They measured out the space and then Vega looked at Wren. "Alright, so, on this bit of paper, here, I want you to write out the word, as you want it to be on the sign." Wren nodded and lowered his head to do as she'd asked. His face was a study in concentration, and Vega was quiet as she watched him. When he was done - and he took his time, but she didn't rush him - Vega looked at it and nodded. "Right, so we've got the word. It's got eight letters, right? But we can't jus' divide the space we have into eight an' do it." Wren frowned. "Why not?"
"Well," Vega said. "I'll answer that question if you really can't think of the answer, an' if you can't that's fine. But think about it a bit, an' see what else is there, other than the letters." His glance at her was slightly disbelieving, to which Vega merely grinned. In fairness to him, though, he turned his attention to the word he had just written. "There's nothing but letters," he said. Vega pointed to a particular part of the parchment and Wren frowned. "That's just empty space," he said and Vega nodded. Wren thought about it and then spoke slowly, carefully. "We have to measure the space, too, to make sure that it's even?" Reaching out a hand to stroke his hair, Vega nodded. "Well done," she said solemnly. "That weren't an easy question. It's somethin' we do automatically, when we write, but we need to think about it for things like this." Wren thought about it and then looked at Vega.
"How do we do it?"
Vega rummaged in her pocket and pulled out a piece of string. "This piece of string is my magic string," she said, her gaze apparently serious but Wren knew better than to believe that as he looked at her swirling eyes. "An' it has the magic ability to tell me how to do this." Wren's expression caused Vega to chuckle. "Ok, so I'm not good at numbers an' things. So, I use this string to work out the letters. We mark the length of the sign, then fold the string in half an' mark it. That means there needs to be four letters either side of that half way mark. Then, the left half I fold in half, an' do the same with the right. Mark it each time, an' keep doin' it till you've got it split into eight. " Wren was watching her with a slightly confused look on his face, but he nodded. "Then," Vega said, with a smile, "I make the mark in between the letters all the same size. So, for this one, because there's four letters to the left an' four to the right of the middle? I'll make it four lines wide. That'll be the space."
Wren watched her do it and asked quietly, "Why not just work it out, Vega?" She looked at him with a grin. "Because my head would explode, an' instead I've got my magic string." He looked at the string and spoke with an earnest voice. "It isn't magic, Vega." Vega, upon hearing this, clutched at her chest and pretended to fall to the floor. "No! The shock!" Wren shook his head. "I know there's easier ways, Little Bird," she said, more seriously. "But they're only easy when you understand them. This, this is the way what I understand an' it works for me."
He considered that for a while and then nodded, apparently satisfied. It wasn't the easiest way, or the most logical way but he recognised that it was the most Vega way, and so he helped her with it. "Now, we're goin' to mark the wood, give ourselves guidelines. Then, we need to find the middle goin' horizontally, too." Wren glanced at her, "Why?" He thought he knew, but Vega wouldn't mind him asking and he wanted to be clear. "Because the horizontal bit of the H an' the bottom of the round bit of the P need to be on that line," she said. "You've designed it all in capital letters. If some of it were small letters, the not-capital ones, then that would be where they went up to, an' we'd need to think about how far down the p went from the bottom."
"There's a lot to think about," Wren said, "for eight letters." Vega nodded. "There is, Little Bird. But if it's worth doin', it's worth doin' right, yeah?" He confirmed this and, with the wood finally marked, they carefully transferred the letters with a light pencil. Then, Vega cut them and shaped them and Wren sanded them.
"Why do we sand things that are going up on a sign?" Wren asked, looking at the piece he was working on. Vega considered it. "Well, partly out of habit, an' because it's important to do a job as well as you can. Good work is a habit, you know. But also, because it looks better, an' it takes the varnish we're goin' to put on it easier. An' we don't want birds to get splinters." Wren had been continuing his task until she said that but he stopped and his head lifted to gaze at her. "Birds don't get splinters," he said.
"Sure about that, are you?" Vega asked and Wren considered it. "No," he said. "Strange," Vega replied. "You sounded sure."
"I've never seen a bird limping," Wren said and Vega chuckled. "It's hard to limp when you fly or hop, innit?" He worked that one through for a few moments and nodded. "I suppose. Can birds get splinters?"
Putting down her tools, Vega reached out and stroked his hair. "I have no idea, Little Bird. But I wouldn't want to take the risk of hurtin' somethin' by doin' a shoddy job, would you?" Wren shook his head. "So," she said. "I reckon we've done a good job today. Tomorrow, we'll put it all up an' then it'll be done." Wren nodded. "What have you learned today?" It was something Vega asked him most trials. He knew what the next two questions were, even as she said them. "An' what did you enjoy? If you could do one bit of it different, what bit would you change?"
Wren had grown to quite like answering these questions and he was careful and precise in his answers. "I learned that I should have a 'what if a bird gets a splinter' approach," he said. His tone was serious and he meant it, but Vega couldn't help but smile at how he put it. "I enjoyed learning about your magic string, and I'd like it if Hart had been here, too. I'd change that." Vega nodded. "Well, what say we get you washed an' fed an' told a story an' then to bed an' that way, we'll be one day closer to the trial Hart is here, too, ok?"
With a nod as they finished putting away the tools, Wren slipped his hand into Vega's as they walked back towards the camp to get ready for the night-time routine that they'd worked out together.
