As I walked into the large shop, my senses were overwhelmed by the sound of all the clockwork around me: the soft click-clack of the whirling cogs and gears, the tick-tock of the swinging pendulums, the twangs of springs, flywheels, and other clockwork about the inside of the building which was significantly larger than the outside would give the impression of. This clusterfuck of sound filled my ears from the hundreds upon thousands of clocks and other time pieces around me. My footsteps were quiet on the nice, dark hardwood, the walls were the same masonry as the outer walls and the only wall solid stone was the back wall where I could see two double-backing staircases go up to the next floor which was lofted and open to the mess of swinging apparatuses of clockwork filling the ceiling, a lot of lights hung wherever they could with a bright softly gilded tone to the light washing over everything. There were endless rows of shelves, tables and cabinetry filled with every type of time keeping equipment you could think of: I saw rows of pocket watches, tables of wrist watches, wall clocks galore, floor clocks and every other timepiece you could think of somewhere. I was surprised I didn’t get a headache within a few moments of stepping inside it’s so loud. I could hear footsteps too, but above me: I looked up as I saw a figure, tiny, maybe a metre tall bounding and jumping through all the machinery before wrapping a hand around a thinner chain and falling behind a huge expanse of shelves at the back corner of the shop floor. The air was warm, comfortable, and thick with the scent of incense, warm wood, and metal in a pleasant, clean, and almost comforting scent. I could see a huge counter was along the left side of the shop, a desktop fastened to the wall going for the most part, the entire width of the building as small lights, glass lenses and various things were affixed to the wall as taken apart clocks and things littered the surface of the dark wooden desk. There were a few green glass shaded lights fastened into the counter’s brown granite top, but the light they made was still a softly gilded tone.

“Oh, wow” I whispered as I took a few apprehensive steps as I looked around, how someone didn’t get hurt with all the open grand scale clockwork out in the open.

“Do you need assistance with something?” a voice asked making me jump a little, a guy stepped into view; taller than me, stocky and muscled, deep and rich toned skin with short clipped black hair, his skin mottled with a strangely mint green toned vitiligo, a matching mint green unicorn horn grew from the centre of his forehead, his dark irises looked oversized on his scalar, pointed ears and a huge black and silver horse tail fell from the small of his back as he walked showed silver horse hoofs, dressed in loose, flared linen trousers, a tucked in vest-top with this big, floaty sheer blouse overtop patterned with green feathers, covered in jewellery including a small clock pendant around his neck, clock-hand earrings and a wrist-watch of sculpted gold flowers.

“Oh, I am…looking at getting a tune-up on my watch.” I said pausing to think about what I could do to see the warlord owner; I don’t know their name or anything about them.

“Of course, just head over to the counter, I’ll show you over and I’ll tell Princeton that he has a client.”

“Princeton?”

“He’s the owner, any repairs on clocks he does.” The unicorn said before walking off leading me over towards the counter. I walked over towards the counter as I saw a figure sitting there, back towards me and leaned over as they worked on something. “Princeton, you have a client”

“And I am currently working on a vintage Rolex” the figure said, rising his head a little, this cascade of stark white hair fell over his shoulder in these deep, thick curling waves with what nearly looked like gold thread spun through it before this…intense flinch seemed to go over his person as his eyes closed. “Martin” he said quietly in a slightly restrained tone, “Go polish the quartz faces.” He said

“Sir?” the unicorn said

“Please” Princeton said as the unicorn man softly sighed before nodding and walking off to the other side of the shopfloor. He sighed deeply, “I see you have finally shown yourself to me.” He whispered

“…what?” I asked

“Sorry” he said pinching his bridge of his nose, his back still facing me, “Just a thing that has to do with my family. You wanted me to look at your watch?”

“Please”

“Alright” he said as he stood from the iron high stool he was sitting on as he turned and stood at the counter facing me, he is…a fair bit taller than me, skin a soft warm tan with a spray of gilded freckles across his entire person making him appear as if dusted in golden glitter, a long vault of stark white hair to his shoulders with matching thick, long white lashes and thin, manicured stark white brows, these large and angular…glowing amber eyes that seemed to…bore into me to the depths of my soul with oversized pupils, golden claws on his hands patterned with filigree, these large swept back pointed ears adorned with gold earrings along the bottom angle of his pointed ears. He was dressed in a deeply cut blouse with longer sleeves, the fabric an icy sheer white and covered in what looked like scorch marks across the entire piece, adorned with masses of gold jewellery with amber, pearls and other pieces tucked into high waisted black leather trousers that flared over his shins, wrists and hands covered in jewellery, amber eyes surrounded by heavily winged out black liner touched with gold and lips covered in gloss filled with gold glitter. That heavy static feeling that I had walked through seemed to shift and warp as I moved closer to the counter before the unmistakable scent of hay and campfire filled my nose in this…intense and strong scent that was nearly choking and made my lungs tight as this heavy tang of iron joined the scent: the scent seemed to be…coming from him as he held his hand out.

I felt…frozen in time for a few moments before I snapped myself out of the stupor and took my watch off and handed it over to him, he looked at it before sighing softly.

“Well made for how cheap of a brand this is, but alas…they don’t know how beautiful and intricate clockwork actually is.” He said as he turned to the desk.