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The New Smith; Elistine introduction
Topic Started: Oct 27 2016, 09:49 PM (459 Views)
mailemanking
Egg
It was early morning when Elistine woke up and began to ready himself for the last leg of his journey to Lihn. He kept his previous day of travel light to ensure that he would end up only a few hours from the city. Although he could have made it to Lihn in one day, he never liked to arrive in the middle of the night. Arriving at night had too many problems... thieves who take advantage of the darkness and disorientation of late night set up was his biggest concern. With the stories of the recent expansion of Lihn and the number of displaced people, darkness was one thing he could control.

Elistine’s cart had grown considerably since he left on his original journey. It now had a small folding work bench on the side, as well as the forge on the back becoming fully functional. The mobile work shop part of his forge was currently buried in layers of raw material others may have considered junk. Elistine did this on purpose. He put the most valuable things he carried deepest in the cart, where in order to be stolen, the cart would need to be unloaded and unpacked and the crap on the surface that even the desperate would not be too hasty to steal. The surface layer of the cart was covered in bags of raw metal ore, having almost no value to anyone without the knowledge and equipment to refine the ore. The few exceptions to this rule are his day to day living gear that he kept in a bundle on top so that he wouldn’t need to unload the monster of a cart to get to it, and the smoker on the side of the cart he preserved his food in. Anything truly of value was either kept so deep in the cart he would need to fully set up to get to it, or it was kept on his person.

As Elistine finished rolling up his bundle and strapped down his equipment to the top of his cart, he was surprised to hear his camel Salamar grunting at him. As he looked around he saw a rabbit quietly lurking in the wood nearby. Quickly pulling out his crossbow from the holster on his side, he cocked the first shot in his clip and fired at the rabbit - he missed the head but caught it in the side, taking out it's front legs. Glad have a meal, he ran up to the animal and put it down with his knife. Walking the rabbit back to his cart and his camel, he was pleased. "Hey Salamar, good eye." He said to his camel, thinking about how glad he was to have gotten the beast. Elistine got Salamar in Irazu to prepare him to get through the desert of Assaria, but he had learned to love his new companion and had traveled with him since then.

Rearranging the equipment on the back of his cart to clear the forge, Elistine started a small fire in his forge and opened the trap that vented the smoke into his smoker. He then closed his forge and set the air pump to run off the wheel turning. He then skinned the rabbit, gutted it, and set the meat to smoke while he traveled. Today was not a day to get distracted with the prospect of fresh meat; he wanted to get back on the road as soon as possible.

Elistine hooked up Salamar with his harness and fed him while he finished the preparations for travel, making sure to give him extra for the rabbit. Leading Salamar out to the trees, back on to the road he began his march to the city. Travel to Lihn was easy this close to the city, due to the road being closer to properly maintained despite being obviously heavily used. Elistine only stopped to put a bit of wood on the fire in his forge and check on the rabbit meat in the smoker half way through the trip. From where he was camped, he did not have a long trip to make but it still snuck up on him when he entered the clearing in the forest into the tent city outside of Lihn.

The tent city was half way between a metropolis and a slum. The population was the most diverse he had ever seen, it also looked both as well built as his clothing looked new, and just as creatively rigged together. In the chaos he saw before him, he saw an obvious collection of merchants forming a basic market and decided to set up there. Merchants were the kind of people that he felt would make better neighbors than the random collection of refugees and homeless people he saw before him.

Elistine found a good spot to set up next to a poorly built shack that housed a carpenters shop. Being next to an established craftsman, even a poorly established one would benefit them both. Settling himself in next to the man who ran the shop, he introduced himself and found the man was a fairly private man which suited Elistine fine. Both craftsmen, however, felt better having another likeminded person nearby.

Elistine’s shop was a bit light, most of the furnishings for it were sold off when he left Hellman's Well to make money for the move, and the fact that tables and benches don’t travel well. The few benches he did bring now served as the bartering table, and barrier around the front of his shop and the bench built into cart stayed his primary work space. With his benches and equipment unloaded the few shelves he had now served as merchandise display areas, not that he had much to sell... What Elistine did have was raw materials, and he has a lot of them. His slow pace allowed him to pick up a lot of raw alloys and scrap from the side of the road from nails and wagon parts discarded on the side of the road, to raw ore mined from the side. He had half a ton of materials that he now needed to refine into bar stock. The last thing he set up was the posts for his hanging bed in front of the forge, so that he could watch his merchandise closely as he slept. The bed was set up so that it could be rolled up and stowed off the poles in order to use the floor space.

Now that it he was set up, he sat down to enjoy his rabbit which had now been smoking for five hours when he saw someone out of place standing at the new front of his shop staring at him. "Do you see something you like?" He asked as he inspected his new visitor.
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Boospookum
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Egg
In spite of the sweltering summer air, the tent city was no less full of people milling through the crowded streets attempting to either make a name for themselves or simply get by and meet day to day needs. Everyone had a unique way to go about it. Stalls of all kinds lined the haphazard, impromptu shopping district; everything from exotic textiles, to freshly grown vegetables, to paints made of preserves, and so very much more - but there was one curious stall in particular that begged for attention.

There were many unusual things to see, but this stall had a few things that were of interest. The curious steam rising from the smoker was only one part of the allure... boasting weapons wasn't so unusual (and his didn't look too ornate though they were very well crafted), but the trinkets in sight and the strange lacquer to the wood were interesting. So was the exotic creature of the camel, a thing rarely seen in the well-forested lands of Lihn. All these things combined were enough to stall one girl in particular to a stop.

Her legs were a trinket in and of themselves; the ornate metallic prosthetics were crafted with a light bend to allow a spring to her step, nearly bouncing as she stalled. With her hair tied into high-set pigtails, she very nearly resembled a rabbit - though she certainly didn't appear to be nearly as shy as one. With a spring to her step she nearly skipped closer, leaning forward to inspect the wares. Her pale moss-colored eyes were wide with interest, her lips pursed into what might have been a whistle if she'd bothered to complete the gesture. Instead, her eyes hungrily digested the peculiarities of the cart, lost to nearly everything outside of herself.

"Waugh!" Came her startled reply, jolting backwards an inch or two so that her back arced a little straighter, blinking owlishly at the inquiry from the long-haired male. She swallowed hard, and bobbed her head into a signature "yes" gesture. "Uh, um... Yeah, I mean I kind of like the - woah!" The words clumsily spilling out of her mouth were cut short, very suddenly taking an interest on the unusual clockwork box on the craftman's person. "What is that?" She inched closer so she was only precious inches away from the craftsman, inspecting the box with rapt interest and breathless awe. "... It moves."
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mailemanking
Egg
The girl in front of his cart was out of place both in respect to how she held herself and the look of interest in his setup, but what stood out the most were her metal legs. Elistine had never seen prosthetics made with so much precision and care. Most people Elistine had seen with prosthetics had not much more than a wooden foot strapped to their leg or a hook at the end of an arm. Although the craftsmanship of the leg was not the best, the function was unique and fascinated him.

Looking up to the girl's face, Elistine realized she seemed to be looking very intently at the wares on display on his cart. Elistine did not have many pieces to sell after selling most of his work to make the money for his most recent trip, but if he could make a sale he would - especially now. He had a few farming tools, a dozen small daggers, two small swords, an axe and only a few pieces of basic armor to sell. The majority of his display was in the form of the various machines he would tinker and experiment with.

Standing up, Elistine asked the girl if she saw any thing she liked which caused her to jump back and stand straight like she had fallen asleep in class and had been called out on it. The girl shook off her shock and swallowed hard.
" Uh, Um... Yeah." At which point, Elistine turned to search for a dagger that he felt would fit her well. He grabbed two daggers that he had that he thought would suit her and balance well in her hand, as well as a short sword. The girl continued to speak. "I mean I kind of like the - woah!" The girl paused. "What is that?" Elistine began to turn around to see the girl nearly climbing over his bench and only a few inches from him. Stepping back a bit and moving his hand closer to the crossbow on his back, he checked for what she was looking at and found her staring at the aerator on his back. She was fascinated. "... It moves."

Pausing for a moment and noticing her curiosity, Elistine moved his hand from his crossbow to the aerator and cautiously removed the device from his back; unhooking it from its tubing, he placed it on the counter. Checking out the girl and finding her legitimately interested in the box Elistine felt much more comfortable.

"The forge gets hot," Elistine began carefully, "this equipment and the protection gear don't help the heat either, so I designed this air pump to help air flow under the apron and keep me cool." Elistine grabbed the dial on the outer casing of the pump and wound up the little clockwork device. He then tapped the timer to get it moving then put the aerator back down. "It only works for about half an hour at a time, but it is better than taking off the protection and getting burnt." Elistine gestured toward the outlet of the pump. "If you feel here, you can feel it puff."
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Boospookum
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As easily as she had been distracted out of pouring over the unusual intricacies of the smith's wares by his calling her out, she seemed to be just as easily reabsorbed back into trying to visually digest the collection of what he had to offer... sometimes a few times over. Certainly, she wasn't the sort of girl who was meant to be praised for her attention span, her hands leaning on the table to support the weight of her upper body as she observed as much as she could handle at once.

Esh had been far too enamored with the unusual cart to take note of Elistine's fascination with her legs, which was just as well; both of them had something to be distracted by. Human interaction was difficult at the best of times, but here the awkward pair appeared to be getting by with the help of a mutual fascination outside of themselves. Even as the smith began to gather items for her to consider, she was far too busy admiring the cart itself to take notice that he was aiming to make a sale - the allure of the unusually shiny wood and the unusual trinkets continued to draw her interest.

There had certainly never been anything this innovative in The Murks, no matter how unusual the merchants who had passed through there had been.
"Huh?" The syllable was a filler for her wandering mind, since she had obviously turned her head to look at Elistine the moment he began to unequip the fascinating box on his back. He had her undivided attention at this point.

"This tiny box here keeps you cool?" She tilted her head to one side, less skeptical and more confused. "Ah reckon you're a mighty bit bigger - oh." If she were conscious of the young man's timidity, it didn't seem to show; instead she continued to engage him in conversation.
"Can I?" The question wasn't one she waited for the answer to. She placed a hand over the outlet of the pump, and felt the cool air leaking into her palm. "Cold!" Her lips cracked open in an eager smile, the shine to her eyes eager as the way she leaned in just a little further still, looking up at him. "How's it do that?"

Oh, how technology fascinated the marsh-born teen.

Of course all that leaning in was going to have a consequence. All the weight she'd put forward had her leaning on the flat beams of her prosthetics, the tipping point finally reached; the weight she'd put forward caused her to slide forward with a startled yelp. Careful to use the strength of her arms to keep her body above the precious box, her face wound up pressing into the man's stomach in her attempt to stay aloft.
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mailemanking
Egg
Showing the girl his aerator made Elistine feel more normal, which was something he greatly desired. The girl in front of him was fairly young, but her interest and general energy was cute. Elistine watched her as she felt the puffing coming out of the outlet, fascinated by it. Elistne was a bit shocked to suddenly have the girl now hanging more in his stall than outside it; but what he really did not expect was for the girl to lose her balance, and plow face first into his stomach.

Standing there for just a moment Elsitine was at a loss for words, and had no obvious path to take. In front of him was a girl holding herself up more nimbly than a person prone to falling should, but also with her face in his gut like a clumsy person. With her legs in the air, Elistine had a better view of the prosthesis she wore and noted they did not seem to be very balanced for her. Although well made and fit properly, they were a bit awkwardly made. Suddenly feeling shy, Elistine grabbed the girl by the shoulders and backed up, freeing her face.
"Umm. Let me help you down." He proceeded to help her down off the bench, and safely into the stall where he stood.

Elistine backed up closer to his forge and felt a bit of tension fill the air, he grabbed his aerator and plugged it back into it's tubing attached to his side immediately feeling a burst of cool from the still-running pump.
"Eh..." But he had nothing to say. Looking around his shop, he spotted the rabbit he was about to eat before she arrived. "Would you like a bite to eat?" Elistine said, before going over to his smoker and cutting off a small amount of rabbit. He put it in a bowl and added a piece of bread and some dried vegetables from the satchel on his side before holding it out to her.
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Boospookum
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It had been some time since she had lost herself in something enough to forget herself like that. She policed herself not to forget that she didn't have the legs she used to, but alas... sometimes she did, and every time she did was just as humiliating as the first.

Here she was, propped up on some smith's stomach like a child who couldn't keep balance. Already she could feel heat rushing to her cheeks. Embarrassment was flooding her, putting her at a loss for words in an already compromising situation. Any old smith would be upset with her for potentially ruining a display. Her eyes clamped shut and she grit her teeth in a wince for the expectation of at the bare minimum a tongue-lashing.

She flinched upon their first contact, eyes wide and guarded like a frightened dog's. The firm grasp of his hands over her shoulders was gentler than she was expecting, and the surprise of that alone allowed her to exhale a shuddering breath that relaxed her tightly wound muscles just a hair. Rather than being loudly scolded, it turned out she could barely hear the long-haired young man... but she nodded numbly, and allowed him to lift her body off the bench without comment or struggle.

She was quiet.

While Elistine busied himself with putting his aerator back in place, she busied herself by looking down at the tattered sleeve of her long-sleeved shirt and picking at the frayed edges with her fingers. Even when he started to say something, she just seemed that much more determined to focus on further unraveling the wrist of her shirt.

Then he asked the question.

She jerked upright suddenly, stiff and uncoordinated like an animatronic.
"S- sure!" The word was barked uncoordinatedly, made thick by the saliva that was already filling her mouth. Food was a rarity, and far be it from her to deny it - something between guilt and gratitude had her knuckles grasped at the straps that wound up her thighs while she watched him procure the meal.

The smoked rabbit had her near trembling the moment he cut her off a piece, the bread helped her lift her head, and the dehydrated colorful things encouraged her to tilt her head to one side. When he held out the bowl, she didn't hesitate so much as a second to grab it and inhale the scent like a starved dog.

Without manners or utensils, she brought herself face-first into the bowl and began consuming the contents ravenously and noisily. She paused for a brief, sudden moment and looked him over.
"You ain't no ordinary old smith!" This was apparently praise if her beaming grin and bright voice meant anything, abruptly returning to her messy endeavor as though she hadn't paused at all.

At least she was preoccupied.
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mailemanking
Egg
In his awkward haste Elistine did not realize the portions he was dishing out. The rabbit he had was not that big to begin with, but the legs were decently sized and in his haste he had given her a full leg and dehydrated fruits and vegitables from his satchel to go with it. The girl he had helped down was prettier up close than he had realized and the situation had made him feel much shyer.

Looking down to his own bowl Elistine was glad she had been so preoccupied by the food that she did not seem to see him stare. It did make him more comfortable, however, when she began to eat like a mad woman. The relaxed atmosphere helped him realize how hungry he was and he began to eat as well. It was interesting seeing someone who enjoyed his dehydrated wild berries so much. His family had found the idea a waste and did not seem to believe it was useful.

Soon after, Salamar began to snort to complain that she had gotten a piece of rabbit and he had not - Elistine snapped out of his thoughts.
"Excuse me," Elistine began as he cut a small piece from the rabbit and gave it to his greedy friend. "So... you seem to like it, then." He said while sitting down and desperately trying to break the awkward silence in the air. Elistine searched his mind for a topic before remembering the reason she fell in the first place. " Would you like to, um, see anything else?"
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Boospookum
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Food was hard to come by, and as a consequence even harder to ignore in favor of pretty much anything else.

Esh-En-Delle was oblivious to the world as she ate, the satisfaction of eating and having anything of substance fill her stomach was too enticing for her to notice that the young man was staring at her. She showed no sign of embarrassment towards his company, bordering on ignoring the shy smith when he moved to excuse himself.
"Uh-huh." She acknowledged he had spoken at least, even if it was around a full mouth.

As Elistine took the time to feed Salamar his share, she busied herself with licking the crumbs and remnants from the bowl. It seemed to take a moment for her to register his question, slowly lowering the bowl to reveal her crumb-spotted cheeks and lips. His question about whether or not she had liked it finally sunk in.

"Hell yeah!" Her response was emphatic and loud, waving the bowl at him as though that would somehow help make her point. "You're, like, a food fairy or somethin'." Esh attempted to explain, her brows furrowed to make her look incredibly serious as she said it. "An' like... a knife fairy, too."
The olive-skinned girl seemed satisfied with this, putting the bowl down and crossing her arms with a big grin on her face. "Heh! Makes yah sound like one of them heroes in Papa Wolf's comic books."

"It makes you sound like you've been up to trouble." A sandpapery, more masculine voice cut into the conversation. "Is she giving you trouble, bladesmith?" The speaker was a mahogany-haired man shorter than Elistine who seemed taller than his stature would permit with the way his sharp chin was angled and his thumbs tucked confidently into his belt loop.
"No!" Esh replied defensively, fingers curling over the bowl and holding it close to her chest with a pout. "Did you hear me, Papa Wolf? I said no!"
Of course Hajime had heard her - he always listened to what Esh said, even if most of the time it was nonsense. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Let him speak, Esh-En-Delle."
"H- hey!" Esh was irritated now, upset but not overly so; she stuck a tongue out at the man she called Papa Wolf. "I can answer too, plbbt!"

Hajime heard her, but didn't feed into it; truth be told, he knew it took Esh-En-Delle a lot of courage to for her to approach other people or banter with him in public. He was impressed, to tell the truth, but she needed to learn manners.
"Give him a chance to answer, Esh-En-Delle." Hajime repeated quietly, allowing her to pout. The man's dark eyes roved over the table with some quiet interest, but he did not comment. He, at least, would give the bladesmith a chance to answer his first question.

Elistine's company, it seemed, would continue to grow.
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mailemanking
Egg
Glad to have been given a simple response to his food inquiry, Elistine relaxed slightly. He had only just finished his own meal before the loud outburst from the woman startled him. Elistine was glad to have been given a compliment on his knife making and felt himself relax again for just a moment before a new voice called out from a source he had not noticed; he had been lost in a moment with the girl he had just met. Looking up, he saw a rather short man with the stature of a general.

Elistine was brought instantly to his senses, and began to assess the new person standing before his stall as he stood up from his seat. The man began to speak to his guest in much the same way a father would speak to his daughter when she was being irresponsible. This new man did not seem to be quite old enough to be her father and there was no family resemblance, so this was... odd. Ignoring family ties, Elistine's new guest seemed to be an authority figure and the guest he now knew was Esh-En-Delle gave him the same treatment Elistine would expect from a guardian of some sort.

The question Elistine had been asked stewed in the back of his mind while he watched the interaction of his two guests for a while, waiting to be given a moment to answer freely.
Elistine stepped back and for a feeling of security put his hand on his crossbow.

"She is not bothering me at all, we just had and awkward situation and talked for a moment. You seem to know this woman, but I don't know you." Elistine said, talking as if to address someone who deserved respect - more as a precaution than as policy and to judge the relationship further. His new guest seemed out of place in the slums, and Elistine did not have the information he needed. "May I ask who you are?"
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