"Geez what has Ben been working on this past week?" asked Alex obviously miffed at the fact she hadn't seen her friend since he had locked himself in with Kylie at the start of the week. "Alex calm down. Its Ben if he thinks it is important it might save our lives someday." Thomas soothed. Suddenly a bang sounded inside the blacksmiths hall.
"That sounded bad," Thomas stated the obvious.
"Alex slowly creaked the door open and saw the hearth burning bright and there was Ben on the floor cradling a sword like it was his newborn son. Kylie, standing next to him was swaying and looked in danger of falling down. Thomas the Karate specialist in training leapt to her side catching the dame before she fell unconscious into the bellows. The priests daughter was pale and looked as though she hadn't slept the entire time she had been in the forge. Ben looked even worse.
"Let's get them to the infirmary." Alex said. In the war torn country the infirmary was a permanent fixture in the village under her dad's rule. Thomas's muscles strained as he picked up Ben the blacksmiths slave, who had been toning his body the last few years iron working, with nearly no breaks, worked to the limit. They started the long arduous journey from the castle forge to the infirmary, both warriors in training carrying a body like a sack. They got to the infirmary just as the head priest of the castle, Thomas's father walked past.
"What happened?" he demanded sounding worried that his son had done something that had endangered the renowned blacksmith.
"Just passed out from lack of sleep don't worry sir both of them will be fine." Alex replied.
"Peasants," the doctor walking by scoffed loudly at Alex, one of the soldiers being trained at an early age, she didn't even bother to look at Ben.
They walked into the infirmary where Kylie was immediately transported to a private quarter, her father, even after abandoning her had a high standing in the town. While Ben was put with the rest of soldiers who were recovering from horrendous wounds from the other side's beasts. He would be treated better than his slave quarters but Thomas still knew it would be rough and that Ben was still in danger. He made a vow to make sure he grabbed some scraps for Ben later to help he malnourished friend.
Suddenly an angry woman was screaming "why is he allowed in here and not my husband who is suffering from battle unlike that dimwitted slave. Get him out of here!"
She was screaming with rage and looked ready to kill the slave, a perfectly legal thing all she had to do was hit the button on the metal collar around Ben's neck. Suddenly Alex darted into the path of the woman and grabbed her seconds before she could hit the button.
"Get out of the way! "the woman screamed but Thomas grabbed her other hand not allowing her to move.
"Back off this slave is under the protection of the kings guard,"
Thomas said stretching the truth a little. His position was actually an apprentice but the name still carried weight especially with all the soldiers in the room who knew how hard it was to become even an apprentice in that organization.
Thomas led the woman out of the room, realizing he would need to stand guard, many others would feel the same way she had, ready to kill the slave if it meant that they could open a bed for their wounded husbands. The small town Haven was not more than 50 miles from the fighting, one of the closest small towns. Soldier constantly traveled through on their way to help fight the beasts with other front line soldiers and mage. The war was reaching its 20th year, anyone who would be fighting were being trained younger and younger. Thomas had started at 4, Alex starting 2 years later. Both were masters in their choice of weaponry, Thomas with his sword Alex with her bow. Whereas, Kylie has mastered the art of the mages, her specialty wind magic.
Ben was in the infirmary for a total of nine days, rolling around in pain, his dreams obviously troubled by whatever had forced him into working those 7 days in the forge, Thomas and Alex both had searched the forge but neither was able to find anything out of the ordinary.
Suddenly it felt, Ben was awake and moving, though something was wrong. He didn't seem to be able to speak, having to write everything down on tablets. Doctors searched his mouth over and over again, looking for something That would have stopped him but no one could find any signs. His friends worried, Thomas tried everything Kylie even tried spells, though healing wasn't her specialty.
Soon though he regained his tongue. His first words were sorry.
"what happened?" Alex and Thomas asked simultaneously, Ben had refused to answer while he wasn't able to speak, and he still didn't. Saying even he didn't know.
Soon Ben was working in the Blacksmiths forge, working long hours preparing the army, soon all of his friends would be going to the frontlines, and Ben was trying to equip them with the most amazing armor possible, using what little free time he had to work on the armor.
"Work those bel loo ows harder!"the blacksmith yelled to Ben, even though he was renowned throughout the country he was still a slave. When you lifted Ben's shirt you would find marks from years of slavery, scars crisscrossed his back, They were from a rebellious time. Soon though Ben had mellowed down.
The pair, Ben and the master blacksmith were creating longswords, not useful fighting humans but when the beats popped up they could land a heavy blow. They had been purifying the metal, driving gases put of it by heating it to the extreme temperature. Though they had iron at their disposal if need be, they only used it rarely, the high melting point made it harder to work with. at this point they were mixing copper and tin crating bronze. These were strong swords that were not brittle, unlike tin swords, which were considered useless, though if used right could leave fragments of metal under the skin. The two mumbled magic incantations slowly while they worked, through reserach it had been surmised that the best way to kill a beast was to cut its head off with a burning sword. They worked for hours, the Blacksmith eventually leaving Ben to continue working for himself.
As Ben finally finished he realized he would have to go back to the slave quarters tonight. Becuase of his fame, and fortune, many of his peers made fun of him, calling him names, beating him up until he couldn't see out of his swollen eyes, and now would be especially bad, being gone for days on end could not have helped his case.
Ben closed the shop, closing off the oxygen supply for the bellows so it would die down, then covering it with ash so tommorow he wouldn't have to start a completly new fire, he would be able to use coals.
