Solo A Svefran Gift: Buoy Belt Bags Build Bridges

[Selene Curare]

65th Spring, 520AV

The two women were lounging on Selene’s deck sipping cold brewed tea. The sun had set long ago, taking with it the painful edge of the heat. Selene sighed, a fire crackled in the fireplace casting a flickering light over the Svefra’s face. Selene had been gushing to Pelly about her day swimming with Marino while cradling a giggling Crane in her arms when she stopped short.

“You know, I had been wondering what the best gift would be to thank the Oceangem’s for their hospitality and I think Marino just gave it to me.” She announced, “I was nervous about not being able to swim, and Tazrae said she couldn’t swim either. I should make some flotation devices of some kind….like boats on people…” Selene chewed her lip, “No…that sounds ridiculous…” I don’t know anything about flotation or how to even begin learning enough.

“Actually, it’s not ridiculous! Some ships carry tubes of inflated animal bladders and others use fabric filled with cork or other light weight fibres. We could probably find a way to make some. It’s a thoughtful idea. I’m not sure the Svefra will use them themselves but having some onboard for travellers as incompetent a swimmer as you, could be handy.” Pelly teased, imagining the Symenestra flailing attempts at swimming, “You know, it’s not a bad idea to make several – we could bring some to the Mercantile as well, I’m sure they’d find them handy.”

“Cheers lovely, it sounds like we have tomorrow’s plans.” Selene raised her glass of cold brewed tea and they clinked wooden cup. As they did Crane began to fuss and Pelly was forced to abandon the evening to take the shrimp to bed. Selene sat in the silence of the night gazing out at the twinkling Svefran lights on the ocean’s surface and wondering what it would be like when the Svefra left Syka.

Word count:314

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[Selene Curare]

66th Spring, 520AV

The next morning came too quickly, both women exhausted from the screaming sleepless Crane. Selene was grateful to leave the bungalow, even if it was into the heat, to escape the screaming. She marched towards the Mercantile, enjoying the refreshing water droplets that trickled from the canopy of green that stretched over the pathways running across Syka. She didn’t meet any other Sykans on her way, and it suited her just fine. She was grateful for the momentary silence, a rarity nowadays. Pelly had explained the construction of the flotation devices as donuts filled with light-weight material. The description had disappointed Selene, she had envisioned a flotation device that would help you stay above water but leave your hands free to help propel you the way Marino had taught her.

Selene had dubbed the creation Buoy belts, and planned to make the donuts as Pelly described smaller and belted to fasten at your waist so you wouldn’t have to hold onto them. She hadn’t revealed the idea to Pelly yet, the secret a bubbling pot of deliciousness in her head. She kept catching wafts of the idea, making her imagination salivate with anticipation.

The Mercantile was perched on high stilts, opening itself up to the steady ocean breeze and providing a shaded area underneath. Two older gentlemen were dragging on tobacco pipes and nodded at the Symenestra as she passed them. Selene raised a hand in a tentative wave, but didn’t slow as she made her way up the stairs and into the thatch-roof interior of the Mercantile.

The shop was an assortment of trade goods and local made goods hung on hooks or sorted on tables and shelves. Selene couldn’t help glancing at the shelves containing stacks of cloth, a spontaneous thrill making her lips twitch when she spotted her own woven fabric in the pile. To think, one day I’ll see clothing people’s bodies or made into all sorts of useful wonderful creations, tickled pink at the thought Selene’s chest beamed despite herself. But of course, that’s not enough She thought dejectedly of how much she still relied on the Sykans to provide her with food, safety and other necessities. In truth, I won’t make much of a difference to the Sykans other than the founders pockets who no longer have to transport as much fabric from Riverfall, I need to be more creative and create things that will make them inquire after the maker – make them know me. Pelly is right, making these for the Mercantile might draw some attention and appreciation. All of this, to ensure that someone would care for her child when its birth killed her.

“Juli?” Selene called through the rows of supplies before spotting the long-haired brunette crouched by a table leg, a hammer and nails at her side.

“Lovely day,” Selene greeted, standing behind the hunched human form, “Can I help?” She offered, watching the woman fiddle with something out of view.

“Yes, can you hold the tabletop up while I secure this?” She glanced over her shoulder as best she could, her husky voice strained with effort. The table was full of heavy blankets and several mattresses leaned against it. Selene ducked down beside Juli and crouched on her knees to better understand the problem. Juli was hunched trying to hold the leg and tabletop together. The leg wobbled in her hand and she looked like she was trying to nail it into the top. Selene put her hands over her head and held the table top up, clear of the leg.

“A little lower,” Juli instructed, “a little lower, lower, lower,” she instructed until Selene was supporting the weight of the heavy tabletop directly on top of the leg.

“What are you doing Juli, I’m sure James could fix this when he gets back from wherever he is,” Selene grunted with effort, her arms aching from the weight of the tabletop.

“I hate having to wait for him, I can fix it myself.” Juli announced stubbornly. Selene now noticed that the other legs looked as precariously nailed together as this one.

“How are you fixing it?” Selene’s voice belaying her lack of confidence in the woman’s plan.

“I’m just going to nail the leg back into the top, at an angle like this. Then it will go through both pieces of wood.” She announced as she offered the leg to Selene. Taking it as requested Selene watched Juli snatch a nail and hammer from the floor and placing the nail against the wood of the leg at an angle try tapping it gently with the hammer.

“I think you’ll have to hit it harder than that,” Selene advised, the nail only nibbling the wood with each tap.

“My dad always does little taps, so the nail can bite the wood. Otherwise, it’ll skip off when you hit it harder.” Juli explained patiently, ignoring Selene’s inadvertent condescending tone. She continued to tap until a centimeter of the nail was submerged in the wood and then hit it harder, instantly bending the nail.

“Petch…we really need a good blacksmith around here soon. The nails are so expensive and the wood here is so hard, it keeps bending them.” She cussed as she tried again, this time hitting so hard that the leg shot out of Selene’s control and almost flew out of her hands.

“Can you try nailing from the top down into the leg? Then the hammers force will drive the table into the leg and won’t be so hard to hold together?” Selene suggested, eyeing the hammer with annoyance as each wack against the leg made the table top jump upwards, despite Selene’s best efforts to hold them together.

“Can’t. Then dad will know I tried to fix it on my own.” Juli complained, “Plus, I don’t know if the nails are long enough to go through the table…”

Word Count: 980

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[Selene Curare]

66th Spring, 520AV

“I think he’ll already be able to tell…” Selene broached, eyeing the other legs. Juli followed Selene’s gaze to the other legs and chuckled.

“You’d think…but he has more important concerns than looking under the tables,” Her laugh was contagious and made Selene smile despite the pain building in her shoulders and back.

“Ugh, well. Best get on with it then,” Selene grunted, shifting the weight of the table and holding the leg more firmly. “I’m ready!” She announced and Juli began tapping again. Eventually she had one nail driven in and Selene was wheezing from the weight of the table.

“Trade?” She suggested.

“Sure,” Juli nodded, taking the weight more easily on her ropes of muscles, “Thanks Selene,” She grinned appreciatively, tuckering her hair behind her ears.

“No worries Bisschen Holzfaller,” Selene teased in Symenos. Juli furrowed her brow in response to the odd word and Selene struggled to explain as she placed the nail against the leg trying to angle it upwards into the table as Juli had done, and ducking down to angle the hammer upwards.

“It’s like…a bit? Or a piece? Of a Lumberjack. Hmm…like, it’s a cute name for a little lumberjack, but not little in size,”

“Sounds rude,” Juli scowled at Selene. Oh no…I’ve offended another Sykan The insect of a woman fretted, feeling every bit the misunderstood little victim she had felt with Tazrae. Juli winked, and a storm of grateful butterflies burst from the cocoon of anxiety hanging from the roof of her estrogen-drenched hypothalamus.

“Oh it is!” Selene replied with a conspiratorial wink. She began tapping the nail gently, as Juli had done until it had a good bite in the wood. My bite just slides in...wood is not as simple as flesh, Selene appreciated before winding up for a hard strike. Glancing off the nail, bending it and hitting her own hand in the process, Selene yelped in pain and frustration. Juli laughed in amusement and the two continued to hammer and trade off until half a dozen bent and useless nails stuck out from the leg and another half a dozen secured the leg, at an odd angle, to the tabletop.

“Looking as sturdy as I do,” Selene gushed, shaking her wooden stump at the table, “No excuse for falling over,” She instructed the table severely. Juli laughed and wiped her hands on her apron. Juli was the only human, besides Pelly, that Selene appreciate the attractiveness of. She had a narrow oval face, small delicate features, and long dark hark. Although tanned, she looked quite Symenestran-like. Her thin athletic body wasn’t willowy like a Symenestra, but rather sapling like in its hardiness and held a certain alien but familiar appeal to Selene.

“So, before I co-opted you for my project, what were you looking for?”

“I was thinking it would be useful to make some life preservers, what do you think?”

“Oh! That’s a brilliant idea! We just hired a Svefra to transport goods and people on his Casinor to and from areas of Syka and I’m sure they would be useful for passengers. Not to mention all the people who have taken to fishing for their sustenance. How did you think of it?” Juli fixed her hair again, tucking the long strands that kept coming loose behind her ears.

“Marino was teaching me to swim, and I admit it was a touch terrifying. I thought it would be a useful tool for anyone wanting to learn to swim. Plus, we can’t all be like the Svefra and fearless in water. I’m sure even the most experienced sailors would find one useful in a squall or if they fall out’the boat,” Selene ventured.

Word Count: 615

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[Selene Curare]

66th Spring, 520AV

“Well what would you need to make them? If you don’t need anything in high demand I’m sure it won’t be an issue. Presuming you’re planning to make them for the Mercantile?”

“Yes, yes. I’ll pay for the supplies for a couple that I plan to give some of the Oceangems as a gift of appreciation, but the rest I’ll bring back for you to sell. You’ll have to let me know how they do! I’m not sure exactly what I need…I’ll need some belts, or at least some belt clasps, thread to weave into laces and make lightweight waterproof bags, and a material that’s lightweight to fill them to make them buoyant.” Selene ventured as she imagined the creation in her mind.

“Well, sounds like you’re trying to hammer a leg onto a table,” Juli teased. “Why don’t you draw what you’re imagining and we’ll see what we can do?” She offered, directing Selene to the desk at the back and pulling out a quill, ink and a piece of parchment paper.

Selene hunched over the table, her chignon keeping her hair out of the way, and dabbed the quill into the ink. “Well, I imagine waterproof bags sealed with a lightweight material in them,” She drew a series of ovals with ties on the two apexs. “Then you could tie as many or as few together as you needed to make it the right size for the person. That way it could fit men, women or even children,” She explained. “Pelly says that they’re typically made in one fixed donut that floats on the water that you can hold onto – but I wanted to make something that would give you free arms to learn to swim, and you could wear in case you fall in the water and don’t have anyone to throw something to you.” She explained further. “Then you would have belt clasps on two of them so you could buckle it in front.” She nodded as she drew a square within a square and two ovals on either side.

Juli watched, her forehead wrinkling further and further as she watched. “Hm…I think you’re going to have problems with the ties pulling the fabric apart here and here,” She pointed where the ties would attach to the ovals. “The wear and tear will ruin them very quickly. Not to mention, metal buckles are expensive and they’ll make them more expensive to sell. People already only purchase one belt because of the cost, they won’t want to purchase the cost of a belt just for the water.” Her mind geared for customer satisfaction.

“Oh…that makes sense,” Selene realized with frustration and stared at her idea forlornly for a few moments before considering a solution.
“You said people already have their own belts?” She ventured, an idea frothing up. Juli nodded.

“Well, what if we made sealed buoyant bags with a sleeve?” Selene drew an oval and a square within it, “Then, they could just put their belts through the sleeve and turn their belt into their “boat belt”.” Juli chewed her lip, considering the design for a moment.

“That makes sense, then they could add as many bags as they needed for their girth. Plus, if one breaks or is damaged you only have to replace the one, which will be an appealing selling point.” She nodded along as she spoke. “It sounds like a good start. I’m sure we’ll get complaints and compliments once people have tried them and we can always make adjustments.”

Selene was grateful for Juli’s business acumen and smiled appreciatively at the young woman. “So, I’ll just need waterproof fabric, lightweight buoyant material, thread and needle.”

Juli nodded, “I would recommend a waxed cotton, Pelly should be able to show you how to do it since it’s what they do to their sails to help them catch more wind,” Juli spoke with the knowledge of a sailor’s daughter. She placed a huge block of wax, several bolts of cotton, a wide paint brush, a couple heavy broad needles, thick thread, a pair of scissors, and a small chest with an assortment of other sewing Knick knack’s in the heap.

“You’ll need to purchase the sewing supplies, since you won’t use it all in the making of your lastest project and you’ll need to let me know how many “buoyancy belt bags”” Juli quoted, “you make with this amount of supplies and how many you plan to keep for me to let you know how much they cost,” She explained. Selene handed over the 20 Miza requested for the sewing kit while voicing her emphatic appreciation for the wise feedback.

“No, thank you and good luck Selene,” Juli tucked a hair strand, “I’ll volunteer to be your first tester when you’re finished.” She waved with generous warmth to the retreating Sym who flounced down the stairs with renewed enthusiasm. Perhaps she would make a great mother to little Pellene here, She considered, passing a free finger over her stomach as she marched back home, overladen with materials.

When she arrived back at the bungalow, relieved to escape the sun, she found Pelly and Crane taking a much needed midday nap. The boy had been especially fussy since landing in Syka. Pelly said it was the heat, which was whisked away by the ocean wind at sea, that was making him so irritable. Whatever it was, Selene was glad they seemed to have gotten some respite from the near incessant hollering – at least for a few bells she hoped.

Word Count: 925

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