Arc 2 Part 5
It was morning in Mariana when a wagon entered through the defensive stone wall. Riding the wagon were to young wolfmen. “Ahh it’s good to be back here.” Said the younger of the pair as he leaned back.
“Just remember, we are meeting the Mining Guild’s new business partner. Father chose us for a reason.” The older one guided the horses’ reins.
The younger wolfman tipped his strawhat up with a raised eyebrow. The older wolfman then gave under the stare. “Okay, make it two reasons. The first being that he trusts us. But let’s be honest about the second reason, you and I both put in the request to have work that would get us away from the mining town for a while.”
The wagon continued on the road. It just passed the Guardhouse. After a friendly wave to the guards as they passed, the younger wolfman looked down the road. “Okay, the place should be next after the Guardhouse. Shouldn’t be missable.”
He wasn’t wrong. After traveling past some empty land by the road, there was the house they were looking for. The older wolfman stopped the wagon in front of the walkway to the door and the pair stood up.
“So, what do you think this guy is like?” The younger man asked as he fixed his strawhat.
“Don’t know. All we need to do is make sure the smelter works and that he knows how to use it.” The older man shrugged as both of them got to the front door.
As they got to the door, the younger wolfman knocked on the door. “One second!” Came a feminine voice. The pair looked at each other.
“Huh guess his voice hasn’t deepened with age.” The older one remarks.
The door’s locks are heard being undone. Then with the handle turned the door opened slowly. Standing before the two wolfmen was a pretty snow white colored haired witch. She stepped out of the house and shut the door behind her, her hat casting a darker than usual shadow.
The younger wolfman raised a hand. “Hey there. My name is John Schmidt.” He gestured to the taller wolfman. “This is my brother Jacob Schmidt.”
Jacob then spoke. “We are here to make sure your smelter is in working order and to deliver the first shipment of ore to you.”
“A pleasure to meet you both.” The witch bowed politely. “I’m Pearluna, just a humble witch. You both are looking for my friend Vil.” She turned her head and pointed to the forge. Its large front doors still closed. “He should be in the forge. He told me that he was working on something this morning. Come on, we can use the front.” She walked past the brothers while beckoning them to follow.
As the trio approached the large wooden front doors of the forge, Pearluna walked to one side and grabbed a large handle. With a pull the door slid across to the other side. Upon closer inspection the sliding door was moving to be in front of the left side.
Looking inside, the John whistled seeing the large interior. “That’s a lot of empty space near the entrance.”
“We plan on using it.” The witch stepped into the forge. “Such as having the ingot pallets near the front for easy loading to your wagon.”
“Thanks for being considerate.” Jacob continued to follow Pearluna inside to where Vil was.
At the workbench Vil was assembling wooden gears into a large boxlike object. As the trio approached unnoticed by the crafter, a wooden handle floated into place and started to screw itself into an outer gear. He then started to stand over the contraption, looking to see that everything was in place.
“Vil.” Pearluna called out. “We have guests.”
The human stopped inspecting the wooden device and stood up straight and turned to see the other three presences in the forge. “Oh sorry I didn’t see you guys there. As you heard from Pearluna, I’m Vil.” He extended a hand and the wolfman brothers took turns to shake it.
“Hey there.” John used the same greeting he used for Pearluna. “I’m John Schmidt and this is my brother Jacob Schmidt.”
“So you are the blacksmith that our father, Heimer, told us about.” Jacob said.
“Good things I hope.” Vil commented.
“Said you were a nice guy. But onto why the two of us are here.” Jacob got to the point. “We are here to make sure the smelter installed works. If it does, the ore and pallets in our wagon will be given to you to get to your first quota.”
“Alright, let's head outback and get started.” Vil walked next to the witch. “Pearluna and I have been wanting to test something with the smelter. So let’s see if it will work.”
The brothers went and got a container full of iron ore for one ingot and were met by the blacksmith and witch by the smelter. “Here you go.” John handed the container to Vil. “You gotta show us that you know what you’re doing.”
Vil took the ore and dumped it into the smelter. What perplexed the wolfmen was that Vil then reached out to the smelter. “What are you…” Jacob’s sentence died as he saw what was happening.
The stones where wood or coal would be for heating the smelter were glowing red hot. They could feel the heat given off by the smelter. Then Vil just put his hand down and just watched the smelter along with Pearluna.
“Ooo. Fancy heat source you got there.” John looked at Vil. “You have tested this right?”
Vil shook his head. “No, but I know the temperature that smelting requires. Don’t worry my teacher taught me how to control it very well.” He smiled sweetly at Pearluna.
Jacob then changed the subject. “It will take a while for this to finish. So what was that wooden thing you were working on?”
Vil proudly stated. “It’s a proof of concept for a mechanism that can control a hammer like end to steadily strike with consistent force and pace.”
John looked confused. “What’s wrong with just swinging a normal hammer?”
Vil pulled out his hammer from his leather apron and did a slow swinging down motion. “This takes time, energy, and the person’s error. It is good with doing details, but I could be tired from all that swinging to just get the metal into the basic shape.” The hammer then started to float in front of him and the handle was sticking straight up. The hammer then started to go up and down with no change horizontally. “The mechanism should be able to strike the same place consistently and will require less work on my part for it to function.” Vil then placed his hammer back in his apron.
“So this consistent hammer will get the metal into the basic shape you want without you tiring yourself out. That way you can use your normal hammer to work on details. Am I correct?” Jacob tried to grasp the idea.
“Pretty much.” Vil nodded affirmatively. “But like I said, the wooden version is just seeing if it can even work. The metal version I intend to build will be the one I’ll use.”
The blacksmith then turned to the smelter. “It’s ready.” Without needing to touch it, The smelting pot tipped and poured the liquid iron into the ingot mold.
After a while the metal started to cool and solidify. As the group watched, the ingot eventually lost its glow from the heat it once had. Vil then reached out and the, now solid, ingot started to float out of the mold. “It’s still hot.” The ingot started to rotate in the air. “So how does it look?”
Jacob got a closer look and inspected the ingot. His wolf ears went down but then stood straight up. “Looks great! That is one solid piece of iron right there.” He turned to his brother. “Okay time to unload the wagon.”
Jacob quickly walked away with his tail wagging a bit. John first looked at the witch and blacksmith. “Don’t mind him wanting to move fast now. After our visit we get the rest of the day off. He’s been wanting to go to a certain bar in Mariana for a while.” The younger brother then walked away to assist his brother.
The iron ore containers were placed in the free space near the door to the smelter. The pallets for the ingots were placed next to them. The Schmidts worked fast, clearly excited that they got most the day free after this visit.
With everything squared away, Vil and Pearluna stood by the wagon to bid the brothers goodbye.
“It was a pleasure meeting you both.” Jacob said as he gripped the reins.
“Don’t start missing us yet. We’re going to be here once every week.” John leaned back.
“We will see you then.” Vil smiled at the pair.
“Enjoy the rest of your day.” Pearluna nodded.
With that the Schmidt brothers rode off into town. “They were nice.” Pearluna commented to Vil.
“They sure are.” Vil turned to shut the front door of the forge. He then extended his hand to Pearluna. “Come on, I’ll make dinner.”
The witch gripped his hand softly, entwining their fingers. “It’s early for dinner. Besides you were hunched over working on that thing in the forge all day before they came. It’s bad for your back.”
“And you have a solution for it.” Vil smiled. “Let me guess, a massage.”
The witch leaned in. “Unless you don’t like this vampire’s touch.”
“I’ll be on the couch then.” Vil met her eyes.
The pair entered their home together while smiling at each other.
<Scene Change>
In Mariana there was a bar that was quite popular. Inside there were patrons not only drinking, but enjoying the food and talking to one another. As everyone was laughing and having a good time, the doors were thrown open.
“Guess whose back!” John shouted with his tail wagging and his brother stood next to him.
“Schmidts!” Everyone shouted back in joy. There were multiple comments sent their way.
“What took you guys so long?”
“Welcome back!”
“You guys staying for a while?”
The wolfmen were shaking hands and waving hello to all the patrons until the excitement calmed down. The two found themselves at the bar table and were met by a naiad woman that had two tentacles coming out of her back.
“John, Jacob.” She nodded to both. “The usual?”
“Yessiree!” John said.
The naiad nodded. “It’s good to see you again.” She was looking at Jacob in particular before walking to get their order.
“Good to see you too, Cepha” Jacob waved at her retreating form.
“You really want to change the cuttle in cuttlefish to cuddle, don’t ya.” John teased his brother.
The older brother flicked John’s hat forward. “Enough about that for tonight.”
As John fixed his hat, Cepha returned with their order. They were to large wooden tankards and two plates of sushi. “Enjoy.” She then turned to serve more patrons.
The rest of the night was a small celebration of the brothers being back in town. Jacob announced that they will be back for a weekly basis. That got the crowd to cheer as the two favored wolfmen were going to be present more often.
“And don’t worry, we know why you’re here and why we’re here.” John shouted as he pulled out a violin and Jacob sat at the piano at the end of the bar and both began to play.
