[Gift] CRAFTING: Gold Statuette - Khal/Zanril

“Do you think we’ll get to keep the finished product?” Zanril thought aloud to Khal as they observed the chunks of gold set out for them to use for their new statuette project. The old puller scoffed a laugh at the idea, and understandable so. They can’t just be giving out gold statues for free out here.

“No, they’ll get melted down and reused,” Khal, ever the pragmatic, said matter-a-factly.

“Won’t the gold suffer in quality if it gets made into statues over and over? Or do they just not care? We’re working with Ore too, not remelting statues.” She argued. 

“The statuettes get melted into jewelry for goldsmiths, or turned into the ingots we used for our armor and staff.” 

Zanril sighed and dropped a chunk of gold in their basket of ore to be melted down. She supposed it made sense. Today, they’d work with dirty ore and refine it into clean ingots to use for the statuettes. Zanril didn’t know how different of a process it’d be to clean up metal from ore, but she was looking forward to holding the finished product made of solid gold. She’d clean the mold better this time too, no dirt would ruin her masterpiece.

The small flecks of raw ore were tempting her hand as she handled the ore to be taken to the smelter. Her eyes flitted from Dhaoragan, to Khal, to the others learning the trade. She coil;d pocket a little bit.. If she had her pockets. All her garb was changed into blacksmithing gloves and apron, so no stuffing goodies into her bag for now. Maybe on the way out she would stick some under her wing. 

For now, she focused on the work at hand. A more relaxed day of smelting, sure to go as easy as the breeze. 

The first pair to be smelting their gold, poured in too much ore the fools. Dhaoragan got a good jolt out of seeing the chunks clatter to the coal pile and one falling into the mold they had waiting for the melted pour. Zanril had to hold her snicker, and got a sideways glance from Khal in the process.
The poor pair tried to hassle the gold in order, and Dhaoragan had to bark them off to the side when one of them burned their paw on the hatch. He’d never looked so disgruntled up until now, lecturing about forge etiquette and protocol for handling the extremely hot metals. The rest of the group seemed to straighten up at his re-lecture, and the two off to the side looked downright embarrassed. If Zanril recalled them from earlier days, the two of them were ambitious to be the fastest and finest makers of the bunch, but she knew better. She knew a pretender when she saw one. 

Finally, the mess was sorted and Khal and Zanril got to join the smelting with their own mold and gold. This time around, Zanril had gotten a hold of a unique mold in the likeness of a Haedian. It took some convincing and funding, but she had it, and couldn’t wait to see it finished in gold. 

Khal shoveled more coal to the smelter, and let the flames fume upward to the stack of gold that quickly melted down to liquid. Pouring it on the drain and down into the mold, the two watched the stone fill with light until the glimmering liquid reached the top. Their work ended up being the smoothest process of the lot, and Dhaoragan smiled proudly at how far the two had come in their learning. All the iron statues had paid off in full, when they waited eagerly for their demolding. 

More pairs set their pieces aside to cool, and the first two got to de-mold their disaster of an attempt, ending up with a lumpy vayron-like statuette, with the head missing entirely after the ore that fell clogged some of the shape. The two of them looked utterly defeated, which made Zanril crave the spotlight for her efforts all the more. 

Removing the buckle and peeling apart the stone, Zanril’s eyes scanned the statuette intensely for flaws and imperfections, but to her pleasant surprise, the thing was relatively smooth! The sitting Haedian glistened in the light, freshly made into its glorious form.

“Great work, once again,” Dhaoragan praised, looking over the statuette. “Clean off the jagged corners and chip away some of the leftover dust, and this is a fine piece of work indeed.” 

Zanril wanted to keep the statuette so badly. To take it home and keep it as her prize, but taking it would be too obvious. Khal seemed to see her desire to take the statue, but didn’t say anything to change her mind. She was smart, she’d know better than to take it. He assumed.