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Smoke from the forge coated Tick's goggles in a hazy of coal soot, forcing him to hold the pitted iron tongs in one hand as he wiped them away with the back of his gloved hand. Beside him, Gregori sat upon his stone haunches, pumping the bellows of the forge to keep the coal bed hot as his maker held the iron cup over the inferno of embers. Within, the soft metals melded into their alloys as they melted into a new whole.

Tickity watched the grains of fine white grit pour through the curves of his sand-glass, timing the process. The well-used, blackened mold awaited this batch of metal. When the last grains of sand fell, Tickity moved the cup to the mold, the lip on the cup and the notch on the mold fitting together with a kissing closeness of two lovers, and the bright orange molten metal was poured into the mold.

He set the cup down, as he watched the thin threads of orange cool to a lustrous shine. He took a tiny blade, as he slowly lifted the delicate gear from the mold and pulled a tiny loupe out of the pocket of his leather blacksmith's apron. He placed it over his eye, and examined the edge of the gear for the tiny, dainty teeth that he made sure there was no imperfections. Yes, it was of acceptable quality. Not perfect, but perfect was impossible. A goal to chase, but never achieve. He took the gear over to the doll that lay on his work bench. Tobias sat on the candle stand beside the soft cloth work mat the toy laid on, inspecting the numerous cogs and gears inside the Doll's torso. Tobias was always curious over what went into each Toy, knowing the same process had made him.

Tick moved a stand bearing many arms and glass lenses over the doll, and pulled several of the arms into place to magnify his vision of the clockworks of the doll, as with deft hands, he inserted the gear and twisted it into place on it's spindle. He carefully closed the back of the doll, and latched it locked with a tiny key that lay among a series of similar ones connected to a chain upon his desk. Then, he inserted a wind up key into a slot on the brass doll's back, and wound the doll with careful hands.

When he released the key, and stood the doll up, it set into a series of graceful pirouettes. And it made Tick lean on his hand and just smile at it. This Toy would be very popular, he just knew it.

Letha Nievera

Besides the fear that had been haunting her mind through the walk, Letha looked up to see she had made it almost in the middle of the city without any confrontation. This trip was becoming more regretful with each step she took, knowing she was in the place where her fear resides, however it was a choice as she kept looking around in hopes of relaxing the tension. Without much thinking Letha had not realized the major change in climate, especially from deciding on wearing a cloak made with a thick material to tried and not be seen as different from the rest. Though it was a good idea at first,became an impossible one since Letha didn't have the appearance of the other citizens and only her cloak to keep from being looked at. "If I thought this place would be as warm as it was I would've just actually dressed like a fire elemental, and not be sweating as bad....not my best idea of being discreet."
Letha walked near the busy streets of people, realizing it had to been the market everyone from what was going on but her mind just wandered. She did everything to keep her glance to the ground, but would just bump into a person passing by, so she had to keep looking before the heat was getting to her to the point of laying against a wall. The last time she really rested was a few days ago in a small town, but Letha wasn't one to stay too long in a place, especially here where people were just everywhere.

Letha Nievera

Even with the words slightly muffled from the disorientation, Letha could hear enough to see the man in front on her holding a canteen for her to drink from. She at first was thinking to run but her body wasn't responding to even bother to move as her eyes took a look to him to see he was alright from appearance."I dont think he's around here if he's carrying a traveling bag....apparently he even knows my bad choice to wear something this heavy is taking a toll." With heavy hands Letha carefully took hold of the canteen while keeping her eyes on him in case it was a trap of sorts, as her mind was thinking could happen if someone had spotted her without the hood by chance. Even with Letha's thinking the worse she started to take a drink from the canteen, getting almost instant relief from her dry mouth as the water felt like ice going down and what she just needed. "Thanks for the drink sir....I don't know what I'm thinking half the time with the climate around here. Hopefully this feeling won't last too long and I can go on my way, just a little time at rest." She kept eye contact a little more before turning the gaze back to the ground, not too sure what else to say anymore as her mind didn't want to think of anything else to say but a thank you to him for lending a hand.

Letha Nievera

Once she heard his name it wasn't too scary of actually talking to another person, but to hear about Jord made her perk her head up a little more to get a better look to this man. He had a kind look on his face rather than what she was thinking of most from here being hostile or impolite which wasn't the case here.
"I'm glad you were able to help me Nikolas, might as well make an intro myself my name is Letha.....I'll keep it at that.As for where I'm going I dont have a particular place of interest, just minding a day here and going by as fast as the light breeze that comes through here.I was about to head out to the next town before getting a little weak from the heat finding out the roads to go."she said a little hoarse but with a change of tone shaking his hand carefully.
Feeling a little better that Nikolas was only making sure she was fine, Letha was ready to get out of this place away from the things that cause all the nightmares since it all started awhile ago. At this point she just wanted to get out while before having to stay any longer, probably go into more heat exaustion from the one thing keeping her hidden. Even though Letha didn't mind him, there was still the thing of actually knowing a person than just the first glance.
"Well like you said before if you don't mind another tag along, then I could travel with you to Jord so you can help out the man that needs the assistance. Maybe I can be of some use since its quite a trip to go through to get to that land when I can actually see things a little clear to give the help if need be."

Letha Nievera

Letha took a moment to think in her head on a list, that was till the mention of changing into something else played back that she had to show her face sooner or later, just not here in this place. With a shaking hand she dragged the strap of her own pack from one arm to do the same as Nikolas had done on an inventory of anything that might be needed that was vital. In an organized section she pulled out whatever she had left from her before leaving her home or the Vatra trip, a canvas cloth of wrapped up herbs she knew were good for any burns or cuts possible in the tough hot terrain outside the capital city, a small tin of mini tools, water pouch, a few medical items of patches,scissors,and alcohol, and her small handmade knife from back home. At first it was small to look at, but at least it made things a little easier at the fact combined, there was more to carry for the long trip.
"Its a least a start of what might be needed, so like you said the change of clothes is really the only thing to grab are the light clothing. Goggles you can borrow since I have two pairs, one of my own and the other belonging to my cousin when we would be naive and wrestling in the dirt." Letha remembered those days when she would come back before dark covered head to toe in scrapes that her mother would frown on for a girl to even be getting into tussles in the first place, but shook the thought off coming into reality that she was still talking with Nikolas.
"I'll change into some light clothes once we leave from the eyes of the city...its the reason I'm wearing this just to be able to feel like one of the city folks around than seen as a sore thumb. Besides that I think that's all I can think of at this point, maybe it might come to mind once on the road, possibly find it on the way."
Letha kept her head down but replied to the thought with a nod of agreement, that she understood what was to come to be prepared for the first part. Looking back to his contents she was a little hesitent at first seeing the weapon he had, since it was rare she had seen that particular weapon back home where it wasn't used often.

Letha Nievera

Besides from being surprised from the new weapon she had just seen there was still the fact her head needed to be in the game to know what needed to still be obtained if she was going with Nikolas on the medical visit. He did warn that there were goig to be a few places they had to go through before making it back to familier land she was use to in the Plains of Jord, a place that sometimes come back knowing to Letha it was her true home and always. As she went to talk more about the plan she looked to see Nikolas had left her sights, making her a little confused but remembered of the list of things that had to be obtained before trying to leave the city and assumed he had left to get the rest of the things, giving a sense of ease. It was starting to get a little warm again as the disorientation was starting to come back in Letha's head in the form of a brewing headache, since still wearing the failed disguise to blend with the crowd. She wasnt going to leave Nikolas to travel alone, but had to walk a little to ease the pain and sounds of the people walking, then again the weight her hair beads were dragging wasn't helping too much being still for such a long period of time.

Assuming that he went to collect more needed supplies Letha walked out to get a little air but keeping her glance down to the ground not to look at those walking by from the lingering fear she still had, however it was the smarest thing to do through her disoriented haze Letha nearly ran into a girl coming out of a textile cloth shop, stumbling from the impact slightly as Letha was seeing colors from the vertigo she was getting. Even though in her mind it was most likely someone from here she looked a glance for a second before looking back down.
"Sorry about that, didn't mean to run into you as I did but thats what I get when my sight is on the ground. I didn't hurt you did I?" she said lightly but with some fear.
At that point Letha was thinking she should've listen to the doctor and switched when she had the chance into something that wasn't close to being a furnace.