The Candle Man|Rivenway | Ronduin

[Kender Bard]

Gerard wiped the sweat from his brow and backed out of the part of his shop where he made his tallow candles. In his arms were a ready-to-sell fresh batch, which he began to place in wooden boxes. That done, he looked about his empty shop and realized with dread he had nothing to do. It was too early to close shop, but...

Looking about sneakily, he slipped a sword out from under the counter and began to practice with it in the empty room.

[Devon]

The door to Gerard's shop opened slowly, but if he were looking in that direction he couldn't see who had entered. Lucid now at the age of four was curiously inside the shop, looking at the different candles around. He wasn't alone today, be had managed to lose the nanny he was walking with today while his fathered worked. Not being tall enough to reach the bell on the counter top, he reached down his shirt and touched the sign on his chest, squirting a bit of water at the bell to make it ring.

[Kender Bard]

Gerard was so surprised he stumbled and the sword neatly sliced a candle on display in two. "Holy Mother Retaw!" he gasped and looked all about. At first he was puzzled until his gaze traveled down and he spotted Lucid. "Goodness! Child, don't scare a man like that. It could have been you and not the candle I accidentally cut!" Carefully, he put his sword away, embarrassed.

[Devon]

Lucid looks down at his feet and whimpers, "Sorry Mister." His sadness lasted all of two minutes, afterwards he went back to indulging his curiosity. Lucid walked around the corner so that he stood in front of Gerard. "How do you make the sticks Misters?"

[Kender Bard]

Gerard didn't answer his question. He tried distractedly to see if the candle could be salvaged as he asked, "Where's your father, young man? Shouldn't someone be with you? Or your mother perhaps?" Seeing it was a lost cause, he chucked the remains into a bin of failed candles. They would be melted down later or sold at a reduced price to anyone who wanted the bits.

[Devon]

Lucid in turn didn't answer Gerard's question. Instead he tugged at the man's sleeve and asked again. "How do you make those Mister?"

[Kender Bard]

Fair enough, Gerard thought wryly as he knelt down to Lucid's level. "Hmm, why, are you interested in being a candlemaker someday?" He chuckled softly. "Well, I take this stuff called tallow... that's animal fat you see. And I put it through this process that eventually makes it hard enough to stand on its own. I put a wick in it, and there we have it. A candle."

[Devon]

Lucid's eyes grew wide while Gerard explained the process. It wasn't that he wanted to be a candlemaker, but if there was something he didn't understand he wanted to know. Beaming at the man he practically jumped up and down, "I want to make one!"

[Kender Bard]

Gerard chuckled at his enthusiasm and stood back up, looking all around. "Well it is a little bit too dangerous for such a little man as yourself. But I could make a few to show you... Though I probably shouldn't take you in the back of the shop alone." Goodness knows how people would talk if THAT got out. "Where are your parents?"

[Devon]

"Daddy is at work and I think my mommy is traveling somewhere," Lucid replied while repeating the story Kalian used to explain his mother's absence for now. "I have a babysitter today," he said with a scowl. "But she was mean so I'm playing hide and seek with her."

[Kender Bard]

Amused, Gerard crossed his arms and asked, "How was she mean?" He decided he'd better not take a small boy alone into the back of his shop. Perhaps the nanny would find him and then it would be okay.

[Devon]

"She said if I were good today I could get a treat and I was really good!" he replied with an excited shout. "But she still didn't give me my treat and she kept telling me to wait, I waited all day." He crossed his arms with a pout which lasted all of ten seconds. "Can we make the candle now?"

[Kender Bard]

Gerard waggled a finger. "I don't think I should let you in the back alone," he declared. "If you go get your nanny and bring her back, though, you can make a candle. I promise."

[Devon]

(Mind playing the Nanny for me?)

"Okay," Lucid replied with a smile. Turning around on his heels he ran out of the front door and stood in front of it, looking to see if his nanny was nearby.

[Kender Bard]

(I got just the girl in mind.)

Lily was still searching frantically for Lucid once she realized he was gone. She hadn't been in the babysitting business long, and found it rather distasteful... but a job was a job. "Lucid!" she cried out, her voice taking on a note of terrified hysteria. Great. Just great. She lost the most precious child of Ronduin. "Lucid!!"