I carefully crawled across the floor boards to the edge of the stairs, being careful to not land on the places where the floorboards creaked. Once I made it to the top of the stairs I stood and grabbed the small match box sitting on the sconce next to the wax candle. I flicked the slick against the stone wall to light it and quickly lit the small wick on the over-melted candle. I put out the light and threw the chard stick on the ground somewhere out of the way before grabbing the candle holder. I watched where I stepped as I tiptoed down the stairs, I couldn't risk stepping on any of the creaky boards and waking my dad. He could never know that I was up this late let alone smelting this late. I made it to the button of the stairs and took a breath once my feet hit the stone of the ground floor. I made my way into the workshop and carefully closed the door behind me so he didn't know I was working if he did wake up. He always wanted me to be well dressed for school, so I could focus on my studies. But I didn't really care all that much about my studies. He did though, he wanted me to become…something. He was never quite clear about what he wanted me to be but I always guessed it was a lawyer considering how many times he brought me to the gallows during an execution and asked me why he was being hanged despite knowing himself. But I didn’t want to be a lawyer. I wanted to be like him. A blacksmith. I’ve studied the art of blacksmithery under him for almost eighteen years now. When you do something for that long, it’s hard to not gain an appreciation and love for it. But that wasn’t what dad wanted from me. So I always did my homework first when I got home and then did my blacksmithing late at night when he didn’t know.

Right now I am working on an ax. An ax for my father. He broke his old one a few weeks ago while hunting and I wanted to show him that I could continue his legacy by giving him the best ax he’d ever seen. It was going to be a birthday gift for him. I set the metal into the smelter so I could mold it. After about 30 minutes of molding and shaping, it was done. I set it onto the handle I had painstakingly crafted by hand and waited for the metal to set. I was cleaning up my station so there wasn’t any evidence I was down here when the next morning came around. I was cleaning off the anvil with a rust stained cloth and after I wiped off some of the residue I noticed something etched into the anvil. A symbol. I had no idea how it got there. It was so intricately carved, it couldn’t have just been dents from the hammer. I blew on it to move some smaller ashes out of the way and saw it glow slightly. I grabbed the small hand-held air blower so I could see it glowing and figure out what it was. I looked at it and saw the sun, but around it was…eight? No nine other symbols. A crown, book, hammer, quill, dagger, wave, horseshoe, thread, and cookies. I wondered what they all meant. But then I heard shuffling upstairs. I quickly extinguished the smelter and put back everything else as quickly as I could. I grabbed the ax and set it in the corner behind the hay, where I'd been hiding it for a while now. I grabbed the candle once again and quickly but quietly made my way back to my room, avoiding the creaky floors so my dad wouldn't hear me.

The next morning, I walked downstairs with my bag over my shoulder and saw my dad in his usual position: turning on the smelter to start the day. ”Morning dad,” I said through a yawn. He turned to me and sighed as he saw me and my unmissable eye bags and, in his deep, rugged and very Scottish voice, said “aye, what ‘have i told ya ‘bout sleep boy?” I just shrugged before responding to him. “C’mon dad, I’ll be fine, it's not like I'm not getting sleep. I just have a hard time getting there. '' I gave him a small smile and grabbed a small roll off the table. “Y’know a lot of people don't have the opportunity for education that you do? I sure didn’t, that’s why I'm so strict on you getting rested for it." I just stood there and swallowed the bite I took and softly looked at him. “I…i know dad…I just…'' I didn’t know what to say. Because he was absolutely right. But it wasn’t like I wasn't grateful for the opportunity, I went to school and was good at it. I just had trouble with getting rest for it, mainly because I was working down here on something I loved. “I have to go, don’t wanna be late” I said blankly, grabbing my bag and walking out of the shop. I got a quick glance at the anvil as I left, wondering if my dad saw it. He would've said something if he saw it, right? But when I looked, it was gone. The anvil was flat, almost like the symbol was never there at all. I continued to walk out of the shop, and kept wondering what happened to it. Maybe it wasn't real, maybe I just imagined it. Or maybe dad saw it and replaced the anvil. I didn't know, but right now I didn’t have time to wonder.