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Clang! Hidden in the stark shadows of the smithy, Emberly watched her favorite human hit the hot metal with a hammer she had coveted for a while. She lay on a comfortable bed of nails, tongs, and an almost-new file she had recently pilfered from the blacksmith's bedroom table. Unfortunately, there had been no good opportunity to get at the hammer. Yet.
Emberly knew from careful observation that her human was always a bit distracted when the other human, the one with the sword, showed up. Emberly did not trust that one. She had heard all the stories of knights attacking innocent dragons and fervently hoped it was not that kind of human. But great treasure, she knew, always came with great risk.
While the humans acknowledged each other, the knight with a courteous greeting and the blacksmith with a curt nod, Emberly cautiously released a small puff of smoke. It was promptly answered by loud curses and her human doing incomprehensible things to the fire. At some point, Emberly would have to teach him how to make things burn properly! Right then, though, she was only interested in snatching the hammer and returning to her hiding place. Proudly, she added it to her growing hoard. Mission accomplished!
“Seems like I won't be able to finish your knife today,” the blacksmith sighed with a small nod towards the dark space behind the forge. “I hope you don’t need it too urgently.”
“Another tool has... walked off?” asked the knight, winking. “Consider it a sign to take the rest of the evening off and have a drink or two with me.”
The blacksmith grumbled a lot less about this than Emberly had expected. In his haste to secure the forge, he even forgot to put away the pliers. Now, those pliers…