34. Blades and Purple Rocks

Early in the morning, Mark was awoken by the bright sun on his face. He felt the warm embrace of the powerful star which ensured the continuance of life in his world. The gentle warmth was always a nice thing to wake up to as the light stimulated his eyes and brought him out of his dreamless sleep. Upon his wake, he promptly washed up and grabbed some food to break his fast before heading to the smithy.

He leisurely strolled along the early morning path with dew still sticking to the rocks and blades of grass that were sporadically growing in this area of the mountain. He sipped water out of the animal skin he carried around him to ensure he could quench his thirst at any point in the day.

He breathed deeply on his way to his workstation, filling his powerful lungs with the cool damp morning air. The feel of breathing the sweetly scented air was relaxing, and it always brought a sense of accord when coupled with the wondrous view of the mountains on the skyline with the vast valleys below.

He passed his favorite spot while taking a long swig of the cool spring water without pausing to take a longer look since he reserved that for the nights he felt like seeing something ethereal. He did see a couple of the vampire moose down in the valley watching over some of their calves playing in the river.

His walk to the smithy was always short, but also invigorating. It was like the walk along the mountain path was filled with energy that helped fully wake him up with some sort of stimulating energy and today he felt it even more deeply than usual. He was in quite a good mood as he began setting up his working area for the day.

He refilled his coals at the forge and had them lit while he arranged the tools and materials he would need for the morning.

'I should finish the sword first since it will be quick with the established method from last night. Then the quota for the day can be fulfilled.'

As he thought about his course of action he noticed the items he had created last night were gone, as per the agreement with the merchant Li. The caravan guards had come to pick them up at some point while the sun was still down. 

After getting everything ready, he pulled the unfinished sword down on his anvil while he waited for the coals to reach a white-hot temperature. As he was looking at the flames that were steadily getting hotter he heard feet shuffling behind him to his left.

He thought to himself as he looked over, 'I wonder who would be out here this early when the guards already took their armors from yesterday. . .'

It was not unusual for someone to bring things by for repair, but to his knowledge, there should be no one this early in the morning unless someone broke their sword this early.

As he swung his head around, he was greeted with a beautifully startled face. One framed by perfect blonde hair with immaculate swirls that flowed down like a waterfall. Anabel looked to be in the middle of climbing onto the table just outside of his smithy, and she had a surprised look on her face for a second as though she thought she had made no sound trying to shuffle up onto the ledge of the wooden platform.

Her surprise was momentary though, as her startled look quickly transformed into a radiant smile that caused Mark's cold heart to thump unexpectedly. Her perfectly straight white teeth seemed to glow with the light of the morning sun, and it accentuated her already perfect face. It was enough to cause any young man to forget himself as he looked right into her icy blue eyes that drew him in as if he were being hypnotized.

Anabel blushed a little when she noticed that Mark was staring at her.

"Did I come too early? You seem to be a little surprised. . ."

Mark shook his head to get ahold of himself.

'What the hell was that, did I just forget to think?'

Looking a little flustered, he quickly replied to Anabel, "Sorry, yeah I guess I was not expecting anyone to come by the forge this early. What are you doing here anyway?"

He could tell that she was wanting to watch him work, seeing as how she was seated on the table. He was just a bit confused as to why.

She casually replied, "I wanted to see what you do at the smithy here all day, so I figured I would watch you work. Why? Do you want me to leave?"

Mark thought about it for a while before he said, "I guess it is ok for you to be here, but I think you will quickly get bored."

To which Anabel said, "If I get bored then I will go find something else to do!" And she flashed him a quick smile that caught him off guard again.

Fully flustered, he mumbled, "Fine but I won't be able to entertain you while I am busy."

Content with his consent, Anabel made herself comfortable as she watched him get to work.

He placed the sword on the coals in the forge which looked hot enough to heat the weapon while he got the alloy ready by putting the crucible in the hottest part of the forge. Then he grabbed a poker and shuffled the coals around the crucible and sword to help them heat up faster.

After poking around in the fire for a bit, Mark just watched the flames as they licked at the blade. The temperature of the blade was visibly heating up at this point and it wouldn't be long for it to be hot enough to start working on it.

He then got out his etching tool to fix any of the previously notched grooves that he made in the side of the sword he was working on today. Since the heat could potentially close or warp the grooves, they would probably need to be fixed. He set it next to his anvil to have it at the ready and checked on the sword again.

Meanwhile, Anabel was just watching him work. She seemed to be content with her entertainment for the day.

When the sword was ready, Mark pulled it out of the forge and got to work smoothing out the imperfections and fixing the grooves he needed for the fifth step. When he was done, he looked at the forge and could see that the alloy was ready to be poured.

He utilized the crucible tongs to remove the alloy from the forge before pouring it evenly into the grooves of his sword. He replaced the crucible in the forge to keep the alloy ready if he needed it and grabbed his hammer to immediately begin the fifth step.

As he swung his hammer, the crystal gave off the purple blasts of light that were normal for the fifth step which Anabel noticed and grew even more interested in the work Mark was doing. She didn't notice that he was bonding two different types of metals into a new alloy, but the light show given off by the hammer was quite pretty in her eyes.

Mark quickly became oblivious as he returned to his visions of spheres and pyramids. He did as the previous time and directed the tetrahedral structures into the holes between the spheres and quickly finished his work.

When he realized that he was just finishing up on the fifth step, he made sure all of the silver metal was in the correct place without any blemishes before he stopped hammering in the rhythmic pattern he needed to perfectly bond the alloy. He left the sword on the anvil and nearly shit himself as Anabel spake from directly next to him, "HEY! What was with all the lights and fire?"

Startled, he looked over to his left where he could see Anabel looking up to him with large pleading puppy-dog eyes. It seemed whatever she was talking about was so interesting to her that she would put up with the stifling heat of the forge to get a closer look.

Mark just shook his head as he gently pushed her back by grabbing her shoulders. 

"Anabel, this is a smithy and I am working with lots of fire and hot and even molten metals. There are going to be all sorts of fires and flames with sparks flying while impurities and deformities are hammered out of the products. You are going to need to stand back a bit further to make sure you do not get injured."

Anabel ignored the admonishment from Mark and decided to press the issue. 

"Mark, that hammer shoots out purple light from its crystal every time you hammer the metal, are you sure that is normal? It looks like magic to me and even the witch lady in the village is just some sort of alchemist. Magic is not supposed to be real! What are you doing over here really?"

Mark was a little flustered, but before he could answer he was interrupted by, or possibly saved by, a couple of the caravan guards that were carrying their swords in one hand and what looked like purple rocks in the other.

"Hello there! Sorry to interrupt y'alls interestin' conversation about magic or whatever, but we were wondering if Mark here could fix up these swords?"

Anabel was a little shocked that the pair just walked up so casually, but the accent indicated that he was one of the guards born to some of the 'country folk' as the caravan people called them. They were known for being a bit informal, and even a little rowdy at times. But they were good people who seemed to have a culture more like the mountain villagers than the caravan people.

Mark was about to respond when they interrupted him again. Anabel giggled a bit at this as she rarely got to see Mark at a loss.

"Old man Li told us that we could bring 'em by since we messed 'em up killing some uh th' mountain beasts while we were collecting rocks. He said if we bring these pretty purple stones that ye might put a rush on it fer us."

Mark could now clearly see what the purple stones were, and he nearly shit himself again for the second time that day.

'Man, do I need to go to the restroom or what? But those stones are definitely the purple ores. I'll have to fix those swords right now. Maybe it will be incentive enough for the rest of the guards to bring the purple stones by as well.'

Mark took the stones from the first man and observed them closely before putting them in the small pile of the other purple stones he collected before doing the same with the other man's stones. 

"Do you guys want those swords reinforced while I am at it? I think it would be a fair trade for those purple stones and the blades will be much less likely to chip."

The two guys just nodded their heads eagerly and the other guy spoke up this time.

"If ye would do at fer us, we would greatly appreciate it."

Mark just moved to place the swords on the already hot forge as he replied.

"Just tell your buddies I'll fix or reinforce anything they want if they bring me those purple stones."

The two men shared a look before giving Mark a resolute nod.

"Ok then, this won't take long so you can wait around here or come back later, whatever you guys prefer." 

They men just walked over to a patch of grass and sat down as they waved back to Mark.

Anabel was looking at the stones with interest at this point.

"Hey Mark, why were you so eager to fix their weapons when they gave you these stones?"

Mark looked over at Anabel and started smiling as he rubbed his hands together. The look he was giving her creeped her out a bit as she had never seen Mark look like this.

"Well, Anabel, these stones are part of the project I am experimenting with to see if I can make that sword as strong as possible."

Mark was pointing at the sword he had laid on the anvil.

That's when Anabel remembered her questions about the lights and flames. 

"Hey! You were telling me about those flames and the purple light from that crystal. It looked like magic to me, was it not?"

Mark just shook his head a smiled.

"Alright, I'll tell you about it, but it's not magic."