Topic: Hi-ho-hi-ho it's off to work we go.

Rekah Illyriana

Date: 2009-08-16 21:42 EST
Up before dawn and before waffles. She had been late to get back to Ali and Fio's home and early to leave. The promise of helping Lucky with his work had her filled with so much excitement that she almost left the house without her messenger bag..Almost.

She kept a tight grip on the canvas as she ran through the street. Slipping past, dodging around the early morning risers, and the vendors who were starting set up shop. Rekah even managed to snag a couple loaves of bread before hitting the docks.

The docks and shipyards were always alive early in the morning. Fishermen fixing their nets, prepping their boats, and those businessmen who refused to let a deal pass them by. A sweet smell of salt permeated the air, and as with any location by the water there was that perpetual dampness. This did not help Rekah's wild child look as her hair rioted in every different direction. Of course, a brush would also help with this.

Normally, she would go sit by the old fishermen and listen to their tales of the sea. That was her favorite part of the docks, outside of the ships. The stories. The ocean lent itself to a certain mystery and from that came the tales of the deep. No time for that today! She had work to do.

She took a deep breath and went to sit on the stoop of the office. The smell of tar and pine wafted through the air. But, those were smells she could stomach.

While she waited, she flipped open a book and began to read.

Lucky Duck

Date: 2009-08-19 01:44 EST
She had been waiting. Her was sporting a split lip, smoking a cigarette and waiting.

Someone, she...they....had told him that evening when he asked her what/who she was waiting for. He had bummed the cigarettes and lighter off her. However, he didn't get anything else from her....from them.

If she breaks then she breaks. The parting shot was still resonating with him when he saw Rekah the next evening at the Inn, hopping like a kangaroo, carrying a bag of fine gemstone dust. She had woken up the next morning in a barn and found herself in possession of the bag.

There is time still, she....they had said.

But Lucien wondered how much time Rekah had.

*****

"Good morning, Rekah. What are you reading there?" Lucien queried as he neared the office door, making his way with the aid of his cane at his side, a bag slung over his shoulder. Despite his suspicions about what she was reading, a pleasant smile remained intact upon his mien. The smell of fresh bread caught him and he drew a deep breath of it, as his smile tugged to a grin. "And you brought breakfast on top of that. Would you consider being hired on full-time?"

He made his way up the steps, unlocked the office door and swung it open for her to enter in, before he followed in behind her. The office was furnished sparsely with a couple chairs a desk, cabinet and a safe. "It isn't much, but...." The bag was slipped off his shoulder and left on the desk and Lucien made his way across the office and opened the blinds, revealing the view of the entire warehouse floor.

The early morning sun was streaming in from the clerestory windows, bathing the entire warehouse in a golden hue and giving the ships' frames a glow about them. The crystal blue waters of the ocean and the dock beyond could be seen beyond the warehouse doors. He smiled, glancing back at Rekah. "I'm partial to the view."

The measured tap, tap, tap of his cane marked his retraced steps to the desk and he reached into the bag and pulled out a thermos and a few mugs. He poured out some grape juice in one mug and set it out toward her. "Once we have a little breakfast, I'll show you the place and ...." As he filled the other mug also with grape juice, he nodded toward the warehouse floor, toward the beginnings of a hull up on a pair or horses in the far corner. "...we can get right to work."

Rekah Illyriana

Date: 2009-08-25 12:28 EST
"Oh you know.. Just reading." Her reply was purposefully vague and meant to keep the questions from coming. She followed him into the office. The place could have been decorated with all the linens and gold the world had to offer and she would have still been more interested in the warehouse view and the sparkling blue waters of the ocean.

"Mmm pretty." Whether she meant the ships or the ocean it was hard to tell because her expression was one of love. She really did love the ocean, but did it outweigh her love of ships. Who knew?

"Breakfast!? Who has time for breakfast when all that is going on?" Nevermind she had grabbed up the mug with grape juice and was drinking it absently as she watched the warehouse wake up and come to life.

"This, Mister Lucky, is one of the most amazing things ever."

He was really going to have to set some ground rules, otherwise she would be running around the place willy nilly. Rekah tended to be overtly excited in situations such as these.

Lucky Duck

Date: 2009-09-09 01:48 EST
Lucien tore off a piece of bread and his attention cut to her messenger bag, but only in passing. His gaze settled upon Rekah and watched her as she looked out over the warehouse floor. The earlier hush that blanketed the sleepy warehouse floor stirred to wake with the arrival of a few trusted hands. A couple glanced over at the office and nodded their greeting to the young woman standing there. The booming voice of the Norse foreman rang out over the warehouse floor and set the others to their tasks.

A piece of bread was offered Rekah. "We've a lot of hard work ahead of us today. You need to have some breakfast, because I won't have you collapsing on me from the lack of energy." The cane tapped mutedly at his side as he moved toward the office door leading to the floor, with one loaf in hand. "Come. We can eat as we work," he offered in compromise with a grin.

The sounds of the activity rushed into the office as soon as Lucien opened the door. "Stay close to my side and be watchful," he instructed the young woman over the noise. "I want you to have fun, but it's no fun getting hurt," he added with a nod, before leading Rekah out of the office and onto the warehouse floor.

Their path led right down the middle of the working floor. On either side were neat stacks of timber, the beginnings of a keel on one side, and hull of another on the other side, strakes ready to receive the planking. The smell of wood, pitch and linseed oil mingled with the salty smell of the sea on the working floor. The sound of timber being cut and carved reverberated off the walls along with the grunts of men's labor, marked by the occasional deep echo of direction from the foreman, and nearly drowned out the distant lash of the ocean against the shore and pier.

Lucien stopped at the half finished hull of a smaller vessel set up at the far end of the warehouse floor, near the doors opened to the pier and waters beyond. He pulled over a worktable and set down the loaf of bread upon it and leaned his cane against it. He smiled as he looked to Rekah, rolling up his sleeves. "Should we get to work then?"