Enzo doubled over, hacking and coughing in response to the guard. He was fine, but the moment gave him time to clear his head of the jarring sensation of learning a language in a second. After a moment, his head cleared, and he stood up right again.

“Sorry, must have… caught something… in that storm yesterday,” he fake wheezed, trying to sell the guard on it. He gestured to the scale. “Been hunting for a while, got lost. Ended up sleeping in a cave last night and found that on the ground.

The guard stared at Enzo for a moment longer, before returning his focus to the scale. It shone in the early afternoon light, but there were some scratches on it.

“And you only found this one scale?” the guard asked. “Where was this cave?”

“Just over in those mountains,” Enzo responded, gesturing in the vague direction of the coast. “Not too far off from the coast. Found a second chamber in it, seemed like a good place to rest up. Wasn’t too big down there, but kept me dry.”

The guard seemed to relax a bit at this. Seems like he’s forgotten about the growling and looks like Talwen was right, the scale does have some value. Hopefully this guard keeps it to himself though, I don’t need people investigating.

“Any idea if it's worth anything?” Enzo asked nonchalantly. “As you said, I could use some new clothes and a couple other things.”

The guard handed the scale back to Enzo. “Take it to Tobias, our blacksmith here. He’ll probably be interested in it and can set you up with what you’re looking for. His shop is just off to the left, across from the inn.”

“Alright, thanks for the help,” Enzo responded. He started to move through the gate, but the guard stepped in front of him.

“Didn’t catch your name, friend,” he said, giving Enzo a serious look.

“Oh, it’s Enzo,” Enzo said. “And yours?”

“I’m Oskar,” replied Oskar. “Do me a favor, and keep that scale to yourself. People around here get nervous living so close to the mountains, I don’t need to deal with rumors of a dragon running around out there.”

“Can do,” said Enzo. Oskar smiled and stepped aside, letting Enzo through the gate.

Enzo looked around the village as he stepped through the gate. The main path through town was made of cobblestones and dirt. It wasn’t exactly straight or a consistent width, but instead snaked between buildings. Grasses grew beside the road, and dirt pathways had been worn to the major buildings and businesses. Some had vegetables and herbs growing out front, other buildings had mountain flowers and local shrubbery. Both of the only two-story buildings had little courtyard areas, with tables and benches placed outside.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Seems most of the businesses were close to the front of the village. One of those bigger buildings is probably an inn, I’ll have to stop by and see what I can learn before I leave. With some luck, the scale will bring in enough money to stay the night.

To his right, sat a squat, square building with wide, open doors. A sign posted near the door labeled it as a general store. Further down, was a building absolutely dominated by plants. Flowers, bushes and herbs filled the little garden space between the road and the building and a sign with a bottle on it could be seen barely poking through the vines that clung to its post.

On his left nearest to the gate, was the guardhouse. The spartan building had little in the way of decoration, but had a dedicated ring of cobblestones that looked like it was used for training. The next building over could only be the blacksmith’s shop. A large, covered area with open walls allowed Enzo to see through to a forge glowing at the back of the building. A couple of anvils were arranged around the forge, and tools hung from hooks on the back wall of the building. Enzo approached the shop as a thick, muscular man pulled a cart full of raw material around from the back of the building.

“Uh, hi there, is the blacksmith-” Enzo started before he was cut off.

“Can’t talk right now, son. Furnace is finally at temp, need to burn through this ore while I can,” the man interjected. He pulled the cart through the shop floor to a second room and disappeared inside. Enzo followed him in.

“Told you I’m busy! Either get to work, or come back later!” the man barked as he shoveled material into the furnace. He gestured to the wall where other hand tools hung. Enzo grabbed a shovel and moved next to the man to help.

“I’m Enzo, I can help,” Enzo said as he shoveled material into the furnace. “Is it not getting hot enough?”

“Tobias,” Tobias replied. He stepped back and let Enzo take the lead on the work. “Good to see someone young willing to work. Not as young as I used to be.” He turned back to the furnace. “Had her for a while, one of the first things we built when we started work here. Had to put her through some intense heat to work that starmetal. Probably burned through the seals somewhere, but I’ve been too busy to rebuild her.”

So it's losing heat too quickly. Let's see what I can do about that. Enzo closed his eyes and focused on the furnace. He calmed his breath and cycled through the energy radiating off it. Immediately, several cracks half way through the back corner of the furnace glowed bright with energy. Enzo inhaled, and willed the energy out of the cracks and back into the center of the furnace. The fire within blossomed and intensified, quickly burning off the impurities of the iron. Seeing the change in the furnace, Tobias grabbed his shovel and hastily forced in more charcoal.

“I don’t know what you’re doing son, but… it's working better… than I’ve seen in years,” Tobias huffed as he worked. “Take the bellows there, and blow more air in. We’ll burn through this batch quick.”

Several hours of hard work passed, but eventually, the two had worked all the ore in the cart into usable chunks of iron. Satisfied, Tobias wiped the grime from his hands on his smock and took the full measure of Enzo.

“Well done son, you done this work before?” Tobias asked. “You look a little scrawny for it, but my god, I haven’t seen the furnace burn that well in years. That was a couple days of work done in an afternoon.” He handed Enzo a rag from the workbench against the wall.

“First time for me,” said Enzo, as he took the rag and wiped the grime from his hands. The mark Talwen made on his hand glowed. “I just copied what you were doing. Definitely have to get something to eat though, I’m starving.”

Tobias stared at the mark, his eyes wide. “Boy… is that what I think it is?” he asked in a hushed tone. “Is that the mark of a dragon clan?”