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 Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 9:46 pm
"Okay stop! That's good enough!" Shane ordered as he slowly guided the saw out from the tree, and gently took the tools and Sabri by the hand and walked him to a safe place directly in front of the cut they had just made." I need you to stay behind me now Sabriel. I'm going to push this tree good and hard, and I don't want you to get hurt okay? It's not held on by anything more than a bit of fiber, so a bit of a shove in the right direction should..." Shane gave the tree a great heave of his back and shoulder until suddenly a thunderous creaking was heard, like the sound of a giant slowly opening an ancient door.
"TIMBEEERRR!" Shane hollared at the top of his lungs as he watched the tree slowly collapse to the ground with a crash of leaves and bark.
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 10:01 pm
Sabriel was almost disappointed when he had to stop. Relinquishing his end of the saw, he twitched his hand out of Shane's, but DID follow him to the safe spot, watching with immense interest. Okay. He was going to push the tree. Did that mean the tree was going to...
All of his questions were answered. More than an ancient door opening...the tree was immense, a god and giant in its own right, and was sent tumbling by the push of a mortal hand. The labored creaking as the tree started to fall, that echoed throughout the forest and in himself, was a sound more gratifying than anything he had ever heard.
And then it crashed to the ground in a roar, the glory fled.
Sabe's eyes gleamed and he went running up to the fallen tree before Shane gave the word it was safe, grinning like an idiot. That was incredible!
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:26 pm
Picking up the tools from where they lay, Shane quickly walked over to where Sabri was investigating the tree. It was good that the boy seemed to be a lot more perked than he was when Shane had first seen him on the beach. However, they still had alot of work to do. Shane let Sabriel survey the tree for a while as he went up to the top of it, and with his ax, began to hack feverently away at the top of the tree that had any foliage. He then quickly measured out in his mind four decent sized logs on the tree, then pulling a marker from his pocket, he made small marks on the tree to show where they should saw. It wasn't long though until he came back and stood next to Sabri and surveyed the tree.
"With enough will of one, and the combined strength of many, even the mightyest of the mighty can fall. Might and beauty...are two different things though," Shane recited quietly to nobody in particular. It may have been a lesson to Sabri, or it may've been a prayer of sorts for the tree. A second later though, Shane snapped out of his philisophical state of mind and beckoned Sabri to follow him halfway down the length of the remaining tree.
"We still have to do that three more times Sabriel," Shane informed the boy quickly as he pulled out the saw again "These next ones should be alot faster though. Soon as we've got four decent sized logs, we'll carry them down to the water and make the raft down there so that we can see where Prince is at while we work. I can't make an axe mark with this one though, so the first few cuts that we make have to be very slow, but powerful so that we can get a good groove to work in after that. If we saw too fast here, the saw could spring up and hurt somebody, or make at uneven cut in the wood, which would take far too long to correct. Okay...ready?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:43 pm
Poking around the tree, he marveled that they had actually cut it down. It was ENORMOUS. For a toddler that wasn't saying much, but it was a good sized tree for even the tallest. And yet they'd knocked it over with barely an effort at all! Not that Shane could've done it without him, of course. Sabriel eased himself up on top of the fallen tree and waited for Shane to come back, ears flicking back and forth at the steady 'thunk' of the axe.
"Three?" Darn it. It was the mention of Prince that did it, though...grumbling, he wandered after Shane, shooting the tree a couple of sullen looks. Why did this have to be so complicated? If there'd only been a boat in the barn or something this'd be pointless.
But there wasn't, and the raft wasn't going to get made without his help (again the ego), so he went through with the instructions, somewhat willingly, and took his place with a mumbled "Ready." After cutting the tree down using the saw wasn't so hard - they had to go a bit more carefully, was all.
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Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:40 pm
Shane and Sabriel spent as little time as they could sawing the tree into four. Shane found that as they went along, Sabri got better and better at sawing. Shane was unsure if this was due to drive or adaptation, but whatever it was, it got the job done.
After surveying the size logs, and their distance to the beach, he found that rolling them down to the beach would probably be much faster than lifting them there. With a sly smile, he lifted and aligned one of the logs into a clear break in the forest and gave it a rolling start until it crashed into the water, virtually unharmed. If they rolled the other three logs this way, they'd align themselves into position more or less accuratly; and they'd be alot easier to move while floating too. Sanding may be a bit of an issue then though, but he'd worry about that later. The logs shouldn't become too waterlogged though, just maybe a little damp, so it wasn't that big of a deal.
Moving another log into position he called to Sabriel. "Hey Sabri! Want to help me with this one? It's fun!"
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Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:03 pm
He found he actually liked this sawing business - it was probably due to both. Sabriel was panting by the time they were finished, but he still looked triumphant, if a little worn around the edges. At the final split he very deliberately put the saw down and then slumped back against a nearby tree, panting. "Done." he announced wearily. "Done, done, done..."
But that was before the logs. With eyes closed he only heard the enormous SPLASH! the rolling log made and the thundering as it rolled down to the lake. Never mind. Shane hardly needed to offer - he was already there, grinning like an idiot. YES! Putting both hands on the log, he threw himself into the push.
He gave a little squeak of alarm as the log started to take him with it, but fell off in time, stumbling and skidding on leaves, and regained his balance in time to watch it go crashing into the water.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 9:38 am
To be quick, Shane decided that he'd push the remaining two logs down himself. Time was running out, and he didn't want Prince to float too far away. After all four logs were aligned, he bolted down the slope and began to tie the logs together with the rope.
He was getting considerably wet, wading in the water as the logs bobbed up and down, but the logs themselves remained increadibly dry, as water rolled off the top and sides like beads. That couldn't be said for the underpart of the logs that were submerged, but as long as they were floating, it didn't much matter.
In about ten minutes, Shane had finished tieing and secureing the front end of the raft. Quickly, he then ran over to the back end to repeat the process.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:06 pm
Wiping muddy hands on even dirtier shorts, Sabriel wandered down after Shane, stepping in the trail the rolling logs had made. He skirted the water and the splashing and went up a ways to check if Prince was still there.
The lion was, but barely. By squinting, one was able to spot a bobbing dot of white in a sea of blue. "Still there." he called, coming back in time to watch the rest of the raft being secured. It was a good thing Shane was willing to go in the water, because that was one thing he wouldn't help with. But he could and would keep watch on the lake.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:51 pm
Shane looked up to Sabriel just as soon as he'd finished securing the last bit of the rope. Looking at it as a whole, he saw that the raft had turned out perfectly! Now looking out at Prince in the lake, he turned to begin walking to Sabriel.
"Great! Now all we need is some sort of..." Shane's sentence was cut off, when the ground came rushig up at him. Quickly, to prevent any injury, he threw his hands out in front of him and landed on all fours, his left palm on a smooth, wooden surface.
Standing up, Shane brushed himself off and reached down to try and unearth what he'd come across. Within a few seconds, he'd pulled out a long, wooden paddle.
"Well speak of the devil! This must've come off of some poor soul's cannoe and floated here with the tide," he exclaimed bewildered as he walked over to Sabrie. Shane then handed the paddle over to him, hoping it wouldn't bring any bad luck to the black cat. "Here ya go! Looks like it's all finished then."
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 6:08 pm
The raft came together right before his eyes; before long Shane had it completely lashed together and perfect, floating as watertight as can be. Was it done? All they needed was some sort of - what?
And then he had to go and TRIP. If he broke his neck, how would that missing sentence ever be solved? Then Prince would be stuck out there forever. Already playing through doomsday scenarios, Sabriel rushed over from his spot on the beach, but none of them came to pass - instead, a wooden something was slapped into his hand by a perfectly okay Shane. "A stick?" he asked stupidly, then gave himself a mental smack on the forehead, reexamining the 'stick'. A PADDLE. Of course. You couldn't have a raft without a paddle. That meant the raft was ready!
Pause. Manner phrases began to float through his mind's eye, spoken by Chin's voice out of memory: Please and thankyou. Please and thankyou. Thinking about it, Sabriel scowled and stubbornly stuck out a hand, still on the muddy side, like a deal was supposed to be finished. They had struck a deal, hadn't they? In a way. But Shane had done a good job, anyway, and wasn't too bad. Still a little crazy, but not too bad.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:06 pm
Well, well... Shane thought with a bit of a smile at Sabriel's politeness. Shane took Sabri's hand and shook it in a very friendly manner.
"You're quite welcome Sabriel. May you have the smoothest of sailing." he said with a playful salute with his free hand. Then, releasing Sabri's hand, he slowly began to climb back up the hill, keeping a cautious eye on the Mishap for as long as he could.
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:26 pm
Nodding gravely in reply, Sabriel waited until Shane had left - and then backed up the hill, hefting the paddle over a shoulder. Crouching, the cat Mishap sprang forward, kicking up a spray of sand, and took a running leap onto the raft - it bounced under his landing weight, skidding forward in the water.
The rescue mission was back in action. Hurrah!
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Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:40 pm
Shane sat and watched as Sabri's raft floated out in the lake until he could scarcely see him anymore. He then brushed himself off and turned to face the direction of the HQ. He had to get back home to check on Pyren before he woke up to find him missing. Little did he suspect the surprize that was awaiting him upon his return.
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 2:40 pm
~Lenore and Osso RP~
Hollow sockets watched in boredom as the twentieth flat rock bounced over the water, creating four points of azure and silver ripples that spread over the normally smooth surface of the lake. With a sigh, Osso reached into his sweatshirt pocket for another rock, but his hand came out empty.
A new search for "skippers" commenced and the boy began to trudge up the rocky and uneven lake-shore. Steady winds blew over him trying to tussle his shaggy and un-even pale hair. When it was unable to mess it up, it began to swirl gold, orange, and red leaves about his feet along with the light fog that floated eerily a few inches above the ground despite the weak autumn sun that sat in the cloudless sky; things were always odd here at the HQ.
A soft chortle echoed from the boy's hood as a tiny black impish creature skittered onto his shoulder, a small, yellow ginko leaf held in its tiny, gryphon-like beak. Osso only gave a small, sideways smile before pausing to collect another flat stone. He was bored as hell, but with his mother shopping, he would’ve been left home alone with Kanti and that had recently not become very fun… the bruises on his shoulder, back, and leg from her crazed kendo “practicing” were a constant reminder of that.
Currently what he wanted was just a painless day, free of annoying sisters, study, and Azumi always asking for his opinion on whether or not the cutlery matches the kitchen or not.
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Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:08 pm
"Weird mist."
Lenore, for once really all alone, was trudging across the grounds, the mist swirling around her. She liked how it looked and how the winds made it move, and she encouraged the air to kick up the mist into funnels and writhing tentacle-like things as she passed.
She tried to ignore the fact that she was really rather lonely.
The forest bordered her path on one side and the old dreading fear of it welled up in her. Bad things had come out of that place twice, and she was in no mood to see if it would spring for a third go-around. Abruptly switching paths, she went towards the lake. If not more interesting, it was at least safer.
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