Hunter Or Huntress

Chapter 50: Homebrew

To Tom the days were just flying by right now, so much to do and all of it rather exciting stuff. The fact they didn’t know what a weekend was simplified things a bit, even if the fact they just worked in seasons rather than months was a bit of a mind fuck for Tom. He didn’t even keep track of what day it was anymore, he didn’t feel the need. He was working every chance he got anyway so why bother.

Shiva and Jackalope had gotten to work on the distillery, it shouldn't take the smith too long to put that together. Once again Tom had convinced her that it didn't need to be pretty. She had kept true to her word of making it mostly out of steel, it was a beautiful piece of work. She just complained that she wasn’t allowed to spend the time to remove all the hammer marks and small dents. Tom just thought it added a bit to the general aesthetic. It looked like something you would find in a forest making moonshine. The important part was that every gram of saved copper could go into bearings, cables, and wires for the lathe.

The solder had been a bit problematic, they had a hard solder used for jewelry and weapons and the like. It was silver-based though so rather expensive, not to mention hard to work with.

They used lead solder for the windows, but tin was apparently really valuable and Shiva only had a tiny amount of it in storage. Luckily when Tom had cleaned out Vulzans supply of metal there had been a single bar of tin in there. Still, it would have to be used sparingly. That was a bit of a pain in the ass. Tom had hoped he wouldn’t need to use lead for too many things, but it was not to be.

The original design had called for a copper honeycomb extrusion in the reflux tube which was obviously impossible for them to make. In the end, Sapphire and Raulf had taken to soldering small hand forged strips of copperplate together. The result was something that hopefully came close even if it had cost them much of the Tin to make. It was a bit janky but it only had to cool down the vapor as it rose so he hoped it would do.

By now it was mostly up to Shiva, who got to work on the water jackets while Raulf figured out the stove for it. They only needed Tom to answer a few questions and lend a hand here and there, so he got back to work on the lathe.

He had started pulling late nights to make the progress he wanted. The time with the kids wasn’t really that productive after all. He had never been that much of an electro engineer, but he knew the basics and he had a few drawings of some dc motors with him. He hadn’t thought he would be working with electric engines this quickly though so his information was a bit limited. Still, it should not be a problem to just scale up and modify some of the stuff he had drawings for.

He did get a bit of a scolding from Esmeralda one day when she found out he had fallen asleep in the workshop instead of with the children. He was fairly sure she had gone easy on him though for some reason.

Getting Kulinger to give him some of the linseed oil they used for wood treatment had been a bit of a challenge, though the promise Tom had brought the seeds to start making it locally did win out in the end. He was betting on the hardening oil being able to act as an insulator for the coils. He had no clue if it would work but in his mind, it should. Then there was the matter of the copper wire itself.

He had no doubt he could make it thin enough and the length would just be a matter of starting with a big enough bar and drawing it out multiple times. It would just be so tedious. In the end, he found the solution in where he was the most bored during the day, guard duty.

He designed a simple rig that could be moved around that way it could be placed up on top of a tower so whoever was on guard could be cranking wire through, he was a damn genius. The idea didn’t sit well with Rachuck who argued it would be rather distracting after all. In the end, Tom had won though upon presenting Rachuck and Dakota with the math of how long it would take to make enough wire for the motor.

So that was how he had ended up with a set of plans for what should be a small 2KW electric motor and the tools to hopefully make it happen. It wouldn’t run the lathe very fast or allow him to take deep cuts, but it might just be good enough to make something better. Plans in hand he had gone to drop in on the others and lend a hand. Not to mention seeing where they had gotten to.

The still was aways from being complete but work was progressing at a brisk pace. It was actually starting to look like a still by now as the contraption stood in the center of the room. As he had begun explaining the wire drawing bench to Shiva. Sapphire had come in to grab him.

“Hey, Tom up for a little trip?”

“Uhh sure just need to show Shiva this”

“Tom you have been working day and night for over a week. You need to relax a bit”

“We went on the hunting trip, a few days ago that was timeoff. Now Shiva I have little drills, do you think”

Tom leaned over the table to show the smith the tiny holes diminishing in size. As he leaned over though he felt something move on his head?

*Thunk*

“Oh, hi Kiran. Sorry”

“But I was sleeping”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry. Look back up you go. There now, nap time continues. Anyway, so this is”

“Tom that was over a week ago, have you seen yourself in the mirror lately?”

“Not since you all decided to make me best girl for a day” Tom replied in a chuckle going back to the papers.

“You should, your eyes are red with what I presume is blood, not to mention the weird color beneath them.”

“The kids sometimes wake me up, it’s no big deal”

“No holdey I’ll pick you up in just a second”

“I’ve got something to show you” Sapphire then went.

“What is it?”

“A surprise, now come on” Sapphire grabbed him by the arm and began dragging him off. He wondered what she might have to show him, this certainly wasn’t normal for her so it must be important.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Sapphire was glad most of the work on the big distillery thing was Shiva’s responsibility, not to mention Raulf and Wiperna being eager to lend a hand on the project. Tom's ideas to put the guards to work sat well with her too. They never did anything when on duty apart from sitting staring off into the distance anyway and it meant she didn’t have to do it.

Tom though was turning out to be seemingly addicted to the work, he just kept on coming up with more things that needed doing and he was already trying to combine jobs to save time in the day. It had almost become the norm to see him with Kiran or another kid in one hand and tools or paper in the other.

Today was no exception as she found him in the smithy. Kiran perched atop his head, Holdey trailing behind asking to be picked up as well and rolled-up parchment in his arms. The sight of Tom’s beautiful white paper getting smudged with coal dust had driven Apuma up the wall, so he had handed over what parchment he had, for Tom to use instead. While she admired the work ethic she was getting worried he was pushing a bit too hard. It almost seemed like he felt responsible for their safety following the rather disastrous encounter with the darklings.

She could understand why of course but still he shouldn’t, it was bad enough to keep Dakota from trying to save the world single-handedly. Even if Tom might actually stand a chance she doubted it could be done in weeks or months, so he might as well calm down a bit. It had nothing to do with the fact Nunuk had finally cleared her for doing a bit of flying.

It took a bit of convincing, Shiva having more questions for him didn't help, but eventually, she managed to drag him off, Jackalope following along smiling, she already knew the plan after all. He had been babbling all the way about making copper not conduct electricity. She was fairly sure he wanted copper because it did conduct that stuff, but she didn’t care. She had burnt her brain out trying to understand all those different things the world was apparently made from, so she had no desire to try and figure out what he was on about this time.

They had dropped off the kids on an unsuspecting Unkai who was washing the floors at the moment. they didn’t even make it to the end of the hall before they heard Kiran go “Tom could do it better” From behind. Sapphire wondered just how Tom achieved the status of could do no wrong with Kiran even though Tom had not even noticed the kid asleep on his head.

Dakota had been waiting with the rest of the huntress in the greeting hall. Kokashi even managed to get out of kitchen duty since Fengi got off as well and had apparently decided to tag along. Sapphire didn’t mind, it might give her someone to beat after all. She was allowed to fly, but she still wanted to go a little easy on the maneuvers. It had been far too long though since they got some training done and she was well and truly sick of being down here all day.

She had needed a bit of help to finally get the splint off her wing. Dakota examined the breakpoint, there was a little knot of bone as was expected but you could hardly see it. Sapphire had been a bit worried it might look weird but there was nothing to be seen. Finally being able to flex the fingers in her wing after so long and the feeling of being able to stretch her wings out all out the way. It was pure bliss. She walked around on the big platform flapping them around a bit testing if everything felt like it should. She hadn’t broken a wing since she was a kid so it was a little scary, but everything seemed in order. Tom apparently believed they were going on a trip as he had run off and fetched a backpack from his things strapping it on tight.

She could see how he would get that impression, they were not in armor and they hadn’t done any training since he had gotten here after all. So perhaps it was time for a little showing off even if she wasn’t ready for anything too crazy. Fengi had apparently gotten bored with Sapphire testing out the winds. She walked up to the edge and did her best stumbling impression as she fell off, making sure to scream as she fell of course

Tom predictably panicked running up to the edge. Yelling “Fengi!” As he stood there peering off he appeared to realize he had been tricked. They all had a good laugh at that one.

“Very funny, careful or I take you swimming one day” He held up an authoritative finger to them.

“And how are you planning on doing that” Jackalope retorted “we ain't the kids you know” There was a shared laugh among them. Tom though just looked at them before cracking a smile.

“This worked last time.” He went, as he just leaned over backwards. dropping off the edge. “Yahoo!!!”

They all looked at each other for a split second before the mad dash towards the edge. Sapphire was fairly sure he had snapped completely now. Why would he do that after having nearly died twice from that? The others rushed off the edge diving after the lunatic.

There was no way Sapphire was ready to try and catch him, so she just stood there dumbstruck. She hadn’t even managed to talk with him about the fact she thought he was putting too much pressure on himself and that he needed to trust them a little more. Seemed like it would be necessary though, perhaps it was the other way around in fact.

She snapped out of her little daze as Jackalope shouted out from below.

“What the fuck is that!” followed by mad cackling laughter which was clearly Tom. She walked up to the edge and looked down. Tilting her head at what she saw. There was a big green piece of cloth gliding through the sky with a laughing Tom dangling beneath it?

The others were circling around him as he slid slowly through the air. She had to see what this was about, so she stretched out her wings and let herself fall forward. She felt the air catch as she flaired her tail pulling slowly out of the dive. The wind rushing past her snout, the freedom of choosing where she was going, ohh it was good to be back.

Her moment had been spoiled a little by Tom’s stunt, still, she could hardly blame him, Fengi had started after all. She tentatively beat her wings to maintain speed from the dive to catch up. Everything felt good so far. He wasn’t going very fast so she didn’t need to strain too hard to catch up. in fact, he was going so slowly they all had to circle around him unless they wanted to try and hover beside him.

“What is that” She demanded when managed to catch up

“Parachute! You should have seen your faces!” He shouted back, cracking another laugh at their expense.

“Well, the last few times you have fallen off it didn’t end well,” Esmeralda added, in a slightly hard voice. Dakota shook her head shivering a bit at that and Sapphire could almost feel the gut-punch from way back when.

“Yeah I know” Tom seems to calm down a bit “Anyway what’s the plan”

“Well, we were gonna go through some maneuvers to try and dust everyone off on formation flying. Not sure now though.” Dakota replied.

“How do you flap your… wing?” Fengi had questioned.

“Can you go any faster?” Was Jackalope's contribution of course.

“I can’t and no not really” Tom clarified for them. Wait if he couldn’t flap his wing… thing, how would he climb or even maintain speed and altitude?

“Then how do you go up” Fengi continued

“I can’t” … well it answered the question of how at least.

“You mean to tell us that you, the master of lightning, fire, and death, can’t make something go up when flying!?” Jackalope added in sounding somewhere between incredulous and hysterical. Not exactly how Sapphire would have put it, but it got to the point.

“Uhm… yeah,” Tom replied.

There was more than one smack as they all collectively facepalmed at the stupidity of that. Then they all broke into various levels of snickering and laughing at the absurdity of that statement. For all their brilliance this was the best Tom’s people could do when not using huge machines? Now that was funny.

"Look if I could fly I would have done so before. This can glide and prevent you from going splat. It’s good!” He had tried to defend himself. That was a good point, though the ground was approaching rather quickly so it likely wouldn’t be a very long glide either.

“I wanna try and push him.” Fengi declared, sounding excited. “Is it okay if I hang on to you?”

“Sure just don’t get stuck in the strings” Sapphire’s attention turned to the dozens of little strings attaching what was clearly no ordinary backpack to the big cloth wing about him. It seemed so intricate. And delicate. Was he sure this was smart?

“Are you sure that is safe?” Sapphire had questioned.

“It’s built for my home gravity, we’re fine” Well if he said so. She still didn’t understand the notion that things were somehow heavier where he came from though.

Fengi circled around a few times trying to figure out how to go about this. before deciding she needed to be hugging him. Sapphire could see the problem if she went for a piggyback, she couldn't beat her wings to get the forwards, at least not much. Not to mention the mess of strings back there. She couldn't just push since he was going too slowly and she couldn’t go above him also on account of the strings. Sapphire thought about hanging onto Tom’s legs. That might work but Fengi had clearly made her decision.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Oh, those faces had been so worth it, he had just wished there had been more of them there to gawk. Still, the keep wasn’t that tall and even with pulling the cord almost immediately he still didn't have much altitude. The low gravity did help a bit even if it also made him even slower. He was certain a mild headwind would see him standing still in the air. In fact, the parachute might just do the trick as a paraglider here… He would need to look into that at some point.

Fengi had decided to try and come aboard. He hadn’t really thought about that, but sure why not. They knew what they were doing up here far better than him after all. It took her a while to figure out how to go about it, he had almost thought she had given up when she came up beneath him hovering backwards.

It wasn’t the most graceful maneuver as the two of them slammed together, Fengi not quite having gotten the closing speed right. Still, she had managed to hang on, even if he now couldn’t really see where he was going now. She wrapped her legs around him and grabbed his shoulders.

“Let’s fly then” She stated seeming to not have a care in the world about how she was sitting. Was this the latest addition in their quest to try and make him uncomfortable he wondered as she began beating her wings backwards. The result was a bit like pulling a pendulum as they were pulled ahead of the parachute and upwards.

Of course, they came straight back down afterward having achieved little.

“Try again, have an idea” Tom went trying his best not to turn red. She beat her wings again and he loosened the guidelines as if trying to dive. The two sort of canceled out and they actually went forward.

“Hey, it’s working” She did it again and he compensated. It didn’t take much to maintain speed and altitude here and after just a few beats there were actually climbing. It was slow, but they were climbing.

There had been some more laughter from the circling dragonettes

“Hey, Tom how does it feel to be dragged through the sky?” Kokashi had joined in, the guard having come along for some reason.

“Careful now, still lack volunteers for swim practice” The guard had just responded with a chuckle as he continued circling. Once they had gained a bit of altitude Fengi stopped beating.

“And now for the fruits of my labor”, She declared as she folded up her wings looking around at the view, her neck craning around. The chute was actually flying better now that it was closer to the loading it was meant for. He had dropped his weights back on the platform, after all, expecting some sort of flying to occur.

“Not a bad view”

“No, it’s a good day for some flying, nice of you to join us”

“Well, sorta flying. Perhaps I should rig up a motor for this and actually fly.”

“You can do that?”

“Sure won’t go much faster though”

“That’s a shame you're more like a resting stop up here right now.”

“Tom the flying dragonette carrier” He let out a chuckle at that.” Not a bad idea”

“You sure? Sapphire said you are already working too hard.”

“Pfff, hard work never hurt anyone. Besides, it’s fun”

“Well, this is fun too, right?”

“I’ll give you that one, it’s great fun. I love flying, not so keen on falling though” She giggled a bit at that one.

The others eventually became tired of circling the slow-moving parachute and broke off beginning their little training exercise. Fengi gave him a bit more altitude.

“Gotta go, see ya” She went dropping off to join them just letting go and falling straight down twisting around midair and pulling out of the dive.

Damn, they are good at this stuff Tom thought to himself as he admired the spectacle. His own little private airshow. The altitude Fengi had gained him didn’t last forever though, eventually, Kokashi had come over

“Want another push or should I go get one of them for you?” the guard went cackling.

“Well, I would rather crash than accept one from you that’s for sure” Tom had replied. Kokashi just laughed harder at that and swooped back around.

“Well I guess you going down then”

“Yeah yeah, just you wait till I get my hands on a proper aircraft. I'll be the one running rings around you then”

“Can’t wait for that then. When will it be done?”

“If you're careful you just might live to see it old goat”

“Hey, I’m not old. I’m not even sixty!”

“Ha, old!” Tom just laughed out as he finally came down on the soft grass just outside the firing range. Kokashi had joined him down there landing rather more elegantly than Tom’s little jog, followed by trying to bunch up the parachute. He would have to repack it later.

“Why do you even have that thing?”

“Well, I thought it might be smart to bring it and I had it, so here it is. It’s meant for jumping from really high up, then you free fall most of the way and use this to prevent going splat.”

“Just for fun”

“Yeah, that and armies use them to land soldiers.”

“Huh” Kokashi looked a bit puzzled by that. Tom guessed it was rather hard for them to imagine how humans fought. Actually, Tom started to wonder if they would even have ground battles here?

“Anyway airshow to watch” Tom went sitting down using the parachute as a backrest. He had been brought along to relax so he might as well for a bit.