The pounding of hammer on an anvil in a steady beat had already been heard from before the rooster had crowed. To Erik it always sounded like music. The fire in his forge was burning hot and beads of sweat had formed on his forehead and arms. He had woken early that day, earlier than normally, because he had a lot of work to do still. Orders to fill. Ever since they had gotten to this new place they would call their home, there had been enough things to do. They needed nails to rebuild, hammers needed to be repaired, shovel blades forged and new hinges for the new doors. At least he had not been lacking the materials to do so and both smelter and forge had looked intact when they had arrived near a week ago, though the walls had to be rebuild but that was not something new. The place had been a real mess. What had happened here, Erik did not dwell on that topic long, his mind occupied with more important matters.

The roof of the house adjacent to the forge, the obvious choice for Erik to call his home, had collapsed on top of the previous owner and it had taken quite a few days before the rubble had been cleared out. Especially because of those pesky creatures he had to shoo away every now and then. One of them had even dared to eat the ores he needed for smithing. Both him and the dragon had roared loudly at each other but the only thing that had happened was that more dragons had come to look what was going on. After staring at Erik for some time, their eyes locked, the dragon had flown off with a last growl and had left the blacksmith alone. For now.

Erik grabbed a tong and put the nail he had just made with the rest. After all this was done perhaps he could finally make some swords or axes once more but for now he had to be happy with making whatever the clan needed from him. So much work still to do and so little time. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, got on his feet and stretched his back with a groan. His stomach rumbled and his throat felt dry and longed for a mug of mead and some food. But could he leave his forge unattended? He shrugged and sighed. Working on an empty stomach is never a good idea so he went to look if he could find something to quiet his hunger.