Takeo ][ CHAPTER 6 – Starting to Build


It was in the morning that Takeo woke. Stretching where he lay, Takeo soon stood up, gathering wood on his mind. Not wishing to startle Kaede, Takeo used a talent inherited from his Father, allowing him to step lighter than a feather across anything. Flashing back quickly, Takeo thought of how he had danced across nightingale floors endlessly, practicing for the night that he would take Lord Tohan's life. It's quite a different situation now, laughed Takeo in his mind.

Takeo found a very sharp rock while walking, and he decided it would be very useful for cutting wood. So, over the course of a few hours, Takeo split small trees for a house, and big trees for a fire. He also thought to make a pile where the wood would go. So slowly but steadily until the sun was high enough to beat down on the top of his head, Takeo worked, chopping, carrying, stacking, and chopping again. During most of this time, Kaede was awake, and stacking the wood neatly when Takeo brought more. Finally, when they had decided they had enough firewood to last quite a while, Takeo set to work on gathering hemp to make rope, for his new house would depend on it.

“Takeo?” Called Kaede from where she sat next to the wood pile. He came out promptly with a new armload of logs and hemp to make strong rope. “I just thought of a way to make your job a little easier,” Kaede said with a smile, “and our house a little more interesting.”

“Well, let's hear it then. All ease in a long-term job like this is welcome,” replied Takeo, smiling and leaning against the wood pile stacked high.

Kaede pointed to a small cliff where the top was grass that hung over the edge, and under it the dirt made an incline. It looked soft and moist. “You and I could dig out a hole in that dirt, and make the small cave part of the foundation to our home. It would spare you much time and energy, and make us much harder to be detected by the untrained eye.” Thinking her idea was pretty clever, Kaede went over to the inclining cliff and started to dig. It pried off easily in small clumps, but when Takeo went and stood on the upper grass area, it held firm and steady under his heaviest feet.

“I suppose it's a good idea to have a house out of the land itself,” Takeo said to Kaede. “Fine idea, honey.” He smiled wide and kissed her quickly. “Let's get to work on making a home for ourselves and our baby.” Together until the day wore out, Takeo and Kaede worked alongside each other, tearing carefully away at the soil from under the small drop-off, eating when they were hungry, and storing the dirt torn away in a pile by the wood; they had agreed it would make good insulation.

When the moon had just barely appeared between the mountain peaks, Takeo stopped and leaned against the giant hole they had created together. Examining it, Takeo visualized where each of he rooms would be, where there were openings between them, how the whole structure would play out. Putting his hand on Kaede's shoulder, he stopped her in her labor and they walked back to where they had made beds out of leaves, grass and their traveling bags. Bidding each other a good night's sleep, Takeo found deep rest immediately. The next morn when he stirred again, Takeo could not remember a single dream from the night before.