthusiasm, "I'm just glad I could help out." Merlin stuck his gaze to the far distance between him and the ground, his mind tried to pull back but he forced himself to lean forward and free his rope from the upper branch. He carefully knelt down and retied it to the thick part of the branch he was standing on. Once he felt sure it was tight enough he let it slowly take his weight and began to lower himself down the tree.
At first he worked his way down, but after about a metre he felt more confident and, using the grip glove against the tree bark for balance, he released his tight grip of the rope and slid down the dark bark of the tree, his grip glove ensuring that he wouldn't fall too fast. Once his feet landed on the soft grass and dirt, he sighed with relief as his fear of climbing left. Soon realising that the pressure of the tree branches had made his broken foot ache, he slowly limbed towards the she-wolf still smiling from his victorious plan.
"Name's Merlin, and a drink would be most appreciated" Merlin knew that he probably deserved a drink without the politeness since he just saved this girl a lot of work, but Merlin knew better than to demand from some else.
#7
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Caprica hadn't realised she would be running into such a wonderfully useful volunteer today, or she would have brought a more heady variety of beverages. All she had was designed for her own taste: the spicy, sweet warm wine was not necessarily the flavour of this rugged wanderer. She should have offered him spirits in a jar; rough and ready. She offered the bottle in his direction, leaving it up to him to take it from her paw, then her face fell in dismay. "But, you're limping," she exclaimed. "Did you hurt yourself on the way down?" She hoped she wasn't responsible for the injury, and once again found herself cursing her lack of first-aid or healing knowledge. Was this another stray in need of her, and would she be allowed the privilege, this time, of bringing him into the fold to be cared for?

Image courtesy of Ant Jackson@Flickr; Table by the Mentors!

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#8
Merlin gratefully took the drink, he wasn’t quite sure what this drink was or what it tasted like, but he was still grateful for her offer. "Don't worry," He said between small sips of the bottle, "I broke my foot a couple of weeks back, that’s why I got these boots on; they help keep my foot from damage." He looked down at the boots, they had passed Merlin’s entire tests, and he could even climb without getting hurt, mostly. "I guess they didn't go as well under pressure from the tree."
He tasted the strange drink in his mouth; it had a weird taste, spicy at first, then sweet and tangy. After a few more sips he passed the drink back to the she-wolf. He breathed some more fresh air and sat down in the grass and dirt. He needed to check on his foot, in case something bad did happen up the tree. He slowly unstrapped the leather and removed the boot. He felt around the swollen sole, it hurt to touch, but didn't look too infect other than that produced by the broken bone. He carefully replaced the boot back on and looked up at the she-wolf, "No bad damage thankfully," He said slowly standing up.
#9
"Aww, seriously! You broke your foot? That's not good, dude," she exclaimed with concern. "You should be restin' up. How come you're out here?" She crouched down next to him, clutching the drink and shaking her head worriedly as he looked over his paw. It was much bigger than it should be, and even to her inexperienced eye, it looked misshapen. She gasped as he put his weight back on it. It was amazing how nonchalant he was acting, really. He had some real endurance, it was clear. But then perhaps it wasn't such a bad break - and she didn't know how long these things took to heal either. It looked painful to Caprica though. "Geez," she breathed. "What if that gets worse? You could end up totally immobilised. Are you all alone out here?" she questioned, eyes wide and sympathetic. There was no pack-scent on his coat, and no sound of anybody else nearby.
#10
Merlin looked at the she-wolf and smiled at her concerned looked, "No need to worry, these shoes keep the weight off the broken part, leaving room for it to hopefully heal." He chuckled a little as the she-wolf almost panicked after seeing his inflated foot.

"Yes I'm alone out here" He said, he thought about how others always asked him why he wasn’t in a pack, but he didn't like crowds and especially didn't like taking orders after his childhood events. "I probably always will be alone" He mumbled, barely audible. He had to admit be a lone wolf had its disadvantages, friends were harder to make and having someone who was more than just a friend would be near impossible. It made Merlin depressed, knowing he would die a loner, but he couldn't see his life being any different.

Merlin pushed his thoughts away and grinned at the she-wolf, "You do worry don't you?" He chuckled smirking. He was grateful for her concern, but then was less grateful for making him wonder if his foot was really getting worse, but Merlin had done his research through books and knew the best you could give a broken foot is rest and little pressure, but with a hard life of 'living off the land' made it hard to find the time to rest.
#11
Well, those were clever boots indeed. It seemed likely the resourceful stranger could indeed take care of himself - as Caprica had done for almost a year of her life, too - but his next words provoked still more sympathy anyway. "Heyy," she reproached. "Don't say that. I'm sure you don't wanna be on your own forever. There's nothin' wrong with lonering for a little while, sure… but we all need friends sometimes, right?" Which was about the nearest she could get to, without actually mentioning the canine need to be sociable and have a pack. He had already shrugged off her concern, and Caprica scowled amiably at him. "Have it your own way, if you're so determined to live on the edge. I was going to suggest places you could find shelter and company…" She let her voice tail off suggestively, slurping some more mulled apple wine with her eyes unabashedly fixed on his face. For all that they were equals on neutral land, some of the supposed authority of Anathema resided in Caprica wherever she went, these days.


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