Tarrin Kael
Pyrosian Chronicles
Book One
Axe of the Dwarven King©
by James Galloway (aka Fel)
Table of contents
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Chapter 1
It was, quite simply, the most wonderful present he had ever received.
The house was absolutely everything he had ever wanted in a house. It was a four story affair, comfortably large but not outrageously spacious, with the top and bottom floors being an open attic and a compartmented cellar. That left two floors for living space, but that was more than enough. The house faced east, faced Aldreth, and it let those on the porch enjoy a sunrise, as those inside could look through the large windows that faced west and watch the sunset. The ground floor was dominated by a large living room that ran from the front of the house to the back, complete with large windows on the rear wall and a glass-paned door that opened to a large deck built on the back of the house, even larger than the deck-like porch that was built at its front. This large living space was divided into a parlor-like area on the north side and a large dining table on the south, a table that could easily seat fifteen people, a table that took up almost all the floor space on that side of the house. There was a fireplace on either side of the large windows and door that led outside, and the stairs leading up to the second floor were just off the entry foyer, running up towards the north side of the house. A passage leading from the dining room held a single small door on its right side that opened into a small privy-like chamber that held nothing but a device called a toilet. It worked just as a privy did, but instead of waste dropping into a midden, letting the smell waft up the same way, this device used water to flush waste into a pipe that led out of the house. Running water refilled the tank that served as a resevoir for the water, creating a way for the house's inhabitants to relieve themselves without having to go out to an outhouse, that also wouldn't stink up the house. The large room that occupied the north side of the house, under the stairs going up, and just down a very wide, short passage, was the kitchen, a very large kitchen complete with shelves and cabinets and two--two--Tellurian stoves that could burn either wood or coal, which made cooking much easier. And just in case he wanted to cook over an open fire, there was also a large fireplace with fixtures for kettles or spits in the hearth, as well as a bread oven just under the mantle, for baking bread or keeping items warm after cooking. The stairs down to the cellar were in the kitchen, just beside a small pantry closet, and there was a larger pantry on the other side of the entrance to the kitchen for storing foodstuffs or cooking utensils. The most fascinating part of the kitchen, however, was the sink, complete with running water that poured from a strange brass spigot-like device called a faucet. There were two knobs for that thing, one that caused cold water to pour out, and one that caused steaming hot water to pour out.
The other side of the ground floor, also separated from the living area by a passage, was the largest bedroom in the house, which was the domain of the master of the house. It was just as large as the kitchen, dominated by a bed so large and long that it looked about large enough to fit a Troll, and it was probably one of the most comfortable beds that ever existed. Leaving no comfort overlooked, the bed's headboard was filled with small shelves for holding small items that the user of the bed may want near, but not want to have to reach out of the bed to a nightstand to retrieve. That massive four-poster bed, built on a poster bed's frame but without the posters and curtains, sat squarely in the center of the floor against the south wall, and all the other furniture in the bedroom was arranged around this dominating centerpiece. To each side of it was a small night stand, and a a large brass-bound chest sat at its foot. On the west wall, just to the left of a large bay window, was a huge writing desk, complete with a small brass lamp-like device that glowed with soft magical light whenever it was touched, a place for someone who had a great deal of correspondence to have a good place to conduct business. The large cherrywood desk had numerous drawers both under the surface and on a shelf of sorts that was built on the back of the desk, where the drawers and shelves were much smaller, meant for tiny things that one wouldn't want to put in a big drawer and risk them getting lost. On the other side of that bay window was another desk-like table, but this one had a mirror on the back of the desk. It was called a vanity, a piece of furniture that was rather unnecessary, but then again, the giver of the house and all the furniture within was a woman, and a woman would consider such a thing an critical element to any properly furnished bedroom. There was a large window on the east side of the house as well, but it was not a bay window, but it too served to separate furniture. To the left of that window was a large bureau, a standing closet of sorts with drawers underneath a large open space where things could be hung off small wooden hangers. To the right was a very large piece of furniture that was nothing but drawers, a thing called a dresser. Quite an odd name. It was made of cherrywood, as everything in the room was, and its many drawers were designed to hold clothes that wouldn't be damaged if they were folded up and stuck inside them. Underneath it all was a massive soft blue carpet, that took up the entirety of the floor, from wall to wall. Blue was the motiff of the room, aside from the reddish furniture, and those two colors seemed to meld in a curiously pleasing fashion. There were paintings to each side of the bed, the one on the left of a fox-Wikuni woman with a wry, almost amused expression on her face, and the other of a ethereal, breathtakingly beautiful Selani woman dressed in her desert garb. Over the bed's headboard was a third painting, that of a handsome woman with a blond braid as thick as a man's wrist and an attractive aging man with a bit of gray in his short-cropped dark hair, both of them with a hand on the younger figure before them. That figure was of a young dark-haired girl with a pretty face and an expression of wisdom beyond her years. There was a tapestry on the wall just to the side of the door leading in of a huge blue dragon, and a pedestal to the other side held a small black metal cat statue atop it, as if it were being kept in a prominent place of honor to display its beauty. Behind and above that pedestal was another painting, one of an exceedingly handsome woman with an expressionless mask, who had strange cat-like ears poking out of a head of tawny hair. Though it was only a painting, it seemed to radiate strength, as if the strength of the woman's image who was captured on canvas was so powerful that even her likeness radiated it. On the wall with the door, to each side of those impressive pieces of art, were two other doors. One led to a very large closet of sorts with room to hang enough clothes for ten people. The other door led to what had to be the most luxurious feature in the house, a bathing room.
