-- Lilith POV, Laketown --

  The travel with the heavily laden wagon took more than one day, they even had to camp the night somewhere out in no mans land. It could almost have been romantic. Just John and her and no one near to disturb their peace, their time together. A little time to dream, to breath before times got serious again.

  The wagon had been too tightly packed to have any space left for them to sleep, so they had sought shelter below the wagon, sleeping till morning dew had dampened their blankets and the cold of the early morning had snuck into their bones.

  Breakfast had been simple, they cooked porridge and a boiled a herbal infusion over the campfire. It's been nice to have fire again, even if it was only a small one. And she had discovered something ... it had just been a random idea first. Her fire runes warmed any material that she inscribed them into. So far she had been using chalk and ink, and carved some into metal.

  Without thinking too much about it, she had picked a piece of kindling that seemed flat enought and scratched a fire rune into it with a claw. At least something her claws were good for, after just having been an annoyance way too often during the past two weeks. And then she had infused the rune with the will to burn and the wood caught fire.

  They had fire, they had food and they had peace. Just nature around them, no other soul far and wide. It's been a pleasant time.

  Now, Laketown was growing before them the closer their wagon rolled. First just a spot in the distance, marked by rising smoke. Right at the side of a large lake, farmland on the other side, and the road that they were traveling.

  Over the last mile or two, Laketown had presented itself as a quite the respectable place. A high palisade protected the town, the gates solid mason work, crowned by twin watchtowers each.

  She was looking up the looming towers. There were birds up there, apparently having their nest attached to the bare stone wall. John had slowed the wagon, ready to the gate, when she heard a shout, "Stop! We must check the wagon."

  A guard had stepped into their way, hand risen to be clearly visible and John brought the wagon to a full stop. The guardsman's face lit up in recognition and a much more friendly expression came to it, "Oh, hey John, didn't expect you to come with such a load of stuff. Back to town?"

  "Greetings, guardsman." John nodded with a friendly expression, "Yes, my forge has been cold way too long. It'll be good to be home again."

  "It will be good to have you in town again. A lot of people want to commision tools from you, or have their old tools repaired. The others blacksmiths just don't deliver the quality. Even our stuff is falling apart," the guardsman let them know with a chuckle.

  Another guard stepped closer and suddenly pointed at her, "Hey, what's that? She's got horns!"

  John calmly anwered, "She's my new assistant."

  It didn't help, and soon six guards were blocking their way.

  "Looks like a demon to me. We can't let a demon enter town", the guard who had arrived as second declared.

  John didn't accept that, "She is a demon, and you will. I have permission from the king to bring her. She'll help me forge blades for the praetorian guard. Don't think the king will be happy if his delivery is delayed because you didn't let her through."

  She remained quiet. John knew these people, and he also seemed to know how to talk to them. The guards grouped up and spoke quietly among each other, then one more came running from the guards station that was part of one of the watchtowers.

  "John! Please excuse them. We didn't expect you earlier than tomorrow." He shouted before he addressed the other guards, "It's fine, she's clear. Let them pass. She works for the king."

  A bit hesitantly, the guards made way for the wagon, all eyes on her till John gave the horses a shout and their wagon got going again. As they were passing, John nodded to the guard who had cleared them, "Thanks lieutenant. It's appreciated."

  "Sure thing John. Welcome back to town!" The man gave them a quick salute.

  From there, it didn't take them long to reach John's workshop. It was right at the marketplace, a half-timbered house, much like the other houses nearby. All of them seemed to be made in the same style, a shop area on the ground floor, and living quarters upstairs.

  In case of Johns workshop, half of the ground floor was open towards the marketplace though, displaying the forge and some of the tools that John had left there. She was surprised that apparently no one had tried to steal from the open workshop during John's absence. But maybe the town guards kept a good eye on it.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Left of the forge seemed to be a sort of sales or presentation room, where John kept examples of his work on display for potential customers. She could see some pieces displayed in the windows. Upstairs had to be the actual quarters, living room, bed room, kitchen and such; John had told her that a while ago.

  John stopped the wagon right in front of his house, jumped off and helped her down as well.

  "Welcome to your new home Lilith. This is my workshop!" He gestured invitingly towards the house.

  "That's quite a big house", she had to acknowledge.

  "Yeah, but there's not really been much choice. I wanted my workshop at the marketplace, and all the houses here are two-story houses. Actually it's not that big even, with the ground floor taken up by the forge and sales room, there are only two larger rooms above. You'll see that soon." He sounded a bit apologetic, and she wondered why.

  Nevertheless John went to open the door that led into the sales room, "Come on Lilith, I want to show you your new home. We can unload the wagon later."

  She folled him inside and found John's shop filled with masterfully crafted weapons, armor pieces on display and to her surprise also a good selection of tools. Some plain, some rune inscribed. A table served as a counter, with some writing utensils and a sort of ledger on top. And along the back wall there were wooden stairs leading to the upper floor.

  He stopped in the middle of the room, "My sales room. Well, not everything here is for sale, actually, some pieces are only for display, to show what I can do. But most things are for sale."

  She had been watching a shiny chestplate, polished enough that she could see her own reflection in it, her black hair and horns, "It's quite impressive John."

  In contrast to John's work, the house itself was of rather simple make. The stone walls were bare, the wooden beams in between as well. She could see lumps of mortar holding the stones together. She didn't doubt the construction was solid, but it still was raw to her eyes. While she generally liked stone, this particular stone was not to her liking. It appeared soft and crumbly; she definitely preferred denser, harder stone.

  While still in thought, she suddenly felt his hands at her shoulders, "Come, I want to show you where we'll live. You can admire the shiny things later."

  'Shiny things', he had said while she had been contemplating crumbly stone. With a smirk, she followed him upstairs, where they arrived in a sort of living room. Not very big, but practical. A wooden floor, a table with four chairs roughly in the middle of the room and some wooden trunks aligned along one wall. In one corner a mattress and a pillow, partly covered by a blanket. She assumed this was her new sleeping place. No luxury but quite certainly good to rest after a hard day at work. Maybe she could ask for an actual bed later?

  "I had to improvise a bit with our sleeping quarters. It's not ideal, I know," John was telling her and she began to understand why he had sounded so apologetic when he had hinted at their living space first. "If we have visitors, you won't have much privacy here. But that won't happen often, and if we go to sleep at the same time, it won't matter at all. Should be fine most days, actually."

  Then he opened a door, "This is the kitchen. I've never been big in cooking, but if you want to try, feel free to use it."

  She stepped into the kitchen and looked around. It was rather small, a wood or coal fired stove, a sink and besides the sink a cabinet with a wooden working top, which looked freshly oiled and never used, "I think I can work with it, John. I learned to cook in the monastery. Maybe I can learn to cook better."

  She turned to smile at him, "Just tell me what you like to eat, and I'll learn to cook it for you!"

  He chuckled, "You don't have to though. We can visit the inn, they usually have good food, and it's not that expensive."

  With a hand on her shoulder, he lead her back to the living room, then opened the other door to let her look inside. An actual bed, a bedside cabinet and some bigger furniture which she suspected was a wardrobe. Also two wooden trunks.

  "My bedroom", he explained, then paused for a moment, "Yeah, now that I think about it's kinda stupid. The bathroom is over there." He pointed to a second door in his bedroom. "Sure it's handy for me to have the bathroom right besides my bedroom, but I can see it's not so good for you. You have to come through here each time you want to use the bathroom."

  She nodded slowly, "I don't want to wake you in the middle of the night by knocking, but also don't want to just pop in and disturb your privacy."

  He scratched his cheek, "Ya, can see that it can be problematic. But lets just try for a while, maybe it's not that bad as it seems now." He shrugged, "I'd offer you to sleep in my bedroom as well, but I thought you'd rather have your own room. And I think I snore."

  She nodded again, "Right now I like the idea of having my own corner here. If I'm sleeping in your room you'll have even less privacy." Then she had to laugh, "Guess we both aren't really used to share a place with someone. Probably it will feel more natural once we got accustomed to it."

  "We'll make it work," he sounded confident and she actually wanted to agree to that. "So, let's go down and unload the cart. And then we'll check the inn to get something to eat. What do you think about that?"

  "Food sounds good for sure!" She quickly confirmed.

  Yet when they returned they found the wagon surrounded by a group of people.

  "I swear he brought a demon with him. A lady demon even. Then they went inside! Scandalous", a man in well worn and slightly dirty clothing pointed right at them in his attempt to point to the door that they just had passed through.

  "I did. She works for me." John was calm as ever as he confirmed the statement.