(no subject)

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

Ever seen a dwarf wrestling with block and tackle equipment, a single low-slung cart, and a lot of sizable blocks of stone all by himself?

Well, now you have. And what's more, the dwarf seems to be winning.

Fortunately, this is taking place out back, or the mortar he's using as the stones are manoeuvred into place would cause a bloody mess all over the bar. As it stands, it's still a mess, but it's an outside mess.

Come say hi!

Comments

[valehero.livejournal.com]

After a bit of rest within the bar, Isaac finds himself back out back. It is an awkward thing to see, as he stops to find himself staring at the short hairy person he had met only days ago. With a smile, he walks over to him and nods in greeting. "Hello again." he calls calmly.

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

Gimli looks up from his labours and smiles. "Hullo, young Isaac! Glad to see you- look, I've had the great good fortune of finding a compatriot to help me quarry the stones to lay in the hole you made for me!" And so he has. The foundation-stones, great heavy things that they are, are piled relatively close to hand. It's only a matter of getting them into place and cementing them in there. "How is it with you?"

[valehero.livejournal.com]

Isaac nods. "I am fine, I think." he replies, though his dirty attire and messy...well, more than usual, hair give him the look perhaps of one to sleep in the dirt several nights in a row. "Are you getting close to finishing?"

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

"It won't be long now," Gimli assures Isaac. "Though laying the foundation-stones is taking a while, as I've no other dwarves to assist in the work. Wouldn't dream of presuming further on your generosity, but if you happen to spot any others of my folk about the place, would you be so kind as to send them my way?"

[valehero.livejournal.com]

Not too sure as to what he meant by 'his kind', the young adept decides just to nod. Maybe there was someone around here that might look somewhat similiar to him. "Well, I would be glad to help, if I could." Hey, if he can win at Colosso, this can't be too hard...right?

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

"In that case," Gimli says with a smile, "I've got to get enough mortar mixed and into the barrels there to hold together every stone that'll be laid in this pit, then start laying the stones in earnest and spreading them with the stuff so it has time to dry. Mixed up as many of the ingredients as I could, but I've not mixed the wet and the dry yet..."

[valehero.livejournal.com]

Isaac nods. Okay, so that didn't exactly make sense, but maybe he gets the jest of it. The messy blond adept nods and walks over, examining everything he has set out. After a moment, the young male takes up a nearby shovel. With a quick look-over and a nod, he sets the shovel down at his feet and grips at the bucket with the dry mortar.

After a bit of straining, he gets the bucket poured into the other, then sets the now empty bucket to the side. In a few moments, he's stirring the cement with the shovel.

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

"That's the spirit," Gimli calls encouragingly, and comes over to do much the same with the rest of the supply. Better to make up too much than too little. "It's messy work, aye, but it makes for a solid start to the building... Say, I recall you spoke the other night of finding someone. Did that ever happen?"

[valehero.livejournal.com]

Isaac looks to him with a sigh and shakes his head. "Not a sign of any of them." he replies. Three adepts missing...then again, how could they wind up here, anyway? This whole place was just confusing...

With a few more stirs, the mortar feels to be about right, as far as he can tell. He looks back to the foundation set for the smithy and asks, "What's next?"

[safetyoverstyle.livejournal.com]

"Do you want a hand, or anything?"

It's a slender human teenage girl, watching him curiously. "It'll go faster if I help."

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

Well. This is new.

Gimli blinks up at the girl. "Will it, now?" he asks curiously- and then the thought occurs to him, that the Maiar could take the shapes of men if they so wished. Gandalf, for example.

Cheered immensely by the thought, he says, "If you wish to help and you've the skill for it, then by all means, be my guest." He bows deeply to the girl. "Gimli, son of Glóin, at your service."

[safetyoverstyle.livejournal.com]

"Cassie Sandsmark at yours," Cassie says, returning the bow with only a little awkwardness. "Where should I start?" She lifts a foundation stone and looks at the ground. "I've strength, but I don't know about skill. I've never done this before."

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

Yep. Maia strength. He can live with that.

Gimli indicates one of the corners of the pit. "That'd be the best spot for that one; you've found the one I meant for a corner-stone, Mistress Sandsmark. Set it there, if you'd be so good?"

He sets his part of the equipment aside and fetches instead the first container of mortar he's mixed up, and the tools to spread it with.

[safetyoverstyle.livejournal.com]

She sets it neatly where indicated, and flies back to lift the next one. "What are you building? It looks like it's going to be something solid and long-lasting."

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

... Gandalf never did that.

Huh.

"This? This is to be a smithy, Mistress Sandsmark," Gimli says as he starts in on the block with the mortar and tools. "A place such as this, with horses and armoured men, ought to know better than to do without a forge. The Bar's sorcery might be enough to bring forth iron of every kind, but there's no magic in my world to put a shoe on a horse's foot- and no substitute for a skilled hand and eye, either, no matter who casts the spells. Best to set an example of what can be expected of the work with the building itself, instead of having to spread word by mouth, eh?"

[safetyoverstyle.livejournal.com]

"I always thought so. People argue, if you just talk about it, but if you start doing it they tend to fall in line." She grins. "I always found that with my team, anyway. Can you really shoe horses? That's pretty awesome."

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

"Your team? There's more of you, then?" Gimli looked up, wiping dust from his face and getting mortar in his eyebrows in the process. "What stories they must tell about you and yours, then... Aye, I can, though it's been some while since I've had to do it. My folk don't keep animals ourselves, but the Elves I've stayed among these past nine years did. Made for good practice, when there wasn't other craft to work at."

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

"Do you need a hand, Master Gimli?"

He's outside. Don't ask why.

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

"Depends," Gimli says. "I've had the help of a young fellow named Isaac in digging the foundation; it's a matter of laying the stones and mortaring 'em, then starting on the rest of the wall-stones. Are you any good at masonry?"

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

"I'm passible, Master Gimli. Never worked with a stonemason myself, but Durnik and I helped to repair a part of the kitchen one summer."

He grins at the dwarf.

"Point me to the work and tell me what to do, and I should be all right."

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

Gimli nods. "I'm laying the foundation stones now- they're all even, for once, so it shouldn't be hard. If you can lay 'em close to one another and slather the stuff in that barrel along the exposed sides before bringing in the next stone, that'll do nicely."

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

He nods.

"Certainly."

He winces as he thinks of how dirty his tunic will be before he jumps down to start the work on the foundation beside Gimli. The first stone is a little crooked, but he fixes it quickly enough and does as Gimli said. Looking at what had been done before gives him a good idea and he's a quick learner.

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

Garion is lucky. He's clean-shaven. The only reason any of Gimli's garb will escape this day unscathed is because the beard is in the way- even if it is heavily braided to take up as little volume as possible.

"My thanks for the assistance, by the by," says Gimli as he sets to work on a stone of his own. "I'd not been looking forward to doing this part with only my own hands, but there's no other dwarves here that I might ask."

[wellthrownstone.livejournal.com]

He shrugs.

"I don't mind. I miss simple work like this sometimes. It's part of why I enjoy my job bartending. Simple and satisfying."

[fire-of-mahal.livejournal.com]

Gimli nods. "Hard and dirty, but honest," he says, wiping some of the stuff away from his face. "And it'll last, too, and do this place some good- it'll be a smithy when all's said and done, so you'll have had a hand in that."