87th Ashan 722
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Lorogh was a bit addled when they roused him, but he was ready to do his part for the preparations of fortifications. While the infantry and cavalry platoons roamed the countryside, ranging from one point to another and chasing raiders, theirs would be to support the fortifications. They were specialists in the siege, and while that expertise was turned more often toward taking forts and walls, it was turned to their defense of them in this instance. Their specific skill at taking walls and besieging a standing fort would come in handy... somehow. Yet Lorogh couldn't shake the feeling of being a sitting duck. He'd prefer to move and be mobile, to go, rather than to stagnate. That was his nature, always going. But he would do his duty and follow orders.
The Sergeant, who had heard of his frontline duty in the protection of the wagon trail, had taken him aside some time before they began building and fortifying. Lorogh would be rotated to the back ranks, where he could support the defense with bolt fire while the others got their share of action. Lorogh welcomed the respite, and felt a little better already as he began to shovel snow with the other privates and stalwarts.
As they did so, Lorogh merely took to the task with sullen stoicism. He still felt the trauma of battle dragging his mood along, although he was able to purge some of that angst with the effort it took to push the shovel, pick it up, and heave the snow away. One of the other privates stopped him, however, as he was blindly shoveling snow this way and that. "No no, Private. We're using the snow, nothing gone to waste aye? We'll use this to build a bottle neck, and build up the snowbanks to either side of each bottleneck... You see what they're doing?"
Sure enough, Lorogh looked where he pointed, to the other soldiers. They were building up the snowbanks high above the shoulders of most ordinary humans. At least eight feet high, they were, from the ground in front. Lorogh wondered, for a moment, if he was so addled by violence that he hadnt' thought of that brilliant idea himself? Anyway, he nodded to the private, saluting and took to emulating their methods.
As he worked, the other private spitched in, trying to help him with his form. It wasn't always easy to do such tasks at such a great height deficit with the other soldiers around. But they taught him to not stoop so much, but use his knees more while keeping his back straight. So Lorogh began experimenting with various ways of shoveling the ice himself. He began cutting them into cubes, and testing how they held up when he piled them onto the snow banks. Other soldiers helped him along, taking the load he lifted from the fall, and bringing it to higher ground.
The teamwork was inspiring and therepeutic. Lorogh almost felt sorry that he wouldn't be fighting among his comrades, on the front lines. But he supposed the Sergeant knew best, and Lorogh could support them from the high walls of the fort.
