Chapter 5

Azura gave a gentle smile after seeing Tiberius coming in her direction. "There you are, I was beginning to worry that you got lost on your way here."

Tiberius gave his mother a slight smile as he approached her. "I apologize for taking so long to arrive. I ran into father on the way here, and he wanted to talk to me about something."

Azura gave a slight chuckle before saying, "It's fine, honey. Are you ready to go now?"

Tiberius took his mother's hand with a big smile on his face. "Yes, mother. Let's go."

For the next several hours, the mother and son duo made their way through the city streets. They stopped at the various shops to browse around and looked on as street performers putting on shows, throwing money to them for their hard work. By this point, they found themselves in the craftsmen district of the city. When they reached this district, Tiberius stopped, looking into the area with a thoughtful expression.

Azura saw the expression that her son made before putting her hand on his shoulder. "Do you want to head home now?"

Tiberius snapped out of his thoughts with a shake of his head. "No, I wish to look around and see if there is anything that strikes my interest."

Azura gave her son a gentle hug as she stepped forward, guiding him further into the craftsmen district. "Very well then, what are we waiting for?"

With his mother urging him, Tiberius made his way down the street. He stopped at each building to observe the craftsmen. At one building, Tiberius saw a tanner setting up a beast's hide to be cleaned and then moved to be to a vat of water. At the next building, he saw a carpenter working on what looked like a bookshelf.

This continued for several hours as the two made their way from building to building, street to street. As the day reached late afternoon, they finished another road, and Azura came to a stop. "Okay, Tiberius, we should head home now. It's getting late." Azura said in a somewhat stern voice that slowly softened as she saw Tiberius' saddened visage.

Azura gave a deep sigh as she continued speaking. "Tell you what, we'll head back on the street. That way, you can look around a little more."

As she finished her words, Tiberius' smile brightened and gave a small "MNH" sound.

They went on to the next street and made it halfway down it before hearing a loud clanging noise of striking metal. Intrigued by the sound, Tiberius ran towards it, practically dragging his mother along with him. As they got closer and the louder the clanging got, the more interested Tiberius got.

Once they arrived in front of the building, Tiberius suddenly stopped as he felt a deep resonance with what he saw. Almost as if his soul was screaming in excitement at what he saw.

The front of the building had an open space that held an anvil, with a powerfully built man striking away at a piece of metal. A furnace burned behind the mans' back, exuding a heat powerful enough to burn away anything, causing the forge and the temperature to rise.

Tiberius stood there, staring into the workshop, watching the man work and seemingly lost in the rhythm being hammered out. Tiberius felt like his head is filled with a giddy feeling as excitement rose inside him. He quickly turned to his mother, saying in an ecstatic voice, "I know what I want to pursue!"

Laughing, Azura could already tell that he wanted this by the fervent way he moved towards this place. It was then reaffirmed by the way he passionately observed the work as if it was the most exciting thing in existence. Pulling Tiberius into her arms, Azura whispered, "I'm glad to see you passionate about something, my dearest son."

Azura had initially been worried that her son wouldn't be able to find anything he could be passionate about. Even though he was only ten or in this case already ten, she hadn't seen him excited about anything before. He seemed too mature and took everything in stride, both good and bad. She worried that because of the lack of real interest in most things, he would focus all of his time and efforts on training. As he got older and became a warrior, Azura was concerned that Tiberius would spend too much time fighting and killing. Without anything to ground him, his personality would be warped, and would lose sight of himself.

Azura breathed a final sigh of relief as she tightened her hug briefly. Patting Tiberius' head, saying, "Let's go home and tell your father the good news."

Tiberius looked up at his mother, thinking, "I wonder why she seems so relieved." Nodding his head, Tiberius said, "Let's go home, mother."