A Single Step [Varde <3]

[Lucca]

Molly couldn't help but giggle and flush a bit at Fenzik's almost over-the-top gentlemanly ways. But...she found it hopelessly charming. It was so rare for her to meet someone who was like this! She returned his smile, a little shyly, as she stepped out to the street. "I...I think I do," she said, excitement in her voice as she pulled the small business card back out and looked it over. "Yes..it's not far! Come on!"

Molly led Fenzik down several more streets, sticking to the bustling main ones where she could, and only venturing onto side streets when they got closer to their destination. They soon reached their destination, a snug shop nestled in between two higher, newer buildings. The sign on this one was much newer, and a thin tendril of smoke snaked into the air from somewhere on the roof.

Molly compared the small piece of paper to the sign for a moment before smiling at Fenzik. "Here we are!" she said with a small cluck. In her excitement, she forgot that she liked it when Fenzik opened the door for her, and she pushed her way into the shop. It was quite warm from the fire blazing merrily in the grate. "Hello!" she called, not wanting another instance of feeling like she was ignoring the proprietor.

Her eyes immediately found the tall, Biped, Midori Tiger, who was leaning over the forge...roasting marshmallows. She blinked.

The brightly colored blacksmith turned with a grin. "Hello there! Don't worry mon, they're nearly done!" She nodded to the marshmallows, long braids of mane swinging perilously close to the fire.

[Varde]

Fenzik followed Molly through the city streets, quite content to not have to stress himself out, for once, about directions and addresses and all that convoluted nonsense. At one point, when the chicken identified an obscured side street that the rat would almost certainly have missed, he remarked, "Ha, I'm impressed. I ought to hire you as a guide every time I visit the Capital," but in her focused state he wasn't sure if she had heard him.

He was pleased when they arrived at the address in question, although blacksmiths' forges didn't bear nearly the same intrigue for him as did other types of shops. Nonetheless, he followed Molly inside, their mission at the front of his mind. The interior of the shop was bathed in a warm orange glow, and when Molly spoke up with a greeting, he followed her gaze to the blacksmith herself.

The tiger's cheery response confused him at first. They? The vulture had only mentioned ordering one part, not multiple parts. And how had the Midori already known why Molly and Fenzik were here? However, the rat quickly decided these details were irrelevant, and his mind skipped merrily down its usual path of oblivious optimism. "Ah, that's wonderful," he said, above the crackling of the flames. "There's no rush; we can wait until they're done," he assured her. "Mr. Pell will be very..."

It wasn't until that moment that Fenzik followed the tilt of the blacksmith's head and finally realized the context of her statement. His expression fell into one of disbelief. Pell's accusation of her laziness now began to make sense. "...Oh," the Corvie trailed off, quite embarrassed. "You -- you were talking about marshmallows."

[Lucca]

Molly had heard Fenzik's compliment, but hadn't known quite how to respond, other than the slight flush it inevitably brought to her pale cheeks. She found herself more and more enjoying her time in Fenzik's company. It had been a long time, she thought absently to herself, since she had someone she could call a friend. Perhaps...that time was coming?

Of course, those thoughts were pushed out of Molly's mind as she saw what the Tiger was doing. Roasting marshmallows over a forging fire didn't exactly seem like the safest thing to do, though Molly was clearly no expert. But she had seen Card's manes catch on fire before, and she winced and opened her beak to raise an objection when she saw how close the Midori's braids were to the flames...when the Midori sat up abruptly and...GOODness, she was tall!

The Tiger smiled happily at the Rat, and laughed jovially. "Ah, mon, dere be no need ta say such tings!" she assured him, still grinning widely. "O'course der's no rush. Ya can't do good work in a rush, mon." Her ears perked up and her whiskers twitched. Carefully, she drew the metal--was that a metal spear?--away from the fire and grinned at the slightly brown marshmallows on it. "Now dat, dere, is a perfect candy," she said happily, and carefully pulled them off with one large hand.

Munching and poking the spear back in the fire to burn off the sticky residue, she wiped her hands on her apron and turned to the two. "Now," she said amiably through the sticky mess still in her mouth, "What can I do ya for? The name's Kahli Summorset."

[Varde]

Although dismayed by this odd turn of events, even Fenzik couldn't help but find the scene at least a little comical. He stifled a laugh upon hearing the blacksmith's enthusiastic assessment of her handiwork.

"A pleasure to meet you, Kahli. I'm Fenzik... and -- and this is Molly," he hesitated before adding, not sure if the chicken would prefer to introduce herself. "We're, um..." He trailed off at first, unsure how to breach the subject -- and a little distracted by Kahli chewing noisily on the marshmallows. "We were sent here by Mr. Pell. Er, Archer... something... Pell. You know him? The shopkeeper over at O'MacGuffin's," he tried to explain, waving a paw unhelpfully. Well, this was embarrassing; he couldn't even remember the vulture's full name. "He told us that he ordered a part from you, a couple of weeks ago," he said, hoping to jog her memory. "A part for his oil... er, oil-making... machine." Nor could he remember what Pell had called the device. Great. "And he sent us to check on it for him," the rat concluded matter-of-factly. He glanced at Molly a bit helplessly, then gave the tiger a pleasant, if sheepish, smile.

"So, have you finished it?" Fenzik asked before realizing that, given what he had heard and seen so far, he would do better to lower his expectations. "Or... worked on it?"

[Lucca]

Molly clucked a bit at seeing the blacksmith's terrible manners, but she managed a smile anyway, and a polite, brisk tone. "Yes, a pleasure," she said, fluffing her wings a bit. As she listened to Fenzik's story, she couldn't help but notice he'd forgotten some of the details. She tried to help him out by remembering herself. "Swanswick," she promptly added when Fenzik forgot the name. After all, remembering names was an important part of her own job, so although she could come off a bit scatterbrained, Molly could at least do that.

The Chicken could not, however, recall the name of the machine either, much to her distress. She gave Fenzik an apologetic look when he turned to her, and her wings fluttered in a small shrug. Then she, too, turned to look expectantly at Kahli. That should be enough information to be going on, even for some as...well...careless as the Tiger came off as to remember.

For a moment, Kahli looked at them both blankly, pink eyes going from one to the other. "Archer Swanswick Pell," she repeated slowly. "O'MacGuffin's...oh. OH!" She brightened and snapped her fingers. "Yes! I remember now. He needed a replacement part for his oil press, den. I tink I might have started working on that yesterday." She got up, none too quickly, and shuffled over to a shelf with several unfinished projects on it. She searched them, shook her head, and then went to a bench. Here, she made a noise of triumph as she apparently found something. Picking it up, she carried it back to the fire and set it on the stone nearby.

"Yes, yes, it should take anoter good...t'ree hours, mon. But it's hungry work. Maybe I give Mr. Pell a discount if you bring me a doughnut?" She grinned at them, flashing sharp teeth that still had a bit of sticky residue on them from the marshmallows of before.