Warrior of Arcana

Chapter 3 (Prodigy magic smith)

  "Nice to meet you, I'm Kid Steel, youngest smith of the Steel smiths." A slightly built teenager stand before me in leather overalls and no shirt. His eyes and mid length hair are the color of polished iron.

  "I'm Alizar Graves, of the new Graves family of the Arcane."

  "Arcane!" He says. "Its an honor to meet you, may I ask something of you?"

  "What can I do for you?" I ask him.

  "Allow me to join your family and I'll throw these plated fingerless channeling gloves in with your purchase."

  "You want to join my family?" I ask shocked.

  "Yes, it would be a great honor, Arcane mages are rare in the magic world, they are highly respected, it would be an honor to be in your family."

  "Well then, I'd be glad to have you." I say and reach my hand out.

  He takes my hand and shakes it vigorously. "Well now, as for my payment for the gear?" He asks.

  "The Archeus familiy will pay the tab to you," She puts her hands on her waist. "After your deal is finished and you are an official Graves family member as the bargain was, with ten percent of the fee to be paid to your new family."

  "Of course, of course." He starts walking in the direction of the contracting offices. As we walk Kid explains that he has been smithing for two years and already holds the master smith title and has the rare ability to smith and combine magic items. Hes seventeen and the youngest Earth mage to manipulate metals. Hes the bastard child of the head of the Steel family of the Earth Mages.

  We enter the contracting hall and the same clerk from earlier today wave us foward. "Welcome back, how may i help you Sir Graves."

  "Sir?... I'm here to contract a new family member."

  "Already, may I have the persons name and magic class?"

  "Kid Steel of the Earth Mages."

  "Okay one moment." She waves her hand and a scroll appears. She rolls it open and places it in front of me and Kid. "Now if you'll both please sign."
A pen appears in front of both of us. We sign and the contract goes poof.
"All done, congrats on growing your family, have a nice day."

  As we exit the office I notice a board across the makeshift street, a sign hanging above it reads "Open Bounties."

  "Hey Alexa, whats that board there for?"

  "Thats a bounty board, open bounties on the board usually consist of hunting down a magical creature and retrieving its essence." A small grin appears on her face. "A good way for a new family to make money."
 
  I walk over to the board looking through all the bounties. They all range from wiping out a vampire nest, killing a werewolf or shapeshifter, to hunting down a rogue caster. As I look at the posters Kid comes up and grabs the shapeshifter bounty.

  "We should start with this." He points at the the twenty thousand dollar reward. "Good money, easy job, plus I know the shapeshifter lore."

  "Okay then lets do that." I look at Alexa. "You gonna help us on this one?"

  "Nah, its a good time to see if you can handle yourself, and if you can really lead a magic family."

  "Well I need to collect my things and we can get going." Says Kid turning and heading down the street.

  We follow him to a small inn on one of the markets outer edges. The outside has the same rough look of the area in which it sits, but as we step in I gasp. This place is massive and looks like the inside of one of those five star hotels you see on T.V. with the huge hanging chandeliers and everything.

  "Kid!" yells a dark skinned little girl.
"You're home, did you make any money today?" She runs up to him with a big smile on her face.

  "Yeah Kai-La." He ruffles the dark hair on her head and she gives him a funny look. "I'll get you your doll, I promise."

  "Ok big brother." She looks at me and Alexa like she just noticed our presence. "Who are these people?"

  "This is Alizar Graves and his friend Alexa." Kai-La hides behind her brothers legs. "Alizar is the head of the family I just joined."

  "You finally got in a family!" Her eyes light up with excitement. "Is it a big family."

  "No currently its just me and him, I believe." He looks to me for confirmation and I nod. "Well I came to fetch my stuff and get heading out."

  "Okay Kid, let mom know you'll be leaving." She skips off into a different room and Kid disappears into another.

  A few minutes later he steps from the room with a steel chest plate and studded shoulders, his wrist and arms are wrapped with bandages and steel gauntlets over that. In his hands he carries a huge blacksmith hammer that is a few inches taller than him.

  "Wow you actually carry that thing around all the time?" Says Alexa her jaw almost touching the floor.

  "My gods gift is body of steel" He flexes his arm. "My skin is harder and my muscle density is increased."

  "Thats pretty impressive." She stares in admiration at the large hammer as Kid easily swings up and strapping it into it holder.

   "Okay we ready to go?" I ask as I put on my cloak, gloves and boots. The mask fitting into place in the hood.

  "Lets kill ourselves a shape shifter." Says Kid as Alexa calls her dad and has him open a portal from our location to Port Huron, the location of our bounty. We step through and a wave of nervousness overwhelms me.