Shorus watched as the Nymph walked across the room and flirted with the Prince, her body was gentle and gracious and it put a smile on the Minotaurs face. Shorus remembered the hot nights he spent with a Nymph in the depth of the forest when he was younger and his smile grew wider.
the Minotaur heard the horse hoofs and could smell Tarwin long before he entered the council room, but he remembered that the human was just a big mouth, he never participated in a fight, so the Minotaur just nodded to him and didn't pay him much attention as he didn't have much respect towards him.
He noticed the green eyed made a disrespectful face when Shorus agreed to help the Prince and only asked to learn about machines, but Shorus was helping out of gratitude and fidelity and not out of profit, it seems the green eyed knew nothing about it, so he didn't deserve Shorus's attention either.
"Shorus will take a look on the mysterious machine, maybe Shorus can help!" answered the Minotaur to Hazim.
Shorus listened to the Prince's plan with great attention agreed with most of it, but the third part of the plan made the Minotaur nauseas, "You get only one family, you shouldn't haste to kill all of them because of the sins of a few of them, once you kill someone he doesn't come back!" said the Minotaur to the Prince in response.
After that the Minotaur followed Hazim towards the trebuchet without saying one more word to the prince.
The trebuchet was a rather large machine with a big central beam with things connected to it from either side. Shorus went around the machine, looking at it with great interest.
He then Stopped near the side that was high in the air with some kind of weight connected to it.
Shorus couldn't understand what all the ropes that were connected to this part of the main beam were, so he took a sabre from one of the soldiers and cut one of the ropes. Immediately a bag with sand disconnected from the counterweight and hit Shorus on the head, sending him unconscious for a few minutes.
Shorus woke up and scratched the bump on his head, "Don't cut the ropes or a sand bag will fall on your head!" he instructed Hazim with significance. With a new rope and the help of a poor soldier that was instructed by Hazim to climb the high end of the beam and reconnect the sandbag, the trebuchet was brought to the previous condition.
After finding out what the ropes were for, Shorus concentrated on the opposite side of the machine, were a huge basket was connected to the beam.
At first he thought it maybe the operators sit, so he tried to sit inside it and see what happens. For his disappointment nothing happened.
Shorus tried to change few sitting positions and in one time even had Hazim sitting in the basket together with him. But the last experiment didn't brought much joy to either of them, as Hazim didn't appreciate the smell that came from Shorus's armpits and Shorus didn't like much the odour that came from Hazim's feet.
"No point to work on an empty stomach!" Said Shorus to Hazim. The large man agreed.
Both warriors had left the trebuchet and headed towards the kitchen, where Shorus devoured in seconds 3 big roasted boars and Hazim grabbed a snack too.
After that Hazim told he has to return to the Prince and instructed one of his officers to look after Shorus. But Shorus preferred to accompany Hazim and inform the Prince of the progress.
Upon entering the war room, Shorus greeted everyone shortly and with much impatience like a small child announced to the Prince : " Shorus will make the machine work, it will take some time. But Shorus already knows two very important things:
1. Don't cut the ropes or a sand bag will hit you on the head
2. Don't sit in the big basket together with Hazim, his feet smell funny
"
After making this announcement Shorus heard a piercing scream, only one creature could cause it. "I see the big bug has awakened!" said the Minotaur gladly and went towards '9's room, passing through the kitchen and grabbing a roasted boar as a present for '9' . Shorus remembered how brave was the chitin creature and how he used his body to shield his friends, the Minotaur had a great respect to the insectoid. Without too much tact the Minotaur moved the guards guarding the door and entered '9's room. He was surprised to see the red creature sitting inside what looked like '9's skin, but he immediately recognized his friend's smell. "Hey, I didn't know you can change your skin!" said the minotaur to '9' as he handled him the roasted boar. "Don't be worry, you are among friends! Here eat something." said Shorus.
After that he tapped '9' on the shoulder in a friendly manner and returned to the trebuchet.
Previously Shorus has already determined that there is nothing to look for on either side of the main beam, so this time he concentrated on the middle.
There were some weird interlocking wheels with bars connected to them in the middle of the machine. Shorus studied the wheels with great interest..
While running back and forth around the cog-wheel system, Shorus didn't notice a small lever and accidentally shoved it with his hoof. The lever moved and freed the main cog-wheel which was blocked by it, the handle on the wheel started to rotate very fast and before Shorus understood what happened he got hit in the groin by the rotating peace of wood. The part of the beam with the weight quickly descended while the part with the basket sharply ascended .The Minotaur bended while holding to the place that hurt and said in a rather high voice that were more suitable for one of the elven women: "Ok, Shorus knows how it works! Bring big stone " .
Shorus made sure that the trebuchet is facing away from the buildings and towards the wilderness and then started to rotate the handle on the main cog-wheel. The counterweight went up and the basket went down. The Minotaur put the huge rock inside the basket and told everyone around to stand back. Afterwards he pulled the trigger lever after making sure his groin is far away from the cog-wheel handle. The trebuchet launched the huge rock over the wall and into the wilderness.
Shorus was in an ecstasy. After a quick and energetic victory dance, accompanied by a loud song on his native language Shorus ran directly into the war room. He was so excited that he even forgot to open the door and went straight through it. The Minoatur approached the Prince, ignoring the guards who tried to pull him away without any success, and in a cautious whisper explained to the noble man how to operate the trebuchet. Shorus also explained to the Prince that if the sensitive cog-wheel system in the middle is destroyed, the machine becomes unusable.