Chronicles of Carnezia (Book 1): Dragons of Dracona

Chapter 5: Aspen

Chapter 5: Aspen

            The start of the next day was pretty much the same, only this time I made sure to tell my mum that I might (more likely would) be late again but I would try to get home for dinner. She didn’t mind all that much but wished that I would tell her where I was going.

            I reached the little shop and went inside. The window was now replaced, from being boarded up and there was a nice new securer door. Inside, Mr. Harrison was looking after the shop.

            ‘Am I alright to walk through the mirror, grandpa?’ I asked; the sound of calling him that was odd but it felt sort of right since I had known him for a while enough now.

            ‘Oh, you don’t need to ask that, Carly. Just walk on through. Grandma is working the other shop,’ he added kindly on the end.

            Thanking him, I walked round the back of the shop (luckily I had the week off work) and stepped through the mirror just as naturally as it was taking a shower every morning. On the other side I was careful about the little step down after my tumble the day before and Mrs. Harrison was busying herself with some dusting around the shop.

            ‘Oh, Mrs. Harri... I mean, grandma, I have the rest of the money you gave me from yesterday,’ I said and went to put the pouch on the desk.

            She turned her around and bustled her way over. ‘Oh no, dear, that was for you. No need to give it back; we won’t let you go hungry while you’re here. Keep it.’ And she placed it back in my open palm though I tried to resist. ‘Now, would you be so kind and just help me move some of the heavier stuff around. I want to change it round a bit.’

            I offered straight away; if they were going to give me money I wanted to make sure it wasn’t for nothing. In fact, I even thought that if I was going to live within both worlds then it would be better just to have a job with this lovely couple who also belonged to both and not complicate my new lease of life with a secretary line of work in my home world.

            Once some of the statues and other large decorations were moved around where grandma wanted them, I was left to my own devices, as it were, and went outside to familiarise myself even more with the town. I took it upon myself to explore inside as many of the shops and taverns as possible; some weren’t all that charming or welcoming but the ones that were turned out to be the ones I enjoyed myself in. There weren’t as many questions as I had anticipated to be but that was a good thing as I wouldn’t know what to say straight off to some of them I was asked.

            Later in the morning, I guess around lunch time, I bumped into my acquaintance from yesterday. Bert seemed all to happy that I had tried out the corn bread in the baker’s since that was his favourite and I handed him a slice from my loaf. His hands were as black as they had been when I shook his hand on our first meeting and he seemed to have noticed I was looking.

            ‘Ah, I’m guessing you’re wondering what I do for a living?’ He guessed correctly as he put a ripped off bit of bread into his mouth, some crumbs landing on his curly beard. ‘Well if you follow me then I will show you.’ And off we went chatting down the road I had watched him walk down at the end of our introductory chat. ‘Here we are,’ he said as we came to a sudden opening in the side of the street.

            The opening was not just a gap between the buildings but a wide entrance to what at first seemed to be a blacksmith’s. I happily walked right under the overhanging hatched roof above. In fact it turned out to be much more than just a farrier’s forge; Bert did everything from steel to iron, gold to bronze and almost every metal in between except one as he came to say later on when I knew him better.