On The First (Full) Day of Spring - part two
Characters: William, Venei
Location: Moledeep
Moledeep: Worn Path - Kiln
William is sitting at the table at the back of the kiln adding glaze to a pitcher he'd fired a while ago. His cloak is spread out over the chair to pad the seat a bit, with the kiln's fire going there's no reason to wear it.
Venei walks all by her lonesome out of doors. The parents said that they would go outside when its spring again. And guess what. Its spring. She doesn't have to wait for her parents to escort her everywhere. At least she thinks so. Plus. She got the idea from Will, from which she has been spying on recently. She enters the shack quietly, peering with her green eyes. Wondering what the heck is going on here.
William is busy working but glances up when he hears a beast enter. "Hello Venei. Stay clear of th kiln, there's a fire in it and it'd burn you," he says.
Venei nods a bit at the rat. Forgetting that she was trying to be sneaky. She walks in and peers over at Will, staying away from the fire.
William glance over at the little otter now and then but mostly focuses on his work. He holds the pitcher with one paw inside it and uses this paw to carefully rotate it as he paints the glaze on. "How are you doing Ve?" he asks the otter not bothering to look up.
Venei plops down on the floor, "Good... Its spring out..." she nods a few times, "Mummy and daddy. say we get to go swimming... but they was busy today... What are you doins?" she asks, finally.
William smiles a little understanding his sister's situation, "So you took yourself out for a walk instead of waiting for them." he remarks before answering her question. "I'm adding glaze to this pitcher so it'll look nicer ... and cost more," the last is said more to himself then to the otter dibbun.
Venei nods a bit at the Rats words. She thinks that she is in trouble. But it was been worth it so far. She tilts her head at the pitcher, "Glazes? Making it shiny?" she asks, "Costs more?" Stop confusing her!
William nods as he explains, "Yes I'm making it shiny but if you look I'm making it a different color too. The pitcher had been a dusty rose color before and once the glaze is all on and it's fired again it'll be a light grey where the glaze was instead. Making a pitcher that's glazed is harder and more work than making one that's not glazed. And if somebeast wanted to buy it it'd cost more coins then one that's not glazed. But the glazed ones look prettier and some say they last longer."
Venei ohs and nods, slightly getting it. She plays with the dirt a little bit before having another question pop in her head, "... You sells thems?" she knew he made them, but not sell them.
William nods again, "Yeah. Down at th market in Cathudbodvia, across th river. Haven't been t th market since before winter though. Couldn't get across th river with all th ice an snow everywhere." The pitcher is done and once it's dry he'll fire it again. The rat turns around in his chair to look at Venei now.
Venei nods and tilts her head some more, "...Okay. But why do you sells them... Why nots keep them. They are really nice..." The concept of earning a living has not filtered though her mind yet.
William says, "I sell them to get coin which I can use to buy things I need or want. If I kept /all/ the things I made there'd be no room for any of us. All the tunnel would be filled with the stuff I've made. That wouldn't be good."
Venei says, "Then why not stop making stuff... Could do other things instead." like swimming for example.
William sighs, "Because. .... I like making things. I always have. I don't think I could stop. It's who I am. Like Garnet's a cook er kind of. I'm a potter. I make pottery. It makes me happy."
Venei ohs and nods, "OH okay." That makes since, "Swimming makes me happy. I don't think i could stops..." says the girl who has only truly been once, and was too young to even remember it.
William would say something about her being an otter but it'd be too easy. "Yes a little like that. Well that'll need to dry a while ..." he says standing up and walking over to the clay vats. "You want to make something?" he asks smiling.
Venei nods, "I understands..." she wiggles her little toes, "Uhhh... What can i makes?" she asks, standing up and walking over toward the rat.
"Almost anything you want. Pick a color," the rat says waving a paw across the vats and their color coded lids.
Venei thinks about it for a few seconds and says, "Purple? Blue?" Asking as she cant see the lid to the vats.
William cocks his head puzzled for a moment before he figures it out and moves to pick her up. Not as easy as it used to be. "Ok. See the lids. Those are the colors you can pick from and only if they aren't empty."
Venei is hefted up and she doesn't squirm, making it a bit easier for the rat. She looks over at the lids and ohs. No purple or blue. She then decides another color, "Uhh... That one..." she points to the green one.
William lets the otter down. Man she's getting heavy. And lifts the lid off the vat of green clay. "Ok. Let's see if we have enough. This kind is harder to find than some but it's still local. There's some not too far from here but only a little of it is the green sort. It runs out real fast. Very popular." He sticks a paw into the wet mix of clay and water to see how much of it there is left. "So have you though of what you want to make yet?"
Venei shrugs a bit, "I dont know. What can i make?" she asks trying to peer over at what the rat is doing in.
William thinks there's plenty of clay for the both of them as he's not going to give the otter a great deal anyway. "Well you could make a bowl or a vase or something like that or a little thing to wear on a braclet or string. All the pots and jars in here I made and that rose Amy wears in her hair. I made that too. You can make all sorts of stuff .... Just need to think of something or figure it out as you go."
Venei Shrugs again, "Okay..." She will just have to think of something. And of not she just make a ball of some sort. That be fun for the pond. Not knowing that a ball of clay would sink very quickly.
A solid clay ball would sink but a hallow one while more fragile might not. Will scoops up a small lump of clay and plops it down in the center of the wheel. "Ok come over here and I'll help you a little." He offers her the chair to sit on and he moves the stool from in front of the wheel to sit beside her.
Venei nods going to climb up on the chair and sit at the wheel. She can barely reach the lump, so the rat might want to help her. She might be tall for her age. But not for a chair that was built for adults, "I cants reach it..." she whines.
William hmms, "Alright let's try something different." He moves the chair and otter over again and puts the stool back in it's place pulling his sister up onto his lap once he's sat down. "Uff. Maybe this'll work better. Can you reach it now?"
Venei nods as this works much better. She still has a bit of trouble. But at least she can reach it, "Yah. This works. I can reaches it." she says poking the lump a few times, and giggling.
"Good. Now I'm going t start th wheel spinning help you make something. .... How about a flower vase? It not too hard. And you can add glaze to it later if you want to even," Will suggests as he starts the wheel moving slowly with a footpaw.
Venei nods a few times, "Uhhh. Okay..." and the then starts to spin, and she squeals, "Ahhhh!...." she gets used to it quickly though, feeling it spin in her paws, "What do i do now?" she asks
"I'll show you," her brother grins taking the little otter's paws in his and guiding them over the clay to form the beginings of a small and roughly onion shaped vase.
Venei ooos and wiggles around a bit in excitement as the once lump of green is slowly transformed into something she recognizes, "Yay! Lookie Lookie! Its pretty..." And its not even done yet.
William says, "Yes it is. Once it's done we'll put it in the kiln to be fired. It'll get really really hot and turn hard then if we want we can put glaze on it to make it shiny and two colors instead of just green if you want, like I was doing with the pitcher earlier."
Venei Nods and says, "Lets add blue... Do we has blue? Blue swirrlys...." she giggles, "All overs it..." This is much better than that silly ball idea.
William chuckles, "Once it's done and in th kiln I'll see what we can do about that. Not sure if we have blue. We have black, grey and brown but I'm not sure about blue."
Venei nods slowly, "Oh... Okay. Black is..." Not the color she would like, "will be okay... Black swirrlys!" she giggles. AS long as its swirrlys.
William nods, "If we can't figure out how to make blue. .... I might be able to make blue .... Hmmm grey a little like blue so maybe. ..... We'll have to see." He moves the otters paws away from the clay and lets her down to go wash her paws off as he stops the wheel and cuts the vase off with a wire and sets it in the kiln. "Ok that part's done and when it comes out I'll put the pitcher in for it's second go 'round. Now blue glaze. How would you make /blue/ glaze. ..... We may need to do some experimenting. And if that doesn't work I could see if Benar over at Redwall knows how or if I had to I could 'ask' around at th market. If none of that works we can go with black." Uh oh looks like he's set on finding a way to make blue glaze no matter what.
Groups:
