Hunter Or Huntress

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Following the departure of Baron, Grevi, and Tiguan, things had stayed busy at the keep. Sapphire had been no exception, working on salting and smoking the last supplies for Deriva. When they were complete, Jarix had been sent on his last trip of the year, the young blue taking on the deteriorating weather without much concern. No one was worried. He was a blue, and it wasn’t really a storm. His crew also had very nice winter gear available, so there should be little difficulty in making the flight.

For the people at the keep, and especially Wiperna and Raulf, the relief of the goats finally being gone had been palpable. Both of them took the evening to relax a little, safe in the knowledge that no damn goat would have gotten out only to show up on the roof of the chicken coop the following day.

But not only had Jarix rid them of the damn goats, he had brought back some fruit and other assorted berries less than a day later. Nothing good or even that sweet, and most of it well on the way to being dried for winter already. That was fixable though with a simple dunking in water. Tom had given up a recipe for them to try. He himself was far too busy, so it had fallen to Sapphire to gather up some volunteers, which she did happily.

Most of the huntresses were busy, sadly. Dakota and Essy were taking Bo and Pho through some book classes on just what one could pick and what you should really leave alone in the forest. Jacky was of course helping in the forge, a job which Sapphire was quite pleased she hadn’t ended up needing to do.

Raulf and Wiperna stated they had preparations to do before things got worse for the rest of their animals, much of their time having been dedicated to goat hunting. Ray was cleaning like a madwoman, there still being quite a bit of mess left over after the last hunt. Saph really didn’t want to put further work on the poor cripple, so had left her to it.

Fengi was free though, and she wanted in. She had ended up bringing Unkai along as well. Sapphire did consider going to fetch Maiko, but honestly she had no clue where he might even be. Most likely he would be working on Yldril, which she had no intention of getting involved with. The black dragon really hadn’t taken things well after the verbal bout with Tiguan, or more rightly their reaction to her espousing her opinion so vehemently.

She had been forced to sleep outside, and had been fed nothing but salted game meat since. Sapphire had been avoiding her as best she could, but Fengi of course could not. The only work there had been for the dragon was assisting with the final moving about of materials to and from the warehouse to make it ready for winter.

The three of them had followed the strange jam recipe to a tee. Converting measurements was a bit tricky, but they managed. The important part was the ratios after all, rather than the actual amounts. The first batch hadn’t come out quite right. Apparently, their homemade jelly wasn’t quite the same as gelatin. What exactly the difference was, Sapphire didn’t know, but she was hardly a stellar cook.

Tom had also warned them to boil the jars first to make sure they were properly clean. Saph wasn’t quite sure why that would make them cleaner, but she knew better than to question the human's methods. Kulinger had questioned if, perchance, the food situation wasn’t as good as they had all been led to believe when he walked in on them essentially trying to boil soup on a bunch of jars, but he bought the explanation well enough.

At least Sapphire hoped so, else they would be mocked for that one for weeks. Especially if it didn’t work this time. As the second attempt bubbled away on the simple stove in the large steel pot, silence reigned in the kitchen. This time they had used twice as much jelly, but Sapphire thought that maybe they had gotten it too hot last time, so she was watching the fire closely. It was flickering gently inside the old stove, flames licking lazily up the sides of the pot. Fengi and Unkai sat at stools behind her, backs to the large table they often used to work dough or other larger items prior to cooking.

“Let’s hope this one turns out a little better,” Saph said to no one in particular, just wanting to break the silence as she added a few more dainty pieces of firewood. “It’s our last chance after all. No more berries.”

“Yup,” Fengi replied automatically, Unkai not weighing in. Saph couldn’t believe they didn’t actually have anything to talk about. Well she knew they did. The mood was just a little... quiet. She knew why of course, but how to broach the subject? Should she even?

She honestly did not know as she went to sit down next to Fengi on her own stool as well, all three of them watching the fires now. “Otherwise we will have to wait till next year.”

“Yup,” Fengi replied again, having nothing more to say.

They all stared for a while longer, the crackling fire and the sounds of the keep taking over. The bellows working away down below as Shiva shouted orders. The gentle tap tap tap of Kullinger labouring over gods knew what. Maybe he was repairing some of the old beds for use once more, or maybe Jacky had broken something again which required replacement. The lathe and milling machine weren’t running. Tink, Edita and Tom likely helping out in the forge instead judging by Shiva’s ordering about.

Above them, creaking beams as Jarix shifted in the greeting hall. The pitter patter of little feet on the floor as the kids ran around the dragon, likely playing some sort of game. If they had been higher up, maybe they could have heard Pho getting a question wrong again up in the library as Dakota did her best not to rub her face at the blackboard.

Up on the highest floor Lothal was taking lessons from Nunuk. Later it would be Dakota’s turn. No one was talking about it, certainly not while Dakota was around, but it was clear what Nunuk was planning. She would be passing on the blade sooner rather than later. The Bizmati family's ancestral fangblade, the symbol of their keep and those who ruled it. Sapphire knew Dakota had always wanted to wield it, but now when it was so close, she clearly doubted she was ready.

Whether she was ready or not, Saph’s guess was that they would have a new lady before the next year was out, maybe even sooner. Perhaps even in time for spring. Now she had no illusions that Nunuk was going to simply throw in the towel. She would be at her daughter's side for as long as her health permitted. But she could no longer fight, nor could she lead by example as she had always done.

The old Lady would become an advisor, much like her husband had been for many years already. It was rather rare they had need of a mage out here after all. And soon enough Linkosta would be taking over that role anyway. Sapphire knew that the two of them had been busy, working both on the things Tom wanted and that fancy book about dragon magic the Inquisition had gotten them. Linkosta couldn’t stop talking about what she had been learning and, of course, Apuma couldn’t avoid bragging about how smart she was for working so much of it out already.

To Sapphire's knowledge they hadn’t actually tried any of it out yet, but it shouldn’t be too long before Linkosta ran out of patience and Jarix was properly convinced that they knew what they were doing. As for their not-so-beloved inquisitorial friends, Paulin was spending her time doing what she seemed to be best at: listening, watching, and learning.

Sapphire was certain she would have to help translate more of Tom’s things in the future. It wasn’t the worst job ever, but it was pretty bad. She would likely also have to train with Bo and Pho. Essy and Dakota did have other duties after all, especially Dakota. Though Essy did often spend quite a bit more time with the kids than the rest of them.

Sapphire would probably be in charge of archery practice, even if the weather was cold. As long as it wasn’t too windy or raining they would go and take a few shots at the targets both on the range and from the sky.

Outside, Wiperna was tending to her flock. She always got a bit more sentimental as things neared the end. A fair few of their livestock wouldn’t make it through winter. That was by design of course. It was always a feast when something was slaughtered during winter, a brief respite from the normally boring foods. Although this year was to be different; they had a cold box now.

As they sat and watched, Sapphire’s mind long since having wandered off, Fengi let out a long deep yet still dainty sigh. “So… anyone know what they wanna do this winter?”

“Practice, chores… that’s about it,” Unkai soon replied as Sapphire kept staring into the flames absentmindedly.

“I’m gonna read my new book.”

“You got a book?” Fengi questioned with evident interest.

“Yup, something I wanted for once rather than what Apuma had sitting on the shelves.”

“Oooh, once you have read it can I have a go?”

“Sure Fen, you’ll be next in line,” Sapphire chuckled, taking a deep breath and stretching on the stool.

“Thanks… Might need to think about something else every once in a while.”

“Yeah…” Sapphire replied, silence reigning for but a moment. She couldn’t take it anymore and just asked, ”So how pissed is she?” They all knew who she was referring to, Unkai shifting a little uncomfortably on his seat.

“Pretty bad,” Fengi replied coldly. “She obviously can’t see what it was she did wrong. She just told him the truth. As far as she is concerned at least.”

“Gonna be hard to fix that. She truly believes that Tiguan of all dragons is who’s being a shithead? Nicest dragon I’ve ever met.”

“Yup… I’m afraid all we’ll get out of this is her saying what we wanna hear to avoid getting slapped rather than changing her mind.”

There was a bit more silence as they watched the flames. They would soon have to put a bit more wood on there, but not quite yet.

“Maybe you could let her have her opinion? She just isn’t allowed to do anything bad… you know?” Unkai added cautiously. The two women turned to look at him, the guy shrinking under their gaze.

“And let her do something like that to Tiguan again in spring? Come on,” Sapphire demanded, not convinced. She could see the merit, if they were dealing with someone semi-reasonable. But Yldril? No way.

“Other people are gonna be mean to him anyway. He should learn to just not listen to them, no?”

“And you think she’s gonna learn from that, how? Even if he’s fine, letting her do as she wants is clearly not very smart.”

“Well you are proving her right. She says you won’t tolerate her unless she rolls over. Then you force her to roll over, right? Like a child who thinks their parents are evil, you just allow them to cry.”

Sapphire blinked a few times. That was so soft, yet so heartless at the same time. Unkai, the goodie two-shoes, wishing to leave a several hundred-year-old dragon to cry like a toddler who didn’t want to eat their vegetables.

“I mean… that might work actually,” Fengi yielded, seeming to consider it seriously.

“Gonna be hard to get everyone in on it. You just know that Raulf and Balethon will not be able to resist.”

“Probably not no,” Fengi replied with a sigh as Sapphire got up to finally tend the fires once more.

“It’s worth a shot, no? I don’t want to be mean, but I think after Tiguan you only made it worse. Sorry,” the young guy added, ducking his head.

“Oh now come on, you don’t need to do that,” Fengi reassured. She reached over and placed a hand under his chin, raising it up a little. “It’s a good idea. I think it is worth trying at least.”

“Heavens know I don’t have any better idea, and she’ll be sleeping before too long. Would be nice for her to turn in on a high note.”

“Yeah… actually when exactly does she do that?” Fengi questioned as she leaned back, patting her lap. It took a few tries before Unkai got the memo, moving over and getting embraced from behind. Fengi might be quite small, but Unkai was smaller. They looked cute together, Sapphire concluded. Like a 3/4th’s scale couple.

“No clue, I always thought they had some control over it,” Unkai said as he got a little more comfortable, slowly relaxing.

“Well I suppose we can always ask her… or Jarix,” Sapphire offered, shrugging. "You want me to go? Let you two lovebirds watch the pot in the meantime?”

“Nah, I’ll go. Not a bad plan, by the way,” Maiko then added, the three of them turning to see the corporal standing in the corner of the room with a big ass grin on his face. “You are quite right by the way, she has learned absolutely nothing from that punishment. This might just do something. She desperately needs someone to believe her, least of all herself. Get her to doubt it all and you might just have something to work with. Even if it is a longshot. A bit more stick and some fear won’t hurt either. I will see about that part.”

“Getting Yldril to doubt what she is saying? Getting her to fear you? You’d be more likely to crash upwards,” Sapphire protested, feeling bemused by the idea.

“Now, now. Remember, the most confident people are usually the least. Just gotta crack the mask. Ain't that right?” he questioned as he turned to leave, still with a big ass grin on his face, leaving Sapphire standing there a little flustered. “Also, yeah, if they keep moving they don’t go into hibernation, it just comes naturally when the stay still for long enough where it’s cold,” he added as he went down the stairs

Once the door was heard further down, Fengi spoke up with mirth in her voice. “Do you think he was talking about you or Jacky?”

“Snip it, pipsqueak.”

“Awwww, no fun.”

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Progress was quite good at the keep, all things considered. As the weeks slid by they finished up appointing the barn. Jarix made his run to Deriva, bringing them more preserved foodstuffs and the gaggle of goats. He had brought back some fairly fresh supplies of fruits and berries which Deriva had apparently been planning on keeping for winter as the last few sweet snacks of the year.

Tom had made sure to sneak in a pound of sugar for Deriva to say sorry. He had a feeling the kids would love it. Besides, it is what Tiguan would have done, and he wasn’t here anymore. Sapphire and Fengi had managed to produce some decent enough Jam. It was hardly perfection, and it had an odd aftertaste which Tom couldn’t quite place. But it was definitely jam. And predictably enough much of it had quickly been devoured at breakfast over the following days before the last couple jars were sealed away for later.

As the temperature steadily started to drop, day after day, any and all work outside the keep started to slow down. Tom didn’t shy away from the work. When lugging heavy boxes around, even a few degrees was too warm for a thick jacket, after all.

The dragonettes could also keep decently warm when they kept moving and kept working, but it was hardly comfortable. More and more Tom found them sticking indoors and close to anything hot. Even Tink and Edita spent less and less time in the workshop in favor of the far warmer smithy as they toiled away.

Hot rocks and waterskins filled with warm water were used frequently to make it more comfortable, though it was clear to Tom that they would transition into necessity if it became much colder. Bizmati keep was hardly considered a northern keep. If Tom had to place the climate, Mediterranean felt about right to him during the spring and summer months.

That being said, they didn’t have a nice big inland sea to keep temperatures steady. In fact they had more or less fuck all save for the heat retention of the island itself, so he had no clue how bad winter might actually get. They had talked of great big snow drifts making it nigh impossible to even get down to the livestock or to go outside to fetch wood when things got really bad.

Kulinger had come up with the rather clever idea to move much of their firewood stores to the warehouse. There was far, far more space than they needed yet, and it would make it rather more comfortable to gather it up as opposed to the half exposed stacks of wood piled up against various buildings as well as the rocky outcropping on which the keep sat.

Tom was quite sure that once winter set in proper, getting said firewood would come to be his problem. Well him and Rachuck, the captain being the only dragonette here who could keep himself warm in the chilly conditions. Though burning the magic to do it was rather taxing of course.

But with all hands more or less confined to quarters and much of the work outside having been completed, where there was truly a spike in activity was the various indoor projects. Edita and Tink had been allowed to throw themselves behind the creation of the various upgrades for Jarix’s gun that they had been planning. They had all the hands they could want to assist them. Most of the crafters, huntresses, and guards had little else to do save carry on with food preparations, training, and cleaning.

Tom had taken to giving form to some of the various ideas they had come up with. He had managed to fashion a makeshift freezer already using a pair of no longer needed wooden crates with “Property of the Inquisition,” boldly written across them, which had caused no end of mirth when they were first unveiled.

They were rather simple really, a box within a box insulated with loosely packed sawdust and some straw. Inside, the top was made out of a hastily constructed rectangular metal box courtesy of Shiva and Jacky. It was to be filled with water and frost powder to provide the cold for the contraption. A simple enough idea really. Just a touch expensive for out here on the frontier.

Tom had watched the two of them hammer out the plates in record time. He had been allowed to help with the first stages of it, and he thought he had put in a pretty good effort. The change in the note of the singing steel once Jacky took over shut him up though.

But, they had a basic freezer. He had no clue how cold it might actually be, but it sure was freezing. His proposal to use it to make ice cubes to put in the water so you could have a nice cold refreshing drink hadn’t been met with much enthusiasm. Rather, they had all stared at him like he was fucking mad.

Tom had proceeded to make an ice cube tray anyway, or rather he tricked Kulinger into making it by telling him it was part of the firebox for the boiler that he was planning on trying to cobble together. He was quite sure the carpenter would be rather cross with Tom when he worked out what the really rather lovely bit of woodworking was actually for, but Tom had a feeling it would likely be quite a while before that man decided to stick his head inside the freezer.

The first time he had plunked a few ice cubes into his water for dinner had most certainly been worth it though. They had just gawked at him as they all stood and waited for warm water for making tea from the big ass pot. Or maybe it was more accurate to call it a cauldron.

The next and rather more sizable project Tom had thrown himself behind was of course the central heating system. He had really wanted to have a go at making pasta or maybe something else for the kitchen, but Shiva and Jacky had already been working on making the segments of pipe, which Tink had to spare some time to cut the threads into. It was slow and laborious work, and they had ended up with so many failed castings that even Shiva had stopped keeping count.

She was a plate smith, not a damn foundry worker as she put it, but still things did improve ever so slowly as they dialed in the process. At this rate quality charcoal might actually run out before winter was out though, which was a concern. They had perhaps rather miscalculated their stocks during autumn based on the assumption they would be forging in the forge rather than heating up crucibles of molten iron day after day.

The extra hands available had at least afforded them the added reassurance of two guards waiting with buckets in case something went wrong. It was a rather large amount of fire and heat to be messing with inside a half wooden structure after all. At least the floor was tiled, unlike most of the keep. It had been built with a forge in mind, but even so a splash or two of water didn’t hurt when something started looking a bit smokey.

The result was almost like a sauna. A very sooty sauna filled with coal dust which stuck to everything. Dragonettes included. Normally the fact they didn’t sweat at least limited how dirty they got, and what dust did stick was easily enough wiped off as long as one wasn’t dumb enough to wear something it would get trapped inside, like nice white linen.

The rather unique situation did of course result in the rather interesting problem of just how to wash a half dozen dragonettes at least once a day. The answer, rather amusingly, had been communal bathing in the grand hall, which come to think of it might be part of the reason they didn’t have any trouble getting volunteers for the bucket brigade from the guards. Normally they bathed in their rooms. It didn’t take much when you just needed a wipe down. But now, hot water was a scarce resource.

A big ass tub was brought out and filled with hot water from the fireplace behind the high table which they had used for spit roasts a few times before as well as keeping big pots warm during the meals. More water was sometimes brought up from the kitchen and poured in alongside cold water to ready the bath. Then it was a matter of in you go one at a time to get scrubbed clean.

Tom didn’t really get why the guys were excited by the idea. They didn’t even get to share the tub, but maybe it was more like going to the beach or something. And if you weren't going in or scrubbing, you didn’t really have anything to do in the hall, so it would be rather obvious you were just there to ogle.

Predictably Balethon had gotten a brush hurled at him once by Shiva when he wasn’t doing his job much to the amusement of everyone involved. And to his own detriment as when it was finally his turn, Jacky had voulenteer as a scrubber. She did a very thorough job indeed.

Tom had also gotten rinsed off in the big tub once or twice, but one day when it was absolutely pouring down he had decided to be funny. He had stripped down to his undies and run out into the rain for a shower instead, a few of the dragonettes including Jacky watching from the doorway to see just what the hell the crazy bastard was up to now.

His rendition of “Siiiiiining in the rain” likely didn’t help with their views on his sanity, but it was rather funny he thought. Once mostly clean he had run right back inside to have a dunk in the nice warm water before getting dried off at last.

But alas there was more than just fooling around to be done, and while the pipework was coming along well he did have a pair of rather sizable challenges left on the table to crack before they could get any further: the engine and the boiler.

As it turned out, his most useful source for putting together a design which they could actually fabricate wasn’t any of the literature he had brought with him, but rather Edita.

The artificer clearly knew her way around steam-based systems of all sorts. And while getting her to think in terms of something they could actually produce was sometimes an issue, there was no doubt she knew what she was on about in regards to making it work.

The final design had consisted of 2 circuits built into the same boiler.

For the boiler they had settled on a vertical firetube boiler, meaning that it was essentially a large drum standing on its end with a firebox at the bottom. Then the fire and smoke were taken up through the boiler in tubes surrounded by water. It was a rather simple design. In theory. Once it had imparted most of its heat into the boiler water, the smoke would pass back down the back of the boiler vessel, running through larger pipes through a second tank of water, this one designed to heat the keep using excess heat from the boiler.

Heat could be drawn from the steam circuit to the warm water circuit by opening a valve to let steam run through some tin pipes submerged within the large hot water tank, equalizing the two systems. In theory it should be a fairly efficient and decently powerful setup. If Tom had his math right it should be capable of supplying around 15 horsepower worth of steam pressure, which sounded alright to him.

Whether or not the excess heat would be enough to meaningfully heat the keep was a little more doubtful, but at least it should help. And if it ever came to that, there wasn’t anything stopping them from making a dedicated heating boiler and adding it to the system.

He had considered using convection to carry the water flow, but in the end that just sounded like far too much of a hassle and far too likely to quit on them without warning. So rather he elected to use the steam engine to drive a small pump. Said pump would also serve as the water injector into the boiler, which had actually been Edita’s idea.

Making the engine and pump shouldn’t be too much of a challenge. What had Tom worried was the boiler. The brazing of the internal pipework was going to be one hell of a challenge. If there was any flaw at all, it could blow a pipe out inside, filling the whole smithy with scalding hot steam. And they were using hand-brazed pipework made in a forge. One idea was to place the boiler in a room below, one of the storage rooms most likely. To minimise the danger. Though someone would still need to stoke it regularly.

Welding was completely out of the question. The only kind that would have any hope of working was tig, and he wasn’t getting his hands on pure argon any time soon. They would have to settle for old-timey safety procedures. They were gonna install safety valves and some sort of crude pressure gauge, even if it might just consist of green, yellow, red and dead markings rather than actual pressures. And they would of course need to pressure and heat test it somehow, preferably to something far, far higher than they would ever operate it under. Alas, that was a problem for later.

In the end the only one spending less time in the workshops and smithy than before was Junior. He had ended up split between assisting his father and spending time with Radexi as Zarko and Jarix settled down for some book-side lessons before the dragon had to be put to sleep for the winter. Jarix wasn’t really much for the lessons from what Tom had been able to glean. He would rather tell stories and legends to whatever audience had the time, which of course included Kiran and a fair few of the kids in addition to Junior.

Tom was rather certain that the stories were at least a little bit embellished, and thankfully for Apuma and Essy’s sensibilities much of the nastiness was cut out. It was clear that Junior was rather smitten with it all. He had been ever since he had shown up back during early summer. And with so many hands free to help in the smithy, the young man was able to spend more time with Jarix and company than ever before.

Tink took it well, but as soon as Junior was out the door, having made his excuses, it was obvious that the old man was saddened that he seemed more interested in being elsewhere. To Tom, the fact that Tink didn’t even try to convince Junior to stay was rather admirable even if it likely hurt. Maybe he knew that soon enough Jarix would be sleeping, and the chances to hang out with the cool warrior dragon would be gone. Or perhaps he was simply more concerned with his son being as happy as he could be.

It wasn’t like there were many friends to make here in the sticks compared to the capital. Radexi was the only other boy of about the same age after all. Tom had spied both Bo and Pho sitting in on some of the dragon's stories one time when he had come through heading up to the bedrooms to fetch some things. There hadn’t been any sign of summer romance between those two groups, but at least they didn’t seem to hate each other either.

Come to think of it, winter would likely be the first time they would actually have a chance to spend any sort of time together as they had all been working quite hard ever since arriving at the keep way back when. Question was, would they? Tom didn’t really know, nor was it really his concern. For him the biggest boon of Jarix holding a story hour as opposed to Apuma was that Kiran didn’t complain about going. The little guy was a bundle of joy, but it was rather hard to get anything dangerous done with him around.

The children of course still had their classes with Apuma for much of the day, so their daily routine hadn’t changed much. There was still time in the evenings for cuddling up on the bed with a laptop for a movie. Tom even taught the little guy to play Minesweeper. Actually being good at Minesweeper was a ways off still, but one step at a time was the name of the game. All in all, things were going quite well at the little keep out in the middle of nowhere, even as the world moved around them.

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