CH231 A day in the shop

“Um, Thera? Not that I don’t love the company, but are you sure this is how you want to spend all of your time?” Ben asked as he finished up forging a sword in the shop, his friend having made sure to spend all her free time outside of the clinic watching him work in the week they’d been back.

“Someone needs to be keeping an eye on you. When you’re left unsupervised if you aren’t doing something to get yourself killed then someone’s trying to murder you,” She told him. It felt like ever since she learned that he had not only challenged the demigod to a duel over what he’d done to her, but almost been killed for it, she’d been feeling a lot more cautious about leaving him alone. Not that he would be by himself as he worked with Falk there with him.

“Don’t worry so much,” His teacher reassured her. “Anyone comes in here looking for trouble and I’ll be sure they find it, the boy’s plenty safe with me.”

“Uncle, I’m pretty sure he has the worst luck on the planet. Without a healer nearby somebody’s going to fire an arrow across the street or something and leave him dying on the ground.”

“Well first off, that won’t happen, and second, if it did my jacket would protect me. It did a good job keeping me from getting stabbed after all.”

“Only because they didn’t aim for your head,” She countered.

<I’m on her side. With the way you seem to get in trouble, having a healer beside you at all times is pretty reassuring. While you’re at it mention the idea of her moving into your room as well for added safety.>

Enough of that you. “Thera, you don’t need to worry about me so much, I’ve got a god staring over my shoulders almost all the time.”

“Which wasn’t enough to keep someone from almost spearing you!”

<On a more serious note, I think she might just feel stressed. You do end up in trouble uncomfortably often, and you’re probably one of the more important people to her, of course she’d be a little worried, especially since you don’t seem to make your safety your top priority at times.>

“…”

He couldn’t deny his god’s words. If he was constantly seeing her in danger then he might act the same way, that just left the question of how to reassure her.

He thought about it for a bit, deciding to start working on a different project while she was there and to talk things out as he did.

“Hey Falk, I’m going to grab some stuff for my own use, I’ll pay you back later.”

“Alright, just don’t grab anything too expensive, we have another week till we replace everything you used for your statue.”

He didn’t plan on making anything too crazy and grabbed Thera’s hand, bringing her into the storage room with him. He grabbed some thin wire they had already prepared before turning to her.

“Hey, do me a favour and pick a material you think is nice.”

“What, why?”

“Cause it doesn’t really matter which I use so I wanted to get your opinion.”

“Um, in that case, how about this one?” She asked, pointing out a sky-blue stone. It was decent enough at holding enchantments but was mostly used to add small decorative flourishes to other items, so it worked perfectly. With everything he needed he left it on his workbench, pulling Thera’s chair over so she’d sit beside him as he got to it.

For the wire he pulled out clippers and pliers, beginning the task of making small, delicate links by hand to shape into a chain. He fell in his work, knowing the exact size he wanted, and was thrilled to feel the metal bend to his will. Every bit was consistent, a testament to his high level, letting him make small talk with his friend as he did.

“Hey, tell me some things you like that I don’t already know.”

“What? Um, birds I guess. Looking at stained glass is pretty nice too. Why?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“I mentioned before that I’d make you a necklace, remember? Figured I’d do it now since I have you here,” He told her as his various minds flipped through all of the birds he knew. He’d seen plenty of unique and interesting ones in the world, some that barely seemed to qualify as such too, but he couldn’t help but be drawn to those of his homeland again and again. Namely a bluejay, given the stone he’d be using for it. Ideally, he’d use multiple different stones to show its colours, but he could alter the look by adjusting the roughness in different areas.