The Leatherworkers [Tier 2]

The orc slid back onto her stool and reached for her fresh drink. The tauren was already working on his. "Where were we?" she asked into her tankard.

"How you went from delicate quilter to the shrewdest gatherer I've ever met." He pantomimed a gentle sewing motion, then changed it into violently bludgeoning something. The orc could easily imagine any number of somethings.

She belched, patted her chest, and took another sip. "Right, well, just as the fashionable gear was changing, I was ready for physical therapy to get my legs back into working order. I spent my mornings relearning to stand, then hobbled over to the shop to work. The good thing about the job was that I could make comfortable padding for my crutches out of scraps."

The tauren hummed in amusement. It was hard to imagine the orc next to him as even remotely incapacitated. Even though he knew her extremely well after working closely with her for so long, this was still an aspect about her he couldn't quite comprehend. In ill weather, in dangerous situations, and even in pain, she didn't seek comfort. He was always trying to be stronger, just to measure up.

"At first, it was very slow going," the orc continued, unaware of her companions brew-fueled ruminations. "The therapy was so exhausting that I had to sit afterwards, so I was at first tasked with sewing layers of those eternal enchanted leaves on to the robe. At least I had seniority over newer apprentices, so I didn't have to go back to fitting the base armor. Or worse, embroidery." They both grimaced. "That gear was covered in crescent-shaped embroidery, which had to be done at twilight, or just before dawn, or the spelled thread would...react. One of the newbies lost a knuckle from his little finger!"

"Yikes!" the tauren said sympathetically. "I never had to do much needlework," he confided. "I was too clumsy, and my technique was messy, and they usually set me to tanning hides instead."

"Ugh, my least favorite activity."

"Agreed. But when did you become a gatherer?"

The orc laughed. "Hold your kodos; I'm getting there. I got to a point where I could stand and move around for a while, so they moved me on to other work. The gear at the time had these huge antlers and even bigger claws. I would have loved to be on the team that went hunting those beasts. But for me, they set me to...polishing. I polished antlers as wide as my arms and claws as big around as my fists!" She closed her hand for reference, and the tauren looked impressed.

"Those must have been fierce hunts indeed! But you didn't go hunting for them, right? When did you join the hunting team?"

She snorted. "Here I am telling you my life story, and all you care about is how I got my current job? Talk about a one-track mind!"

The tauren looked apologetic. "No, it's not that I don't care about the rest! But you told me when we first met that you were a warrior, and then you became a gatherer for leatherworking materials. So far you've only told me about limping around and sewing leaves to hide!"

"Well, it's a long story!" the orc huffed out irritably.