Another world, Celeste

Chapter Three, pt 2

A burst of roaring laughter pulls our attention away to the source. Outside the barrier, standing beside Lord Sol bearing an expression I know too well, is a rough-looking person. His height is half the length of the head elf, even a couple of inches shorter than me and he's very muscular.

"Chief, you've come."

Auntie El recognises the guest.

"I would not miss a merry gathering."

The guest smiles broadly.

Lorelai pulls me up while checking me for injuries. There's a small burn on my hands and my ears are ringing. I cast recovery magic onto both of us. Lorelai takes her bow, shoots an arrow to the sky and it burst into yellow smoke. The colour of the smoke is signalling to the rest that it's a false alarm. After a couple of incidents at the training area personalised for me, Lorelai comes up with this signal whenever an unexpected result from my magic like today occurs.

"This young miss is Iris, I take it," says the short, muscular man.

"Iris, this is Chief of the dwarves from Kiln Mountain," Lord Sol introduces him.

Chief is a sage, like Lord Sol and Auntie El. He expresses his desire to meet me sooner but his subordinates dump all the heavyweight smithing for him to finish. Lorelai mutters to my ear that he's known to disappear from the mountain whenever there's a festival or celebration. Otherwise, he's quite skilful and serious about his craftsmanship. The dwarves highly respect him as their chieftain. There's a large hammer hanging on the left side of his belt. The handle is intricately designed with enchantment symbols while both sides of the heads are flat and beaming with magic.

Chief catches me looking at it.

"This is mine hammer. I craft many swords with it and swing plentiful of monsters too," He bellows. "Here, hold it."

Chief hurls the hammer at me. I manage to catch it but the unexpected weight from the hammer pushes me back to the ground. I groan while Chief is looking excited. He picks up the hammer from me and tosses it from one hand to another with ease.

"Chief."

Auntie El sends him a warning look.

"Lorelai, please inform Kinai that Chief will be staying with us until the festival is over," Lord Sol gives his order.

Lorelai bows and leaves the training area.

"Sorry young miss." Chief pulls me to my feet. "Dwarves are familiar with mine hammer, however, others tend to be frightened when they first encounter it. You are not affected."

Chief muse as he caresses the hammer with his rough-looking hand.

"Because of the mana emitting from it?" I ask him.

Chief raises his eyebrows. "You're as skilful as Elder Spirit says you are."

Chief is looking impressed by my sharp observation.

I glance over at Auntie El with a curious look. If Chief, the dwarf sage, knows about me then the other sages must know as well. He picks up my broken bow and examines it with hawk's eyes.

"You need a stronger bow, young miss. This one is accustomed for the younglings," Chief remarks.

"The rangers handle sturdier and longer bows than the ones I'm used to. Lorelai told me to be familiar with this one first. Although, I can't use it anymore."

"Iris, what did you do to that tree?" Lord Sol interrupts by pointing to the burnt split tree.

I tell the purpose behind the magic to them. "When we discharge a spell with our hands, the direction might falter if you don't concentrate hard enough. I thought of using the bow on hitting the target with magic for more precision."