Wardrobe

Villager: Eris

Eris takes pride in creating crude yet practical tools, weapons, and armor for all who desire his services. Hailing from a pack of African wild dogs whose forgotten motto was as long as it works, it's good enough for us, this spunky canine enjoys contributing his heart and soul—and more unknowingly, clumps of his singed fur and pieces of his broken claws—to the finished (albeit crooked and probably a bit gross) products that he holds up in triumph and sends off to be purchased or used by his companions immediately after. As stubborn and simplistic as he is, Eris was originally very meticulous and narcissistic, believing that once he had put so much detail and care into a single piece, simply its beauty would grant its owner immediate bragging rights and probably amazing protection. This was never the case, and once Eris became aware of this, he refused to accept that creating an aesthetically-pleasing product was not enough at all, and for a short while, he took up exploring as a way to peacefully smother his anger and stay away from the townspeople who never...ever...wanted to buy his "one-of-a-kind 'Checkerboard Steel and Wood Square Shields' and 'Rune-engraved Steel Swords With Ram Skull Hilts'." The only person who made him realize that efficiency and functionality usually beat beauty and aesthetic appeal was Eden.

His closest friend was and continues to be that iridescent dragon.

In the very beginning, on a boiling-hot afternoon in town, Eris watched in amusement as Eden struggled to stand his ground against a pathetic onslaught of small beasts scurrying on lanky, twisted legs from the outskirts of Olde Foxbury. He guffawed rather loudly as yet another piece of grimy wood was ripped effortlessly (by a small creature, at that) from the holed, round, ridiculously useless and so-called "shield" that sat uncomfortably on his future-companion's muscled wrist. Eden swatted clumsily at the anomaly scurrying around his feet, screeching, with a beat-up wooden sword; it was clear that he was attempting to pierce something to the point of causing death, but it wasn't working at all.


Sitting on the porch of the blacksmith's shop, eating a bread roll garnished with chopped Green Stalk, Eris felt his shoulders shaking as he laughed with the intensity of a hyena over how stupid Eden looked from so many yards away. However, after staring for far too long, Eris began to notice that Eden had some real skill and talent when it came to how he fought his enemies. "It's just the gear," Eris thought, "that's stopping that dragon from becoming a real warrior." Tearing a soft piece of bread from his onion bun, Eris blinked plainly, shoving it in his maw. As he chewed, he thought, "I wonder what would happen if I gave him something that worked a bit better."










Eden heard a knock at his front door just as the sun was setting.

"Am I s'posed to get up and answer that?" He thought.

He tried to ignore the incessant knocking, zoning out, but was jolted out of his daydreaming by an incredibly loud slam coming from the front entrance of his cottage mere minutes later.

"I have an important shipment for you!" Eris called, panting and sweaty, from outside Eden's villa, pausing in hesitation before he said 'shipment.' It's not that Eris was wrong; it's just that he was afraid of lying, since Eden probably hadn't ordered a massive, steel-barred, treated-lumber shield along with a couple of weapons from distant towns. Of course, Eden hadn't, so when he opened the door expecting something like another package of seeds for his herbalist friend Ragent, his eyes blew open in genuine surprise.

"What is this?!" Eden blubbered out, eyeing the shield from top to bottom as if it were a chest full of treasure.

"A gift...?" Eris lilted, much too awkwardly. In response to Eden's unwavering star-stricken face, he dropped his facade and coolly quipped, "Ah, for gods' sake, just take it! I spent hours making this shield...for you...and I stubbed my fingers on these damned metal nails! A-and don't even talk," Eris spat, "about how much dough I spent on these weapons—they cost a fortune! And besides"—Eris caught Eden staring at him, and his heart caught in his chest—"I really thought you could use some help." Eris scanned Eden's (rather beautiful) eyes for some sign of interest in him, and he had found it.

He decided to say his next few sentences in the hopes that it could make the winged beast laugh. While he was still blushing, he stammered, "I-I mean, you looked like an idiot walking around trying to f-fight off t-those little numbskulls with a—get this—a toy sword, a-and a shield that looked as sad as a century-old tavern table! I thought you were just joking, too! You're too muscular and strong to be holding a wooden shield only as big as both your palms put together!" Eris dropped the goods with a clatter on the cobblestone walkway, stumbling to the ground in a fit of laughter. Eden blinked, agitated, at Eris laughing loudly and wiping tears from his scrunched-up eyes. Eris was secretly hoping that Eden would get the joke (and obvious flirting), but Eris himself was laughing, probably excessively, because honestly, it was funny, and he seriously could not stop thinking about it all the way to the dragon's house.

Eden flared his nostrils in irritation as he snapped back, "Hey, just give me that stuff and get away from my house, you inconsiderate puppy." Eden grinned at Eris's sudden respite in his laughing, replaced by a cocked eyebrow and surprised yet grinning face. Eden raised his hand, waving it in a half-apologetic, half-amused manner. "I don't need you to taunt me just because I can't scrape up enough money to get anything better."

This part was true; together with his gryphon friend, Ragent, Eden and his companion could barely scrape up enough money to live with. Eden searched for more words to try to lighten the mood since it had fallen uncomfortably quiet after Eden had shared his bit of personal information,

Eris folded his paws together and muttered an apology, then waved awkwardly and turned tail to return home.

Eden couldn't help flustering and he ended up blurting out to the space where Eris once stood, "T-thank you! Don't think I haven't forgotten why you came here..." He trailed off. It was pointless. The dog was already off to his forge, but although Eden didn't know, Eris had heard him say, 'I really hope you come back one day. I'd like to give you a proper thanks.'








Eden remained at his lantern-illuminated front door, sitting down in the doorway, toying idly with the weapons that Eris had brought him. Every now and then, he glanced over at the shield, thinking about how hard it must have been to carry it all the way from wherever Eris's dwelling was.


Eden blinked, then decided to scramble over to where the shield lay, picking it up and then absentmindedly moving his focus to genuinely admiring and inspecting the amazing craftsmanship.

"Is this really for me...?" He said, still amazed, under his breath.

He flipped it over to see what the wood-work looked like, and saw that Eris had etched something into the lumber in the back of the shield.

"With love, from Eris.

Stay strong, warrior. I bet you can become even better at fighting if you were to have something like this to support you [this part was obviously meant to be italicized, with its sideways strokes] when times get hard."

Eden couldn't help but smile a bit at the horrible pun as he placed the two foreign weapons at his sides within the curve of the shield. Hugging the filled shield close to his body, Eden started talking to himself, thinking about the little African wild dog that had shown up only a few hours before.

"With love, from Eden.

I think you're cool. Wait, that's lame."

Eden giggled at his thoughts as he shut the door behind him, leaning his new shield against the wall.

"I think you're the sweetest bitch," Eden grinned, "that I've ever met."