Lucky Runnershoe? (Tags: Amilyn)

Not again, the thought resounded in his head as he tried to remember just how many times, Rhysling had checked his runner's right front hoof over the past few days. Travelling was never easy, something always went wrong and today, Rhysling was only saying what he didn't want to hear.

"What do you mean by that?" He said with a glowering stare. Why did everything happen to him? He was going to have to walk the rest of the way to the Settlement unless they traded runners. Eying the other beast with no small amount of distrust, he thought she couldn’t be serious. No one could ride that runner other than her and she knew that.

As usual, he was thinking of all the negatives while she was coming up with solutions. Sometimes she could be really irritatingly correct.


The red haired young woman was holding the runner’s hoof between her legs and saw immediately that she had thrown a shoe. “You can’t ride her.” She insisted, unless he wanted the mare to be completely useless and as usual, Penderrin started to focus on everything that was going wrong on their trip.

Shrugging, she offered her own mount for him to ride while she hand walked the mare to the Settlement. It couldn’t be more than a few candlemarks at a walking pace.

Penderrin knew better than to ride her stallion. He had been given to her because the beast was as good as a nag since no one seemed to be capable of taming him enough to ride, besides herself. But he could learn to trust other people if they were patient. He had good genes other than his spirited behavior. So she planned on using him for her own project when she was able to amass enough marks to start one.

She ended up riding her runner while Penderrin walked but she stayed with him, having her runner move slowly.

“Just a little farther Pen.”


“Good.” He thought of a nice cold glass of water and a bed to fall into.

But Rhysling insisted he bring his runner straight to the nearest smith. Being as they were new to the Settlement they had no idea who this person was or if he or she was any good at their craft. Still they had to get a new shoe put on the runner.

Approaching what appeared to be the Smithy, Penderrin stood outside for a moment. He thought he heard a strange noise coming from inside. Politely as he could, he allowed his voice to grow loud enough to be heard inside. “Hello. Is anyone there? I need some help…”

This would be better if Rhysling was there but she had gone to check in with the Master Beastcrafter stationed here at the Settlement.

Almost the exact instant the word ‘help’ left Penderrin’s lips the door flew open. It came to an abrupt halt when gap reached half an armlength. A goggled head popped out of the darkness. Deep brown hair stiff with grim issued crackling sounds as it brushed against the door and its jam. “You need help?” she asked even though she had clearly heard Penderrin the first time. The woman’s face was nearly the same color as her hair and her voice held the slight slur of a rural accent as opposed to the proper enunciation of High Perness spoken by the Harpers and the upper class. “I thought I heard you say you needed help.”

The woman turned her head from side to side, peering around Penderrin. She was not at all certain what it was that she was looking for. Some evidence to point her toward the potential job, perhaps in the form of company that this guest had brought along with him. What he had was a runner. Since she was not a beastcrafter, it was safe to say that he was not in need of a documentation of pedigree nor breeding advice. Which meant that it was probably a job. A broad, nearly goofy smile formed on her parted lips as she returned her face to Penderrin. “~Do~ you need help? I can help.”

Penderrin was not sure what to make of the woman when first she opened the door. He'd never seen a person wearing goggles before. At first he didn't know what to say, he was kind of gawking at her. Of course she went on, not seeming to notice his rude behavior. Pen wasn't of the upper echelons of society himself so her accent went unnoticed.

Penderrin had to wonder if she was deaf or maybe slow or something when she reiterated he needed help. One of them definitely needed help and he wasn't too sure now that he was the one. Still, he was not going to continue to be rude when she said she could help him. Better to make friends in the new settlement. He might not trust people too much but he needed someone to shoe his runner and he didn't know how to smith. He had to trust someone at least to do this task.

Nodding he affirmed, "Yes. I need help." He looked behind him at his mare, "My runner threw a shoe and I'm new here." Of course that probably went without saying. "I was told this was the smithy." He didn't know if she was a smith or not. He was not overly observant but he kind of figured she was, considering the strange getup.

Amilyn’s grin switched from happy to eager excitement. “I can do that!” She tossed the door fully open. There was enough force to cause it crash against the far wall. Amilyn paid it no mind, her attention bouncing back and forth between Penderrin and the runner. It was as though she could not decide which one was the more deserving of the pair. Eventually her gaze settled on the man.

Amilyn reached up and slipped the goggles on to the top of her head. The flesh around her eyes was a pale shade of peach unlike the rest of her face that was covered in soot. “Bring it in,” she said, spinning back toward door. “Let me take a look.”

She stepped through the door. She walked through the dark without incident, used to it as she was. She uncovered a basket of glows on far right wall. The room alit. To say that it was trashed would have been an understatement. There were piles of metals scattered along the floor. Broken beams of wood, sticks, and shavings added to the mess. Leaflets of hide, scribbled upon and crumbled lay where they happened to have fallen: on tables, work benches, the floor, and atop other piles of garbage.

“Just put it over there,” she said, waving toward a pair of leather straps near the left side of the rear wall. “And tell me what happened.”

Her eagerness was off putting, at least almost as much if not as much as her appearance. Who got excited to shoe a runner? None of the smiths he had seen before particularly cared for that part of their work. Although maybe it was good to get out of the monotony and do something a little different once in a while.

He figured, he would probably be better off being polite right now. At least she was interested in helping and was friendly enough.

Did she mean for him to bring the runner inside? He stood staring as she walked into her "workshop". Leading the runner in because he assumed she meant the runner since she had made no distinction otherwise, he saw the level of chaos inside.

Penderrin did his best to avoid tripping or injuring himself or the runner. He stood with the runner where she had directed him to put the beast.

"We had a long way to go from Keroon to here so I'm afraid the shoe came loose before we realized and the runner seemed to be fine until she lost her shoe entirely. The terrain wasn't too bad, a little rocky in some places but mostly we were traveling through flat land."

Moving out of the way, Penderrin watched as she used her contraption to lift the runner. Yeah, Rhysling should be the one here for this. They were lucky the animal was not fearful or thrashing about. Though honestly it would not do it any good to do so. While she had been eager to help, he was beginning to wonder if there wasn't a perfectly good reason why she needed work.

Simply looking around her work area made him want to cringe. The clutter and the damage to almost everything in the room that wasn't obviously a project was a bit overwhelming.

Pen didn't remember who had shod the runnerbeast. In fact that was all Rhysling and she probably had not had a say as to who shoed the runnerbeasts. She was in charge of helping keep them calm but she might remember the man's name. He was assuming it was a man anyway. There were not that many female smiths, which made this even more interesting. "Actually I do not know. Rhysling might remember..."

Shoddy work, he stifled a laugh. That was a pretty good joke. Shoddy, shodding a runner's hooves. Well at least he saw the humor in it, even if it wasn't intentional. Although one never knew with strangers and she did seem the type that would be oblivious of things. She might have used the word completely by accident.

"If you think that it is best to replace all of them. I think it would save us both time to do it now. We are going to use the mare here for a genetic project, so she'll need to be back on her feet and fully shod by tomorrow." He wasn't going to argue with her on that account, the sooner the runner was back to normal the better. They all had things to do. And while he somewhat questioned the smith's sanity, he wasn't a smith so her judgement would have to be enough.

"Is that too soon?" He asked. Penderrin had not heard of it taking that long to shoe a runner before. A couple candlemarks unless she didn't have any shoes ready, then he supposed it might take longer. Well if she needed more time, she could have more time.

He had walked up to the runner at this point and petted the beasts neck in reassurance. "The runnerbeast will need to be fed and watered and let out to stretch. I can stay and do all of that if you need me to. I could take the runner with me for the evening and return for you to continue in the morning if that is easier. We can extend that timeline if its too rushed."

Either way though, he had no intention of remaining there overnight unless he had to. Maybe Rhysling could relieve him at some point. Maybe not. Ugh, the things he got himself into. "I didn't plan on spending the night here but if the runner is staying then I should stay with her as she is my responsibility."

If she felt confident.... but he had his doubts. Normally he wouldn't question leaving a runner in the care of a smith. Normally smiths didn't hoist runners off the ground in slings either. She did have a point though as hard as it might be to accept. It would be easier for her without him there.

Penderrin, being tired, hungry and not wanting to concern himself too much with how the Smith worked decided to agree.

"I'll come back in a little while to check on things. Make sure the runnerbeast is alright. I need to go check in with the Beastcrafters. Can I bring you anything back to eat since you'll be working?"

Rhysling would have told him to, even if he did not offer. Actually even if the Smith declined the offer of food, he would probably have to bring some anyway. He began to make his way through the room, trying not to step on anything that might be valuable and avoid falling on his face at the same time.

Eating? Scaidescan hadn't heard everything as he approached the two in their conversation, but he did hear that much. Maybe they were preparing to eat supper? Either way, it would be prime time soon to enjoy the wine he'd brought with him; a delivery from his craftmaster.

Looking around him, the young man gauged if this were the right place. Sidestepping then, so that Penn didn't run into him as the other boy started walking out, seeming as he was paying more attention to his feet than what was in front of him, Scaidescan hoisted the couple of wine skins he carried from over his shoulder, raising them to be seen.

"Someone ordered some wine skins to be delivered?" Honestly he didn't really care who took them, but if they were delivered to the wrong person it might mean trouble for him later.

Penderrin shook his head. The woman was completely insane. He felt bad, leaving the runner in her care. At least she seemed mostly harmless, even if it seemed to him, she created more trouble than she may realize. He doubted that many other smiths took her seriously.

He was about to exit when the other young man walked in.

"It can't be mine, I just got here." He looked back at the woman working with the runner.

"Must be hers."

Scaidescan's lips turned down into a bit of a frown as the woman snatched the skins from his hands, stumbling well out of his reach; so he moved after her, following the exact same, almost as stumbly trail. 

"Oi! Those are supposed to go to -" Well... it didn't matter so much who they were supposed to go to now. His displeasure deepened to see that he didn't reach the woman in time to see her tipping them over the trough, emptying them of contents so carelessly. Especially when he'd been loaned out for the day, coerced into helping his master's friend with a few backed up tasks. But now it appeared as though any good intention had gone right out the window.

"I highly doubt that you are Master Smith Danedin. You'll be owing him for some expensive wine, you know. How could you waste something like that so carelessly? Huh?!" It was obvious that the woman had known what she was doing -or had lost her mind- when she snatched the delivery from him, then emptying them. Unbelievable! Now what was he going to do?

Penderrin thought, maybe he should have warned the other young man somehow. But things had progressed so quickly and the quirky and likely insane smith before them was using the wine for something. It wasn't exactly going to waste if she needed it for something in particular.

"I'm sure the situation is not that dire." He said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. The runner was a living being, the wine, not so much. There were worse things the woman could have done with that wine. At least it seemed she had a purpose for it.

"Why would the wine be delivered here if it wasn't meant to be here? If anyone should be in trouble, it should be the very person who told you to deliver the wine here. All you need to do is tell your master that it was delivered here where it was supposed to be delivered." It was the vintner's fault if the skins arrived at the wrong place.

Certainly it was not Amilyn's fault for taking wine when it was so freely offered and so carelessly brought to the wrong place for delivery. Maybe what she was using the wine for would help the forge and in turn make the project of shoeing the runner move along more speedily.

Adopting an indignant expression, Scaidescan put his hands in his pockets for the sake of keeping himself from doing anything else with them that he might later regret. A disbelieving breath escaped his lips before he finally stalked past both the Metalsmith and the kid here with her.

The Glasscrafter apprentice was somewhat new to the Settlement still, and could have brought the wine to the wrong location. The woman however, should have been courteous enough to tell him whether or not the person he'd been looking for was present, or if he'd wound up at the wrong place. Most people didn't just go taking things that weren't theirs, either. But whatever. It was too late now for any of it to be helped.

The more he thought about it, the more mad he became. So, Scaidescan went back in the direction of the door to head out. "Whatever. It's not my loss." Regardless of whether or not that's really the way he felt, that's the front he put up about it.

Having slowly realized he was putting the runner he brought into possible danger, he didn't think that a bit of wine was really all that important. She was serious about not having a plan. Surely she had shod a runner before? What smith hadn't? Maybe she was from an area where they didn't see many runners?

Not only was the Master Beastcrafter going to kill him but he was going to have to stay and make sure that the woman didn't kill his runner, which meant no food. Ugh. Now that she had what she had needed, fuel, she was more than ready to begin, without a concept for what was going to happen.

Penderrin was not at all surprised now by the Smith's actions in regards to the wine. But he was a little shocked that the other young man didn't care. Maybe he should be more cavalier about the runner. And maybe he would be if it weren't his to take care of. He could understand getting involved in one's work to the point where one did not acknowledge anything else existing.

Yup, he was definitely going to have to stay and watch. If the Smith ended up blowing them all up, well, he was a dead man walking anyway now.

"Oh. Right. Good..."

Casting a glance back at the young man leaving, he assumed they might cross paths again. Much like the other youth though, he didn't say anything to him when he left.

      Now that the boys were off, Amilyn was she free to work. She had been free to do work before, too.  It was her shop, after all.  It was just that she was not free to do her job without worry that someone would be injured or slightly maimed.  Except for the runner.  But it was just an animal; what were the chances that it would either notice or care?

     She moved to one of her drafting tables.  It was as cluttered as the rest of the room.  It was filled with half finished designs, crumbled parchment.  There were pieces of shattered slated, and wadded up rags with various degrees of cleanliness.  She swept her hand over the desk’s top.  Many of the items fell to the floor.  She only picked one back up:  her hand lotion.  She squirted a dab in to her palm.  She dropped the dispenser on to the table.  It landed on its side.  She turned back to the forge as she rubbed the lotion on; working in the heat dried her skin out something fierce.

    Amilyn swept up a piece of metal ore along the way.  There was a brilliant plan forming in her mind.  Oh, the young man was going to be so happy when he saw the result of her labors!



OOC: To the next day?

Penderrin stayed for a few minutes after the other young man had left but found he wasn't much use to anyone standing around. That and the eccentric smith was difficult to watch. She was sporadic. His scientifically minded thoughts couldn't fathom how she had even thought to make a pulley. The chaotic mess was not enough though for him to make her release the runner back to him on the spot. Not that he was a forceful person.

When he met up with Rhysling later she seemed to think, he had done the right thing. Still he spent the evening tossing and turning, worried that he would perhaps find an injured or dying runner when he went back to the smithy the next day.

Again he went alone as Rhysling had been dragged off to help care for the beasts of the settlement that morning. He had managed to get a mug of klah and a basket of food for the smith crafter, since she had worked through the evening and into the morning, no doubt to help the runner.

He didn't bother knocking this time though, since his hands were fairly full, but managed to open to the door enough to get himself into the smith's work area.

"Good Morning." He called out into the mess. Setting the klah and the basket on the nearest stable surface...or at least, it appeared stable at the moment.

Penderrin did not expect the cascade of events after opening the door. He closed his eyes in the hopes that the sounds of things cashing in loud slams, dings, clatters and a myriad of other noises would cease quickly. Not because the noise bothered him but because he feared what might follow.

The reprimand he was prepared for never came. When the room remained quiet long enough for him to believe nothing else would fall, he opened his eyes again, to see Amilyn looking at him. After her greeting though, he was sure all was forgiven the moment it happened. Apparently she wasn't afraid that anything valuable was damaged.

What a strange manner of person she was, thought Penderrin to himself. He didn't think she was quite like anyone else he had met. Though he was fairly certain most the people he met were sane, unlike Amilyn. She was clearly not all there in the head.

"Oh, ummm but, why is the runner having trouble without the sling?" He asked somewhat confused. Shoeing runners was quite common place where he was from. From the sound of things though, this wasn't a normal shoeing. Maybe she would explain it well enough that he would understand what had happened.

He looked down at the contents of the basket as she inquired after it. "Breakfast." He said, holding out the basket to her, "I thought since you were working so hard I could bring you something to eat. Of course you can have the basket too if you want it." He offered.