The light of dawn stroked across my tanned skin from the window. At this time, I would be usually be sharpening and mending weapons for the warriors of the village, be at this time of day, nobody as up. I stared at the brick wall from my bed. My tail wrapped around my legs as I snuggled into the blanket. My Dragoon claws leaned on the same brick wall, the light bouncing off of the gold decorations on its handle and sheath. I padded quietly across the cold wooden floor towards the dual swords. I picked up one in each hand, the familiar weight of the weapons resting in my small calloused hands. With one quick swing, the sheaths came off cleanly, resting near my feet. The blades opened up like fans, three blades to each sword hooked at the tips, the reason they were called Dragoon Claws. The sunlight shone off of the blades giving an amazing sheen to the weapons. "Hm…" I observed a chip in one of the blades as I ran a finger over its surface. It barely broke the skin and the cut bled as I sighed. "I need to sharpen you guys again." I say kissing the blunt of the blade. I slipped on my leather shoes and made my way to the forge with quick footsteps. The room was cold; the forge hadn't been lit since the last worker left the other week. "Well time to get busy." I say setting the swords down on the shaping table. I opened the forge and swept the white ash into a waste bin. I shoveled new black coals into the metal chamber and placed my hand near the entrance. "Ignis." A red hot ball of fire shot into the forge setting it alive with flames. I smiled in content as I went to
work on my swords.


I whistled as the hammer brought down with sparks on the blade of the heated metal. I shaped it to be even sharper than I ever had it. A few pieces of platinum and lion hair later, I finished. I wiped the sweat off of my brow and placed the hammer in its place on the equipment rack. A man with silver eyes and black hair streaked with white was standing in the doorway. "That's quite an arm there you got missy." He chuckled as he looked around. "You must be the previous worker from here." I say with a smile my ears twitching as he rapped his knuckles on the doorway. He too had pointed ears, a dwarf. Now the stereotypes for dwarves are short with white beards. This is not true. Dwarves have the same growth rate of humans, but they have uniquely colored eyes, such as, silver, gold, pink, so on. Some even have permanent colored marks on their faces. "Well. It looks like I can rest easy with the forge in good hands." He says with a twinkle in his eye. I looked around. It must feel pretty nostalgic for him to be here again. He let out a sigh. "Well, I'll be seeing you around little one." He says turning around with a wave. I watched him till I had do listen to his fading footsteps. "Strange man…" I murmured. I shook my head and checked the inventory of the small workshop.

After an hour of looking through things, I discovered that one of the walls rolled up as
a business window. With one swift jerk, the screen rolled up and revealed to me the square of the town. Children laughing and playing near the fountain adults exchanging greetings as they passed by each other, the sky blue and filled with little puffs of clouds floating by; I never knew that life could be so vibrant. "Hello? Hey kid." I snapped out of my trance with by a woman waving a busted Rainbow Water can in my face. "Oh um hello." I say nervously, the hair on my tail and ears frizzed up. "Where's the old man?" She asked sticking her head in. 'Old man…? Oh! The previous worker!' I smiled and finally found my voice. "I'm the new blacksmith here ma'am." I say softly. "Oh really now?" She said with a sneer. "If you can fix this Rainbow Water can, I'll give you 10,000 gold." I tilted my head to the side. 'That's far too easy, is she nuts? She could fix it herself if she wanted to…' I discarded those thoughts and took the water can from her hands. "Please wait for 30 minutes ma'am." I say taking the can to the crafting table. I looked at it. It looked like she threw it at a wall or something. There were two dents and a big hole at the bottom. "A piece of Gold Ore and some Magic Powder can fix this…" I mumbled to myself as I threw some gold into the forge to heat. It was an easier job than I expected. The gold I shaped to mend the water pot stayed nicely as I added some magic powder to the spout, so it could cover more area when watering. I grinned happily to myself as I went back to the window. The lady was sitting by the fountain just observing the water. "Miss!" I guess I startled her because she fell into the fountain with a large splash. I held in my laughter as the drenched woman neared the counter and snatched the water pot. She blinked as if astonished and eyed me. "You did this on your own?" she asked. I nodded nervously as she placed a bag of gold on the counter. "As I promised, you're a quick worker kid. I'll be sure to tell everyone the shop's open again." She walked away. A sense of achievement swelled in my chest as I retrieved the bag and put it in the safe under the crafting table. "Aster? Aster, are you already up?" I heard a familiar voice call. "Yeah! Over here Hima!" I called back as the elf walked in with a bowl of fried snapper with in one hand and a prelude to love beverage in the other. "I guess you're already settling yourself down here. Oh! Here's your breakfast and the Queen has provided you with new clothes, they're in your dresser." She says putting the food down on the crafting table. My mouth was watering, I didn't notice I was hungry till now. "Thank you Hima." I chirped as I took the bowl of food and started eating with the utensils provided.

Hima sat on a bench as she watched me eat. "Did you have any customers?" I nodded as I swallowed a mouthful of food. "How much did you make so far?" I took a swig of prelude to love and sighed in content. "10,000 gold." She fell off of her perch. "D-did I say something wrong?" I asked putting down the now empty bowl. "H-how?! The Bakery is the most popular place within the town, and the man doesn't even make that much a day." I smiled. "A woman doubted my skills in order to fix a Rainbow Water can. She bet 10,000 gold against me… it was pretty simple…." I say rubbing a grain of rice from my cheek. Hima got back up and smiled. "With your skills, you'll probably be invited to dinner with the royal family one of these days. Maybe even the ball." These new terms were confusing to me. Ball? Dinner with the royal family? I merely smiled as Hima rambled on for another 15 minutes. "Oh my. It seems to be a quarter to ten. I must attend to Princess Selphius." She says standing up and taking the empty eating items. "Keep up the good work Aster." She says breaking into a brisk walk.