define('WP_CACHE', true); Chapter 66: Bridge Makers – Crossed Paths – Logs

May 14

Chapter 66: Bridge Makers

Chapter 66: Bridge Makers

In Which One Does Not Merely Walk Across The River.

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Arrin Woodgreen: The duo make surprisingly good time for the day, and as it begins to grow dark out, they start to hear the noises of work beasts up ahead. Soquan turns to Jozra with a broad smile. “Sounds like we’re almost there.”

Yazeth: The ferret nods, more than ready for a rest but too stubborn to admit it to herself, much less Soquan. “Sure sounds like it. Hopefully they’ve got the important parts of the bridge done.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He smiles and speeds up his pace just a bit. “You want to do the talking with these guys? Or do you want me to?”

Yazeth: Jozra smiles a little and stifles a would-be cough. “How about we figure that out when we get there?”

Arrin Woodgreen: The otter stops suddenly grabbing his companion’s arm gently to stop her as well. He gives her an almost mischievous grin. “If you’re willing to play the pity card, I think I have a plan to get us across…”

Yazeth: The ferret cocks her head, more than curious. “Do tell.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He smirks a bit. “Well, if I show up on the site, carrying a poor, exhausted ferret maid, and asking for a way a cross so the poor girl can rest for the night, don’t you think that they’d let us across?”

Yazeth: Jozra stares at Soquan blankly for a second and then begins to laugh. “Hoo! Soquan, you are a genius. Let’s do it.” To the tired ferret, the path of least resistance is more than acceptable, even if she does have to show weakness.

Arrin Woodgreen: He beams at his friend and reaches out a paw. “Pass me your pack so I can double-pack our things, then you can climb on up.”

Yazeth: The ferret shrugs out of her pack straps, taking a moment to untie the feather and carefully push it up her sleeve as she’s not quite sure how the workers would react to that, if they even recognized it.

Arrin Woodgreen: He takes the ferret’s pack and adjusts her straps so the pack fits over his. With that done, he turns his attention back to her. “Ready?” He waits for Jozra’s conformation before stooping slightly and gathering her in his arms and straightening again.

Yazeth: As a finishing touch, the ferret musses up some of her head fur, leans her head on Soquan’s shoulder and lets her eyelids droop. “Let’s go.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He snickers softly as he starts walking again. “Those workers won’t know what hit ’em. Oh wait, just one more finishing touch…” He frees a paw just for a moment to move a piece of cloth that had been tied around his neck to up over his eyes. “As long as we’re playing the sympathy card, we might has well milk it for all it’s worth ‘eh?”

Yazeth: The ferret raises an eyebrow at this but plays along, giving the occasional direction the otter might need.

Arrin Woodgreen: He drops his grin as they grow closer to the group. “Hello up there! Can any of you guys give my friend and I some directions? We were told we could find away across the river down here.”

Yazeth: The ferret blearily looks over the group of workers, observing them a lot more actively than it seems she is. A burly fox wipes his paws on his already dirty pants and looks to his crew. “I’m not sure who would have told you that… The bridge has been out for some time now.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He frowns sadly at the fox. “Really? Do you know a place where we could cross then? My friend here pushed herself pretty hard today, and we wanted to get across before we stopped for the night.”

Yazeth: The ferret smiles weakly at the crew of worker beasts. A rat stands and brushes saw dust off of himself. “Well, there is a fallen tree a few miles downstream. Me an Dross used that to get to the other side and set the…” He waves his paws, dismissing the more technical aspects of bridge building. “It should get you across but I wouldn’t advise it if you’re tired.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He gives the group the beast pleading look he can with a piece of cloth over his eyes. “Is there any way we could cross here if you have the basic structure up?”

Yazeth: Most beasts within hearing range turn to look at the ‘basic structure’ of the bridge. After sizing it up for a moment, Jozra whispers to Soquan. “It’s pretty basic… They’ve got support pilings up and some cross braces on but other than that it’s scrap wood and guy lines. It looks like they’re only just starting on the main beams.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He leans down to whisper to her, making it look like he’s fussing over her. “It’s up to you if we cross here or screw it and go down to that log that rat was just talking about.”

Yazeth: As the ferret turns to take a second critical look, the rat apologetically speaks up again. “I couldn’t let you go across here in good conscience. Elian fell in just this morning trying to cross here to set the guy lines, and he’s a squirrel.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He gives the rat a friendly grin. “And I’m an otter, it’s nothing to me if I fall, I’ve already been acquainted with this river much more than I want to.”

Yazeth: Any other time, Jozra would be more than up to the challenge of crossing here but the memory of her last experience with the river is too fresh in her mind and the actual span of the bridge is little more than planks nailed haphazardly across the pylons sunk into the stream. “Maybe, maybe that’s not such a great idea, Soq.”

Arrin Woodgreen: Soquan looks down at the ferret in his arms and nods once before turning back to the construction beasts. “We’ll be going then. Thanks for your help.”

Yazeth: The fox waves and turns back to his work while the rat nods and says. “Sorry we couldn’t be more help. Next time you come this way, the bridge should be complete.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He nods and starts to head off before stopping and turning back to the group. “Hey, you guys use cement right?”

Yazeth: The rat turns back to the pair. “To secure the beams on the land sides, sure.  On smaller bridges we use it on the pylons to, but that didn’t work here. We just had to make the pylons bigger and drive them in deeper.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He nods. “If you could somehow get some support pylons in the water and get it secured at the bottom of the river, it would allow more flexibility and support during flooding season.”

Yazeth: The rat nods. “That’s what we were thinking. I suppose it must be said that it’s no surprise we lost the other bridge. It was quite old.”
The fox grins a little. “Rotten too.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He smiles. “If you could suspend it without too much underneath support, that would be a big help most likely. Anyway, we must be on our way. G’night.” He moves to walk away.

Yazeth: At the otter’s parting words, the rat and fox look at each other, the bridge, each other, and back down the path Soquan and Jozra took. Finally, the fox ventures, “Y’know, we never really looked Dross’ sister’s blueprints.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He chuckles softly as he hears theses words, and once out of sight he murmurs quietly to her. “Comfortable sweetheart?”

Yazeth: Jozra flushes at Soquan’s words and veers the topic to the more practical. “What do you think of an early dinner? We can cross that tree in the morning.”

Arrin Woodgreen: “Early dinner sounds wonderful m’dear, just say when you’ve spotted a nice place to bed down for the night.”

Yazeth: The ferret nods, fingering the end of the feather still in her sleeve. Not too much longer later, she notices a small hill off the path, dented on one side and screened by shrubs just starting to leaf out. “That looks like a good place there, Soq.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He smiles and veers off in the direction she pointed out and once at the spot he sets her down gently. “There you go Joz.”

Yazeth: Jozra crouches where Soquan set her for a moment. If it were anybody else, she would have snapped at them for handling her like a fragile glass statuette by now. She spots some promising firewood and drags it into the center of the hollow. “Why don’t you get dinner started? I’m pretty hungry.”

Arrin Woodgreen: Soquan nods slowly and sets down their packs to start rummaging through them. “What do you feel like eating tonight, sweetheart?”

Yazeth: The ferret shrugs offhandedly as she piles kindling in her makeshift fire-pit. “Anything we got sounds good.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He decides on heating up some of the soup that Joseph had packed up for them, and once a fire is going, he puts it on to heat.

Yazeth: Soon the soup is warm and then eaten and it’s not too much longer before the sky turns towards shades of black and Jozra is yawning, sitting near the fire wrapped in her cloak. “Hrm, no stories to read tonight, Soq. Guess we’ll just have to call it a day and start again tomorrow.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He looks over at her from where he’s packing up their meal things. “Right then. You want me to dig out a place for us to sleep?”

Yazeth: The ferret stifles a yawn. “If you like, Soq.”

Arrin Woodgreen: He snickers softly and expands a bit of a natural curve in the ground. After that’s done he walks back over to her and smirks slightly before gathering her up like earlier and moving her to their ‘bed.’

Yazeth: The ferret mutters sleepily and draws her cloak up around her, snuggling into the ‘bed’. “Goodnight, Soq.”

Arrin Woodgreen: Soquan grabs his own cloak and joins the ferret on the ground, lying close to her. “’Night Joz.”

Yazeth: For a while, Jozra’s mind continues to run as she snuggles there, eyes closed. Soquan’s sweet and all but the constant kid-glove handling was beginning to get on her nerves a little. Granted, sniggered a little voice in the back of her mind, you kind of need to be handled that way. Awww, little delicate Jozzy… The ferret angrily dashed those thoughts and concentrated on the road ahead until she drifted off to sleep.

Arrin Woodgreen: Settled snugly behind the ferret, Soquan relaxes, dozing in and out of consciousness for a while before dropping off to sleep.

Yazeth: The night wears on and the stars dance their way across the sky. A few hours before dawn, Jozra’s otherwise dreamless sleep suddenly takes a turn for the worse. As most of her dreams began, this one started with flames. Behind her, Azrun knocked another arrow and let fly. Something was different, though. It took a while for the dream Jozra to realize there wasn’t any snow on the ground. With that realization, the dreamscape shifted wildly.
The town of Ostoria faded away to be replaced with another, unfamiliar town and many well-armed beasts. A squirrel came too close and the fox pegged him in the ear with the end of his bow but that didn’t stop the second and third and fourth. Azrun was soon overwhelmed and dragged off while Jozra could do nothing but watch, her attempts to aid him restrained by some dream physics. AZRUN!

Arrin Woodgreen: Soquan is jerked out of sleep by his companion’s distressed cry after a moment of listening for the usual whimpers and crying that usually accompanies the ferret’s nightmares. He settles back down behind her, nuzzling Jozra’s shoulder gently while doing so.

Yazeth: Jozra’s own cry didn’t wake her and she continued to struggle against whatever was keeping her from helping the fox for a while before realizing that she should, and more importantly, that she could wake up. Hazy dimness greeted her eyes as she opened them and the night began to give way to morning.

Arrin Woodgreen: The otter is still fast asleep at this point, still curled around the ferret with his muzzle pressed into the back of her shoulder while he snores softly.

Jozra

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