Part I - Dawn of Legends

[Drake 53]

Axe rode the gray mare, Cloud, into town. He passed by the magic shop and considered going in. A small section of his pastureland was currently being attacked by some kind of ground beetle that was turning the grass brown and he needed to pick up some water soluble insect killing potion that he could water the grass with. However, he could see a broken window and a guard standing in the doorway so he didn't bother stopping.

The smithy was just down the street, on the corner of this one and a smaller side street. He could already see he had one customer. A regular whenever she was in town, of course. Axe's sharp eyes could see her, masterfully blended into the dawn shadows next to the stone building.

"I can see you there, Ranger," he said with a smirk. "My eyes are not so old yet." Axe dismounted and tied Cloud next to the watering trough. "Besides. Zada gave you away." He patted Tanalyn's horse, already tied by the trough, then continued to the door to unlock it.

[Vergere 1]

"I never could fool you. Though, this morning's little stunt of yours leaves me unsuprised by your perceptiveness." She kept her hood down as she spoke to him, and waited for him to open up the shop. She decided to tease him as she waited, "You know, it would be so much more convenient for you to just let me have a key."

Tanalyn slinked out of the shadows, and went to go speak to Cloud for a moment before entering the now-open smithy. She took a deep breath as she entered, and smiled from beneath her hood. "First things first. I have an order for you." She held up her knife-less double-sheath. "My knives are gone." She held up a finger to stop him from talking, "And it wasn't my fault this time. I swear. And yes, I already have the money for you." She then held up a bag already clinking with coins, and tossed it to him.

She glanced behind her at the door, then moved her hood back a bit so she could see him with a bit less strain. Tana put her fits on her hips and looked at him in mock severity, still not giving him time to respond to her. "And what in the five hells was that stunt for this morning? I thought I told you to keep that dog of yours locked up." However, amusement is most apparent and a smile graced her features. "Gave poor Zada a heart attack. I was about ready to have to walk the rest of the way here." She finally paused, but without having had another human to speak to in a while, unsuprising she was so chatty with an old friend. Having finally got some of her rant done and over with about this morning, she realized that she should probably let him speak, and grinned again at him as he continued to go about getting the smithy open for the day.

[Drake 53]

Axe smirked. "That's funny. I always thought Zada was the brave one of the pair." He looked down at the bag of coins, took half, then tossed the rest back. "You get the Old War Buddy Discount. Just a moment. Got to heat up the forge."

He slipped into the back and shoveled coal into the forge to recover some of the heat lost during the night. Next, he went over to a large barrel and pulled off the lid. It was about halfway full of a fine, reddish-black powder, somewhat ironically called Dragon's Breath. He grabbed a scoop, filled it, then tossed the powder into the forge with the coal. It was a slow-burning concoction invented by blacksmiths and sorcerers in Everholde and produced in large quantities for trade and use around the Kingdom. The Dragon's Breath would increase the efficiency of the coal, allowing it to burn cleaner, hotter and longer. That scoopful should last him the rest of the workday.

Going back out into the front of the shop, he glanced about at the merchandise, mostly metal tools but some weapons, shields and armour pieces as well. Those were primarily for decoration and had little use in a battle. The real weapons and armour, however, he kept locked up in a barred and locked display case behind the counter.

"So, Tan," he said while inspecting the hilt of an ornate ceremonial dagger, "What brings you back into town?"

[Vergere 1]

"Besides needing to ask you if you'd pretty please make me a new pair of daggers?" Tanalyn smiled a flawless smile. "I really have no mission right now, so I decided to stop by here. Figured you hadn't had your fair share of my charming self lately, and I thought I might try to remedy that problem. Besides, interesting things always seem to happen around Midholme."

Her face suddenly lit up in suprise. "Oh! Interesting things. I almost forgot. I have a present for you." She reached into the dark depths behind her overlarge cloak and pulled out a small trinket that was delicately wrapped in some cloth, and held it till he was not too busy to investigate.

[Drake 53]

Axe put down the dagger and looked up at the trinket. "Shiny," he said, with muted enthusiasm and thinly veiled skepticism. He wasn't much one for fripperies and gewgaws. Axe preferred things that were practical. "What is it, what does it do, and why do I need it?"

[Vergere 1]

"What it is is the result of an unfortunate incident and a prank played on me. It's a charm that's a room freshener. And I thought you could use it for your mangy mutt. He does tend to make the house take on a... smell all its own." Tanalyn shrugged. "Some of my fellows gave it to me as a joke, but I thought I'd save it and see if you had a use for it. Works pretty well from what I've gathered."

[Drake 53]

"Hmm." Axe reached over the display shelf separating them and took the trinket. After inspecting it briefly, and then sniffing it, he nodded and stuffed it into his pocket. "He's got two like it already but maybe thrice time's the charm. Or...third charm's the...yeah, thanks. He'll love it."

[Vergere 1]

"He will, or you will?" Tanalyn's eyes crinkled as she smiled. "Either way, I had no use for it. Figured I'd rather see if you'd want it than to throw it away. So what have you been up to lately?"

[Andy 60]

After breakfast was cooked, Taylor was free to spend some time by himself for a few hours, as there were others to take care of cleaning up today. Wandering down into the town, he sat on a bench in the main square, enjoying the simple pleasure of watching everyone else run around doing work, as traders opened up their shops. He noticed Beka wasn't in her usual spot but heard of her mishap from a passer-by, and spotting the broken window he decided to be nosey, and wandered inside to see what was going on.

[Rogue 4]

"Good morning," The dark haired shopkeeper greeted the newcomer with a smile as he entered. Alexis was behind the counter now, having cleaned up the broken glass already. "Can I help you with anything?"

[Andy 60]

"Hmm, I was just seeing what all the fuss was about really. Being nosey y'know," he grinned.

Taylor glanced around seeing lots of strange objects and artefacts, and realising he hadn't been in this particular shop before. "So, uh, what's all the weird stuff for?"

[Rogue 4]

Alexis closed her book and walked around the counter to help him. "Well, most of them are magical items. Charms, tomes, potions...whatever you could be searching for in that respect. Everything else should be pretty familiar I'm guessing."

[Andy 60]

"Ah, that makes sense," Tay replied, "can't say I'm that magically inclined... Last time I used a stealth potion it turned out to be dodgy and I got caught..."

He paused, realising he just made himself sound dodgy. "That was years ago though, when I was a kid. You could say I was in with the wrong crowd, I guess."

[Rogue 4]

Alexis was actually kind of amused. "It's alright," She said with a genuine smile. "I used one of those once to sneak into my father's tomes. The potion worked, I'm just too clumsy for my own good. Bumped into a stack of them going through one, and well...that alerted the family of what I was doing."

[Lucky 0]

"My name is Cross Geneva," the young guard replied to the shopkeep, before the newcomer entered the shop. Apparently the man hadn't realized there was a Town Guard standing two feet away from him, or else he wouldn't have mentioned once being in a dodgy crowd. He frowned slightly at the man. Cross had noticed how people rarely, if ever, changed, but if the newcomer really was no longer using stealth potions for all of the wrong reasons, there wasn't much he could do about it.

[Vergere 1]

Beka came up behind Taylor on silent feet, and tapped him on one shoulder while softly saying 'boo!' behind his other shoulder. She grinned a wickedly happy smile, "Hullo, Tay."

[Andy 60]

Taylor shot the young town guard a 'got a problem' look, but he new better than to start making a scene; even if the guard did look a year younger than he was.

"Hey Beka," Tay turned to face her, "I heard you'd been throwing knives around. Having fun?"

[Vergere 1]

Beka kept a wary eye on the guard, although she maintained her happy, carefree mannerisms. "Mmmhm. Would still be having fun if children had enough common sense not to run into jugglers throwing live weapons around, however." She smiled, "Have the morning off?"

[Andy 60]

"Just finished breakfast so I have a little bit of a break at the moment," Tay explained, "Been up since before sunrise, so definitely not a morning off!"

[Vergere 1]

"They work you to death there." Beka smiled and pulled away to return to looking around the store innocently enough.

[Drake 53]

Axe shrugged. "The same as usual. Work, eat, drink, sleep...walk the dog." He went to the back part of the shop, near his work station and the heavy iron door into the forge. There were several wooden bins filled with various types of ore and scrap metals. He looked back and forth between the bins, taking his time calculating the proper alloy mix he desired.

"You should stop by the ranch. The kids would like to see you again." He picked up an iron ingot and inspected it. After gauging its weight and looking for flaws, he set it back and chose another that looked exactly the same as the first. "Stop by for dinner. Penny has become quite the cook since you were last here."

[Vergere 1]

"Really? She was already a pretty good cook last time. I would love to stop by. Have something besides dried jerky for once. Have some good conversation and an awesome dog to visit." Tanalyn grinned and pulled over a stool that was tucked away in a corner, and sat. "The farm doing okay right now?"

[Drake 53]

"Can't complain," he said. Axe, sufficiently satisfied with the metals he had chosen, tossed the lot into a crucible. He opened the door to the forge with a long pole and hook, revealing the hellishly hot interior. He exchanged the pole with a long set of heavy tongs. Axe picked up the heat-resistant crucible and placed it in the forge before closing the door again. "Got some beetles eating my grass in the northeast corner. Gonna pick up some bug poison for them later."

[Rogue 4]

Morgan walked into Midholme with her treasures rolled and packed up on her back. She was lightly armored, in all the necessary places to keep her from dying from a bad blow, but the cloth that covered the rest of her was loose enough to lend her flexibility in movement. Evasion was one of her better qualities. She was fast, and deadly. And she prefered it that way.

Her dark clothes and the handsome daggers strapped to her legs gave her an air of mystery, and usually meant that people steered clear of her. Which of course, was one of the qualities she liked better in a person. She wasn't a social butterfly, unlike that gods damned pirate that had stolen her treasure two weeks ago.

She walked through the marketplace. She had been to Midholme before of course, but things changed over time.

Some things never changed though. She needed money for food and goods, so she needed to sell some of these rare finds of hers. With that in mind she headed to the blacksmith. When she walked inside she could see that he was busy talking to someone, so she decided to preoccupy herself while he was talking, looking over some of the artifacts around the room. She picked an old dagger off the wall and turned it over in her hands, examining it.

Edited November 10, 2008 by Rogue

[Drake 53]

His conversation with Tanalyn having reached a natural pause, Axe looked over at the newcomer to his shop. She had the look of an adventurer. The extra amount of dirt on her hands making her out to possibly be a treasure seeker or possibly a prospector. "Mornin'," he said. "You looking for something to buy?"

Axe knew he had a gruff nature with people he didn't know, and even with most that he did. He had grown cynical after the war's end. When the army was essentially disbanded and the Dragon Riders forced into retirement. Despite being one of the causes for winning the war, the King turned a blind eye to the dragons, having no more use for them. Many of the tamed dragons were released back into the wild. However, since many of those had been taken and trained from whelplings, they had no memory of how to survive outside of human care. Scores of dragons were killed by their wild cousins. Still others were simply put to the sword in a quick and meaningless death. The fortunate beasts, if he could call them that, were sold to zoos or to traveling carnivals and air shows for entertainment.

Some days he thought about hoping on Storm's back and flying as far as they could go, out across the sea to some faraway land where there were no people to screw things up. However, Axe supposed if he did that, Lars and Penny would have no one to protect them. He was also starting to grow a little fond of this town, even though he would never admit it to anyone.