(Untitled)

[ostro_goth]

Teja is still in the forge, working

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[gil_whimple]

Gilenters the forge on silent hooves, not wishing to disturb the worker.

He knows how inconvenient it can be to have one's concentration broken.

[gil_whimple]

"A smithy is a smithy," Gil said smiling. "Iron takes the same heat to work it, no matter what shape hand hold the hammer and works the bellows."

[ostro_goth]

"But bellows that are used with hooves, not shod human feet, would be rather different," Teja argues, testing the sharpness of the bade against his thumb.

He started the whetstone up again, and touched the knife to it once more.

[gil_whimple]

"Or bare human feet?" Gil says, eyes sparking with mischief and for a moment, unashamedly naked, there is a bare, brownskinned, young man with sharp little horns in his curling hair, sitting bunched up on the box with his toes - ten normal brown pink ones, curing over the edge.

[ostro_goth]

The knife slips and goes into Teja's thumb, just a nick - but he flinches.

"You are -- you are different," he says, stupidly, and sucks his thumb.

"How can you change your shape just like that? Also, you are not wearing clothes, which means less protection against the pinpricks of flying sparks."

He had recovered from his surprise enough to touch the knife to the whetstone again.

[gil_whimple]

"Oh I'm sorry," Gil says and changes back. "It's a little magic. That's all. A change of shape just as you change the shape of iron by heating and hammering or I change flour and eggs and butter into a cake."

[ostro_goth]

"No," Teja says. "It was magic."

He tested the knife again, then unwrapped the bit of leather and wiped it with it, all over, then offered it to Gil, hilt first.

"Here is your knife," he says. "I would like something made with those apples."

[gil_whimple]

Gil studies the blade and gives a beaming smile. "Fantastic," he says. "Apple cobbler, with raisins and cinnamon and nice thick custard?"

[ostro_goth]

Teja almost smiles at that; he never really smiles, but he is slightly more relaxed, working in the forge, than he normally is.

"I have no idea what that is, especially the part you call 'custard', but yes, please, I would be grateful to trade my craft for yours thus."

[gil_whimple]

"It's a pleasure, sir," Gil says, hopping down from the box and shivering his fur back into order. "I'll place the pudding with the bar, just go to her and ask for what I've left for you. Goodbye for now."

He bobs his horns as a polite faun should.

[ostro_goth]

"Good-bye for now, Gil Whimple," Teja says; then he picks up the cheese grater again to fix the handle as it ought to be.

[gil_whimple]

Gil gives him one last sober, sensible, inwardly giggling look and hurries back to the kitchen.