An Unnatural Love of Shiny

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

Now that Nehaalista could work a little bit more naturally (her leg still ached, but at least it wasn't hard to walk on), she'd set out to find a forge. And found one she did, recently used, if the embers in the forge were any indication. With a little, strange sort of almost-grunt, she dropped her box of ore on the ground beside and relit the flame, stoking it until heat boiled from the red mouth of the forge.

While on shore leave, Nehaalista had been able to purchase some ore. To not do anything with her hands while stuck aboard Stacy would have driven her crazy, and Nehaalista wasn't about to let that happen to her sanity. After all, what would happen if she did go crazy? Start gyrating wildly while standing on a mailbox?

She wasn't a night elf, for Light's sake. Sorry, Choline.

Nehaalista prospected half the box, pulling away a few dozen uncut gems and setting them aside. They were strange, and Nehaalista couldn't think of names, but had arranged them by color. The rest of the ore was melted down into bars, one of which Nehaalista hefted in one hand.

Now, what to make? She pushed away a limp, sweaty curl and swished her tail against the chair, thoughtfully.

Comments

[metalbent.livejournal.com]

"Oh."

Toph's face flamed.

"You can't talk. And I only see through the ground." She held up one of her feet, surrounded by a very thin layer of something crystalline. "This is either going to be very fun or very annoying."

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

The sound of tinkling chain links perked Nehaalista's ears up and distracted her from the shaping of her cuffs. She peered at Kang, then at the necklace and started gesturing rapidly at Kang. Her expression was one of irritation, as if it had never crossed Nehaalista's mind in her long, long life to let a necklace become broken.

That was probably the artisan in her. She held her hand out for the necklace and gestured again.

[governorkang]

Kang shrugged and handed the necklace over to Nehaa, guessing immediately that she probably wanted to fix it. "It must have gotten damaged during that Ohm fight, and I didn't notice."

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

Nehaalista took the necklace and mouthed something, probably grousing of one kind or another. Since she didn't have gold, she held up a golden barbel cuff - one she'd taken off and polished.

She sighed through her nose and typed, [This may take a day or two - no gold but what is on my barbels.]

[governorkang]

"...I don't want you to use your own jewelry to fix mine. It's not that important," Kang ducked his head slightly. "It can wait until there's more gold available."

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

Nehaalista shot Kang a look that would've rusted steel. She hoped she didn't need to sign what she meant. She dropped her head and concentrated on melting the little cuff of gold.

[governorkang]

Never let it be said that Kang didn't know to avoid arguments with females when they had an expression like that on their face. Grinning slightly, his wings rustled, "Well then, thank you, Nehaalista."

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

She nodded, but didn't lift her head. There was work to be done now.

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

[It will be an adventure,] Nehaalista signed and nodded in agreement. She tapped the ore and pointed to Toph's feet. [How do you... do that?]

[restoresbalance.livejournal.com]

"It probably isn't helped by the fact that a lot of people can't understand you unless you use the comm," Luke said absently, taking up a place out of the way to watch. "Is that normally how you communicate, that sign language?"

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

Nehaalista nodded and shifted around the items on her table, selecting and discarding things as one thought or another came into mind. [Before, I could communicate with very few. As I gained friends who were willing to learn, I was able to use parchment and pen less and less. But it has always been my nature to sign first, write later.]

She seemed a little embarrassed of that as she finally selected a large blue stone and went to work on it. With little chips and cuts, she shaped the stone into an oval, and then went to work on putting facets into the stone to better catch the light.

[restoresbalance.livejournal.com]

Luke fell silent, watching with interest. He'd never given much thought to how jewelry was made, but watching Nehaa's fine work with the stone, he began to appreciate the precise work that went into making something like the pieces he'd bought for Mara, or the gems that studded the gowns of the rich and fashionable on the galaxy's wealthy worlds. It easily necessitated as steady a hand as fine lightsaber work did.

Not wanting to disturb Nehaa while she worked, Luke kept his teeth together and watched instead. It was more educational that way.

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

The loupe was switched from eye to eye as she worked, added an abrasive powder to the gem to further cut into the flat surface and a design lifted out of the stone in chip after careful chip. An elephant-like creature (http://www.wow-pvp-pve.com/contentpic/pvp/20080425063349218.jpg) rose up in the stone, dressed for battle.

Nehaalista sighed deeply as she worked. She missed her mount, choosing the creature over the more popular Light-blessed stallion most Paladins picked instead. The creature was half formed when Nehaalista stopped and sat back in on her stool, her tail swishing tiredly.

[restoresbalance.livejournal.com]

"It looks great so far," Luke piped up quietly. "I don't recognize the animal though. What is it?"

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

Nehaalista typed, [It is an elekk. They are used by my people for many, many things. I used to have one.] She drew a finger over the trunk of the creature, and it's tusks. [They're very loyal.] Nehaalista glanced up at Luke.

[There are not creatures similar to where you are from?]

[restoresbalance.livejournal.com]

"There are other creatures that we can use as pack animals or riding mounts," Luke said. "But nothing exactly like this, no... back home on Tatooine, where I grew up, we had an animal with a short trunk called an eopie. But it was adapted to Tatooine's desert climate."

[dearest-nehaa.livejournal.com]

Nehaalista nodded, [On Draenor, the elekk were native to the part of the world known as Nagrand. It was very lush there. The mares are usually very docile, the bulls... not so much.] Not that they couldn't be tamed, but it was hard work.

[They are very ill-temepered,] she added as an afterthought and returned to work.