After finally reaching the place where the materials that Samson had ordered prior were located both Aurora and her father could be seen standing just outside the door, Aurora was then let down from her father's shoulders before he gave her some instructions before heading in.

 

“Okay Aurora, I know that this shouldn’t be too hard for you but I just wanted to lay down some ground rules that I want you to remember and follow while we’re in there” he said before pausing, seeming to be waiting for a response before he continued.

 

“Okay” she replied while looking up at him.

 

“Okay good” he said with a slight smile.

 

“Rule one: stay close to me, Rule two: try not to interrupt us while we’re talking, Rule three: don’t touch anything and finally Rule four: follow every single one of these rules no matter what unless I say otherwise, got it”

 

“Yes” Aurora replied.

 

“Good, I know they won’t really be an issue for you since your usually well behaved but I just have to make sure since this is our first time doing business here and I haven’t met this guy before, so I want to make a good first impression” Aurora’s father then turned to face the door and opened it walking straight through with Aurora following right behind him. 

 

After heading inside the two were quickly greeted by a hoarse yet friendly sounding voice.

 

“Welcome, Welcome! What can I do for the two of you” the voice asked sounding both tired and cheerful.

 

“Hello, my name is James Ward and this is my daughter Aurora, Samson from Samson’s Forged Creations placed an order with you and he sent me to come pick it up”

 

Aurora then stepped out from behind her father not only revealing herself to the voice but also revealing its owner to her.

 

It was an old and frail-looking man, he was about half the size of her father, was balding with a few grey strands of the hair he had left sticking out from the sides of his head making him look incredibly cartoonish, he also had bright green eyes and was dressed in a white shirt with a brown vest, however since he was standing behind the counter and was quite short it was impossible to tell what else he was wearing, for all she knew he could be wearing a skirt and she wouldn’t know.

 

“Ah right James, I heard about you from Sammy” the old man said sounding as if he knew Samson personally.

 

“Huh sorry, I didn’t know the two of you were friends” her father replied seeming baffled that he didn’t know they knew each other beforehand.

 

“Yeah…we’re not friends, at least not yet anyway”

 

After hearing that Aurora’s father just looked stunned for a moment unsure of what to say next, but he soon quickly recovered, speaking again and getting straight down to business.

 

“R-Right so is it ready then?” He asked trying to move past that awkward moment.

 

“Yeah it’s just outback, you just have to sign this” the old man said while reaching under his counter and grabbing out some paper with writing on it.

 

“Okay, sure, no problem” he replied, walking over towards the counter.

 

Her father then began to read and sign the papers in front of him while Aurora looked around the shop seeing several interesting things such as fancy looking books, sculptures and paintings. She then looked over towards her father and noticed the old man staring at her which freaked her out for a moment.

 

He then spoke to her “Good aren’t they, I’m a bit of an art enthusiast, having made hundreds of things over the years and selling them off. I've started to get a little too old for it though and can’t make as many as I used to unfortunately. So I decided to just sell the materials left over, got tons of connections that I’ve made over the years and can get a good price on almost anything metals, wood—“ 

 

he continued to talk on and on about what seemed to be his whole life story and although her father wasn’t interested seeming to be trying to speed up the signing process as much as he could, Aurora found his story interesting hearing about how he travelled all across Avalon, selling his art while meeting new people, until almost thirty years ago now when he decided to open up his own shop and settle down with his wife, having a few kids in the process.

 

“Okay done” her father said, Interrupting the old man's story and handing the paperwork back to him.

 

The old man then put on some glasses and started to proofread them, he then took them off again, placing them in a pocket that had been stitched onto his vest.

 

“Okay we’re all good it’s outback so just follow me” the old man said before heading through the door that leads to the back room.

 

Both Aurora and her father began to walk towards the back door before her father turned to face her and stopped her.

 

“Hold on, not you”

 

“Huh?” Aurora said sounding confused.

 

He then continued to slowly walk towards the back door while answering her clear confusion.

 

“I just want you to wait right there for now since I’ll be lifting some heavy stuff and it’s dangerous, just wait right there I’ll be back soon” and with that he left, walking straight through the doorway and into the back room leaving Aurora by herself.

 

Aurora then sighed a little before continuing to look around the shop being sure to stay away from the front of the shop out of fear someone would show up and she’d have to deal with them.

 

After looking around for a bit Aurora ended up finding something that caught her interest, it was a painting, a painting that depicted a young woman with trees and people being pushed off to the side as she walked down a road towards a monster that reached its arms out as if it was ready to embrace her. It was oddly unsettling especially since the man who painted it was so outgoing and friendly.

 

Suddenly as Aurora was examining this painting the shops front door flew open and a loud call could be heard

 

“I'M BACK!!!” It called as loudly as possible

 

Aurora then jumped for a moment being too focused on the painting and wasn't expecting someone to just enter the shop like that.

 

She then looked over towards the front of the shop and saw a young girl, she was a few years older than Aurora with long and messy brown hair along with green eyes much like the old man from earlier, she was also dressed in a blue dress with green flowers and wore black sandals.

 

The girl then looked around for a moment before spotting Aurora and before Aurora had a chance to look away their eyes locked, Aurora then continued to look at the painting while the girl made her way towards Aurora before stopping within less than a metre of her

 

Aurora tried to ignore her still not comfortable speaking in front of strangers but judging by how the girl next to her acted earlier she knew that the silence probably wasn’t going to continue for much longer

 

“Hi! I’m Tara, what’s your name?” She asked enthusiastically

 

Aurora didn’t want to talk but she also didn’t want to be rude so she answered the best she could.

 

“A-Aur-rora” she replied nervously

 

The girl then smiled before continuing her questioning.

 

“How old are you?”

 

“…Four”

 

“Really? I’m six so I guess I’m your elder huh, what’s your favourite foo—“

 

The questions didn’t end much like the old man from earlier this girl had a habit of talking continuously without leaving much time for the person on the receiving end to breathe, however, unlike her father Aurora was unable to get them to stop instead forced to just go along with it, giving short and simple answers to Tara’s questions.

 

Aurora continued to listen to and answer Tara when it was required with it slowly getting easier and easier for Aurora to answer since Tara hadn’t corrected her pronunciation once or even seem to notice at all making Aurora feel a tad more confident when suddenly she asked a question Aurora wasn’t quite expecting.

 

“So Aurora, can we be friends”

 

“Pardon?” Aurora asked both confused and unsure of what her answer should be.

 

The girl however didn’t seem to pick up on the fact that Aurora had heard her question and was instead just confused as to why she asked it in the first place, giving a simple response “Oh sorry, I asked if you wanted to be friends”

 

“Um—“

 

Aurora wasn’t sure how to answer since this was completely new to her, for all she knew this was potentially her first-ever friend and at the very least in this world it was. She then started to feel increasingly nervous, feeling her palms start to sweat, her knees started to shake and her vision started to double.

 

Aurora’s silence gave a clear answer however, at least to Tara it did and soon after started to frown.

 

“Ah” Aurora let out a small sound not wanting Tara to take her prolonged silence the wrong way but she was still unsure of what she wanted to say.

 

“That’s fine, you don’t have to help carry I’ve got this” Aurora’s father pleaded as he walked back into the room

 

“Yeah? Well, that’s what my uncle used to say all the time. I’ve got this Frank I've got this, just go on and leave this to me and you wanna know what happened? Snap! He broke his back and never walked again” the old man argued

 

“Who’s Frank?” Aurora’s father asked.

 

“ME! Now let me help you”

 

The two girls then turned towards the source of the commotion seeing Aurora’s father carrying a stack of metal plates while the old man was seen walking right beside him trying to help carry the metal and slowing him down in the process.

 

The old man then looked towards the two and lit up before saying hello “Tara! Your back! I see you’ve met this fools daughter Aurora”

 

Tara’s face then lit up at the sight of the old man and ran up to him, hugging him in the process.

 

“Grandpa!”

 

That made sense, is what Aurora thought to herself as she saw the two hugging each other, with their personalities being almost identical. The old man then let go of the metal and hugged his granddaughter back allowing Aurora’s father to walk at his normal pace which was fast enough to get away and head for the door.

 

“Well it was nice meeting the two of you but we should get going, Samson’s already taken care of the bill right?”

 

The old man then looked back up towards Aurora’s father “Um yeah it’s all covered, I look forward to our future encounters James and Aurora Ward” he said as if trying to memorise their names.

 

“Yeah, me too, come on Aurora let’s get going”

 

Her father then opened the front door with his left hand while holding the metal with his right but Aurora didn’t leave, instead, she just stood there facing both Tara and her Grandfather.

 

“Aurora ya coming?” Her father asked sounding a little impatient.

 

“T-Tara!” Aurora called out.

 

Both Tara and her grandfather looked in Aurora’s direction, the old man looked at her a little curious wondering what she wanted to say while Tara herself looked at her with a straight face more confused than anything.

 

“I-I’ll be your friend!” Aurora called out, she then turned around and walked out the door feeling extremely embarrassed as she did so.

 

“O-Okay!” Tara replied with her face lighting up as she did so.

 

“Great” Aurora’s father said sounding monotone before leaving the shop and walking through the front door, letting it close on its own.