The old warehouse was getting cluttered fast with the tools and supplies that had been laid in over the last few days. Looking around the place from his seat on one of the couches he’d just finished upholstering Nack could only shake his head in mild wonderment. The availability of materials here for crafting was really incredible. Used to the scarcity of... well... everything from his years on Blackburne Nack was pleasantly surprised at the ease with which he was able to find materials to produce furnishings here on Persephone.
Stacks of rusty steel girders lined the back of the workshop, all still good metal under some rust, and acquired for the cost of nothing more than hauling it away from a fallen down building? Nack had risked life and limb on scavenging missions into the wrecked cities of Blackburne Moon more than once for far less material than he had sitting around his workshop at the Eavesdown Docks, and this all acquired for nothing more than a few credits here and there, a favor to a construction foreman, or hauling off the trash himself.
There were thousands of shards of glass carefully organized atop the workbench he moved to; a bonding tool resting to the side while Nack carefully finished buffing our the last rust spots on the steel girder he had heated and bent and turned until it was a full circle.
Using the bonding tool to attach the first sliver of glass into the framework of the girderwheel, Nack heard a tap at the window of his workshop and looked up to see a pretty young girl standing outside, waving at him. She rushed around through the doors of the old warehouse and walked into the Firefly Furniture Factory shop beaming with a smile.
"Hey, Ms. Freyja. Glad you found your way here." Nack smiled at the girl, and set down the piece of glass he was working with.
"Hi Nack!" the bouncy girl answered, her short red dress swirling about her knees as she approached Nack’s workbench. "I’m here to help you sweep up, like you wanted."
A blank look crossed Nack’s face for a moment then he remembered offering the girl a job a few hours a week cleaning up the workshop. "Yeah,sorry about the mess, I’ve been busy making... stuff."
Freyja looked around the cluttered space and refrained from commenting, "Do you have a broom here? If not I can run back to the Church and get one."Shaking his head and turning back to the workbench, Nack waved his hand in the general direction of the back of the shop, "Back there, broom. I think." Picking up the bonder and the glass Nack considered the wheel shapped girder. Freyja stopped behind Nack as she made her way over the jumbled pile of steel and glass plates to find the broom.
"That looks very complicated. You must be very good at your job," she opined as she studied the glass shards and the partially complete project.
Nack chuckled softly as he finished bonding the glass to the steel, setting down the tools and picking up a filthy rag to wipe his fingers free of sweat, welding burns dotting the back of his hands and up his forearms from his work earlier with the girders themselves. "I don't know about all that... but I got the idea to see if I could fabricate some furniture from this scrap steel girder I was able to get for nothing but hauling it away from the old building site."
A frown on the pretty face of the girl was followed by her offering a clean handkerchief to Nack, her eyes on his cut and burned hands, "Are you okay? Here, use this instead; it’s clean, I promise."
After Nack hesitatingly took the clean linen Freyja went through the obstacle course of materials in the workshop to find the broom. "Hey, Miss, I don’t want to get this all dirty"
"You can call me Freyja, and if you don't use the handkerchief then it loses its purpose."
Nack wiped his battered hands with the white cloth, "Well, as you say, Ms. Freyja. Welding is a bit tough on the flesh, but I heal fast."
The sound of sweeping came to Nack as he turned to face the back of the shop where the girl was industriously pushing dirt and glass shards towards the center of the room. Without looking up from her work the girl said, "Just Freyja, okay? Or I’ll have to start calling you Sir again." Smiling, the girl looked up to see Nack watching her from the work bench, "Why not wear gloves? Or would it make much difference?"
Nack blinked then considered that for a moment. "Well... gloves make it sort of hard to feel what you are workin' with. Metal and wood and stone, glass and crystal, you... sort of have to feel it, touch it, to make it... well.. to make it bend to your will, I guess. And... I heal fast, burns and cuts aren't anything."
The girl nodded then, not looking convinced but unwilling to argue the point. Sidestepping a piece of sheet metal Freyja then laughed and in a singsong recited, "Nick-Nack pattywack give a dog a bone, this old man came rolling home...See, I know a poem with your name too."
Nack laughed as well, shaking his head as he did so and turning back to the ring of steel and shards of glass. "You know, I think I may have heard that one." And killed men for singing it, he thought but kept to himself. "That does remind me though, I did promise to tell you the tale of the Brisingamen and lovely Freyja.Freyja stopped sweeping and stepped closer to the workbench, her eyes going wide. "Will you? I’ve been dying of curiosity since you mentioned it."
She stepped closer to where Nack was working, the bonding tool being used to carefully join another piece of glass to steel and to more glass, painstakingly assembling what would be a coffee table.
Nack’s eyes were intent on the glass in his fingers as he worked, his voice was a bit of a murmur as he spoke, "Of course... well... here is how it was..."
((And if you don’t know the tale, here is a short, reasonably good version of it: http://library.thinkquest.org/C0118142/norsepan/freyjane.php))
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