War for the Skies (completed) (Book 1 of the Heroes of the Realms series)

Chapter 49

(Just so you guys know, if you read the previous chapter right when it came out, I've made some edits to the end of it, so just make sure you've read the new version before reading this. Thank you!)

I got off of my bed and followed Bofur out of the inn. My friends were led by some other dwarven men to the Great Hall, where the feast would apparently be held. The streets seemed empty of dwarves, and seeing the place full of them a second ago, made it strange to walk down a lonely road with Bofur.

"So... Where are we going?" I asked him.

"Oh, we're going to go to my personal workstation, where I craft all of these pieces of armor!" he smiled, as we took a right toward a dark alleyway. On the other side was a wooden door, which was surprisingly not grey, with a golden doorknob. There weren't any signs of a house behind the door, but Bofur and I walked toward it anyway.

Bofur scrambled around his many pockets to find his key. Once he reached into the right pocket, he screamed "Ah! There you are!" and excitedly placed it inside the keyhole of the door.

The locks clicked open, and the door swung the other way, which showed probably the best forge in the entire city.

"Whoa..." I muttered.

Bofur's workstation was unique among the many lava-based, stone forges. His room was very colorful, and he had many posters of musicians such as the Beatles, strewn across his wall. The room itself wasn't that big, maybe about my inn room. The walls were painted bright white. There was a forge toward the left, which occupied the whole left wall. It was large and grey, with splatters of green and red paint on it.

Tools were scattered across the floor, which made me move carefully so I didn't step on a screwdriver. There was one window across from the door, which showed the streets of Washington, surprisingly, which made the room brighter than many of the areas in Stoneforge. Toward the left, a small kitchen lay, along with a messed up bed at the very corner. I didn't know if the room made Bofur happy with its current state, but it sure was brighter and more colorful than the other places in Stoneforge.

"So... you live here?" I asked, avoiding stepping on a group of nails.

"Sure do!" he said, happily, though I felt like I heard a little bit of pain in his voice.

"Does Thrain live with you?" I asked, which was probably a bad question.

"No..." suddenly, every bit of joy seemed to disappear from his voice. "He lives in the Queen's palace, a level further underground."

"There's an even lower area of Stoneforge?"

"Not one, many!" he explained.

I followed him to where a large worktable stood, and on top of it were large, colorful shoulder pads, which bore the green, blue and red color like my friends had been wearing. A pair of grey biker gloves was next to the shoulder pads.

The more I thought about how kind and generous Bofur had been to us, and him being placed into this dark place made me angrier. It wasn't fair, at least he should've been living in a normal house in the neighborhood.

"Would you give me your mage blade for a second?" he asked.

I had forgotten all about my sword. I unstrapped it from my back, and I realized how heavy it was. I handed it to Bofur.

"Do you... uh... want some adjustments?" he asked as he observed the blade.

"Can you make it lighter, and up... sharper?" I requested. He nodded happily and walked toward his forge. He pressed a button on it and told the forge: