Rise From The Rubble [tag barret]

[Quetzal]

She was working for the people who had overthrown the side she fought for, but at least Ri'Shei had found work. Since the war her friends in the Empire had returned home to resume their former lives. Even if she could find her old tribe in the vast desert now she had a taste for the outside world she didn't much fancy going back. Trying to form a new life for herself had proven hard. Mostly it was mercenary work. There was always need of strong magic-using women the height of a Kull. Surprising in her appearance and fighting abilities as a woman, not to mention being able to best anyone clients tried to test her with, she had been able earn a respectable amount from rich people ferrying about their wealth. Recently she had protected an architect overseeing much of the construction of Yazuac on a journey from Carvahall. Once there she had decided to take up work helping reconstruct what was now a small village. One of the reasons she had supported the Empire so strongly was her belief that people needed law and order, a strong hand with a firm grip ruling them. With the strict rules for their own protection came rules to help them in time of need. They needed shelter, so she could at least get behind this new ruler's efforts to rebuild what was lost in the war. Homeless bandits were unruly. Giving them homes would mean fewer highwaymen.

The town had been levelled to the ground by urgals before they saw the benefits of making friends with the other races of the world. All the residents had been killed. The only survivors had been the ones who were away fighting on either side of the war, and not many of them had wanted to return when the war ended. Those that did found that with no one wanting to return no effort had been made to rebuild, so started some weak efforts of their own. Being on a big trade route into Palancar Valley meant plenty of traders bringing supplies and business, a few of which had settled to make inns and a couple of shops, and so now all sorts were attracted to the reborn town. Ri'Shei was there mostly as a protector, but with little troubles she was helping with the building too. The majority of the builders were urgals, being both strong and feeling this was the only way to even begin making amends for what they had done. The rubble was all cleared by the time Ri'Shei had arrived. Now construction was starting on third and fourth streets leading off the thick main road leading travellers straight through the village towards Palancar Valley.

Mostly urgals, that was, except for the former residents, herself, and now she spied a new smaller figure. Stocky, thickly built, short. A dwarf, had to be. Having not met him before and with nothing better to do right now she decided to introduce herself. "Hello. I'm Ri'Shei. What brings you to this place? Can't be one of the residents or former levellers," she asked. She towered over humans. Standing next to a dwarf she felt a little ridiculous. At least working with urgals meant se was finally among others her own height.

[Aelodil]

Barret strutted around in what people would misinterpret as his version of panicking. Instead, he was quite impatient. He had arrived just the morning earlier and he could tell the architects had been awful. Their attempts at solving the issues in the small village were awful. So here he was, his favorite bottle of wine in hand as he strutted around angrily. He had scolded the incompetent human architects and redirected the Urgals to the tasks they really needed to be doing, directing where different bricks should go, how to place them, how much cement to place. It hadn't taken long before he finally got everything running the way it should be running.

Every now and then he'd have to break up a fight between a former resident and an Urgal worker. Clearly the former resident found it better to lay blame than to get working and appreciate the help the Urgals were giving. So he had used his hands, rough with calluses to pull both apart, awarding the human a smack on the back of the head for his troubles. "So this is your solution to your problems? Laying blame and violence? No wonder you humans have it so rough. Go to the stream, wash your face off with some water and come back. I have no use for a man too infatuated with anger." he had said to the human. The Urgal had given a grunt of appreciation - the closest Barret had ever been to a "thank you" from an Urgal and stalked off.

Here he was, a solid half an hour later, sipping from his bottle of wine as he explained the plans to the group of Urgals that had volunteered to help him with the manual labor, considering he had already done his fair share of said manual labor. The muscles he had developed through the hours of hammering at the forge helped him carry around the heavy bricks needed to build the new housings. Now, however, he had a group of volunteering Urgals to do most of the carrying for him while he used his muscles to hammer some iron necessary for the integrity of the buildings.

It didn't take long to explain the Urgals' tasks to them and then get on with his own work. He hammered away at the iron and the foundations of different buildings for at least three hours straight when he decided to take a break. So he had walked away from his tools and stood watching a group of the humans work away, taking a sip from his bottle every now and then. He was drunk, by far, and most people had already warned him to not get close to his forge while drunk but he ignored them. Most of his work was done drunk, especially the good work. He could tell not everyone was exactly in a good mood so he started cracking jokes in his drunken glaze which caused a few smiles and hearty laughs go around, easing the tense atmosphere.

Smiling to himself, Barret had moved away as the humans started their own sing along. He stood over his blueprints, curious as to how long it would take him to finish his work and how long it would take the rest to get it all in place. That is, until he heard a voice behind him. He turned, and though he showed no outward surprise, found himself boggled by the height of this stranger. She was easily as tall as any Kull Barret had ever seen in his life. Considering his own height, that was saying quite a lot. Instead of gawking, however, he gave her a prize smile. "What brings me to this place, lass, is a passion for my work and empathy for my human neighbors. The name's Barret. My friends tend to call me Barry, though. I think the real question is why you are here. If I am not mistaken you are a Spartan, are you not? I've only heard stories about the race so I wouldn't know for sure but considering the Kull-like height I can only assume." His voice friendly and quite clearly inviting.

When you die, your world ends. The world may go on, but in your eyes, the world ends with you.

-Carpe Diem

[Quetzal]

Ri'Shei thought she would stick to Barret for now, whatever his friends might know him as. She had no reason to quarrel but did not count strangers as friends, so using a term of familiarity like a nickname seemed inappropriate. Perhaps in time. Her own friends she had all met in the ranks of the Empire, now scattered far and wide back to their former homes or on to bigger and better things if they had nowhere to go back to. Thinking back it may have been more wise to stick with a group of friends. She had always been a very independent person, but even she got lonely sometimes. It was all very well being surrounded by people in her line of work but none ever stuck around once the job was done and she travelled too much to make any settled down in any particular town. She missed having someone to trust at her back, even the simple things like talking and laughing with someone you weren't trying to get to know for the very first time.

Passion for work and empathy towards humans were good traits to have. She was glad the races were continuing to get along so well after the war affected each of them and dragged them out to meet and work with each other. She wondered exactly what Barret's work was. Smithing was a common profession among the dwarves, she would not be surprised if he was working metals for the humans. Something like that. He looked strong, too, the dwarves like ants far stronger than their size suggested. "Yes, I'm a spartan. You don't see many of us around because most are still in the desert rather than joining in all this mingling the other races seem to be doing. I'm here because there's work and I happened to be around, simple as that. A hired sword, mostly, but there's a bit of building here and there where they need extra hands." She was keen to pitch in extra help where needed, liking to do something more constructive that would result in a physical thing to shelter people. It produced a feeling of satisfaction to see something you'd helped build standing proudly which staring at nothing in case an intruder came, breaking up fights, and beating down troublemakers didn't manage.

Both of them were far from home. The stories behind how each of them got here must be long. Most likely they had been on opposite sides of the war, considering she couldn't think of a single dwarf she had ever seen in the Empire's employ. Unless of course Barret had not taken any side and had only ventured out here after the war had ended and others of his race lingered in human lands. "To be honest, I've not really known what to do since the war. I fought, saw too much excitement to go back to my previous life where ever place and group of people is the same, but have nothing else to return to. So I'm just wandering about trying to find things to do. Just... getting by," she admitted with a shrug. She wasn't holding back that information from anyone she met, thinking that the more people to which she hinted she needed something to do, the more likely she was to find one with a cause for her to join, or some more stable profession she might like to start working her way into.