The Sword and the Flame: The Forging

Chapter 7

The sun burned bright and warm for it not being midday, bringing a smile to the young Halfling's face. Janessa enjoyed being outside on days like these. So many interesting and exciting people and events were more likely during then.

Poor Viola has no idea what she was missing, studying her spell book. The thought that Janessa had all but ordered her friend to stay behind to study didn't occur to her. Instead, Janessa enjoyed the air and the multitude of stands she passed, though she failed to notice a few of the despairing looks being sent her way. A Halfling simply wasn't something peddlers wanted to see.

The grounds were even more crowded than the day before; it looked like every living person in Hope decided to shop for trinkets. At least, that's how Galin chose to interpret things while he finalized a sale for a silver necklace he crafted during the last winter. He was rather proud of it. He took the design from an Elven structure he saw when he was younger, before Elves and Dwarves closed their borders to most outsiders. The Vergon Wars hadn't been pleasant, except for the few that made money forging weapons during that time. After the Dark Elf cleric Vergon was slain, the Elves became the scapegoat for the sins of a single cleric. Only the Dwarves remained reliable trading partners with them, creating an odd partnership, considering neither race truly liked the other.

The design was a large circle representing Pyrain with five smaller circles inside representing each of the five dominant races: humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Minotaur. The Minotaur and Halflings were his own addition since the Halflings were like rabbits and always underfoot, and the Minotaur controlled the large island chain off the eastern coast as well as a great deal of the mainland along the same shore. Galin had put countless hours into finishing it, as each piece was about half the size of the smallest ring he'd ever seen.

He was putting his gold into a lockbox when a familiar voice caught his attention. "Anything new today, Galin?"

It took Galin a moment to recognize the voice and spot the small head appearing to be mixed with his trinkets. He smiled while making sure her hands didn't grab anything they shouldn't. "Hello there, lass, have any luck with the fights?"

Janessa's face brightened. "Okay, I guess. We won four hundred gold pieces. But I don't have it with me; we put it in a safe place."

Galin chuckled. Leave it to a Halfling to behave like an innocent child with such things. But he knew better. "That's good; it's not wise to carry that much gold around here."

Janessa smiled. "I'm here to help a friend move, and I just wanted to say hi."

Galin watched her turn and walk away with a skip in her step before chuckling to himself and double checking everything was where it was supposed to be. It wasn't everyday a Halfling lost interest in various objects made of silver. He guessed something or someone must've made an impression on her. Most likely, it was Berek, if he remembered what her friend said the previous evening.

*****

The old mage wasn't standing, but he wasn't supported by anything he could detect. As was the case since he first entered the lair of the large red dragon to steal his treasure and power all those years before, Mern floated mere inches from the dragon's snout. Its fetid breath engulfed him each time the dragon exhaled. He focused his thoughts and everything began coming back to him. Each time was different from their first meeting. For the first time, he felt the weight of the smallish crystal orb in his right hand. The dragon orb confused him whenever he communicated with his master, like walking into a thick cloud with no sense of direction or landmarks to guide him.

For a moment, Mern hung there in front of the dragon, but it wasn't real, not in the physical sense. That's why the first time was so different. Then he'd been held by the dragon's magic where now it was his spectral form held by the dragon orb. The dragon's breath enveloped him, but he couldn't feel or smell it. In many ways, he thought it resembled death.