"Good, just like that!" Fernok praised as Tali crudely molded some clay.

"Remember, you want a good foundation, and you need to squeeze the walls to thin them, but don't make them too thin!" the instruction continued.

Tali found himself absolutely covered in mud- er, clay. The totally-not-mud was messy, and Tali had a knack for getting it under practically every scale on his body. He'd be lying if he said that he didn't enjoy getting this messy, if only because his immediate caretakers hated having to help him get clean. He was still too young to realize that he needed to keep himself clean to not get sick, and there were some places you just can't clean yourself easily with so many crannies and crevices in a scaled hide.

That being said, he found pottery crafting itself to be incredibly dull. He always made them too thin or too thick. They'd either crack with the slightest stress of be too heavy for how much they could carry, so no one wanted to use his pots. He was fine with that, but the making of everyday necessities was something every hatchling in the village had to learn, whether they liked it or not.

Fernok was passionate about pottery though. Whereas Lerok would let you go if you proved to her that you couldn't weave to save your life and just assume your mate would make up for it one day, Fernok seemed to have the life goal of making a potter of everyone in the village. After awhile, other hatchlings would just stop showing up or ignore him when he came to get them, depending on how much their primary caretakers cared, but Tali wasn't so lucky.

All of Tali's clutchmates already knew how to make pots to varying success, but since Tali was a younger addon as a lone hatchling, he was behind the others on learning all the crafts in the village. This meant that he had Fernok's undivided attention. It wouldn't be off the mark to say Fernok saw Tali as a kind of apprentice, despite his clear lack of talent and interest. Such were the tribulations of the lone student of a passionate potter.

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"Alright. We'll bake this and see how it holds! You're dismissed for the day. Good work as always." he said distractedly as he gingerly took Tali's monstrosity and carried it toward the kilns. He wondered how long it would take Fernok to notice his little additions to keep himself entertained.

With the dismissal from the torture that was pot making, Tali headed to the wood shed to spend his time on the craft he enjoyed much more. Wood carving.

Rifling through the wood pile with all the grace a four year old lizardfolk could muster, Tali found a chunk of wood to his liking and walked away from the strewn wood and pile that was now half its original size. Plopping down and pulling out a sharp stone he liked to keep handy, he started whittling away at the wood, tongue absently hanging out of the side of his maw in concentration.

"Hey!" came a shout from back at the wood pile. Tali started, then bolted from his carving spot as he knew they would find him soon.

His concentration broken, Tali looked down at the crude figure in his claws. There were vaguely arms and legs, the tail still a giant chunk on the back. It was going to take some time to finish, but he was happy with this progress but went ahead and outlined some finer features with his claws for later work. Wandering back to his clutch hut, he'd barely stowed his work in progress before he heard someone speak behind him.

"Straight from pottery to the wood pile, huh?" Venal asked. She was sitting in the hut with another clutchmate, Galen. They were weaving together, Venal working on a basket while Galen was making a whicker plate.

Abashed, Tali nodded.

"I was gonna go fix it later!" he said, everyone there knowing that wasn't going to happen.

"You'd better go wash up. They'll think you were bathing the whole time if you're lucky. Right?" Venal said looking to Galen.

"I won't tattle if you won't!" Galen responded with an impish look about her.

Sighing in relief, Tali gave his thanks before rushing out and to the nearby stream. Little did he know that he had his own scolding routine coming right behind him.