<em>It's hissing!  Why is it...</em><br/><br/>The sudden noise of an explosion forced Nadia from her sleep, as the absolute fear in her system became too much for her body to retain its restful repose.  She lurched up from her collapsed position at her desk, checking around to once more remember where she is, that she's safe and the monsters were kept back at a reasonable distance.<br/><br/>Her back hurt from falling asleep sitting down, but it wasn't exactly a first.  Exhaustion kept her numb from many of the aches and pains of everyday existence, and to some degree, she liked it that way.  It was better than constantly hurting, or dealing with the nightmares.<br/><br/>She sat back up, getting back to work on polishing off the grate she was working on.  If the spikes were going to get through, the stone slab had to look like swiss cheese, with holes large enough for the spikes but small enough that people wouldn't accidentally slip or fall inside.  The basics were simple enough, but she needed to figure out exactly how big was best.  Once she had that, she could construct a prototype and enlist the aid of the smiths to have a bunch of others made.<br/><br/>Being able to focus on her work always helped her to forget any of her other problems.