Girshu finally reached the counter, staying roughly half a human step away from it and placing his upper arms behind his back similar to how he always kept his second pair. The posture always seemed to calm the warmth-cravers, probably because it obscured the claws but maybe also because of the almost regal pose it created. As much as they might fear his kind and general appearance, humans and by extend the other humanoids were always willingly vulnerable to authority and the more prestigious.
When he stopped crawling and came close enough to feel the elf's body heat however, Girshu's eyes narrowed and he almost brought his hands back forth to hurl a frost spell over the counter. Before he thought that the elf was warmer because of his previous vicinity to the forge and the forge heat radiating behind him through the thick drapes, but that was not the case. It wasn't the case at all. Rather, this man seemed to flare up in heat when a shadow of disgust washed over his face. His eyes burned brighter and his lip shivered briefly as it happened. Girshu almost missed the latter, most people would've. But he was more than aware and accustomed to the animal's meaning for bearing one's teeth, not at all similar to humanoid laughter, and the shadow on the elf's lip creating some contrast helped too. This man hid it well enough, but he seemed to be just as fond of Girshu as Girshu was of him. And in the last few seconds, Girshu appreciation of the man had dropped even further.
His heat, his body temperature. It was more than what an elf should have. Girshu knew, he could feel it and almost see it. This man was some kind of pyromancer after all. Perhaps using his vile magicks for forging. Girshu shivered, immediately doubting to buy any weapon made by such heretic ways even if it were at a bargain price.
Fire was such a loathful element, such an unnecessary one. There was no fire where he came from, nor anything that burned. In the polar cap of his people there was nothing like that, only ice and water. Only in the chaotic tundras beyond it, where frost goblins and human barbarians ran rampant, was there wood to burn and oil to set aflame. The flames within those emotional beings set them to savagery and ruination, rendering them incapable of building up anything greater than a generation's work. Fire was so much more problematic, a tool easily learned by flawed mortals but just as easily running amok. So much easier to burn the one wielding it, or setting their villages ablaze. Easily claimed to be tamed, until it wasn't. No, cold was clearly superior. Neither easy to obtain for those unworthy, nor running rampant when and where it shouldn't. The cold was lawful and cold was pure. Cold brought order and kept it indefinately. No decay nor destruction.
The elf tapped the counter in what was probably some human custom that Girshu hadn't learned yet, and then gave his price. For a moment Girshu's cold flared up as he heard it, immediately assuming that the elf was trying to rip him off. Certainly a weapon folded more than once or twice to work out the weaknesses that caused the blade to break when they expanded and shrunk rapidly? Or perhaps some magical enchantments? Though perhaps not. Girshu pondered, trying to gage the elf's blank stare for deceit or greed. He couldn't read anything in them, at least in regards to what he wanted to know. He had to get a better reading, play the human game of barter.
'A cusstom blade, you ssay? Even asssuming I have the time to stay in Adeluna for you to finissh it, do you truly not have a blade of the required quality in your sstock that would do the trick? If you haven't crafted an item like that before, why could you now?" Gishu said, forcing the icy cold tone in his voice to warm up to merchant tones that soothed the humanoids. "Though I can apprecsiate the thought of a weapon made sspecsifically for me, sspecsifically to withstand my cold magic. Who knowss, perhapss my frosst magic will grow even greater and render my blade even colder? Having ssomething that can withsstand ssuch a learning curve would be quite beneficsial. And you would like to know what weapon sspecsifically would ssuit me?"
Girshu looked around at the variety of weapons again. By telling what was wrong with each weapon, the smith could no doubt deduce what would be optimal.
Girshu's finger hovers over the stiletto's and daggers. "Too sshort."
The swords. "Too thick and heavy."
The hand axes. "Barbaric. Exhaussting and leaving me wide open during an attack."
The spears. "No wood. It doessn't conduct my cold that well."
A round bronze shield. "I like the filigree, but thiss sseems too blunt and clumssy for a weapon."
The tridents. "My people usse thesse. Very capable weaponss, but very difficult to learn. And I haven't."
The sabers. "Closse. Nicse weight and balancse. Though even I know that putting a curve in a ssword iss just sstupid."
Girshu turns around to watch the other side of the store's wares.