Billy Bob the Jeweller's Diary, 18 LimestoneDear diary,
I really wasn't expecting Rockfalls to be this ...small. When you're in the habit of avoiding crowds, it's quite distressing. I became a jeweller so I could work with jelly opal, and there's none of that here. Nor are there any cows or turtles to calm me down with their haunting moos or delicious taste respectively. And I don't think we're likely to be getting any dragon bone to work with (my second-favourite material after opal. Dragon bone... it's so smooth and warm!)
On the other hand, I've made
seven new friends, which is more than I've had before! Even if one is a child, and another is Squadron Leader, who just barks orders at everyone. Bowie was even kind enough to do a picture of me, see?
It's not very flattering, but I'm sure he tried his best.
Oh, and some of those seven new friends are boys! I'm amazed at myself! Of course, Yarf is already seeing someone, but Karakzon is quite a hunk, and a youthful fifty-five. Even if he is a bit, you know. Crude. He likes his beer, bread and spitting, but Surray says there's a bit of diamond in every lump of coal.
Speaking of which, more good news - a joyous shout just went up, on the middle floor. That was Surray's voice.
I know Surray quite well, now. We're both gentle, intuitive people. But she's so much better with relationships and things than me! And twenty-five years older, too. She reminds me a lot of my poor old white-haired mother, back at the mountainhomes. And I don't think she minds getting to act like a mother hen!
Ah, Surray, let's see what you've done, you lovely dear. Always on about the little lambs and the flowers and the joys of squeezing fruit and pressing pods between your bare hands. What's that you've created, my nature-loving friend? A masterwork leather tea cosy with a pattern of grapes? A legendary cummerbund inlaid with leather snowflakes?
Oh.
Oh okay.
Um, she tells me that she wasn't sure on the name. She changed it at the last moment from "Gangtattoo the Rape of Ravens".
I'll ...go... write that down... shall I, huh, Surray?
Well, I'm happy for her. All that work certainly has increased her skills.
But I'm not sure I want her to mother me any more.
...Or tend my wounds.
...God I hope that really
is buzzard leather she used.