Dragonchild

Fishing

Dedicated to my grandfather.

A particular sunny fall day, it was in the late morning, the streets of Hundelfurth were as busy as they get, people doing their morning shopping with the occasional adventurer. I was sweating away at the forge smelting iron to convert into some heavy chains for a customer. Brynvarg was taking the hot iron and molding it into the chains and linking them all together.

I wiped off the sweat from my forehead.
"Bryn, how many more do we need?" I asked, now a bit out of breath due to the forming heat.
"About...like...seventeen more kid," Brynvarg grunted as he linked the chains.

And with that, we slaved away a bit more in the heat, Brynvarg's wife came out of the house which was attached to the forgery; Lin was her name, she was a halfling lady with brown hair; a stout face and opposed to Brynvarg quite pale, she usually keeps around the house and the store, taking in orders and selling stock and cleaning around the house.
She came out with one of the metal mugs they use for dinner filled with water.
"Don't you boys overheat on me now, I am not doing your job." She said nasally.
"Thank you, Lin!" Brynvarg called out, not fully turning his back to his wife. I thanked her as well and immediately took a big chug from the mug, and I must say, a drink on a moment like that is one of the best things one could hope for, besides, I might have used a little magic to cool down the water even more.

It must have been perhaps an hour later, and I was busy heating the iron for the last chain when a somewhat familiar bird appeared on the horizon. A black raven, knowing this region; and that there are no ravens here it could either be one of two people of which I know. I stared the bird down as it landed on the fence separating the forge from the street. Brynvarg had also noticed the bird, though he knew quite well what was going on, as this scenario had played out before.
As we both stared at the bird, it spoke; as are Ravens able to do.
"Tiber, would you come to the farm? It is too hot to be working a forge right now kid, you get the day free." The bird cried out in its creaking voice. Now, it was quite obvious this bird was Stormvarrs as it has had a lot more practice and training, considering Leslie's raven cannot say much more besides "Hi!" and "Boop!".
I turned to Brynvarg to see what he would say.
"Well kid, you heard it, besides the chain is done. Thank you for today."

I thanked him for the day and got my payment, the raven flew overhead of me for a while before flying off to where Ulric worked as a stable hand. I had my payment in my pocket and walked by a stand that was frying fish, and I must say, it smelled delicious. Seeing how I was in a good mood, I decided to bring home something nice to eat for Stormvarr and myself.

With all the money I had earned today, I bought this fried fish, enough for two, and headed towards the farm, holding the fried fish in a small package of paper. While the heat and grease were slowly burning my hands, I quickened my pace. Coming across quite a few travelers on the road, seemingly this time of day was the most popular to be an adventurer.

Eventually, I came close to the grounds where the farm lay, the thick green trees made for some nice shade on the way, and by now the fish had cooled down enough for it to be bearable for me to carry around, either that or my hands have gone numb, either or, I was nearly home.
I took a left turn off the main road onto the small dirt road which led towards the farm, seeing the combination of the stone and wood fences in the distance.

As I arrived on the grounds of the farm, I noticed Stormvarr sitting outside with some buckets beside him, the heat had some effect on him, as he normally wore a jacket, but not now; he was wearing an off-green shirtless tunic, revealing his arms in full. His arms were like that of any dwarf I had seen so far, quite broad, though not as muscular, suppose that is what you get as a wizard. What was remarkable however was the fact that he had some distinct tattoos on his arm, I had seen them before as this was not the first time, he did not wear his jacket, I just never asked about them.