Topic: "Enameled" of You

Lord Ayreg

Date: 2006-02-13 12:03 EST
The forge was a familiar, wonderful smell, and sight, and sound. He himself knew the ways of a forge well -- he was a blacksmith in his younger days, despite his rather frail-looking figure. All the people who've called him "The Thin Man" so far haven't had to cross in battle with him, nor seen him without his shirt and coat. Developed from many long hours in a forge crafting implements and weapons of warfare, Jodiah Ayreg's body was tight, and lean. He was still gaunt-looking in the face, but the rest of his body ripples with corded muscle. Far from large and manly, though, he could, at best, be considered wiry.

He sized himself, and told the smithy the result. He waited patiently, standing amongst the hot billows and pounding hammers and the shooting sparks while the blacksmith created his order. It had to have been several hours that passed before the finished product had completed its setting. Gold-toned bracers, trimmed in steel. Jodiah paid for the bracers, and left the smithy.

He arrived at the tailor shortly afterward, and paid to have the leather straps and hooks mounted onto the bracers, allowing them to be worn. The process didn't take nearly as long as the smith did, but then again, this isn't as big of a job either, as making two matching bracers out of lumps of metal.

His last stop was the alchemist, where he bought a bottle of black enamel. Using a stone outside as a work bench, and a small brush he took from the alchemist, Ayreg painted the black enamel onto the bracers. After that, it was an hour for them to dry, and he put them on, buckling them to his forearms. Gloved fingers slid across the bracers he painted black with the enamel.. he was always favored by that color.

Returning to the Red Dragon, he stopped shortly after entering. It was that man again. Tal-something. He made it a point to make sure their paths did not cross, though the man made no notice of Ayreg's presence.

Idly, he imagined the satisfaction to be gained from crushing his skull against a rock. That rock he used to enamel his bracers would suffice nicely.

As the man left, Ayreg began trotting up to his room. He stopped in mid-step, and turned, eying the woman behind the bar. Perhaps one day, he would come to know her as Maria Copperfield, but for the moment, he did not know her name. Only that she stood behind the bar. "Pardon, but if this is an inn.. does it follow that, somewhere, there is a kitchen?"

The woman jerked her thumb behind her, indicating a door. "Of course it does."

After a challenging look at her declaration that she did not, in fact, work there.. Jodiah stepped back into the kitchens to roast himself a chicken. It had, after all, been three days since he had anything to eat. He could almost feel the pit of his stomach touching his spine.