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 Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:27 pm
Zach was equally disgruntled. All the jarring that his hand and arm took from constantly swinging the hammer was making it really ache. But there was no way they could stop. It seemed like they'd been stuck building the means of escape for hours and hours already. It was all over a few abysmally stupid things.
Speaking of abysmally stupid things... Zach's slitted eyes flickered upward to glare at the horse-man from where he was kneeling on the other side of the ladder. He slammed the hammer down on the next nail for the last time before giving the plank a careless shove to right its crookedness. A hiss escaped his bared and interlocked teeth. Just because they worked together didn't mean their past encounters were magically erased from history.
They'd been alone in the room for so long that it was almost too easy to forget why they were there in the first place. "I'm working as fast as I can, Gaius." There seemed to be almost a sneer to the way he spat out the other man's name.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:44 pm
His head snapped up, shooting the dragon a dark glare, but he just grunted and hunkered back over his work. The first length of ladder had been done, and now they were working on finishing the second of three.
Gaius had been working diligently, having the benefit of previous experience with such activity, and had already gotten far ahead of Zach in work and now a hefty pile of boards sat between them. Gaius himself sat back on his haunches, his long feet resting flatly on the floor, and rolled his long neck to work out the kinks. Then, he sat and waited as Zach finished the last of the nails on the second part of the ladder, rather impatiently at that, as he dragged the thing away not a moment after Zach had hammered the last nail.
The design was tricky with no piece of wood long enough to reach the top. What Gaius had devised instead was a staggered ladder of sorts. The bottom happened to be wide enough that the second portion slid between the two sides, and a couple nail through the top planks would secure them together, and, once the third part was done, that would fit within the second, making the ladder long enough to reach the top. That is, if Zach would hurry up his incompetent a**. Gaius shot him an impatient glare. Sadly, despite his searching, there was only one hammer, the one Zach held.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:22 pm
Tap, tap, tap, thunk. Another bent nail, making a grand total of seventeen of them scattered down the length of the finished part of the ladder. Gritting his teeth, he reached for another, positioned it, and began to hammer. He'd lost his focus a while back, so he wasn't prepared when the hammer missed its mark and slammed right into his left pointer finger instead of the head of the nail he'd meant it for.
He dropped the hammer with a yelp and clatter and started hissing again, holding the injured finger and squeezing his eyes shut. His tail went into overdrive, waving around wildly. "s**t!"
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:34 pm
Gaius jumped at the shout, looking worried. “What?! What happened? Did something break?!” First concern for the ladder, of course. Zach’s finger wasn’t critical to getting free of their prison. Seeing the hammer dropped and Zach clutching his hand, it was easy to figure out what had happened. Gaius relaxed, smirking mirthlessly. “Surprised you didn’t do that earlier… I’d offer you some ice, but, well, you know how that is.”
Taking the opportunity presented, Gaius snatched up the hammer from where it fell, along with a couple nails, and muscled his way between Zach and the part he’d been working on. “You’ll just make a mess of it,” he muttered, setting the nail Zach had dropped straight and, with three sharp taps, had it into the wood. Like a machine, Gaius set the nails in the boards and pounded them in, one after the other, easily working twice as fast as Zach. Again, experience helped.
“What I wouldn’t give for a nailgun…” he said as he took a moment to roll his right shoulder, his arm tired from all the work.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 11:00 pm
His finger was throbbing painfully, but he knew it wasn't broken or anything like that. He didn't try to let go of it though, squeezing it seemed to stop it from hurting worse. He cracked one eye open, expression unamused. "Yeah, yeah."
He didn't say anything when Gaius took up doing the hammering, scooting backward and planting himself there to watch as the horse-man did all the work. It was going a lot faster now, anyhow. He was perfectly content to fret over his wounded finger and dignity instead. Was that rickety thing their only ticket out of this room? He was almost willing to just chance a long wait at the bottom.
"I think you're missing the point," he said with the most skeletal hint of amusement from his vantage point two feet away.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 11:11 pm
Gaius snorted, not in the mood to hear it. “I don’t care about any point, I just want to get out of here.”
Putting in the last nail, he set aside the hammer and pushed himself up to his feet. The ladder was laid out across the floor slightly diagonal, a bit too long to sit straight from wall to wall. Of course, now the problem was… How did they lift the thing?
Gaius scratched at an ear, looking puzzled for the first time since they started building.
“Um, maybe you should get on that side," he gestured to the opposite side of the top of the ladder, "and I’ll stand over here…” As he spoke, he positioned himself across from Zach. “If we lift it, we can… uh… maybe prop it against the wall, then push it up from the other end?”
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 11:39 pm
"Well, it's not supposed to be easy." The animosity gave him momentum. He was picking his words carefully. He did share Gaius's sentiments on this particular situation, feeling a bit victimized himself, but like hell was he going to let that show. Bad time, bad place.
"Anyway, there's nothing more fulfilling than us 'getting to know each other better' over building a ladder." He made sure to parrot Sabin's way of wording the reason for their predicament. It was unclear whether the second statement was serious or not from the way he said it, since there was neither a hint of mockery nor fanatacism to his voice, merely what sounded an awful lot like boredom. The dullness of his eyes said as much.
He got to his feet more slowly, watching with interest that had grown very dulled since they first started working. No protest was made to being ordered around, but he was practically dragging his feet at this point. "Don't look at me, I don't know what to do with it. I don't make a habit of building ladders."
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 11:46 pm
Gaius had to resist the urge to roll his eyes, impatient as Zach dawdled along. Once the dragon was in position, he squatted and lifted up his side of the ladder slightly. “Some help you are. Just lift your side and help me move it to the wall, okay? It’s not that hard.”
However, when Zach finally did his part, things proved not quite so easy. Funny thing about 20+ feet ladders – they’re heavy. Even if one end was still on the ground, Gaius and Zach were lifting the bulk of the long, ungainly thing. Wood creaked as the hastily constructed structure bowed slightly, less than sturdy.
Beads of sweet budded on Gaius’ head and neck as he grunted, muscles straining to lift the thing. Had he been alone, it would’ve been easily impossible. For once, he was thankful Zach was there, though only as extra muscle. There was no way he would ever be thankful for his person.
Once the end was lifted to chest level, Gaius directed them over to the wall, and they both scrambled sideways, hurrying before they could lose their grip. The ladder clattered and scraped across the floor noisily as it turned.
Another problem arose when they managed to get the end of the ladder against the wall. One, the side beams weren’t even, so while one touched the wall, the other didn’t, and two, the minute they eased their grip, the ladder slid down the side of the wall. They had to grab it back up before it could crash to the floor. The wall was too smooth to hold the ladder up while it was still so horizontal. Gaius, ever the problem-solver, frowned as his mind raced for a solution. Suddenly, he shifted the grip of his arm farther down the ladder, leaving Zach where he was as he moved back a bit, and began lifting from there. “Here, We’ll have to feed it up, a little bit at a time until it sits against the wall!”
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:13 am
Zach didn't get a chance to protest the comment, having to bend down and lift the other side of the ladder. It was definitely more weight than he'd been expecting. The majority of muscles he had he hadn't earned very fairly. They'd been part of his previous change, a surprising change to his physique that didn't seem altogether sensible. Before then, he hadn't had much muscle to his name. He, too, struggled with the weight and hoped very sincerely that their wooden creation would not topple over on them in the process of being propped up.
Zach's feet started to slip and the ladder wobbled dangerously when Gaius moved backward. He followed Gaius's lead as quickly as he could, taking the steps backward so that he was once again parallel with his enemy. He didn't have the breath to respond, all of it reserved for the strenuous work of keeping the ladder off the ground and up, up, up, the longer of the two of its sides scratching against the wall. One step closer to being out, that's what it was.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:32 am
As the ladder was pushed up, it became harder to lift, the angle growing steeper and steeper. But, as it was steeper, the ladder also managed to rest itself against the wall finally, allowing the two men some respite. Gaius whipped the back of his hand over his face, brushing his long bangs back out of his eyes.
“Well, maybe not that easy, but at least it’s a start…” Up above them, much of the ladder was already out of reach. “Come on, we’ll have to push from the other end now…”
With the task seemingly near completion, Gaius’ mood lifted. He could just taste their freedom. The labor was hard, and the two continued to struggle for the better part of a half hour as the ladder scraped up along the side of the wall, pushing and rocking it past spots where it stuck, the structure threatening to fall sideways at points, but finally, it stood as vertical as it could without falling back over, bowing slightly, but standing. There was just one problem.
The top of the ladder, the last rung… was four feet below the bottom of the doorway.
Gaius victorious smile fell like a cement truck off a bridge and he stared, dumbfounded. “…Well. Crap.”
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:51 am
Zach didn't have the benefit of sweat glands on any of the scaly parts of his body, leaving him a little more wearied and hot than he would otherwise have been. Not that he'd considered things, but was still warm blooded, which accounted for the overheating. But the ladder was up. That was the important thing.
Gaius's joke of an obscenity caught his attention. Mr. Sunshine, almost swearing? That couldn't bode well. He followed Gaius's gaze upward and, at the sight of the decently sized gap between ladder and door, he started coughing. That was just unfair! He didn't want to be stuck here with Gaius any longer than necessary. Quickly he contemplated the situation. He knew he was taller than he used to be... tall enough that the gap probably wouldn't be too much trouble to cross if only there was some way to get a grip up there.
He glanced warily at Gaius, not wanting to be the first to try out the possible death trap.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 12:57 am
Gaius’ frown grew pensive, and he glanced at Zach. Of the two of them, it was hard to say who was the lighter, though Zach appeared better balanced. At least that’s what Gaius thought.
“Uh, why don’t you head on up, then? I’ll hold the ladder steady…” he said, moving to the side to be less directly in line with the ladder, and thus less likely to be forced up.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 1:49 pm
"What? No way. It was your idea, you go first." He crossed his arms. The logic was perfectly sensible to him. He gave the top of the ladder a quick glance. He was a little afraid the end of the ladder was too far below the doorway for them to climb up. If Gaius went up there, he'd be more certain of the gap.
And besides, if the ladder broke while Gaius was on it, there was bound to be some other way to bridge the gap between them and the door. Like a catapult. The confinement was starting to get to him now.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:10 pm
Gaius glowered at the suggestion. “Hey, I did all the building! You go up first. Besides, I’m doing you a favor. Whoever climbs up last doesn’t get to have someone holding the bottom in place!”
It seemed perfectly sensible, even generous in pegasus-man's mind. Surely Zach had to admit he was right.
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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:20 pm
"And that's why you should go up first. I don't care whether someone's got the bottom of the ladder," he lied. That did sound unpleasant. However, it would be far more unpleasant for something to break or snap while the first person was on it. Gaius's life wasn't worth much to him.
Just as Gaius had moved toward one side of the ladder, he went to to the other. He gave Gaius a look that dared him to keep volunteering the dragon.
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