Hunter Or Huntress

As the days wore on, a routine started to settle back in at the snow-covered keep. Rachuck would get his sparring practice as well as some pointers on making their shutters a little less removable from the visiting break in specialist. The gifts for the children were made ready, and on the fourth day Tom could declare the first LEGO set yet devised upon a foreign world complete. Rachuck had even found the time to carve some very basic little figurines to serve as people.

It had all been wrapped up in some greased packing paper which they had liberated from Edita's store/bedroom while the artificer slept perfectly still. It was quite eerie in Tom's opinion how she just lay there lifeless while they rummaged around. Part of him almost expected her to sit up with a start and ask if she could help them with something.

While Nik and Elsara had picked up the slack on the LEGO project, Tom had spent some time making good on his promise to provide them with a wayfinder and a few other small things. He used the electric motor from the mill to provide the magnetism as he prepared the needle. He wasn't quite sure what a wayfinder made in the capital looked like. He knew jewelers were involved in making the casing, which might help explain the exorbitant price tag Elsara had described. But he was lazy and no good with hand shaping plate, so he cheated and just used the lathe to turn away some brass to make a fairly pretty little pocket compass.

His largest issue was the glass covering for the dial itself. He had tried his best to turn and grind a piece. All he had gotten for his troubles was a bunch of very expensive shattered window glass, which he was quite certain Nunuk would have an opinion on when she awoke. Or perhaps Dakota, she had pretty much taken over the economics of the keep. He did wonder if perhaps next year would be Nunuk's last as lady, but for now she still had the final say.

Having admitted defeat he resorted to his books and digital files, spending hours trying to find anything on just how to cut a circle in a piece of glass without being such an idiot. The closest he found was a diagram for using a diamond cutter on a string to scratch a pane before cracking it with a small plastic hammer. He had neither, but he did have mithril and adamantine.

When Rachuck had stuck his snout in to ask if Tom would be joining them for the day's sparring practice, the human had been busy with lighting a small fire in the forge so he could get the adamantine hot enough to work.

"Why are you lighting a fire, Tom? We do not want to thaw the keep yet."

"No no, it's just a little fire to heat this up," Tom explained, holding up the small piece of adamantine he had gotten from the stash. "I am making a glass cutter to make the top glass for their wayfinder."

"Their?... Oh of course, how could I not guess you had promised them gifts to keep them in line. Would some gold not have sufficed?" the captain questioned almost mockingly.

"This is more efficient. Would you believe they are selling these for 25 gold back in the capital?" Tom retorted, not taking his attention away from the struggling flame.

"Excuse you?"

"No, I'm serious. I could make like 10 of them in a day if that was what we were after. So yeah, I'm making a glass cutter."

"I see… proceed," the captain replied, shutting the door once more, suddenly happy to leave the human in peace. Tom chuckled to himself as he tried to blow on the flames a little, which just caused them to go out.

"Dammit. Still, I got out of sparring practice for the day… right now, burn you bitch. I know it's cold and wet, but we ain't got time for that," Tom cursed to himself as he started to blow on the embers, but they quickly burned out into nothing but charred wood. "God fucking dammit. Where is Jacky when you need her?"

He started to look around for some scrap paper. There had to be plenty with all the drawings that had ended up scribbled on till beyond recognition with edits and changes before finally being discarded.

"Shiva too for that matter. I'm sure she could get this glass sorted without any fuss… Though we might need to get our hands on an actual glass artisan eventually, unless Edita is any good at it of course. She might actually have some glass tools," Tom realised as he looked towards the door, wondering if he stood a chance of actually finding it.

"Knowing her she's probably sleeping on it… no, it can't be right that I'm defeated by a damn windowpane and damp kindling. Now where is the scrap paper? Jacky isn't here to laugh that I need it."

Tom mumbled to himself as he set about trying to cheat the fire. He eventually found a discarded sketch and once he had checked it wasn't of something important he scrunched it back up again.

"... Hang on a minute… What have we here?"

Tom leant down, got out the familiar plastic jug, unscrewed the lid, and peeked inside. "I wonder how much water is in this by now?"

He gave the fuel a sniff as he tried to remember if this one had been mixed with petrol.

'Probably best not to do a taste test,' Tom mused, looking to the forge. 'But it will do the trick here quite nicely. Get this glass malarky sorted out then it's back to playing chef, let's get this fixed up in a hurry.'

---

"It's better this time," Elsara commented as she slurped up that night's portion of pasta. Tom had to agree: the sauce wasn't split, the pasta itself was nice and chewy, and he had upped the meat content considerably. It did look a lot better with chopped Jerky sprinkled over it too, which made it look like something other than "prison food" as Elsara had so kindly described it before. But that only made her compliment all the more meaningful.

"Thank you, I did work quite hard on it."

"What happened to your face though?" the young dragonette questioned, Tom ceasing his chewing, staring at the plate.

"I uhm… I don't think I know what you mean."

"Didn't there used to be a pair of brown strips above your eyes? Or were you just dirty?"

Rachuck too looked to Tom, now paying closer attention.

"Oh yes, that is most peculiar," the oblivious captain said, leaning across the table for a better look. "You used to have a little bit of hair there, and your beard, some of it is… Missing?"

"I would rather not talk about that."

"You are not sick are you? Do you feel nauseous? Trouble eating?"

"I am eating right now, Rachuck," Tom protested, putting a forkful in his mouth to prove the point.

"It would be hard to tell if you were turning a strange color," the captain carried on, not yielding as he clearly thought something was quite wrong.

"Yeah he's already like… actually what even is that? Really really light tan leather? Nah, if leather looked like that I'd leave it with the merchant."

"You aren't red in the face like what happens when you come in from the cold, what color is a sick human?"

"Green… or blue," Tom yielded, rather wishing to move on from the topic of his missing facial hair.

"Why blue?" Elsara asked, confused as she put down her fork.

"How on earth would I know?" Tom protested.

"What had dirt got to do with it?"

"Oh for god's sake."

"No, it is The Gods' sake," Elsara corrected with a shit eating grin as Tom just sighed, putting his head in his hands. "What did you fuck up? I wanna know what happened now, this should be fun."

"I burned it off, okay? Shit happens."

"What, you lit yourself on fire by accident?" Elsara chuckled, leaning back, expecting story time.

"Yes…"

"Tom, what happened exactly?" Rachuck questioned, tone shifting to slightly more serious.

"I lit the forge. Didn't do it quite right, got a fireball to the face. I'm fine," Tom sighed, trying to work out how to move this on.

"Tougher than you look aren't you?" Elsara snickered, leaning back on her bench until Rachuck put a stop to it and planted it firmly back on all four legs. "With that soft strange skin of yours."

"Har har, you best be grateful, it was to make this for you," Tom pulled the wayfinder out of his pocket and put it on the table. He had rather hoped for a nicer reveal, but oh well. "Paint is still a bit wet on the needle, but the red part points north. That's about all there is to it, and the marks around the side are for taking a heading with. Ain't got no rotating band. You'll have to live with that. I can't actually remember if the ones in the capital get that or not."

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Elsara for her part shut up and leant forwards, just looking at the small device to start with before gingerly reaching out a hand to pick it up.

"It is smaller than the ones I saw, and lighter I think." She moved it up and down to gauge the mass before tapping the glass face with a claw. "How did you do this in a day?"

"If I told you, you'd blab about it wouldn't you? I have my ways. It's brass though not some fancy silver or whatever, so you gotta take care of it. Or not, I'm not your mother."

"Brass looks quite nice when properly weathered I think, " Elsara replied with a smirk as she pulled it in closer to sit and play with, all thoughts of food forgotten.

'Well at least she likes it,' Tom thought to himself before he spoke up again. "One thing to keep in mind: It can get confused by large amounts of metal nearby, or like, big mountains. Just if it's saying something weird try to get away from anything like that before trusting it. Oh and thunderstorms, they can play havoc with it too."

"Darn, that would have been so useful in a storm. Can't have everything I suppose."

"Sadly not, I'll have to work that out in the future some time. But for now I hope you like it."

"Dude you saved us so much money, and you have no idea how handy this is for going between islands when it's cloudy and shit. This'll be a life saver."

"Well I do hope it serves you well, maybe get a pouch made for it or something. The front face is just window glass so you know, fragile."

"Figures, yeah sure I'll make like a little thing for it. Thanks man."

"My pleasure, though I would have rather kept my beard."

"I'll light the fire for you next time, how about that?"

"I am sure he would appreciate that," Rachuck interjected, looking to Tom. "Where did you get window glass?"

"You know, the stack we have sitting in the corner of the workshop?"

"The windows for the master bedroom?"

"Well the spares, I think."

The captain drew a breath and sighed a little. "Please tell me you just used the one. Those are older than Nunuk."

"Uhm… I mean it didn't use the stained ones, so that's something right?" Tom tried, electing that he probably shouldn't share the fact he had been very close to going with a nice vibrant red as that looked quite nice with brass in his mind.

"Thank the gods," the captain let out, seeming relieved, which Tom took as a very good sign.

"So what if it's old glass? I got like a piece of history from… what was it the place is called again?"

"Bizmati… Bizmati Keep."

---

The days slid on by, filled with work and games. Be it sparing or playing in the snow, progress remained just as steady as the weather. A few more small gifts were put together, mostly by Tom and Rachuck for their dearest while Nik and Elsara were put to work decorating, which they both found slightly unfair as they were still planning on leaving this place as soon as people started to wake up.

Tom had waited anxiously for another vision, but none came. By now he had pretty much deduced that the worse shape he was in the more likely it was he would get another. Not a great proposition considering he would need to put himself through extreme stress or discomfort to actually get to know just what the hell Joelina had gotten up to in the far north, which may shine some light on what exactly she wanted with the two arctic explorers.

It did at least clarify why she had been off her face on dragonweed or whatever it was they had called it. The rules must be the same for her. The more you chill the less strange visions your mind decides you need to see, and she had clearly had plenty. That did make Tom wonder if perhaps the weed was prescribed by Glazz, which was a rather funny thought.

In his own time, while the rest were sleeping, he had done what he could on the heating system, but he wasn't getting any further without help. He had also finished the design work for their new rifle, and he had even started doing some basic drafting of what was to be their first combustion engine. One day Bizmati Engine Works would be able to drive the whole nation. Or at least make it so the poor old farmer could have a proper thresher without having to get out a wooden paddle. Or just get the poor guy a tractor. He was quite sure the dragons wouldn't mind not having to pull a plow.

Production would be the limiting factor, so if he could make multiple engines with shared parts that would be a great boon. They didn't have the metallurgy or lubrication for anything high performance, and carburetors would be a shit show with alcohol as the fuel, but it needed to do… unless he started looking at diesel of course. That could run on nearly anything, even vegetable oil without much concern.

But it would of course be very heavy, and he had promised wings for Ray. Jacky would skin him if he didn't at least try, and he quite liked the idea of toying around with a gilder to learn how to fly. Even if Jacky would need to be the test pilot to start with. Then he just needed to strap a light engine to it and they would be golden. Of course the gravity would help enormously, and it wasn't like diesels couldn't fly, just not the ones put together at the start of the industrial revolution.

He adjusted the lamp on his table which provided his light. Even the flashlight was currently off limits thanks to the solar not charging anything much. Sooner or later all that stuff would die and he would be stuck with pen and paper only. He was spending his time in the workshop like usual; it was the warmest.

"Best have everything on there transcribed before it lets go completely… but with a blitz gel power supply hooked up it should be good for quite a while before it's finally time. Now engines. Nothing gets done without them. I made the little electric one. They are fine for a lot of things, but we're gonna need a bit more oomph eventually. Steam is good but cumbersome; steam tractors sucked for a reason, so let's see."

"Single cylinder, single head, pushrods, and made from cast iron for cost. It will be heavy as all hell just like any diesel. You save the injection pump though, that thing will be a bitch to get reliable. If it isn't high enough pressure then no small engines and no real power output. But fuel is the biggest hindrance if these need to get spread around the place…...

"Even if it works, it will cost on power. And the weight is too much for both… Then maybe another engine, a small two stroke thing. For tools and perhaps even flight… yeah that could be good… but it's two separate fuels to make. Uuurhg, not my problem, draw up both. Two stroke for the glider. Four stroke diesel for tractors and stationary engines. Then pray that this cold steam stuff doesn't make them both obsolete.

"Actually… if we can run such high pressures and use a more modern boiler design, like a water tube boiler, even a tiny little steam engine might be able to embarrass any of this… which would be cheaper to make?" Tom questioned to himself as he looked down at the basic sketches. Nothing here could make more than maybe 5 or 10 horsepower per cylinder. The steam engine in the workshop could manage that without a sweat if it was supplied high enough pressure. And didn't explode of course.

"Maybe… maybe I should be going that way? A steam powered glider? That seems a little bit… I guess with how light things are? There is the grav oil; we need to experiment with that… so perhaps a steam-powered airship more than a glider with an engine strapped to it. Canards or tailfins just for steering, not for lifting it. Less drag, more speed. But if you crash you have a pressure bomb onboard. Not that much different from petrol tanks at the end of the day… Fuel could be anything that burns, but it should be liquid… Yes, okay, the boiler, that is where we must start. A boiler for a glider, light, powerful, high-pressure. Let's see here…"

Quick sketch after quick sketch soon started turning into ideas, variation. Wing placements, engine types, lift cores, boiler location, different control surfaces. So much to consider, so little knowledge on what would be best.

"I should work up a design for all three shouldn't I?... Oh Shiva is going to hate me with this. Right, start with what we know. Alcohol is high octane, so high compression with weak materials, over built bearings, and hemi heads. 2 valves and copy the Americans. No one needs to know the design is French…

---

"Tom, were you up all night again last night?" Rachuck questioned bluntly over breakfast.

"No…" the human lied, baggy eyes betraying him.

"What you suck at sleeping or something? Always up when we turn in, always up when we wake back up."

"I simply sleep less than your kind. And I had an idea. Needed to explore it a bit."

There was no need to share that the workshop was now plastered in drawings and sketches once again. This idea of making a steam flying machine was just like candy to him, and with plenty of inspiration courtesy of the vaults below he had come up with several ideas which he was already eager to show to Edita. None of them were really that practical, but they needed to learn how to make a machine fly, not just attempt to copy some ancient schematic and cross their fingers.

This was what he was here for after all, and he was more than onboard with the idea. Even if Shiva would likely have an internal meltdown at the notion of just how much magic fusing she would be doing moving forward. Perhaps they needed someone else with that skill just to help out. He would raise that issue once the population thawed out again.

"Thinking about something, or simply fallen asleep with your eyes open?" Rachuck questioned, knocking Tom out of his little day dream.

"Bit of both," he deflected, scooping some porridge into his face. "Lots to think about."

"And not much time, thaw is coming," Rachuck noted in his usual serious demeanor.

"Really? Felt cold as hell last night."

"Yes, there was water running off the roof at noon yesterday. The sun is gaining power."

"It's still all frozen down here though, yeah?"

"Indeed, it will remain so for some time, but the moment things begin to thaw inside the keep we must make sure it continues to get warmer. We cannot have anyone thawing out then freezing back down again, it is very dangerous."

"Yeah, you said so. Sooo, how long are we waiting?"

"It is hard to say, but we should prepare the fires."

"And that big party you got planned," Elsara butted in. "Not that we'll be around for it of course."

"You are the ones that have elected to leave, and you are free to do so. The people of Deriva are sure to welcome you with open arms."

"Yeah yeah, I know. We ain't sticking our noses in whatever the Inquisitor's lapdog you got sleeping here wants. But like, could we maybe get a snack for the flight or something?"

"I thought you didn't like pasta?" Tom questioned with a chuckle.

"You've improved to no end," Elsara countered with quite a bit of sarcasm.

"Very well, if you get the decorations finished in time I'll make you some takeaway."

"Thanks." The sarcasm only got worse, but Tom just chuckled. This all suited him just fine, even if he would rather have kept Nik around.

"Is there anything else that must be prepared?" Rachuck questioned as he ate his breakfast.

"Well. Food, the tree, gotta put the gifts under the tree, maybe move some of the comfy furniture down into the grand hall so it's not all benches and basic chairs. And of course we need to have it all nice and warm. Though it sounds like you are working on that part."

"Yes, though I could use some help stocking up," he replied, looking to Elsara.

"We'll raid your woodpile, don't worry about it. Need the snow cleared too, huh?"

"No, we will be quite alright inside, but thank you for the offer."

Elsara rolled her eyes at the response as Rachuck paid her no mind. He had most certainly found his way of dealing with the rowdy teenager.

"Don't forget those bits you promised us either, the writing thingy and the fire starter. Gotta make those too."

"Oh, I already have some of those. I was only missing the wayfinder. I would call it a compass, but you do you."

"Cond-... wayfinder is fine," she replied, without a rude comment this time. She clearly didn't want to make as much of a fuss when they were talking about gifts for her and Nik.

"Excellent, now Tom I seem to remember you talking about a gift for all, not just all the children and traveling traders? Or are we supposed to suffer yet another round of pouting from Sapphire when she awakes?"

"Oh shit, right… Yeah back then I was banking on the heating, but I need Shiva for that. Hmmmm… I'll think of something."

"Very good, I just wanted to remind you in case you had forgotten."

'Shit, shit shit shit.'

"What, you mean our beautiful garlands aren't enough of a gift? And when I say ours, I mean mine. Honestly, who puts a dragon on decorating duty?"

"Someone who can't reach," Rachuck replied with a shrug, seeming very much nonplussed about her plight.

"I have wings and claws, thank you very much."

"Ahr yes, flight and delicate garlands, a winning combination."

'The fuck am I gonna make for a whole keep in a few days, hoooo I screwed the pooch on this one.'