It had not taken Maric very long to clean out the small horse stall. Hephaestus was clean enough on his own thankfully so there was very little mess. Even with the extra effort he did to make it extra squeaky clean, he still had a few hours left till noon. With that extra time left, Maric decided that it would be a good idea for him to work further on Nimue's gift.<br/>As the knight worked away in the small forge, he thought of his life and how it was now changed since he was married. He wasn't expecting his marriage to be perfect, of course, but he didn't think that they'd have an argument like that so soon. Maric would have thought that she would know that he loved her as much as he did and just because of how she was. It hurt that she doubted him. He could never doubt her. She was too honest and kind to do anything to purposely hurt him.<br/>There had to be some way to show her his love for her.<br/>And so he slaved away over the metal of the forge, determined to finish his gift to Nimue. The heat of the fire scalded his body, the skin of his hands blistered against the metal of the tools as he finely shaped the steel before him. Never did he slow his work, not even when the sun was low in the sky. He had to finish his work.<br/><br/>Later that evening, Maric came home absolutely exhausted. He had finally finished Nimue's sword, but it was worth it. It was by far the best work he had ever done, but he had it hidden under a piece of cloth so that Nimue wouldn't see it. Maric wanted to surprise her first thing in the morning, but that would probably only work if she was asleep by now.<br/>Which, unfortunately for his plans, she wasn't.<br/>The moment that he opened the door she was upon him, obviously worried about where he had been. And by the time he had calmed her down, she was questioning him about what was under the cloth.<br/>Maric knew when he had to give up, so he pulled it aside, and revealed the falchion-like weapon to her. It's blade was covered by a plain leather scabbard, that covered it all the way to the hilt. The only thing different from the previous day was that the pommel was now in the ornate design of a dragon's head, and there was not a single detail missed. In fact, it looked a lot like Layla's besides the scale color, but it did have precious stones to match her eyes.<br/>"I'm sorry I kept you waiting." Maric apologised as he wiped away grime from his brow. "I just had to finish it today. I needed something, just anything to show you how much I love you and... And this was all I could think of. It's not much, but I poured my heart into it."