Late summer, year 56The table really wasn't very comfortable.
Athra shifted position, trying to find a comfortable position. He had been working in his private chambers for weeks, chiseling the few large chunks of stone he'd managed to carve out of the rock into usable furniture. The first few doors he'd made were crude, but served the purpose of closing the passage to his rooms, and blocking the rooms off from each other. He'd managed to build the rest of the items he needed - tables and chairs, cabinets and chests, and even a few statues - and had put a few pieces in place before exhaustion overtook him.
The first night in his new quarters wasn't going as well as he'd like. He turned over again. No way around it, he was going to have to head up to the surface for some logs and build himself a bed.
Up in her quarters, Geb watched the human ambassador leave. Self-important bastard in his purple clothing, who insisted on being referred to as 'law-giver'. She'd heard tales from her mother that the humans, known by all the dwarves to be not all that bright, would sometimes be tricked by a demon escaped from the underworld. The demon would fool the humans into thinking it was a god, or messenger from the god or something, and they would make it their ruler. They'd tend to take on impressive titles like 'master' or 'law-giver' or 'holy flame' or whatever.
The diplomat who had just left was not one of those. He was merely a human who acted as if everyone should worship him. He hadn't actually made any demands or trade agreements - just waltzed in, introduced himself, made some comments on the architecture, then left.
On the next evening, Athra slept a far more restful sleep, in a bed he had made himself. The carpentry was crude, far inferior to CoraiUnki's, but as the legendary carpenter was busy on some secret project, nobody had even noticed as Athra took some lumber and made a bed for himself.
Alpha Laboratories research notes:
While extending an exploratory mineshaft the mining team reported an unusual mineral discovery. Initial reports that the miners had discovered a vein of the rare and coveted Adamantine were proven false after examination of the stones, and attributed to over-enthusiasm on the part of the miners. The stone, labeled 'Chrysotile', has a fibrous structure similar to Adamantine, but the rock fibers are brittle and cannot be removed as continuous strands.
The resemblance of the extracted fibers to wool suggests that it may be possible to spin them into thread instead. As the fibers do not need to be removed as intact strands, a method has been devised to crush the rocks instead. This should release the fibers quickly and easily in mass.
Once a sufficient quantity of crushed fiber is available, we will experiment with forming it into thread.
What this place needs, Athra thought, is a bit of polish. It's a lovely suite, but the rock will need to be properly smoothed if I'm going to really be proud of this place.
Like every step of the project so far, the going was slow, the work being far more difficult than the other dwarves had made it look. Athra persevered.
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Topic: Brightwater: Community fortress of science, oceans, and animal taming (Read 154913 times)