Once the tide began to turn, Symond was able to have the men work on the firebreak in shifts so that they could take rest, eat and drink, and get some respite from the heat and the smoke. The rains wetting down the forest no doubt helped their efforts, for this might have been an entirely different story if this battle had taken place late in summer and the conditions had been dry and windy.
His half-brother Patrek rode up along side him as he surveyed the work going on, and he nodded to his House's captain.
"You're enjoying yourself," Patrek observed.
"I'm soaked to the bone, I've breathed in so much smoke and ash that I'm sneezing black, and I'm going to be dreaming of fire and men screaming for weeks," the Lord of the Crossing replied.
"Come off it, Sy. The battle plan worked like a charm, the dragon is dead, and now you have an army of men with axes and shovels toiling away on some huge project. Don't try to pretend you don't love a challenge like this. I know you better than that."
Symond's grey eyes strayed from his brother to the men laboring away. "I'm proud of what we accomplished here today. All the work, all the preparation over the past months, it's all been vindicated. Now there's just a small matter of the war to win."
"The war will still be there tomorrow, Sy. Would it kill you to celebrate your triumph a little?"
"Once the flames are out, Pat."
A rider arrived then, who Symond identified as Daric Rivers once he got closer. Or perhaps it was Baric Rivers. He wasn't exactly sure which was which. "Ser Rivers," he greeted the man. "What news?"
Once Lord Tully's message had been relayed, Symond nodded his approval and smiled slightly. The existence of the dragon's eggs would only breed future wars. His liege was doing the right thing by casting them into the sea. And how many men could say that they'd slain more than one dragon? He'd earned the skull, by Symond's estimation.
"Spread the word throughout the host: once the dragon's flames are snuffed out for good, each man here will receive one of the beast's scales so that it will be known to all who see it that they are dragonslayers."