27 Day of Summer 509 AV
At twelve years of age Rena of the Tideskipper Pod was remarkably focused, her blue-green eyes focused on the old piece of leather in her hands. Most Svefra her age couldn't be bothered sitting that still for as long as she had, but most of them didn't have an annoying vision every time they slept either. Having an idea haunt your nights did wonders for your overall focus. Placing the old cloth on the ground before her, Rena picked up a newer piece of soft leather and placed it on the wooden board in her lap. A thin flexible piece of wood, a ruler, and a hunk of charcoal made up the rest of her equipment.
With a determined look on her young face the girl picked up her tools and began to work, glancing between the old leather and the new as she began to mark out points with the charcoal stick, measuring distances with her ruler, and joining dots with curved lines by following the carefully placed piece of wood. As she worked it became more and more obvious what she was doing, the shape of a keel appearing in her lap as she sketched, transferring the old and damaged Casinor plans onto a new piece of material for safe keeping. The old one was becoming damaged enough that it needed to be transferred, and her uncle Remiran had entrusted her with the important job of copying the plans down.
Of course, charcoal was a horrible medium for keeping permanent record, and her uncle fully intended to double check her work before he put precious ink down to make the design permanent. Still, it was a big step for the aspiring Shipwright, and no amount of pestering by her young Tavan would tear her attention away from the meticulous strokes that she needed to make in order to copy the plans down exactly as they were.
Keran, the Sea Otter that had claimed her as his own, wasn't the most energetic of creatures (which suited her quite a bit) but he didn't like being ignored and he hadn't eaten in a while. It was only when the baby Otter tugged at her elbow enough to almost result in her messing up her sketch that she reached into the bag nearby and tossed him a strip of dry fish to leave her alone. Normally she might have given up and spent some time with the adorably fluffy creature, but today she had more important things to do.
It took her almost two hours to properly copy down the plans, and when she looked up she realised that her family had moved onto the beach and set up temporary camp. There would be a feast of some sort soon, but she wouldn't be distracted from her main goal. Remiran had already set up the pegged stretch of beach and materials needed to start work on the very first vessel that she would get to help build. Wandering over to him, she silently handed the large man the plans she had sketched, staring down at the wood and gridded sand that was spread out before them, soon to become a boat.
Granted, it was to be a rowboat, but that was a big step for the little girl, another step to realising her goal.
by Rena Tideskipper on June 15th, 2014, 10:18 am 