“To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t really thought any further on the comment that Syrene had made to me back then, I had by now settled down in town working with a couple of other masters in making pieces for well to do clients and life was quite comfortable, no longer having to scrounge about the wilderness for rabbits and sheltering from storms. I hadn’t yet taken any apprentices of my own and I was kept fairly busy.”

  “One day an urgent commission came to the Guild Hall, a significant amount of joinery and detail work was required on a new ship that would be launching with the Spring. They were very pressed for time so they were looking for a Master Carpenter to work with their shipwright to meet a deadline. It was a complicated task and also involved working high up the masts in the rigging - something that none of the other masters cared to risk, either due to physical impossibility - most were quite old or rather portly, or fear - no one wanted to fall to their deaths when they could just get paid to safely make furniture.”

  “I being the youngest, and most sprightly of the new masters was congratulated and awarded the job, the Guild Master and other senior masters telling me how important the completion of this task would be for the guild, earning us no small amount of favour with the Merchants Guild and opening up many new trade opportunities.”

  “So you got press ganged huh”, I said. “Yes, something like that - there wasn’t really a way to say no once they had all decided.”, he said.

  “The next day I found myself down at the Shipyards meeting with Master Burley, a shipwright of quite some fame. He was the person in charge overall for the project and we would be working closely together to get the remaining work completed in a timely manner. The Guild Master, who had tagged along to make sure I did not ‘miss’ my appointment had stepped up and was busy pumping Master Burley’s hand up and down saying what a pleasure it was to work with him - apparently the two had been out drinking the night before and had ended up looking over some of my earlier work on display in the Hall and I had been told he was quite impressed by what he had seen.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “We walked down to the Dry Docks, where a large, mostly-finished schooner was laid up upon logs. Two of its three 30 meter masts had already been stepped although they were totally bare of any rigging. I must admit to some shortness of breath when I beheld their height, these were not a place for a humble carpenter! They were sheer poles of terror and certain death by falling!”

  “I looked over to the Guild Master who was all ‘smiles and nods’, then back to the ship - “How under God’s green earth am I supposed to get up there!”, I exclaimed, my voice breaking a little as a tendril of fear squeaked out.”

  “Master Burley waved with his right hand nonchalantly towards a waist high wicker basket sealed in tarry ropes off to one side of the central mast, “Never fear”, he said, “You can use ‘The Bucket’, it’s perfectly safe, not one accident at all so far.” Somehow this was not reassuring enough for me so the Master had a prospective cabin boy hoisted aloft by some amused labourers, where the young scamp waved at me from the topmast - a further extension of the mizzen, and where I would be required to ply my trade 20 - 25 m above the desk."

  "For the rest of that day I tried to bury my head and my fears in planning as Master Burley and I looked over the necessary pieces of carving and joinery that would be required and what tools and materials would be necessary to complete the job.”

  “Needless to say, that night I barely slept a wink and constantly woke to dreams of falling…”