"I expect I will be gone for most of the day," Vilon announced as his squire drove the pole into the earth, digging a hole for it while Vilon hammered it down with a fist sized rock, the closest thing to a proper mallet either of them owned.
They wrapped rope around it before moving on to the rest, until only the central pole remained, cut into three sections that had to be fitted together . As soon as they hammered the hollow base into the ground, the other two lengths slid up into it well enough. Luckily Vilon stood tall for a man, and so had little trouble planting the third length inside the other two, reaching up on his toes only once before it slotted home.
