Securing the Timber Palisade

Night had settled, but vigilance does not sleep. I surveyed the desk's outer boundary. At the wood's eastern limit lay a stack of heavy, hardbound tomes, their spine ridges creating a stepped ascent toward the elevated bookstand. I gripped my shield and pressed the flat of my blade against the lowest volume's embossed cloth cover. Immense density. An unshakeable rampart. Using a stray wooden pencil lodged beside the stack as an anchor point, I lodged my boot firmly between the graphite tip and the bottom edge. From this newly claimed tier, I hold the high ground over the entire timber plain.