After walking for some time, Aisha and Zycor ended up at ‘Jorvaal’s Weaponsmith Shop’. As the two of them entered, Aisha yelled out, “Hello~, anyone here?”
As they walked towards the front of the shop, they looked around at all of the wear’s. There were weapons of all different types, foreign weapons, unique weapons, standard weapons, swords, shields, bows, crossbows, spears, and more. “Who is it?!” a voice from the back room behind the desk called.
A middle aged man walked out into the open. He was much taller than either Aisha or Zycor. Jorvaal saw the weapons Zycor was holding and his eyes widened, “Well well well, I would never mistake those gauntlets. Is that really you Zycor?! You’ve grown up, kid!”
“It is great to see you again as well, Mr. Jorvaal.” Zycor said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster, which still was not much.
“So,” Jorvaal began, “What brings you in today?”
Setting the gauntlets on the table, Zycor told him, “I would like you to take a look at these and repair them if possible, please.”
Inspecting the gauntlets closer, Jorvaal let out a heavy sigh, “Wow kid, I don’t know what to say. These things are really beaten up, what happened?”
Zycor told Jorvaal what happened with the mana bears as Jorvaal nodded, showing he understood. “Hmmm,” Jorvaal stood thinking, “well, these are really beaten up. I mean,” Jorvaal extended the blade of the left gauntlet to reveal it chipped to hell. “Look at this, it’s almost unusable. It won’t even extend fully. Honestly you might be better off having a new pair commissioned. Though, I will be backed up for a while, something about needing to produce more weapons for some of the guilds” He complained.
While they talked, Aisha noticed someone peeking out from the doorway, behind the piece of cloth draped halfway down from the top. “Hey, is there someone else back there?” Aisha asked.
Jorvaal looking towards the doorway and noticing the individual peeking, said, “Ah yes, I completely forgot for a moment. Hey, come out here and introduce yourself.”
Out from the doorway came a girl, who was covered in red scales from the neck down, though only on her sides. She had a lizard-like tail, and the room felt as though it got warmer when she came out. “H–h-hello,” the girl stuttered, obviously nervous, “m-my name is Skalnyr Firehorn. B-but please, call me Skal.”
Aisha and Zycor, the latter of whom was following Aisha’s lead, said, “Nice to meet you!”
As Jorvaal continued thinking about what he could do, Skal, who could no longer control herself any longer, said, “U-um, could I try to fix them? I really don’t think they need to be remade.”
Jorvaal looked at the gauntlets, shrugged, and looked back to Skal, “Well, they will need to be rebuilt at the moment, so I don’t see a problem with it. You’ll have to get the ok from Zycor first though.”
Skal immediately turned her attention towards Zycor, every fiber of her being channeled through her intense stare, begging him to approve. Zycor shrugged, “I don’t have an issue if you can fix them.”
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The shy girl from earlier practically disappeared and was replaced by a passionate and ecstatic one. “You won’t regret this,” She exclaimed, “I promise!” And with that, Skal grabbed the gauntlets and hurried into the back room to begin working.
“Hey, thanks for being nice to her,” Jorvaal began, holding the back of his head, “as a demi-human, people are often cruel to her.” Aisha flinched because of his words, knowing first hand exactly what he meant.
“What?” Zycor began, with a very confused look on his face, “With the heat that was coming off from her, she has to be related to a dragon or one of those huge fire lizards, right? That’s badass!” Zycor turned to Aisha, “Hey Aisha, do you think she can breathe fire!?” Zycor turns back to Jorvaal, “She works for you, right Mr. Jorvaal? Well? Can she breathe fire?!”
Aisha slapped the back of Zycor’s head, “Would you knock it off!? I bet you were thinking about how it would be to fight her, weren’t you!?”
Jorvaal, stunned, laughed, “HAHA! Where did all of this emotion come from! What happened to that little brat who couldn’t even crack a smile?”
Zycor, realizing that he felt excitement, responded, “Huh, this is a new one. It feels weird.” After acknowledging the emotion, however, it quickly subsided, “Aw, it’s gone…”
Jorvaal, cracking up again, “HA! Kid you are a riot! As for your earlier question, she can breathe fire. Though, she doesn’t show anyone else aside from me when we are working and I presume her family.”
Disappointed, Zycor said, “Oh…I see.” “Well, I doubt she will be done today, I am certain she will call for you when she is done with her attempt. In the meantime, I will set up an order for a new pair, so in the event it doesn’t work out, you already have a spot in the queue.”
After they were done setting everything up Aisha, Zycor, and Jorvaal said their goodbyes. And with that, Aisha and Zycor left the shop. Getting outside, it was getting to be late so they decided to head back to the guild hall.
When they got back to the guild hall, they ran into Aislin, who had just walked out of the guild. “Hey!” She shouted, “Would you look at that, the two love birds finished their date! So~, how did it go?”
Aisha, who was bright red, stammered angrily, “D-d-d-d-do you want to die!” her emotions ran too high and her Warg ears popped out.
Zycor, nudging Aisha, muttered, “Hey, Aisha, your ears.” Quickly getting a hold of herself and calming down, as much as she could, she managed to suppress the ears. Aislin, laughing hysterically, exclaimed, “HAHAHA! What the hell was that?! Are you saying if you get too embarrassed, your demi-human features pop out in that half-assed way?! Ooooh boy, I’m gonna have fun with this!”
Seeing Aisha on the verge of crying, Aislin knew she couldn’t push her teasing any further. With a sigh, Aislin asked, “Hey you two, I was planning on heading out to the tavern, you guys want to come?”
Zycor sternly, yet still with a straight face, stated, “Yes.” Aisha tried to refuse, not wanting to have anything to do with Aislin for the time being, but Zycor put his hand on her shoulder and said, “We went shopping all day, and you got to play dress up with me. You are coming with us.”
Aisha accepted her fate and sighed, “Ok, fine, I’ll go with you…”.
As the three of them were walking, Zycor asked Aislin, “Do you think mom is going to get mad?”
Aislin shrugged, “It will probably be fine. All I have to say is something along the lines of ‘it was for his own good, this experience will help him grow as a man’ or something. And, in a way, It is not a TOTAL lie.”
Aisha, disapprovingly looking at Aislin, commented, “I really don’t think you or Adria should be raising a kid…”
Aislin responded, “Rude, that was uncalled for, and it was untrue. I mean, look at Zycor.”
“I am, that’s the point.”