Chapter 16: Ch 16 – Drawbridge 101

The tower was like a buzzing beehive when we returned. I looked at the Fekan structure again, admiring it. Surprisingly, the cats took my advice and focused entirely on the drawbridge idea, abandoning the walls. This shocked me since the Feka were very prideful creatures. I didn't know the engineering behind the floating arms of the various levels, but I assumed it was built just like a tree. Who knows, maybe it was an enormous tree at one point.

Around the base of the ramp, humans with purple shirts dug up the base and corners of the ramp, freeing it from the ground. Over centuries, the front of the ramp had sunk into the soil, a challenge that even my pulleys wouldn’t have overcome. I was glad they had thought of that, or I would have ripped my pulleys right off their mounts the first time we tried to pull the ramp up.

I chuckled to myself, wondering what else I had forgotten about. Sitting on the ground to the right of the ramp was of the gigantic fish-smashing devices. I hoped the other two were on their way, but I could get started on installing the first one. I planned to hang them from various sections of the tower's underside. There were sections of the castle that stuck out over the base level. If I hung dog smashers on pulleys controlled from the first level, we could release them onto unsuspecting dogs below as they waited to enter the ramp’s tunnel. It would only work once or twice for a sizable casualty event.

At the top of the ramp, Romas directed both Feka and a few humans. He saw me and waved, moving his paw in a 'come here' motion. I took off jogging, getting to the ramp, and looking up. "Looks good!" I called, giving a thumbs up.

Romas pointed at the underside of the tower, right over where I was standing. "I've finished the three medium pulleys," he said, looking slightly excited for once. I looked up, seeing them hanging up there in a vertical line. "They have been installed in the section you requested over the corners of the ramp. Are you sure, human? This looks strange. How do we install the rope?"

I took a deep breath and looked at the cat on the ladder, awaiting my instructions. "Ok, so you start at the top pulley. The rope goes to the bottom pulley from the direction we're pulling it over there." I pointed, the cat threading the rope through the first pulley but dropping the rope. His paws were not ideal for tasks like this. "It's ok. Swap out with a human. We have fingers for tasks like this."

The Feka looked around, their hair all slightly raised and a low growl escaping their throats. It was just low enough that it was tough to hear, but I didn't miss it. "Sorry. You're doing great!" I tried to smile, but it was too late. Ugh, contractor management is totally not my thing.

The Feka got down from the ladder, switching with the lead slave from the docks. He grabbed the rope and climbed up, pulling the rope through the first pulley. "Ok, now go to the bottom one and loop it from top to bottom. Yep, just like that! You want the bottom pulley in a little sling."

I thought carefully about this next part. "Now pull the rope from the bottom pulley around the top of the middle one. That will lead to the ground, which connects to the corner." He did as I said; the rope dropped to the ground. "Ok, come down. I'll show you how this works."

I walked over to the bottom of the ladder. "Now pick me up," I told the dock worker, getting weird looks from everyone. He did with a slight oof, picking me up in a bear hug. I may have lost some weight in my few weeks here, but I still had to weigh 200 lbs. I got about a foot off the ground, then said, "Ok! That's enough." He put me down.

Glancing back to the top of the ramp, I saw a crowd of warriors and merchants gathered there, watching the show. Now for the fun part. I walked over to the 'weight' part of the rope and grabbed it. "Great, now go grab the part of the rope we're going to pull to activate the drawbridge." He did as I said, the Feka all leaning forward. "Now pull!" I yelled, hanging on.

With a yank, he pulled the rope, causing me to fly into the air. "Let me down! Careful!" I yelled, laughing and grinning, the Feka on the wall whooping and cheering. The dock worker looked absolutely amazed at what he just saw. He held the rope in his hands like he was holding a magic wand, then glanced up at the pulleys, waiting for them to jump off the tower and eat him.

"Well done, human! Slave - what did it feel like? Was he lighter?" Romas yelled down, excitement all over his furry face.

The slave looked around, never having the authority to speak to the masters. "He was...very light. He felt like two bags of corn instead of ten!"

I laughed, knowing the math here. That was a stretch, but I was glad the worker felt the difference. My whole plan depended on it.

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Once the other pulleys were installed and ropes attached to the corners of the ramp, we started work on the large pulleys. The opening at the top of the ramp was around 20 feet high, so the rope came at almost a straight line from the top pulley to the first level. "Ok, install those lifting pulleys there, at the ramp's opening. We will install the winch, the wood thing you made with the arms, Romas, behind the big pulleys. One goes on each side of the walkway. Eventually, we can build a gatehouse. For now, we need to put these in here and here." I pointed.

The large pulley just ended up looking like the rod for a fishing pole, the winch interlocking with the pulley's teeth to turn the gigantic pulley. It was glorious. "We must ensure the two sides lift evenly, or the ramp will come up all crooked. The rope will wind around the big pulley as we rotate it with the arm."

The Feka got to work, installing the pulleys to my designation. While they worked on that, I went to the bottom level to check on my dog smashing device. On the upper level, two humans had finished cutting a small rectangular hole in the floor. They installed another pulley there, with rope hanging down. They were on their way to the other side of the ramp, a different section of tower that hung over the dirt of the main level. They smiled at me and waved, hope in their eyes.

I walked over to the fish-smashing device, tying the rope to the top. "Anyone up there to try this thing out?" I yelled. A few moments later, a head peeked down. It was the warrior from the cave trip.

"We will pull this for you, human. Is it ready for trial?"

"It should be!" I double-checked my rope. The knot looked good. "Give it a pull!"

The rope went taunt, paused for a moment, then the weight began lifting. I heard growling and straining up on the first level of the tower. Eventually, the weight reached the top, hitting the underside of the first level. "Ok, now drop it!"

I scrambled out of the way, watching intently. The weight crashed down at breakneck speed, impacting the ground with a thunderous boom. The Feka put their head in the hole, looking down. "That was amazing! We would have certainly killed anything under there!" The three smiled, grabbed the rope, and tried to pull. The weight wouldn't budge.

I looked closer; the impact was so great that the teeth had lodged themselves into the ground, making it nearly impossible to get out. Oops. "Uh, take a break, guys! Thanks for the first test!" I shook my head, thinking about how to solve this issue.

Before I could get too deep into troubleshooting mode, I was called to the top of the ramp. The system was installed and ready for its first test. Hopefully, this test will go better than the dog-smasher. I jogged back over to the pulley. A burning in my arm got my attention. Oh no, the mana bracer! I thought with slight panic. My mana now read [33/30], and my arm turned a shade of blue like the circulation was being cut off. I glanced around, deciding to combine the fish-smasher teeth with my red ore.

I grabbed a piece, then held the side of the weight. The ore felt confused in my mind, not knowing what I wanted to do. I used 'THINK', and went through the process of making the teeth include the fire magic within their metal. I cut off my 'THINK' skill, and the ore now understood my goal. I felt the ore disappear from my hand, the weight turning red. I inspected the weight.

[FISH PROCESSING DEVICE - FIRE TAINTED]

In the distance, I heard the sounds of barking and laughing of the hyenas filtering through the trees. A few howls rang out, increasing in volume as more dogs joined in the cries. I left the weight in the ground, abandoning the project for now, and took off toward the ramp as fast as I could. I hoped the ramp was ready because there wasn't any more time to test it.

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