Daybreak

Chapter 3

The acrid smell of tanned leather and burning forges wafted through the air. The Hides, a sequestered section of the city that was selected for both it's distance from the residential districts, and the presence of a natural spring nearby, was the focal point of materials processing in the underground. The foundries, forges, and tanneries, vital functions for Undercity's daily functions, were all located here.

On the edge of the Hides, Mig was hard at work within his family's tannery, a simple stone building that had fallen to disrepair over the years. Half of the roof had caved in, rendering most of the structure unusable. Inside, however, oil lamps burned as the workshop was currently in use. Mig, having been inspired by Sylvie's leather armor, was working like a man possessed within the ruins of his family's home.

Mig became a different person when he crafted. The world around him fell away and ceased to exist. All that he could perceive and focus on was the materials before him. It was an art rarely seen in humans, normally a level of devotion was only found in Dwarven and Elven craftspeople. Despite his dedication to the craft of leather working, his sickly frame often meant he couldn't take on larger projects, often being relegated to small repair jobs within the Hides. Otherwise, Mig could be one of the most skilled craftspeople of the Underground, by Human standards.

But Mig wouldn't allow his physical state to stop him this time. Silently, he worked to boil, form, and cure the leather he had selected for this specific task. It had cost him the meager savings he had been able to collect, but he knew it would be worth it.

Fabric cloth around his face, Mig dabbed sweat off of his brow with the crook of his arm. It was a lot of work for one person, but he wouldn't rest until he was done. The council had given them a few weeks to prepare. Mig and his friends had been excused from their work duties in order to have time to get their affairs in order, though each also chose to put their full efforts into preparing for the above ground.

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Dorafin and Urvine took the trip out to their favorite mining outpost to collect materials and create some basic gear to keep the team safe. Urvine was a genius when it came to metals. Based on the smell and texture alone, he had the ability to detect the quality of any mineral he happened to be inspecting. Dorafin, like many dwarves, had a knack for smithing, but her call to the forge was much stronger, almost as if it would speak to her and guide her to better creations.

The pair worked in coordinated silence, Urvine collecting the purest ore for Dorafin to work with, him processing the metal down for her to work into the gear they would need. Dwarf work was of an exceptional quality when compared to the work of most races, and even the untrained hands of dwarven orphans could create high quality gear for standard use.

This is how their life had been since coming to their own. Most Dwarves were loud, boisterous, and stuck together in a community bound tighter than links in chainmail. The twins were instead quiet, withdrawn, and isolated from their people, all because of their statuses as orphans.

Not that it mattered much in an underground world. There was always another tunnel to explore, another workshop to build. They had been lucky to find a mostly intact workshop in one of the further tunnels, abandoned only for it's removed distance from the more traveled work tunnels. Dorafin had chanced upon it one day when she and Urvine had been in a minor spat, the pair having wandered into the lesser traveled tunnels until they happened upon the workshop. Their fight was over the instant their new home had been revealed.

And since then it had been the two of them, toiling away to make tools for non-Dwarven miners. Being outcast from Dwarven society as they were, the twins were not permitted to create official Dwarven tools, as their work was considered to be 'inconsistent' without 'proper training from dwarven houses', the same houses that refused to take in two lost children. Instead, they proudly offered their tools and works to anyone who might need them, allowing them to get by easily.