Slowly, things returned back to normal, the dragonborn abominations either being hunted down or dying from running out of magic to sustain their impossible physiologies. People were injured, but they'd been told to prioritize staying alive, so anyone who was hurt was just sent to River's Fork to be healed.

Lori chose not to comment on the strange meat in the stew they had for a few days. While it wasn't completely objectionable—it was actually very soft and tender, and was absolutely wonderful to chew on—it was far too sweet, like it had been filled with honey! Who had ever heard of literally sweet meat?

Work also finally started on the boat. Lori had to set up a location—Rian said it was called a dry dock, to which she just nodded along to, as did everyone else, because what did they know about building boats?—a little downriver from the laundry area, packing down the dirt on the riverbank so it would be able to support weight and not sink, as well as leveling it for stability. It was a bit far from the saw pit… and the smithy… and the carpenters… but as Rian said, they could build near those, then have to drag a completed boat next to the river, or they could build next to the river and just carry the relatively lighter building materials to the location.

Despite this, it took some convincing for people to understand that, no, the smart thing to do was build the boat near the river.

The boat… didn't look very boat-like. As construction on it began, it looked like a shack with strange fencing around it. Granted, it was a very well-built shack, the fence-like long beams surrounding it made of cunningly slotted together lengths of wood. The lack of experience was being substituted with manpower and enthusiasm, and Lori redoubled on her desire to never leave her demesne again. Now that they were actually building one, the idea of a boat made of ice and wood didn't sound very safe to her. Better that other people use it, not her.

In addition to the construction of the new boat, Rian also had to find time to train other people on how to operate Lori's Boat, so that he wouldn't have to be the one to keep doing it.

"Finding someone to take over ferrying people might be a while," Rian sighed over dinner. It had been a five days since construction began, and he'd taken the opportunity presented by having to ferry a new batch of miners-but-probably-construction-workers to River's Fork to try training some random person on how to operate the boat's water jet. "They understand having to lift the jet out of the water to get the boat to slow down, and turning the tiller simple enough, but Vov can't seem to handle the speed."

"Perhaps if you procrastinate, you'll be able to find a solution to the problem," Lori said blandly.

"No, procrastinating is a specific solution to a specific situation," Rian said. He sounded completely serious. "In a better world, procrastinating would be the solution to every problem, but unfortunately we live in an imperfect world, where procrastinating isn't as useful as we'd want it to be."

"Oh, you saw that play too?" Lori said. She had liked that comedy about the lazy nobleman who believed happiness was measured in slothfulness, and ended up working very hard all through the play to stay slothful.

"What play?" Rian said, face completely blank but eyes sparkling.

Lori rolled her eyes. Useless thespian. "Back on topic," she said.

"You started it," he shot back. "But all right. I think I'll be able to train someone to handle ferrying, that's the relatively easy part. The problem is finding someone who will be able to handle moving at those speeds. Unless you'd be willing to slow down the waterjet to a slow rowing speed, but that would mean someone being stuck ferrying all day, maybe even two days. There aren't any rapids, but a slow rowing speed isn't going to be able to fight against the downward current very well."

"Perhaps you should train one of the miners, or someone who's ridden under the water jet's power already?"

"The miners are used to how fast it is, but there's that, and there's being used to it and feeling capable of controlling it," Rian said. "They're among the first people I asked if they wanted to learn. They… uh, refused."

Lori started counting in her head. One… two… three…

"I can learn, Rian," Riz said. Umu, Lori saw, was frantically trying to swallow a mouthful of food, since she seemed to think it to disgusting to spit it out, while Mikon… huh, she didn't bother to volunteer. Well, Lori supposed the woman knew her limits. "Teach me!"

Umu tried to say something but it came out like… well, like she had a mouthful of food in her mouth she didn't want to spit out because it would be wasteful.

"Won't you be busy being Lori's temporary lady?"

"Temporary Rian," Lori corrected.

"Why do you keep using my name like that?"

"Because it's accurate. And he's right. Find someone else."

Riz slumped. Umu did so as well, looking relieved. Mikon reached around Rian and handed the blonde a cup of water to help her swallow.

"Well, besides that, how is progress on the new boat?" Lori asked

"You can see how it's progressing."

"Yes, I can see it. I still have no idea how much it has progressed, which is why I'm asking you."

"Ah. Well, we need more wood. Fresh wood. The carpenters say the boat needs thicker support beams, and a lot of our wood has already been cut into planks. Which is good for cladding, flooring, walls, furniture and things, but not very good for being load bearing. And the trees near the building site aren't straight enough for it, so we need to do more cutting, which means you'll have to do more curing soon. So that's slowed it down right now, but we're cutting planks to form secondary reinforcement for the ice."

"I'll take your word for it," Lori nodded. "How much longer?"

Rian hesitated. "Two, three weeks? I'm still not sure how we're going to put in the water jet, or how we'll steer. It's not like we can put in chains to control the ship with a wheel. That might not be efficient with our level of inexperience. But that'll make steering complicated, since whoever's in control will have to control it from the back and take direction from someone sitting ahead who can see what's coming up."

"How problematic," Lori said blandly. "You'd better hope you can devise a way to solve the problem."

"Your faith in my competence is really, really annoying. Can't you be controlling and tell me what to do?"

"Solve this problem."

Rian sighed. "I was hoping for more specifics."

"Solve this problem quickly."

Rian slumped. Umu, Mikon and Riz and reached over to pat him on the back, looking a bit amused.

While Rian built the boat, Lori worked on the dungeon. She excavated around the reservoir, raising a waist-high wall over it as she resigned herself to making it permanent. She bound lightwisps to the bottom of the reservoir and along the sides, illuminating the water. Not at regular intervals, because it was hard to judge after a certain depth, but it let her see into the water. She'd been prepared to drain everything out and replace it if she saw anything floating, but fortunately it was clear, and a lot deeper than she thought.

Creating a pipe from the central water hub, she set it to fill the reservoir, then began to rework the piping she'd laid out recently for the baths to get their water from it. It was time-consuming, but it was needed to keep the water in the reservoir circulating and clean. She made sure to route the pipes close together so that she could easily seal them off in the event of a dragon.

Hopefully they'd have several more months again before they needed to use it.

Though given the depth of the reservoir, Lori would have to be careful excavating here, in case she accidentally dug into their water reserve or it started to leak.

––––––––––––––––––

Lori raised an eyebrow as Rian dropped blocks of wood on the table at dinner.

"Ta dah!" Rian said cheerfully, gesturing at the blocks of wood.

"That explains nothing," Lori said. "You'll have to do better."

"I got the carpenters to make a better water jet!" Rian said. He gestured at the wood again.

"Slightly more understandable, but still without context."

Rian sighed, then picked up the wood. Or rather, the top of the wood. What seemed like a large, solid block of wood came apart, revealing hollows carved into the wood.

"Circulating loop," Rian said, pointing to three sets of rounded hollows. "Reversed flow, for… well, going in reverse. And a straightaway, for going forward." He lifted up a block, showing how it had three tubes going through it side by side, as well as a long rod at one end. "And this time there's room for this block to slide past all of them."

"Why three holes?" Lori had to ask.

"So it can go faster," Rian said. "Fast, faster, fastest." He put the block down. "When you slide it this way, the first tube comes unaligned from the circulating loop and lines up with the propulsion channel. Slide it further, and then two tubes align, theoretically making you go twice as fast. Then three tubes." Rian looked down at the smooth rod. "It, uh, might need some kind of markings or notches and a ratchet to latch it into place to indicate what is aligned with what."

Lori frowned, touching the blocks, pulling out another piece. "You realize this will leak, right?"

"Nothing that you can't fix," Rian said. "The carpenters have a box waiting that these can go into. We put them in the box so that they're snug, you line all the insides with bone or stone to act as waterproofing, a little ice or lard to lubricate the block, and then the box holds it all in place, and we mount it to a tiller so it can point left or right." He looked smug and proud. "And before you ask, we have inlet and outlet pipes leading down into the water so that the waterjet will have something to propel. Or just have it fixed on the bottom of the boat and have a separate tiller. I think the latter works better for the large boat, but the former is the best way to do it for a small one like Lori's Boat."

Lori stared at him, then at the blocks. Experimentally, she slid the block. "Well… I'm glad to see you made it easier to do. Very well. Though we won't put it on Lori's Boat just yet. We need to test it by itself."

Rian nodded.

"Also, I need to fix your oversight."

Rian stopped nodding. "Oversight?"

Oh good, he really hadn't realized. "Since this rod controls the movement of the block, it will need to be high up and accessible to the ferryman, correct?"

"Yes…?" Rian said slowly, clearly knowing it was a leading question. One that led into a trap.

"How is the waterjet going to draw water if it's above the water?"

Riant blinked. He looked at the blocks of wood, all with hollows carved through them. He opened his mouth. He closed his mouth. He groaned.

"Yes, an oversight," Lori nodded smugly. "But don't worry, I can fix it."

The wood might need a little shaving to make room for ice to lubricate the block so it would move smoother. She'd have to see how it worked with water inside it first.

"You say a larger version of this could propel the new boat?" Lori prompted.

Rian looked like he was still mentally castigating himself but nodded. "Yes. And that CAN be underwater, since it would be simpler to make the tubes where water is drawn in to be through the ice, so there aren't any protrusions to potentially catch on something and break. Still working on turning. I had an idea for that though… "

He was interrupted as five bowls of food were put on the table.

"But I'll tell you later," he said. "Thank you for the food Umu, Mikon, Riz. Please stop and let me get it myself?"

"We'll think about it," Mikon said, smiling a bright, sweet smile, one amusingly mirrored by the other two.

Lori shook her head and picked a bowl.