Chapter Text
3rd POV
The scrap metal side of Tinker's Nook is a bit far as everything needs to be processed and sorted into categories, Ridge explained to Akoya. While flying Akoya noticed how the area surrounding the scrap metal seemed to be dark in color; the grass, the sky, the atmosphere, all of it. In the distance, a clanging sound could be heard, it repeated rhythmically every few seconds.
"It's down there," Ridge said, pointing down at the field full with pieces of metal.There looked to be a nook made from gray trees in the corner of the gray area. Ridge and Akoya flew down and landed by the nook where the sounds originated from. Ridge was at ease with a relaxed demeanor while Akoya was more held back and filled with anxiety.
"Amaya" Ridge yells, cupping his hands around his mouth to amplify the name. The fairy, Amaya, does not seem to hear their name being called and continues to work. Ridge used his wings and flapped closer to the fairy.
The fairy doesn't notice Ridge or Akoya and continues hammering this metal piece that has chips coming off every time they hit the metal with the special hammer. and only stops when they presumably break. The fairy takes off their mask that covers their face(welding mask) and looks surprised to see Ridge and Akoya. The fairy has pink hair in dreadlocks in a high ponytail and the most beautiful brown skin. There was some soot smuggled on her face but it didn't take away from her beauty, it somehow enhanced it. "Hey Ridge! I see you have the newbie" Amaya says waving her hand in big motions.
Both Ridge and Akoya, unbenounced to each other, paused and stared at Amaya.
"Yea, This is Akoya, she'll be shadowing you for the rest of the day to get a feel of scrap-metal sorting and recovery." Ridge's face was dusted in blush as he fumbled through his words.
"Nice to meet you," Akoya says.
"I've never taught before so hopefully you'll learn something from me," Amaya says sheepishly while playing with her hands.
"I'm sure you'll be a fine teacher" Akoya responds reassuringly.
"Well in that case let's get started!" Amaya says, pulling her gloves tighter.
"I should get going, I have some extra orders to do. Akoya I'll pick you up later and that'll be it for the day" Ridge says before flying away.
Amaya and Akoya get to work, with Amaya teaching Akoya the basics.
"Scrap metal is used in Pixie Hollow to reinforce baskets for packages and sometimes houses depending on the area."
Amaya gestures to a nearby pile of scrap metal.
"My job is to melt down all this metal and make it into these designs here,"
She gestures now to an adjacent desk full of papers. Akoya quickly looks and all the papers have sketches, some of them are thin, long pieces of metal, or crescent shaped pieces with rounded edges in varying degrees of size.There were hundreds of designs, and they all seemed to be parts for a bigger design.
"Yeah, it seems like a lot but it really is fun! I mostly work with other Tinkers that specialize in carpentry, key-holes, masonry, but I also work with some fast flying fairies like messengers since I'm so far away from the main places of Pixie Hollow." Amaya says cheerfully,
"Isn't it hard doing all this work by yourself?" akoya asks, slightly confused.
"There are actually quite a few fairies that specialize in scrap work, its just that this is our day off that we get, I'm here because i want to finish some of my work so I don't have as much to do when i come back tomorrow." Amaya says sheepishly. "But anyways the first thing we do is look at the metal that recovery fairies find and sort them by size.
Amaya leads Akoya over to an organized pile already. The pile ranges from small, middle, and large pieces of scrap. Amaya grabs a nearby basket and puts the pile of small metal into the basket.
"Once the pile is organized we put the metal into the basket and put it into the smelting machine. The smelting machine melts the metal into a liquid so that I can reshape it. Oh and here is the melting furnace."
The melting furnace was a cylinder mass turned on its side that had a glass circle.
" I'll put the scrap metal into the the inside of the furnace and turn it in"
Amaya pours the contents of the basket into the furnace. And pushed a button on the side of the machine.
"Once it turns on, the furnace will heat up and the metal inside will start to melt. Since it's not known how long the metal takes to melt, we have to watch it. Once the metal is all melted, we have to pour on a flat surface so that it can harden and from there I follow the blueprints and make the necessary pieces."
"I'm gonna be honest, that's a bit confusing," Akoya says.
"It'll make sense when the metal melts, but let me show you what I've been working on," Amays says.
Amaya directs Akoya over to her desk where she was originally working.
"When you and Ridge came around I was working on this" Amaya holds up a thin wire.
"This is used in houses to strengthen the frame of the walls and base, carpenters really like them, it makes their jobs easier." Amaya says cheerfully. "And I have to flatten the thin pieces and send them to the glass workers and they add it to their glass pieces to create these beautiful pieces that mostly are used for displaying sacred objects."
"That's so cool!" Akoya says
"Here try to chip away at the flat metal, I want to see what you can do," Amaya says.
Amaya showed Akoya the right way to chip away at the metal. It was a tedious process, but Akoya enjoyed it. It was fun to see the way the metal could change with just a few chips.
"What happens to the chipped pieces?" Akoya asks
"They go back into the melting furnace to be used again." Amaya helpfully answers.
"Wow so they can be used again! That's genius!" Akoya said excitedly.
Akoya worked on her piece of metal taking her time, it was relaxing but she didn't feel like scrap metal sorting and recovery was her calling, maybe it was something similar? Akoya looked up from her metal and saw Amaya completely finished with her first piece of metal and onto her second with a look of concentration on her face. Akoya only felt discouraged seeing that, she knew it was irrational to feel that way as this was her first day but knowing that didn't make the feeling any better.
Luckily at that moment, the sound of pixie dust alerted both fairies of someone flying in, they looked up to see Ridge. His clothes had a layer of sawdust on them and his hair matched with bits in it.
"Hey! I came to pick up Akoya, it's getting late and I want to show Tinker's Nook at night!" He yelled down,
Akoya turned to look at Amaya, "Thank you for teaching me, It was fun getting to meet you but I don't think scrap metal is my special talent."
"It's no worries, you were a good student and did well for your first time. Maybe your special talent is similar to this, and maybe I'll be seeing you around," Amaya said with a wink. Blush bloomed from Akoya's cheeks as she smiled, she took off into the air waving at Amaya, Amaya waved back with a smile. Ridge and Akoya flew away from the scrap yard, now looking back it looked more lively and bright as the rays from the setting sun hit the area giving the yard an orange glow.
