Bright morning light announced the arrival of another day and the warmth that spread from the yellow light announced the arrival of the heat season. Many denizens could be seen emerging from their accommodations slowly rolling down the thick sheets of leather used to cover their rooftops at night. The scenery was normal for the town of Lensglet and a few other surrounding towns and hamlets that dotted the western borderline of Kerlsin. Although the temperatures had been increasing steadily over the past weeks, the freezing winds that blew in at nights made it very uncomfortable for folk to sleep properly. These thick leather sheets helped them deal with the extreme drop in temperature. As a bonus, they were cheap and protected the green wood rooftops which in comparison was an imported commodity with a high price tag.
Among the border towns, Lensglet was the largest with three hundred properly built houses, thirty six shops and stores, and four large common buildings. Apart from the quality of the material used to build these structures, their uniform rigidity showed a level of skilled work rarely found in large cities let alone a remote town such as this. Another oddity that uniquely differentiated the town from any other, was the skilled planning and arrangement of the structures. The houses were built in neat rows around the shops and stores. The market streets was no exception with the stores neatly circling the central town plaza. The arrangement was effective to provide the occupants easy ways to navigate in and around the town while proving to be a confusing maze for any outsider.
Two hours into day break, a tall bronze skinned man could be seen scratching his shaggy black beard and pulling down the leather sheets off of his store's rooftop. The sheets came swishing down along showering him with the accumulated cold water droplets every time he tugged at one. As he was lazily pulling the final sheet down this way, he heard a jovial voice call out to him. "Slept late again, uncle Grypp?" Without turning around, Grypp answered back, "Had a lot of work Tiel." The sheets were rolled and stacked into a neat pile beside the shop quickly. The man named Grypp finally turned around to see young girl of about twelve standing outside his store. Her orange hair was neatly tied with a colorful ribbon which had tiny decorative bells at the ends. She wore a navy blue shirt and an yellow frock.
Grypp sighed noticing the casual clothing. "Did you classes get canceled again?" The town had a common school were children learnt self defense and basic hunting techniques. It was a necessity since the town was so close to the mountain range and a dangerous forest further south. Some of the staple food were sourced from the very same places. Animal attacks were not common, but expected once in a while. Fourteen years ago, a massive horde of hyenas tore through the land escaping from a forest fire. And unfortunately, three hunters and a child lost their lives to the incident. The town of Earch which was next to them almost lost half their elderly. This led to the leader of Lensglet to establish a town guard patrol that took shifts night and day along with creating the school to teach children who were ten and older how to defend themselves, find basic animal and monster tracks, and send emergency signals in extreme cases. And the answer that Grypp feared came out of the young girl's mouth, "Nope. Master Singer is sick again. He cancelled all classes for the day."
As soon as Grypp opened the store's door, Tiel ran inside humming and took a seat in her favorite spot. The comfortably cushioned chair faced the store's inner working area. Grypp wore his usual hide overall and walked over to his workbench completely ignoring the child staring at him. The wooden bench had rows and rows of strange tools, screws, gemstones, an array of sharp pins in varying sizes, and a thick bound book with a pen. The page open in the book showed a lot of scratched out scribbles in a foreign language. He took one of the sharp pins and started poking an emerald gem before lightly touching it with another, more intricately designed pin. The gem emitted a tiny white smoke before slowly changing its shape. His dexterous fingers continued plying and poking the stone before it took the form of a tiny fish. The scales, and eyes were delicately carved onto its surface. He put the pins back, blew on the gemstone and murmured a few choice curses under his breath. The emerald gem glowed bright for a second before the light faded. He then attached a thin black thread through a tiny hole poked into a fin.
"Here. This is for you." Tiel gasped in shock as she was not expecting him to throw something at her. She almost toppled down from her seat as she caught the necklace. Her shock and annoyance was clear when she asked, "Why did you throw it me? What if it broke? Or I fell and hurt myself?" Grypp smiled mischievously, "Then you wouldn't bother me anymore. Damn it, you managed to catch it without falling." He put a fake annoyed expression in his face. "You are cruel, uncle. You know that? Cruel!" She pouted. "I honestly don't know why I bother visiting a sad loner like you uncle." She got down from the chair as she said that.
"What did you just say, you brat?" Grypp picked up the ornate sharp pin as if he was about to chase her. Tiel ran out of the shop immediately. Just as she reached the doors, she turned around and yelled. "Thanks for the gift, uncle Grypp! And if you get lonely, just remember..." She hung the gemstone fish around her neck and continued. "I will ask mother to find a nice girl fish for you." She laughed and ran off.
"That snot nosed brat!" Grypp yelled in an annoyed tone. "I wonder where she learnt to speak like that. What are they teaching kids these days?" He sighed once again realizing how he sounded like someone he knew. "Bah! Fuck off from my head, you old geezer! Let me focus on my work!" His hands moved again. This time the tools were much more complicated and the object looked like a silver egg embedded with dozens of ruby red gemstones. There was a large black one which continuously emitted a dark smoke.
The next few hours flew by as he only took breaks to eat a little before continuing his work. Light was quickly fading once again when he heard footsteps outside his door. He lifted his head to find another familiar face smiling. "All that ominous smoke emitting from there makes you look like a villain." An old woman with black skin and green eyes entered the store and looked around. The shelves were almost filled with crafting materials including several types of wood in various stages of refinement, several metals ranging from common to uncommon, malleable to rigid and gemstones of all quality could be seen poking out from their respective boxes. The woman smiled as she examined a few boxes slowly and walked around. "It seems like you are almost ready to open your store. It is good to see you finally deciding to settle down with your own business."
Grypp responded slightly annoyed at her statement. "I did have my own business earlier as well, Leader Rhassya. I just... did it secretly." His voice trailed off near the end. Rhassya chuckled kindly. "I know dear. What you did for this town, people might never know. But, living for yourself ain't bad either. Now, if you start a family here..." Her statement was interrupted with a clear sounding response immediately. "No." He bent down his head a little letting his mane of black hair fall down. "I am thankful for your kindness. But I simply cannot live in one place for long. Due to certain complications." The town leader sighed. This was a conversation that she had had with the young artisan in the past. He was stubborn with his request to hide his involvement in protecting the town. Even for creating this store, she had forced him by saying he at least needed a legitimate business to not create suspicion on how he earned his living. Rhassya decided to drop the subject.
"You are known in the town now as 'Grypp, the hidden gem'." She mercilessly brought out her biggest weapons. Judging by his expression, she knew he hated that title and the recognition. "Whatever our agreement is, I cannot hide your talent for crafting magic imbued artifacts. Each one of them is a marvel." She lowered her voice and whispered so only Grypp heard the next sentence. "Even if you try your best at reducing their quality by a lot, there are still noble class artifacts at worst. Each one." Shock was written all across his face. "Are they that good?" The response from the town leader contained no hint of exaggeration. "You might want to reduce the material quality much further. There is a rare talent among the artisans of legend. To bring out the best quality of each of the material they touch. I believe you have that talent. The necklace you gave to my grand daughter this morning looks plain. But my eyes can discern a deep seated protection charm in it. The pompous fools in Tremlint cannot create something so plain yet so deceptively powerful, Grypp."
His eyes looked directly at Rhassya. Her family trait provided her bloodline the extremely rare 'True Sight' ability. It awakened once every three to four generations and gave the wielder the power to understand any object's true value by reading its composition including spells or stored power. He nodded once understanding the meaning behind her statement. She was warning him to be careful and not make artifacts that were of high quality. The artisans who can craft artifacts were few and rare. The skill was highly sough after and paid for. It was also the exclusive properly of a very few artisan households. If words gets out that there was an extraordinary artisan in a remote town near the border, it would cause suspicion and confusion. Especially given the state of the kingdom. He might even be thought of as a spy and arrested. "I will be more careful. Through the store, I only plan on doing simple crafting."
He had already decided not to imbue any magic for a while. The store was only advertised as a crafts shop that takes small orders. He was sure that could earn him enough money to make a decent living. The gemstone fish was an exception since he always found Tiel running around the town to be annoying, especially with monsters and animals seen roaming occasionally. Rhassya chuckled as if she just read his mind. He looked at her in confusion. She immediately turned around and checked his boxes.
"There is still no improvement on that one I take it?" Her voice was sad. She still did not look at him. Grypp looked at the silver egg that had stopped smoking now but looked exactly like it did this morning. He put it back in his drawer sighing. Rhassya knew what that sigh meant and decided not to ask any further. This egg shaped object was the single most curious item she had laid her eyes upon. Her power could not read anything from the object. Not the construction, not the composition, not even recognize the material it was made of. Grypp had asked her to look at it when they first met. And till this day, she was bothered by the fact that she could not help him with it. She knew he worked on it every day and night in secret. "Get some sleep. You need it more than anyone. I should get back as well. Tiel and her mother must be waiting for me."
She started walking out of the store. As she exited, she noticed a few covered wooden crates outside the shop. "What are these? And have you decided on a name for the store?" Grypp walked out and looked at the crates. A gentle smile spread across his handsome face. "Preserved fruits. I ordered them from one of my contacts in Shanty. I will craft a few items for them in exchange. It will be good for the children to eat during the heat season." He picked up a cloth wrapped store sign board from behind the crates and unwrapped it.
Rhassya frowned at the sign before she started laughing. "Is that your choice? That is a stupid name." She continue laughing as she made her way home. Grypp looked at the sign once unsure if he should change it. He hung it above the entrance and took a couple steps back to read it again. "Good enough," he muttered as he walked in and closed the door.
