Chapter 2

The village of Alvarna rests just over the ocean in the Kingdom of Norad. Because no other kingdoms or empires are nearby, everyone who lives there has found everlasting peace. Far away from war and corruption from politicians, Alvarna was titled as the most peaceful village of all Norad.

Alvarna is a small village consisting of only a few buildings and shops. The most unique feature of the village is its linear design, almost all the buildings hug the ocean for a beautiful view. In the center of the village is a wonderfully sculpted fountain that connects the west and east sides along with the dock to the south.

To the west side of the village is the large mansion where some members of the Saint-Coquille family lives, the Eagle Inn where visitors stay at, The church where services and weddings are held, and the residence of the mayor of Alvarna. To the north is a beautiful Cherry Blossom square where young couples can admire pink blossoms in the Spring.

On the east side of the village lies the clinic where injuries are treated, the Pumpkin General Store where everyone shops for supplies and other goods, the bath house where the villagers go to relax at night, and the Blacksmith shop where warriors go to buy weapons and armor. To the north from there is the farm where the newlyweds Kyle and Cecilia now lives.

A couple of weeks have passed since the wedding between Kyle and Cecilia. The villagers of Alvarna has seen their love only blossom even further since their wedding and only wish them well. But inside the Blacksmith shop one of the villagers is still upset about their marriage.

Jake, the only one who has been upset by the wedding between Kyle and Cecilia works hard in the Blacksmith shop. No matter how hard he works, the thought that Kyle who has taken the only girl he cared for only distracts him. After taking a piece of red hot iron out of the furnace, he begins striking at the malleable metal trying to make a sharp blade. Strike after blistering hot strike, he tries to keep his concentration on shaping the metal. But as he strikes, he sees the face of the man who has taken Cecilia's hand away from him in front of his eyes. At that moment, he swings his hammer as hard as he can to destroy the image in front of him. When he does, he smashes the metal causing it to break in half.

Feeling frustrated that he cannot control both his concentration and his temper, he throws the broken metal pieces to the ground and takes several deep breaths. At that moment, his boss comes around to check on him. His boss is Tanya, a master blacksmith and a former warrior of the Knights of Norad. She moved into the quiet village of Alvarna so that she can give birth to her only son. Tanya is a powerful and well respected woman in Alvarna. She makes a living selling weapons to anyone to fight the monsters around Alvarna. On her free time, she trains young men or women the art of blacksmithing, trains able bodies in the art of combat, and sends those who are strong enough to control the monster population. Unfortunately, her only son does not have any interest in neither swordsmanship, or blacksmithing.

She walks over to Jake as soon as she hears the sound of smelted metal breaking and metal pieces thrown on the ground. She already knows that Jake hasn't been himself ever since the wedding between Kyle and Cecilia, but she was hoping that he would get over it over time. But as time passes, his frustrations and anger only grows with time.

“That's the eighth blade you broke this week,” Tanya said. “Is everything all right? Still mad about what happened?”

Jake looks back at Tanya, but doesn't say anything to her. Tanya is a human, the race that Jake hates the most. But even so, Tanya is the only human that Jake cannot talk back to. As tough as Jake is, Tanya is the only person who can easily take him out with little or no difficulty. Like Jake, Tanya always wears light armor at all times, and carries at least three swords around with her everywhere. Her hair is as white as ghosts, and her eyes are gray like ash. A silver band along with leather scraps and feathers decorate her long hair. No one knows what man was brave enough to marry her, nor what may have happened to him.

Rather than hating her, he would rather just get on her better side and have her train him in the art of the blade. So he looks down at the anvil and says, “I'll be fine. I just need to concentrate, that's all.”

Tanya nods and says, “very well then. Just remember, the quality of the blade depends on how hard you hit it. If you hit the metal too softly, the blade will come out dull. And if you hit the blade too hard, you'll break it.”

Jake nods, then goes back to the furnace to get another piece of smelted metal. He uses large metal forceps to pull the glowing hot iron out of the blazing hot fires and brings it to the anvil. As soon as the metal cools to the perfect temperature, he begins to strike the metal once again to form the blade.

Tanya returns to the counter where she begins reviewing the income of the week. As she is checking the numbers, she says out loud, “by the way, I heard that Cecilia is pregnant. Isn't that great news?”

Suddenly, the sound of smelted metal shattering fills the room once again. Tanya looks over to Jake's direction, and sees metal fragments everywhere. Jake himself is trembling with anger by the news. Rather than showing sympathy for him, Tanya crosses her arms saying, “you know, if you keep breaking the metal like that, I won't make enough money to pay you this week!”

Jake then throws his tools on the ground then says, “I'm going home early today. I don't feel well.”

Without hearing an answer from Tanya, Jake grabs his sword and leaves the blacksmith shop. Tanya only sighs and says, “he never left early before. . . He must be really upset. Oh well, maybe he'll cool off if he takes some time off. He may be a bit stubborn, but he is the best damn blacksmith apprentice I've ever had.”

Jake walks across the village to go to his home, the Eagle Inn which his father owns and runs. On his way home, he passes by the Saint-Coquille manor that Cecilia used to work as a maid. He stops for a moment and remembers the times he spent with Cecilia before Kyle entered their lives. Jake never liked the idea of Cecilia working as a maid to serve humans. He asked her over and over why does she want to do such a job, but she only answers, “because I want to understand humans, and hope that human, elves, and monsters can co-exist with one another.”

Till this day, he cannot understand how is cooking and cleaning for humans would help improve the relationship between human, elves, and monsters. But Cecilia chose to work in the mansion out of her own free will, and Jake did not want to interfere with her decisions. Now as he stares onto the mansion, he feels that he may have made a mistake. Should he have interfered, and got her to understand that humans are weak and worthless? Is there a point in trying to get along with monsters that attack anyone on sight?

After a moment of nostalgia, Jake walks away from the mansion and heads into the Eagle Inn. As soon as he does, his father Egan greets, “hey there Jake. . . That's unusual, it's not like you to be here from the blacksmith's so early. Did something happen?”

Jake takes a look at his father and remains silent for a while. Unlike Jake, Egan is a full blooded elf. On top of that, he gets along very well with humans. Even though he keeps his ears covered with an enormous hat, he openly tells all his guests that he is an elf. His dress style is an olive green tunic, which many people remind him that it doesn't match his bluish-gray hair and aqua green eyes. He's a kind and gentle person, but Jake knows that he can be rather harsh when he's angry.

When he was a young elf, Egan built the Eagle Inn so that he can meet all types of people both elf and human. He believes that having a co-race inn would allow human and elves to understand one another better. In his younger years, he met a beautiful human female that he fell in love with. The relationship between them was short lived, but at least she left him his son Jake.

Jake then looks away, and says, “nothing. I was just tired, so I left early.”

Egan sighs. He knows that it must have had something to do with the news floating around about Cecilia's pregnancy. He can see it in Jake's eyes that he's quite depressed about it. Egan is well aware of Jake's feelings over Cecilia, but could hardly do anything about them. If only Jake wasn't so spiteful towards humans, then things might have turned out differently between them. He wants to give him some father-son advice, but he feels that Jake just needs some time to himself.

“Good morning. . ,” said a familiar high pitched voice. Jake recognizes the high pitched Japanese accent as Yue's voice. He turns towards her and is about to mention that it's already early afternoon, not morning. But he is left speechless as soon as he sees her coming down the stairs from the second floor.

Rather than the usual kimono that Yue always wears outside, she is walking around in what seems to be a long night gown. She isn't wearing any sandals or socks like she normally does either. As she walks down the stairs, she is yawning and rubbing her eyes as if she had just woken up. But even if she's awake, she is still extremely sleepy and her eyes are barely open. Because she is so sleepy, she walks past Jake without noticing him. As she is walking past him, Jake cannot keep his eyes off her impressive body figure that is normally hidden under her kimono. His face turns red, and tries to look away; but he can't help but to take a few more peeks at her.

Yue walks towards Egan and looks up at him with her sleepy eyes. Egan then laughs and says, “you didn't sleep very long, did you Yue? You know, it wouldn't hurt to sleep in a few more hours.”

“I can't. . ,” said Yue in a sleepy tone. “I have so much to do. . . People are probably waiting for me to open my shop. . .”

Egan sighs and says, “I see. That's admirable that you are so dedicated to your work, but rest is just as important as work. Remember that.”

Yue nods and says, “can I use your bathroom. . . ?”

Egan laughs again and answers, “of course you can. I keep telling you that you don't need to ask me.”

Yue nods again, and heads to the bathroom dragging her feet. As soon as she is out of sight, Jake looks at Egan, and asks, “father, what is that human doing here?”

Egan looks at Jake with a confused look, and answers, “what do you mean? Yue is a frequent customer here.” He then looks towards Yue's direction, and says, “poor girl. She just got here after traveling for half a day. She usually rests only a few hours a day and during early business times. I worry about her all the time. It would be nice if she would just settle down and find a stable place to live.”

Jake huffs at his father's concern, and says, “whatever. I'm going to my room to take a nap!”

Egan nods, Jake then goes up the stairs to the second floor so he can toss himself on his bed. Even though he said that he was going to take a nap, he only lies on the bed face up staring at the ceiling. With his hands crossed behind his head, all he can think about is how unfair it was that Cecilia has married Kyle, and not him.

He continues to think about the same thing for about an hour. After some time to himself, he is finally able to calm himself a bit. But all the aggravation has caused him to be quite hungry. He looks at the clock and sees that it is still lunch time. He jumps out of bed, then heads down to see if his father is cooking at this hour.

He can smell the scent of food in the air as soon as he gets to the kitchen. As he walks in, he quickly notices that his father is not in the kitchen making anything. Instead, he finds Yue there wearing her usual blue patterned kimono in the kitchen. He gasps as soon as he notices the ridiculous amount of food she is preparing. Every last cooking tool is being used to make some sort of dish, the tables are covered in half used vegetables, fish, and spices or herbs. Yue herself is in front of the pot checking on some stew she is cooking. She has some type of cloth rope tying her kimono back so that it doesn't get burned, stained, or ruined.

“What is going on here!?” yelled Jake in an annoyed tone.

Yue looks back at Jake. She is quite surprised to see him there, since he's normally at the Blacksmith's shop at this hour. She then bows at Jake, and says, “hi Jake. I'm using the kitchen to make some food that I sell.”

“Do you have my father's permission to use the kitchen?” asked Jake crossing his arms.

Yue nods cheerfully and says, “of course I do. Your father always lets me use the kitchen whenever I need it. He even teaches me some recipes I could sell around here.”

Jake sighs and takes a seat on a table that has the fewest ingredients scattered on the table. “Fine, do what you want, I'll just wait here until you're done.”

Yue nods, and goes back to cooking. A minute later, she hears the sound of the bell in the oven ring. She rushes over and pulls out the pizza covered with seafood out. Using her culinary expertise, she cuts it into eight evenly sliced pieces. Before packing them, she looks over to Jake who is avoiding her like a plague. She then places a slice of pizza on a plate and walks towards him slowly. She only hope that he doesn't overreact like the last time they met.

“Umm, Jake?” called Yue. He looks up at her, curious to know why is she holding a plate in her hands. Yue then shyly continues, “umm, can I ask you a favor? You see, your father usually tries out my food before I sell it. . . Just to make sure that I did everything right. He's a very strict judge, so I try to make sure that I do my best with my cooking. But Egan went to the mayor's house to talk about something. So, would you mind trying my food out instead?”

Before Jake has a chance to answer, Yue places the plate in front of him waiting to see what he does. Jake looks down and asks, “what is this? Pizza and fish?”

“It's okanomiyaki. But everyone here calls it seafood pizza. My mother taught me how to make it back at home. Please try it.”

Jake takes a second to look at the pizza. He has never tried fish and squid on pizza before, but it does look surprisingly good. The pizza smells great with the combination of many different herbs and spices masking the unpleasant fishy smell. He honestly wants to turn it down and blow Yue off, but he is hungry. His father is away, and it doesn't look like he made anything yet. Jake sighs and says, “fine, how much do I owe you?”

Yue shakes her head no, and answers, “it's no charge. You'll be such a great help if you could try it out. After all, I have to make sure that the food is good, or else no one will buy it.”

Jake nods and picks up the pizza. He thought that maybe if he tells her the food is awful, he could get a free meal and Yue won't bother him again. It seems like a great plan, but things change after taking the first bite. His eyes widen as the herbs and spices melts in his mouth and compliments the sauce. The type of fishes Yue use in the recipe all go so well together that he couldn't possibly say anything bad about it.

“So, how is it?” Yue asked curiously.

“It's good,” Jake said between bites. Even though he complimented her, he tried to say it in the coldest and rudest manner possible.

Yue claps her hands together and says cheerfully, “really? I'm so glad, I was worried that you wouldn't like it!”

Jake frowns and continues, “I said it’s good, not great. You don’t have to get all happy and cheerful with me about it.”

“But it makes me happy to hear you compliment it. I’m so glad.”

Just then, Egan arrives back from the mayor's house. The first thing he does is go to the kitchen to make sure Yue is okay. He pauses right outside the door as soon as he notices Jake in there chatting with her. For only a moment, he thought that only disaster can come from Jake being in the same room with Yue. But he quickly notices something unexpected. It seems like Yue and Jake is somewhat getting along.

Normally, Jake would not last longer than a few minutes in the same room with a human. He would find some reason to start a fight. But he's just sitting there quietly eating some of Yue's food exchanging small talk. He does say something that can seem rude, but Yue just sees the good behind his words. Seeing that Jake can be in the same room with Yue without causing problems gives him hope that Jake could learn to like humans.

Egan continues to stay out of sight and watch Jake. He doesn't do anything friendly, like offer to help Yue clean up or pack the food. But at the same time, he doesn't do anything unkind either like say something excessively rude or insulting. To Egan, this may be progress that he has been waiting for a long time.

After Yue is done packing, She grabs her backpack and fills it with the packed food, then rushes out of the inn just in time to catch a few hungry costumers. He wanted to talk to Jake for a moment about Yue, but he would rather not undo anything that Yue did for him. He only hopes that whatever that's happening, just continues to happen.