Chapter 5- Finding your Place
There was a wonderful moment before I opened my eyes, when I believed I was going to look up at my crystal ceiling, or find my face stuffed in one of my massive pillows.
“Twilight.” two hooves had gripped my shoulders, shaking me awake.
I groaned as my eyes fluttered open, two bright spots filling my blurry vision. Almost out of reflex, my hoof rose to bat against one. With a hiss, Honeydew stepped back. “Enough, you need to wake up, we all have work to do.”
Yes, the elder did tell me to work for my stay, I remembered as coherent thought creeped back to me. With a final sigh, I told the cozy ground goodbye as I rose to my hooves, shaking my head to rid it from the last groggy thoughts. “Morning, Honeydew.” My back would require some stretching, but that could wait for a moment. The hut was too small for it anyway.
“It’s past mid-sun.” He muttered, dipping his feelers in a large waterdrop before holding it high up, making it splash over his head. “You should wash up.”
Sleepy as I was, my hooves just weren’t quite up to performing his mysterious holding-water-trick, and so I just dropped ontop of it, soaking at least the lower half of my body. Honeydew gave me a strange look, but I still considered it a success. I did accept his help with a second drop of water however.
Freshened and awake due to the frigid water dropping out of our manes, we stepped out of the house, into a bustling community. Breezies distributing the sizzling grass to the huts while others crushed berries on a tilted stone table, catching the outpouring juices in bowls made of… actually, I wasn’t sure what they were made of, the glossy surface didn’t look like any material I knew. A shadow fell over us as several breezies flew above our heads, for some reason carrying leaves to drop them off at the border of the village.
“Twilight!” I heard Honeydew’s impatient voice, suddenly realizing I had stopped in the middle of the way. “You get distracted so easily.” he sounded as amused as he did irritated.
“S-sorry, it won’t happen again.” I said to mollify him, although I rated my chances of actually keeping that promise very low. “Could you tell me where we are going?”
He turned his head, poking the harness he was wearing with his muzzle. “I need to bring this to the storage, And we need to find you some work, hopefully in the same place.”
“What kind of work?” I wondered as we circled around the second largest house to approach a hole in the ground behind it. “Who lives in there? Did you dig the hole yourselves?”
Honeydew stopped in place, giving me a half-lidded look. “Careful Twilight, ask more questions and your mouth may create a storm.” Chuckling about his quip, he lit his feelers and climbed down into the hole. “The house is where Windchime and Kalypso live. There used to be a whole family, but when his wife passed away, her siblings decided to return to their maternal clan.” He let out a sigh as he reached the bottom of the hole, patiently waiting as I slowly caught up. I hadn’t had enough practise in this body yet.
“But why is it larger than the elder’s?”
Honeydew took a hissing breath through his teeth. “The elder may be our leader, but he would never disregard the words of a Frindrò, only a fool would go against the advice of the gods.”
Oh, they’re a religious folk. I thought to myself as a warning blared in my mind. Now, mind you, I wasn’t an anti-religious pony, I respected the differing beliefs of the many races and cultures, they were fascinating! As a child, I even believed in Celestia as a goddess. Until the divine image was shattered by having the pony as a teacher. As highly as I still thought of her, nopony could stand up to those expectations in day-to-day life. What made me cautious was that many religious folk I met were a little… touchy about having their believes critically examined. I made a mental note to tread the subject carefully.
Honeydew took my hoof as he helped me down the final steps. “That, and the elder thinks it’s too cold. The bigger the house, the longer it takes to heat up. That’s why I live in a tiny one.”
“And because you’re away all the time, anyway?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Sure, that too.” He chuckled as he followed a short tunnel into what I assumed had once been some critter’s nest, now repurposed into the clan’s warehouse. It reminded me of Applejack’s barn after a harvest. Well, halfway through a harvest, anyway. There were piles of foodstuffs, from berries to nuts, some sort of grass, wrapped in bushels, hiding two large, beautiful clay vases. Strange, everything else I’d seen the breezies use so far had been strictly utilitarian. What was inside those vases to be deemed worthy of these containers?
Before I could ask however, another breezie stumbled out of a smaller section, laden with straw baskets. Thankfully Honeydew was there, catching the breezie before he could fall over them. “Sun-high, Carveshine, lazing around again?” he snickered.
“I was inspecting the material.” The breezie called Carveshine hissed, shoving away the smirking Honeydew. “I’m not wasting a few hours making a brush or a handle for your knife just for the material to break apart in a few days.”
“Well, Twilight, this is Carveshine, our toolmaker. Carveshine, Twilight is new here and I was wondering whether you could teach her a thing or two about your craft.”
“That’d take a long time before she becomes useful.” Carveshine huffed grouchily. “But I suppose I could have her work on fitting some doors on our houses, I never had the time for that.”
“Or the motivation~” Honeydew teased.
Carveshine simply groaned. “Well, fluttery one, don’t you have something to do right now?”
“I did, finding some work for Twilight.” His face fell. “And I should probably check on my family and prepare for the next scouting mission.”
“Leave your gear in my house and I’ll see if it needs some sprucing up.”
“Hold on,” I interjected, eyes fixated on Honeydew. “You’re not coming with me?”
“I’ll be checking on you, but I have things to take care of myself. Besides…” his voice got quieter. “You shouldn’t rely on me anyway. I’m a scout, I’ll be away a lot of the time.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure why I was so opposed to him leaving. It’s only been a day since we met! But, in a way, he’d been my anchor in this strange world I was now stuck in, he’d found me when I was at my lowest and brought me here, where I’d at least survive, where I could have hope to one day return home. It was hard to shake off the feeling that I still needed him.
“Well, don’t leave me waiting for too long. And… thank you, for everything.”
“Ehm, it’s okay, I-I’m sure any breezie would have done the same.” He bashfully poked his hoof at the ground, then whirled around to face Carveshine. “Take care of her, she’s gonna have a lot of questions, trust me.”
“Will do.” He murmured. “I suppose we’ll be needing the bad materials after all, then. C’mon, you can carry your own share.”
I nodded, grabbing a few of the chitin plates. I was going to learn breezie craftsmanship! I could devote a whole chapter to it- if I ever make it back to Equestria, that is.
Thank you, brain. I am now going to distance myself from your depressive demeanor. “So, Carveshine, I noticed Honeydew’s knife is some kind of tooth-”
“Later.” The breezie cut me off gruffly.
--------
Although Carveshine called the straw-extension to his clay hut a workshop, on account of it being filled to the brim so that we could barely fit inside, I decided to label it a storage shack. Quietly, to myself. Despite my initial impression, it turned out that the toolmaker worked with all manners of materials. Chitin of many different insects (the sight of a praying mantises front legs brought a cold shower down my spine), but also wood, bones I couldn’t tell the origin of, parts of thorny plants I didn’t recognize and what looked like shards of a conch! A conch, in the middle of the forest! The only way that could happen was if there was some sort of trade between the breezies, perhaps even over long distances. I couldn’t help but squee a little as I imagined caravans of breezies, maybe even clans of seafaring traders?
How long had that hoof been waving in front of my face?
Carveshine actually looked relieved as I finally reacted. 10 points for furthering my image of a brain-damaged pony. “I-I’m sorry, I must have dozed off there.”
“You’re here to work, not daydream.” Carveshine scolded as he put a couple of small vases on the ground. “Do you have any experience in craftsmanship? No, don’t answer, you wouldn’t be staring around like this if you had.”
My face grew uncomfortably hot as I tore my eyes from the vases.
“Don’t get distracted, Twilight, you’ll need your full concentration.” He warned me as he cautiously tilted the vase until a few pitch black rocks dropped into a bed of straw. The sunlight reflected from their smooth surface, drawing attention to a sharp-looking edge.
“Obsidian!” I gasped, first reaching out a hoof, then immediately drew it back. Obsidian produced the sharpest edges nature could provide, touching it was probably not a good idea. To my right, I could see Carveshine give me a strange look, his eyebrow raised high. Oh, shoot, I didn’t know the breezish word for the stone, I’d spoken in ponish!
“S-sorry for that, my clan calls them differently, is all.”
Oh, Celestia, his eyebrow creeped up even further, what did I do?
“I have not told you what we call them here. How did you know your name is different?”
Great, even my brain was stretching out the word ‘uhm’, now! “H-honeydew told me!”
“He did?”
“Yes.” my voice pitched while I nodded frantically. Why did my mane suddenly feel so hot and itchy?
Luckily, Carveshine turned back to the rocks instead of prying further into my badly kept secrets. “Well, for your information, we call them Feuerkiesel.”
“Feuerkiesel.” I repeated, carefully nudging one closer. “So, what are we making?”
“I will fix the mess your friend made with this.” Carveshine said as he took apart Honeydew’s harness. “Just look at it, weight distribution is all wrong and in another day, it’d chave his back open!”
“It’s not so bad, right?” I asked, overcome by a sudden impulse to shield Honeydew’s word from criticism.
“Of course it’s bad.” Carveshine rolled his eyes. Still, his voice lacked the previous edge. “Too many things to worry about out there to take the time for perfect work. Now, you should get some practise while I fix it.” With that, he placed one of the chitin plates before me. It looked like it’d once belonged to a beetle. I bit my lip as I wondered what he’d expect me to make of it, I’d never had an aptitude for craftsmanship, and I’ve certainly never worked with chitin before.
Carveshine’s hoof directed my attention to a corner of the plate. “You see those scratches? They’re old, weathered, will make the material brittle. I want you to shave off the bad parts. Make the edge smooth, but waste no material, understand?”
I let go of my breath as I nodded. That sounded manageable. I reached down for the obsidian shard.
“And be careful with that,” he warmed me. “It’s very sharp.”
I gave another nod as I bit down on the rock glass.
Turned out, it was much harder than I’d thought. Without magic, my face was practically pressed on the material, I constantly had to worry about not cutting myself on the horribly sharp thing in my mouth and to top it all off, I could barely see what I was doing! Still, I thought I was doing a decent job as I carved away another bit. My first instinct had been to try and cut through the chitin, but obsidian was brittle. Despite it’s incredible sharpness, it could easily break, and I did not want that to happen in my mouth.
Chink. Another chunk came off. Chink, chink, chink.
“So,” I spoke around the rock in my mouth, “what’s Honeydew’s knife made of?”
Though I didn’t look up from my work, I could hear Carveshine chuckle. “You’re insistent. It’s the front tooth of a rat, from the last successful hunt.”
This made me look up. “A rat?”
“Horrible beasts, largest in the whole forest.” He confirmed. “Large as four or five breezies, and fast. Worse than the mantisses used to be. It’s been a while since the last hunt succeeded.”
“They used to be bad?”
“There used to be a lot more of them, ‘bout a decade back. Seemed like they were everywhere, you could barely leave the village anymore. Were nearly forced to relocate. Until the bees decided they had it with mantisses snatching up their drones.” he chuckled. “They messed with the bees. You don’t do that.”
Chink, the chitin went as I tried to remember back. It was all a blur of adrenaline-fueled terror, but I distinctly remembered the mantis stopping from chasing me… and had there been a distant buzz, or had I imagined things? Maybe, the predator had fled after-
The shard hit a snag and I screamed as the taste of blood filled my moutj. Spitting out the glass in panic, I covered my face, licking over the small, but agonizing cut in my lip.
“By Heistin, Twilight, I told you to be careful!” Carveshine shouted as he observed my lip, the second vase cradled in his hooves. Inside was a green-ish salve, which stung as he coated my lip with it. It tasted unimaginably sour. “Don’t spit.” he warned me while he watched my face contort in disgust. “It’d aggravate the wound.”
I grimaced. If only I had some water to get this horrid flavor out of my mouth. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine.” he replied evenly, though his expression told a different story as he examined the bloody shard. With a grunt, he chucked it into a third vase. “Watch out better next time.”
Nodding, I bit down on a new shard, carefully aligning its edge with my chitin plate before gently pushing- and froze as I saw Carveshine’s glare. “What?”
“This is what you call even?” he groused, giving me a sharp look.
I stared down at the plate in response. It looked even to me. Even as I rubbed my hoof over it, it seemed fairly smooth.
“You’re not doing it right.” Carveshine said, his voice grumbled. “Use your feelers!”
Right, right. I rolled my eyes as I refocused on the slab, hoping he’d just turn back to his work while I ran my antennae over the edge. Oh, yeah, I was definitely feeling it now, it might have been fine with my hoof, but for my feeler, it was like sandpaper. But still, I’d only had these super-sensitive appendages for two days, how was I supposed to know to use them for this? And how was he expecting me to make an even edge when I couldn’t even see the difference anymore? Closing my eyes, I breathed out, feeling a bit of the heat in my chest dissipate. Concentrate, I thought as I brought the edge down to the chitin. Chink. Chink. Often, I had to pull away to check with my antennae. Somehow, I’d expected this work to be more exciting than repeating one motion ad nauseam while making no visible difference whatsoever. But it’d come, I was sure, I just had to endure the boredom.
“You talked about bees-” I asked as I once more felt the surface. Chink, chink. Still not done.
“Don’t cross them, don’t collect their pollen and they’ll leave you in peace.” He shrugged. “Sometimes they trade. But there’s not much they’re interested in. Even less they can’t get themselves.”
Huh, trade with bees. “What are they trading with?”
“Honey.” Carveshine whispered wistfully. “Never much. A few drops, and never at a fair exchange… but damn me, I still want it.”
So, honey is valuable for the breezies. Maybe that’s why Seabreeze’s clan collects pollen in Equestria? Because they need it to make honey, but the bees wouldn’t allow them to gather any in this world? Another question to add to the pile that most likely wouldn’t be answered. If these breezies didn’t know about the portal, then they wouldn’t know what the pollen was for. Sighing, I refocused on my task- and came to an abrupt halt when I saw the edge nearly cut into my feeler! I jerked back, suppressing a shout from my lips. Sweet Celestia, I’d just gotten so close to severing an ultra-sensitive body part. Oooh, I didn’t even want to think about it!
That moment, a piece of the obsidian shard broke off. The brittle stone must have cracked when I’d been startled.
Carveshine did not look happy.
“Care. Ful.” he hissed. “These things are valuable, so stop breaking them!”
“I’m sorry!” My voice was a bit more aggressive than I’d planned. But seriously, I would’ve liked to see him do better if he was stuffed in an unfamiliar body with entirely new limbs to keep track of! Grumbling inwardly, I rummaged for a third shard, grinding my teeth as I brought it up. Which caused it to chute out of my teeth, shooting down at the ground. Carveshine’s eyes widened as he reached out his hooves to catch it, his body nearly ramming into mine as he forced me to take a step back. My hoof collided with something. I almost couldn’t dare to look back. The vase with the shards balanced precariously on its edge, trembling- and then fall back on its standing, safe and sound. Relieved, I turned back to Carveshine. He looked everything but amused as he held up his hoof, and the small, very sharp rock in it. It’d left a shallow, superficial cut. I opened my mouth, but then it closed without a word. There were no cheap excuses this time, I realized as I desperately thought of a way to explain the situation.
“Maybe you should try another type of work.” he suggested before I could get out a single word.
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O.o.. not very patient or understanding is he..
Could of been avoided if he explained how to do the job instead of just expecting a rookie to do it right on the first go
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9412630
just to clarify, he's not firing her because she couldnt carve properly, thats why he had her work on flawed material to begin with. It's because she broke several quite valuable shards. They live in a forest, it's quite unlikely they'll just find them lying around somewhere.
9412960
I mean fair enough but (and this is a big but) when twilight gets back she could open up trade with them
9412994
...what could these breezies possibly produce that ponies would want? Especially considering they'd have to produce it in pony quantities?
Seriously, if you got an idea, tell me, I might even put it in the story^^
9413031
Safe travel, I imagine silk can be easy to get for breezes, maybe new knowledge of different insect species and how to get antivenom
Interesting chapter, great to see Twilight is not having it too easy. I'm curious what the next chapter will bring for her! Also, lots of interesting information in the Author's Note... honestly, Feuerkiesel sounds far more German than the Dutch variant
I'm curious how Twilight imagines the transformation of pollen into honey...
Yes a good chapter:)
9427086
Both are german languages, Dutch is closer to old speech than modern Deutsch (see? Dutch - Deutsch, both words mean same thing, something understandable) or Old English.
9835568
I'm aware of that as I have marginally studied both of these languages.
Was mainly responding to this part:
Well then not the way to start off with her first job so Twilight and honeydew went to a sort of a blacksmith type of things and Twilight really trying to have honeydew to stay with her because she still not comfortable of this unknown area but she has to manage and apparently crafting is not her specialty I mean she did to hurt while making a weapon again not a good way to start off your first job but hopefully she'll get better and hopefully this Breezy will be a little patient with her