New story.

Chapter 1

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Two gingers walked up the red, earthy steps into dwarf town of Macaroon. They were following their short, blue bearded guide, who was telling them about the wonders of Macaroon, and the fine craftsmanship of their weapons, armor, and jewelry. The jewelry was new, and was also the reason that the ginger-haired humans were there. The short guide lead them to the enormous Codimen Tower and left them waiting outside as he went to talk to some of the other dwarves.

"So, Blake, what do you think of Razen so far?" The taller of the two asked as they watched a waterfall of lava.

"Well, it's hot," Blake said, pointing out the obvious.

"No, really? Did you think that the fire planet would be cold?"

"Yes, I thought it would be freezing," Blake joked.

"I hope that dwarf hurries back," the older boy said, shifting nervously from foot to foot, causing Blake to smirk.

"What's wrong, Brody? Flaming fire ants in your pants, or are you just getting cold feet?"

"Shut up. You're lucky that Mom even let you come with me. She kept going on and on about how her precious baby would get hurt," Brody said.

"At least I didn't make her mad!" Blake exclaimed, causing Brody to scowl at him. The two brothers fell into an uncomfortable broken when the dwarf returned, along with a second, burlier dwarf.

"Come with me," the second dwarf said. "Grenadine tells me that our jewelry maker is in the forges right now. Your status gains you an audience. Consider yourselves blessed by this opportunity. It is one that very few get."

"Okay, I see," Brody said as they fell into step behind the dwarf. For a short guy, he could sure move fast. He walked down the stairs that led into Macaroon and stopped once they reached the last step.

"So, we came into the city only to come right back out?" Black asked, slightly angry.

"What? No! The forges aren't above ground!" the dwarf exclaimed.

"Where are they then?" Brody asked. The dwarf wordless turned around on the last step so he was facing up the stairs again.

"They are right around here," he said. With a sudden, loud rumbling, the center of the stairs began to protrude out and move, sliding aside to reveal an entrance. "Come along then."

Brody and Blake had to duck to get into the cave. The brown-rock cavern was lined with lanterns that showed a long drop into darkness below. The trio headed down flight after flight of treacherous, rocky steps until Blake was sure that they'd drop out the bottom of the planet at any time. They stopped suddenly on one of the floors where a set of metal doors stared at them. The dwarf guide walked up to the door and knocked five times.

A gruff voice spoke from the other side. "Who out there, eh?"

"Gomguk, open the door!" the dwarf demanded. "It's just me, Lentil! I have potential customers who are looking for jewelry, and have a special audience."

"Come in, come in!" Gomguk said, practically ripping the door off its hinges with his eagerness. The whole "special audience" thing seemed to be a big deal. Blake couldn't help but wonder why as he followed his brother into the new room. It was far from what he had expected. Instead of more cave, there was a perfectly normal room, lit with lightbulbs from the ceiling. It had a plastic broad-leafed plant in the corner, next to a blue furniture set. On the glass coffee table sat several sets of what appeared to be headphones.

"Take one please," Lentil ordered, grabbing a pair for himself as well.

"What are these for?" Brody asked as he hung the headphones around his neck.

"They're so you don't get permanent ear damage in the forge! You won't need them immediately. I'll signal you when to put them on. Make sure you follow me." With that, he pushed through another door. The walked down a short hallway, which opened up to a ledge with an incredible view.

There was a room below them, the size of several football fields. Pointed rocks protruded from the ceiling and the ground like fangs, casting shadows around the room. The floor was crisscrossed with lava veins. A large stream of lava entered through a mouth on the far side of the room and created multiple other rivers, which disappeared under another wall. Scattered everywhere in the room were dwarves, scrambling across the metal catwalks or pounding away at metals on their anvils.

"This is where we make the weaker armor of bronze, copper, iron, et cetera," Lentil shouted over the banging of the hammers. He led them along a on of the catwalks and into another one of the bizarre rooms with fake plants and purple furniture.

"Why are these catwalks human-sized?" Blake wondered aloud.

"Well, they were left here by humans, along with these rooms," Lentil explained. He paused before entering the next room. "Here is where we make the heavy duty armor and the shields. Also, the large broadswords are made here. There are larger hammers, so more noise. You might want to put you noise canceling headphones on."

"We'll do that when we need to," Brody replied. Lentil gave a nod and led on. The next room was smaller then the first, and had only one major river of lava leading into it, which apparently led into the other cave. There were no other discernible differences, except for the hammers. In the other room, there were only normal hammers that were manually swung. Here, there were large iron blocks that were pulled up to the ceiling and dropped, helping shape the hot metals. The crashes were loud and set Blake's teeth on edge, but he didn't put his headphones on quite yet. Just as before, Lentil took them to a third room.

"Okay, now we're about to go into the sword, knives, and jewelry part of the cave. Here, you will need your earplugs. Any questions before we go in?"

"Not really," Brody said, glancing at his brother, who also shook his head.

"Alright, headphones on and over the ears, please." And with that, the world was silent. The sounds of pinging metal that could be distantly heard from ahead and behind were instantly gone, as if someone had stuffed cotton into his ears. They entered into another hallway, this one longer and with more twists and turns then the others. As they walked, the ground began to shake. Blake wondered what it was and, as soon as they emerged into the next room, he got his answer.

There were massive hammers hanging from the ceiling on thick, black chains, each link the size of a man. One swung down towards a dwarf who was holding a small, red piece of metal in tongs above his head. The hammers slammed together, flattening the metal. The dwarf removed it as the giant hammer bounced away. He added it to some sort of scaly metal vase he was working on. There were a total of seven or so hammers in the room, each crushing in it's own way. One even appeared to have a flowery design on it to imprint into metals, which seemed a little weird and unmanly. Scattered about the room were more dwarves who appeared to be smelting and sharpening.

Brody and Blake followed Lentil along the catwalks that stretched across the room. They headed towards what looked like a control and observation deck at the far corner of the room, near a waterfall of lava. Lentil pulled on both of the boys and pointed towards a figure by the waterfall who appeared to be forging something. Both hammers came crashing down, and the figure casually stuck the metal piece in the center, barely denting it. With an expert move, the figure dunked the metal in water before sticking it back into the magma. Lentil led them to the observation deck, where he motioned for them to stay where they were. Lentil slid down a ladder and approached the figure. Neither ginger could make out what was happening. Lentil returned and led them back across the walkways, out of the third and second rooms until they were back in the room where they originally got the headphones. Lentil removed his and placed them back on the table. Brody and Blake did the same.

"So, how did whatever just happened go?" Brody asked. He was still a little nervous, Blake could tell.

"Your audience with the jewelery maker will take place up top, in the shop," Lentil said as he escorted the boys through the first cave and towards the stairs.

"Not the stairs again!" Blake moaned.

"Of course not!" Lentil exclaimed. "That would be crazy." He walked into a small indent under the stairs and pulled a lever. The opposite wall swung open, revealing another long corridor. The trio followed it for several minutes until they reached...

An elevator.

With grumbling voice, complaining about how much easier that would have been to take the elevator in the first place, Blake and Brody went into the metal box. Lentil followed them, a deep chuckle making his entire body shake. They rode the elevator up, back to the surface to await their audience with the legendary jewelry maker.

Chapter done!

Hope you liked it!