Somewhere off the East Coast of Sylira
| “Shit Benny! How old are you now.... you can’t even lift an axe for an hour?!” Jested a muscled pale blue teenager swinging an axe atop a fallen oak tree. The muscled boy was shirtless having tied his cotton shit as a makeshift bandanna over his head to absorb the sweat from the labour. The insults and jokes were just a way to pass the time as a member of a ships crew. There wasn't a second that went by without any sort of hazing and jokes. The young Isur was an odd sight being the only short pale blue figure amongst a small group of humans doing the same type of labour. Jokes of the boy having frostbite to being an eyesore were some of the converstaions sent his way. But the boy took each jest in stride swinging his axe blade deep within the outstretched branches of the tree. It was interesting to the crew that only thirty Trios was just beginning to look more like a young adult shedding his previous image of just boy just hitting puberty. The young lad took a casual glance along the forest coastline to which the ship had took refuge beside where the water was deepest. There was a large number of oak trees being hauled along the shoreline to which the Captain had ordered the crew make use of. A previous indenture had resulted in heavy wear and tear on the ship’s well being so it was up to the head Carpenter to fix the damage. This man was of course Trios’s source of endless labour and verbal abuse, Benny. “56 and still young enough to kick your ass boy…keep chopping” Barked a burly man known as Benny who took a few greedy drinks of water all the while watching his assistant remove the unwanted branches form the tree. The man was a muscled and wide as the large oak tree, added by the fact that Benny wore a very large hat which cast an ominous shadow over his face. The handful of men that were assisting in the project began to sing as they swung their axes into the branches to the beat of the song. Trios had to admit he did enjoy it when the group sung together during hard labour, it made job easier somehow. Maybe it took the stress away magically thought Trios who never seemed to mind hard labour. It was like his blue muscles enjoyed each strain of labour and would almost beg for more work. Trios however not wanting to seem disrespectful to the song began to swing his axe to the quick beat as well casually tossing his voice into the chorus. Tell me, are you most done? Heave away, cut away With sweat all upon my knee, So clear away the timber and let the sailrigs run! Timy way-rigga jig and a daunting run, a-hey and ho are you most done! Oh the smartest clipper you can find Heave away, haul away,are you mostly done! Is the Margot Evans of the Suvan Sea So clear away the track and let the bilges run! With another deadly swing of a the axe sent a rather large branch into two spinsters causing Trios to curse as he tossed the separated branch aside before attempting to remove the remainder of the wood from the main branch. Bending down Trios snapped the other splintered end off the main trunk with his black gem like hand. “Do you need the large branches for anything?” Pondered Trios jumping off the fallen oak tree landing with a louder thud than a being should at four foot nothing. Than to add more confusion to the situation Trios grunted in effort as he pulled a rather thick tree branch a bit bigger than a young human should have been able to move. Trios's black gem like left hand dug deep into the bark of the branch as he showed the chopped branch to Benny. “I’ll take the thickest parts, who knows I could find a use for some spare wood…the rest we could use as good firewood for tonight” Grunted Benny pointing to the parts that were ok to keep. In response Trios with no abjections began to trim the large branch by cutting away the bits of wood that were to thin. Tossing the unwanted leftovers into a pile, Trios than shouldered the long trimmed branch before casually walking to a pile of similar pieces. In Trios’s mind he planned out that he might be able to craft on his spare time a few bumpkins from the thickest branches, God’s knowing that the ship could use a few extras in case rough weather snapped the old ones. Looking at the large branch Trios planned out the future project that he have to step each side to allow the beam to be fitted into the crossbeams of the head-rail. Precision wise it was pretty easy as once you tapered off the ends it prevents the fore-tack blocks from shifting and slipping. The tricky bits would be getting the eye-bolts and iron band to clamp the ends to the crossbeams. But that was where his left hand came in, Trios reckoned his could physically bend an thin iron band over the ends. That was a project for later as the teenager had known that Benny had bigger projects to get done, ones that required a bit more man power. So putting the Bumpkin idea in the back of his mind Trios wondered over to the burly human was now mentally measuring the length of the large oak on the ground. “So we making a bow sprit and Halyard with the main branch of wood than?” Questioned the Isur resting his axe looking at his mentor before sizing up the large fallen tree that lay before the two. The other crewmembers had worked fast to strip the main branch of the appendages, some men were now even cutting away the bark so that they would have a treated and cleaned log to work with. “You know I’ve never done this kind of job before right or has your brain finally rotted away into mush?” Added Trios raising a blue eyebrow to the old man. Trios did have some small experience in repairing them but actually building one from scratch was going to be something new. But not building one was not an option as the Captain had put faith in Benny’s skills to repair the now rotting bowsprit on the ship. Plus you don’t get any cheaper than free when it comes to do it your self projects. “Just get that lumber ready, leave the complicated stuff to the real men kid” Chuckled the big man pushing Trios towards the fallen tree. The Isur took this as a hint to get back to work. To his estimations it would be another hour of simply waterproofing and cutting away the bark from the tree before the interesting work could get done. |
Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drYGjH2MhFI&feature=related
You could have earned more experience in Shipwright if you had focused more on Trios' work to get things done instead of Benny's instructions on what to do. Remember that Skills are earned through actual practice of the activity, not by being told how to do the activity. 
