Setting Up [Event Mission. C-Rank. WC: 1108]

Mission:

This would be easy, he'd help to take the stuff down, so setting it back up would be easy enough. He wasn't the strongest person here; some of the 'strongmen' and larger workers made him look like a matchstick; size and power wise. He'd never seen 'normal' people that where that strong or large; it wasn't unheard of for ninja to be... huge, and Jounin level ninja where usually pretty damn physically strong. This though... this was nuts.

Unfortunately, they'd been given some bad information on the other side of the plains, and had eaten some grains and fruits that they shouldn't have; meaning many of those strongmen where down for the count for a few days while they worked the toxins out of their systems in a fairly... painful, way.

"Kensei, sir! I've come back to help you set up."

"Oh, Karukaya, right? Good, we can use all the help we can get. Bato's up on the central tent pole barking orders, you know what to do."

"Yessir!" Karu took off toward the tallest of the poles that was up; from what he'd learned while he was helping them take stuff down, they ALWAYS put the tallest pole up first. It served as a marker for the center of the camp, and they used it to measure distances for the other poles and to the enclosures. He made his way around the wagons and boxes littering the area and to the bottom of the pole, "Bato! Where do you need me at!?"

"Eh? Oh, it's the kangababy daddy. Didja bring me tha' baby, boy?"

"Sorry, sir. He's getting a check up right now."

"Too bad. I like that little guy. Get up on the west pole and help them mount the tent canvas."

"Yessir!" He moved off toward the pole he was instructed toward, the only one of the 6 that was up already without someone on top of it. Climbing the poles was easy enough, they had small rungs hammered into the side to act as a ladder of sorts, as well as places to attach ropes and what not. Hand over hand until he was perched up top, untying the guide line from the top rung and pulling it in; the line was attached to the tent laid out on the ground below. They needed to get it up in the air and hook the special caps to the tops of the poles so that the ground crew could spread and open it properly. It took a good five minutes of hailing the massively heavy tent up for the three of them; him, Bato, and Bato's brother Sato that is; to get the tent up in the air and the caps set. The trick was to get the fabric draped over the top of the pole, climb down a few rungs so that you could work, line up the cap with the pole, and use the handles in the cap to basically 'hang', using your weight to set the cap on the pole. Once that was done, he could climb down; Bato was already moving down to what for all the world looked like the crow's nest of a ship; but they called it the caller's box. The announcer for the show stood there, while the Ringleader moved around on the ground and whatnot.

"Karukaya! They need help with the elephant pen!"

"Yessir! On my way, Kensei!"

Elephants... those where on the far end of the camp; near the creek they where using for water. They where clean enough animals, and they liked being close to the water, so it helped to keep them happy, having them over there. They where more willing to work when they where happy, so it was in everyone's best interests to keep them as happy as possible. Getting that far across the camp was a bit of a miracle, too many animals where loose and he was a stranger, it put the predatory animals on edge, and that made the keepers a little annoyed by him, specially with how many where sick, but having to keep working cause they where the only ones that could. It was a relief to reach the open space the elephants where standing in; they where standing in formation for the moment, waiting patiently for their enclosure to be set up.

"Kid, if you're here to help, start stringing the ropes!"

"Yessir!" He didn't know the elephant keeper's name, but they'd met momentarily before when they'd walked past the main tent area; so the older man knew he was there to be helpful where he could. The ropes in question where markers, they acted both as definition for the enclosure, and as a fence. The beasts had been trained from almost birth to respect the special ropes; they where painted and had 'special' charms on them that distinguished them from the other ropes and lines used; the elephants knew that anything decorated as such was a 'fence' and not to go past them without a trainer. The ropes went up easily enough; the buildings and such where well worn and the spots where stuff was tied to or sat was well worn and obvious. Once they where up, the matriarch of the herd walked them into the area without even needing to be told, and the head keeper closed it off with a special gate. "Tie up their canvas cover and then we're good here."

Canvas cover... oh! Right, he remembered this. The elephants where too large in size and number to be given a 'tent', but they had a very, very large length of canvas tent material that they strung up as a shady lean-to of sorts. A way to get out of the sun, or out of the rain if they wanted to. He found the ropes and such that he needed next to the canvas itself, and quickly strung it up; a solid fifteen feet off the ground so that even the tallest of the beasts could comfortably stand beneath it; angling the canvas to drain off toward the creek and not into the main pen area. "Done!"

"Thanks, kid. If Bato doesn't need anymore help, we should be okay now."

"I'll check in with him." Karu made his way back across the camp, trotting up to the base of the main tent's central pole, "Bato! Need me for anything?"

"Nah kid, we're good now. Go get your kangababy."

"Yep. Good luck finishing up."

WC: 1108/250