“Hold still dearie, I’m almost done.” Her voice was like honey to the porcelain golem. Months of trekking through wilderness had left Kalei longing for the voice of anyone. The infractus traveler would have to do. Especially as her hands were gently socketing the cracked arm back into place with a sludge of natural clay and dried reeds.
Kalei kept a watchful eye on the work, judging the messy texture of the medium at hand for how it smeared across the delicate blue painting on her ivory limb. She kept quiet as the horned one worked the clay into each crack that connected to the major fracture point. While she didn’t understand why the traveler chose to stop for her, she was not going to speak out and cause her to leave. The work was messy, but she could feel it working as her mana core slipped its reach back into the limb.
“How did ya lose your arm?” The woman prodded, pausing her work and holding the pieces in place to let the clay dry. Her coal-colored eyes reflected Kalei, showing the golem her own sour expression fractured by hairline cracks. “Must be a good story. Considerin’ I have never seen a pottery golem like ya outside some fancy home.”
Kalei regarded the ruby colored hands adorned with rings resting with her arm in a firm grip before lifting her head to face the woman more directly. “I…” She couldn’t bear to tell the stranger how easily she had fractured herself by tripping over a stray root. “A deer ran out of nowhere and broke it off on impact.” Her stone lips tightened into a thin line at the sound of her own lie floated between them. Even she had a hard time believing that.
The infractus woman paused before laughing, near cackling at the idea of a deer toppling the fragile golem and only smacking an arm off. “It’s alright if ya don’t want to tell me. Gods only know how many of my scars come from embarrassing tales.” She winked, carefully letting go of Kalei’s arm when the clay lightened enough in color. “There we go dearie. All fixed.”
Kalei carefully held her fixed arm to her chest, cradling it as she suspected that the clay on the inside was still damp and malleable. “Thank you… I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name. I’m Kalei.” She glanced up at the infractus, eyes grazing over her form and taking in the detail of her blackened ram horns that delicately curved around the lobe of her ears. She couldn’t remember ever seeing a race so unique back home.
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“Haydn. Don’t mention it teacup.” The infractus gave a sharp toothed smile before she raised her lithe body from the fallen log and stretched with her arms far above her head. “Where ya headed?”
Kalei couldn’t help but watch the spaded tail flick back and forth behind Haydn, thoughts wandering on how such a feature would be helpful for the organic race. She blinked and glanced up as the question was posed to her. With a frown, she turned her attention back to the trail she had painstakingly followed for months, no matter how cold it has gone by now. “I don’t know.” She admitted, lowering her head in defeat.
Haydn lowered her arms from her stretch and hooked her hands onto her hips, following Kalei’s stare towards the beaten trail and back. “Do ya need directions dearie? I know the land inside ‘n out.”
The golem kept her head bowed, staring at the dirt as she flexed the fingers one by one on her newly fixed arm. “I don’t know where I need to go. I have been following this trail for weeks now. All I have to go off of is a magical signature left by my ward. She was here…” She paused and dropped her arms with a thunk against the cloak covering her legs. “At some point…”
Kalei lowered her head into her hands, form shuddering as the core of her being pulsed with grief. The topic at hand was something she hadn’t uttered once to another being. The pain welled up within her as if the wound was freshly cracked. She let the chatter of birds within the elm forest fill the moment of silence, her words hanging in the tense breath between them.
Hadyn watched the golem curiously. The clearing of her throat brought Kalei’s eyes back up to meet hers. “Now, this is a story I need to hear. Consider me part of the team. Let’s make camp and you can tell me all about it.” Haydn smirked, leaning forward and taking Kalei by the good arm and swiftly pulling her onto her feet.
The infractus gave little room to argue as she pulled the golem from the trail into the woods, careful of random obstacles that could further crack the porcelain on her newly recruited companion. She only stopped again when they made it to a spacious enough spot between the trees with little debris on the forest floor. Haydn shouldered the pack from her back onto the ground and plopped beside it, motioning towards the ground in front of her.
“Now spill teacup.”