More To Life Than Art

Writers: Ames, Eimi
Date Posted: 18th February 2013

Characters: Elmaldi, Ilvae
Description: Elmaldi share her news with a friend...
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 12, day 20 of Turn 6

"You should have seen him," Elmaldi gushed gripping the other girl's
hand. She didn't have many friends here in the Hall yet, but at least
she had one to talk to.

"He was truly amazing. Not only is he so talented, he was kind and
sweet and took his time to talk to me." Elmaldi sighed, her eyes
taking on an almost dreamy look.

"Wait, who are we talking about?" Despite not knowing who this
fantastic sounding man was, Ilvae's eyes sparkled with anticipation and
heart began beating faster. Finally! Something exciting was happening!

"Oh," Elmaldi giggled and looked around a bit sheepish. "It's Master
Vestian," she whispered his name as though reverently. "I wish you
could have been there with us."

"Vestian?" Ilvae asked, a little incredulously. "Isn't he old and
married?"

Elmaldi sighed, "It's not about age or marriage." She shook her head
at her friend. "He is so talented and caring and..." Elmaldi sighed.
"I've dreamed of spending time with him since I was a child, gazing up
at his mural, wondering how he created such a moving piece of art.
Now," she grabbed her friends hand excitedly. "Now, I've actually been
able to see that art up close and even hear the love he has for each
piece. It was amazing," Elmaldi sighed again. The dreamy far off look
in her eyes once more.

"Ah, yes, for a moment I forgot who I'm talking to." Leave it to
Elmaldi to talk about art in terms of a crush. One of these days she
would learn that men were good for talents other than their brush
strokes! But Ilvae was willing to indulge her friend. "So you enjoyed
yourself, did you?"

"More than you know!" Elmaldi gushed. "We talked of form, technique
and you should have seen how Master Vestian incorporated works of
Master Grayvor in the painting he'd did of him." She smiled at her
friend. "If you had been there you would have understood. He took me
around and we examined each of his works closely, together, just the
two of us."

"You're not forming a crush on this man, are you?" Ilvae asked, her
eyebrow twitching slightly. Elmaldi's consuming passion for drawing and
the like was a bit extreme, but hopefully it was limited only to the art
and not the artists. If she talked about Master Grayvor this way, how
creepy would _that_ be!

Elmaldi blushed a bit. "Of course not," she replied, though in her
mind she wondered, **Am I?** She did her best to shake that feeling
away. He was _married_ after all and easily twice her age. **You're
being silly. You just admire his _work_. That's all.**

"What news have you heard otherwise?" She asked, trying to change the
subject now that she felt a bit uncomfortable.

"All anyone's talking about is Turns end. And how soon the other
apprentices will be joining us again." Ilvae turned towards her friend,
her eyes twinkling mischievously. "That means Obron will be coming
soon. You know he was paying you a lot of attention before we left the
Weyr." Of course, Ilvae wasn't sure Elmaldi ever lifted her face off of
her sketch pad long enough to notice.

Elmaldi frowned, "Obron?" She _had_ noticed the other apprentice, but
mostly because of his work. "He just wanted to learn more about the
way I worked." She looked at her friend questioningly, "Didn't he?"
Elmaldi blinked, recalling the times she had talked to the boy. It had
always been about this technique or that one, or how she had created
something. Clearly Ilvae was wrong. "Turns End also means that I'll be
working with someone new. I'm worried about connecting to the new
Master they assign to us."

Ilvae rolled her eyes at her friend's naivete. Everyone knew Obron
intended to be a musician, not an artist. It had been obvious it was
the girl, not the art, he had been interested in. "Don't change the
subject, Elmaldi. This is what I'm talking about. You need to put down
your pencil and open your eyes more. There were _plenty_ of boys
interested in you when you first arrived." It was inevitable that
novelty would attract attention after all. "Most of them just gave up
because they couldn't get any reaction out of you. There's more to life
than art, you know."

"More to life than art!" Elmaldi sniffed a bit at that statement. "Art
has been my life for as long as I can remember. I truly couldn't live
without it!" She did however, find herself mulling over the words of
her friend. _Had_ some of the boys really been interested in more than
just her art? That was something she would have to dwell on more, but
for the moment she wanted to sketch out her own interpretation of
Master Vestian's exhibit, with him right there, in the center of it
all. Of course it would be nothing compared to the depth his own work,
but she knew she still _had_ to draw it.

"Get a boyfriend, and you'll understand," Ilvae chuckled. Still, it
would happen in time, she was sure. And once it did, Elmaldi would
wonder why she thought art was so important. "Fine, do your art. But
don't forget to look up every once in a while. Otherwise you're missing
a whole world of inspiration."

"What?" Elmaldi asked, already lost in thought about the piece she
wanted to do. She reached for a paper, needing to start it now. "Yes,
yes, I will watch what's going on. Don't worry," she mumbled, charcoal
already in hand as she began to draw.

Last updated on the March 28th 2013

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More To Life Than Art