trans_9 | An Unnatural Love of Shiny

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.

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Luke bowed in return, a Jedi's bow from the waist. "It's nice to meet you, Nehaalista," he replied. "What were you going to make before I interrupted you?"

Nehaalista shrugged, [I do not know. A ring maybe, or a necklace. A Crown of the Sea Witch, maybe.] Though that required pearls in the dozens, and Nehaa wasn't sure if she had the skill to make such a lovely thing. Still, it wouldn't hurt to try, and even though she had very few pearls of the size needed (and none of them Jaggal or Shadow, anyway). [Well, perhaps a mockery of the Crown, but something. I certainly have plenty of time on my hands.]

"It sounds like a good way to spend some time... and it's not everyone who has this kind of creativity." Luke tilted his head, looking at the blocks of ore. All he saw was that block, not what it could be. His kind of creative talents lay in a different direction entirely.

"How old were you when you learned?" He smiled. "Think an old man like me could learn?"

She gave him a long thoughtful look, [I was only... two or three hundred, maybe? Not very old at all.] Well, not for the Draenei. [And after my family vanished in the crash, I picked up where he left off.] And hopefully, Nehaalista was doing Neheram's name proud. [By then, I was an adult.] But, not very old for one, not by her people's standards.

She went back to work, fitting some gems together in a triune, tightening the prongs around a brilliantly blue gem the size of Luke's thumb. [Anyone can learn. My people revere things like this.]

"Only two or three hundred," Luke echoed. There were long-lived species in the galaxy, but he'd only really known one in the hundreds. He couldn't imagine the kinds of things that Yoda had seen during his life.

"I'd like to learn, at least a little bit, or maybe just watch," he said. "It's not something I've tried before, but it seems like a good skill to have."

[That's right, we're a very long-lived people,] Nehaalista smiled, and felt a pang of sadness. Maybe now she was the only one aboard? It made all her previous bucking of suitors and thoughts of marriage hit her like a freight train.

Shaking off the feeling, she added. [You are more than welcome to watch me work. I'm afraid I've never been much of a conversationalist.]

"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?"

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.

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.

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.

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

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?]

"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."

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.

An Unnatural Love of Shiny

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