Challenge #01674-D213: I Just Want a Hammer

It's not just one hammer - there's lots, and they're all different. -- Knitnan

"Okay," Carol sighed, "I'm gonna need a hammer for this."

"What kind?" asked Brilmoth.

"What do you mean what kind? Just a hammer."

Instead of handing her a hammer, Brilmoth took her opportunity to elucidate at length. "Actually, there's more than one kind. Sledge, ball pein, claw, cross, straight pein, cross pein pin, joiner's, sports, soft-faced, power, battle, jeweller's, modeller's, tuning hammers..."

Carol climbed down from her ladder since it looked like Brilmoth wouldn't be finished any time soon. "Wait. Wait. Tuning hammers?"

"You humans have tuning forks, no?"

It was moments like this that Carol was reminded how different Brilmoth was. She was, essentially, a cogniscent plant. As were the rest of her people. Their technology curve had to match their unusual evolution. "Ye-es... but... hammers?"

"The hammer is the most useful tool for our people for thousands of years. Hundreds of thousands." She tried to mimic a human smile. Though the effort was heartening, the results... weren't. "We have discovered millions more uses for them than any other cogniscent race. We travelled to new lands with hammers."

Carol decided not to ask. Her imagination was giving her enough trouble with that sentence as it was. "Well... we've learned to get by with only a few." She got to the tool box and extracted a rather small claw hammer. "This is the only one I have."

Brilmoth boggled. "How did your species make it into space?"

[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / Mannaggia]

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