"Go to the foot of the Firebird, and it will shield you from harm, then take a step back, don't say a word, and follow your southern charm. When you feel the wind blow from the western water well, step down the path some more, and once you see a cozy glow, follow the angry boar. Just in case you still are lost, look for doors of stone, count to three and then to four, there you will find your home…"
"Right… So head south, keep going straight when we see the well, follow the angry boar, the tavern named Mad Boar, and look for doors of stone. That's the entrance to a dwarven neighborhood no doubt. We have to be close right?"
I squatted down to rest my knees and ankles. "Right… Count to three and then to four implies there is a turn, so after three houses we turn here… And…" I looked around, unable to tell with my eyes, but I could faintly hear a hammer pounding into an anvil. "We turn right. Four doors down."
I ran ahead and sure enough, just off the path, I could see the street corner. "The Cozy Glow Forge." 'glow… Instead of flame? Was it renamed?'
"Well. You actually managed to find it. Nice job."
"I feel like you did most of the work… But thanks." I started walking up the steps "Should we go inside?" I pulled the door open and instantly felt a wave of heat rush past me as if I had just walked into a furnace. 'I guess she's hard at work…' Just inside there were plenty of fine weapons and armor, all made from metal. It wasn't anything special, but it was better than average… Or at least better than what I could make.
From the door, we followed the growing sound of hammer against metal and headed down into a basement with a massive chimney. The closer we got the hotter the air became until I started using magic to cover myself in water, turning it to ice every now and then when my manna would allow it. "HELO!" I shouted over the noise that was now making my head spin.
Finally, the echoing clang stopped, and with it, the heat started to die down as well. "Is… Someone there?"
Despite looking for a girl I was starting to expect a bellowing deep voice from how intense everything was. But instead, it was even more girlish than mine, and a little squeaky from surprise.
"Yeah!" I shouted again, reaching the bottom of the stairs
"Do you need something?"
As I finished entering the basement she tossed her hammer to the side and wiped her nose grabbing a wet towel and cleaning off her hands before approaching us.
She looked nothing like Posy at all. Her hands were massive, calloused, and bulging with muscle and veins. Her shoulders were broad and thickened by hard work, and her chest was more than large enough to say she didn't have the same problems Posy did. "Are you customers?" She asked, throwing the towel over her shoulder and pacing her hands on her hips, slightly out of breath.
"Not exactly," Finn said slowly, staring at the massive blazing forge that still pulsed with magic and hot coals.
"What the heck were you making?" I asked, completely forgetting why we were even there.
She turned back, her face slightly scrunching up. "It's a personal project… If you aren't buying anything what do you want? Or… Are you placing an order…"
I tilted my weight over to try and look past her, but I couldn't make anything out from where we were, she had moved it off the anvil. With a disappointed sigh, I quickly gave up. 'If the forge is real… And the directions are real… Does that mean she's the girl from the story?' I slowly traced her with my eyes. She had a thin waist, which while making her more attractive by some standards, was far from normal, or even healthy for a dwarf. Her clothes were severely worn, so much so she might as well not have been wearing anything under her thick leather apron, and even that was frayed, having been mended multiple times. Her sandals were made of smooth stone, her shirt only had enough fabric left to barely meet the apron, and her body was half petrified, marks of her skin turning to stone showing all along her bare legs and forearms.
None of that was what took my breath away though. All it really meant was she was poor and in need of a bath… The scary part was that there were runes carved into her flesh, not even just the stone flesh, but her soft skin. All over her body were dwarven runes that held magical power, the kind used to enchant weapons. It was a practice used by rune mages… But the ones covering her body were jagged, at various angles, and not all in places she could have reached herself…
I slowly looked at Finn, but it seemed like he was expecting me to talk. "The… The chain link." I mumbled pointing to him, trying to refocus.
He sighed, pulling it out. "Sure, let's start there. Do you know anything about this? It's important for a trial coming up in a few days."
She stepped close, making him uncomfortably move away, showing how bashful he was. "Do you want me to tell you about it or not?" She snarled.
I just rolled my eyes, grabbing it from him and handing it to her. "I'm not a dwarf, but this means it's from your forge doesn't it?"
She looked closer. "Yeah. That's my mark…"
"So you're Fiesty then?" 'the girl from the story…' Small streaks were carved out of the soot that covered her face, no doubt from tears, although she certainly didn't show it.
She nodded. "That's right… And this is my forge… This belongs to a chain net I made for a group that wanted to catch a minotaur… You said it's part of a trial now?"
Finn let out a sigh of relief, no doubt coming to the same conclusion as me that she likely wasn't involved. Although, I couldn't give a real reason other than having a feeling. "The minotaur was captured and taken to a lower leveled zone… It caused a lot of problems and several people died because of it."
One of her arms shook slightly as her skin tightened to goosebumps and her eyes narrowed. After a moment she rubbed them. "Let's talk upstairs… You two probably aren't very comfortable down here… And the heat's drying out my eyes…"
She slowly walked past us and I slowly followed behind her, Finn lagging behind both of us and staring off to the side. "You coming?" I asked.
"I'll check out around here, you start without me."
"O…Kay?" I turned back around and figured out the more likely reason he was lagging behind pretty quickly as I started following Fiesty up the stairs.
Her shorts were so short that they only covered about half of what they needed to, and to make matters worse they were torn up, and not entirely holding together, her back was completely bare save for a very thin band that ran around just under where her shirt stopped. Her well-defined muscles and even more runes were all clearly exposed all the way down to her waistband, which sat dangerously low. Although, it was at least held on by a belt.
We made it back upstairs and she pulled a lever, flooding a massive wave of cool air that didn't bother her in the slightest, sweeping across her bare skin. "There, that should feel better for you… Now, let's talk about those annoying rats…"