"Now Little Dom, make sure you wrap up warm and eat regularly and not go outside after you've just washed you hair and here are some cookies for the road, share them with the others it's only polite and if this thing falls out of the sky, hold on to something".

Dom's still boyish face was all crimson from embarrassment. His mother would just not let him go in front of all these people, some of whom would be his constant companions for months, and treated him like a five-year-old. Luckily, his father took advantage of a pause for breathing and charged in before she could start again.

"Stop the lecturin' Mother, he's a Kannin Artificer", he chuckled. Dom winced. "He knows what to do and if I remember right, you were just about to set the matchmakers on him. If he's ready to run a home, he's ready to fly. Right, our kid?"

"Yes father. I must really go now, the ship is ready to leave" he mumbled, realising for the first time how much he would miss everyone. Hugging his father, mother, brothers and sisters, grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins and friends was a long procedure, yet he made sure he drew in a deep breath every time he had each one of his loved ones in his arms. Some healer had told him that smell is the first way we use to tell people apart, as well as the last memory to go and in this emotional state he realised that he could tell them all apart, even with the scent of the forge pickling everyone's skin.

Stooping slightly, as he was still unaccustomed to his height, he hurriedly walked up the gangplank. When the gnome spoke, he mumbled an apology for being late and put down his belongings. Then he remembered his manners.

"Would you like a cookie?" he said, offering the bag to the gnome.