Helge

The Welder.

Workaholic. Stern. Didn't like shadow, moved to Fire.

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Helge squints a bit at the bright orange of the flame and brings his hammer down hard against the still slightly uneven seam of the two pieces of metal. He's been working with it for weeks but it still isn't as perfect as it could be and he doesn't want to give it to his client until it meets his standards as well as possible. He sets the piece of to the side to pause and dab at a bit of the sweat that has begun to build up in the fur surrounding his head.

He turns away from his work to place his cloth a good distance away from the forge - he won't be responsible for starting another fire - but freezes when he hears a small crash from behind him. He turned with a start dropping his cloth and darting towards his fallen masterpiece. Crashes were high on the list of things he dreaded, right along with unintentional spreading of fires, small talk and worst of all having a hatching find its way into his work space. Luckily the shield was relatively unharmed, the embellishments on its front coated in a small layer of dirt and no new dents or scratches had appeared. If anything now he was even more certain than he had been before that it was durable, however that did not solve the problem of how it had fallen in the first place.

Setting the piece back on the table next to his forge, he glanced around the room as casually as possible as not to alert any potential intruders, and spotted a Wildclaw hatchling darting toward the entrance holding tightly to a banged up looking tail. He frowned slightly at this development, thinking briefly of the No Hatchlings Allowed sign he had posted outside the door in the common tongue. This one should have been far old enough to be able to read it.

"Where do you think you’re going?" he said.

The hatchling froze and turned around to face him very slowly, not meeting his eyes, "I was just looking," she said eyes darting to the place where he had secured the shield, "I didn’t touch anything."

"Did you read my sign? Most your age have no interest in welding."

"I like how you can make things with welding," she said, "my friend has a bracelet you fixed and it looked like it had never been broken at all," she peeked up at him a bit shyly, "I was thinking maybe I could be a welder when I get bigger."

Helge was a bit surprised to see a hatchling so interested in his work. As much as they entertained him, a good lot of them were prone to mayhem over long term decisions. Even if she grew out of the idea it was nice to see her take interest.

"Have you hurt your tail? Here let me fix it up for you," he said wrapping the singed ends up with a few strips of cloth he kept on hand for this very reason. It was only a bit singed but this sort of thing could make a world of difference to hatchlings.

"There much better," he said, "and if you come back the same time tomorrow I can show you a few things."

He was more than a bit surprised when she came back the next day with a host of friends, but he took down his sign so it could collect dust and he could collect mentees instead of turn them away.

-Bluebird88 (327666)