RP:Gravity is to be Respected, not Feared

Summary: Linn comes to the Frostmaw bank following rumors of the gem to be reclaimed. Meeting Sykule he gets a task to help speed up the reconstruction so that they can begin searching later, during which Sykule offers some work in reinforcing the pillars when they are reconstructed. Linn seems to have an idea in mind, but pushes the topic to a later date. Returning to their work, Linn’s construct begins to fail, making him faceplant in the dirt due to stray effects. Sykule helps him finish the task before taking him home in his first ever trip on dragon-back.

Frostmaw Bank

The city of Frostmaw was crowded with busy workers and citizens in their day-to-day activities, and Sykule was one of them. Frostmaw's bank was heavily damaged during the war and he was among those tasked with its repairs. Though he did help the laborers, he found himself more useful coordinating the activities and assuring everything was going according to the plans. He also found out that the frost giants would direct any foreigner who offered his help to him, rather than dealing with them personally. It did not bother him much, as he was usually much more receptive than the giants towards any extra pair of hands. This day, he stood outside the bank talking to one of the giant-workers, keeping notes of what material he'd be requesting today. He was in his human form, a very young white-haired boy, both to not hinder the other workers and to make his job of going around easier. The boy wore warm, wolf-fur clothing and had his hair wrapped behind him in a ponytail. He looked a bit too young to be discussing with a giant as fervently as he was.

Linn had spent a bit of time in and around the bank after rumors of an exotic gem to be found reached his ears. It was something he wanted to see and study, but he knew he’d probably have to be among those who found it to do the former, and the latter would probably be too shallow unless he got a hold of it carrying it back. That, and some extra money was helpful to justify his time out. After poking about, searching the rubble for any indication of a collapsed passage from an unobtrusive position he decided to actually try and start making himself useful. A quick question to one of the giants was answered with an absentminded pointing towards Sykule. Just as he left an amused grumbling followed, “Don’t get your hand messed up again.” It was enough to force a blink and a freeze from the enchanter for whatever reason. He managed to look pretty out-of-place himself, as was almost custom for him at this point; mithril armor covered him from the neck down, save for a couple plates missing on his forearms. Its build allowed him enough mobility and comfort to wear it for most situations, which led to occasional references as the ‘shiny guy’ by others simply because he was so rarely seen without it in the city. Though with it he wore a weathered traveler’s pack that threw a wrench in the complete ‘shiny and expensive’ appearance. Patiently he waited for the two to finish their business before speaking up. “Hey, I’ve been looking to help out here and I was told to come to you.” A pause as he figured out he didn’t recognize the boy at all from his times in the city before he took the time to properly introduce himself. “I’m Linn. I’ve been helping out around the city and well… I’m interested in this gem that’s been lost. I wouldn’t mind putting in some work to help clear things up in the meantime though.”

Sykule quickly examined Linn from head to toe, and offered him a friendly smile. He did look a bit out of place with his armor, but not like he couldn't handle some hard work. "Oh, good. That's exactly the kind of attitude we are looking for. The name's Sykule, you can call me Syk, if you want." The boy spoke, as he shuffled through the pages of the notebook on his hands. "Well, I'll just need your name and..." He paused, and blinked twice, looking at Linn with a rather curious expression. "Wait, did you say you're interested in the gem? Most people just come here talking about the reward."

Linn offered a single nod as he was given a name to the face. “Sykule. Sounds good.” He watched the pages in the notebook flip, ready to list his name again for the records until his particular curiosity about the gem caught up to change the subject. He tilted his head in a half-nod. “Yeah. I doubt I’d ever get to have it, but it’s something I’d like to see for myself sometime. If I get to help find it, well, that’s two birds with one stone. Get to be among the first see it, get a reward for it too.” He gave a halfhearted shrug with the statement. Maybe there were a few fantasies playing through his head about some kind of treasure hunt, but despite his generally light demeanor he seemed genuinely interested in helping out the progress to it.

Sykule spun his quill in circles as he listened to Linn. "Well, that's interesting." He nodded towards the bank, where a bunch of humans, elves and giants could be seen moving in and out, carrying rubble or building material. "See, the giants do most of the heavy lifting, but we still need others to do different kinds of work around here. Some parts of the bank are still collapsed and difficult to reach, the whole place is quite unstable, so we also need people to help clearing and making sure it won't collapse again." Sykule paused, and tapped the book a couple of times with an abstracted look, before continuing. "And about the gem... We still haven't made an effort to find the gem itself, but we might send a team through some of the damaged areas to search for it, soon." The boy gave Linn a somewhat daring smile, pointing the quill towards the shiny knight-enchanter. "Of course, If you prove yourself useful around here, you might be part of that team."

Linn turned his gaze to the activity in the bank as Sykule explained the general situation of who was doing what, turning back to the boy as the topic returned to the gem with a curious, anticipating look. He cracked a smile with a nod as a potential involvement in his desired search was offered. "Can't search if we don't clear up the rubble either. I suppose I might as well help move things along to get to the really interesting part." Crossing his arms over his chest he looked back to the scene. "I can move some heavier things across the ground with a magic trick or two, but if you need another hand in stabilizing what's left I could try my hand at it. Something falling on me in the process wouldn't be the biggest disaster..." he finished the morbid jest with a shrug. Armor's there for a reason. Back to serious things, though. "If you know anyone here that could use some help I'm willing to go for it. Anything to move things forward!"

Sykule joyfully opened his notebook, and started to write down Linn's name as he spoke. "Wonderful! That's one of the things I had to ask. Anyone with magical skills is welcome, we can definitely find a place to use it here." Only a few magic users were willing to help something as mundane as the rebuilding of the bank, including Sykule. The armored man might be more valuable than he looks. "Name: Linn... Would you tell me where you come from, Linn? or if you have a place to stay at Frostmaw?" The boy waited for him to answer, before he proceeded to the last question, this time a lot more curious about what Linn would say. "And well, you could describe your magical skills for me or, if you're eager to start, you could simply show me what you can do."

Linn nodded as Sykule exclaimed a use for magic, the little cheats that helped him get things done. When asked about where he came from he tilted his head in thought on the exact details. "I work and serve here, but I spend the rest of my time down in Xalious right now. I have a home here with someone else but we still have to fix that up after everything." As to the question about the magic, he tapped his foot in thought. "Primarily enchantment and working with physical forces. That goes anywhere from cutting to holding things together, shielding, a few stranger things..." he pushed backwards a little bit, suddenly slowly sliding across the ground as if it had suddenly turned to slick ice before stopping. "You get the point. Besides that just a few things I've picked up over time. If you have an idea for what I could do I'm all ears, or we can look at what's to be done to start."

Sykule was puzzled for a second as he saw Linn's sliding trick, trying to figure out how he did it. He shook his head, breaking out of his dazzle and quickly filled Linn's profile into the notebook, then closed it with a sound thump, before shoving it into his shoulder bag. "Done, and Done. Well, follow me, I know just the thing to get you started!" He turned and walked along the bank and around the corner to the side. A giant scaffolding was built on the dark walls of the bank, leading to the rooftop. A couple of workers seemed to be idling around above, most resting and chatting about. "You see, the rooftop was the most damaged structure, and is the hardest one to fix." The boy slowed his pace as they approached a pile of building material, boxes and tools, in big wooden crates wrapped around by rope, just below the scaffolding. He turned back to Linn and pointed at one of the bigger crates. "This was supposed to be up there, but we miscalculated the weight, and the pulley broke. No one got hurt, thankfully, but we can't start working on this side until we get it replaced and that might take a long time. Do you think you can lift one of those boxes up there, so they can work while we wait for a new pulley?"

Linn grinned slightly at Sykule's surprise of his little sliding trick, always finding a little joy in those moments of confusing showmanship, but when it was time to get to work he nodded and followed along around to the scaffholds outside, remaining silent as the situation was explained. As some of the difficulties and the task were explained he nodded before looking at the crates and everything in them. "Just comes down to a push in the right direction, simple." His expression shifted a little. 'Simple' didn't exactly mean 'easy', and there were a few holes in his tricks that prevented the matter from becoming trivial. "I'm going to want to work with one of these boxes to properly set it up and make sure it's stable as it goes up." Ideas forming, his eyes flickered to the largest crate and then to the smaller ones, gauging their sizes. "Let's work with the big one. Can always reuse it if we need to move more supplies up. I'm going to need to get under it though." Without further ado he began pulling the supplies out of the crate, setting them aside in a neat pile until it could be safely tipped over so he could access the bottom of it.

Sykule watched patiently as Linn figured out how to solve their problem, sitting on top of one of the crates. As Linn started to empty the crate, he stood up and gave him a hand in clearing it and pilling the supplies. The boy left Linn to work with the bottom of the box, as he whistled and signalized to one of the workers sitting atop the scaffold to try and catch the crate when it got there.

Once the box was empty, Linn would take a careful look of the construction at the bottom before tipping it on to the side and tracing out the construction of the base. With a satisfied look he turned to the scaffhold, making a halfhearted motion as if making something rise and fall; nothing magical came with it, he was just sorting it out in his head. Setting down his pack he began rummaging through it, having to reach down to the bottom to fish out a number of rough gemstones in various colors. Roughly weighing them, he threw a few back in. "I'm probably going to want these back once we're done, but we can get some use out of them." He flipped the crate onto the ground again to trace an outline before flipping it back up, eyes flickering to the crate and its corresponding marks in the dirt as he set the gemstones in them, oriented so their flattest faces pointed upward. Mundane things aside, he pulled a leather-wrapped object out before unfolding it to reveal a cluster of unnaturally vivid violet splinters of very strong magical presence. If Sykule had enough of a magical sense to notice the mana crystals (besides seeing them), he might be able to tell Linn was carrying quite a few more of them in various forms. With a moment of focus on them he began pulling the mass apart, setting the needles down to connect the mundane stones in the dirt before sitting down over the assembly, seemingly drawing connections between all of them, every now and then staying to one crystal before moving to the next. For the all the gaudy color and sparkle of the physical framing, his handling of the arcane was otherwise unceremonial and rather mechanical. After some time he'd get back up and reach out to the assembly, and raising his arm it would come off the ground before he pushed down on a corner with his other. It seemed stable. "Good, good." he'd mutter before setting it down and tipping the crate back over onto it and checking to make sure it was square before repeating the process to test it again. A certain heaviness seemed to affect him as he took the crate with the gems, and it wasn't entirely appreciated either, evident as he leapfrogged the crate over the supplies closer to the scaffhold with weighted steps and a scowl on his face. "Going to need to do a little more to get the stuff up, sorry for all the time this is taking." Already he was moving to grab his pack and head to the base of the scaffhold to do something else.

Sykule approached Linn just as he pulled the gems out of his bag. The man reeked of magic energy, though he assumed at first it was due to an enchanted armor. "Don't worry, this is just a temporary solution. You'll have those back in no time." He watched closely as Linn built his device, a bit too complex and delicate for Sykule to fully understand but It seemed like it was built to make sure everything would work smoothly. After a few tests, the box was lifted out of the ground, and Sykule gave him an encouraging thumbs-up. But it seemed like Linn felt something was still missing. "Oh, is it not powerful enough?"

Linn chuckled and shook his head as he began setting a duplicate array on the ground at the scaffhold. "Not exactly. -Something- has to take the weight with this trick. With just what I had, it'd be me. And I'm definitely not strong enough to deal with it." Retrieving the crate he sized up the assemblies, and with a nudge here and a check there on the gems on the ground he looked satisfied before sitting down again to bind together all the mechanisms together in the necessary ways, getting up to lift the crate and pull down on it hard as he could to test its stability, sitting down again to check things due to some perceived imbalance, getting back up, and so on until everything seemed just -right-. Rubbing his brows he shook his head to clear his mind before nodding. "Alright, let's get the stuff in. This should work under its own power so we can move quite a few supplies up." Mentally expended for now, he was content for a bit more simple labor moving the supplies back into the crate.

Sykule pondered on Linn's answer for a second before realizing what he did. -Clever, very clever.- The boy thought to himself, with a wide smile. By now, Linn's work had caught up the attention of some of the workers around. "So, what are you waiting for? Come help us load it and see how this works." He shouted towards the bystanders, waving his hand in the air, which resulted in a pair of them moving to help. They filled the crate with the tools they needed in the rooftops first, then the smaller crates with supplies and soon their makeshift magic elevator was ready to go.

Once the crate was full Linn would send a final look around to ensure they had everything back in before crouching down, fingers brushing against the crystals under the crate as he slowly stood back up. The crate followed, looking almost as light as a feather to him with the construct bearing the weight, evident as the gems in the ground buried themselves a little deeper until the earth fully supported them. Gazing up the scaffholds he grabbed on with his free hand before climbing up the bars, always keeping a hand on the crate as it came up with him, either to steady and moderate it, or to actually continue the lifting. Carefully he made his way to the top before calling out as the crate came level with the floor. "Wanted a crate?" A couple seconds of awkward silence among the workers; the particular method didn't exactly have a precedent on how things were supposed to go. "Do we just slide it off?" one of them asked over the edge. "Uhh... yeah, get a hold of it." Linn shifted up to hook an elbow into the supports and bring his other hand to the crate's bottom, and soon there was a 'go!' As they pulled it slid right off, and maybe to everyone's surprise, about a foot farther before grinding to a halt. "And back down I go." he whimsically stated back as they began working and he began climbing down, making it to the bottom before striking a faux stance of 'ta da!'

Sykule watched from below as Linn steadly climbed the scaffold clinging to the crate. Not the most elegant way to use magic, but it was practical. As he delivered the box up there the boy walked towards the gems set on the ground, making sure no one would meddle with the device. When he got down, Linn was greeted with slow clapping from Sykule. "Great job! Only a couple of supplies left and they'll be able to work for a while." He spoke hiting one of the boxes twice with his fist. "I'll go along with you this time, there's something up there I want to show you."

Linn let out a small chuckle at the slow clap he received for the magic trick. All that effort for lifting a crate... "More to move? Well... we still have our frame to work with." Promptly he begam moving the boxes to the magical elevator, sliding them along with magic if they proved too heavy to carry. A curious glance was directed Sykule's way at the mention of something to be shown. "Well then." came a playful response as he began lifting the crate. "I can only wonder." Again he made his climb to deposit the crate up top, those violet splinters he held the frame by shrinking ever so slowly but steadily as they expended their energy.

Sykule started to climb the scaffold with Linn, having a bit of a hard time due to his shorter size, which kept him a couple of feet behind him. He wondered if anyone watching would think Linn was carrying the heavy crate on a single hand. A peculiar sight indeed. The device seemed stable so far, as the crate didn't move other than up and down."Almost there. How is it doing?" He asked, as they neared the top.

Linn glanced at the framework under the crate when Sykule inquired about the state of things. "Looks fine. It's holding out." As they came to the top he called out to those above, "Another crate! Get ready to pull it in five...!" he continued counting down as he stabilized himself to repeat his little sliding trick again, this time on the crate so it could get onto the scaffold. Everything seemed to be going just fine, evident by his lack of concern as he vaulted up on top, taking the elevator frame with him before offering a hand down to Sykule. "So, you wanted to show me something?" he curiously inquired.

ykule was panting by the time they reached the top, going around in his human form made everything a bit harder, though he was a bit used to it. He grabbed Linn's hand and pulled himself up, pausing to catch his breath once he was up there. "Yeah, this way." The boy gestured to a little catwalk built along the rooftop, while he took the first step towards it. "Watch your step, it's a long way down." The catwalk was but a walkway made of wooden planks and a rail built near the edge of the collapsed roof. A safe area for the workers. From up there, the interior of the bank was visible, mostly piles of rubble of different sizes and a couple of laborers clearing the area. They walked until about the middle of the bank, where almost every part of it could be seen. "Yep, this has been on my mind ever since you told me what you do. That over there, was the source of all this mess." Sykule spoke, as he pointed to what seemed to be... little towers of rubble, perhaps? There were half a dozen of them in a single line. "Those were the pillars that sustained the roof. They were destroyed during the fight, and that's what caused the bank to collapse." He swept his arm, in an exaggerated representation of the destruction while looking at Linn. "We don't want something like that to happen again. I was wondering if you would like to work personally on magically reinforcing the pillars we will build. It would be something for you to work over time, nothing urgent, and you would be paid extra. It could be nice to leave your mark here."

Linn followed Sykule around the catwalks to peer down into the bank, his hands making a couple halfhearted motions at his side in some abstraction of the roof's collapse. Yeah, that'd do it. When asked about reinforcing the new pillars he spent a long time staring down into the bank and its ruined supports. "It's possible. For something this big though I wouldn't want to rely on magic exclusively. What will happen if it exhausts itself in one way or another? Either in a fight or... just from one improperly handled stress." The intensity that he looked at those wrecked pillars put the wheels in his mind on display; he'd done reinforcement, and it was probably the simplest combination of force and enchantment he knew, but making it really last under its own strength in what he'd consider shoddy material (For magic, anyway) wasn't the easiest prospect. A quick blink broke the stare. "Tell you what, I've got an ongoing project that may be able to help with this. It will be much more stable than straight magic if it works out. I'll have to talk to Hildegarde first though about it, as she's the one managing those resources. Even if we do get permission here, it might be a while until I have it all ready to go. So we'll have to see."

Sykule crossed his arms, watching as Linn devised a plan. "No worries, just talk to her once you have everything figured out, I'm pretty sure you'll get what you need if you're solid. I've seen what you can do on improvise, I can only wonder what you could do with the right resources. The patrons of the bank will surely pay extra to keep it safe." He paused to give Linn a smile and a wink. "And that will give you an opportunity to talk directly to Hildegarde about the gem, in case you still want to take a good look at it after we find it." The boy cleared a bit of dust from his hands, and gazed at his surroundings. "Anyway, all you have to do right now is keep an eye on your magic device until the new pulley arrives. Shall we go back and check?"

Linn shrugged a little as the gear was considered 'improvised'. "Well, I'm using the stuff I'd use for more permanent enchantments, just not fully refined. Most of it comes down to the task." He looked back down at the pillars before cracking a smile. They would actually look quite pretty when fused together with Black Ice if this worked out. When Sykule mentioned the gem again. "Yeah, maybe. We'll definitely have to see how it goes." Another nod at the suggestion to go back and check on things. "It's definitely not framed well enough for others to use it well. Not to mention someone might begin toying with it..." he grumbled a little before heading back. Leaving mana crystal and sapphire unattended probably wasn't the best of ideas. It was generally okay with the giants, but other people... it was questionable.

Sykule tilted his head, "Eh, giants are pretty picky about people messing with their stuff, that includes the things that helps them work. I'm pretty sure the workers kept an eye out for them down there. No one in their right mind would like to be caught stealing here." And of course, that was why they kept track of name and residence of the workers. Rebuilding a bank meant that once in a while someone would find something valuable, so a reward was offered to encourage their retrieval, including a certain gem. As they returned to the scaffolding, now working at full speed on the roof, they were met by one of the workers sitting beside a smaller wooden crate. "You're back. This here's filled with broken tools and other disposables, mind taking it down with ya? Oh, and we're gonna need another box soon."

Linn passively nodded as they made their way back to where they had been working before. They definitely wouldn't want to be caught taking his stuff either. When they got back to more work to do he chuckled a little bit. "Might as well while we still have this thing to work with." Wanting to keep things going, he grabbed the crystalline assembly and dropped down over the edge of the scaffold, placing it to bring the crate down. It went down without issue, letting him begin packing a new crate to bring back up. He was maybe halfway back up before the crate began to lag behind, prompting a confused look and an 'ehh?'. "Looks like this is gonna be the last crate! This thing's running out!" Quick judgements were made; he could power it the rest of the way. Channeling some of his own power into it the crate caught up and he climbed a little bit higher, and then the weight of the cargo began to settle on him instead of the ground blow. "Wha..." His hold rapidly became more strained before he let out a mundane curse, fingers and feet slipping from the bars as he began falling towards the ground a bit faster than gravity would normally make him. His fall was fast enough that he was still upright by the time he hit the ground, strands of blue light arcing between just about all of his armored joints on the impact, the suit turning stiff as could be before he fell forward like a robot powered off, faceplanting in the dirt. The magical elevator, with Linn as its new weight recipient, slowly descended as its power waned. Drifting off a little it bumped against the scaffold and went back out into the air, and like a feather it set itself right in clear view of the enchanter as if to taunt him for the failure. Despite the feeling of being made of lead subsiding, Linn continued to lay there on the ground, the whole experience leaving him rather dizzy and sore.

Sykule climbed down the scaffold without much effort. He was ready to call it a day once they solved the pulley problem, so he let Linn handle the climb while he tried to speed things up from below. It proved to be a bad idea, once he heard a short, but loud cursing. The boy turned around fast enough to see Linn land on his feet, and apparently have the enchanted armor cushion his fall. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough to stop him from falling face first into the ground once the armor was depleted of it's power. "Holy Arkhen! Are you ok?" Sykule shouted as he ran to his aid, and kneeled by his side. The enchanter was apparently breathing, no visible harm done (except for his dignity). "I guess you were right, the armor did come in handy. Uhm... Do you... need some help getting up?"

Linn let out something between a groan and a sigh as Sykule asked if he was okay, eventually managing a "Yeah. Could be worse." Blood was beginning to dribble out from his nose and the area around his eye was turning redder by the second, courtesy of the weighted faceplant, but he seemed more disappointed than anything. The comment on his armor brought a halfhearted chuckle which quickly halted itself with a wet snort and a sudden look of disgust. "Ahh crap. Well..." slowly he brought his hand to his face to check the condition of his nose before pinching it closed. Didnt feel broken, luckily. Regardless, the next words came out in that characteristically nasal tone. "Dealing with falls like that was a side-effect, but it isn't that part of the fall that really hurts..." For all the work he put into resisting blows in ways normal armor typically couldn't, he didn't have a solution to having one's insides shaken up for things like -that-. The offer for help was answered with a nod as he rolled over to sit up and reached his free hand out.

Sykule snickered at Linn's funny tone, then pulled him back to his feet supporting for a while him before he was sure he could stand on his own. "Well, next time at least try to fall on your back. " He sighed, walking towards the scaffolding and looking directly up. "I guess I'll have to handle that personally." The boy turned back to the enchanter, with his arms crossed on a pensive look. "Do you think you can still channel your spell using me as weight recipient this time? I think I can carry it up, though I'd need someone to hold the box. I might give you a lift home afterwards, or maybe the healers, if you're not feeling too well." Of course, that might have sounded a bit cryptic to Linn, as he's unaware of Sykule's draconian nature.

Linn was still a little shaky after getting to his feet, but he slowly regained his balance and composure as he walked around some. "I didn't exactly have a choice in that matter you know." Sykule's next request and offer certainly did come off as odd, met with raised brows. "Id have to b-" Wait, what? "What do you have in mind for carrying it up? I suppose I could keep it steady." Moving to the defunct base of the lift he fished through the dirt for the stones, the violet splinters having notably shrunken from their original size. "Huh..." he muttered before heading to the crate to make sure it was still in one piece. His head was still spinning too much to make a lot of sense of what was going on; he was content to just go along for the ride.

Sykule raised an eyebrow at Linn's question, before realizing he didn't tell Linn what he had in mind, scratching his head in embarassment. "Oh, right! Sorry." He took a few steps back as he closed his eyes, moving his cloak out of the way, and a pair of feathered wings sprouted from his back. White feathers started sprouting from his skin, as his body started to grow and magically blend into his clothing, changing into a saurian shape. A few seconds later, a ten feet tall feathered dragon was standing in front of Linn, staring at him with one of his big gray eyes, and doing a little pose standing on three of his paws. "Ta da." Sykule spoke, speaking mentally towards Linn. "Just climb when you're ready, and we'll be up there in no time."

Linn stared blankly at Sykule as he transformed to his feathered saurian form, eventually managing a couple blinks and an accepting "well then." A nod was given at the order to climb up before he released his nose to see if it was still bleeding. It was a little, but not unmanageable. He'd live. Moving to the dragon's side he laid out the crystals again, "Allllright. There's enough left for one last push... All this on your back, right?" That was the impression he got from the cryptic statement, but he wanted to make sure in case that wasn't the exact plan. It took him some time to focus on laying out his little sliding trick to move the laden crate in to the right spot, but if the plan was going the way he thought, soon enough he'd be lifting it into the air again, eyes flickering rapidly between the two platforms as if either one would decide to betray him again in that moment before gently setting it on Sykule's back. With one hand dedicated to keeping the crate from tipping, Linn had to use the dragon's haunches as a stairstep up in the absence of the ability to simply jump and climb onto his back. "ohhhhkay. I think we're good." He held on maybe a little tightly; flying like this wasn't something he had ever done, but what was the worst that could happen?

"Yeah, try to keep to weight as balanced as you can." Sykule felt his own body becoming heavier and his claws slowly sulking into the ground as Linn channeled his magic. The box was surely heavy, but he was strong enough to handle it. He moved his wings and limbs about, getting used to the extra burden. "Hold tight!" He warned Linn, as he thrust himself upwards, swinging his strong wings twice, and ascending through the air at a steady pace. "Okay, there were two reasons why I couldn't do this before. First, I couldn't properly carry that crate, but you took care of that. And secondly, I can't land on the roof, it's too unstable. So... you'll have to drop the box at the right time." The dragon spoke, trying to keep himself stable as he neared the top, sending gusts of wind and dust to the unlucky workers below. Once he was past the roof level, he slowed the rythm of his wings, hovering above their target as close as he could.

Linn held tight alright, with hands clapped at the sides of the crate and legs clenched over Sykule's back he managed to hold on. Stay focused, stay focused on the crate. Using what little was left in the crystalline platform he kept it steady, eyes fixed forward until the dragon mentioned dropping the box. "Okay, just gotta look for a good spo-" His stomach sank a little and he held on a little tighter as he looked down below at the terrain that seemed to shift and turn with every wingbeat. For all the cliffs he looked down... just a little drop to the scaffold was what was doing him in. "Umm..." Slowly the haze of adrenaline cleared, letting him look for a well-supported section to land the crate on. "A little to the left..." He managed to shout out, and once they were in position he did a quick double check of the platform and a couple rapid changes to let it handle the task and push the crate off, "Alright, here goes..." It floated down, slowly at first, but once it was a few feet above the scaffold it dropped much more abruptly, hitting the deck with a loud thump and the creaking of numerous boards (One might even hear a few cracks...). It wasn't a complete disaster, but there would probably be some marks in the wood from where the remaining gems hit first. And shaken nerves. Lots of those.

Sykule was glad when he heard the loud sound of a box hitting the wooden planks, rather than the sound of a box breaking into pieces or worse, someone being crushed. He flew higher, relieved of the weight, and started to glide calmly above the bank, far from the possible screaming and cursing their delivery might have caused. "That wasn't so bad. Maybe that will teach the chief to be more careful with the new pulley." He spoke to Linn, turning his neck to face the man upon his shoulders. "You look like you've seen enough for a day. I can deliver the rest of your crystals back to you later, if you want. I hope that didn't discourage you about searching for the lost gem later."

Linn let out a light laugh as Sykule commented on how well things went, cutting himself off as a taste of copper entered his mouth. His nose had begun bleeding again, enough for Sykule to catch a drop or two falling off of Linn's chin and onto his feathers before he pinched his nose again, hugging the dragon with his free arm and elbows. "Yeah, it's fine. I've... I've been through worse." It was clear from the look on his face that he was still trying to get used to these kinds of heights without any solid ground nearby. He'd eventually manage to direct the dragon to a clearing in the Xalious Mountains below. The offer to have the gems returned was accepted and appreciated, though when Sykule went about collecting them, he wouldn't find the magical violet splinters Linn had used, nor any accounts of anyone seeing or taking them since. Only the rough, mundane gemstones were left from the activities.