The moment Aria walked into Reina's shop, a pair of googly eyes were staring at her from the counter. Its pupil pinched between numerous eyelids, a salamander was glaring at her with its uncoordinated eyes. At first, she didn't think much of it and instead turned her attention to Reina cooking some metal with her bare, muscular back turned towards her.
A coat of sweat covered her entire body, and her hair dripped sweat every second like clockwork.
Only wearing a pair of shorts with her shirt tied around her waist, the blacksmith turned around the burning hunk of iron stabbed with a spiked bar. For a second her eyes met Aria's but she quickly turned her attention back to the metal and only ever looked back once it was comfortably rested on an anvil.
"What?" She demanded while picking up the hammer on the side.
Not waiting for a response, she began smacking iron against iron. Her dripping sweat sizzled against the metal and the sparks that flew onto her body barely even grazed her layer of sweat. As toned in the front as on the back, Aria almost felt jealous watching the defined muscular pattern on Reina's body.
"Close ze' door…" Lifting her head for a moment, Reina directed the hammer towards Aria and ordered her to shut the door. "I forgot that I left it open, so just shut it, will ya?"
Finally getting a bit calmer, the blacksmith placed the hammer to the side and instead grabbed a towel to wipe off her body. Running it across her face first, she wiped her belly and even her belly button as it had pooled with a bit of her sweat. Lastly, as Aria had already closed the door and was walking closer, she ran it across her breasts which had just recently gotten tighter from the exercise.
"Some pervert was buggin' me to buy me' used towels last week," throwing the towel to the side, Reina offered her fingers to the salamander for her to climb up her arm. "Said folks in the maze wanted to pay good money for it. Ya know anything about that? I wanna punch this Mistress who sent him!"
'The mistress? Why would she want something like that?' Thought Aria, however, after thinking about her own time in the maze, she quickly retracted that thought.
"What's next? She gonna demand my piss too? That woman makes me sick!" Grabbing the hammer once more, she smacked it against her desk for no reason other than anger. "Ughh, fuck it! At least this girl's been helping me keep her goons away."
Turning her attention to the salamander on her shoulder, Reina flashed the faintest of smiles.
"That lizard there is helping you keep her folks away? How?" More than a bit confused, Aria couldn't help but ask. However, the tone of her voice made both Reina and the salamander squint their eyes.
"Her name's Sally and the mistress hates salamanders or any lizard for that matter," scratching the creature's chin, Reina cooled her head off a little. "Besides she keeps me company, and eats the flies and other bugs in the house as well."
Slowly shifting her gaze to Aria, Reina finally decided to ask why she was there.
"And what do you need? Another repair? Managed to break those gloves already?" To her surprise, Aria rested the pouch with the gauntlets on the tablet and showed them off in near pristine condition.
Letting go of Sally, Riena picked the gloves up and inspected them for a moment, but when she couldn't find anything her interest in her visit peeked ever so slightly.
"You used them or nah?"
"I did, but I'm here to give them back to you," resting the other pouch on the table as well, Aria opened it up to reveal the dark metal. "Instead, I want you to make me a new pair with these, and don't worry I have more than enough gold this time."
Reaching into her pockets, she picked out yet another pouch although much smaller than the other two. As she placed it on the table, Reina didn't even need to look to know what they were.
"Gold…How much? Sound like a few hundred," just from the jingle of the metal she managed to estimate the amount.
"Five hundred and thirty or something, I'm not sure, but you can have it all if you make me another set of gloves with these," moving the dark metal to the front, Aria pressed the young smith further.
A moment passed and Reina simply kept staring at Aria, but then with a wide smile, she cackled like the inner pirate that she was. Taking the gold and quickly slipping it under the desk, she smiled a toothy smile.
"Been a while since I've plundered from a crew, but I suppose if the booty walks right in, who am I smack it back," slamming her hands on the table before getting up, Reina wasted not a second to take the dark metal and throwing it in the furnace.
Getting the hot iron off the anvil next, Reina began cleaning everything up to avoid contaminating the unknown metal. In the meantime, the Salamander decided to move in front of Aria and stared at her face in a hypnotic manner.
"Umm, hi Sall–" Before Aria could finish talking, Sally the salamander launched her tongue out of her mouth and stuck it on the barbarian's face. It took a moment for her to realize what had happened, but when she did…
"AGHH! EWW! EW! EW! EW! EW!
GET HER OFF! GET HER OFF!" Running around the shop screaming for help, Aria managed nothing more than to make Riena laugh her face off.
"Good girl, Sally~ AHaHa~" Confined to her shop mostly, the sight in front of her was the first great source of entertainment Reina had in a while. And so championing her little pet, she egged her on to toy with Aria even more. "Aim for the eye!"
"SHUT UPPPPP!!!" Aria yelled back while realizing at the same time; why the mistress was terrified of Lizards or even people who've been around one.