Laying Down The Foundation [Eryk, FarSight, open?]

He took a note of the silence, the lack of bounce in FarSight’s steps. Eryk was well aware of the reasons, he had faced his own depression a little longer while ago. At this time, he guessed, he had accepted the fate of not returning. Or if the Beacon tossed him someplace entirely new, the carpenter felt he might be quite angry. Fishguts, he might go on a rampage, even, if that happened… especially now that he was finally making sort of friends and putting down the foundation for a new home.

Of course, Eryk did not know the natures of FarSight’s folks. If they were a least bit hot-headed, their future might be bloody and awful.

As FarSight had fallen silent, so did Eryk. If his hands had not been full of the basket with smaller rocks, he might have placed his hand on the head of the wolf, trying to ease the worry of the beast. The silence felt odd to the carpenter, but not entirely uncomfortable.

“It’s quite alright,” Eryk said once FarSight apologised for the awkwardness. “There is always room here to be silent and mourn.” He gave the younger wolfrider a sad smile, knowing full well how the realisation felt like and the distress and sadness of it.

“That’s why I come here, and work so much. I’m dealing with my grief, and I suspect rest of the group rather has me busy and away than there in the cave and moping.”

The carpenter placed the basket down and started to sort out the stones — they were not quite good for flooring on their own, but he suspected they could be used in gaps, and in other things.

“Let’s haul some bigger ones for corner stones after sleep, yeh?”, he then asked. “If we work real hard, we’ll sleep deep and don’t see any dreams, or so I hope.”

“Oh yeah, I might have to come take a look at that sled first. Lemme grab some stuff.”, he said and went to drop off the water skins in the storage. He noticed the sable scampering off the storage area, probably pissed off that there was no fish or meat to steal.

Eryk made a mocking face at the critter, but thought of bringing back a small extra sliver of something for the animal. He would have to see what was available.

The carpenter grabbed his ax and his knife after he had worn a shirt over his upper torso.
“So, was it a sled, sledge or even a sleigh?”, Eryk asked once he was ready to leave the site. “About size-wise, I mean…”

He has ridden on it last winter, but he was curious to know what the stranger-becoming-friend called it. “We mainly use smaller sleds or sledges to pull stuff along the snow, but at times Kellera liked to take a whole big sleigh to the mountains, and forests. But a big thing like that is hard to steer in a thick forest or in rocky and bumpy terrains, so…”

“Hey, I am a solution-oriented person, I’ll figure something out.”, Eryk said, some of his old self-confidence shining through. Maybe he was unlucky in love, but there was no one else who could carve like he did, or build like he did. And if nothing else, they could always ask the shapers to shape some better parts…

But to be honest, he was happy to have his hands full of something to do. There was a lot to do for shelter and additional pieces, but he really did not mind looking at that sled too.

*~*
OoC: this feels like a natural ending to the thread since I am not an engineer of any kind (sob)