Shensra Lumber Company

[O'Brien]

The late Pidelo Shensra, founder of the Shensra Lumber Company, was known for his saying on the lumber business in Arios. "It is wood, and wood alone that keeps the island of Arios successful. The endless supply of great wood makes the island essential to the rest of the Empire." It was a quote often recited at his company even when his great-grandson Mantodae Shensra had taken over the reins of leadership. Mantodae was a strong man, as lumberjacks should be, standing at about 6'3" with broad, defined shoulders and rugged features that are typical of those who work for extended periods of time in the wilderness. His sandy hair was often covered in a small red beret-like hat, and he usually wore very functionable clothing like easy blue breeches and a simple tunic. He was wealthy enough, but he still worked like any of the men in his company.

Generally considered the most successful of the woodcutters around, the Shensra Lumber Company did not employ any sort of shady tactics that might be found on the mainland. That was probably because of conditions on Arios. There were no patches of especially fine trees, because they were all especially fine, and there was not a need to intrude on another company's area because the trees in their own would always be there when they came back each morning to work. Any idealist businessman would have been delighted beyond words to observe such a situation, if only there were such people.

In many ways, the work site of Shensra looked much like the sterotypical lumberjack site. There were many men and a few women, almost all dressed like Mantodae, hacking away at great trees with axes which varied in both size and shape. Some were paired up in twos, slicing at the larger trees with a two-man axe, and others had regular axes or even hatchets (hobbits and gnomes were present as well) hacking away at thinner trees. A couple of giants could also be seen now and then with giant-sized axes. They generally worked isolated from their fellow workers, however. This was not due to any racial prejudice, but simple pragmatism and safety. With every blow of a giant axe that slammed into a tree, there was a rain of small wood chips, leaves, and the occasional animal or two (though in general the company was mindful of animals' habitats) that would pelt bystanders below.

Right by the edge of town was a small rectangular wooden building with two large barn doors on each long side. During working hours, there doors would be slid open and one could spot more workers inside further chopping down some felled trees. To the left of this building was a path into the forest no more than several meters wide, and a short walk down that path would take one to the main site. It was centered around a clearing, lest their equipment get lost in the ever regrowing trees. There was a general pool of axes and whatever other materials were necessary sitting around in the clearing, and some of the aforementioned hobbits and gnomes spent most of their time sharpening and otherwise maintaining these tools.

Like rays from a sun, workers spread out in all directions from this clearing to cut wood. Curiously, thanks to Arios magics, no lumberjack (besides the wayward giants) had ever cut more than fifty feet away from the clearing in many eras; wood would always grow back before they could get out that far. With generally low security, the company was tolerant to visitors who wandered down the path from the town to watch them at work. Children in particular were fond of watching the men at work and dreaming of doing the same.

Should one want to apply for a job or order wood, there was a small wooden (cut on site eras ago) desk next to a pile of tools, where sat a spectacled Lutran who looked like an aedile for his frequent perusing and signing of papers. "Caaaan I help ya?" he would ask to people who approached the desk. He would only bother to raise his head to speak with them if he found they were serious. For the most part he continued to work on his papers after picking someone out in the corner of his eye.

[O'Brien]

After the economical outcry from the city of Paxia, the Lord Guardian Qui'scent Portier himself came out to Shensra's main site. Far from the showy person that many in his position would have been, Qui'scent was dressed modestly with a neat collared white shirt, dark forest green pants, and a matching cloak. He looked like a well-to-do merchant rather than the leader of an island. Like any commoner, the Nimâlni approached the Lutran's desk. "Therale, thir," he said in a nice warm voice, "how are you doing?" Ariosans, unlike Portier, did not treat the Lord Guardian so lightly. He was, for all intents and purposes, their thane. The Lutran stood up from his chair and gave a most friendly smile.

"Serale, Your Grace," he said excitedly, "how may I help you on this fine brightening?"
Qui'scent gave a patronizing smile. "Pleathe," he said lightly, "I am no thane. Thave that corjul greeting for the real thane, and pray that one comth in your lifetime."
The Lutran smiled as well, though it was a sly one as though he was disbelieving of the Guardian's modesty. "Of course, sir."
"Ith Mither Shenthra in?"
"Yes, you're in luck. He's up at the shop now. I'm sure he'll be glad to speak with you."
"Thank you, good thir."
"Thank you, sir."

After the interesting exchange of words, Portier made his way back up the path and into the workshop by the town's edge. Sure enough he saw Mantodae sitting down and supervising some cutters while having a coffee break. Though still respectful of the Nimâlni, Mantodae knew better than the Lutran how the leader of the island liked to be treated. The lumberjack stood and shook hands. "Sir Portier," he said, "it is always a pleasure. What brings you to my place? Would you like some coffee?"

"Pleath," Qui'scent said, taking a cup graciously. "Mither Shenthra, do you read The Herald?"
"I do, on occasion, sir. Why ask you?"
"Then have you read of the economic crithith in Pacthia?"
"Indeed I have." A pause. "Sir, is Arios --"
"Becoming involved in the affairth of other plathes?" Qui'scent smiled, having anticipated the question. "Not totally, but Pacthia ith in need and they need wood for all that rebuilding they're talking of."
"Do you need Shensra wood?"
"If you would."
Mantodae chuckled at the pun. "Of course, sir. We shall begin shipping to Paxia immediately."

A note about the Shensra Lumber Company. Due to the high motivation and productivity of its workers, ever fueled by Pidelo Shensra's vision to make Arios the premier lumber supplier of the Empire, the Shensra Company had just, in the dawning of Era X-PF, recovered from the Monpolis incident of the previous pattern. Monpolis had been a very greedy elf who tried to monopolize the lumber on Arios (in itself a rather dubious goal) before some vigilantes brought him to justice. Now, people jest, Monpolis goes around the Umblat trying to gain a monopoly on souls when Jalat is not looking. By now, the Shensra Company had made up for its losses during that time and was working hard again. Mantodae's acceptance of aiding Paxia in such times was a testament to his friendship with Qui'scent.

"I'm thure it will be much apprethiated by them, ath it ith by me. They will be expanding our dockth afterwardth with our lumber ath well. It wath part of the agreement."
One might have expected Shensra to be a bit indignant that an agreement had been made without his consent, but if he was then he did not show it. "Good," was his only reply.
"Thank you very much for your time, Mither Shenthra."
"Always a pleasure, sir." The two shook hands firmly again before the Nimâlni left to continue his work and Mantodae began informing workers of the increased production for Paxia.

[Arsadon Slakara]

Arsadon walked up to the desk which the lutran now sat at. The orc was very familier of the place, having spent lots of time as a child roaming around and watching the lumberjacks cut trees, talking to anyone who would listen, often pretending and dreaming of himself being one of those large man who cut the trees. After deciding on a new life, the orc decided that it was finally time for that childhood dream to become reality. I wonder how much it pays, though I doubt that I'll turn it down anyways.

"Serale," the orc said to the busy lutran, feeling just a little bit insulted that he had not even looked up at him. "I was wondering if you could help me out, you see, I am seeking a job as a lumberjack, might this be the right place to come to?"Arsadon asked, smiling slightly to the lutran. I'm sure that I will bring more to this company then any tiny hobbit or gnome ever would. The things that those creatures take hours on I could take down with the wind outta my mouth. He thought, not really caring that the person sitting before him was of one of the small races, after all, it wasn't like he could read the orcs thoughts. Don't even know why the things bother with the job.

Well, here is a good place to start, I guess. Arsadon thought, looking over the lutran as he busily filled out papers. The orc had plans for this small town, large plans, but like anything else, it would require crowns, and where else to get those crowns from Arios leading industry.

[O'Brien]

The Lutran clerked stared at Arsadon with a look that would have made even an ice elemental cold. Insulted at how the orc underestimated him and his fellow Ariosans and had "plans" for them, he reached into his padded coat and pulled out a wicked looking dagger. The orc would have been wise to remember the Arcane talents of the people of this island.

Well, that didn't actually happen, but it very well could have had the Lutran been a Mystic. Sure, Ariosans were very Arcane-enclined, but this one in particular was actually a handy Thaumaturge who offered his talents to those injured on the job. (Truthfully, he would have been less effective on the mainland. Arios magics helped rates of healing anyway, so a low-level Thaumaturge was just adding fuel to a fire that was already burning. Okay, so comparing the process of healing to a burning fire is a bad metaphor.) He was completely oblivious to the orc's actual thoughts, and handled him just like he would any other applicant.

"Indeed it would be," came a professional, clipped, but helpful tone. "The Shensra Lumber Company has long been the foremost Ariosan lumber business, providing the island with a strong economy and the Empire with strong wood." Without even having to look around, the clerk reached off to his right and passed a form along with a pen and quill to the interested Slakara.

"If you'll just fill this out," he continued, already returning to his own paperwork, "I can get you started very soon. Just fill out these simple fields."

Name:
Age:
Birthplace:
Interested Position: Lumberjack
Previous Training:

Two things came across as interesting about this application. First of all, "Lumberjack" had already been written in the "Interested Position" section. This may have been confusing, but a not too detailed scan of the desk revealed that there seemed to be seperate applications, presumably for seperate positions. Of course, if that was the case, then the section didn't seem to have much purpose at all.

Much more interesting was the lack of a "Race" field. Now granted, it would not be difficult to determine the race if the applicant had a name like Aderyn te tuin Lothain, Tiyribi Andares, Rahkay Zandos, or Allaron Watergazer, but what about a name like Arsadon's which could be one of several races? It couldn't be that race simply didn't matter on Arios...after all, what could be more important about a person than his race?

[Arsadon Slakara]

ooc: Very sorry for the delay, have had barely enough time for my primary, but should be back to posting now.

ic: Arsadon looked back at the lutran curiously after taking in the ice cold stare, not really knowing why he was given it. He had not shown the Lutran any reason to be angry with him, had not told him what he planned to do with its island, and for a place that was supposedly very accepting of the many races on the face of Telath, this small creature did not seem to fit in, after all, why else would he have set Arsadon with that look other then because of his race?

Arsadon knew that many of the islanders practiced some kind of Arcana, perhaps this lutran had somehow been able to read his feelings, his thoughts. A prospect that greatly unnerved the usually confident and cocky orc. If his thoughts were not safe, what was? How could he possibly hope to do anything when someone could read what he was thinking, maybe even know his next move. He was greatly relieved though, when he realized that it did not really happen.*

The orc watched as the Lutran took out the form and paper without even looking. He had obviously been at this job a very long time, Arsadon mentally made note of this, and was not promoted. Perhaps he was only good at this job, maybe he liked it, maybe the crowns were good. There were endless possibilities to why the lutran was now sitting before him, but not one mattered to the power-needing orc.

To him, the prospect of someone staying within the same position, one that seemed as though it would only bring in crowns and nothing more. There was always a higher paying job, no matter what you did, and why one would stay at the same one when there was more and more crowns to be made and a reputation to be had was beyond Arsadons way of thinking. A way of thinking that offered no room for failure and was his constant drive to do better and better, to constantly improve himself, both in mind and body. A way of thinking that would eventually lead him to succses, or may very well prove to be his ultimate downfall.

He took the pen and quill from the small creature and set the pen aside, thinking that the quill would look better to the creature and its tip would prove to have better writing abilities then that of the pen. He quickly picked up the form and read it over, setting it back atop the table once finished and hunching over to begin to fill it out.

Arsadon found it interesting that the lumberjack field was already filled out. He had watched the creature and saw that he had not filled anything out, or even look at the form when he was grabbing it, so why was the field already filled out? The orc pushed the thought aside, thinking it insignificent and not really caring anyways. Soon he would be starting and getting crowns, that was all that he needed to know at the moment.

He also found it interesting that there was no space to fill in his race. When he had changed his name, the orc had chosen one such as this to confuse the people around him, so if anybody was ever talking about someone named Arsadon and did not really know what he looked like or had never seen him, they would not necessarily think it to be an orc. What if he was a small fae applying for the job, they would not know the race, unless this lutran remembered, and might set them to a job too difficult for one of its small size.

"What is the pay for a job such as this?" Arsadon asked out of mere curiosity, thinking that he would take the job if they offered to pay him pretty much anything. Of course if the pay was too low, he would be forced to turn the job down or at least attempt for a better wage. Arsadon handed the newly filled out sheet to the lutran, it read:

Name: Arsadon Slakara
Age: 22
Birthplace: Arios
Interested Position: Lumberjack
Previous Training:None

*ooc2: heh heh, you little, I started writing a reply before I read the whole post @_@

[O'Brien]

There was really no emotion as the Lutran reached out and took the application. How exactly had this clerk become so different from the rest of his race? (Actually, he was very much a Lutran at the nighttime parties. He had just turned into the typical Ariosan, hard at work by day and hard at play by night.) Well at any rate, the clerk scanned the application briefly before filing it away in a box beneath the desk. "Very well then," he chattered. "Standard untrained pay is 36 Crowns per cycle, and a basic introductory course to woodcutting will give you a 10 percent increase to 40 a cycle with plenty of opportunities for further training (which yields more pay) and promotions."

Provided Arsadon did not turn down the position, he would then be directed to begin that very brightening. The Lutran turned his head and yelled out. "New man on the job!" Was it meant just to let everyone know that the company had expanded? Nay. An old, grizzled human with a wooden leg and a scraggly grey beard hobbled over to the pile of tools around the middle of the large grove, and the clerk pointed the new lumberjack over in that direction. "Old Drupner will show you the ropes," he added, quickly returning to his work. "Welcome to the Shensra Lumber Company."

The orc made his way over to the old man, who promptly introduced himself as Drupner McJonten. He had the voice of a seasoned sea captain, and, living on an island, probably was one. "Ahoy, and welcome aboard th'comp'ny," he greeted him in a creaking voice. "I'm gonna teach you some of th'basics 'round here. Are ye ready?" Despite his false appendage and just generally old appearance, the man seemed hearty enough.

[Arsadon Slakara]

ooc:OK, this time, I really am going to get back to posting normally and how does the pay work, should I add it once every RL week?

ic: Arsadon gladly released the sheet of paper from his currently orkish fingers, sealing his agreement and taking the job at the same time. Soon I will be paid and it will all be worth it. Arsadon thought, knowing that it was not building character, or strength that would motivate him into doing a good job at the lumber company for Mr.Shensra, it was the promise of crowns at the end of the cycle that kept him going.

The dracon in orc form jumped slightly as the Lutran yelled to tell somebody that there was a new man on the job, he just had not expected anybody to suddenly yell out anything while he was so close to them. It was not like he was afraid of the tiny lutran, that would just be foolish. But that was exactly one of the things that the dracon hated about the magical island of Arios, you could never really tell who was dangerous with the large amount of arcane users on the island. You could be stared down by a gigantic ogre and a tiny rodenti and you could end up dying by the hands of the rodenti before the ogre even got close. Yous just could not tell by physical appearances in this place.

Walking over to the man he had been directed to, Arsadon nodded in response to the mans greeting, offering no smile nor hand to shake. He was eager to start his job and earn new crowns, not wanting to waste time with pointless chat or annoying greetings. With crowns came opportunities and with opportunities came power, and power was what the dracon wanted above all else. Power was what he would get or else he would give up his life in pursuit of it. There would be no more living with the same old boring life, going through the same routines brightening after brightening with only the same thing to look forward to each brightening for the rest of his life. That was a lifestyle that the dracon would no longer be having. That he had sworn to himself. And he always kept his promises when they were made to himself. After all, if he could not trust himself, then why would he ever be able to trust anybody else.

Now not be able to trust anybody but yourself was not such a bad thing, the dracon thinking that it would keep you better prepared for anything that might happen in brightenings to come. But not trusting anybody and not being able to trust anybody were two things quite similar but with huge differences, much like being prepared and being paranoid. The latter of the two was not a group the Arsadon was about to fall into, for with the path in life that he had layed out for himself and all his plans for upcoming brightenings, he would need to put trust into the people around him. At least a small amount, because it was either that or fail. And failure was not an option.

"Of course I am ready, Drupner." Arsadon replied. In his mind, what could this man possibly show him that would improve anything? How hard could it possibly be to cut down trees? They better provide all of the equipment. Arsadon thought, for he had no intentions of going out and buying an axe just so he could do a job which pay was only two digits long. The dracon would just have to find another place to work if that was the case. Or maybe he would just buy something really cheap and do a horrible job at the cutting until the company bought him a better tool so he stopped pretty much damaging their wares and hurting their reputation with poorly cut wood. But Slakara doubted that he would have to resort to that, the company seemed good and fair.

[Borna]

OOC: Hi I will take over yours thread. PM if you have any problems regarding this thread.


Drupner showed Arsadon one old, but still functional, axe that was still in a tree – “Here you go, for start you can take this axe and I will give you mine leather gloves. Right, now you are set and I would like to test you. You know, we lumberjacks are doing dangerous work and I need to know how skilled are peoples with whom I will work. I came from a family of lumberjacks, my grandfather, my father, my brothers; they all are in this line of business. I know my business well and you can learn something from me. Off course if you are that good you maybe will need no training but I must test that. .”

Saying that, Drupner lead the Arsadon around the wooden building to the edge of the wood. He approached one big and old oak that was not in best shape but still it would need some skill to chop it down. “Here you are, this should not be a big problem for strong boy as you are ” – he said and gave the glows to Arsadon.