A lone dwarf sits upon a short wooden stool, hunched over and haggard. They labor intensely, yet without focus, fingers sluggishly caressing and prodding orange clay into the shape of a pot. The clay is worn out, its elasticity stretched to its limits from seemingly endless kneading and rolling and stretching, its form barely held together. A warm glow emanates from the doorway across from the dwarf, with sounds of revelry echoing faintly through the halls. Only faintly glowing mosses and a cold, barren kiln keep the languishing artist company.
After many moments of silence, interrupted by the occasional sniffle or sob, another dwarf enters the chamber, much more lithe and tall, wearing azure robes. They stand beside the struggling visionary and stare a while, before speaking softly.
"...How goes the pot, friend?"
"Dreadful! Awful! Horrendous! I simply can not get the form correctly at all! No matter how much I tinker with it, it turns out like slop from the troughs! I need more time is all..."
"But you've already spent hours on it! Surely you can be done with it, everyone in the dining hall misses your jokes, Anfel... and for your sake you've already misses two meals today!"
"Most of that time was spent afraid to touch it! You wouldn't understand... I feel as though every time I put hand to clay, it becomes worse and worse! Oh! How can I eat when I have no doubt in my mind that the Hearth Father is looking upon me with disgust!" Anfel barely manages to utter the end of their retort, their airways clogged with mucus and guilt, so as the meaning of their words were almost unintelligible.
Anfel's friend leans down and puts their hand on their shoulder, "Please, the cooks today have even made those hearty meat pies you like so much, surely you will accompany me as I exit, yes?"
The dwarf looks grimly at their pot, as it very slowly sloughs and gives in upon itself. It's clay still glistens with water, tiny bubbles forming upon its surface as it exhales, it seems almost like some kind of organ, breathing and giving life even though its without a body to inhabit. After a long period of silence and uneven breathing, an answer is given, "Aye, I think I will accompany you," They say with a slight smile forming, as they wipe away their tears. "But let me fire up the kiln first, I don't want this thing turning into an unrecognizable pile of mush while we're gone!"
Their companion smiles, as they both leave the room together, hand in hand.
(Hey! This is part of a thing I wanna do more of which is just make lil dwarf short stories with lil cute pixel art things to go with them! I dunno I just rly need an outlet for dwarf ideas (and maybe sooner or late just fantasy stuff but im in a dwarf mood atm) but something that isnt too hard or time intensive, or else I'll end up feeling like this poor potter over here! Its been hard making art lately, especially cus I rly like narratives or context attached to something, so I have a ton of RPG Maker game ideas/comics/visual novel ideas,,, but I have yet to ever complete a big project like that, so I was thinking mayhaps I should do rougher, way smaller, simpler things in the meantime! I hope someone else can enjoy them! <3)