Victor sat on one of the platforms, a dock extending like a finger into the sea on his right. The sunlight hid behind the structures of the boats and ships and cast tall shadows, as the orangeish hues, turned yellower with every passing second. The day was young, but he had much information to gather, to see if the wild theories brewing in could be supported by any facts... He plucked himself off the ground.

But for the activities the blonde had in mind, first, he'd need to be in the good graces of someone influential, powerful, noble and most importantly, good, in case things took an unpleasant turn. Just that Raina girl, could have probably worked fine, but he was unsure of how much influence she had... Not to mention, the blonde had to excuse himself midway through their little tete-a-tete. He just didn't want to loiter around her lab when she ran other errands, that's not what he had in mind when he thought of a day well spent. So, as heartbreaking as it may have been (for her) he did have to call it quits before the third part of his task as he played-pretend to be a marine biologist, at least for the time being. Maybe he'd find it in him to go help her later in the day... Or tomorrow.

As he paced the length of the docks, lost in his thoughts, idly speculating he was rattled by the sound of hammers pounding away, the dull sound echoing as the hammers fell one after another, felt like someone was bludgeoning his head with them. His hand rose to rub his temples, while he traced the source of the loud sound, it wasn't very difficult... There was a bunch of men, working on mending a dock, or something like that. He would have paid them no heed, but his eyes fell on a prime target. A blonde man sat by a wall, his feet extended, and large rubber tubes were scattered around him, he was struggling with a piece of rope. Victor approached him cautiously.

'If you're trying to tie those together, try this...' Victor said, kneeling next to the man and extending his hands as an offer to help. The flustered man, handed the ropes to Garrett, who swiftly knotted to tubes over one another. 'Go on, give it a tug to see if it is tight enough...' The red-eyed man said, sliding the tied tires back towards the other. 'Phew, I'd almost given up... I'm Reign Valystasia, I'm looking over the reconstruction-' he asked, offering a hand to Victor, which the twenty-four-year-old grasped swiftly. 'Wait, you're THE Reign? like the one in charge of Hargeon?' Victor said, appropriately surprised, although it was because he realized he'd just hit jackpot.

'Yes exactly, I'm that Reign, but don't let too many people know, right now I'm just a common man working with my men... And you are?' Garrett nodded sagely in response to his request as he introduced himself. 'I'm Victor Garrett... If I may say so, it's good work you're doing here if you'd like I could give you hand...'

525/1000

Following Victor's offer, Reign's blue eyes met his red ones, filled with gratitude. 'Would you be so kind? In fact, if you'd allow me to, I could pay you for your service... I've got the funding from the council, for this reconstruction project, but I was tasked with finding my own manpower, turns out, I'm a little short of hands...' Perfect. Victor thought. 'I was going to help without the money too, but I can't say I would mind making a pretty penny.' Victor said, with a soft chuckle. 'It is nice of you to be working with your men and all, most leaders and overseers I've met, sit back while getting someone else to do all their work.' the blonde boy praised... This guy will be a good bet if I get into anything sticky.

'So what kind of work would you like me to do?' Garrett asked, leaning against the wall and peering down and the exhausted looking noble. 'You seem to be good with these knots, there is a bigger batch of tubes down that way, a few people are working on creating the floating panel... Then those guys are fetching the wood we need to mount on it... It is a new sort of dock, requires less material, but a little more effort.' Victor nodded earnestly, eager to keep the conversation going and decreasing the time he'd have to pretend to be working, he asked 'How is this new dock different from the ones we have now?'

'Well, you see... The normal docks extend into the sea and then their legs have to sit on a base to support the weight... This means they can't be constructed too deep and sometimes the supply boats get stuck when the tide falls and the poor boatmen have to work really hard to get them afloat again...' Reign explained animatedly. 'But now, if we use these hollow rubber tubes, we can create large floating panels, tie them to the shore and they can extend deeper into the sea, while still easily accessible by the men.'

'Sounds brilliant, I best be off... I'll see you around, Lord Valystasia.' Victor said, courteously arching his back in a very subtle bow before striding towards the far end of the docks. He sat by in a corner, hatching more schemes, and watching the workers work, whenever he noticed Reign patrolling, he'd busy himself with something that looked like work. Hours slipped by, and the shadows grew long again, this time on the opposite side... The sun sunk towards the water, yellowish hues, turned into orange streaks in the sky.

As the crowd of workers thinned, Victor spent about half and hour, tying some tires together, just in time for Reign to stop by next to him. 'I've seen you work so hard young man... Here you go, a little token of my gratitude.' he complimented, procuring a small sack of coins and offering them to Victor. Garrett just smiled in response and said 'It has been an honor to serve Hargeon.' extending his hand to recieve the dues he unfairly earned.

1043/1000
==End==