Tabitha stood at the front of the building she figured was the blacksmith’s. The sound of a hammer banging against metal was even louder and clearly coming from behind the door before her, but it was nothing compared to the banging of her heart against her chest as she thought about what was waiting for her on the other side of the door.

It was a dream come true. It really was. She figured that, realistically, the best she’d get was maybe retiring at seventy, buying an anvil and hammer, and then being too old and tired to actually use them. All she was going to do was look at them and think about what she might have done with them when she was younger.

But there she was, in what seemed like a fantasy world with a blacksmith’s shop right in front of her.

“Deep breaths, Tabitha. Deep breaths,” Tabitha said to herself, forcing herself to calm down as much as possible. It just so happened that calming down as much as possible was impossible when she was faced with a blacksmith. Well, faced with a blacksmith’s door. “Come on, if ya don’t calm down you’re gonna end up like that actress who freaked out crying just because of a sloth.”

She still couldn’t calm down.

So, too excited to even think about knocking on the door first, Tabitha swung open the door and barged her way inside.

“The name’s Tabitha!” she shouted as soon as she stepped inside. “And I’m here to—”

“Vera’s tails!” shouted the hulking man at the far end of the room after jumping from surprise, dropping his hammer in the process. “Who do you think you are, barging in here like that?! You trying to make me lose another finger?!”

All Tabitha could do was stand there and blink a few times as the man, who had what looked like the ears and tail of a fox but the stature and muscle of a grizzly bear, shouted at her. From what Tabitha could see, he wasn’t hairy in an animalistic sense… but his arms were still covered in dense, curly, white hairs, and the matching beard hanging from his face looked no different.

“Nearly flattened my hand because of that! I should—” The man stopped when he actually noticed who was standing in front of him.

Since he looked like he calmed down a bit, Tabitha repeated her previous introduction but with more smiling. “Name’s Tabitha! I reckoned I’d drop by and—”

“Why is a human in my store?” the blacksmith asked.

“Well, if ya’d stop interrupting me, I’d tell ya. I’m here to—”

“Get out. I have no interest in anything to do with your kind.”

“Hang on now, I’m—”

“Make me repeat myself and you’ll regret ever stepping in here. I don’t know who you are, I don’t know why you’re here, and I don’t care. Get out of my sight.”

Tabitha was almost intimidated by him when she noticed what he was working on. It looked like the jaw of one of those traps in the forest. He must have been smoothing it out with the hammer, she figured. Then she looked around and saw several weapons and tools hanging from the walls. There were swords and spears, but also shovels and hoes. The pickaxe was what really grabbed her attention, though, as she stood in front of it and looked at it with bright eyes. “Ooh… nice! A pickaxe like this is mighty fine. I’d love to skip the stick-and-stone pickaxe step of things and go straight to using this beauty.” She placed her hand on it and waited a few seconds to see what would pop up.

Meanwhile, all the blacksmith could do was stare at her with a face of disbelief that she wasn’t running away yet.

Item Information

Name

Iron Pickaxe

A pickaxe made out of iron.

Note: “Burrower Mine Iron head, White Cedar Wood handle. Infused with a Copper Rockback’s Core.”

Creator: Joseph Kroll

Rarity

C

Quality

79

Element

Earth

Bonus Tags

[Extra Yield II]

[Durable]

“Huh… it’s got a note and says who made it. My stuff don’t say that,” Tabitha said. She then concentrated her attention on the sickle to check on that, too.

Item Information

Name

Iron Sickle

A sickle made out of iron.

Note: “Burrower Mine Iron blade, White Cedar Wood handle. Infused with a Copper Rockback’s Core.”

Creator: Joseph Kroll

Rarity

C

Quality

54

Element

Earth

Bonus Tags

[Extra Yield III]

[Durable]

“Yeah, thinkin’ about it, they do look kinda similar. And made by the same guy, too.”

Both the pickaxe on the wall and the sickle held in her hand featured wooden handles that looked to be made out of the same, white wood. As for their head and blade respectively, the coloration of the iron for both was the exact same. Each one had that signature iron look but with some deep, black swirls along their surfaces.

“Oi,” Tabitha said, turning to look at the blacksmith. “I take it you’re Joseph. Nice to meet y—”

“You have until the count of three to leave,” the blacksmith, Joseph, said. “One.”

Tabitha sighed.

“Two.”

Tabitha placed her hands on her hips.

“Three.”

Tabitha smirked at him. “Well, go on then. Toss me out. A man as big and strong as you shouldn’t have any problem with it. C’mon then. I’m waitin’. Don’t tell a lady you’re gonna do somethin’ and then chicken out.”

Joseph slammed his fist against the nearby support column. “I told you to get out! Don’t make me repea—”

“And I ain’t leavin’. At least, not until ya ask nicely. Now, I know I might’ve been rude by bargin’ in here all unannounced, and I apologize for that, but I ain’t gonna leave just because ya think you’re tough.”

Despite the aggressive show that Joseph put on by hitting the column and balling his hands into tight fists as he practically snarled at her, he never advanced toward her. “Every other human who has ever stepped foot in here would have run by now.”

“Trust me, my Gramps was a Marine. He was as big and scary as they get, and he never looked like anythin’ but a cuddly teddy bear to me. You’re no different.” Well, she wanted to call him a cuddly teddy fox instead, but she figured that comparing him to an animal might not be a good idea after what she heard from Runa. It sounded like the people in the village didn’t like their animalistic traits. Even comparing him to a teddy bear might have been a bad idea.

To most people’s surprise, Tabitha could, in fact, be socially conscious.

She just tended to be bad at it and usually forgot to even try.

“You would stand there and compare me to a children’s toy?” Joseph asked, narrowing his eyes at Tabitha.

“Darn straight I would,” Tabitha answered. “Or would ya rather me compare ya to a fluffy pillow?”

The two stared at each other in silence with Tabitha smirking at him and Joseph frowning at her.

On one hand, Tabitha was actually afraid of ruining her chances to befriend a genuine blacksmith. Part of her was almost tempted to apologize even though she felt like she didn’t have anything aside from barging in unannounced to apologize for. On the other hand, she just came from a world where she had to deal with customers and apologize for things that weren’t her fault every single day. She was tired of dealing with people treating her like crap. She wasn’t about to let anybody in this new world treat her the same way. Otherwise, she might as well just go back to Earth as far as she was concerned.

The worst part was that she had no idea what to expect and that worried her.

That was, until Joseph chuckled. “Heh. A human with a spine. Didn’t know those existed.”

“Well, you’re lookin’ at her,” Tabitha said. “Glad to prove ya wrong.”

“You’ve got a big ego for somebody as short as you.”

“And you talk a lot of bull for somebody who wouldn’t even take a step toward a lady.”

“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself it I hurt a human as weak looking as you.”

“What ya really mean is that ya wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if ya got put in your place by a lady half your size.”

Joseph joined Tabitha in smiling, the two now looking at each other with respect. She respected his profession and he respected her attitude. That was why he held out a single hand to her for a shake and said, “The name’s Joseph.”

Tabitha tried her best to hold back how ecstatic she was as she accepted his hand with her own. She ended up getting her hand completely surrounded by his as they shook hands. “The name’s Tabitha. For the third time.”

“And what can I do for you? I figure you wouldn’t have come in here and refused to back down if you didn’t want something from me.”

“You’ve got it.”

Tabitha looked around the shop, smiling wider and wider with every single piece of equipment that she saw. There was a forge and blower, an anvil and all sorts of different hammers, tongs and nails, saws and knives, leather hides and metal bars—he had everything he needed to make almost anything that a blacksmith would normally make. The place even smelled like what she imagined a blacksmith’s shop would always smell like. It smelled like hot, molten metal!

She took a deep whiff to really indulge in the scent before looking up at Joseph and saying, “I want ya to teach me how to be a blacksmith.”

Joseph raised an eyebrow before smiling down at her. “Hah. Well, aren’t you an interesting one?”

“That’s not a refusal!”

“Never said it was.”

The two kept on smiling at each other as a few of the townspeople who gathered around outside to look in through the door and windows couldn’t believe what they were seeing. They expected a fight or to need to step in after hearing all the shouting, but no. Instead, they saw the roughest, most uncaring, grumpy old man of the village with a smile on his face as a girl half his size forced her way into being his apprentice.

Little did they know that there wasn’t a grumpy, old man in existence who Tabitha couldn’t win over.