Another Day on the Job

by **Palla Frostfawn** on June 11th, 2014, 6:13 pm

2nd of Summer, 514 AV

Palla did practically the same thing every day. Woke up, petted her dogs, and went to work. There, she would carve and carve and carve until the day ended. Not to say that she didn't love her work, but the novelty of a new shop had long since worn off. The days seemed to blend together in a pleasant routine, wake up, eat, carve, eat, carve, jog, sleep. Palla would probably never tire of carving, but still, her life held a sort of monotony. A monotony that she liked.

Still, Palla had a variety in her life. She always had the chance to do something new, meet new people, try new things, and she often did, especially on her off days. Either way, Palla held a passion for carving.

On a day like any other, Palla woke up, slightly more tired than usual, but still ready to carve. She went through her normal morning routine, then arrived at her shop. Palla had just walked in and settled down at her carving table when a customer walked in. “H-Hello, ma’am.” Palla greeted the woman “How may I help you?”

The woman was a Konti, wearing a blue dress and a seafoam green scarf. Her pale complexion looked good with the colors of the ocean, and her long white hair, reaching just below her ribs, trailed behind her. She looked pretty, and Palla couldn’t help but envy her. Still, she kept her small professional smile on, and waited for her reply.

After a few moments that felt like an eternity, Palla received a reply. “Why do you ask?” Palla was thrown off guard by the question, and took a few moments to regain her composure. “W-Well, you see, ma-”

The woman cut her off. “I was just kidding.” Palla breathed a small sigh of relief. I’m glad that I don’t have to deal with some crazy woman. Although… What kind of joke is that? “I would like a carving of a swan.”

Palla was a bit startled by her question, and replied with “U-Um… I’m sorry, ma’am, I don’t actually have a swan. I-I could make you one, though.” The woman replied with “Thank you. When will it be ready?” Palla replied with “B-By the end of the day.”

“How much will it cost? I’ll pay you now.” Palla ran through the list of prices in her head, and said, after a moment of thinking “F-Five silvers for a small one, A gold miza for a medium one, and two gold rimmed mizas for a large one.” The woman gave it some thought. “I’ll give you a gold miza. That sounds fair. Don’t do it in the cheapest wood you have, nor the most expensive.” The woman handed Palla a gold miza and left, and Palla was left to worry about the swan.

by **Palla Frostfawn** on June 11th, 2014, 6:16 pm

She wasn’t as nervous as she used to be, and even though her carving skill hadn’t improved much, she was more confident in her abilities.

Palla went to work right away.

First, she attempted to make the swan in clay. Palla tried to make the general form of a swan’s body, and ended up making something halfway decent. Still, it was not close to recognizable without the neck and the head. Paalla tried to make the neck next. She rolled out a piece of clay until it seemed sturdy, and then scored and slipped both pieces of clay, put them together, and watched proudly as the neck stood strong and sturdy, waiting for a head to be put on. This lasted about a tick. The head soon drooped, touching the table. Palla gave up and put her clay back under the table.

As always, Palla used her knife to rough the general shape out, and a shallow gouge to go into further detail. After that, she used multiple gouges with a greater sweep, and carefully carved the shape of the swan. The first time she tried, she made the swan's neck too thin, and it snapped under the weight of the head. The second time, Palla wasn't paying attention to the body, and it ended up deformed. The third time, she finally got it right. After scrap after scrap of unusual wood, Palla finally had a suitable swan. The neck wasn’t as thin as she wanted it to be, and the body wasn’t the exact shape either, but Palla decided it was close enough.

Palla waited around for a couple of chimes, wondering if a customer would come in. Nobody did, so Palla resumed carving. She got out a block of wood and reorganize her carving tools which were scattered across the table. Palla had just began attacking the piece of wood with her knife when the door opened, and she quickly put her knife back on the table and rushed to meet the customer. It was a human woman and a boy who appeared to be her son. They shared the same facial features, a smattering of freckles across their cheeks, brown hair, green eyes, and round faces. The little boy spoke first. “Mommy, I want a toy!” The mom glared at her son. “Sweetie, we need more bowls. We don’t need a toy.” Palla showed the woman to her bowl sets, while all the time, the little boy’s cries were growing more insistent. “Ignore him.” The woman said. The woman picked out a small bowl set and asked “How much is this?”

“One silver miza” Palla replied.The woman turned back to her son. “Tommy… If I give you a toy, will you be quiet?” “A toy! Yes, mommy.” “Could you-” Palla was already looking for a toy. She found one, a comical looking snake, with big eyes and a friendly smile. “T-That’ll be six silver mizas in total.” The woman happily paid, then quickly ushered the boy out of the shop.

by **Palla Frostfawn** on June 14th, 2014, 2:16 am

After that scene, Palla’s decision to have children when she was older was no longer such an absolute one. Are all children like that? I don’t think I would be able to handle that everyday. Anyways, I still have plenty of time to decide, it’s not like I’d be having children at anywhere near my age. I don’t think having children would be that rewarding, actually… Palla pushed the thoughts out of her mind and focused on carving again. She had tried to carve scales for a snake, a larger project that she was planning on doing. It would be a riverfall constrictor on a branch, and she would hang it inside, just above her doorway.

Palla had roughed out the shape of a snake and was smoothing it out when yet another customer walked in. I guess these customers are the reason I’m surviving, but still, I wish I could've worked on the snake for a bit more. Anyways, Palla greeted her customer, a human male, a bit older than her, with a smile and her usual polite greeting. “H-Hello, sir. How may I help you?”

“Don't call me sir. I'm no better than you." Palla relaxed at the statement. I love polite customers, they really brighten my day. The young man stuck his hand out and Palla shook it with a weak grip. Palla smiled at him and asked "What kind of carving he would like, s-" Palla stopped. "S-Sorry."

The nameless young man smiled at her and said "It's fine, I know how hard it is to break a habit. Anyways, I'd like a carving of a rabbit, and one of a squirrel. Could they both be large, please?" Palla showed him the large rabbit and squirrel she had, and she hoped he liked them, as they were the only ones she had. Palla tended to lean more towards smaller and mid-sized carvings, as she liked them and her customers seemed to, too.

Either way, the young man seemed to love the carvings. His face broke into a huge grin, and he asked "How much are these carvings?" Palla replied with "Altogether, that would be four gold mizas." The man happily paid her, bid her farewell, and Palla went back to carving, no longer mad that she had been interrupted.

Palla finished smoothing out the snake with a shallow gouge and started carving scales, rounded semicircle over rounded semicircle. The snake turned out looking like a child who had no experience carving had carelessly drawn lines with a gouge across the snake. Although... If they had no experience, they wouldn't know how to hold a gouge and then the snake would have blood all over it from where the child cut themself from holding it incorrectly. Palla shuddered at the thought of the snake with blood all over it.

Palla smoothed out the snake again and put it on a shelf. It looked okay, but Palla thought it would look a lot better with scales. Palla picked up a piece of wood that wasn't good for much else, as it was too small for Palla to carve, and she tried to mimick the scales on the snake. After much failing, Palla decided she'd need to see an actual Riverfall constrictor instead of guessing what the scales looked like, and she vowed to herself that she would find one the next day.

by **Palla Frostfawn** on June 14th, 2014, 3:01 am

Palla gave up on the scales for the moment, and another customer walked in as she was preparing to carve something else. Wow, it's a busy day, there are many more customers than usual! I'd rather my shop have more people than less, though, because that's how I make money. While Palla wasn't greedy, she did enjoy having the extra mizas.

The customer was an Akalak man, and as the Akalaks always did, he intimidated Palla a bit. Still, she found her courage and smiled. She gave him her professional smile and a customary greeting. "H-How may I help you, sir?" The man mirrorred her smile, and then looked through the shelf sets, not bothering to ask if he could. Palla frowned at his disrespect, but said nothing for a few moments. She again plastered the fake smile on her face and asked in the kindest voice she could muster "Can I help you find something? I-I may be of more use, if you want, to help you. A-After all, I know where everything is."

"Why would you be of use?" The man asked. Palla forced a chuckle and said. "W-Well, sir, this is my shop." The man looked at her if he was just seeing her for the first time. "Oh." He said stupidly. "I'm Hal" He seemed to be arguing with himself. "What you saw before was my dark brother Con." Dark brother? I've heard little bits of gossip about this, but I didn't think it was an actual thing. They have two souls? Apparently so. "Con is a bit bad mannerred, or at least more than me." He chuckled. Palla was so confused, and she had a million questions to ask him, but she tried to act nonchalant. "O-Oh. Um, what were you looking for?"

Hal replied with "I was looking for something for my Nakivak. Do you have a carving of a bird? She loves birds." Palla doubted that Con was looking for the same thing, so while straightening the shelves that Con had messed up, she asked. "I-I'm sorry if I sound ignorant, but how do your two souls work?" Way to be polite, Palla.

"Few humans can understand. In fact, not many outside of the Akalak race do." Hal said. "I'm so-" Palla was cut off. "I'll explain it to you the best I can. Who knows, maybe you'll be one of the few who do understand, though I doubt it. Still, you look like you have no shortage of empathy." Palla tried to be as understanding as possible, so she saw where that was coming from, although she didn't fully believe it. She took the two extra chairs from her back room and brought them to the front, gesturing for Hal and Con to sit down. They did, and Palla sat across from them.

"There's a 'light' personality and a 'dark' personality." Hal began. "The light personality is not always the good one per se, but the dominant one, or the one that sees the light more. The dark personality is the one that is remains concealed more often than not. It's not necessarily the 'bad' one, the dark personality, but most people think so. For me, Con is rude and blunt, often speaking before he thinks. I try to be kinder and more polite." Hal explained. "The Akalak don't usually mention it, but I figure there's no point in hiding it, as people will eventually find out some day. Besides, how would I explain Con?"

Palla tried to steer the conversation back to carving. "T-Thank you for explaining, Hal. Anyways, which bird would you like? She gestured to the section of a shelf that held about six birds. Palla had carved many birds, but they also sold well, too. Hal chose a songbird, not unlike the one she had made seasons ago, in the winter of 513 AV. He also picked up a piece of wood that had many knots in it. Palla had tried to carve around the knots, yet realized that there were too many to just cut out or carve around. Still, she thought it had an artistic look, and Hal (or Con) did too.

"T-That'll be one gold miza and five silvers, please." Hal paid and walked out of the shop, bidding Palla farewell. Palla now had a better grasp on the Akalak personalities, and why her customers acted so vastly different from one another.

by **Palla Frostfawn** on July 2nd, 2014, 5:27 pm

Palla was reminded of the swan when she thought she heard the door open. Is that another customer? Maybe it's the swan lady. It turned out to be a summer breeze, and Palla got up and closed the door so she wouldn't have hundreds of invisible customers come in the door.

Palla walked back to the back room of her shop and sat down again, wondering what to carve. She seemed to be short on inspiration more often than she would like to be, more often than when she didn't feel like carving. Palla was almost always in the mood for carving, but not always filled to the brim with inspiration.

Palla sat down and thought for a solid five chimes before she decided to just make another bowl set. She carved out a cylindrical shape with her knife and a shallow gouge, and then hollowed out the shape. She used the shallow gouge for most of the bowl, but used a gouge with a slightly deeper sweep when she was hollowing out the bowl. Palla then repeated the process and was in the middle of a third bowl when the Konti came back.

Palla picked the swan up off of her table and rushed to the front of the shop to meet her. "W-Welcome back!" She said. The Konti smiled and looked at the swan in Palla's hands. "It'a a very nice carving, Palla. It holds a simple elegance." Palla didn't fully believe the woman, but she thanked her regardless.

The Konti paid Palla five silver mizas, and just as Palla was about to open her mouth, the woman pressed another gold coin into her hand. "I like the swan. It wasn't as complex as I thought it would be, but it has a beautiful look. It's very charming, and so are you." Palla opened her mouth to thank the woman, but the woman interrupted her before she could speak. "No need to thank me. It's true." Before Palla could say anything, the woman turned on her heel and walked out of the shop with an air of confidence and elegance, but not so she would seem like she was vain.

I hope that someday I can be that confident and graceful. I doubt I will be, but a Vantha can dream, can't she? Palla wished. Sure, Palla was a successful business owner, but she overlooked that. The Konti was beautiful, elegant and confident, everything Palla wished she could be.

Palla stopped daydreaming and began working on finishing her bowl. She had finished hollowing it out, and just had to smooth out the edges a bit. Palla did so, and then began working on carving an elephant.

She made a model out of clay first, making four fat legs out of clay. She made a big round ovular sphere, and placed it on top of the elephant. The elephant promptly collapsed, and Palla looked at the mangled creature and sighed. Palla flattened the clay creature, then cut an elephant shape out of the clay disc. She used that as the pattern for the side view of the elephant. Palla carved that out, then went back in and carved out the front view of the elephant, too. Next, Palla used one of her gouges with a deeper sweep, a veiner, and a V-tool to get into tight spots and smooth out the creature.

Once that was done, Palla went back and carved out the eyes, and tried to carve the wrinkles on the trunk. The eyes turned out okay, but the trunk did not. Luckily, the wrinkles were shallow, and Palla could get rid of them easily.

Palla realized it was time to leave, but she still had a glimpse of an idea, and was afraid it would be gone by morning. She picked up a thin slab of rare wood and started to make shallow stab cuts in the wood as guildelines. She then used a V-tool to carve along the lines. Soon, she had what looked like a tree, one with wavy branches. The branches ended with curves or spirals. It wasn't anywhere near her best carving, but Palla was satisfied with it and put it on her shelf, somehow very proud of the piece.

Palla went home, eager to see her dogs and take them for a short jog.

by **Kel Tempest** on August 6th, 2014, 12:41 am

Palla Frostfawn :

Notes :

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