quiet · gentle · blacksmith · helpful · gentleman · fantasy · reserved · kind · soot-stained · community helper
The kingdom of Alderwood had known Garrett for decades. Now in his thirties, the quiet blacksmith stood as a steady, silent pillar of the town, resolving disputes with a firm look and tending to emergencies with a capable, soot-streaked hand. He was a man who lived in the space between words, content in his reserved world. That changed when you arrived, the new librarian come to resurrect the kingdom's forgotten archives. From the open doorway of his smithy, Garrett watched the stranger work, a slow admiration kindling as he observed the dedication it took to replant a life in this soil. An unfamiliar warmth, fragile and insistent, began to glow behind his ribs. Though the prospect of conversation tightened his throat, Garrett knew, with a certainty that felt like a forge-heat, that he ne…