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38 - The Living Forge
🕑 Added 2024-07-27 15:45:32 +0000 UTCThe stone dragon stood in front of Ryan, curiously looking at the piece of metal on his palm. Though, 'looking' was probably the wrong word; it didn't have eyes, after all. But even so, Ryan could tell that it was focused on the small metal rod on his hand. It slowly took a step forward, its winged fore-legs moving hesitantly, as though this hulking mass of rock that would tower over even a troll or cyclops was the one that was scared.
Ryan's body was completely tense and frozen. He knew that this creature wasn't dangerous, otherwise Runar wouldn't be standing there so casually, but it was still taking Ryan quite a lot to not turn heel and run away.
As the stone beast approached, Ryan could start to feel the heat pouring out of its mouth. Beyond the jagged rocks that acted as its fangs, the glow of hot coals emanated outward. But somehow, even though the heat was growing horribly intense as that mouth came closer to Ryan's hand, it wasn't painful in any way, just uncomfortable. Ryan held his breath as the dragon's teeth carefully bit into the piece of metal, quickly pulling it away. The heat that he felt then was somewhat like when you stuck your hand into an oven; incredibly hot and if it lasted for a while it would most certainly start to hurt, but because of how fast the living forge had pulled away, he was only left with a slightly warm hand.
"This… What is this?" Ryan asked, watching as the dragon held the piece of metal up into the air, letting it slide into its mouth as if it were eating a fish. Ryan had seen this exact kind of thing before. Wyverns were rare, but he had seen one in a zoo in a large city before when him and his mom went on a trip for his birthday. This was the exact kind of thing that he saw then.
Runar slowly ran his hand over the creature's back, "It's an Elemental. As magic gathers in an object or natural force, it might attain some sort of intelligence. A gust of wind, a particularly dense cloud, or a stream of water. It's very rare, but it can happen if a lot of things coincide. And similarly, when an old object gathers a lot of mana with in, it may turn into an elemental. This one is the 'Forge'."
"That's so cool..." Silvia let out, staring at the elemental wyvern with a broad smile on her face, "So why does it look like that? And what's its name?"
Runar shrugged, responding to both questions, "We still don't really know why elementals take on the forms they do, and she hasn't accepted an official name yet."
"Wait, what do you mean 'accepted an official name'?" Ryan asked, glancing at the living forge, and Runar looked back awkwardly.
"So... do you know how dungeons will have official names? Like the... 'Abandoned Copper Foundry' you went to. Since elemental are kind of similar to dungeons in some ways, they can also have official names. But this girl hasn't accepted any names according to our appraiser," Runar explained, "So, that being the case, she just goes by 'Forge' for now until we find a name that truly suits her."
"I don't... I don't even know where to start with that, so I'll just ignore the fact that you said they're like dungeons," Ryan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "So, what is it that we'll be doing for now?"
"You're going to help take care of the animals today, that's all," Runar responded, "It's not easy work, but I feel like it's a good way to get used to things and meet the people you need to meet."
"Awe man... couldn't you have told us beforehand? I'm totally not wearing clothes for that kind of thing..." Silvia looked down at her outfit; a skirt, black boots, and an expensive-looking blouse definitely weren't the best fit to take care of animals all day. Runar glanced over at her and quickly replied.
"We've got outfits for you all to change into. They're just simple overalls and rubber boots though."
"... Hm... What colour are the overalls?"
"I don't know, black, grey, blue... we've got a couple different ones, I think," Runar replied, a bit confused about why Silvia cared about something as trivial as the colour of the overalls.
"Alright... I can make that work," Silvia replied as she got lost deep in thought, "Do you mind if I take some... creative liberties with them?"
Runar let out a long, quiet groan, "I really could not care less. Do whatever you want."
"Yay~," a broad grin formed on Silvia's face, and both Modak and Ryan seemed to calm down a bit. Her mood was clearly being lifted as she became more distracted from whatever had her so down before now.
Runar continued, "Well, we'll bring you guys to a spot you can change in a second, but first, you should meet our head animal caretaker," he said, pointing to a figure that was slowly approaching. Forget 'overalls', what they were wearing was practically a complete hazmat suit covering them from head to toe. They walked up to Runar and quickly greeted him with a salute, keeping their distance.
"Good day, Mister Aglecard," the woman's high-pitched voice flowed out from behind the thick, darkened helmet.
Ryan nervously looked at his uncle, "Do... do we need one of those as well?"
"No, she's just more comfortable wearing that around other people," Runar replied before turning back to the fully covered woman, "Rose, this is my nephew Ryan and his friends Silvia and Modak. They'll be helping you out for a few hours, so take care of them well, alright?"
With a quick, exaggerated nod, Rose replied, "Yes, sir!"
"Okay, perfect. I actually have some other stuff to prepare. I'll just be in my office, so come over if you need anything," Runar explained, letting out a long yawn as he turned around, muttering to himself, "So much shit to do, I just want to keep the café open..."
And so, Ryan, Silvia, and Modak were left with the forge elemental and Rose. The girl's muffled voice quickly spoke out, nervously flailing her arms around.
"It-It's nice to meet you! I'm Rose!" she introduced herself properly again, and Ryan took a step forward, holding out his hand to shake hers.
"Ryan, nice to meet you," he said, but Rose quickly pulled away and built some distance between them.
"Yes! Likewise!" she replied, clearly not comfortable shaking Ryan's hand. Figuring that there was no need to force it, Ryan pulled his hand away, turning to the living forge next to him. She was looking at Ryan curiously, her mouth slightly opened and letting out a soft glow from behind her teeth.
"So... Are there more elementals? Or what are we doing today?" Ryan asked, as Rose carefully walked up to the crate on the ground that had all the pieces of metal in it.
"We do have a few elementals, but not only. Mister Aglecard only asked me to have you accompany me on my lunch route, so I can show you all my babies today!" she explained, throwing a few of the metal bars from the crate into the air. The forge quickly reacted, catching them in her mouth with some smooth motions. Rose placed her hand onto the side of her snout, rubbing it carefully, "You know, this girl started out as just a little flame!"
"Huh?" Modak let out, clearly confused by what he heard. He was clearly already baffled by the revelation that elementals are similar to dungeons, but this was a whole other thing, "What do you mean? I've heard about elementals, but... they change?"
"Modak, right? Mister Aglecard told me you're interested in these sorts of magical things already," Rose carefully started picking up a few more metal rods to keep feeding the forge, "So, you know how dungeons have multiple stages? Stage 0 being that the seed of a dungeon settles into a space, a cumulation of tons of mana that interacted in seemingly random ways. Stage 1 is when that seed sprouts and pours mana into the space that it inhabited. And then, at Stage 2 is when you have a proper dungeon."
Ryan glanced at the forge, "So they have similar stages as well? Elementals grow over time?"
"Exactly!" Rose said immediately, pointing at Ryan as if he got the right answer in some quiz, "We can compare the initial birth of an elemental to a dungeon's second stage, and they keep growing and affecting things around them to a degree, growing slowly but surely into something... more."
"Isn't that kind of dangerous, then?"
Rose laughed slightly, something that clearly spread through her whole body. For someone that hid herself with a hazmat suit, she was extremely expressive, "Have you ever met a completely harmless animal, or even person at that? Of course, if disturbed, they might be dangerous, depending on how old and powerful they are. But elementals are also so rare that most of the time, when one pops up, they are the ones that need protection. Plus, elementals never affect the world around them, they simply add to their bodies! Our cute little forge here used to be flames of a forge, not the forge itself. But over time, as she grew older and more mana accumulated, she got the body she has now. We're keeping her here and are trying to fix up the smithy in case she feels the need to grow more in the future."
"... Well, alright. So... what first?" Ryan asked, glancing over at his friends who seemed quite excited to see all the different animals that were being protected down here.
"First, you get changed!" Rose quickly turned around, starting to lead the three down the road. As they were walking, keeping their distance from Rose as that was clearly what she wanted, Modak carefully leaned over to Ryan.
"I did not expect that we would do this of all things today..." Modak pointed out, and Ryan looked at him nervously.
"You don't have to if you don't want to. Runar said this is just a way for us to figure out what we'd like to do and to learn about different sides of the family, but if you can already tell that you'd rather not, then..."
"Oh, no, that's not it. It's not that I don't want to, it's just... I'm not very good with animals," almost embarrassed to admit it, Modak scratched his cheek, "I think it's a mana thing. Animals are more sensitive to it in general, and since I don't have any..."
"Wait, what?" Silvia asked, looking at the orc confused, "What do you mean you don't have any?"
"I... have Mana Rejection Disorder. My body can't hold any mana."
"It kind of saved my ass with Energiser, though," Ryan added, "So it's not all bad, right?"
Modak sighed lightly, "You don't need to be like that. It's annoying, but I've dealt with it my whole life. I'm fine."
Silvia slightly patted Modak's back. Both her and Ryan understood how much he loved magic at this point, so not having mana must be a massive blow. Even without awakening, it was possible to use magic if you were dedicated enough to learning how to. And having something like Mana Rejection Disorder holding you back from even trying must be crushing.
But with magic engineering, Modak seemed to have found a good middle-ground between what he can and can't do, still letting him deal with magic somehow.
"At least you don't have to worry about Liam trying to bite your neck," Ryan scoffed lightly, "He stood in my room and yelled at me to offer him up my blood this morning. That was how I met him."
Modak laughed lightly, "Hey, I mean, that does sound like what a kid would do. Zigg and Mogh had this 'Hero' phase, and they'd come into my room to slay the 'Slumbering Titan'."
"Yeah... I just hope that he doesn't act like a total ass at whatever school he'll go to," Ryan sighed. Modak and Silvia shared a look for a moment, and then turned back to their friend.
"You're already that worried about him?" Silvia asked, though it was more like she was pointing it out. Ryan shrugged.
"I guess. I was a bit of a weird kid too, so I get what it's like," Ryan replied, as the group walked into a nearby building.
"I'm sure all three of us were pretty weird kids, right?" Silvia pointed out. Modak thought about it for a moment, and just ended up shrugging.
"I guess I was kind of weird," he replied, "I hid in my elementary school's library after closing hours once so I could just read all weekend."
"How long did it take them to find you?" Ryan wondered, and Modak thought about it for a few moments.
"Hm... I think my dad dragged me out at some point that night. But it's been a while, I was in first grade."
"Aww, little baby Modak," with a slight giggle, Silvia looked around the room, as the orc awkwardly hid his embarrassed blush. But before they could continue talking, Rose was waving them over.
She stepped to the side as the three got closer, letting them see into what seemed to be a supply closet, "We keep some spare work-clothes here. Just pick whatever fits you, and then come back outside! I'll be waiting! We've got some changing rooms right over there."
Silvia stepped into the supply closet first, curiously looking at the different options. And before either Modak or Ryan could even pick something out, she pushed some options into their hands, "These would look good on you!"
The orc looked at the dark blue overalls and sighed, "It looks exactly the same as the one I wear when I help my dad at the garage."
"Yeah, and the colour suits you!" Silvia immediately pointed out, as Ryan unfolded his red overalls. He couldn't complain, it would probably fit him pretty well. It wasn't a bad colour either.
And Silvia herself quickly picked out a pitch black one for herself, but she also immediately grabbed something from her backpack. A small sewing kit. She took out a small pair of scissors and cut into the fabric without hesitation.
"Wait, you're actually going to alter it? Now?" Ryan asked with a bit of disbelief in his voice, and Silvia grinned up at him.
"Nothing big, but yeah! Why not~? Don't worry, it won't take long, it's just a small change!"
"Sure, if you say so," with a laugh, Ryan and Modak made their way into the changing rooms. They were all single-person spaces, so each of them took their own small cabins.
Ryan took off his jacket and trousers, placing them onto the small shelf. It was deep summer, and it was so incredibly hot upstairs. Down here, underground, it was quite pleasant, but upstairs he was almost dying every day. He glanced down at his legs, seeing the scars that covered them. They were more sparse than the ones on his back, but still enough for Ryan to feel self-conscious about then. But maybe he should try to just not give a shit about it any more. Why would he care what strangers thought about him, if his best friends supported him to the point they joined a secret society with him?
Ryan let out a slight sigh as he put on the overalls. He didn't pull it over his upper body, instead just tying the sleeves around his waist like a belt. The shirt Ryan was wearing was kind of old anyway, so he didn't care if it got dirty. And so, Ryan stepped back out of the changing room, ready to get to work.
