Erevan, Ozarrik, and Varin work on the ballista all day, taking a break for the religious serivces, before jumping back into work.

The religious ceremonies are much the same as last weeks. Rituals of protection and strength. Taghig leads a prayer among the orcs. He mention being thankful for the outsider’s presence in the community. Erevan smiles at the gesture, feeling warm inside.

Taghig waves to Erevan at dinner and then speaks about him the entire dinner to Speaker Dhievni. Dinner ends without incident and Erevan heads to bed.

The trio are joined by Taghig who seems to offer his help in crafting the ballista. They start to work on the mechanical systems of the ballista.

After they are finished for the day Erevan takes an easy task up and decides to go on Firewatch again. This time the little one Nawne is helping to keep the fire alive. Erevan helps her left the firewood and stir the logs in the bonfire. The child orc can’t help but be impressed by Erevan’s apparent strength.

At dinner Nawne flicks some food Erevan’s way. Instead of prompting retaliation, Erevan eats the food and laughs. After dinner he goes straight to bed.

The group of now four, continues this day on building the ballista.

After they finish and disperse to do their separate tasks before dinner, Erevan goes and enjoys some time doing pottery. Nawne is there getting extremely dirty during the task. Erevan dives right into the task getting just as messy, much to the delight of Nawne. The child squeals in joy as Erevan gets covered in clay.

Dinner that night is uneventful save for a couple strange glances at the messy Erevan. He turns in for the night, after Ozarrik tells him he stinks, and after work tomorrow he will be taking a bath.

Erevan and the gang continue on the ballista.

Erevan heads to the hot springs to get clean and unwind. He gets into a pool of hot water and starts to relax when Vali slips into the pool as well. She makes some suggestive advances on Erevan. He politely declines leaving them both feeling awkward.

“You must like my brother Oz more than you two let on.” Vali pouts and crosses her arms.

“It’s not like that. I view you all as family.” Erevan says.

“Well I didn’t agree to that.” Vali turns away.

“I know you didn’t. I’m sorry. But I deeply care about all of you. I just lost my father three weeks ago and now I have so quickly found all of you. I’m not sure if I’m betraying him by filling the hole in my heart or if he would have wanted me to not be alone.” Erevan pauses between sentences, but Vali doesn’t chime in.

“I’m sorry.” Vali mutters.

“What? For what?” Erevan seems taken aback.

“I just was trying to get your attention. You seem to be fitting in so easily, everyone loves you, I just wanted you to like me too. And I think I get that you do, and my advances probably just pushed you away instead.” Vali explains her feelings.

“Well, I really like you. I’m just not the kind of guy to do relationships, I think.” Erevan shrugs. “And not everyone likes me, Rheensuf…”

“Rheensuf doesn’t count. She’s a Whooly Rhino on two legs.” Vali cuts Erevan off.

Erevan tries to stifle a laugh but it bursts out. Vali looks at him in surprise.

“Holy shit, that was good.” Erevan comments.

“She’s got a worse temperament than a dwarf who hasn’t had a drink.” Vali tries to tell another joke.

“Whoa whoa. Starting to play into stereotypes. You’re better than that. I don’t actually know that you’re better, but I hope you are!” Erevan smiles slyly.

The two joke around for a bit before returning to camp and heading to dinner. Vali participates in the conversations with Erevan, Ozarrik, and Varin. After dinner Erevan and Oz return back to their tent to sleep.

Erevan spends the morning with Ozarrik, Varin, and Taghig building the ballista

Erevan joins Nawne for some basket weaving. He enjoys the simple crafting chore as opposed to his massive project. Just two weeks into crafting his ballista and the progress has been up to speed he believed it would be. When he comes back from his mission he just needs to focus for one more week on getting the ballista done.

Nawne hands Erevan a flower crown, he dons it infront of her, much to her delight. The two head to dinner meeting with the rest of the family. Afterwhich Erevan informed Warlord Graw’aud of his progress. He asked if he could take a day off to go on a mission with the Hunter’s Guild. Graw’aud saw no reason to not let Erevan go if he brought Ozarrik along.

Erevan went to Ozarrik to inform him. The two went to bed and Oz stayed up for awhile thinking of which weapon or weapons to take with him on the secret mission.

Waiting for there team mates to arrive, Erevan and the gang got in some last minute work on the ballista before covering it all with a tarp.

Erevan takes some time to attach the flower crown Nawne made to his helmet. He dons the helm and drags his sled to the gate. He waits with the guards until a cart arrives. The cart is being drawn by two horses and a boar. The boar is tied infront to lead the other two. There is two drivers, both adult human hunters, and four figures sitting in the back. The four in the back are Kalile, Darton, Celise, and a dwarf that looks a lot like an older Darton. The two humans in front are Koldottir and Jarn.

“You can put the sled back, our mission has a bit of travel time.” Jarn calls to Erevan. “But you can load the ballista into the back.”

Erevan nods to them. One of the orc guards offers to take the sled back and Erevan agrees. He loads up his ballsita and Ozarrik jumps up into the cart with him.

“Ugh, hunters, this is my friend Ozarrik. He helped on the last mission.” Erevan waves to Oz.

“Good to meet you for the first time and your orc friend.” The older dwarf smiles. “I am Marthal, Darton’s uncle.”

“Then it is an honor to meet you.” Erevan says as he takes a seat.