I never thought of the apprentice as his son, but he definately could be. In my mind he was a relative or family friend who had a sickly old mum. I did think of the smith being in his 40's or so, getting old for a man of the age, but still strong and full of vitality. I did think of him making the weapons of the land's previous lords, but in my mind it was not just the taking of one territory, but the beginning of the Edo Age. The Tokugawa have just taken control of almost all of Japan and through the smith I attempted to allude to the coming age of peace and prosperity. The smith is just a simple man trying to make a living, just as you stated. I wanted the streets empty maybe to allude to recent battles depleting the population but definately to a feeling of fear in the populace, the rest of the people were wondering what their new lords would do and if they were in danger, but the smith is unafraid, because he sees his trade as important in peace and war and is too old to spend too much time worrying if the Tokugawa will have some animosity towards him.

What did you think of the two Vignettes as stories? Good Writing bad writing? Any suggestions?

Thanks for the comments Monk, I will try to do another one tomorrow.