Chronicles of Carnezia (Book 2): Wilderness

Chapter 21: Time Flies

Chapter 21: Time Flies

            My first memory from being in Baedon was getting into a bit of trouble with the local blacksmith. I had been giving some apple cores to a pony and a rather gruff man began shouting at me. However, after a short explanation, he soon understood and we became friends. His name was Bert and from a good memory and sense of direction, I soon found the forgery down one of the side streets.

            He was busy when I popped my head round one of the wooden posts. Hammering away, he seemed to be forming a horseshoe shape and then I saw a small pile of already finished ones. I stepped further in but instantly regretted it from the wall of heat I passed through, invisible to my eye. That explained to me why Bert seemed so tanned and yet hardly went outside from all the work he did.

            ‘If you just wait there, I’ll be with you in a minute,’ he said as he shoved the hot metal into the forge fire behind him. Giggling to myself, I stood where I was and just waited for him to finish. When he looked up he did looked very surprised. ‘Oh, hello. When did you get back?’ I was just about to answer but he had stomped over and pulled me into a crushing bear hug. ‘Nevermind about that. You’ve grown a bit since we last met. I guess you know about er...’

            I knew straight away what he meant. ‘Er... yeh. Do you know anything about it?’

            He went back to his work and picked up a long slender stick of metal and pushed it into the coals. ‘Other than one night there was a fire started in the shop, as everyone else knows, then no I don’t know much. It just happened one night. There was nothing that had been brewing over the weeks before so it was so much more of a shock.’ He inspected the metal but it still wasn’t hot enough so he puffed the bellows a couple of times.

            ‘I came back yesterday. A lot has happened in a short amount of time. How have you been?’ I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

            ‘I have been busy. Fixing a lot of things recently; I’m not always this busy this time of year. So, how is that little dragon friend of yours? You know, the one I almost had a heart attack over.’

            I let out a short uncontrollable laugh and then leant against the nearest solid object. ‘Oh, Frain. Yeh, he is... erm... well he is definitely not small anymore. He is sooo much bigger now. You could come and say hey, I’m sure he will remember you even from that long ago.’

            ‘It wouldn’t do much good for me to start making acquaintances with dragons. Now, I have a gate to be getting on with so there will be a lot of hammering and I need to concentrate.’

            ‘I understand. I’ll see you around!’ I shouted just as he started hammering away.

            Back on the main street again, I looked around for something else to do. Nothing came to my mind so I decided to walk around, as I did when I first arrived here, to see what I could get up to. There was no sign of Seb and I eventually stopped feeling paranoid that I would bump into him through every door or around every corner. Even though I tried to avoid it, I came closer to the burnt shell of the shop but as I approached it, I suddenly remembered what I had left inside.

            Walking over to the doorless entrance, I swiftly checked around me to make sure no one was paying any attention before I stepped inside. Taking my time, I paced around the room; I could see much more of the damage now that it was daytime and the sunshine was seeping through the doorway. Everything wooden was charred; everything else was either smashed or deformed. There was nothing that I could identify so I just went round the back of the small desk.