Hard at Work

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

When she'd gotten the okay from Stacey, Katara had set to work on a place in the City where Haku would be away from other people: naturally, her first thought had been to the hotel where she and the Outsiders were located, but that was impossible. They wouldn't have been able to accommodate the room, and it simply wouldn't be away enough in case Haku needed quiet. Katara remembered another place though: it had been a forest where she'd seen San before, but not too close to where she'd seen the werewolves gathered: she knew they preferred their space, as Haku would prefer his own. What was more, it was deep enough to where it would actually compliment the place to have the river here: more things might even grow, if that were possible.

Though she could have asked Toph for help here, Katara decided this was something that needed to be tackled all on her own. She'd set to work digging, stripping down to her underclothes and tying her hair back so it wouldn't be in the way. When she was finished, she wanted Rhiow there to magically protect the place: she'd seen there were several different places set up in the City, including one with demonic energy, that would interfere with what she was trying to do.

She dug quietly, taking in the nature all around her. She could feel how different this place was from most places in the city, and that gave her hope. Haku was going to be all right, she was sure of it! She wiped her brow, resting a moment.

Comments

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

Negi had been up and about flying across the skyline when he noticed Katara down below in the forest, digging away at the ground. Curious, he swooped down and waved, "Hi Katara, what's up?" inquired Negi curiously.

He was trying not to blush at her being in her underclothes. Really, was that just his luck?

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara noticed Negi in the air and smiled. "Hey Negi! I'm trying to actually build a little trench: this is going to be for my friend Haku. He's a River God, and right now he's got something inhabiting his body. When he gets better, he's going to need a place to recover, so I'm digging this for him. I got the permission from Stacy to get a source of water so it gets filled! This will be the only spot on the entire ship that will have a clean source of water!"

And now that he was here, she thought of something. "Do you think you might be able to help me with something though?"

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

Coming down and landing with a soft thump, Negi flipped the staff onto his back. "Sounds like a really nice thing you're doing for that guy!" exclaimed Negi. The name pinged on his mind but he pushed it aside for the time being.

"Sure what did you need?"

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

"He's been through a lot," Katara said, "Maybe worse than many of the others during the Nightmare King's attacks. Right now I think he's being inhabited by a demon eating up at him. Now, by the time he gets here I'm sure he would be okay, but I'm not taking any chances. I was hoping you could help put up magical barriers on the River: Rhiow should be here to do the same. This way, none of the residual energies from other places in the City will impact the forest and the River. There's a demon that lives in the City too, so no taking chances."


She got up started digging again. "Anything with magic that will make sure this place is protected I won't shrug away, you know?"

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

"Oh sure, magical barriers are a good start," said Negi with a easy grin. "I'll need a few stones first..."

Going over, he picked up a few fist sized stones and chanted in Latin, carving seals into the stones one by one with a burst of magic from his fingertips, tracing Latin script into it. "These will set up foundations for it," explained Negi. "Basic barriers and wards are easy. Do we want a "Someone Else's Problem" field too or is that too much?"

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

"I thought so too," Katara said, smiling. "If it isn't too much trouble. thank you so much Negi! I really appreciate this!"

She kissed the top of his head, then turned back to her busy work again, taking a breath and starting to dig again as Negi started to work on the incantation. She figured she'd try not to bother him.

"What is a 'Someone else's problems' field?"

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

"A Someone Else's Problem field is wizard slang for a warding field. It basically gives anyone who isn't keyed into the wards the severe urge to go in the opposite direction," explained Negi, setting down the rock he was working on and picking up a new one. "Huh, a little big..."

Channeling a little magic, he broke it down the middle and smiled. "There we go!"

Getting to work on it, he added, "I can add magical and personal signatures as well. The Problem field was used primarily to keep magical places separate from the normal people." He sniffed and rubbed his nose from the dust.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara shook her head. "There are other people who go to this place: I know the werewolves are fond of it. I wouldn't risk making them angry, and anyway the forest is just as much theirs to frequent. I'm not sure what would be required to make sure they would be able to go in freely. That, and well, it would go against what the forest naturally is in a way. But it is a good idea."

She smiled. "Thank you so much. I really appreciate this. If there's anyway we can make it so this place is protected and people who love the forest can come and go as they please, it would be wonderful."

[hisfathersstaff.livejournal.com]

Negi grinned and nodded as he finished up. "Sounds good."

He picked up the armful of rocks and grunted. "Okay, let me just put these around first."

Shuffling to each side, he formed a rough hexagram, positioning the rocks at the various points. "So if that's mostly north..."

Looking around, he found a large boulder. "That'll do!" he proclaimed, moving over towards it. Cantus Beltax, Vin Maxima!

With considerable effort, even with his strength maximized to the limits without using Magica Erebea, Negi wrenched the large boulder out of the ground and shuffled to the approximate center before setting it down. "OOF!"

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

Ben flopped, cross-legged, on the ground a short distance from Katara. "Having fun?"

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara nodded in his direction, grunting and continuing to dig, wiping her brow.

"Last I checked, digging holes in a forest on a sentient ship is never fun. But it has to be done."

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

"Has to?" he echoed.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Katara said, digging in fairly deep. "My friend is a river god, and right now he's possessed by a demon. When he's expelled that he'll need to recover, and the only way he can do that is with an unending supply of clean water on the ship. I got the okay from Stacy to do that...so now I'm going to make sure that its a river away from everything else."

She stretched, feeling her muscles pop int place, and continued digging. "Why are you down here? Are you visiting the Jedi temple?"

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

"I like knowing the area," he shrugged. "What's a river god doing on a worldship?"

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara returned the shrug. "Well, if you were gathering strong people to fight an alien race, would you leave out the gods too? Heck, we even have a demon on the ship. Who knows why they would be on?"

She took a breath and continued digging. "But good idea on looking out in the area. Everyone should be doing that."

[sithhavecooties.livejournal.com]

Well, with any luck, not a mindkriffing tentacle presence. "Where's the river going to empty out of? Where's the water going to settle into at the end?"

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara sighed. "Likely, the water is going to come from a pipe Stacy provides: even I don't know how she gets a renewing source of water. I'm hoping for the water to empty here, in the forest...help it to grow. I'm going to try and get magic barriers to keep it all here too. make sure it doesn't bleed out anywhere else."

[on_errantry]

After the excitement of Tycho's injuries, Rhiow had hardly left their room in the crew quarters - he was fine, and she knew that, but she needed to be beside him and make sure. She was certain that she was driving him up the wall, so when the chance came to go do something else Rhiow took it immediately.

It wasn't very hard to find Katara, not when there was only one place in the city that could have smelled like that much freshly-turned earth. She followed the scent to see the girl digging a riverbed by hand and sat with her tail curled around her paws, watching. "Hunt's Luck, Ha-t'hara," she said. "You're not doing this all on your own, are you?"

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara paused. looking up, smiling. She wore a robe now, much different from what she'd worn earlier, thanks to Yue. It was at her shoulders now, with all of the digging she was doing, and Katara made a mental note to wash the heck out of the robe once she was done with all of the digging.

She nodded. "Hunts luck to you too. I'm more than happy to do it, Rhiow. It's for an ally of mine, and a friend even if he doesn't feel quite the same. But you can feel all around: I've had Negi help put a magical barrier around the place, to make sure no excess energy interferes with Haku's healing. Negi helped with the digging a little but..."

She reddened here. "We decided it was best I continue on my own."

[on_errantry]

Rhiow may not have known a great deal about the mating habits of ehhif, but when the girl blushed she knew exactly what was going on. "Oh? He's around your age?"

She got to her feet and leaped lightly into the bottom of the riverbed already dug, nosing along it. She could smell Stacy's deck down below - and not by far. Haku would wear this small trench wider as he ran, she was sure, but how deep could he get? Probably not very. She tilted her head briefly at the shimmering mesh of hyperstrings woven along the riverbank - it wasn't a shape she was used to seeing, so she sat down to study it.

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara blushed and shook her head. "No, NO, nothing like that, he's ten! I mean, yes, he can make himself older, but it was absolutely nothing like that in the slightest, other than it just being plain weird and embarrassing!"

Sure, Negi was very attractive older, but she still thought of him as an adorable boy...who's ability to sneeze her clothing off by mistake was faintly disturbing.

She paused, forgetting temporarily about her humiliation earlier. "What are you doing Rhiow?"

[on_errantry]

Rhiow's whiskers twitched and she refrained from pointing out that age was an arbitrary number among the People. Ehhif had so many strange hangups about mating, sometimes it made her head spin.

"I'm examining the hyperstring structure of the area, now that it's been modified. Interesting... and much more ordered than anything I've seen out of the ship recently." She prodded the strings cautiously, watching how the weft snapped back into place as soon as it was nudged. "The boy knows what he's doing, at least."

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara supposed she could go into detail on what happened, but that didn't matter: she could always talk to Arha about it later. As it was, she had a lot of things to talk to her teacher about anyway. She only hoped she wasn't so busy with her squadron that she felt overwhelmed.

"I knew he did, actually," Katara admitted. "I sparred with him a few days ago, and for someone who specializes in magic, he's got a very good head for fighting too. I hope I can train and talk with him more, to be honest."

She was quiet a moment. "Will this be enough, do you think?"

[on_errantry]

Rhiow jumped up onto the riverbank, looking out over it. Katara had done well, and worked hard. "Haku will wear it wider as he runs, I'm sure," she said. "It looks wonderful - thank you very much. I'm sure this will aid in his recovery enourmously... now we only have to make sure we purge all traces of the corruption from his system, or it will pollute the river."

[kaya-waterwave.livejournal.com]

Katara bowed politely. "I'm just glad that I didn't doo too badly a job. I'm sure that when Haku gets better, he'll be able to widen it as much as he wants. Um, I'm not sure how much you know about it, but I have a feeling that you and Damion are the ones helping Haku with that: how long do you think itw ill take for him to get rid of the corruption in him?"