You Always Need Something Here...

[Angel]

He had fought a few wild creatures since his time on the surface, and each seemed to become more powerful the longer he was out. This was a problem since his staff didn’t really injure anything, just left bumps and bruises. Something that would help him knock something out, but never wound them seriously. He had seen some of the warriors here, and each one seemed to wear thick armor. What would his pathetic stick do to those monstrous beings? A strike would only vibrate through his hands making him drop his weapon, and that wouldn’t do anything but harm him. He needed something, a blade of some sort, but it needed to be quite small, and easy to use.

Luckily, he had come into a town where he experienced everything first hand. Or at least close enough. He had seen some of the town guards take blows to the chest, legs, arms, head, everywhere vital, but not even flinch. Some of the people fighting them seemed to be large warriors as well, but they still didn’t even make them flinch. Compared to Angel, these men were huge. At least a foot and a half taller, with at least a hundred pounds over him. If they couldn’t do anything, what chance did he stand?

The drow was short compared to all other in the town. Excluding some females and children. He was quite thin, and frail looking, but this let him move easier and be more agile. His white hair made him stick out like a sore thumb, and his face appeared to be white, while his hands were a purple color. The only thing that gave him away as different was they he never blinked and when he talked, his mouth didn’t move. But he never tried to open a conversation with anyone, so nobody would know.

At least where he was now, didn’t involve fighting. The town was busy, something even he wasn’t used to, coming from a metropolis compared to this small village side town. As the sun neared noon, it became much brighter and hotter. Angel shifted to the normal spectrum light by closing his eyes and blinking a few times. As he opened his eyes, the heat from others was invisible, something he couldn’t pick up. But this was the least of his worries. A few more guards walked by, talking to each other, followed by a hearty laugh, but still they managed to keep an eye on everyone watching what they were all doing at once.

Angel noticed a sign above all the other vendors. They were all in small stalls outside the other stores, sometimes selling their own goods, or stuff from inside the store itself. This one only caught his attention because there was a picture of a hammer and sword in an X shape. Something that meant they are selling weapons, or something.

Angel pushed the door open, as a blast of heat rushed over him. It was hotter in here then outside, but if this was a smithy, it was only because he was working. And working he must have been. The walls were loaded with a large arrangement of weapons, from blades to bludgeoning hammers. An assortment from large to small, and heavy to light. Pieces of armor were sorted neatly along selves, and they ranged just like the weapons.

Walking to the counter, he looked over, looking for someone to serve him. All the while looking for something he needed. Finally an idea settled on him when he saw a very small blade. Wondering over, he noticed it was labeled dagger. Something perfect in size and length to fit in the bottom of his staff. He picked it up, and walked back over to the counter. Where hopefully someone would be able to serve him, and soon at that matter.

[Raelyse]

Busy, busy, busy.

"For Thayne's sake, can't you people go fishing or go to the beach or something? I'm sick of serving you, ARGH!" A stressed human servicemen screamed out loud. It was getting quite irritating, until of course the sound of gold tapping on the counter quickly calmed and put him in one of his better moods.

He didn't even look up from his long shaggy head of brown hair as he just examined the weapon, smiled, quoted the price and moved on. Then a dagger arrived on his counter, something that he hadn't seen before. Probably from the back of the store.

Slowly, his head rose and he revealed his brown eyes, as well as his decidedly mediocre face. "Right, where did you get this? Next time get the stuff from the front, but I really can't be bothered since there's a queue as long as... something really long behind you. So tell me, what's this thing made of again and is there anything special?"

[Angel]

"Well now, some temper. Even for a little being," Angel thought to himself. Though he still seemed to pay attention to what the man was saying to him. "Well now, to begin. It's only made of iron. But I need something special done with it, there is nothing special about the weapon itself."

Angel put his staff on the counter along side the dagger. With a smirk, he took a deep breathe, and started talking to the man, in a cool, and calm manner. This way he'd be able to get him to work for him, and not be kicked out of the shop. With a quick glance outside, he noticed another guard making his rounds. "Oh yeah, that would be bad..." his mind going through random scenarios, of what would happen if he was rude to the shop keep.

The words flowed freely from his mouth, leaving only a trial of the melodic voice all elves seemed to share, no matter where they were from. "I need this dagger, imbued, I suppose, into the bottom of my staff. But the special thing I need your handy work to do is this. I want to be able to turn my staff, to retract back and forth. That is the most work you'll have to do on my project." After the large mouthful of words, he took a few breathes, and looked at the man behind the counter.

"But the only problem is, I only have one hundred gold to use. Do I have enough for your work, or is there a way to weaken the dagger so I will?" he added after catching his breathe.

[Raelyse]

The human looked up for a second, in disbelief at his customer. He scratched his head for a moment, thinking. He always preferred the customers who didn't ask him to think and just multiply a base by a multiplier. Now this one wanted him to do something way more than that.

"What do you mean retract back and forth? By the way, that sort of magical enchantment would probably be more than 100 gold unless it's very very minor. For your info, the iron dagger is 50 GP. And that imbuing thing, I want to know whether you want the whole dagger to be visible or just the blade or whatever to be visible or whatever. "

The shopkeeper looked into the sky for a moment, racking his brain as it regurgitated the things he had memorized in his long time here. When he finished, he could only smile, on the verge of laughter.

"If you want something cheaper, I can make the dagger out of copper or bronze, but you wouldn't want that would you? It wouldn't be very good at fighting, hahaha."

The shopkeeper stifled laughter, until he realized the long queue behind.

"If you want, I can give you a blade to the top of your staff, effectively making it a spear. Where did you get the funny idea of a dagger at the top of your staff?"

[Angel]

Angel gave him a quick glance of anger, though hopefully, the shopkeeper didn't see it through the mask. "I may not be explaining this to the best of my knowledge. I have what I want in my mind, I just can't put into words."

He thought for a minute or two of how to explain it. "I don't mean to insult your intelligence, but I'm going to make this as simple as I can, just so you get the rough idea of what I want," Angel replied, though still thinking.

"I need the blade, just the blade of the dagger, to be put into the end of my staff. Yes, something like a spear. But I don't want to always have the blade out, so I want to be able to bring it into my staff by turning it..." he thought for a moment how to better explain himself, and finally the idea kicked into his head.

"It would be much like an animal's claws. How the either have them in their paw or out when they need them. That would be the idea I'm looking for in this. When I need my blade, I would turn the staff, maybe only a certain section of it, and the blade would come out, when I don't need it, I would twist the section the other way to retract it into the staff here."

This was the best way he could describe what he wanted, so he only hoped the shop keeper would understand his request.

[Raelyse]

"Oh right, mate. Finally, now if you had just used that funny example from the beginning then we'd be sweet by now, buddy!" He took up his parchment and crunched some numbers in his head before he outstretched his palm, to accept payment.

"An iron blade will cost 20 gold, 10 gold to be placed into it and the turning mechanism to make it retractable will be 40 gold. Add another 30 for steel, brother."

The shopkeeper picked up the staff from the counter, lifting it above his head and smiling. "See, this part," he said slowly, indicating the top half of the weapon. He ran his hand along it, mocking the twisting function that he would soon install. "Just twist the top half of your weapon and the blade will come out, it'll be awesome good."

He allowed himself a wry smile. "Ain't no magic in this, just clockwork or whatever, brother."

[Angel]

He had to think for a minute, adding the number in his head."Hmm...seventy gold for it. One hundred for a steel dager. That seems good enough, at least it's an even price!" Angel cracked a smile, thinking of how he'll be able to defend himself now. At least against some people.

"Alright, I'll take your offer. I'll give you the hundred gold, for the steel dagger blade though," he said, reaching into his pocket. Slowly he pulled out a small bag full of coins. The bad was old, and was starting to rip at the seems all along the it. He placed it carefully on the counter, and stared at the man.

"Is there a good time for to come back?" he said, looking down at his weapons and money. "It's all there, trust me, it's all I have. Perfectly even." he said. He looked back up at the shop keeper, waiting for a reply on how long it'll be.

[Raelyse]

"Mate, I'm faster than Yuri Rafanus. I think that was his name... that fast guy. Man, he was so fast that he makes things that are fast seem not so fast. And I'm faster than him. And I do things that are harder and better and I do it faster. I'm faster, get it?"

The shopkeeper clicked his fingers and moments later, the staff was to the customer's specifications, after some blurred movements of his hands of course.

He inspected the money to make sure all 100 was there and when it was, he cracked a smile, though most of his attention was still on the long queue of people behind the man.

"Now, anything else?"

[Angel]

"Uhh..." and before he could say anything else, or even reply to what he said, he received his weapon to his exact need. Almost as if he had read Angel's mind. It was actually kind of creepy the more he thought about it. "Uh...that's....that's it," Angel said with a small confused nod.

He started slipping past a few of the other cusomers on his way out, giving the man quick glances every so often. "Wow, he's good...I've never seen anything like that. Even from home.." he thought as he walked out the stores entrance.

Outside he looked down at his newly modified weapon. Twisting the staff, the dagger balde slipped out at the bottom. "Perfect!" he yelled out, but hisa cry was muffled out by the amount of noise in the crowds.

At least now, he'd be able to defend himself against stronger opponents.

[Raelyse]

(Transaction Complete. At the time of transaction, Angel has 0 GP. 40 EXP awarded.)