Chapter 41: Chapter 41: Work begins on the house. We must secure our home in order to keep the frog-water out

Many hammers strike away, their ringing bouncing around the house together with the buzzing of just as many moving saws. Teams of carpenters are at work, running around and inspecting every joist, joint and jutting beam of the house, replacing those that are misaligned or wrong.

 

“Over there,” says Sockel, pointing up at the rafters above the restaurant area, towards the horizontal beam that had sagged back when Obscura sat on it, during the frogs’ attack. “That one up there needs to be looked at.”

 

“You got it,” replies the now familiar head-carpenter, waving his apprentice over to climb up and to take a look in his stead.

 

Hineni turns his gaze, looking at the glassworker, who is not replacing any windows today, but he is sealing the gaps and cracks between the panes of glass and the building. It’s important to find a balance between keeping the house sealed and at the same time ‘letting it breathe’, as the expression goes. Too much air in and out, the heat goes with it. But if you seal it off entirely, moisture can get trapped inside of the building. Especially in a room like this, which is meant to be full of people. The last thing that they need is mold.

 

Mold seems like something that frogs would like. Hineni narrows his eyes as he continues his walk through the house.

 

Next, he goes to the forge. A stone-mason and her team are in here, inspecting the potential water-damage that Rhine might have caused during the night of the attack. Hineni had read about porous rocks in the library and became paranoid. If any of the rocks down by the foundation of the tower got soaked with water and were exposed to intense heat, they might crack, breaking the floor. It’s just a theory and he doesn’t even know if any of that kind of stone is even here, but they have the money and Hineni is checking off every box. They can’t afford any risks now. “How’s it looking?” he asks the head stoneworker.

 

“Looks good so far. But we’ll keep digging to be sure,” replies the orcish woman who runs the operation.

 

He nods to her, trusting in her statement as he continues his route, now heading to the bath. The usually beyond steamy room is currently as dry as a bone. The water-workers have turned the system off, in order to run their inspection.

 

Rhine is in here too, watching the water-workers carefully. “Rhine,” says Hineni, staring at the two workers, a dwarf and a dark-elf, working through some small holes which had been beneath the now dug out tiling. “Are you handling it?”

 

Rhine smiles a smug smile. He’s leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and his boot back against it. “Rhine! The river-wizard can handle a child’s task like delegation!”

 

Hineni raises an eyebrow. Rhine had heard that word, ‘delegation’, from Sockel and seems to have taken a liking to it. Hineni shrugs. Young boys are easily influenced, he supposes. Plus he seems to like Sockel. The man nods to Rhine, who nods back.

 

He heads upstairs, grabbing the door handle to enter into the long corridor.

 

Something presses against it from the other side. The door flies open, slamming against the wall, as the handle slips out of his hand. A draft of wind presses against him, almost pushing him back and knocking him down the staircase.

 

The gust dies down a second later and Hineni peeks out into the hallway, staring at the giant owl, who is blocking the entire right-hand side of it, standing in front of their bedroom door. The group of inspectors from the city, who are here today, are all knocked down onto the floor from the wind, looking very nervously her way. Obscura had apparently taken offense to them trying to get into their bedroom.

 

Hineni runs over and defuses the situation. The entire building needs to be inspected and approved before they’re allowed to open for the general public. Hineni was afraid that this would be a big hurdle, but thankfully, as he greeted everybody who came inside today, he noted that not one person smelled like a frog.

 

It seems that luck is on their side right now. Perhaps though, a little of that luck is also Avarice’s influence at play. He can’t be sure, but he has a sneaking suspicion that the god is moving some things in the background, in order to get their operation started smoothly. Not that he minds.

 

“Sorry about that,” apologizes Hineni, waving to the inspectors as the strangers go into their room to check out that the building is up to code. Pressed against the front of his chest is a small owl, struggling and flapping her wings in anger.

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“Intruders!” She clicks her beak, snapping her head around in a full turn to look at Hineni. “They disturb our nest!” she protests. Hineni turns, walking down the hallway towards the door to the attic space.

 

“They’re from the city. We talked about this,” says Hineni. She hoots angrily, apparently not impressed. To keep her out of the way, he decides to head upstairs to the attic with her, setting her down once the door is closed behind them.

 

She continues to click angrily with her beak, transforming into her half-human form. “Hineni has brought Ob~ scu~ ra~ to his secret tree?” she hoots curiously, walking towards him and pressing a taloned finger against his chest. “Many people, yes? They all want my Hineni,” she protests, looking down back towards the staircase with paranoid eyes. “They disturb.”

 

He shakes his head. “You know that we need to get all of this going,” he says. “It’s only going to get even busier, once the guild is running,” explains Hineni, grabbing the hand that is pressed against his chest and holding onto it. “There are going to be people running in and out of here all day. Hundreds of them, maybe. If we’re lucky.” She tilts her head, clearly not happy about this either. In a way, he understands. In a way, he feels the same way.

 

The two of them have been living a short, but quiet, new life together. It’s been, relatively speaking, peaceful and nice. Sure, sometimes Rhine was around or sometimes Sockel later on, but for a long time, it’s just been the two of them. Just the man and the owl and the odd, synchronized sensation that the conjunction of their heartbeats makes. He can feel it in his hands when he holds hers.

 

“But you want to get stronger, right?” he asks. “We need to do this. Or we won’t be able to keep up with the frogs.” Obscura looks around the room in the attic curiously. Following her gaze, Hineni looks around too. “We used to live up here. My folks and I,” he explains. “For a while, I was wondering if we should use this room as ours, but…” his eyes fall to the dusty furniture.

 

Sure, the room is just as salvageable as any other part of the house. It’s cozy and warm. It’s a good room. But…

 

“We can not,” says Obscura. “One must never return to an old nest,” she says, nuzzling her head against his chest. “Old nests are places bad things have found,” she says. “They wait for us to return.”

 

Hineni continues to look around the room.

 

He just doesn’t want to sleep with his wife in his dead parent’s room. It just seems weird? Yeah, it seems weird.

 

---

 

“I got the feathers!” exclaims Rhine proudly.

 

It’s the next day, work continues on the house. But the forge has been deemed as safe. It cost a few hundred Obols, but Hineni is glad to have the peace of mind that came with that payment.

 

“Great job, Rhine,” says Hineni. “The river?” he guesses.

 

“The river,” affirms Rhine, lifting a little bag. “They must have fallen off of a boat or something, see?” he says, opening the wax-sealed bag and showing him the hundreds of perfectly dry, strong feathers inside. Honestly, Hineni doesn’t really know what to say about the whole ‘river’ thing, if anything, so he just gives the boy a nod and a hand on his shoulder, praising his continued usefulness. River-magic, huh? It’s a wild world.

 

The two of them set to work, finishing the arrow project that they had started the other day. After a few tries, their first arrow is done and then, for the rest of the afternoon, several dozen more follow.

 

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