"Tengwar" ficlets by chrissystriped

Tinco - Metal

An elf and a dwarf meet to trade goods.

The knife glinted in the light of the fire. Arasso accepted it gingerly from the hands of the dwarf. It looked sharp like his own stone blade, but the edge was even not chipped off. He wondered how it was made.

“What material is this?”, he asked.

They had stone blades and arrow tips and pots of clay. They sometimes traded for copper cooking pots and silver belt buckles with the dwarves, but this looked different.

“It’s steel, a metal.” The word meant nothing to Arasso, but he knew the dwarf would not tell him things he considered secrets of his people.

He tried the knife on the meat he’d brought to the meeting, it sliced through it easily.

“It won’t break like your stone blades.”

“And you will trade with me for it?” Arasso opened his satchel and after a moment’s thought reached deep inside. He knew this was worth more than the usual things they traded with the dwarves — pelts and fruits and herbs. “I offer you this.” He showed the dwarf a big chunk of amber. He’d been carrying it around for quite a while, thinking it pretty, and was sad to lose it, but the knife of steel was worth it.

They haggled for a bit, Arasso adding a bunch of apples and a small pot of herb paste until they came to an agreement.

Arasso slipped his new knife into his belt. It would serve him well.