Saying goodbye to his four-years-old son - now a working man - Frank stepped out of the workshop and left for his job, with a promised time to come and pick up Theron at early evening, when he will be off his work.
Theron was left alone with the bearded blacksmith called Derion Bronz. After Derion explained the chores and duties the work entailed to Theron, and Theron later asked for clarification on any parts he needed to be sure about, the new employer and employee stood there in silence.
The four-years-old Theron was watching his bearded employer from below, his head tilted high as the giant of a blacksmith stared down at the tiny kid. The accumulated seriousness exuding from both of them almost was intense enough to stifle the air.
Before one of them hurt their necks from the prolonged time they stayed like that, Derion talked.
"So, are you ready to start working?"
"Yes, mister Bronz!" Theron said, addressing him by his surname out of respect for the expert artisan.
"Very good! That's the spirit kid!" Derion, satisfied with Theron's attitude, voiced out. "Until Bryan comes to work, you are free to come to the back and ask me anything you might have questions for." The blacksmith simply stated, before moving to the back room to start preparing for his daily work; he had many orders to prepare.
Bryan was his nephew, the son of his sister. He didn't have the skills to be a blacksmith, but he was good with numbers and could interact well with others. So, Derion had given him the job of the salesperson, that is, welcoming the customers and selling his products. He was also the unfortunate young man Alicia almost broke yesterday, only after five minutes of questioning.
Having been left alone to do his job, Theron didn't dally and began the first task he had in mind since accepting this job, straight away.
Derion had only given him a general idea of cleaning for his first daily responsibility but didn't specify anything in particular. He didn't even mention the scattered piles on the floor, obviously not caring much about them to consider them a priority for cleaning.
But Theron was different. Although he respected the blacksmith for his skills, he didn't agree with his lackadaisical attitude towards his work environment cleanliness. Keeping the place of his work immaculate was a quality that has been drilled into Theron since the earlier years of his past life.
Walking to one of the messy piles of random items on the floor, he crouched down and touched them to inspect them. His hand immediately became full of oil residues and dust from just a quick touch. The two kinds of filth were probably because of the items not been properly wiped clean after their last quenching in the oil and because of the long amount of time they were left here uncleaned, respectively. His first priority was to clean them.
He would need many pieces of cloth, water and containers to keep the polished ones after wiping them clean. Getting back up to his feet, Theron walked to the counter and turned behind it, expecting to find at least one of the items he required beneath it.
Alas, he wasn't sure why he was expecting so much; there was nothing useful behind or underneath it. Testament by the dirty image of the store, there was not even a piece of cloth, or any bucket or trash can for trash underneath it.
Carefully climbing a stool that Bryan probably uses while waiting for customers to waltz in the shop, Theron opened the two drawers of the counter in search of pieces of cloth; they are nowhere inside to be found though. In one of the drawers instead there were many kinds of candy or chocolate wrapped in their colorful wrapping papers.
'So, in addition to being lazy, this Bryan is also a sweet tooth.' He disapprovingly thought.
In the second drawer, there was a flat, metallic safe, sturdy looking and locked. Not helpful with his current task at all.
Having searched the back of the counter and coming out with nothing, Theron turned towards the open door leading to the back room with eyes glowing.
Stepping inside the room where the fascinating process of blacksmith and forging takes place, Theron looks around in obvious excitement.
The room's inner walls were made of stone bricks tightly glued together, not leaving a single gap between them; thus preventing the melody of the smithing to reach the metallic outer walls of the building and transform it into a giant bell.
On the right side of the room and starting from what was closest to him, a magnificent three meters high furnace stood there quiet and dark, waiting for the time it will be ignited once again to spout out flames and sparks.
A few steps further than the sleeping furnace, the workbench, the vertical tube filled with oil and the mekron crystal powered anvil, were arranged with a semi-circle formation in that order, next to each other; with the workbench being the closest to the wall and the anvil towards the middle of the room.
At the end of the room at the back, a pile of charcoal, a shovel leaning to the wall and a trolley next to it, were followed by many wooden boxes with different kinds of metals and other materials in them loosely placed along the wall.
At the far-left corner, a wooden staircase led to the floor above, while on his immediate left, blacksmith Derion was preparing his tools and gear for today's work atop a long table. Many leather pieces and strips were also placed on top of it next to him.
Without forgetting his reason for stepping inside this exciting room, Theron approached Derion and asked him.
"Mister Bronz, do you have any cleaning cloth, buckets or any other containers and water I could use?"
"Hm?" Stopping what he was doing until now, Derion turns to face Theron. "Well, cloth and buckets you will find upstairs." He answers, not even bothering to think why would Theron need these items.
"Over there we have a water tab with running water, use it whenever you want." He finished saying, while pointing at the same time behind him at a water tab protruding out of the wall, ninety centimeters (~3 feet) above the ground; just a little higher than Theron was tall.
Slightly leaning his head to the left, Theron spots the water tab that so far was hidden behind the figure of Derion.
Silently nodding to express his understanding, Theron moved to the stairs and climbed them for the floor above, while Derion resumed his preparations.