Netori: Stealing The Hero's Party!

Before it could latch onto the elf, Raven grabbed it in mid-air and quickly brought it to the table with its tail. Setting it down, she watched the lizard camouflaging against the wooden desk and disappeared right in front of his eyes–except for her bright burning yellow eyes.

"Isn't she too hostile for a pet?" He asked, glancing up at the sweat-drenched smith.

"Th-thanks for that." Moving up behind him, Aria hid behind the mage with her eyes glued to the faintly visible salamander.

In the meantime, iron clanked against Reina's hammer with a pounding rhythm. Grunting with every hit, she scrunched her nose, squinted her eyebrows and flattened the metal with an increasingly strenuous strike.

"You here for the gloves?" She asked, landing the last strike that rang piercingly sharp into everyone's ears.

Clenching their teeth at the ringing, the duo let the pain subside before looking up and answering Reina's question.

"Are they done? Also, how are you not deaf with that constantly ringing in your ears?" Raven asked, complaining.

Letting go of the hammer at last, Reina ignored the question for a moment and instead moved away from the anvil, squatted down on the other side of her workbench and began looking through her cabinets. Moving up front with her hand still gripping Raven's arm tightly, Aria too wanted to see up close exactly what the girl had to present to them.

Getting back up on her feet with the gauntlets covered in cloth, Reina shooed the salamander away so she could rest the weapons on the desk instead. Once they were down on the desk, she took a step back and motioned Aria to unveil them herself.

"The barbarian came with additional material for me to use," she muttered, folding her hands.

"Helga did?" Aria asked, her left eye twitching from confusion.

"What other barbarian do you know?" There weren't many, and so Reina's point had sufficiently been made.

Turning her attention back to the gloves, Aria quickly grabbed the cloth and unveiled them both. A contrast of white and dark lay before them, one holding white dragon scales whiter than any snow and the other dark one that was darker than any night they'd experienced.

Picking them up, the elf turned around to find the dark metal joined still visible underneath, but most of it was hidden behind the rough as steel twin-edged dragon scales.

"How she got her hands on perfectly preserved dragon scales is beyond me, but fucckkk if I don't wanna know…" Moving closer to the desk again, she took the gauntlets from Aria and quickly began fitting them on her hands. "My guess is she kept some shed dragon scales while she was still in the army, but only the goddess knows the truth."

Strapping the gauntlets tight on Aria's hands, she stepped back again and gestured with her hand for the elf to mimic her hand movements. Growing ever more curious as well, Raven moved right closer to the elf to get a closer look at what would happen.

"Speaking of the goddess, the new idol is a bitch. I haven't started working on them yet so don't annoy me by asking," opening and closing her hands for Aria to mimic, the blacksmith helped her loosen up a bit before the gauntlets themselves shrunk a little. "There, a snug fit, but not like the last pair that gets stuck on your hands.

I can only imagine going to the shitter and having to use those hands to clean up…God, how did you not burn a hole through your back?"

"SHUT UP!" Red at the crude words of the ex-pirate, Aria yelled at her at the top of her lungs.

Fanning her hands, the blacksmith turned her attention to Raven. Moving close to the desk again, she gestured for him to lean closer so she could ask him about something. And once he did, she grabbed him by the collar and whispered into his ears.

"First, I hear you're planning to chart the devil's sea, what's that about? And second, how the fuck are you and that knucklehead a thing?" Quickly separated by Aria, Reina was forced to wait for an answer–at least for the second one. "Calm yer tits will ya? I'm not sucking his dick, just asking how the heck you're gonna chart the ocean without a captain?

Hells, I bet none of you have even seen a ship much less steer one!"

"Just say what you're suggesting Reina," having just the slightest clue as to why she'd decided to suddenly bring this matter up, Raven demanded that she plainly lay down her intentions.

For a moment, however, the girl simply stood there staring at the duo with her hands folded tight. But as the iron on the side began growing cold again, she decided to speak her mind.

"I need a break from this place, I wanna go out there and blow some steam and not the sweat-inducing kind."

"You wanna be the captain of our ship?" Raven asked, shrugging her shoulders Reina quickly replied.

"You know another sailer?" And with those words from her, it was settled.

Leaving the shop not long after being told some mighty tasks that needed taken care of, both Raven and Aria looked at each other with a knowing gaze. No more dates at the smithy, nodding on that–they made their way to their next destination, a shop for lavish dresses.