Scarburg Meadhall

[Firefoot]

By the time they had returned with the ridgepole, Cnebba and Garmund seemed to have gotten the rope situation figured out, so Léof left the business of the ridgepole to the others and headed over to them. He counted out the lengths of rope with some help from the boys, but in the meantime he became aware of the discussion Stigend was having with Eodwine some ways away. It only registered vaguely with him until he saw Thornden hurry over, and Léof then realized by their stances and gestures that something was not quite right. Had Stigend noticed something back there at the ruins? Well, it wasn’t any of his business, and hardly his job to interrupt, but maybe he would ask about it later… if it came up.

Now it was his job to secure the horses – and the other livestock. Of course, how had he forgotten? The four cattle would be easy, he could tie them up with the horses. And the pigs could be roped down somewhere… but what did one do with chickens?

As he was pondering this Eodwine approached him. "You will need more hands to help you. How many do you want?"

Help, he had forgotten about finding some help. He would have remembered it shortly enough, once he figured out what he was doing. “Two ought to be enough,” he said. He paused. “Two people, that is, not two hands.” Was that supposed to be a joke?

“Yes, of course,” answered Eodwine, who didn’t quite seem to catch it.

“I was thinking that Lys should be available,” Léof offered.

“Yes, find him. And I will find someone else for you,” said Eodwine.

“Thank you, lord,” said Léof, and they parted ways. He looked around for Lys, spotted him in short order, and headed in that direction, wondering how long it would be before this place found some semblance of order.

[littlemanpoet]

Eodwine picked out one of his newer men at arms and told him to help the ostler set up things for the animals. That done, he walked around a bit, here and there, to get a sense of everything everyone was doing.

There were Stigend and Garstan busy with the baker. Garmund and Cnebba had gotten all the rope needed and were bringing it to Léof. Frodides was busy giving orders left and right to Kara, Ginna, Rowenna and Modtryth, all of whom were staying at least up with her orders if not running ahead of her. It was impressive to watch. There was Javan sitting where he'd been put, looking miserable.

Where was Thornden? Eodwine looked here and there. Maybe he had headed off scouting out the grounds. Eodwine walked around to the back side of the ruin, but Thornden could not be seen from there. Eodwine peered into the mess, wondering where the dead mother and child were in the midst of it all. He forced down an urge to go look.

He cast his eyes out over the distance, to the borders back out front, and saw a tall sapling quivering amid the dead calm of the other trees. What? He looked closer. Somebody was trying to chop it down! No! Eodwine didn't want any of those trees chopped down! Who was doing it? Eodwine ran; maybe he could stop him.

But no, the tree started to fall before he had gotten halfway there.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" he yelled.

"My lord?"

Eodwine stopped. It was Thornden, of all people. Eodwine started walking toward him.

"Thornden, please don't chop down any more of these trees. Look around you - there are so few here abouts. I want all the rest of these to stay where they are."

[Nogrod]

Building a baker was something Stigend had learned when he was about the same age as Cnebba was now. His father had built one with him back then showing every trick there was to making it good. After that Stigend used to build bakers every youthful summer he had. They were his own hide-outs, the places he could call his, where he could be on his own. But this one had a bit different proportions. It was going to be a huge baker. Stigend had to sit down and make some calculations before he was ready to start dealing instructions.

Finally he stood up and called for everyone around to come closer.

"Okay people. Let's begin with this ridgepole for it's the toughest one." He glanced at the huge log that lay on the grass. "The rest should be quite easy."

He turned to Garstan and Harreld. "How's your climbing?"

Harreld nodded but Garstan seemed a bit insecure. "I'm not a squirrel but... I'll make it."

Stigend gave his friend a short laugh even if he was a bit worried. Fitting a ridgepole of this size high up there was no laughing matter and Stigend knew it. Suddenly he saw Léof and Lys walking past them.

"Léof!" he called him. "Do you climb?"

Léof stopped and turned. "I do, why?"

"Could the lines wait yet a few moments? We'd need someone to take the third tree. And we need confident climbers..."

Léof glanced at Lys. They nodded to each other and came forwards.

"Good. Garstan you should be the overseer down here. That's okay to you?"

"That is fine." Garstan looked openly relieved.

Then Stigend turned towards the two boys standing idly around. "Garmund and Cnebba! You should take the first round though. Take three of the longest ropes, one to each of us and also one shorter for me as well."

As the boys went on picking the ropes Stigend told the others what they would do. "Garmund and Cnebba will take those two where we can use the locks of the lowest branches and will carry the rope over them. I'll take that one where we need to let the pole hang on a rope. Meanwhile you should tie the ridgepole to the loose ends of the ropes we're carrying up so that when the kids are back down here you can pull the pole up. When it's high enough tie the ends somewhere and then you Harreld and Léof should both climb your own trees. We'll fit the pole to it's place up there. Any questions?"

[littlemanpoet]

It was useful being half the size of all these Big Folk, and twice as quiet into the bargain when he chose to be. It was easy to ignore hobbits, especially when they wanted to be ignored.

Falco had put away his pipe and kept out of the way. Once everybody was set to some sort of work or another, none had thought for him, especially with that silly Javan around to draw everyone's attention away.

Hobbits are good climbers as a rule, but this was heavy work these Big Folk were doing up in the trees, and it would have been more than he could manage with his small size.

So he strolled nonchalantly out to the front of the land, this place called Scarburg, and had a look-see. It was quiet. The breeze was mild, blowing from the west across the land. If land you could call it. It reminded Falco of the part of the Shire just west of the Brandywine, the land all swampy and the roads built high so they wouldn't get flooded. Except this land was swampy without the roads being high, and Falco bet that they did get flooded when there was enough rain. Then again, was there enough rain? It seemed a dicey place to try to make a go of farming and what not. He started down the lane with an eye to scouting the perimeter. He would have to be extra careful when he came to where Thornden was chopping down that sappling, as Eodwine had headed that way, and Falco did not want to be seen. Not right now.

[Folwren]

Thornden stayed his axe and looked up. The eorl’s voice was at first almost unrecognizable. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?” Thornden turned and rested the axe head on the ground, waiting until the man running towards him came fully into view.

“My lord?” he said, not quite sure of it.

“Thornden,” Eodwine said, slowing his pace and walking forward. “Please don’t chop down any more of these trees. Look around you - there are so few here abouts. I want all the rest of these to stay where they are.”

Thornden looked at him, still confused, and feeling slightly exasperated. Eodwine was acting very oddly today and now his order made no sense. “What do you want me to do, then?” he asked finally. “What would you have us build with? Dead sticks?”

[littlemanpoet]

"With stones. The Scar is filled with stones, large and small. I fear we have no stone hewer by trade, and it would help if we did, but I want the new Hall to be made of stone. We can cut our wood from out of the swamps. I know it will be harder, but I would not have this land be more desolate than it already is."

Thornden looked at him questioningly, almost as if he was not certain his lord was in his right mind.

Eodwine heaved a frustrated sigh. "This is not something I have dreamed up in the last hour. I have given thought to this much since the King first commanded me to come here."

[Folwren]

Thornden was sorry and a little ashamed of his shortness with Eodwine. He finally looked down, away from the eorl’s face and stepped back, relaxing his posture slightly. But he still didn’t know what to say.

“I suppose,” he said slowly, “if you have thought of it for so long, then you must have some plans for how it is to be carried out.” He personally could not see it, though – not with the people they had. To build a house of stone would take masons, men who knew how to carve the rock and lay it. “But we will think on that later. I am cutting this for what Stigend is building now, my lord. To house us until your hall is built. You will forgive me this tree, at least?”

He knew Eodwine would, but in the back of his mind, he was wondering what he would tell Stigend and Garstan when he returned to tell them that he could only get this one tree. Would it be enough? What else would they use for beams across the roof? Would this and the main ridgepole be enough? Well, they would decide. Thornden knew little about building and he was there merely to be told what to do and to put his hands to use when he could.