Chapter 10: Curiosity

Summer 63rd 2891 P.C., The village center, Hylicia’s Vale

Alunya whistles, jaunting down the cobblestone paths around the village. After his birthday that last spring, his mother had finally started letting him walk around the village more. Alunya has a sneaking suspicion there is more to the decision than simply his aging, but that’s neither here nor there.

Of course, his mother probably doesn’t know that he is going all the way down into the village center, or that he will be gone as long as he is; But, Antares and Reia will both be gone for hours, so he has time to make sure he gets back. And there is so much more to learn about or do down here.

Not least of which is what has taken Alunya’s attention at this moment, the smoke rising from the chimney of one of the largest houses in the center of the village, second only to the priest’s residence just a little behind the large central plinth. From inside, the clamoring noise of copper on copper rings out, along with shouts.

Alunya strides up to the entrance to the smithy- It’s readily open, to accept whoever needs copperwork done. There is always a little bit of work, but never that much; Mostly repairs to decades or centuries old copperwork. Sometimes, old copper was melted down to create something new. Alunya had been here briefly before, when Reia had run errands down here, but he’d never actually been inside. He’d always been curious about how it’s done, and today he’s resolved to find out.

“For Hylicia’s sake, boy, you’re going to scratch it using the file like that!” Alunya can hear the voice of Gatrick before he sees him, peeking around the corner to find him and a boy-older than Alunya but younger than Antares-standing by his side, cringing backwards at Gatrick’s shouting. The two of them are huddled over a small, delicate piece of jewelry, performing detail work on it with a thin, long tool with fine teeth on one end.

Alunya prances on in, taking a look around the shop while tuning out the other two people present. There is a handful of conical structures at the back of the room, which to Alunya look a little bit like one of the village houses but shrunk down and made of clay rather than stone, complete with a small window at the front. There is of course the anvil, just a little behind a long table, and racks of tools hung up all over the place, with a few seats out in front for customers to sit while talking to Gatrick, a couple doors leading to other rooms, and finally, a stairwell leading upstairs on the far right side; the smith’s house was one of only three buildings in the whole village with a second floor.

“Reia’s bastard...? What are you doing here?” Gatrick scoffs, eyeing Alunya suspiciously. Oh, looks like the jig is up! Alunya hops up on one of the chairs, putting on his sunniest smile. He had somewhat been hoping the man would keep not noticing him for a bit longer so he could poke around a little more, but that’s apparently not going to happen.

“Um, Mom wanted me to bring you this to ask if you could repair it!” Alunya offers one of the family’s only pieces of cookware, with a rupture on the underside. That is ... not entirely a true statement. It is true that his mother had wanted to bring the pan down to Gatrick for repairs, but she had absolutely not asked Alunya to take it down; he had done that on his own initiative, so that he would have a logical excuse for why he was there.