Another Night Another Copper [Cenric & Pip]

Cenric had only just finished lighting the lamps and had waved the rushlight in his hand in order to extinguish the flame when a familiar voice and face popped up from behind a piece of equipment. That and the sight of soot smeared across Pip's nose was enough to make him laugh as he set the now extinguished rushlight with the unlit ones in a nearby cabinet, careful to make sure the still smoking end was angled away from the others so as not to risk catching them alight.

"Hey, Pip," he greeted his friend as he closed the cabinet door and wandered over. "Both horseshoes and nails today. Old Man Abrams said his horse threw a shoe pulling a cart yesterday so we're going to replace it," he informed his friend as he sat on a small stool nearby, the only thing you could really sit on in the workshop since they were normally on their feet all day as it was. Making nails and horseshoes was far from his favourite thing. Like most teenagers he dreamed of making far more intricate and impressive things but the master smith had made it known early on that they wouldn't be making swords or trinkets but rather what people would need from day to day. After all, it wasn't like they had nobles beating down their door.

"And I'm sure the smith won't mind you sticking around for a bit. Might even let you stay after we open if it's slow enough. What're you getting up to anyway? Running from the guards again?" The question was accompanied by a playful smile. It seemed like his friend was always on the run from the guards but it wasn't surprising. After all, urchins had to eat too.

"So you actually did some honest work for a change?" Cenric teased with a grin when Pip explained how they got the three coppers. If he were going to be honest he didn't actually care how Pip got the money as long as they didn't lift it from anyone in the quarter since many were often struggling to get by as it was.

However, if there was one good thing about the quarter it's that it gave Pip a decent place to escape to due to the general ideas that humans seemed to have about vampires even if it wasn't something that worked out in their favour most of the time.

Pip's comment about Abram's horse and the following joke drew another laugh from Cenric. "Wonder how long it's going to be before Abram starts throwing shoes too," he joked in return before he looked toward the open door and the rapidly darkening sky beyond the ramshackle buildings. It was starting to get colder as it got deeper into autumn, dead leaves littering the muddy ground in an array of colours. Just outside he could catch glimpses of the other vampires exiting their homes in preparation to leave for work or whatever it is they did for money.

"Got a place arranged for winter, Pip?" He asked as he looked back to his young friend. Winter was tough on all of them but he could at least say that he had a roof over his head and knew when and where his next meal was coming from, courtesy of the terms of the apprenticeship.

"Fair enough," Cenric replied with a smile as he looked back to the window as well to join Pip with their people watching. For some reason he always seemed to forget that Pip was one of the Merfolk, probably because every time they saw one another Pip had legs rather than a tail due to being on land.

Still, he had to agree with Pip that it was nice to watch the others get up and start their days, even on those days where he wished he could stay in his nice warm bed even if he had to share it with three other people. However, Pip's comment stirred a different train of thought.

"Y'know, I always wondered why so many of us have white hair. I mean, I know the priests say we all came from Zer and he had white hair but you'd think after so long you wouldn't see it so much." Even then, Cenric wasn't sure how much he bought into that particular legend. After all, how does an entire race come from just one man? Probably another question for the priests the next time they came around.

Okay, Pip definitely had a good point. Just because vampires were able to have children with other races didn't mean that the vampiric traits weren't dominant or however it was that worked. The comment about Silverlings drew another smile from him. "Maybe whoever they came from was a brother to Zer or something," he joked with little awareness of how close to the mark he really was.

"And your hair's just fine, Pip. Besides, how're you gonna get away from guards or those boys if you stick out like a sore thumb? They'd be able to track you for miles if you had green hair or something like that."

Cenric made a zipping motion across his lips as Pip told him not to reveal his secret escape route, a smile still on his face until his friend said that he wished he had the money for an apprenticeship, something that made Cenric frown instead.

It was common knowledge that an apprenticeship was one of the few ways out of poverty that was within reach of relatively normal people. Even if you didn't become a master craftsman it was still better than general labour which was a pretty meagre existence. It had taken his family years to scrape together the money for an apprenticeship just for him, his siblings unfortunately left to try and find their own way.

"You never know. Maybe you'll impress someone and they'll decide to teach you," he replied even as he knew how unlikely that was and so he continued, "or maybe you could join a priesthood. Don't some of them house their priests?"

Cenric laughed once more, spurred on my Pip's reactions even as his friend explained just why he was not keen on becoming a priest. However, the route Pip did propose was an interesting one. Cenric had never really considered the life of an adventurer since he'd always assumed he'd complete his apprenticeship and use that to support his family, even if it meant making horseshoes, nails, hinges, and farming tools for the rest of his long, long life.

"Sounds like fun and as much as I'd love to go with you, there's one problem," he pointed out with a smirk of his own, "the master's not teaching me how to make swords and armour so unless someone's willin' to teach me then all you'll need me for is to make sure your big, fancy horse is shod when you make it rich."