[Job Thread]Forest Times IV: Maple Story(Solo)

by **Antar** on November 24th, 2011, 11:01 am

8th day of Fall, 511av.

Today, Antar was rather exuberant for showing up to work. It was a time of year where he had been told the workers went to a grove of maple trees and began to harvest the sap from them to make syrup. Each worker got a taste of the sweetened delicacy and if he could have brought a glass bottle then he would have in order to save some for later.

The deliciously sweet concoction was good with home fried potatoes, or even bread soaked in egg, and he was sure the treat would come in handy for sating his own desire for a break in the bland affair of food he usually ate. It was fall season, and that meant the farmers were harvesting crops as well. He had heard of a rumor of a festival of some sort being held every year, where the best of the home brewers saught to develop contracts with some of the bars to sell flagons of their local brew.

Yes, the white haired rogue could truly say that Fall was probably the best times in Sunberth, sans the eventual looting and thieving which always occurred of course. But then again, anyone in the 'Berth who couldn't handle that by being a little cautious was simply asking for trouble to come find them and hit them over the skulls with a rusty mallet. Such things were just 'business as usual' in this sorry sordid town.

But not in the woods... today was a day he hoped to remember, for someday, if he managed to escape the past, Antar let himself imagine what it might be like to own an estate somewhere with a garden of herbs, and a mixed orchard of peaches, apple and and maple trees. An excellent source to tend to one's daily breakfast needs of course. Maybe if it was prepared by a comely wench by his side.

'Yeah right,' he thought. With a quick shake of his head he set his mind to focus upon the day ahead.

by **Antar** on January 18th, 2012, 11:22 pm

Gathering maple syrup was a little more involving then just hammering a metal straw into a tree and just waiting. There was different sized buckets and barrels sizes prepared to hold the sweet n' sticky breakfast syrup. At least when you were in a larger operation like the cutter and carver brothers run.

He did get some interesting information though: maple syrup only came from certain families of maple trees known as sugar maples. Their wood was slightly softer then other maples or oak, and their sap was actually sweeter then one would think. A very useful element in cooking as well; he heard the carvers would sell a bit of their production in small glass bottles for rather fair profits.

Probably why they had investede the time and energy to keep this copse of maple trees, and the corkwoods one as well.

First, one would have to hammer in the new straw, perhaps cutting out where the bark had regrown around older ones. Then, came hanging the bucket as the sap slowly trickled out of the tree. Then, there would have to be the switching of the buckets, and the filling of the barrels and then placing the heavy things on the back of the wagon to drive back to the storehouses at the cutter and carver brothers.

Of course, in between such times, since sap was slow to drip usually, many of the workers spent their idle time doing other things, Antar included, though in his case it was a little more then what he was doing in the days before. He was whittling a hiking stick, or stave, and marking small bits of glyphs upon it; setting on the sawed off top a focus sigil with twisting forms of symbol's he figured to be indicative of strength, calm, and focus. Things he wished to ultimately ink upon his hands to help improve his reimancy, to do more with less of course. Using less djed meant less risks, even if he was still training hard to ready himself for future conflict. Besides, when was sunberth not embroiled in one level of conflict or another?

Around the focus sigil he was working upon trying to form the circle properly, and then enhance it slightly by other glyphs. A tenuous process when whittling with a blade, one had to be absolute careful not to cut themselves.

But no matter, this practice was for the future, and the way he worked the wood was calm and soothing to him. Besides, he still worried about the people from his pas-"Hey Anthony! Can ya' help me with these barrels!?!"

Sighing loudly at the interuption, Antar would smile and raise a hand to wave that he had heard the other worker, and he would saunter on over to the man where several large barrels full of syrup lay at the foot of one of the wagons. One by one , he would help raise them up and into the wagon bed, making sure to lift with his knees and not his back so as not to injure himself. It was a bit grueling, but soon enough the wagon had departed back for the carver brothers shops, leaving him to return to sit idly as the sap flowed more and more.

by **Antar** on January 31st, 2012, 6:27 am

Boring, all this waiting was boring.

But at least he could amuse himself by passing the time whittling.

So he did.

But not in any usual way, soon after he was done carving out the glyphs upon his latest walking stick , he began to gather small strips of wood which he started to carve into blocks. Taking extra care to alternate and begin to put something together he had been thinking about for a while. Something to amuse himself in between times and a mental exercise tool. Who knew... it might 'help' him focus during meditation. Or at least that' was something to shoot for.

But what exactly was he making?

It was a puzzle of course:

"puzzle" :

A puzzle made up of many coordinate parts, each pieced together to form a whole block. It was difficult work to be sure, but the image was present in his mind, and for greater use as a meditative tool he intended to glyph each piece with a sigil meaning peace, or perhaps serenity. He always wished for a serene mind most of all, even if he was only learning magic really for defense... and to destroy that which might come after him when it was found.

Other then that, the very act of carving the wood was soothing as he finished the first piece by craftinga small focus glyph in the center of the piece. Well... at least one part of a focus glyph. Since he was completing something to synch together he thought it best if at the edges of each piece the glyphs would meet together in an approximate whole.

This was best done by using a small file, in combination with a carver's knife to flatten out each piece's edges. The work was harder then working on something large, like a log, but easier when using the right tool for the job. He had a set of woodcarving tools after all, though Noth figured he could start buying a builders kit to practice his masonry skills on his own. He knew the cutter and carvers had some sets on hand... he should buy one today; as well as his axe.

But that would be something to consider in a little while. First he had to get back to the process at hand. Using a small carving knife he marked the first block and moved onto crafting the second and third seeing how they fit together before it was time to load the wagons again. The sticky sweet subtance was a delicacy at times, so he wondered how the Carver brothers profited from its sale... though they had to be pretty business savvy if they kept an entire grove of sugar maples. The task of moving barrels was as arduous as the first time he had done so that morning, but many hands made light the work as the old saying went, and soon enough he was settled back into the lazy waiting period..

by **Antar** on January 31st, 2012, 7:31 am

Slowly, piece by interlocking piece the puzzle began coming together as he seemed to follow the blueprint in his mind. He could envision the way the workings would interlock, with interspered ridges, much like a children's block. Yet they would connect together with odd shapes around a pair of four 'key pieces' Pieces which would form the offset spine and ridge to make the craft sturdy.

It would be offset by two horizontally alligned pieces, forming the 'wishbone' and where the wishbone intersected two "rib" blocks would manage to hold the completed puzzle in place. From there it was just a matter of carving the extra blocks once the main four were filed, notching them in an offset random way and then the edges were preparedwith the smallest straight draw knife he had to ensure things were as best as he could make...

Then out from the bag came the chip knife as he slowly began to etch the glyphs he wanted on the puzzles four main sides. Fusing them together to create a focuse glyph of wood. Soon it would be done-"Antar, time to switch out the barrels!"

Sighing, he put his small blade away and went to help out again. Pouring the buckets worth of syrup into the barrels, corking them after they were sealed, and then lifting them onto the wagons was trying work. Tedious on the mind, not in its complexity but rather in the wearing of doing the same task over and over again.

by **Antar** on February 12th, 2012, 9:58 pm

By the time there was another long break in the workload, Antar was already working fast on the glyphing of his puzzle. It was strange, because while this was just practice, it was the first time he worked with something not flat like on a paper. This was good for an experiment because it soon allowed him to see how glyphing might be useful in three dimensions.

The cube, and it's pieces provided a wonderful set of tapestries, about sixteen different 'layers' and faces he could work upon, and anywhere possible he did. Circles, focus glyphs, all was ordered and arranged in a collapsing setup towards the center of the block, each rune and sigil crafted to reflect calm and piece as the small knives scraped slivers of wood away with painstaking concentration.

The work absorbed almost all his focus because from time to time Antar would wander over to his horse where Dawnstride waited and gave her a carrot or brushed her mane amongst the boring waits between loading up. His wagon was the next to go back to the Carvers and he wanted his horse ready.

But that did not stop him from carving more glyphs into his puzzle. It would never be able to hold or store anything, but the sheer act of practice brought a sense of euphoria to him as he combined two of the things he liked to do. Carve, and draw weird stuff that made sense to him and him alone in something he might use as a meditative tool.

Just as he finished the last marking, it was time to load up and he joined the bunch loading barrels of the precious syrup onto the back of his wagon before he got up into the driver's seat. The way back to the carver's was filled with the steady sound of clopping hooves as he took things easy on his horse. He didn't want to overwork her, not with the grounds still muddy from the week's earlier weather.

When he got back to the carver brothers, Noth entered the office to speak to Keith about a few purchases, saying he was thinking of a building a house, paid his gold and then left with the items he had paid for. The trip back to the camp was another peaceful ride, the wagon left behind, though he had to stop and consider going around an altercation in the streets near the slave markets, which he did by cutting down an alley and circling back to the Aggramon fields. Taking the long way back to camp was actually faster, and there was less risk of running into thieves, but eventually he made it back in time to brush down his horse and go for supper at one of the taverns with the others.

It had just been another somewhat normal day in Sunberth if one kept their wits about them...

~Fin

"Receipt" :

by **Ink** on February 27th, 2012, 12:55 am

And in the Aftermath . . .

The Rewards are Revealed.

Ant :

Written in the ink :