¤ Trussed Turkey

Salmer set down the chisel and brushed away the marble dust from the newly etched line. Leaning back, he squinted at his sculpture from a distance. The small marble block was roughly shaped into the form of a woman in a sitting position, two sketchy wings at her back. A slight frown furrowed his brow, as if the artist saw something wrong with the sculpture, and he bent over it again with a rasp to file away at some edges.

Salmer had picked up sculpturing at the recommendation of his fairy mentor, who had saw how good he was at shaping stone and marble into fantastic and almost life-like creations. And Salmer was enjoying every minute of it, finding satisfaction in the way he could free the beings trapped in the hard, lifeless blocks with careful taps of his hammer on the chisel.

This, however, was one of the rare times he was using marble. He had stayed back specially after the end-of-lessons gong rang, just to work on his newest piece. Staring at the smooth surface where the sculpture’s face was supposed to be, Salmer sighed. He had not been able to find a suitable image for the woman’s face, and had been working carefully around that lack of inspiration for quite a while now.

‘Brother Salmer.’ A quiet voice called his name from the doorway of the sculpture room. ‘Are you busy now?’

‘Not at all, Aurora!’ Glad for this particular interruption, Salmer twisted around and said, ‘Come in. Be careful of the box of tools near the-’

There was a yelp and a crash that sounded like someone had kicked over a heavy metal box of tools.

‘…door.’ Salmer finished his sentence with a sigh, and got up to help Aurora pick up the scattered tools.

They worked silently for the next few minutes, packing the chisels, hammers and rasps back into their places in the box. Salmer peered at Aurora’s face, and instantly saw that she was not in a good mood.

And only a few people can make her upset… Setting the last tool back into its compartment, Salmer sat back on his heels. ‘Was Ferra messing with you again?’

‘Yeah.’ Aurora said shortly, rising up to her feet as she dusted down the front of her woollen dress.

Salmer placed the box back to its original position, then waited. Three, two… one.

‘I don’t get it!’ Aurora burst out, right on cue. ‘There I was, minding my own business, and they just, just had to disturb me. It doesn’t matter that I managed to thrash them so many times, no! You’d think they get the message by now: I can take care of myself, so back off! From that day when we entered the Academy, Ferra and his lackeys haven’t tired of being on my case! They keep on insulting me, and following me to find the chance to get the jump on me, stealing my assignments, my weapons, my spellbooks!’

She paced along the haphazard path created by the unfinished statues that stood across the floor of the room, her agitated movement a strong contrast amongst the still, silent figures. ‘What have I done to make myself such a good target for their bullying!’ Aurora turned and demanded of a statue. The small likeliness of a Jr. Cellion only stared up at her with blank, round eyes.

Already expert in detecting the pauses in her rants, Salmer injected patiently, ‘They are just jealous that you are so good. Those brats never expected to be outshone by a mortal, see.’

‘They already have had a couple of months to get used to that idea already! You think that for their age, they’d be more mature! What are they, fifty years old at least?!’ Aurora yelled to a statue of a Star Pixie poised to cast an attack, poking at the star on its pointed stone hat with every syllable of the last few words.

‘Hey, that is my work. You can just tell me if you think it is ugly, you know.’ Salmer gently caught Aurora’s hand and guided her away from her petrified victim. He brought her to his chair, and firmly pushed her down to sit on it.

‘What’s worse is that, there’s some… pig-headed person out there that thinks that I’m the reincarnation of some fairy they lost from His Fairy Majesty Kranz’s court a while back. If I find out who this person is, I’ll hunt him down for providing Ferra and Co. another weapon in their arsenal of insults!’ Aurora huffed, and picked up the mirror that Salmer used to study himself when he did not have a model for his sculpturing.

Staring at her reflection, she bared her pearly-white teeth at it in frustration, ‘How bloody stupid is that? Ever heard of a fairy that is as short as me?’

‘Hmm.’ Salmer pretended to think. ‘Maybe you in your previous life?’

‘Please, not you too.’ Aurora said, her voice suddenly tired. She had ran out of frustration after her rant. She stared up at the tall Salmer, her face a mask of weariness. ‘I just want some peace and sanity.’

Salmer looked down at Aurora, and was suddenly struck by inspiration. ‘Hold that face right there.’ He scrambled to pick up a sketchpad and charcoal stick, and started to sketch furiously on the thin paper.

‘Not again.’ Aurora sighed, but held her pose obediently. ‘This is like, the thousandth time you have decided to use me as an impromptu model. You must have like, three sketchbooks full of drawings of me.’

‘Too bad.’ Salmer answered distractedly, still busy sketching.

Aurora’s lips started to curl in bemusement, as she watched Salmer’s frown of concentration, his brown eyes intent on the paper and on her. When he next looked up, he was disappointed to find that the expression he was looking for had dissolved into a fond smile.

‘Ah, you stopped being sad.’ Salmer said mournfully, setting down his charcoal stick.

Aurora stuck out her tongue sheepishly. ‘If you really want-’

‘No, no. I do not want you to be sad.’ Salmer said hurriedly. ‘I hope you have gotten over Ferra and all.’

‘Yeah, I feel much better now.’ Aurora smiled. ‘What would I do without you, Brother Salmer.’

‘Eh.’ Salmer scratched his head. ‘Without me to restraint your murderous soul? Maybe you’d just have kept your threats and gone on to murder Ferra in his sleep or something.’

‘Nah.’ Aurora scoffed. ‘I’ll only just truss him up like a Turkey ready for roasting, and hang him from the top of this Academy’s tower over a slow fire. Educate him on the sights and sounds of El Nath, and all that stuff. I like my meat well-done.’

‘I am sure he would have appreciated your kind intentions, from twenty stories high and slowly baking.’ Salmer weighed down his sketchpad with his half-completed sculpture. ‘Speaking of roasted turkey, I am famished. Let us go and get some food.’

‘Okay.’ Together, the pair exited the room, still chatting happily.

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Next chapter: link

Links to previous chapters:
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Splitting chapters to prevent splitting headaches. One serving of Verchiel, coming right up.

Anyway, random fact: I just found out that there is a NPC named Silver in Lith Harbour. And he’s an old guy in the weapons shop! *horror*