Erak's crew were completely spent when they landed on shore, but Erak and Svengal left them no slack. "Everyone get building. Chop down trees, and have four men on sentry at all times. We don't know what's here. Get to work, boys. Once we have a suitably fortified shelter, most of us can actually sleep. I trust you remember what that is," Erak barked.

With half-hearted grunts of consent, the 30 odd Skandians on Erak's crew gritted their teeth and set to completely fortifying the position, building a palisade wall and starting on a ramp to drag the damaged Wolfwind out of the ocean. It wasn't a particularly defensive position which they had arrived in, but they knew they didn't have the energy and focus to effectively look for a more suitable site and couldn't sleep on the ship, damaged as she was.

Erak ordered a good long drink of coffee and the best hot meal the cook could manage. Spirits definitely lifted with the smell of fresh coffee and hot roasted meat. It was a good call and would keep the energy up enough to finish the fortifications. Erak, sleepless as he had been for too many nights, forced himself to stay awake and even pitched in with the work to help his men (and himself) rest sooner. He knew that Svengal would need to take charge of things soon while he had the longest sleep he could manage.

When the work was finally complete, Erak went immediately to sleep. Svengal organised a roster of camp duties and meals and a scouting party to investigate the surroundings. They had made themselves some ladders and a small clearing with open space so they could see any approaching adversaries at least out of bowshot.

Erak awoke early on their third morning in camp, having slept for nearly a full day, refreshed. Then it was Svengal's turn to rest as long as possible while he took charge of things. Erak was checking on the sentry when they spotted the scouting party he had dispatched returning at a run. "Quickly, lower the ladder," Erak ordered, not speaking too loudly in case there was an enemy nearby. The men hastily lowered the ladder and the four men barely broke stride as they scrambled up the ladder, looking just a little dischevelled and flustered.

"What is it?," Erak demanded after giving them half a minute to catch their breaths. "Skirl, there is a lot of men, and a small village nearby. A few villager looking people passed by mentioning something about a tournament and a castle called Camelot." Erak's eyebrows furrowed as he considered the information. Erak had taken a suggestion from Hal to bring along someone who could act as messenger, row a single skiff, or ride or run to deliver messages and otherwise perform menial duties, such as helping the cook, cleaning the slop buckets etc. Obviously had to be a trustworthy person who wouldn't resent the role.

Grateful now that he had taken Hal up on the suggestion, Erak prepared for a small expedition. One of his men, Sigvat, was a good tracker. Erak, Svengal, Sigvat, and the young boy, Arn, would go as a party of four while his next in charge, Grimolf, would be in charge of the camp in their absence. Erak realised that a larger party would likely terrify the occupants of the village and even more the castle. He was trying to think smart like Hal and think tactical like the Rangers of Araluen. It was an unfamiliar way to think but he knew it would help.

When Svengal woke, Erak quickly appraised him of the plan, and the four of them slid down the ladders and silently as possible, trying to be stealthy, which probably translated to only audible to people within five metres of them, Erak knew. Before he left camp, he ordered Grimolf to start construction of a small sailing ship, similar to a skiff but with a sail and a few oars so some of his men could row back to Hallasholm. Most of the space in the skiff would need to be food, water, and the sail and oars, but the trip would bring help far sooner.

Erak studiosly copied out all of his sailing notes from this voyage to have them placed in the most water tight place they could manage. He knew he might never see these men again but he had spoken with each of them and they were willing to take the risk for him.

-

Hal yawned hugely, then stretched out. He felt ancient, his lower back knotted, joints aching, muscles cramping, eyes scratchy and heavy. He knew it was because he had had so little rest lately, really, but boy was he feeling it now after days on end. Strangely enough, however, while his body was at it's limits, his mind was still whirring a kilometre a minute. He had so many unique and very ambitious ideas for this and finally his work was paying off. He had blueprints of nearly everything he wanted to add. He was going to take his time to build this perfectly, everything would be of the highest quality, no question about it.

He had tasked some of the Wolfbiter's crew with making some bolts for the Mangler, as many as they could manage. Hal was going to make a bigger ship this time. He needed to use more iron and steel and needed to experiment to find the most effective way of minimising the weight. He needed to use levers, cables and switches to make things work as he wanted.

A few days after his very long rest, he gathered his crew together. "Edvin, Stefan, you two are going to demonstrate something for me. The rest of you are too heavy or too prone to arguing and not following instructions," he said. Edvin and Stefan came forward with a grin. Hal stared them down. "Hold out your arms," he ordered, then moved to behind them. He removed the cover on his device and revealed a pair of very misshapen wings. "I tried to adapt them for people and it seems to work a bit, but not well. I wouldn't use them except in an emergency, which is why there is the ocean right there and we are on a cliff that goes out, so there are no rocks below," Hal explained.

He spent the next half hour going over every particular with them that he had learned about. "Don't fly too high, be aware of where the wind currents are going at all times. If you fly too high, point your head to the ground. You're better off landing and rolling headfirst then losing control in the air. If you fly against the wind it may well break the wings. I have a lot more improvement to do on them but if this works... it will work for the ship," Hal said with a grin. The looks on the Heron's faces were suddenly pale.

"Of course the ones on the ship will be different. I just want a pair or two of these in case we want to go scouting. We are practically completely safe in the air if we can handle the environment. And unless we're stupid enough to go in completely open space, nearly invisible," Hal said. "Imagine if we flew an explosive to an enemy ship and then dropped it from enough height to prevent getting the ship singed... Herons can fly, why not us?," he said grinning. "You have no idea how much of a pain this has been to get it even working for people though. My head still has bruises from practicing," Hal said, his grin changing to a grimace.

With utter amazement, Edvin and Stefan launched themselves into the air and started doing the preparation exercises for flight that Hal and Thorn both suggested. Hal had been sure to select a very private area as he wanted to keep this invention, and any embarrassing potential failures, a secret from the rest of Hallasholm.

When they finally launched themselves off the cliff and started flying in small circles, the crew cheered enthusiastically. "Amazing," Thorn muttered. Words didn't do the excitement justice. Hal had made an even more radical improvement. He wondered what else the young inventor had in mind. He sensed this was one of many radical adjustments Hal wanted to make to his new ship. He figured it wouldn't be long before he heard about the rest of them.