Tisis

Building a bath (S)

While scouting the area, we discover a far more direct entrance to the cone, just about my height and too narrow for larger predators to fit through.

We quickly decide to equip the entrance with a small barricade to lock out any other unwanted visitors, however Nym insists that the barricade needs to be removable quickly, in case we need to flee ourselves.

'Just in case,' she says.

We also block the entrance to the cave system with heavy rocks, to prevent anything coming in from the caves to catch us by surprise.

'Just to be safe,' Nym says about that one.
And what can I say, it's kinda hard to argue with her on that one.
After all, Tisis is chock full of nasty surprises.

During our scouting run, we also come across a surprisingly hot cavern, which triggers an idea in Nym, who asks me to dig a large bowl into the ground.

At first she does it in her command tone, but after I give her a disapproving look, she dials it down a notch and adds a 'Please'?

"And...why would I 'dig a bowl' here?"
"Because I'd like to construct a bathing room in here. You know, that place where you wash off all the dirt and grime of the past day."
"A...you mean like the sanitary district?"
"Yeah, just...a lot more comfortable than those wet cells. Please, I reeeeaally need a good, relaxing bath...please?"

Nym looks up at me with her head lowered, twiddling with her disheveled and torn up hair.
Is that girl actually trying to charm me into doing her bidding?
Seriously?
Honestly, no matter the species, girls will be girls.

I let out a big sigh and ask, "Let's hear your plan before we start building, okay? And yes, you are helping."
"Wha-" she starts huffing and puffing, but quickly calms down again.
"...very well then. I suppose that is only fair, considering that it is my proposal."

Damn straight it is. In fact it would be best if I had her do all the work herself, seeing how she wants it, but that wouldn't work...plus, a place to relax and wash off all the dirt does sound like a good idea.

Nym quickly draws a few schematics into the soft earth outside of the hot cave, including a route for the spring water to run into the bowl, a way back out and some sort of contraption controlling the flow of water.

I think she calls it 'valve' or something...it does remind me of something we had back in the gardens. I think she calls it 'irrigation' or something.

She also proposes a number of improvements to the place, including a secluded area near the spring, where we could grow our food, things like 'shelves' and beds and what not.

She seriously has this whole thing planned out, I'll give her that.
However there is one serious problem.

I get back inside and stomp on the solid ground.
"Just for the record, I'm good with the idea...but how exactly do you intend to get through the rocks? I mean, nothing we have would even make a dent."
"Hmm...good point...and it was such a nice idea too..."

The cogs in my head starts spinning and return my mind to the pot I built a while back.
"Hmm...if I scale the concept up..." I start mumbling, while a picture slowly starts forming in my head.

Nym just stands there, wondering what I'm going on about.

Images of the irrigation systems we had back in the garden shoot through my head.
My teacher had us memorize their layout and their workings, because if anything should ever break, any of us should be able to figure out what the problem was and fix it before the Asmodei even realize that something is wrong in the first place.

I look at Nym's drawing and finally nod and say, "That should work."
"What? What are you thinking?!" Nym presses me.
I swear, if that girl had a tail, it'd be wagging a lot right now...I probably shouldn't tell her that I sometimes compare her with Zero though.
She'd kill me.

I start drawing around in Nym's schematics and while my lines aren't as straight and detailed as hers, I still manage to illustrate my point.

I tell her, that we need to build some sort of irrigation system with pipes made from wood and resin and that we could just build a giant pot to bathe in.

Nym's eyes light up as she begins to see what I'm talking about and eventually she nods enthusiastically.

The coming days, we're busy fetching a lot of wood and bark from the nearest group of trees.

While I carve out and glue the bowl, Nym engineers the irrigation system, carefully planning out where to apply the pipes so the water will flow the way we want it to and after about one week of intensive work, it looks like it's finally all come together.

I stand above wooden plank, which separates our artificial river from the natural one, look over to Nym and ask, "You ready?"
"Whenever you are, Sirus," she replies nervously.

We put a lot of work into this...and this is the moment we've both been dreading and waiting for.

I pull up the board and the water immediately starts flowing through my legs, down the small channel consisting of wooden planks, glued together with resin which are buried halfway into the soft ground, forming a slight downhill slope.

I fasten the board with the bolt I carved and follow the water as it runs down the path Nym planned out.

After about 10 meters, which might as well have been a hundred, the water hits its biggest obstacle, a small uphill slope to the large wooden bowl we carved out and glued together.

The water rises to the rim of its channel...and then stops.

"Alright Nym...time to see if that fancy magic trick of yours really works", I say, fighting the frustration rising up in me.
"...it has to...alright Sirus, suck it up."

I take a deep breath, move over to the small pipe made from hollowed out bone and suck in the air with all my might.

Eventually, I taste wetness and stop sucking as the water suddenly starts gushing out and into the large bowl.

I quickly drop the pipe to the ground, get out and watch in amazement, as the bowl slowly starts filling up with water.

I don't know how the heck she did it, but Nym somehow managed to make the water run uphill.

That girl must be a magician after all.