Chapter 12

"You shouldn't be so annoyed miss Jennings." Eirwin told her as he moved further into the room.

"For someone with a curious mind such as yours, I'm sure this will quite an interesting experience you'll enjoy." Heather watched what he was doing when she noticed that he seemed to be looking for something particular.

"Are you saying that I official got the job?" He asked, as the dragon opened one of the bookcases on one of the far ends of the room and looked as though he was rummaging through it in search of something particular.

"No, the probation period still stands because I want to be certain that everything will work out. You may know a lot, but there's a number of ways to keep someone quiet when you don't want them spilling secrets if they don't agree to stay quiet." Eirwin replied. He was only half joking when he said this. Not that he often had to silence people as there are few who knew his secret.

Plus, rather than unnecessary killing which could create a bigger problem if it was traced back to him, hypnosis was a more reliable method to erase such nuisances rather than getting his hands dirty. He would save that until he saw his family next time.

"Ah. Here it is." He remarked as he pulled out a class case. At first, it didn't look like anything was in it, upon closer inspection however, one could the small tower clock hidden inside of it. Eirwin had attached a magnifying glass to one side to make it easier to see that it was still in there.

"You were looking for an empty glass box?" Heather asked perplexed as she watched him carry it over to the table.

"Am I expected to put something in there?" asked watching as he set it down carefully.

"Look for yourself, there's already something in there." He replied, indicating for her to use the magnifying glass that he had just been looking through. She wasn't sure what she expected to see, but she complied with what he asked and came over to lean down and look through the magnifying glass.

She didn't expect to see the world's smallest silver clock towering sitting inside of it. Though the hands were hard to see, it looked as though they were still moving as though it was actually functioning. She had heard rumors that only five left in existence, but she thought that it was just a fable people talked about or that no one actually knew where it was.

"Is this what I think it is?" She asked barely able to contain her excitement as he looked up at the dragon.

"You mean a time key?" The dragon asked feeling rather proud of both of the fact that she knew what it was and that he actually had one.

"Yes! Though I thought that there were told to be a fable or that if they did still exist no one actually knew where to find one." She replied as he leaned back down again to look once more into the case to make sure she hadn't been imagining what she was seeing.

"Money is power." he simply replied as he looked down at the case.

"I spent years and a pretty penny to finally get someone to be willing to trade this to me for a number of other things as well." It was quite a bit of money at that he had to part with in order to get ahold of the clock.

"Does that mean you actually know how to use it?" She asked looking up again, her question made the dragon frown however.

"No, that is the one part that I am currently stuck at. There are a number of things that are needed before the spell can be cast and I can actually get it to return to it's normal size and then more things that are needed to actually get it to go where one wants it to. It's all rather complicated honestly." He answered as he looked around the room. He knew that somewhere in the room he had written down the instructions on it that he had been given. It was quite some time ago so he wasn't sure where he had last placed them.

"But you do have an idea of how to make it work though and what you need in order to make it happen?" Heather clarified as she straightened up.

"I placed it somewhere in here." Eirwin replied.

"It was some time ago that I did however and I have accumulated a number of other things since then for various reasons. So I can't actually say I'm aware of exactly where it is at this moment in time." He answered honestly.

"Mostly I did it because some of the items that were on the list that were needed weren't as easy to come across as I had expected them to be. I tried for a while to collect everything they asked. feather of a Phoenix, claw of the Polydactyl Werecat, ice of the fairies of the tallest mount."

"There was more than that?" Heather asked surprised, she didn't know enough about what was needed to use the clock, just that it did require a rather odd arrangement of items to cast the spell in order to activate it.

That stuff was fairly but other things weren't so easy." He explained as he moved around the room.

"Such as blood that is only one one-hundredth of a dragon. I hadn't even heard of such a thing until I was looking over the instructions. I can't say that I think it would even be easy to figure out how that would work or from what kind of dragon." Heather became rather quiet after Eirwin brought this up. He didn't pay much attention to it though as he was trying to remember where he had put the instructions that he had written down. If only his ability to keep track of things was as good as his ability to track things down. It would make his life much easier.

"I think that is something that I might be able to help you with if we can get everything else." Heather piped up, a rather contemplative look on her face when she said this.