Embers in the Dawn (Ongoing)

Chapter 2: Violet Eyes, and Raven Hair

With a smile, Verick patted him on the shoulder, and poured the rest of his own mug into the dwarf's.
If there was one way to make sure a Dwarf told you something, it was to tell them they didn't know it to begin with.
"Inkeep! See my friend's mug doesn't get empty" Verick called, dropping a pair of gold pieces onto the counter.

The  twilight sky was a deep amber. The fiery rays of light peeking out from behind the mountain tops that snaked their way across the horizon. The air was crisp, and refreshing after the stuffy Inn.
Out of all the towns he'd been to on the journey, out of all the places he had tracked this runaway to. This town, it seemed, was the first time anyone had offered to help the boy on his travels. It had seemed anyone near the Lake Lord's keep had already heard news of his escape, and as such, were eager to gain some reward for aiding the hunter in his search. Out here though, it it seemed, people's hearts had not been as cold as the mountains they lived in. A young girl, knowing the boy's plight seemed to have offered him help of some kind.

  After searching the barn he had only concluded the two had certainly been there. A few impressions had been left behind by something heavy among the hay in the loft. An empty bottle of wine was left sitting on the windowsill, still wet, recently opened.
Making sure to feed Vaelon a good handful of the new oats he purchased, Verick pondered aloud to the stallion.
"Perhaps we should see if the Blacksmith had any care in remembering my face then, surely he'd remember yours, handsome you are my friend"
Vaelon snorted at that

By the time Verick arrived back to the cramped workshop, the Blacksmith was absorbed in the Plow blade he was shaping. 
 While he tethered Vaelon to the signpost outside, he checked around to be sure no one was to disturb their conversation.
The workshop was a sharp contrast to the world outside. The small, smokey, hot space seemed to be a realm all its own.

"You come to ask about nails again?" The Blacksmith stopped his work to cast a backwards glance to the old man standing in his doorway.
"Believe it or not, my answer will not have changed since we last met.  So unless you are here to buy new nails, I have no interest in discussing them again" he punctuated with a sharp clang of his hammer as he began working again.

"Oh dear me no" Verick smiled as he stepped in a bit closer, closing the door behind him.
"I've not come to talk about nails again, actually quite far from it. You see, a friend of mine in town spun a fine tale of some vagabond boy getting closely acquainted with a Blacksmith's daughter. A boy with violet eyes he said. Perhaps she would know more than he forgetful father. Perhaps I might find her in a pile of straw wrapped around him  somewhere nearby?"

The clanging stopped in an instant, and the room would have been all but silent had it not been for the crackling of coals in the forge.
The Blacksmith turned on his heels and pointed the hot tool into Verick's face.
"It is a fine guest who comes to my shop with slights and insults! Might I say you need your nose flattened to keep it out of my family's business aye? Or perhaps since you were so fond of nails earlier, maybe one through that vile and decrepit mouth of yours would keep you from flapping those ancient lips so freely!" His long masculine face was shrouded in shadows cast by the forge behind him. "If you know what's good for, you'll go back the way you came, and in a hurry"

"Careful now young man" Verick warned in a low quiet voice
"You'll find flattening my nose to be a might more difficult than flattening ingots, after all, they hardly fight back"

With a thick meaty arm the Blacksmith reached to grab the old man by the throat.
"Well see how much you talk once that mouth is nailed shu-"
With a deft jab to the apple of the Smith's throat and a swift knee to the groin, Verick used the man's weight to reverse their positions. Quickly wrenching the hammer from the stunned man's grip, the old hunter's muscles seemed to move with the memory of a lifetime of battle. He twisted the man's arm into an unnatural position, the joint creaked and the man below stifled a raspy howl of pain.

 "A smith needs his arms" Verick whispered calmly
"Do what I ask, and I won't do any lasting damage...Now all I want is for you to tell me where this boy went, or would you rather I ask your daughter after explaining how her father was beaten with his own hammer?" his voice turned to a low gravely growl as he raised the hammer to strike the man's head.

"B...Bastard" the smith wheezed with difficulty through raggedy breaths, feebly struggling to free his arm from the hunter's grip, who tightened his hold even harder with each moment. The smith was strong, but with his shoulder nearly out of the socket it would have been impossible to free himself without losing the use of his arm for well over a month.
"Gone...they're both gone...ran away together in the night...left only a note...told her not to get involved..." he struggled between grunts of pain.

"Where did she say they were going?"
"Promise me...swear to the gods...my daughter won't be hurt..."
"To the watchers of the wind, and to the seer of the fates I swear. I only want the boy, and you surely have no love for a vagabond who stole your daughter away, tell me where they are and I'll personally bring your daughter back safe and sound" Verick loosened his grip and tossed the hammer aside.
The smith struggled a moment to find his voice again.
"North...they went north. Daughter said she would guide him through a shortcut through the mountains to the Green Valley...said she wanted to get out of this little town and she needed to be with him... said this town was empty without her mother...stupid girl, she only just met him, and she threw away her home all for some runaway Elf!" tears crept down his blackened cheeks, and Verick could hear his voice shake
"I've already lost her, if you bring her back she'll only hate me for it...she'll never forgive"

"In time she will" Verick assured, and with a quick flash knocked the man across the temple, putting him to sleep.
He dragged the heavy beast of a man from the forge through the back door to the sleeping chamber behind the shop. It was spacious enough for two people, the small wooden beds spaced near each other. Placing an empty spirit bottle into the man's hand, Verick slumped his body so that it would appear he simply drank himself unconscious, an understandable thing for a man to do when he found his daughter ran off with some traveler.
By the time he awoke he would be slow to remember their meeting, and even when he had the hunter would be long gone by then.

Sitting up high onto Vaelon's back, he wheeled the stallion around and began at a brisk trot towards the northern passage.
"North we go boy, there's more apples waiting for you on the other side of these mountains"