The redheaded mouse was one of his best customers. She always came back from a successful spelunking with a bag full of loot and shredded armor. His humble forge was usually her first stop. For such a small creature, her head was just a little higher than his waist, she could carry quite a lot in her inventory. That magic bag of holding he had fashioned for her helped a lot. The mouse smiled up at him, her tail swaying from side to side as she heaved the bag of plundered treasures onto his counter with one hand. Her other arm held a bit of scrap cloth over her upper body to preserve her modesty.
 
"Got a good haul today, Gregor!" she said confidently. The little mouse grinned wide. Her oversized front teeth made her smile all the cuter, and her bites very vicious. Usually she relied on the massive axe he had forged for her, but sometimes the fighting was very desperate. Today her cloak was in tatters, the armor that protected her torso almost destroyed, and a large bloody tear ran down her trousers. Still, she was grinning. "Look at all the gold!"
 
He picked up one of the pieces of jewelry she had scavenged, then reached into the bag and pulled out what looked like some form of gold candleholder. The smith's eyes narrowed. He drew a magnifying glass from his apron and squinted through it at the gold, then suspiciously passed a strong magnet over them. The mouse's smile began to wilt.
 
"I... um, is everything OK?" she nervously tapped her fingers on the counter.
 
"Cassie, I'm afraid this isn't gold." He stepped over to his cooling basin and dropped the shiny crown into it. "Real gold doesn't float."
 
Her ears drooped as she stared at the bobbing metal. "I... oh. I didn't..." Her little hands darted inside the bag and pulled out a few gold coins. "Sorry. I... but these should be good, right? At least enough to get my armor repaired?" She smiled hopefully.
 
Gregor picked up the coins. They were from a forgotten empire. He stepped over to his scale and weighed them against the heavy gold coins of the realm. Cassie rummaged deep in the bag, digging out as many of the old coins as she could. Many had chipped edges, a sure sign that someone long ago had tried to smelt more currency, and they were surprisingly light. The mouse looked at the heap of old coins on the scales, then at the few modern gold coins with ridged edges on the other side. Her tail stopped swaying.
 
"These are gold-plated, Cassie," the armorer explained. "Not solid gold. Many have been chiseled or otherwise defaced, so their collector value is low."
 
She fidgeted, trying to hold the remains of her clothes in place. "Oh. Um... wait, I... I also have..." The mouse reached into the sack again, this time sticking her whole head inside. After a few moments she came back out with a shiny silver dagger, a handful of mummified bones, a brass pot, and two expired drink coupons for Hortwel's Ale Tavern. Smiling hopefully, she pushed them toward him. Gregor picked up the silver dagger, then picked up a silver test-ingot and lightly tapped the two together. The dagger made a dull thunk instead of a proud ting, telling him it was not real silver. Cassie bit her lower lip and swallowed hard. Adventuring through that dungeon had taken the better part of a week. She had eaten all her provisions, drank her last healing potion, and was really counting on this payday. Not just for repairs, but because the rent would be due soon on her apartment. Without her armor, she might not come back alive from her next adventure. Without her apartment, meager as it was, she would have nowhere to come back to.
 
Gregor weighed out estimates for everything she had put on the counter. It was far less than what she had hoped. Her stomach growled, and the gash on her leg hurt. With a heavy heart, she lifted her mighty broadaxe and set it too on the counter. "How... how much for this?"
 
"Cassie..." the smith said quietly.
 
"I can find odd jobs until I can buy it back from you," she said through gritted teeth. "I... I should have known better than to... to risk so much for that treasure." The mouse took a deep breath, trying hard to keep her composure. She was used to a life of rough knocks, but there were some things that could make even a hardened warrior cry. Hunger and despair were high on that list. "And... and I don't need my axe to be a bouncer at the nightclub. Just my armor." She swallowed hard. A shiver ran down her spine. "I've done it before." Yes she had. She was a good bouncer. She also knew that the snickering minotaur who owned the nightclub had certain... desires. The kind of desires that he was willing to put a lot of gold behind, if it meant getting a certain mouse on her knees in front of him... and all recorded on a crystal ball, too.
 
"I know," said Gregor. The reputation of that swaggering, hairy beast was well known around the city. He scribbled for a few moments on a pad of paper, then took one of his old smithing aprons from a peg. "Here, get out of those rags and put this on." The apron was more like a tunic for the mouse. She handed him the remaining parts of her armor. He handed her a bag full of gold, and her axe.
 
"But-" she began. He shook his head.
 
"Go get some food and see the cleric about those wounds." He closed her small fingers around the admittedly small bag of currency. "I'll have your armor repaired soon."
 
The mousegirl blinked back tears. "Thank you. T-there's still a bounty I need to turn in, I-"
 
"The Fighter's Guild usually pays bounties in armorer's tokens, yes." He nodded. "Shoo, Cassie. I have work to do."
 
She reached up and squeezed his hand with surprising strength. "Thank you, Gregor." Then, her cheeks red, she cinched the oversized tunic a little tighter around her small body and headed for the tavern. He watched her tail sway from side to side for a moment, then wrapped the ruins of her armor around a mannequin and started puzzling out how best to repair it.