Wrecked

[Cleon]

67th of Spring, 522 AV

Cleon woke up to a cold bucket of salt water being thrown over him, and sat up with a start to see Randal standing quietly over him with an empty bucket. In the early morning dimness he almost thought he had woken up into a nightmare as this horned figure lurked over him, but then the finer details of the moment came into focus. He was laying on the ground in a pool of his own vomit, which the acrid stench of was currently filling his nostrils.

Randal bleated something out, cleared his throat and then growled. “Get cleaned up and come outside.” Then he watched Randal walk away for a few ticks before he tried to rub the bleariness from his eyes. He quickly regretted that decision because the salt water made his eyes sting which caused him to blink rapidly while swiping at his eyes with his shirt until the pain mostly went away. However all of that sudden activity provoked a deep headache which almost made him upchuck again as he caught himself on the edge of a table.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he waited for the worst of it to pass before he forced himself up to his feet, and took a good look at the extent of the damage. Fortunately, he had managed to confine himself to one area before he vacated the contents of his stomach which would make cleaning up significantly easier, and looking around he saw another bucket, this one full with a rag draped over the side while nearby on top of the table lay a bar of soap.

Not eager about making Randal wait, Cleon set to work immediately sopping up the vomit and then scrubbing the floor clean. It took several chimes too get it all up, though when he was finished he could hardly tell what had been there before. At least until he looked at his clothes that were pretty grungy he had to admit.

Taking the buckets out of the shop and towards the sea he saw Randal standing beside a massive log that had been stripped of its branches and neatly cut across the ends. That put a little hustle into his step as he went down to the water with the buckets to rinse them out and then scrub his clothes clean as best he could manage before working his way back up the beach. After dropping the buckets off beside the shop he headed for Randal who held out an axe towards him as he approached.

“This is a Koa tree. We’re going to use the sides for surf board blanks and the log itself to make a paddle board.” Randal said, and as Cleon grasped the end of the ax, Randal continued to hold onto it firmly. “Are you sure you can do this?” He grunted seriously.

Cleon felt the blood drain from his face a bit as he hurriedly nodded. “Yes, I’m sorry about what happened. It won’t ever happened again.” Cleon admitted, having a hard time meeting Randal’s stern gaze.

“Make sure it doesn’t. I get that we’re all dealing with our own troubles this season, but don’t let it overwhelm you, and if it does, talk to someone about it, okay?” Randal bleated, and Cleon tried not to wince at how unusual his voice sounded, and merely nodded.

“Yes sir” He said, grasping the ax as Randal let go of it.

“Start by hitting the pegs I’ve laid out. Then you’ll set up the other side.” Randal growled as he gestured at the log. Looking at it he saw five evenly spaced wooden pegs that ran the length of the Koa log, and walking up to the side of it, he wound his arms back before striking the first one with the back of the ax.

The peg sank in a quarter of an inch with the strike while the log made a splitting sound. Cleon struck it again, twisting his hips with the movement to really get his weight behind the blow. The peg slid in another few inches as the top of the log started to come apart. Cleon worked his way down to the next peg, giving it a couple of firm strikes before moving on again.

WC - 711

[Cleon]

It wasn’t particularly difficult given that the pegs where so broad across the top and this wood seemed to split cleanly. He just continued to do as he was told until that side of the log split completely off. By that time he had worked up quite the sweat as he panted to catch his breath and his headache had fortunately dissipated to a dull throb at the back of his senses.


Randal was already on the other side of the log so Cleon worked his way around it to see that along the curve he had parked off a section with red paint.

“Cut along here. Then drive pegs in.” Randal grunted, and took a step backwards. Coming along side the wall with the ax flipped around, he angled himself so he was squared up with the end before he brought the ax down along the red line. His strike wasn’t perfect but close enough that he could adjust to lay across the line straight with his next strike.

Each one bit into the wood just a little bit, leaving a slightly deeper groove each time and he kept it up on that end until he had a decent crevice carved out of it before he moved on to the other side of the log. There he repeated the process as his arms started to go numb from constant jarring motions. Still he gritted past the painful tingle as he continued until he had made decent inroads on either side.

As he stood catching his breath, and admiring his handiwork Randal took the ax from him to finish up this side, placing the pegs in and then swiftly splitting that side of the log off from the whole. From the speed and ferocity of how he worked, Cleon got the feeling that Randal had some of his own demons to work out, something he could readily understand. This sort of work felt pretty damn good even if the rest of him felt like shite. It got out the nervous energy that had been peculating within him, and gave him an outlet for all of his anxieties. Perhaps that was why Randal had decided to start him on this today.

By the time that side of the log was split, Cleon had enough of a break that he readily took the ax from Randal before following him around to the first part they had split off. There through gestures alone, Randal got him to pick up the other side of the side of wood which the tilted up so it was leaned against the side of the shop vertically. Then Randal handed him a long chisel.

“Start trimming by trimming the bark off.” Randal grunted as he walked away back towards the log. Nodding, Cleon looked back at the long section of Koa wood, placing the edge of his chisel at an angle against the curved trunk before hammering down with the back of his ax. With his hand chocking up high on the ax haft he managed to keep his stroked short, and fast as he scrapped away at the outside of the Koa log.


WC - 526

[Cleon]

This sort of work was much harder on his wrists and forearms so that he quickly felt a burn accruing there as he steadily scraped away all the bark in a roughly circular patch before moving on down the log. It was a particularly tall section, a little over a foot higher than his head so he would have to flip it back around when it came time to trim up that side. For now though he just concentrated on scrapping the parts he could reach, getting all of the bark off before he moved on to the next step.

It was a much harder wood than he was used to working with so the going was slow. His chiseling took him a bell to remove barely a third of the bark and by that time he had to take a break. Looking over at what Randal was doing he saw that he had gotten a fire going and was currently stripping the other siding of wood with fierce strokes of his hammer against the back of the chisel.

Cleon took a pull of his water skin and sprayed a bit on his head, glad he hadn’t wasted any of it last night although his head might not hurt so much as it did if he’d remembered to take a drink every now and again. With a little bit of water to refresh him he felt okay about continuing his work on the Koa siding, turning back to it with a little more vigor.

This time he trimmed away at the sides before working his way back at the middle. Holding the chisel so it was pointed away from him, he worked its tip flush with the bark before hammering down on the back of it several times until the bark split off of the long. Occasionally flecks of it would be thrown back near his eyes and he had to blink a few times to make sure everything was alright before continuing however the work from at this point went relatively smooth.

This part was almost as straight forward as splitting that log had been although he was acquainted enough with surfboard making to know that the shaping had to come next. How he was going to turn this Koa log siding into a board though was a question he hadn’t quite managed to visualize yet. Every once and a while he would look over at Randal while he worked to see how he was progressing.

The man was industrious. Cleon had to give him that. All ready he had his part stripped, and was currently working on shaping the top half of it into a smooth curve. He had to hustle to keep up, trying to pick up the pace as he stripped the rest of the bark off of his blank. As he was removing the last little bit, Randal walked over, his thick tufts of hair gleaming with sweat as he took a look at the blank.

“Not bad. After some lunch, we’ll finish getting these shaped and seasoned for the water.” Randal said. Cleon was a more than a little bit relieve to hear that and dog tired so he followed the man back in the shop where they had a couple of cold sandwiches before going back out.


WC - 554

[Cleon]

After lunch while Randal was getting a few things ready, Cleon took a moment to relax in the shade of the surf shop and take a moment to see what his book had for him today. He felt kind of bad about skimming over the Jungle Ixams the day before and now that his head was feeling much better he thought why not?

Today it was about what sort of plants you should avoid eating in the jungle. It then provided him a list of things to avoid before elaborating on what he should focus on eating instead.

Avoid plants with:

- White or yellow berries
- Thorns
- Clear or shiny leaves
- Leaves in groups of three
- Umbrella-shaped flowers
- seeds inside a pod, or beans
- Milky or discolored sap
- a almond smell

Additionally avoid anything with a bitter or soapy taste, and don’t eat mushrooms as it is easy to confuse the highly toxic ones with the edible variety.

Stick to fruit if you can which tends to be found throughout the jungle. If the situation is desperate, try rubbing the plant on the skin and lips then holding it in the mouth to see if there is an adverse reaction before you ingest it. As always it is a good idea to familiarize oneself on the local edible fruits and vegetables before venturing into the jungle.

In a pinch insects are a good source of protien but avoid any with bright colors, a pungent smell, and ones that can bite or sting you.


Just then Randal walked out of the surf shop so Cleon closed his book, replacing it in his bag before getting up to stretch out his arms above his head. Then grabbing up his tools he went to follow Randal over to the blank he had been working on.

“You see how I’ve got the top of my blank looking? I want you to do the same for this one. Don’t worry about making it smooth just yet, just but a curve across the top and then we’ll work on getting these boards smoothed out.” Randal groused, scratching at the scruff along his neck before stalking away to over by where he had laid his board.

Facing his blank, he decided to start with the upper corners, chipping them off with firm strikes against the back of his chisel as he worked to narrow the top of the blank so it looked more like Randal’s board. Fortunately since they were going with the natural curving shape of the log after this part was finished it would the rest of the work would be evening out the wood till it was smooth as one of the boards in the shop. He just had to trim off the outer angles so that there was a nice semi-circle across the top like on Randal’s blank.

To do this he kept his chisel diagonal pointed towards the triangle of wood he wanted to remove. Then after hammering it a couple of times to get the chisel worked in, he would hammer the back of it harder so that a bit of the wood split off each time. Then he would hammer again to work it a little deeper before repeating. Every time he did so he got a little closer to making his board look like Randal’s, chipping away slowly so that he made sure to do a through job of it.

WC - 578

[Cleon]

It was harder than the wood they usually worked with so Cleon had to really put his back into it. The wood was sturdy and didn’t want to break easily though when it did it split cleanly which was nice. That made it slightly easier to shape to his expectations but still the effort involved had him taking frequent breaks to admire he shape slowly forming before him.

When he had roughly the same shape on one side he moved on to the other, starting with the edge and working his way back until he had a curve that roughly lined up with his other one. As he did his strikes were coming slower, but gritting his teeth he tried to push past the burning sensation in his arms as put every last bit of his energy into driving the chisel firmly into the edge of the wood, flaking it off bit by bit as it slowly matched the curve he had made earlier.

By the time he had nearly finished, his wrists were beyond numb, and his fingers had a dull ache to him that wasn’t there before. Once this was all over and he was back at the inn, he was going to have a nice long soak in the bath to try and ease some of this soreness. That thought heartened him enough to finish the rest of it, working his chisel into shallower cuts along the curve of the log when he desired a gentler curve to his slope.

It wasn’t something he had done intuitively at first, but watching Randal in the shop this season had done a lot to advance his knowledge in the art of shaping wood to put together. Shallower dips with the chisel lead to smaller, more precise bits being carved off the log although he certainly didn’t get it right every time. Not even close.

Often times it was not enough, but when it was more than he intended he head to go back further up to even it out by attempting a nearly vertical strike so that he struck off a sliver each time till that bit matched with what he was going for on the rest of it. It made his attempts take a lot longer than Randal’s who was already charring the sides of his Koa wood log while Cleon was just now finishing up with shaping his blank.

When finally he had his rough curve finished, he took a step back to see his handiwork. It wasn’t pretty, and it definitely wasn’t even, but Cleon didn’t think he could raise his chisel to correct the issue even if he wanted to. His arms were beyond tired, and he barely managed the effort it took to drag himself over to where Randal was, his arms hanging down uselessly at his sides while the chisel and ax dangled from his hands.

It was then that he recalled the charm on his wrist that had started to feel different several days ago, about ten days after he first activated it. He had an inkling of what that meant then, but really hadn’t needed to use it until now, and from the way that Randal was looking at him with a vaguely disappointed expression at his handiwork with the blank, Cleon felt like he might indeed need to use it.

WC - 560

[Cleon]

Grade Award!

Cleon:

Skills:

Carpentry: 5
Endurance: 2
Observation: 3
Surfboard Making: 5
WS: 1


Lores:

Randal: Disappointed about Cleon’s self control
Carpentry: Using pegs to split a log
Surfboard Making: Splitting a Koa log
Carpentry: Driving a wedge
Surboard Making: Chipping the bark off of a Koa log
WS: Avoid eating anything you can’t identify
WS: Avoid plants with white or yellow berries
WS: Avoid plants with thorns
WS: Avoid plants with clear or shiny leaves
WS: Avoid plants with leaves in groups of three
WS: Avoid plants with umbrella shaped flowers
WS: Avoid plants with seeds inside a pod or beans
WS: Avoid plants with milky or discolored sap
WS: Avoid plants with an almond smell
WS: Avoid plants with a bitter or soapy taste
WS: Avoid mushrooms
WS: The universal edibility test
WS: Try sticking to fruits that are easily identified
WS: Insects are a viable source of protein
WS: Avoid insects with bright colors
WS: Avoid insects with a pungent smell
WS: Avoid insects that can bite or sting
Surfboard Making: Shaping a wooden blank
Carpentry: Stripping a wooden blank

Feel free to pm me with questions or concerns about your grade, and don’t forget to edit your grade request!