Borias' Leather Works

[Wolfe Garm]

Talk is cheap

Red Gypsy

James Taggart

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James watched her leave and settled down on a chair to watch the dead centaur, keeping quiet as he pulled out a whetstone and went about sharpening the throwing knives in turn, humming a simple tune of no particular song and just kept watch. When the Centaurs arrived, James stood up and put away the throwing knife he was working on at the time and watched with silence. When the older Centaur approached him asking about someone he couldn’t help but shake his head in confusion “apologies but I don’t know who that is unless it is the elf who took off an hour ago, she left to go after the one’s from the church who’d killed him” his face remained somewhat straight faced, and not entirely sure whether or not he was going to have to deal with a problem he suspected was starting to become his problem.

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Let your actions speak for you.

 

[Red Gypsy]

Wolfe Garm

The older centaur swore softly then nodded, "That's Layla..." he said simply then looked at the others, "Take him on home. Zeena is waiting to help with the preparations. I'll bring Layla when I get hold of her," he told them simply, gaining nods of obedience and looks of sympathy before they left.

The older male gave a nod, "My name is Alair. I'll be right back with her," he said simply and headed out the back door to find her.

He was back within thirty minutes with a protesting elf thrown over his shoulder, "Put me down, Ada! I can walk on my own!" was her protest. He just shook his head until he was finally inside the building and finally took her by the waist to put her on her feet.

She promptly fell on her a** and revealed that the brace for her leg was damaged. Her golden eyes glared up at the centaur with a low growl, "At least they're dead. I didn't even get a scratch. So why are you complaining?" she demanded of him.

He put his hands on his waist for a moment then pointed to the brace, "And that?" he asked, his tone sounding like that of long-standing sufferance and a mental demand for patience.

She growled again, "It was a ricochet... Nothing more... They never got close... Now they're polluting the sand of the beach..." she looked like she'd seen some action, but not that she'd taken down ten men that easily...

Her platinum hair was mussed and wind-blown, her 'skirt' was shifted enough to show that she wore a pair of short-shorts under it made of the same material, she had a couple of bruises at one arm and along the outside of one leg, and she had a few places that looked like she'd gotten wood splinters along one cheek. But she seemed otherwise unharmed.

Until she got to her feet and started limping towards the back of the building...

She had a line going up the back of her thigh, stopping at where her 'skirt' fell, then restarting at the waistline to go up the other side of her back. It was obvious that she'd been grazed, proving that the bullets were that fast. But she was faster, apparently...

"I've got the other brace in the bedroom. Let me change it out and we can go," she stated firmly and ignored his growl of protest over the injury.

But she was stubborn and there was little he could do.

Instead, he simply threw his hands up in defeat and made a frustrated sound, "Stubborn female...." was the only thing he could say at that point...


And the human got to see it all... Including learning that she'd taken out ten Hunters on her own with only a graze, splinters, and a broken leg-brace to show for it.... She wasn't even bloody...

Until one looked at her bow...

The points on it showed plenty of blood as if it had been used for stabbing, and her quiver was short a few arrows. Even the bowstring had some blood on it, proving that she was even able to use that as a weapon. So it was obvious that she could fight... No matter how stubborn she was...  

[Wolfe Garm]

Talk is cheap

Red Gypsy

James Taggart

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James nodded as Alair introduced himself and spoke up “James Taggart” was all he said and watched him leave to go after Layla, and couldn’t help but wonder what he got himself into. James stepped over to his pack and put away the whetstone and grabbed his rifle for a moment. Releasing the bolt he pulled it back slightly to check the munition count and sighed as he pulled the bolt back fully ejecting a round and caught it in mid air and checked the round a moment before he returned it back to the internal magazine and locked the bolt forward before bracing it up against the counter and sitting down again and simply fiddled with his dagger a bit while he waited. When Alair returned with the complaining Layla he put away his dagger and stood up and simply watched taking note the injuries through one particular injury caught his attention out of all of them and stepped forward as he pulled a round out of a pouch and spoke up “apologies, perhaps it isn’t my place but is she allergic to copper or lead? Reason I ask, that injury on her side looks like something seen when someone’s had an allergic reaction to munitions like this” he offered the bullet and continued “it may not look like much but that’s a copper round with a iron core, she’s fortunate that it didn’t do much more than grazing damage but even so it’s not hard to see that she’d had some kind of reaction to it” James admittedly recognized the kind of damage since he’d built various types of rounds with different metal compositions. Though this particular round he was amazed she hadn’t been given a new hole considering the kinetic power and lethality of it.

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Let your actions speak for you.

 

[Red Gypsy]

Wolfe Garm

Alair looked at the offered round with a frown then looked in the direction Layla had gone, "She's allergic to iron, all elves are. But she'd never had anything to do with lead or copper. She's never been shot either," he mused softly then made the decision to head after her. He found her sitting on the bed to put on her spare brace and waited just long enough for her to finish getting it on then got her to her feet and turned her around to look at her back.

One look did it for him. He swore creatively, "You didn't dodge fast enough, Layla. And you're apparently allergic to copper too... Damnit, girl..." he said in annoyance then put his hand just above the slice across her lower back and could feel the heat in it easily, showing that she was, indeed, highly allergic to copper...


He shook his head and headed out to the human, "You have experience with this stuff, apparently. Any ideas on dealing with a copper allergy?" he asked him, clearly concerned.

Layla came out of the bedroom and frowned at the older centaur, "Ada... I deal with the same way I do with iron. I sweat it out. It would be worse if it had gone inside me and lodged, but it didn't so I'll just deal with a bit of fever from it. It's not going to kill me," she assured him, though was clearly annoyed with the whole thing.

He frowned at her, still concerned, "And a scratch from iron damn-near kills you. I don't want to take any chances with it. If he knows something that can help, I'll take the help," he told her firmly then ignored it when she rolled her eyes at him and went to pack a bag.

Meantime, that left Alair trying to figure out if the human, James was his name, knew anything that would help his daughter.

Layla called out from the bedroom, "Put the closed sign up, will you Ada? I'll have to break the news to Sebastet that she won't be getting any more leathers. She won't like that... But the closed sign will do for now," she called out, clearly letting both males know that there was no other leathersmith on the island...  

[Wolfe Garm]

Talk is cheap

Red Gypsy

James Taggart

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James shook his head at the question “afraid not, sadly I may have created it, but no one has ever had an interest on curing it before now, the church has had little need of curing those who they hit with it, though I would imagine an apothecary or healer would know how to handle such a injury” taking the bullet he put it away as he continued “though, I would be concerned these bullets were designed to do serious damage regardless if it goes in or not, I wouldn’t be to surprised if there isn’t copper shards in the location of the injury, especially since the copper casing was made to break apart, while the iron penetrator was designed to expand and punch a big hole into anything it hits, in that regard she was lucky, had it actually penetrated, she’d likely not have realized she had been hit considering the lethality of it” he paused at that point as he looked in the direction of the bedroom and spoke up “I could take care of the shop, I’m a craftsman” he looked at Alair not really certain what he would think, more so considering the information he gave about the bullet and lack of understanding on how to treat such an injury but he was honest he had no idea what to do in that department, he just made them to achieve certain goals, this being among the stronger options the church has in their arsenal no thanks to him, oh how he regretted doing so much for them.

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Let your actions speak for you.

 

[Red Gypsy]

Wolfe Garm

Alair looked very disappointed that there was nothing that could be done. Still, he'd be hitting up the healers in the elven realm when they got there. He simply patted the human on the shoulder with a small nod, "I understand. But know that anyone has the chance to correct their mistakes at some point. At least, from what I've seen, it is possible," he told him simply then turned as Layla came out of the bedroom with a very small pack.

For a female, she packed very light...

She looked James over for a moment then motioned for him to follow her to the leather room. She'd helped acquire nearly every pelt in the room and Borias had taught her to cure them to perfection. All his designs were laid out on a drafting table in one corner and she directed the human over to them, "These are the designs he's working on now.... Was working on..." she corrected herself softly then gestured to the shelves above the drafting table, "Those are measurements from regular customers, his notes, and future designs he hadn't gotten to yet. Orders are usually left on the front desk, all deliveries come and go by courier, usually one of the kids running around the village. At lest two of them stop in each day. Everything on the island is done on a barter system. Borias had his system set up. You may work out something different later. For now, if you can cook, there's still foodstuffs in the kitchen and all the supplies in here that you could want. If anyone asks, I'll be back in two days," she explained to him, then turned and left him to it.

She did pause at the doorway to look back at him, "Depending on your work and the reactions to it, I may let you take over here when I get back. Otherwise... Good luck..." she told him simply then headed out the back door with the older centaur on her heels.

They left by another portal through the back hedgewall of the garden.  

[Wolfe Garm]

Talk is cheap

Red Gypsy

James Taggart

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James listened to all that Layla had to say taking mental notes of everything that was there as well as what was currently being worked on, and nodding his head grunting in acknowledgement as she spoke about certain things. Once they left James couldn’t help but look at the place as a whole, it was modest which was just fine in his case he didn’t need much to do his work he had most of what he needed to do certain things without a proper forge, though it was a certain that he’d have to gather a few things that would make his work smoother, a proper workshop would be a necessity since he did so much and there was so little available here, this craftsman’s shop specialized in leather exclusively so he’d have to expand upon that provided time allowed.

Grabbing his gear he shifted it all back to the workshop for the time being and collected a few things from his own pack before he moved over to the table with the current project on the table as well as the designs in particular so that he understood what it was that was being created and settled in on working on it, if there was one thing he knew it was his craft and worked on what was needed doing now, since runners came along frequently there was little reason to make whoever was waiting for this to wait any longer than they needed to and spent the next six hours just working the design into a completed piece, along with any others he felt he could do in a short time.

As he worked he couldn’t help but think about what had happened and shook his head as he realized that there was still a couple of bodies in the back and stopped what he was doing having finished the immediately piece of armor that was particular in the measurements he couldn’t help but wonder who it was for but didn’t dwell on that too much as he brought it to the front of placed it on the counter and walked to the back and noted the two bodies still there. Shaking his head he pointed his finger at the bodies and lit them on fire, they’d be ashes within an hour especially since he knew how hot the fire needed to be to effectively burn it to ash quickly but was careful in making sure that the fire didn’t spread before he returned inside and stepped into the workshop and just took his armor off seeing little need in having it on at this point and felt more relaxed afterwards. Grabbing his rifle he braced it up against the wall by the door, his sheathed sword he adjusted slightly and put it back on as well as making sure the carrier for his throwing knives were still in place on his belt before he left the workshop and went into the kitchen a moment to take stock of the supplies that were there and decided against using it for the time being, especially since if he wasn’t going to be there very long it would do little good to expend resources that belong to someone else and simply walked over to the front door and left the shop for the time being putting the closed sign up for the time being and made his way into town to the local tavern where he’d if nothing else get a meal and something to drink

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Let your actions speak for you.

 

[Red Gypsy]

Wolfe Garm

Two days later, Layla came back through another portal formed in the back hedge-wall. She stepped through and waited for the portal to dissipate before moving on into the building. She moved through the back door, her limp barely there but giving her footsteps a distinctive sound no matter how quiet she moved.

She moved inside, navigating the hallway easily then into the main bedroom and dropped her small pack on the bed before dropping onto it herself and lowering her head into her hands for a moment. She was still wearing the same outfit she'd worn before: bra-like top, short-shorts, skirt, armwarmer on one hand, near-sheer leg pieces that moved down into her laced sandals. Borias had helped her change the color a bit, but she'd never changed the material, something woven by her specific village in the Dark Forest. They'd But it was the protectiveness of the material that was the most intriguing. This outfit was colored in a very pale red. Not pink at all, just a hint of red to this one.

After a moment, she gave a heavy sigh and moved to change into a similar outfit in a color that very closely matched her skin tone, pants that rode low on her hips but hugged every curve, the top was closer to a haltertop style, the armwarmer doubled as an armguard, and her sandals gave way to a set of boots. She still had to wear the double leg brace, and would for the rest of her life; she got that put back on and gave her hair a simple braid that fell over her left shoulder, revealing that it actually fell to her waist.

She moved to sit on the bed again, releasing the brace and rubbing lightly over the breaks. She was making sure of them, reminding herself of that day...

Then a flash of Borias' face pulled a small soft smile to her face and turned her from beautiful to enchanting. That hint of a smile showed how beautiful she could be. While most Elves were ethereal types in their beauty, Layla was much more earthy and touchable. It showed part of why Borias had fallen so hard for her.

She fastened the brace again and got to her feet, pausing in the doorway to rub at her forehead and the sweat beading there. she frowned over it but shook it off. Alair hadn't wanted her to leave but she couldn't have stayed. She simply couldn't handle the sympathetic looks any longer and had simply wanted to come back to what had become home for her.

She knew she was pushing the fever too far, but she didn't know how to stop. She had to keep moving, keep busy, keep pushing...  

[Wolfe Garm]

Red Gypsy

James used his time much as he did when he was still with the church, working and building, the time he had was always valuable and used in his craft. He had taken care of orders that had been awaiting completion as well as working on patch jobs that would show up suddenly, and as time allowed simply worked on anything that looked like it was worth his time which so far hadn't found one yet that would be considered a waste of time. the workshop had a table with projects that were finished, having not stopped a moment he hadn't yet brought them out yet to the counter for pickup, his focus was purely on what he was working on and projects awaiting the craftsman's touch.

Time went on unaware that Layla had returned, he stood up from finishing a piece of leather that was being used for a chest piece, the piece was ingenius in how it was to be built but he so potential vulnerbilities as well as made sure sections that were properly strengthened so as to keep it from failing when it mattered and most of all making sure that that the overall weight wasn't to much but still full motion without sacrificing defense. having spent many years working on perfecting his trade he was no stranger to this kind of work and at time was usually the first person anyone went to when there was work that needed doing on their gear, though admittedly he was the only one whose craft included different materials.

James walked over to the table he was using to store the completed pieces and collected them and walked out of the workshop and over to the counter placing the pieces in places that belonged to certain orders so that those who showed up would know what belonged to which order and stretched a moment as he yawned and stepped over to the front door and opened it briefly to see how it was outside before he closed it and went back into the workshop stepping over to a tray of salted meat and cheese a knife purtruding from it and grabbed the knife slicing off a piece of cheese and returned the knife to the cheese as he chewed on the piece he had, his attention purely focused on projects that needed filling deciding on which one needed doing next based on the timeframe in which it needed doing, all the ones that had a closer date had already been finished and taken by runners to be delivered to their respective parties.  

[Red Gypsy]

Wolfe Garm

Layla finally moved out of the bedroom and into the main part of the shop to look at some of the extra orders that had come in. She was there as James moved some of the finished orders there for delivery and turned to look at him as he set the packages on the counter for the local boys to pick them up. She didn't say anything at first, simply watched him move for a moment. Then she remembered the extra orders and offered them to him.

"Borias occasionally got orders from the demon realm. Gypsy was his biggest customer and allowed him a little leeway with her leathers. She's put in another order. When you're finished, I'll show you how to deliver to her. It's a little more complicated than the deliveries on the island," she explained to him, her voice soft and careful as she held out the orders for him to take.

Once he did, she glanced at the rest of the area, grateful that he'd managed to get the blood cleaned up. She noted that he was taking to the place nicely and wondered what she was going to do with herself. After a moment, she looked at him again and tilted her head slightly, "I've been thinking about what I should do now... You're doing good here... You fit here better than I do... I can hunt and prepare the hides, but that's about it," she gave a sardonic shrug of one shoulder, "I can't even cook..." she added, not sure what else to say.

Her only issue was that she didn't know where to go if she left here...  

[Wolfe Garm]

Red Gypsy

James looked at Layla when she mentioned an order that came in and how to send it off when it was done, and simply nodded to follow her. As he listened to her he didn’t show much emotion on his face “to be honest the living arrangements are probably to big for one person here especially since I’ve never really taken up much space, and there’s plenty that I’m sure I could use help with” James stood there with her and watched what she was doing, noticing that she seemed somewhat conflicted by her choices but continued “and cooking is something I’ve never had a problem handling, can’t say for the quality of the food but I’ve been around enough to make a decent meal that fills the stomach” James stood there at this point, he reached up to scratch his right shoulder as he watched her uncertain as to what she would do.  

[Red Gypsy]

Wolfe Garm

Layla gave him a small nod and looked around the shop part of the building again, thinking hard and considering her future. In truth, she only had one other place to go. But if she went there, she'd basically disappear.

She gave a shrug of one shoulder, deciding to be honest with him though she wasn't sure why she was trusting him at all yet, "I do have one place to go, but I wouldn't be leaving if I went there. Here, I can be somewhat useful. Like I said, I can hunt and I can prepare the hides. I can weave the material I wear, but that's a different thing. It doesn't get sold," she said softly, not realizing that her hand was rubbing at the slice she'd gotten from the bullet that almost mussed her before.

That one had been a close thing, but she was showing signs of being allergic to copper as well as iron. The slice was already red and angry-looking and it had only been two days. She was experiencing the fever, but she was ignoring the whole thing, just as she had with the injuries she'd gotten from Zuko. And he'd been out to torture her before he killed her. Her leg still wouldn't heal, no matter what they'd tried.

She looked at him again with a small frown, "What do the humans do for broken bones? My people, the centaurs, the people here... they all do different forms of healing but I'm still having trouble with some bones from an old injury. Maybe if the humans did something different..." she thought that it didn't hurt to ask, after all.

Of course, she still didn't realize that her voice was just as sinful as her figure. While most elves were lean and willowy, Layla was curvy and certainly a touchable beauty. Her voice held that musical quality that most elves had, but also had a slight huskiness to it that drew more attention than she was usually used to.

She rubbed at the slice at her back again, part of her registering that it was still hot to the touch. But there was nothing she could do about it but wait it out until her body finished processing the allergic reaction.  

[Wolfe Garm]

Red Gypsy

James looked at Layla and listened to what she said, stepping over to a counter and leaning up against it he simply crossed his arms causally and spoke up “well, its settled just stay here, honestly if I had an extra pair of hands to assist it would make things that much easier to get orders filled” he stopped when she asked him how human’s handled broken bones and shrugged “well I can’t say for most humans, but I’d imagine that they’d talk to someone who knew how to handle that kind of injury, i believe bones that didn’t set right would just be rebroken and set anew and then staying off of it to heal would be all that’s needed, though I imagine someone strong in healing magic would be able to speed the healing process along so that you didn’t have to endure the pain for very long” he noted that she was playing with the injury from days ago and stepped towards her putting his palm on her forehead and simply shook his head “you know being the creator of that bullet, things are likely to only get worse before they get better if you don’t get that looked at, especially if it splintered when it hit you, those splinters could only make things worse” he lowered his hand, his concerns were founded considering what was used, and it showed on his face as he stepped back slightly, though before he could say anything further an energy wave could be felt as if something had exploded and it caused him to rush towards the front door to see what was going on “what in the world was that, I’d never felt so much energy be unleashed before” he looked around outside not seeing where it had come from, and scratched his head slightly before walking back into the building and looked at Layla.  

[Red Gypsy]

Wolfe Garm

Edited a little bit to help with a misspelled word.

Layla felt the energy wave too and frowned as she worked at figuring out what it was, then frowned harder when she did figure it out, "That was the energy of a portal being destroyed," she said softly then looked towards where the energy wave had come from and figured out where that portal went to, "That was the Darkness Abounds Portal... It had to have been destroyed on the other side to blast it like that..." she eventually shook her head over it and shrugged one shoulder, "Well, the merchants aren't going to like it, but they'll deal with it," she finished on that bit then moved on.

She picked up the orders on the desk then led him into the workroom and pointed out a locked chest in one corner, "There's a key to that one in the book that has the designs for Gypsy's leathers. The chest was set up by the royal steward. Just put her finished order in there and lock it back up, it'll automatically send them to her home in the demon realm. Doesn't work for anything still living, though," she explained then pulled the books for Gypsy and Sebastet.

"Borias liked to play a bit with their leathers, experiment from time to time. The only limitations are on Sebastet's designs. They have to abide by the traditional limits she set initially. Past that, they can be experimented with. He laid out everything he's done for both of them so far and added in designs that he planned on doing. Sebastet's stuff goes up to the castle. This order, she added in measurements for another Hylarr, Bast. It's a full set of the traditional style. But she's added in that Bast is a black cougar that's assassin trained, so take that into account when making her leathers," she explained about the orders then moved on to the other issues.

She stopped rubbing at the scrape on her back and touched her fingertips to the brace on her leg, "My leg was broken through the upper bone and both lower bones. It's why I have to wear the brace. None of the healers can get it to heal. I though that maybe the humans had something else that might work. I've managed this long on it,' now she looked him in the eyes for a moment and finally gave a small sigh, "I can't get to the scrape to get any slivers out of it. There may be a few of them..." she started, her way of saying that she was going to let him take care of it.

She was often seen as unemotional by some of the villagers, even distant or snobbish. But the truth was that she had no real idea how to interact with them. Zuko had inadvertently 'trained' her to avoid friendships or even talking to someone for more than a couple of sentences. Her first husband was a real piece of work...

Hopefully, this human could see past that and see the person underneath it all...

She was still going to have to deal with the physical reactions from being exposed to the copper, but once the slivers were removed, she should heal up faster. If he wasn't up to removing them, she'd deal with it. But he was right that they should be taken care of. She just didn't know how to ask him to help with it outright...  

[Wolfe Garm]

Red Gypsy

James understood the situation but didn’t press it when she took a round about way of asking for help and just nodded “I can, come along I’ll need you to lay down so that I can get them” he followed her to the bedroom and watched as she laid down on her stomach so that he could get to her back. He stepped over to the bed by her side and examined the area where the bullet grazed her and could see that there was indeed splinters from the metallic glitter that was across the entire graze. Looking at her a moment he opened his tool pouch that was on his side since he preferred to carry his tools with him and pulled out a tweezer which while odd to have did help when he needed to get at some things, and simply bent over her and carefully pulled out each splinter he saw.

After a while of working on her back he ran his hand along the entire area to make sure he didn’t miss any splinters and grunted in approval when he felt nothing p***k him when he ran his hand across the grazed area and just pat her on the back “they’re out, you shouldn’t have anymore problems from them” he stood back a bit to let her get up just in time to hear someone open the door and come in. James stepped out of the bedroom and noticed the man and woman standing there looking at him strangely. Wulfric didn’t say anything initially until he felt Blade’s feeling shift which gave him reason to question the man in front of him “who are you?” James just placed his hands up against the counter and replied “James Taggart, new craftsman here, how can I help you?” James was a little concerned but figured Layla would show up to address the issue.