gnomes, being closely related to various burrowing animals have an unusual sense similar to how pigs can smell truffles. An adult gnome occasionally smells the scent of a baby gnome maturing underground and then chooses whether to dig them out or not. No one knows how baby gnomes come to be in the ground, some people think that a baby gnome that is not dug up eventually digs its own way out of the ground and becomes a hobgoblin.
Darrik stood wiping his brow, and looked at the face of his daughter. She was 16 now, for a dwarf measures their age from the day they were first cut, and Darrik remembers the day he had first cut his daughter from the limestone - limestone for she was to be soft and pure. But when he went to the carvers they sent him away. Daughters are for special purposes, and special families. A simple stonecutter must have sons
So he'd take home bits of stone each night and practice. He worked on her smile first, for she would smile. And pebble by pebble he discarded each crooked tooth or unnatural smirk until he eventually got it right. Then he practiced her nose, dwarves generally didn't care for noses, they served a function and nothing more. They didn't care for beauty either, but his daughter would be beautiful so getting her nose right was important. Bit by bit, stone by stone he carved until he could make every piece exactly as it should be, until at last he could do her eyes. You see, it's hard to capture the magic of the eyes in stone, and so Darrik left the eyes for last. They alone took him the whole of her 5th year.
Next he went to the gem layers. The gems would be her personality. In a way they would be /her/. But they too refused. The precious gems were for leaders and thinkers and envoys. A simple stonecutter's child should have simple gems. So Darrik learned how to find them himself - this wasn't too hard - cut them himself - this was remarkably harder - and set them himself - this was the hardest part. A perfectly cut emerald set just off center in the eye would cause jealousy instead of wonder. A diamond that missed the anchor point over the heart by half a finger would cause passion instead of purity. So he made little stone critters and gave each a simple personality with simple gems to practice his cuts and sets. That is where he found his lovable alabaster stone-cat all of 8 years ago now
Next he went to the painters to give her color. There also he was sent away. A simple stonecutter's son needed only a simple color wash, not the expensive pigments. So Darrik learned to farm, so he could make the plant and insect pigments, and used the extra gems he now had to buy the more precious ones that came from the elven valleys and the human coast. And he painted. With the cheapest bloodwash he could find at first, he painted. For it was not just the blue and yellow that would give her dress its flow. It took more than just the right mix of red and gold to make her hair look aflame. In three more years she looked all the woman he had imagined. But she was not yet alive
Finally he went to the runes masters to mark her throat to take breath, her heart to first beat, her ears to hear his voice. And Darrik felt no surprise when the rune masters too shut their door. A stonecutter's child need not have a mind of curiosity, skin that would be ever soft or a lover's heart. And so Darrik went to the books and learned, studied. Every line, every mark, every scratch. The wild swirls and the steady straights. Movement, action, flow. Life. Darrik learned the secrets of life and he would mark it on his daughter's stone skin
He was almost done. As he marked the last line he saw the color on her face shift, and he thought he had failed. He saw her head tilt and waited for the inevitable. He heard the grind of stone and imagined the cracks appearing. But then he saw it. Her eyes - his longest and hardest work went into those eyes - focused. They focused on him. And he saw the stone smile become true, her chest moved out, taking in her first breath and the sound of stone grinding stone became fainter as flesh replaced it. She was beautiful, she was magnificent, she was alive
mjtamlyn on March 18th, 2021 at 09:28 UTC »
So, a half elf is what happens when an elf tries to educate a baby human?
Lord_Quintus on March 18th, 2021 at 10:24 UTC »
gnomes, being closely related to various burrowing animals have an unusual sense similar to how pigs can smell truffles. An adult gnome occasionally smells the scent of a baby gnome maturing underground and then chooses whether to dig them out or not. No one knows how baby gnomes come to be in the ground, some people think that a baby gnome that is not dug up eventually digs its own way out of the ground and becomes a hobgoblin.
HargrimZA on March 18th, 2021 at 12:25 UTC »
Darrik stood wiping his brow, and looked at the face of his daughter. She was 16 now, for a dwarf measures their age from the day they were first cut, and Darrik remembers the day he had first cut his daughter from the limestone - limestone for she was to be soft and pure. But when he went to the carvers they sent him away. Daughters are for special purposes, and special families. A simple stonecutter must have sons
So he'd take home bits of stone each night and practice. He worked on her smile first, for she would smile. And pebble by pebble he discarded each crooked tooth or unnatural smirk until he eventually got it right. Then he practiced her nose, dwarves generally didn't care for noses, they served a function and nothing more. They didn't care for beauty either, but his daughter would be beautiful so getting her nose right was important. Bit by bit, stone by stone he carved until he could make every piece exactly as it should be, until at last he could do her eyes. You see, it's hard to capture the magic of the eyes in stone, and so Darrik left the eyes for last. They alone took him the whole of her 5th year.
Next he went to the gem layers. The gems would be her personality. In a way they would be /her/. But they too refused. The precious gems were for leaders and thinkers and envoys. A simple stonecutter's child should have simple gems. So Darrik learned how to find them himself - this wasn't too hard - cut them himself - this was remarkably harder - and set them himself - this was the hardest part. A perfectly cut emerald set just off center in the eye would cause jealousy instead of wonder. A diamond that missed the anchor point over the heart by half a finger would cause passion instead of purity. So he made little stone critters and gave each a simple personality with simple gems to practice his cuts and sets. That is where he found his lovable alabaster stone-cat all of 8 years ago now
Next he went to the painters to give her color. There also he was sent away. A simple stonecutter's son needed only a simple color wash, not the expensive pigments. So Darrik learned to farm, so he could make the plant and insect pigments, and used the extra gems he now had to buy the more precious ones that came from the elven valleys and the human coast. And he painted. With the cheapest bloodwash he could find at first, he painted. For it was not just the blue and yellow that would give her dress its flow. It took more than just the right mix of red and gold to make her hair look aflame. In three more years she looked all the woman he had imagined. But she was not yet alive
Finally he went to the runes masters to mark her throat to take breath, her heart to first beat, her ears to hear his voice. And Darrik felt no surprise when the rune masters too shut their door. A stonecutter's child need not have a mind of curiosity, skin that would be ever soft or a lover's heart. And so Darrik went to the books and learned, studied. Every line, every mark, every scratch. The wild swirls and the steady straights. Movement, action, flow. Life. Darrik learned the secrets of life and he would mark it on his daughter's stone skin
He was almost done. As he marked the last line he saw the color on her face shift, and he thought he had failed. He saw her head tilt and waited for the inevitable. He heard the grind of stone and imagined the cracks appearing. But then he saw it. Her eyes - his longest and hardest work went into those eyes - focused. They focused on him. And he saw the stone smile become true, her chest moved out, taking in her first breath and the sound of stone grinding stone became fainter as flesh replaced it. She was beautiful, she was magnificent, she was alive
She was his daughter