Working On The Workshop

A smile lingers on Krvavy’s face, even as she walks alone through her expansive and poorly lit cave.

She glances to the side, looking past the switchback path and into the grotto below. Greenery surrounds the large ‘U’ shaped lake down there, lit up by bright sunbeams leaking in through holes in the cave ceiling far, far above.

Her brow furrows faintly as she turns her gaze back to the barren stone in front of her. The light spilling into the grotto doesn’t quite reach all the way up here, leaving this part of the cave quite dim.

Krvavy can see just fine, as it isn’t nearly dark enough for her to start having problems with that, but not all of her girl’s can say the same. Most of them, in fact, would prefer to carry around the lantern were they to walk this same path, even if just so that they don’t risk tripping over or stepping on a loose rock...

Maybe it would be a good idea to build some streetlamps throughout her cave? This place can get pretty dark in the evenings or on rainy days, let alone at night. And who knows what winter will be like... It’d probably be a pain to set all of that up though, having to link each and every lamp together and keep them all powered... But if it helps to make the lives of her girls easier...

Oh.

Maybe Beryl can help by growing some bioluminescent plants instead...? That’d be a lot less work, at least on Krvavy’s part, and... and it would probably look better too...

Krvavy softly shakes her head, putting those thoughts aside... for now. Adding some lights throughout her cave is definitely something that she wants to do, but she’ll need to hear what the others think about it first. Maybe they’ll overwhelmingly want to use crystal lamps? Or maybe they’d prefer glowing plants? Or maybe even a mix of both...?

The rocky path beneath the barbarian’s Draconic feet gradually loses its more natural feel as she follows it over to where it crosses a steadily flowing river, the worn stone shifting from natural meandering curves to artificially straight lines at that point.

Instead of veering off that simple path, as she did earlier with Were-Beast and Dwarf by her side, Krvavy just continues to follow it around and up a rocky hill. Her destination soon comes into view.

The large stone block that is Inanna’s workshop stands at the end of this path, nestled between the cave wall and one of the giant stone columns that reach all the way to the ceiling far above. Vertical grooves have been set into that building’s thick outer walls, making the slightly angled stone between them look like a series of wide buttresses. Ones that are completely unnecessary considering how chunky and short those walls are.

Pride wells up within Krvavy’s heart as she takes in the sight of that basic but still so impressive building. She supplied the many bricks and helped merge them together, using a softer and rather grainy stone as a sort of mortar, but nearly everything else was done solely by Inanna. The Dwarf designed the whole thing, she brought the bricks over here herself, and she stacked them all up in a way that honestly didn’t need mortar. It was just added as an extra layer of security.

The only thing that Inanna really couldn’t do on her own was build the ceiling. Which was more a limitation of the materials that she had to work with than anything else. If Krvavy had given her longer slabs, then there is no doubt that the Dwarf could have handled that on her own as well. Not easily, of course, but she would have found a way. Maybe with some sort of basic crane...?

Love and affection swirls through Krvavy’s very being as she steps up to the entrance of this impressively made workshop, pushing open a pair of heavy wooden doors. A gentle warmth fills the building’s interior, growing hotter and more intense as she passes through its connecting corridors, taking a left as she reaches the plus shaped junction at its very center.

The sound of crackling flames and light thumping echoes out from ahead.

“Knock knock~.” The Drakling playfully announces her presence, emerald eyes gleaming as she hungrily takes in the beautiful sight before her.

A bright and blazing light spills out from the sweltering forge, bathing the room in gold and crimson hues. Inanna’s dark-grey skin glistens with sweat, shining almost like polished steel as she leans towards the raging flames, scraping black soot and ashes off its stone with a sturdy metallic brush.

Other than the bulky goggles strapped over her eyes and the heavy leather gloves sheathing her hands... This Dwarf is completely and utterly naked. Her thick blacksmiths apron is hanging on a hook off to the side, apparently unneeded despite how close her titanic tits are to a rather intense heat source.

And to help make Inanna’s nakedness even more obvious... the thick, voluminous mass of her coal-black hair has been rolled up and brushed back, condensed into a few dense barrels each held together by a handful of her styluses and left to hang at around the height of her shoulders. Which is not only doing a great job of keeping said hair away from the flames, but it is also leaving her wide hips and beautifully big butt completely exposed.

Krvavy leans against the sturdy stone doorway, waiting patiently for her diligent Dwarf to finish up this task. That she gets to enjoy a beautiful sight – one of a rear that she rarely gets to see like this – helps to sweeten the deal quite a bit~.

“Mm. Apologies, my Ushumgal.” Inanna almost needs to shout for her bland and neutral voice to be heard over the roaring flames dancing before her. “I was just cleaning the forge.”

“While it is on? And very fiery?”

“Yes.” The Dwarf doesn’t bother looking back at her Draconic lover, simply continuing to scour away layers of soot. “The heat helps to loosen the buildup.”

Krvavy isn’t entirely sure if that is right. Or at least she isn’t sure if that mild convenience is worth working so close to an intense inferno. But alright. Krvavy trusts that her Dwarf knows what she is doing.

“Would you care to give a helping hand, my Ushumgal? There is a spare brush over there.” The busty shortstack points a thumb back over her shoulder, gesturing towards a rack with numerous other metal tools hanging from it. “I do not have any gloves that would fit you, so simply grab some leather straps to wrap around the handle. And do mind the flames.”

The barbarian smiles and softly shakes her head. Inanna really just assumed that she’d help, huh?

Clink.

Krvavy lifts the metal brush from its hook, before tightly wrapping the part that she’ll be holding onto with some thick leather straps. Just like Inanna suggested.

Waves of heat wash over the barbarian’s body as she steps right up to the forge. Which isn’t the most pleasant experience. This thing was made by a Dwarf and for a Dwarf, so the scale of it is a bit off for someone as tall as she is. To avoid getting her cock cooked, Krvavy quickly knees down beside her favourite shortstack.

Bristly scraping sounds fill the air, just barely audible beneath the roaring flames.

“So... What sort of plans do you have for the waterwheel and whatnot?” Krvavy idly asks, easily breaking off a chunk of soot that Inanna would have struggled to reach on her own. A puff of smoke rushes up the chimney as that stuff swiftly burns away. They definitely need to get some cleaner fuel for this forge...

“Mm... We may need to very reshape a small section of the river. Not by a large degree, just enough to better direct its flow to where the waterwheels will be. Though this may also not be necessary. It depends on how steadily and strongly the current river layout will be able to spin the wheels. Does that sound feasible to you?”

Krvavy tilts her head in thought, squinting into the heat of the forge as she continues her work. “Uh... Yeah? Yeah, that should be possible.” She nods, more confident in her answer. “I don’t see why I couldn’t just, bit by bit, shift the river over a little. All I’d need to do is move stone from one side of it to the other. Which would... be very tedious and time consuming, if not all that difficult.”

“Good. Again, that may not be necessary, but it is a possibility. Now,” black flakes of soot and ash fall down into the flames, almost like... an unnatural snow. “For the creation of waterwheels themselves, we will need to enlist Beryl’s assistance. They are to be wooden, after all. And while it may be easier to have her ‘grow’ each waterwheel as a singular connected object, I will instead request the numerous pieces to be individually made. The extra work required to assemble each wheel is worth the assurance that they will be easy to repair or modify if needed.” Inanna pauses for a second. “I suppose that her magic would make that possible regardless, especially as she continues to grow in power... Still, I would prefer to not be entirely reliant on Beryl for this. She is not always available, after all.”

The Drakling briefly pauses her work to wipe away some sweat that is already beading at her brow. “It has been a while, so maybe I’m just not remembering properly, but... you wanted two waterwheels, yeah? One after the other? Upstream, downstream?”

A faint bit of pride plays at the Dwarf’s lips, their corners curling upwards ever so slightly. “Indeed. It is, arguably, not the most efficient. But it will serve my purposes well enough. And it should be rather aesthetically pleasing, adding a bit of... balanced symmetry. But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Before we can assemble and install the waterwheels, we first need to build the bracing structures that will hold them. And for that, we will need plenty of stone.”

“Right. Where do you want me to dig?”

If it wasn’t for the goggles strapped onto this Dwarf’s face, then her copper-orange eyes would surely shine with the love she has for the much bigger barbarian by her side. “Directly across from the entrance to my workshop, on the opposite side of it.” She swiftly answers. “I would like the narrow passage that leads into the rock garden to be expanded into a proper hallway, one that also leads deeper into the cave wall. Mostly to be symmetrical, from the perspective of that doorway, but also to allow for further expansion in the future, if necessary.”

Krvavy leans backwards, resting her ass on her ankles. She’d like to think that heat doesn’t bother her too much, but this... this is pretty intense.

“From that hallway, I would like there to be two sets of stairs,” Inanna continues on, the metallic bristles of the brush in her hand scraping away the thin sooty layer that covers the stone of her forge. “These stairs will lead upwards to large mirrored landings, at which point they will turn at ninety degree angles and join together, before leading back to a point above the aforementioned door. Again, after a ninety degree turn. This will serve as a way to access the roof of my workshop, and allow for the construction of a smaller second story at a later point in time. If this is still not enough stone, then we can excavate at the edge of the rock garden, expanding it further.”

The barbarian blinks and takes as deep a breath as she dares without scorching her lungs. “Sounds like a plan.” Her squinting eyes lock onto Inanna’s absolutely massive tits, watching those gigantic glistening globes jiggle with each scrubbing motion that this wonderful shortstack makes.

More flakes of black, crusty soot fall down into the blazing inferno of this forge, burning away into nothing but thin wisps of smoke.

A harsh heat and an intense light alike dance across the Dwarf’s dark-grey skin, giving the sheen of sweat covering her busty body quite the nice glow. “I can finish this up on my own, if you would like to get started on that right away.”

With some difficulty, Krvavy peels her gaze away from the almost unnaturally beautiful sight before her. There isn’t all that much soot left to clean. But what remains isn’t in the easiest to reach places...

“I have done this many times before, my Ushumgal.” Inanna calmly states, knowing exactly what her Draconic lover is thinking without needing to pull her focus away from her work. “Leave that brush here, if you will. It has a longer handle, and should make this easier for me. If that is still not enough... I can simply wait until the forge cools before cleaning it then.”

“Alright...” Krvavy slowly exhales, placing the brush down at the edge of this intensely hot forge. “Just be careful. And if you get a burn, tell me. I’ll... kiss it all better~.”

“Now, now, my Ushumgal.” The Dwarf glances back over her shoulder, dark lips curled upwards. “Don’t incentivize recklessness like that~. Now shoo~. Get on with your job already, and let me finish mine~.”

“Oh! We’re through!”

The lantern’s light spills through a small, brick sized hole in the wall ahead, illuminating a sliver of the workshop’s flat rooftop.

“Mm.” Inanna takes the partially malformed brick from her Draconic lover’s hands. The loose leather belt just barely hanging onto her wide hips slips a little further, dragged down by the weight of the quartz filled pouch clipped onto it. “I see.”

Another brick is swiftly pulled free. “Ahh... right. The cave wall is slanted, so this side,” Krvavy taps a finger against solid stone, “is thicker. Still, shouldn’t be too hard to get it open enough to fit through...”

“If needed, that can be another source of bricks. I would not mind excavating out that corner of the rooftop, much as we did for the workshop below. Though it may not be, strictly speaking, necessary for our current purposes. Especially as it could lead to some structural questions with what would become an overhang above.”

“Well... you wanted to build some stuff up here too, yeah? We’ll need the extra bricks for that at least.” Krvavy idly comments, continuing her work and making that small gap grow larger with each chunk of stone she pulls free.

“Indeed.” The Dwarf nods as she takes yet another brick from Krvavy’s hands, adding it to the nearest stack. Which is barely more than a step away. This place has become a bit of a mess, with neat piles of bricks damn near everywhere. Carrying each and every brick all the way out of Inanna’s workshop was simply taking too long. And they can’t exactly use the handcart now that they’re up a flight of stairs...

“What did you want to build up here anyway?”

“In relation with our current project?” Inanna pauses for just the briefest of moments. “A ‘bridge’ that would stretch the river and join with the structure that will brace the waterwheels. Partially to further support said structure, but also because I believe that the tall outcrop would provide quite the view of the switchback path and, to a lesser degree on account of the two large columns that stand upon said path, the grotto. It would be a rather nice place to take a break from my work.”

A smile plays at Krvavy’s lips. Her shortstack is quite the practical woman, but not everything Inanna does is utterly utilitarian. “And what about the stuff not related to those waterwheels?”

“Mmm...” Again, Inanna takes a moment to think, though she doesn’t stop taking bricks from the barbarian and adding them to the piles. “I would like there to be a smaller second story, and perhaps an even smaller third story atop that. Both square, of course, and centered with the rest of my workshop. The central connection of the hallways below would become one tall shaft all the way to the top, so that the heat of my forge has a better avenue of escape. But I do not currently have any purpose for the room that this would create. I am not short on space at the moment. Nor do I expect to be any time soon.”

The Drakling tilts her head and glances back at her Dwarf. Which makes passing the next brick over just a little easier. “So you want to make this workshop of yours into a sort of stepped pyramid?”

“In essence, yes.” Inanna simply replies. “Such structures are quite aesthetically pleasing. And quite traditional, if not too common, amongst my people. What is already a comforting reminder of my heritage will become even more so.”

“Cool~...!” The barbarian brightly beams, resisting the urge to cuddle and kiss her busty shortstack. “It’ll look great from our home~. A big, blocky monument standing all the way across the cave, looming out of the darkness~...”

A tinge of joy fills Inanna’s copper-orange eyes, mingling with her undisguised love and affection. “The view will only become better and better, my Ushumgal, as we plant more Ore Seeds and Geode-Trees. In time I would like the area in front of my workshop to become an orderly field of the less valuable materials, while the rock garden will expand with terraces situated in the cave wall above for the more valuable ones to grow.”

“Trying to rival Beryl with a rocky grove of your own, huh~?”

“Perhaps~.” The grey-skinned woman coyly states. “But, again, that is getting ahead of ourselves. It looks like you have opened this up more than enough for us to fit through. So how about we take a break~?”

Krvavy doesn’t get a say in the matter, as Inanna promptly grabs her by the cock.