Scarburg Meadhall

[Nogrod]

Garstan turned to Stigend for an approving nod of the shared task but he found Stigend busy staring at the line of tall trees like he was measuring the distances.

"Stigend?" Garstan asked quietly but needed to poke him before he realised he was talked to. "Did you get the briefing?"

"Mhhh... ahh..., yes?" Stigend turned to face his mate. "Do you have the measures of the canvases?"

"What?" Garstan began but then fell silent for a second until there suddenly was a light in his eyes. "You're thinking of a lean-to?"

"I am, or rather a baker. A large one if there are enough canvases. It will take time before we sleep under the roof of a new hall so why not make it right the first time? I do prefer doing things only once if possible." Stigend smiled to Garstan.

"You're right. They might fit here. So what else would we need?" Garstan asked and returned the good-willing smile with a nod.

"If the ridgepole of the earlier hall survived the fire we only need a few peeled trunks and some rope to begin with...", it felt like Stigend had gotten lost into his thoughts until he shrugged his shoulders and continued now with a wide smile. "We can upgrade it little by little you know... We might have some dull evenings ahead of us..." Stigend chuckled.

Garstan couldn't help it but bursted into laughter with Stigend following. The disappontment of the sight and the realisation that most of the task of rebuilding the hall laid on their shoulders were eased a bit with the open laughter.

But the open laughter didn't pass unnoticed and in the end Garstan had to poke Stigend again, this time to calm him down when most of the eyes were fixed on them.

Stigend turned to face lord Eodwine. "Excuse the demeanor of your servants my lord. We were just..."

"Adjusting our spirits to our duties", Garstan added smiling.

Stigend was not sure what lord Eodwine made out all of this but at least after Garstan's remark he smiled widely. "It's always good to have men who fulfill their tasks with joy" he remarked and laughed heartily, somewhat relieved from the gloomy athmosphere that had taken hold of the entire party.

"With your permission my lord...", Stigend put in while the general merriment still lasted. After Eodwine had nodded him to continue he went on.

"It will take a moon or two until we sleep under a solid roof and at least a week or two before we cook over a real hearth. So I was thinking if I myself and Garstan should build a large baker for us and a steady fireplace in front of it. It would take a few hours to construct the baker and a few more with the fireplace. We'd manage most it twosome but for spreading the canvases and carrying the stones for the fireplace we'd need a few able hands for a short while."

[Folwren]

Eodwine had originally placed Thornden in charge of the labor of building the shelter and kitchen. So the young eorlinga listened carefully as Stigend, with a few words added by Garstan, explained the process of making a baker. Javan ambled close to him, his arms folded moodily and his lower lip protruding a fraction. It had been an insult to hear Eodwine dealing out jobs to the others and then get assigned, not to work, but to Rowenna’s apron strings.

As Stigend came to a close of his explanation, he glanced upwards towards Thornden, and his eye fell almost immediately on Javan.

“You’re brother can help us,” he said. “He’s small and nimble enough to climb up and lash the cross beams in place more easily than a man.”

“That should be alright, hey, Javan? Better than being stuck with a woman,” Thornden teased. Javan gave him a hateful look and turned away. He didn’t answer Stigend. Thornden looked at him disapprovingly a moment. “He will be glad to help,” he said, turning to the carpenter. “Just tell him what you need when you need it. For now, how do we get started?”

Stigend, always polite and never overstepping his place, began to make suggestive sounding orders. Thornden very quickly turned them into direct orders and before long, everyone was at their proper work, gathering and preparing the materials to build the baker. The wagons had to be unloaded, the horses eased of their burdens. Stones could be gathered and proper trees for the baker located and cut down. The canvas and ropes were unpacked. The place was as busy as a beehive, just as it should be.

Javan wandered halfheartedly along with everybody else, filling his hands with whatever work came conveniently with no real spirit in it. His expression was angry and fierce thoughts flew about in his mind. He had been insulted and humiliated twice before everybody. Well. He’d show them. They’d be sorry. He didn’t deserve this sort of treatment.

He paused on the edge of the active group. His eyes swept the landscape, barren and mostly wild. Before him he could see the scar of rock that the eorl had spoken about. It looked intriguing and dangerous, somehow.

It took Javan less than ten seconds to decide to go explore it. Eodwine had said he wanted the new lands explored, had he not? There were helpers taking care of the other jobs that needed to be done. Javan, with a quick look behind him, started off at a run and concealed himself behind the burnt ruins. Then, keeping them between himself and the others, he started off for the scar.

[littlemanpoet]

To Javan's surprise he heard someone's feet running hard behind him. It was Rowenna, and she was catching up to him. She was fast!

"Boy," she huffed angrily, "some men may dismiss the Eorl's command," she stopped talking to run harder, her gown forgotten in her headlong chase, and she tackled him! Before he could find words to say what was in his mind, Rowenna had him face down on the ground, her knee in the small of his back. She was panting, but her grip on each of his two arms was like iron.

"As I was saying," she said, still breathing hard, "some men may dismiss the Eorl's command with a joke, but I do what I'm told, and I've been watching you, never too far away, and lucky for you it was so, for if you had escaped from my attention I would expect just punishment from the Eorl for failing of my duty; and you ~ you can be sure that I would have made you pay for that. As it is, you will now be punished for your own misdeed, silly little fool, and I'll get reward for doing as I was told."

She brought both his hands behind his back, and lifted him to his feet from the back, making his shoulders feel like they would burst form their sockets. He screamed and tears came to his eyes.

"Cry all you like, rascal, for your punishment will be harder from the Eorl than what he's given you so far. I'll see to that." With that, Rowenna holding his hands vise-like behind his back, she pushed him back to the work area, heading straight for Eodwine.

[Folwren]

She kept up a smart pace, even after that run, Javan noticed bitterly. He blinked back unwanted tears, tears he was ashamed of, but couldn’t help. His eyes were quickly dry and his anger swelled up bitterly within him.

“Let go of me, you disgusting witch! You have no right to come tackle me like that and drag be back to Eodwine!”

“Of course I do,” was the curt rejoinder.

They were drawing nearer. Javan tried to twist his wrists free from her hands, but he couldn’t get enough leverage with his arms behind him. People were sending curious and dark glances towards him.

“Let me go, Rowenna,” he hissed. “Let me go. I won’t be dragged to Eodwine like this.” Rowenna’s hands, if anything, only tightened and she gave him a sharp nudge, quickening his pace, until they came right to Eodwine.

[littlemanpoet]

"He tried to run away, my lord," Rowenna answered quickly, her grip still tight as ever on Javan's trapped arms.

"I wasn't-!" he blurted.

"Quiet!" Eodwine cut him off. "You were assigned work and a guardian. At least she did her job. You have earned yet another day of work to pay off your debt. We have no dungeon or I'd put you there. In the meantime, you will be bound and tethered between those two trees until you learn obedience. Once you have become sorry for your deeds in stead of merely sorry that you got caught, then we will see about you paying your debt.

"Garwine, take the boy and tie him up." Garwine stepped forth, chose another man at arms, and between the two of them tied the boy securely but not painfully at wrists and ankles, then took him to the trees Eodwine had pointed out.

Eodwine turned to Rowenna, his face unreadable. "I saw you there. You were ruthless."

She bowed her head. "I am sorry, my lord."

"No, you should not be sorry for having no ruth for doing as you were told." She raised her head, more hopeful. "You have done well."

Eodwine looked around at the others, who were now standing silently, watching. "That is all! Let us keep up the work for there is much to do!"

[Kath]

Kara had watched the whole sorry affair with Javan from a distance as she, Frodides and Ginna sorted through the things they had brought from the Hall. It would be a while before space for a kitchen was created but there were still things to be done in the meantime and some of those could be done on the cart.

Frodides had set herself up in the centre of the small wagon and was sorting through the various things needed to make an impromptu meal, calling out instructions as she went. In fact she kept up such a steady litany that it was only when she fell silent that Kara and Ginna looked up and saw that there was to be yet another confrontation between young Javan and Eodwine.

It seemed that everyone who had come from the Hall had stopped whatever they were doing to watch as Eodwine's usually generous nature, already stressed from discovering his new holdings to be a burnt out shell, finally snapped and he ordered Javan to be trussed up. The boy struggled all the way but got no sympathy from the kitchen crew, who fully agreed with Eodwine that he needed more punishment than he was currently receving if he was still breaking the rules.

"That boy is going to have to learn fast." Frodides stated, casting a critical eye over the furious form of Javan. "He asked to stay, he'll have to take the consequences. Now," she continued, switching right back into her job, "we're going to need some firewood if we want anything hot tonight. You two go and see if you can find some and I'll get everything set up here."

Kara and Ginna nodded and moved off, searching the immediate area for something to burn.

[Firefoot]

Placed in charge of securing the horses and livestock, Léof was at first at a loss. The stables looked unusable, and he wouldn’t be able to tell whether the fencing around the pastures was sound until he walked the whole perimeter. Trying to hobble them all would be impractical, especially if this arrangement lasted very long. So what to do? Then the obvious answer hit him: he could set up a picket line. There were enough trees standing nearby that it shouldn’t be too difficult, and Stigend and Garstan would probably have extra rope that he could use. At least, he hoped they would – builders used rope, right? He would be able to do it on his own, too, if no one lined up to help him out.

He waited until Thornden was finished conferring with Stigend and Garstan before approaching Stigend. “Say,” he said, “would you have enough extra rope for me to use for a picket line for the horses? There doesn’t seem to be any better way to secure them until I know whether the fencing in the pasture is in good repair.”

“How much do you need?” asked Stigend.

Léof glanced over the number of horses and decided there were too many to really fit comfortably on one line. “Two lengths of thirty or forty foot rope if you have it,” he said, hoping he wasn’t asking for too much.

Just then his eye was caught by Javan streaking off toward the scar, and Rowenna in quick pursuit after him. What ever is the fool boy trying to do now? He watched the struggle dumbfoundedly, his request for rope temporarily forgotten. When Eodwine ordered Javan tied up, Léof was not surprised, nor did he feel any pity for him. After everything he had done, he more than deserved it. There was work to be done here, and plenty of it, but not only was Javan not helping out, he was distracting others from theirs – which reminded him of his own duties. He turned back to Stigend expectantly.