A strum along strings cut through the noise of street goers and bounced across weathered metal buildings.

“Step into Citar Center, highest quality strings straight from the Dwarven Forge.”

Across the street, a barterer barked a passive-aggressive plea.

“Please my friends, no, it is the Hard E. Bard that has the quality. Nothing compares to our Valorgrim imports.”

Aggressive strums fell behind Evie and I while we continued through the Dwarven District.

“Fun and set pieces for all ages, come on into Backstreet Toys.”

“Ah- Marina-”

I tugged on Evie’s ear.

“We’re supposed to be finding me a new staff. We already got a late start.”

“Ah- yeah, that’s because you sleep so late- ayaya-”

I tugged harder. My eyes danced between the signs posted outside several shops when something bumped against my thigh.

“Hey! Watch where you’re-”

“Huh? You looking for a- Maraca?”

“Ehe~ Sugma.”

Beatrice and Ligmas shuffled out from the street traffic and I began introductions.

“These are the guys I told you about from Druidale. This is my best friend Evie.”

“Waaao~ You have really pretty ears.”

“Well aren’t you just a ball of sunshine. Thanks, you too.”

“Ehee~ she called me pretty. Marina, I like your new friends.”

“You guys enjoying the city? Ah- I hope it hasn’t been too much for you Sugma.”

“Heh, like there’s anything too big for me to handle. Eyelard’s a pretty nice town.”

“Mister Sugma has had several panic attacks in your absence.”

“Ey, I never-”

Beatrice tossed her arms around mine and Evie’s shoulders.

“He’s been so sad, ‘Oh I hope Mabeeble is okay, such a dainty girl like her, how will she ever be fine without her adventurer friends~’”

“I didn’t-”

“Oh? Is that how you feel? Dainty? Like a little flower? Would you like to see my thorns? Come here. Let me show you.”

“Thorns? Why would I be afraid of someone who can’t even land a punch.”

Beatrice and Ligmas laughed.

“We’re just messing with you. City’s been nice. We actually managed to snag a new quest. We’re just about to stop by the smithy so we can break the news about Loric.”

“Ooa~ We’ll join you.”

“Evie-”

Beatrice threw her hands in her pockets and kicked on ahead of us.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Evie grabbed hold of my arm and tugged me along. Crossing over to Primal Lane, we stood before a building thrice the size of anything surrounding it. Bellows bloomed from iron cauldrons filled with rainbow tinted glows. We passed through a tall, circular door and perused by anvils that were struck and basins that sizzled.

Sugma roared at everyone in the room.

“Forge master!”

A dwarf that met Sugma at eye level stepped over to us. His brown beard singed in a frazzle and scars lined his face. With eyes that were overworked and thin on patience, he spoke with a thick, rolling accent.

“That is me. Bolzar Rhustar, what do you want?”

Sugma knelt before Bolzar and held Loric’s femur aloft with his head cocked.

“What is this?”

“Your son.”

Beatrice gripped the top of Sugma’s head. “What the hell Sugma?”

With shivering hands, Bolzar took the bone from Sugma. Bolzar’s lip quivered and his voice hushed to a murmur.

“Oh Dolas. My dear Dolas.”

“Dudeass? No, his name was Loric. You know it’s rude to call people names Boulder.”

A man covered in soot squeezed through the frame of a door near the back of the smithy. His belly bulged below boulder sized biceps with veins that charged down his arm to a hammer held in his grip. The smoke was smeared against his freckles like warpaint and salted his orange beard like pepper.

Bolzar regained the same tired demeanor from moments earlier.

“Loric? I disowned that good for nothing years ago.”

He tossed the bone over his shoulder, the man behind him catching it as it fell.

“You uh- called me father?”

“Ah, Dolas - good to see you alive.”

“Oh kay? Good to be alive I guess?”

Bolzar brought his attention back to us with animosity chiseled into his face. “You all nearly gave me a heart attack.”

The blood drained from my head. I pushed past Sugma and bent down, hovering inches from Bolzar’s face.

“Huh? What’s that? Good for nothing? Do you know how important family is? Die. Have you prepared a will your son will never see he’s been written out of? Die. Do you at least have any last words? Die.”

Beatrice and Ligmas grabbed my arms and pulled me back. I flailed about, trying to squirm out of their hold. Dolas slouched.

“I’m out of the will?”

Bolzar’s brow wrinkled. “I’m calling the Guard.”

“Miss Marina, please calm yourself. Oh, there is no need for that my good man, we sincerely apologize for our friends and will be leaving. Please, accept their repentance in the form of a monetary donation-”

I knocked my arm free and elbowed Ligmas in the stomach.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“The hell he’s taking my hard earned money.”

Beatrice pinched my cheek. “Aw, cute. I taught her a new word.”

Ligmas regained control of my arm and they dragged me away. “If you will excuse us.”

My boots scraped against the brick road before Ligmas and Beatrice released their hold. I dusted myself off and Beatrice gripped the top of my head.

“Hey, hey, hey, what was that? The last thing I want is any trouble in this place.”

“Sorr-ow-ow-ow.”

The large man that stood at the back of the smithy wandered outside and caught up to our group.

“Excuse me, I’m Dolas Rhustar. I heard you mention my brother.”

Beatrice released my head.

“I’m sorry we have to break this news to you. Your brother passed away during a rescue mission. There was an accident-”

“He died a hero.”

I retold the story of our adventure in Druidale. The three adventurers interjected with corrections and posited some fabrications. While we argued over technicalities, Dolas pressed the bones to his forehead. Tears pooled in his eyes.

“Our parents never spent much time together. They were always so far apart that it made visiting between the two of them an unrealistic endeavor. For the most part I stayed with pop here in Eyngard and Loric stayed with mom in Druidale. We’d write letters to each other every so often, but I could read between the lines that he was lonely.”

He rubbed his eyes, but avoided making eye contact.

“He would write each time he made a new friend, but- he’d never tell me this himself, but mom said he never had any friends. Any time he tried to make them they’d lead him on just to make fun of him for his arms. I told her I’d take him to someone who specializes in transmutation magic - but she told me, ‘He wouldn’t want that. Your brother loves the way he looks and he doesn’t want to change that for anyone, no matter how much it hurts.’”

Beatrice, Ligmas, and I quelled our bickering and gazed at the ground while Sugma scooched toward Dolas.

“Hey, so uh. Know this is kind of a bad time, but you think you could make me a new ax? I mean- your brother said to talk to your dad, but I don’t think we’re on speaking terms right now.”

Beatrice dragged Sugma back by the snap of his belt. Oddly reinvigorated, Dolas broke his aversion to eye contact.

“I’ll do it. There’s a special ore I’ll need to make it though. That way it can have a nice, red shine.”

“Wow, you smiths are good. Read me like one of those things you read.”

“A book. It’s not that hard to get a read on you, you red munchkin.”

“Yeah- uh. You still mad about that punch thing?”

“No.”

Yes.

Absolutely.

“Look, sorry, happy? We got two quests to get done now, let’s get going - burning daylight.”

Sugma started a prideful strut away from the group.

“And where do you plan to get this ore, oh great munchkin?”

“I uh. I’ll find it somewhere.”

Our attention turned back to Dolas.

“It’s not something anyone I know in the city will sell. The only source is in the old city.”

Evie’s ears twitched.

“Oa~ That’s a straight shot from where I used to work. Marina and I can lead the way there.”

EVELYN FAUN DAYE.

Ligmas clapped his claws together and laughed to himself.

“This city sure loves its ore. We need to acquire some kind of ore for our other quest as well.”

Evie led the way, but I delayed following to scratch two itches that were on my mind.

“The old city is kinda big, is there any place in particular we should look?”

“The Knights have an underground mining operation there. It’s not a contract our forge owns, so I don’t have a lot of details about where it is exactly, but I can’t imagine it’d be unmarked.”

“Thanks. Ah- one more thing. Do you mind if I see those letters you and your brother wrote? If it’s not too much trouble, I’d like to make some copies and submit them to the Library of Alindra.”

“I don’t mind. I can mail them to you.”

I wrote down the address of Number 5 Pumpkin Drive for Dolas and caught up with the others.

Between displays of hard work and metalwork, we wrapped around the Dwarven District and traveled west.

“Miss Marina, if I may inquire, where exactly is this old city?”

“It’s just on the other side of the Dens. Its name and what happened to it were lost to time, but it’s completely abandoned.”

Ligmas stopped. A cold look of concern pulled his mouth.

“The Dens? The Denizen District? The hobble of hooligans and miscreants whose morals have been stretched to the very limits of life itself? I must, as politely as I can, ask if there must be some other route to our destination?”

Evie giggled.

“You guys might wanna update your history books. It's been a long time since King Aldrin cleaned up that place.”

“I do not know of a King Aldrin, is he the new ruler of this land?”

“Try a hundred years ago. Aldrin was the last king of Loredraya, which was part of what’s now called Alindra, before he relinquished the crown to the Knights. The Dens is nothing like it was before our time.”

Hardly the drastic transition as we passed Glint Street into the Dens. Triple decker metal shops became triple decker wooden housing. Tightly pack, but clean and well kept. We swept down the length of the avenues. With no intention to provoke, but seeking to play a joke, I slowed my strut and followed behind Ligmas.

I matched the movements of my arm with his walk and reached into his bag. My fingers crooked into a claw around a small sack.

Careful.

Pressing into the fuzz of the pouch, I squished the coins between my fingers and my palm.

Don’t clink.

I pulled my arm out of his bag and dropped the pouch into my own.

Down a sloped street, the homes fell away at an intersection that rolled toward the chasm’s edge. Stretching in front of us lay the bridge to the old city.

“Everyone still got everything? The Dens are nicer than they were, but they’re not free of pickpockets.”

I watched Ligmas for his reaction before my big reveal. His face grew cold.

“My coins- I knew- this was a mistake. We should not have come this way.”

A burst of laughter escaped my lips and I reached into my bag.

“Looking for-”

I turned over my bag and shook everything out. My hands scraped past bottles and notebooks in a panic. A lovely jingle fell on my head.

“Looking for this?”

Beatrice flashed me a toothy grin and whispered.

“Next time, try to be a little more discreet.”

“My coins. Miss Beatrice, you should not play such jokes on people.”

“Hey, I- whatever.”

While the adventurers marched toward the bridge, Evie helped me collect my things.

“That was mean.”

“Totally~”

“But funny.”

“Totally~”

“And you looked like a complete fool at the end.”

“..Totally..”

She muttered under her breath, but the words didn’t register at the time.

“This isn’t like you.”