Chapter 3: Winds of Change

Umber turned around to see a merchant without any customers. The sound he heard emanated from a small bird-shaped thing in the merchant's hands.

The merchant wound a key, and let it go.

The bird-like thing took flight, making a small circle before landing in front of the merchant again.

Umber, enthralled by the spectacle, approached before he even realized it.

Upon closer inspection, the bird was a thing fully made of brass or copper, with many segmented joints attached by small screws, nuts, and bolts. Inside of it though something was glowing a very pale blue light, peeking from in between the plates that composed its chest and running along its spine.

The merchant was a very tan man with a black goatee wearing a cloak that obscured most of his face.

He seemed amused at how much interest Umber had in the toy.

"Kid if you stare at it so hard you might bore a hole through it," the merchant said in a foreign accent that Umber didn't know.

"No way. Copper or brass, whichever it's made of, is way too strong to break from being looked at," Umber explained very confidently.

Taken back and twice as amused the merchant started laughing.

"Your funny kid. What's your name?."

"Umber, Umber Bright-scale."

"Umber eh. Good name. I'll tell you what you tell me what it's like around this village and I'll tell you where this came from," the merchant said mirthfully, holding up the bird.

Unable to contain his excitement, Umber's wings lightly flapped behind him, though his face didn't say much.

"Okay! This is the village of Glimmer-Scale. While mostly a fishing village pulling from the Gilded River, we have some decent farmland. Also-"

"Hold it. Kid if I wanted to know all that I'd look at a map. What I want to know is what you do and what your family does, a real in-depth look at what it's like here. So Umber, what is your home like?"

Umber thought deeply about what this man said. What was his home like? A brief moment of reflection and Umber spoke.

"It's warm. Like a hearth, caring, and giving. My mom is very caring and kind. She man's the desk of the storefront and handles the books. My big sister is learning from her, but she's not good with numbers, but she's trying. She's really good at physical things though and she always looks after me," Umber was unconsciously smiling, and starting to speak faster.

"Dad is strict and thorough, but that's because he cares for me. He is the town's blacksmith and I've learned a lot from him even if I don't get to make anything beyond nails yet. I love making nails even if it's boring."

The merchant listened to Umber until he was satisfied.

"Sounds like you're a lucky kid, Umber. Now it's my turn." He held up the bird and wound it up with a key.

"This is nothing but a little trinket from an apprentice Artificer from Dandrimad," He explained as he let the bird fly.

"This type of trinket is perfect practice for the basics of artificing. If you don't know, Artificing is the art of creating magic items, or in a lot of cases fusing magic with technology." As the bird landed he pulled out a map of the continent.

"We are here" He pointed.

"This is Munthrek land of the humans. If you look over here this is the gnomish canyon home of the Dandrimad Technocracy. There you'll find all kinds of marvels you can imagine. Giants stone or metal Golems that move on their own, potions for every possible purpose, tools for any job, Metal and wood golems that think and feel as people do, boots that can grant flight, well that one might not be impressive to you, however, this one is my favorite, bags that hold more than they should." The merchant holds up a plain leather bag, with a simple deep blue jewel embedded in its centermost point.

"This is called a bag of holding." From the bag, he pulled out a 10ft pole.

Umber's eyes widened at the sudden display of the unreal.

The smile on his face widened even more, especially when he thought of one simple question, "How? How does that work? Can I make that if I go there?"

The merchant looked mirthful especially since his little stunt with the bag of holding, pulled in a crowd of curious onlookers.

"Kid, come and see me before I leave town, and I'll tell you even more. Right now I have business to attend to."

He cleared his voice and pulled out a wand. Tapping it twice against a crystal ball, the ball lit up and the words," Ringabell's Wonders" appeared above the merchant's head.

Umber saw it and wondered, did that happen from the crystal or the wand or the man himself? Pondering over these questions, his sister spun him around angrily.

"Umber there you are!"

She was upset, and so were Abigail and Sam.

Elley hugged him, "You stupid head, don't run off without telling me. You had us worried sick"

"Elley - Elley. Can't. Breathe."

She tightened her grip.

"This is payback."

She tightened even more before quickly letting go.

"Elley was in tears when you disappeared," Abigail jeered.

Elley turned red as a tomato.

"Was not!"

"Were," Sam added.

"Not you too!"

Umber was happy that Elley cared for him as she did, but couldn't help but feel it of place around people his age, or around anyone in the village for that matter.

To him, it was like he was on an island just off the coast. From there he could see everyone enjoying themselves normally, but would never be a part of them.

With those sobering thoughts, he joined Elley and the others to look at what else the merchants had.