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    Kress Chapter


    The Competitors: Kress, Borgick, Midnight, Stan, Ellenell


    The Assistants: Blue, Marigold, Carl, Gareth, Burgandy


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    Kress took a few shaky steps backwards until his legs hit the bucket behind him. Kress froze in ce for a few seconds before letting out a long breath of air into his shoulder. A few careful stepster and he was taking in the entire castle. It was still missing some details. He hadn''t put in the trees yet, the brickwork lines needed to be done, probably with Timmy''s help. There was a spot for a pond that he nned to fill up with blue sand… but it was done.


    Kress admired the castle. It had arge central tower set slightly towards the back and four smaller ones set around it. They weren''t quite on the corners, they were all slightly offset as well and it gave the whole castle a slightly unique feel that Kress found himself loving. The base of the castle was boxy with windows lovingly carved into the sides and tworge doors on the front.


    The gardens off to the left were rather nice, as was his small guard barracks on the right. They werest minute editions and arguably not quite up to the standards he''d set for the castle itself but he was happier to have them there then not. Timmy had just recently finished up the trees. The little guy hadn''t done anything fancy. Just the ones Kress himself had suggested, as well as two others. One had a square top instead of a circr one, and the other was… well it was basically a hedge segment.


    Kress thought that was a bit of a poor showing from the little guy, but was willing to ept those trees as they were. In fact, Kress had asked Timmy to double the number of trees for each type to keep him busy while Kress finished up the castle… and then asked Timmy to gather more sand.


    It took Kress a bit over an hour to finish up the castle, so they were somewhat past the hour and a half mark overall. Kress wasn''t entirely happy with the amount of time it''d taken so far, but he wasn''t going toin too much. They still had plenty of time to fill in the townscape, perhaps more than they really needed. Kress moved over to Timmy and exined his instructions. "Ok Timmy, I''m going to hold you near the castle I just made and I want you to quickly fill in the brick patterns to match how I''ve started it already. Is that ok?"


    Timmy gave Kress a salute, and the pair got to work. As they did that, Kress thought about Blue''s progress with the houses. They turned out to be a bigger issue then the pair had originally thought. Blue had ''perfected'' the design, and then gone to Thyme for a copy… and it all fell apart rather quickly. They hadn''t considered how the hinge would move properly. The n was for it to fan out sideways but that messed with the house too much as the hinge messed with the bottom wall.


    So Blue went back to the drawing board. Hinge on top. It was a lot better… but not perfect. The problem with the hinge on top is that it left the point of the house really awkward looking from the bits of sand that managed to partially make it through the gap in the stic. It also made packing sand in a bit of a pain because if you put in too much it''d start to seriously leak into the hinges.


    So Blue asked Thyme to do away with the hinges entirely… and Thyme''s response was to hold up two fingers. It took longer than Blue would ever admit to figure out that Thyme was trying to insist that meant it was actually two buckets not one. Blue, not knowing if that was eptable and not wanting to bother Kress about it… went back to the drawing board AGAIN to try and figure something out.


    In the end, Blue came up with a ratherplicated design that worked… in her mind at least. It had a bunch of ovepping pieces around the top that, in an ideal world, would''ve removed the problem the hinges had. When she finally got Thyme to test it? It did not. In the end she asked for a long shovel that matched the curve for the top of the house, then a bucket with a hinge on top that matched the house she''d mocked up perfectly, windows and brick markings included.


    When it finally worked, Blue started giggling… and giggling, and giggling until she was struggling to breathe… and then she just passed out. Kress stopped carving the castle for a bit to move her away from the ocean so she wasn''t at risk of being washed away or drowning and then got back to work. Clearly dealing with the houses was a lot more work then he''d intended to give Blue. Still, she''d done a good job and he was thankful for that.


    Back at the castle, it took a surprisingly short time for the pair to finish up. Timmy moved swiftly, and efficiently. Kress was almost ''painting'' on the correct brick indents just by moving Timmy around. Kress felt like he could just wave Timmy in a direction and have it brick patterned, but he refrained. No sense rushing things and causing a problem. Still didn''t take long for ''everything'' to be done.


    Once it was, Kress made his way over to Thyme and asked for the dimensions he needed on the walls. Thyme was happy to help. Kress'' design was a basic wall with a tower at one end. He didn''t trust himself to flip it, but that was what Timmy was hanging around for. So new bucket in hand, technically Timmy''s bucket, he went back and did the walls in no time t. Timmy''s help, the saved sand mix, and the wonderful new bucket of times, and it was done in less then five minutes.


    In the time Timmy was putting up the walls, Kress had ced down the trees and used Timmy''s shovel to transport the blue sand for the pond. Then it was all done. The castle. The walls, the scenery. It was ALL DONE.


    "Hahahaha,"ughed Kress aloud as a tear formed in his eye. Just the one though, and he suppressed hisughter quickly as well. Wouldn''t want to pass out like Blue. She''d clearly worked too hard today and he hadn''t properly ounted for that. *Still. She got the houses done so I can assign Timmy to making those. I''ll need to mark out where I want the streets and stuff to go first, then get Timmy to throw up little housing areas around them with different colours while I work on carving out the houses in the ravines or something.*


    Kress scratched at his chin as he thought, but not wanting to waste time with Timmy gave the little guy and order. "Timmy, I''d like you to make one house using the bucket Blue made, out of every sand colour. ce those houses in front of the sand piles. Then, I want you to make a mix of two colours either side in the middle of those houses. This is just to test them out for viability, they''ll probably be destroyedter so you can be a bit rough with them if necessary,"


    Timmy saluted, as Kress knew the little guy would. Such a reliable little guy. Wish I could take him on adventures more often. *Ok. That''s given Timmy something to do, even if it''s really just killing time. I''m not sure how I want to do this honestly… the town and the ravine. It really needs one person working on each with Timmy helping the person doing the town but Blue''s out ofmission… possibly till the end of the event.


    Do I wake her up? It''s a bit rude and we''re not going to be short on time. So I don''t feel the NEED to wake her up, even if I do feel the WANT. She deserves some rest, especially after she helped Gareth tie for second in that volleyball tournament. I certainly don''t want her to feel like I''m forcing her to do more work then she''s capable of. Even if the bucket solution isn''t perfect, it''s nearly perfect and she spent way too much mental energy getting it there.


    Still… there''s potentially a lot of time for her to be sleeping through. I don''t want to lose because my partner slept for over half the time. Then again, the judges aren''t here and Thyme has been insisting they aren''t a judge this round. Unless they report back to the judges about how well we worked together. That would be a massive pain in the ass.


    Hmm… I could get Timmy to make a fancy bed out of sand perhaps? Put her on that and make her part of the exhibit? A bit mean… but very amusing. Hmm… I''ll need to give that idea some serious consideration.*