The air was frigid, touched with invisible teeth of frozen presence, biting into the uncovered flesh like a ravenous feline to a mouse. And as the scent of frosted pine and wood rot sunk into the air, there was little more that could be done but grit ones teeth and move on with the morning.

Akazawa Saki's mind was preoccupied with plans, teeth chewing tentatively over her bottom lip as she scrawled notes and plans across parchment pages.

The injuries that lined her arms were a dull ache against the flesh, scarcely drawing more than the furrowing of her brow as the aches flared to life with the motions of her sweeping quill. A span of motley tan cloth was adhered across the right side of her face by a mixture of starch, a makeshift adhesive bandage, if she had to associate a term for it. A large surplus of ingots lay against the wall within her house, freshly smelted along with the excessively large pile of animal pelts and various other items she had come to possession of recently.

A mass of ebony fur sounded a faint purr as it circled her ankles tucked beneath the rickety old table, the rumbling of its vibrating chest tickling against Saki's covered feet.

She was making many plans, contingency and shopping combined, and her thoughts were in the throws of ascertaining what supplies she needed for her most current venture.

The bandits were getting a bit too frisk with their foul behavior, creeping far too close to her place of residence for her liking. And their slaughter did naught but tide her spitting fury down, lurking beneath the surface.

An extermination felt very much in demand, at least until Saki's anger was ebbed and settled. And if by chance along the way she happened to find a new location to set up home, she would take the opportunity to investigate whether the venture would be feasible.

A few new blades were in order, and she had to forge some more arrows given her most recent rampage. More poisons were a preference, but what with all the complications that had been made, and the apparent progress of whatever happened to that investigation, Saki was reluctant to go in at all. Perhaps after hours, when it was just Garrak still in the Court Herbalists office, if the guards would let her in, that was.

Her preoccupation with extermination was, perhaps, in part, a seething part of her that had yet to ebb completely, something that remained affixed within the deepest part of her soul, like instinct in a wild animal.

It wasn't new, and under every instance these feelings occurred, she was reminded of a conversation she had once shared with Garrak quite some time ago.

'You define Wrath itself, and every piece of emotion that adorns it, personified. Honestly, I would be surprised if there were another person in this world that befits it any better than you.' The woman of blonde locks and violet eyes had told her once, upon an eve touched with that special liquor she brewed, and a touch of topical antibiotic herbs smeared right across the ravenette's face. It had been the end of a hunt she had undertaken, leading to a batch of peculiar herbs she discovered along the way, and she had brought the specimens straight to the woman upon her return. 'It's peculiar in the sense that people won't ever understand you, and you honestly couldn't care less, I imagine.'

'Unfortunately, you seem to understand me, plenty.' Saki had scoffed between a sip of her glass.

At the time, Saki didn't understand the wry smile that had flashed across the woman's face, and perhaps it was to her benefit.

'I understand the way you hone it like daggers and wear it like jagged armor.' Garrak had responded. 'I am also quite aware that you wouldn't hesitate to wield it, even to the ire of any humans nearby.'

'You make me sound like some foul devil of all things.' Saki observed.

'I suppose I have. But that's not to say that isn't the case, either.'

The woman then lowered her glass of liquor to cast Saki her undivided attention.

'You love to wrap yourself in wrath and paint yourself in the devil's colours to scare others away, after all.'

At the time, Saki had been perplexed by the comparison, but didn't say anything.

But now, she was convinced that Garrak had been right on the mark.

A breath escaped Saki as she lifted herself from her chair, ignoring the faint protests from the ebony feline rolling by her feet, and left for the smithy of her house.

There was only so much of her current train of thought she could stomach for one day, and she had things she had to do. Her supplies weren't going to build themselves, and she wanted to depart before too long.

Ebony feline followed along, purring as it looped around her feet and bounded towards the anvil next to her forge. And as she lit the fires, tended their needs and worked the coals to their perfect temperature, the bite of growing frost on the air was thawed, mixing with the pleasant scent of the pine forests.

Time immeasurable passed as she worked, peppered with the hissing of white-hot iron dropped within water, and the rhythmic pounding of a steel hammer pounding molten iron into shape.

She could lose herself in the peace, within the steps bound in rule and rhythm, paced within the bounds of her own heart beat. Her own thoughts and doubts melted away, like the impurities within the iron she hammered out with patience.

Only the intentions she had for the iron mattered.

At least, until a voice rung out with blatant disregard for her own state of mind, wrecking her concentration with just one sentence.

'So you do actually have a hobby Miss Maid?' Echoed none other than Obi's voice, startling the living daylights out Saki.

Within an instance, Saki whirled around on her right foot, grasping the length of iron she was hammering into a machette firmly within her blacksmithing glove as she swung it right towards the intruder's throat.

'Woah! Wait a second!' The tall, lithe form belonging to Shirayuki's most frequent companion gasped out as he dodged the rather dangerous swing of molten iron. 'That's rather dangerous, you know.'

Saki's gaze narrowed darkly as she watched Obi backtrack just out of the reach of her white-hot weapon, and a wry grin was soon to appear across his face. Her own agitation was not the only thing portrayed; a volatile, feral hissing escaped the ebony feline slinking around Saki's ankles, directed at the male invading the sanctuary of her home.

'Did I startle you?' He questioned, evidently amused.

Saki did not speak a word as she stared him down with a darkening expression, ignoring the burning pain that was beginning to seep into her hand through the blacksmithing glove.

'I'll take that as a yes.' Obi remarked with a chuckle as the seconds ticked by. 'I promise I'm not here to attack you. I'm actually here to ask you for a favor.'

At that remark, Saki lifted a lone, disbelieving brow in question.

'Well, more like it's a paying job.' He amended with a sly smile.

Now Saki knew she wanted nothing to do with this.

She turned away with the faintest scoff and a barely vocal muttering of "not interested", returning the cooling length of iron back into the crackling forge.

'Are you sure about that, Miss Maid?' Obi questioned pleasantly, and even with her back turned towards him, she was fairly sure he was still casting her that sly smile. 'You haven't even heard me out.'

'Don't care.' She responded.

'It's a good job, though.'

Saki pretended the infuriating male hadn't said a word.

Any favor that wasn't to Garrak was something she wanted nothing to do with, and at the rate things were going, she wasn't sure if she could even do those favors to her any more.

'Does your silence mean I can keep talking, I wonder?' She heard the annoyance in the smithy question, and it brought her to roll her eyes disdainfully.

'Leave.' Saki forced out, wincing as she felt her already pathetic voice crack even more.

'But Miss Maid, haven't you ever heard of hospitality?'

Saki's grip of the blacksmiths hammer tightened quite considerably as she reigned in her curt choice of words. If she threw him out, he was just going to find some other infuriating way to harass her, and if she humored him, she was liable to try and throw him in the forge.

Was he ever going to get out of her life and leave her be?!

'You have sixty seconds.' Saki barely managed to hiss through her failing voice, a fact that didn't fail to earn a curious look from the man hindering her peace and quiet. 'Then I want you gone.'

'Is that all the time I get?' Obi questioned. 'You're quite unreasonable, Miss Maid.'

She gave no response beyond pulling another length of white-hot iron from the forge to hammer it into shape.

'Aren't you even going to listen while I'm talking?' The annoyance in her smithy asked.

To which she responded with a particularly piercing strike of her hammer against the length of iron.

'Alright then.' Obi remarked as he made a purposeful move to sit himself atop her workbench near the door leading out to the wilderness beyond,. The snarling hisses of the stray cat at Saki's feet died down to a displeased growl in the back of its throat, and its tail lashed dangerously, knocking against Saki's boots with every repetition. 'Putting it in layman terms, I want you to make something for me.'

His choice of words bothered her more than it really should have, but she refused to respond.

What on earth did this man even want from her?

'You see, there's this group of bandits I was tracking down yesterday. A job my Master gave me in preparation for a forced relocation, if you will.' Obi began, tone remarkably dreary, as if he were reciting some kind of story he'd heard over pints at a local tavern in the city. 'Problem is, they were all wiped out before I got there, and it looks like it was done by one person.'

Saki felt as if her ears were burning as his brief story sunk in on her, though honestly, Saki wanted to scoff in disgust.

'What I'd like for you to make for me is a replica of a weapon we found – Arrows, actually.' Obi further explained, pausing as he seemed to tug what looked to be a piece of black steel from one of his hip pockets. 'All the arrows we found looked like they'd been broken somehow, but I'm sure someone who's comfortable in working a forge all on their own can make something like this on request.'

Forge.

The cursed term was to forge a weapon, not make! Even the term craft was far better than to "make" something! It wasn't difficult to comprehend!

Was he deliberately using the incorrect terms to rile her up!?

A chunk of what looked to be dark, almost black metal came flying across the smithy towards Saki, bringing the severely irritated woman to drop her hammer and catch it in her left hand.

The sight of one of her own crafted shafts was a displeasing sight, furthermore as she saw that indeed, there were pieces broken away from the poison grooves of the arrow head.

It was no coincidence that this man had decided to harass her with this information; He had undoubtedly put two and two together and decided to dangle this piece of information before her.

Unfortunately for him, she was in no mood to ever play into his infuriating game, whatever it may be this time around.

She made it clear as she harshly tossed the arrowhead back in his direction, though it was to her disappointment to note that he'd simply caught it with a painfully sly grin.

'I'm not asking you to do this for free, of course. I'll pay you for your work.' He seemed to add, as if that would hope to sway her from her already sour mood, lifting a copiously filled coin pouch from within the inside of his coat. 'The worth of the materials and for your time, of course.'

Accompanying it with a saccharine smile no less.

Not that it made any difference to a woman who honestly loathed all but one other human.

Maybe two, if Shirayuki maintained her courteous distance, that was.

Try telling a nosy fool with no interest to listen to anything she honestly had to say to him. She only smithed for herself, her own needs and desires, and she certainly did not want to increase any interaction time with other humans if she could help it. It didn't help that she was quite aware of her voice's decision to veto any further use for the time being.

She really needed to take another batch of that medicine Garrak had given her.

'Well? How about it?' Obi pressed for an answer.

And curse it all, Saki was forced to give him some form of response.

She briskly turned away from the assassin still invading the sacred space of what may seem to be a hovel, stalking towards her rucksack of belongings to roughly snatch up her book of parchment and a stalk of charcoal she had put together from within the front pocket and roughly scrawled what little answer she could.

Said assassin remained motionless, a lone brow lifted in undiluted curiosity as he watched her motions closely. He didn't appear the least bit interested in interrupting her at that moment, though she could hardly care less at this point.

In fact, as soon as she had written what turned out to be a good hundred words of a response, she tore out that piece of parchment from her book and marched herself back towards the infuriating pain in her side and roughly shoved the page into his hands.

There was no immediate response from what she could hear as she promptly marched herself back to her anvil and tugged out another lump of iron to shape it into a strip of nails.

'But Miss Maid,' Began the irritation still within her smithy. 'You haven't given me a proper answer.'

And in response, Saki violently pointed her hammer towards the piece of parchment in his grip.

'You haven't actually said "no".' He added.

That earned a filthy, irritated glare from the woman.

And yet, he was smiling pleasantly, discarding the piece of parchment onto the fitting bench beside him.

'You've written it, but I haven't heard it from you myself.' He dismissed with a shrug.

However, at that second he actually had to throw himself sideways off the fitting bench to dodge the hammer Saki had just thrown at his head.

The hammer contacted the cobblestone wall with a hefty thwock, leaving a clear impact crater where the steel had cracked the soft stone beneath, and it was clear sign to the assassin that Saki's patience was well and truly spent.

And yet, he had the sheer gall to turn and fix her with a carefree smile.

'That was quite harsh, Miss Maid.' He chuckled as he crossed his arms over his chest. 'If I was any slower, that would have killed me.'

That was a poor subject to joke about; She really had hoped to inflict some harm, at least.

'How about you take a few days to think about my offer?' Obi suggested loftily as he shifted on his heel to head towards the door. 'I'll come back for you answer later.'

She didn't have to think about it at all.

However, before she could so much as blink, the infuriating male had disappeared out the door of her smithy and into the sleet falling through the treetops outside.

Saki stood there at the anvil, expression drawn in a livid glare as she stared out at the darkness outside her humble abode, wishing and willing ill fortune upon the male who threatened to press every button of hers out of sheer amusement.

Trespassing, attempting to barter with her like some low-tier store clerk in the city, even refusing to take no for an answer; Now more than ever, she was tempted to just relocate to that emptied bandit camp just to get away from the manipulative fool.

But then, as she shifted over to the fitting bench to retrieve her thrown hammer, something caught her notice and brought her to halt in her steps.

There, sitting atop the worn steel benchtop was that hefty coin pouch the infuriating male had flamboyantly waved around when he brought up paying for her services.

Immediately, Saki's expression darkened to a disgusted sneer.

That fool honestly thought she would be swayed by the money being left in her possession like that?

He had another thing coming.

She slaved and slaved through the night, tirelessly without break.

And on the morning that Obi had said he was going to return for her "answer", she nailed the pouch and a written note to a stake hammered into the ground in front of what was now an empty pile of crumpled cobblestone lumps on an island inlet.

--=[Submitted 20th January 2019, 2910 words in total]=--