“So whenever it gets too hot-”
“The pump shall activate, driving water around the barrel and a knife’s edge of the powder is dispensed into the loop,” Edita replied, the artificer looking mighty proud of herself as Tom inspected the handiwork.
She had been designing for weeks, and Shiva had finally been able to flex her skills on something she actually enjoyed. Many evenings had been spent carving, etching, and polishing the brand new cowling as well as the modified top cover for the 50 cal. It was beautiful work, polished to a mirror finish with every last rune beautifully cut. It looked less like it was hand forged and more like something you might get out of a CnC machine. “It’s beautiful.”
“Ahr yes, the rune geometry is essential for efficient and high flow of the magic. Rough edges and feathering are the bane of the enchantment.”
“I see… it definitely wasn’t just because Shiva felt like making a piece of art, was it?” Tom half-joked as he ran his fingers down the water jacket, made from polished brass. It was bound to get dented, which was a damn shame, but there were cures for that at least. It did mean that most of the runes had been cut into the steel receiver and top cover instead.
“She did produce far finer work than I had dared hope, yes,” Edita said with a genuine warm smile. “I was afraid the cycling assist would be unfeasible, but with such craftsmanship, it might actually work.”
“Cycling assist?” Tom questioned, looking to the top cover. He had been wondering why they had needed a whole new one.
“Ahr yes, in case of an incomplete cycle or jam it will rack itself. Isn’t that clever?”
“I uhm… I suppose so, yeah, but what happens if it’s stuck in there?” Tom questioned with a worried tone. He knew full well what this magic was like. It would suck the life right out of you if given the chance.
“I ehm… I suppose you best let go. It can’t draw over distance, too inefficient for this enchantment, so I ensured it would not be able to. There is also a switch there, under the barrel right at the front of the receiver, to turn off the whole thing when not in use.”
“I see… and you put all this together? In a matter of weeks?”
“Oh no, it isn’t finished yet. We have only carved the runes and made the small pump. I need Linkosta and Apuma to assist in enchanting it. Notice how the runes are but empty cuts yet?” Edita pointed out. Tom felt a bit dumb as he noticed that yeah, there was no blue in those runes yet, nor were they glowing or anything like that, unlike Nunuk's armor.
“Right… so when will it be ready?”
“A few more weeks I believe. Linkosta did finish work on the mines you requested. The detectors Joelina provided have been made use of. And she is confident in being able to produce more.”
“Very good… we shall see if they are better used as alarms or as part of the mines… It sounded like a good idea, but there is a lot of stuff around we don’t want blown to bits even if there is a darkling inside."
“Right you are. Perhaps we should trap the stables and stairs only then?”
“I uhm… We’ll think about that… later,” Tom deflected, not really feeling like boobytraping a place filled with live animals. Nor really anywhere inside the keep.
“Hmmm?... oooh right, I am sorry. Wiperna loves those animals a lot, does she not? I could assure her their deaths would be swift and painless.”
“You would be lying,” Tom replied a little darkly. “I’ll take it up with Rachuck. It’s very nice to have these either way. I’m sure he would love to leave them behind if we ever start pulling back through the keep.”
“You are probably correct, yes… How goes your work on the engine?”
“Oh that’s the easy part. Shiva looked ready to fall asleep in protest when I explained how I wanted to make the boiler… I suppose this partially explains why,” Tom replied, patting the 50 cal. “Maybe I can get a bit more of her attention now.”
“I see, yes, I believe she talked about it. You wish to fuse all the internal piping to the central steam manifold, no?”
“I uhm. Yes that, can’t really braze it with lead after all. It’s gotta survive a few hundred degrees.”
“Yes, and we do not have the tooling to do it with silver. Perhaps it is for the best, yes? It is only one.”
“Quite. A little Christmas project for her to work on I guess.”
“Christmas?”
“Oh uhm, human tradition… don’t worry, you’ll get it once the snow starts falling.”
“Oh… would we have to go outside? We may need more protective clothes if so.”
“No no, don’t worry. You won’t have to… I might need to make a few trips, though.”
“Are you sure? It did not go particularly well on the last hunt.”
Tom cleared his voice, hoping she would get the memo to just not talk about that particular incident. It was bad enough Jacky still hadn’t let it go. At least she and the other huntresses hadn’t come out on top in the last round of training. At least not after they actually tried going head to head.
Edita didn’t seem to understand, tilting her head. “Do you need some water?”
“I uhm… no, never mind,” Tom replied, trying not to sigh. It wasn’t her fault. “Yes, I will be heading out by myself at some point I think. Things are safer in winter, right? No darklings out flying. That’s what I keep hearing all the time after all.”
“I suppose so… but aren’t vargulf’s red-blooded like you? I don’t think they would mind the cold too much.”
“Ahr right, might have a point there… I’ll take that one under advisement then.” He hadn’t actually thought of that. He felt like he could probably manage to keep himself safe from those things if he was actually ready to deal with them. Thinking back to the wolf he had shot, he might have larger problems though. He very much doubted those things would get cozy for winter.
He didn’t want to give up on the idea either, though. He had no clue when “December” might be, nor if there was any sort of dragonette Jesus. But he was gonna hold a Christmas, god dammit. All they had planned was work and making the time pass through winter. It only seemed right to him to have at least one bright spot in the middle of it all.
He needed fresh food, a Christmas tree, and maybe a few presents. Though with only him and 40+ dragonettes, maybe he would need to give gifts to groups instead rather than for everyone. Either that or Rachuck would have to get recruited as head elf.
It would be perfect if he could have the central heating working as a gift for them all. But since he had no clue when or even if the snow would arrive, there was no way of knowing how much time he had to work with here.
He would just have to roll with the punches like normal.
“Are you thinking about ways to go out anyway?” Edita questioned innocently. Tom snapped out of his trance.
“I uhm- yeah well you see-.”
“You shouldn’t do that. Besides, we have plenty of things to do in here. I wanted to ask you. Should we try and make a better sight too? This one seems a little hard to use.”
_________________________________________________________________________________
“So… How are things going with Yldril?” Sapphire questioned, jogging up alongside Fengi as the smaller woman made her way down the hallway.
“Eh… not great… not terrible… Maiko did have a bit of a talk with her… But I think he just managed to get her to pretend to play nice so she could get something back. I mean, I get it; it’s cold and wet. But she was supposed to learn something, not just start to play it like a game.”
“I mean, I suppose it is some sort of progress, right? At least it might make her a little more tolerable.”
“I suppose,” Fengi replied reluctantly, though she was clearly not thrilled about it. “I could just tell her to be truthful I suppose, but I guess she would just stay quiet then.”
“You know, Fengi… Maybe just let her, don’t try to convince her, just let her see. And if she’s being a bitch, just shut her up in the future. Maybe she will never change, but that’s not our fault if we do our best to be reasonable. If she plays nice, give her a few comforts. Maiko’s scheme is convincing her she’s playing us all. And we get a half-decently behaved dragon at our beck and call. Sure beats what she is at the moment.”
Fengi sighed deeply, defeated. “Yeah… Maybe you are right… Maybe she is too far gone to fix. But she’s useful. So if she’s bearable to be around, that will have to do.”
“Yeah…” Sapphire replied half-heartedly. She knew this would weigh on Fengi’s mind for as long as Yldril was around, the feeling that it was all fake. It was bad enough that she had thought the rest of them only liked her thanks to her magic. With Yldril it would probably be true if the dragon ever warmed up.
“Don’t be so sad about it, Fengi. Most people are only nice because they have to anyway,” Ray added in, the two not having noticed her in a corner wringing out a cloth into a bucket. They came to a stop, looking at poor old Ray, who just shrugged. She dropped the cloth on the ground, her tail coming around to start pushing it around the floor. “They become mean and cruel the moment they can get away with it… So they won’t do it in front of their friends, or anyone who could cost them their reputation… or just money. Yldril doesn’t care about any of that. So make her do it some other way.”
“Make her lose her comfort and her freedom,” Sapphire echoed, agreeing with the sentiment even though she couldn’t help but wonder how Ray had learned that lesson. It felt personal. And it probably was. Saph had heard plenty of bad things about nobles greater and lesser. Regular people could of course be nasty too. Maybe it was that. Living amongst the homeless couldn’t have been easy, on any front.
“I… I will,” Fengi promised after a moment’s hesitation. “Once she wakes up at least. She’s turning in for the winter tomorrow.”
“Oh, already? I suppose we can’t really feed her any longer. Is it cold enough?”Sapphire questioned. This was good news. Fengi hadn’t had a break for months, so hopefully this would help ease things a lot.
“According to Zarko at least. Jarix is going to stay with us for a few weeks. He doesn’t eat that much as it starts getting colder, so Dakota allowed it.”
“Pretty good trade letting Jarix stay up in exchange for being rid of her.”
“Yeah… Tom wanted to keep him up, too. They are making a bunch of stuff in the greeting hall.”
“Oh yeah the press thingy. That is still so funny to watch,” Sapphire added in a brighter tone. They had not actually moved on from Ray, who was looking a little uncomfortable. Fengi had probably just gotten distracted by what they were talking about and forgotten where she was actually going.
But then Ray spoke up cautiously as ever. “Are they making anything other than the ammunition?”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“He’s been talking about the big gun Jarix has and some heat stuff, so that should be pretty good. I’m just happy we got the cold box.”
“Oh yeah, fresh meat for so much longer,” Fengi offered excitedly. “That is going to be amazing.”
“Yeah, we’re living like nobles. And the new clothes! I have been helping Essy a little bit. They are beautiful.”
“Agreed, I saw them too. Maybe I should go lend a hand as well,” Sapphire offered. She wasn’t much of a seamstress, but she could sew a bit. And there was bound to be plenty of work involved, that was for sure.
“Oh right! I needed to grab another roll for her!” Fengi broke out, seemingly remembering what she was actually walking for to begin with. The three of them had a little chuckle, Fengi making her excuses as she started to head off again. “Say what, I’ll see you up there. Back in a bit!”
“Can do,” Sapphire echoed back, shaking her head a little. “Living like nobles, yet here we are running around, ey? Maybe we should get some servants or something.”
Ray didn’t reply, looking down at the bucket, her tail stopping the washing of the floor. Saph turned to look at her, taken aback. “Not you, silly. If anything we need to get you out of that apron.”
“I… oh… Uhm.”
“Come on, Ray, you live here, you are one of us. And you have the papers to prove it. But I might recommend seeing about talking to Rachuck. You were a guard, no? Why not again?” she offered. She meant it too. Ray was wasted on simple house chores. Maybe she could be a trusted nanny in the future instead. She might like that more. But if they were going to be expanding with a factory, people they could trust would be valuable in the extreme for all manner of jobs.
“I wasn’t very good at it.”
“You can be trusted. That makes you better than nearly everyone we could hire from the cities. And I remember you down in the mines. You would make an amazing night guard or something like that.”
“But… I-”
“Belong here, and not just as a maid. We’re definitely going to need you.”
“I… Thank you.”
“Who knows, maybe we can get Tiguan assigned as permanent security. I’m sure you wouldn’t mind that.”
“That would be very nice. Maybe we could have a proper place made for them to stay. If we are getting traders all the time, maybe we should have stables built.”
“Not a bad idea, that one. Who knows, maybe that’s the next big building project. Next we will be building an inn for weary travelers. The most exotic foods in the kingdom. From the most ordinary of surroundings, hehe.”
“That would be pretty funny. All the sugary treats your heart can handle.”
“Oh, a bakery. We would put honey cookies to shaaame.”
“Oh yes, and who knows what else he might know how to make? I know he is very busy, but who knows?”
“And with all those traders coming in all the time to feed the factory, we could get all sorts of ingredients,” Sapphire added conspiratorially. She could see it before her. A small unassuming building, perhaps down by the lake. Rows of stables for dragons to lay comfortably under a roof and partake in the delights while the hustle and bustle went on inside.
“Oh yes yes! I didn’t think of that. That would be amazing,” Ray agreed, clearly onboard with the idea, the bucket and cloth forgotten.
“Hah, yeah… maybe one day. Probably gonna be a while though.”
“I can wait, I am not impatient.”
“It’s not you I’m worried about, it’s me,” Sapphire joked. “But a few years? I can definitely handle that. Doesn’t hurt that things are preeetty good here these days.”
“It really is… Maybe I could work in the kitchens.”
“Maybe you could be the head chef… Who knows? I doubt Tom would have the time.”
“Probably not, no… We should start work on a human cooking book,” Ray said thoughtfully. She was right, of course. The jam, pancakes, corn on the cob. They should be writing all this down. In draconic.
“You know, he might already have some. Though they would be in English, of course. Bit of a problem, that.”
“Don’t you like to read? You are better at English than all the rest of us. And there is no hunting going on anymore,” Ray offered cautiously. She clearly hoped Sapphire would jump at the idea. And she might have a point.
“You want me to start translating a cookbook?”
“You would be the best at it. You can read it and know how to cook.”
“I can sorta read it a bit. It’s damn hard, you know.”
“Practice makes perfect.”
“You must be very good at cleaning the floors then.”
“I think so, yeah,” she replied with a smile, Saph smiling with relief that the joke had landed for once. Too often Ray would get sad if one brought up anything like that.
‘She’s doing better. That’s good, very good.’
Ray’s smile turned slightly conspiratorial as she added, “Though maybe you should test the recipes before writing down the final version. Just in case.”
“Probably a good idea… Tell you what, I will do that. Maybe I can help him with his little idea to translate some of the movies too. I know he’s been wanting to do that for a while.”
“Oh yes, the one with the life of dragons would be good. The children were a bit confused.”
“Yeah, it was a strange one… then again, half of those things couldn’t fly. Maybe it was supposed to be confusing.”
“Oh yeah… Imagine having two heads. I can’t imagine disagreeing with myself…”
“I can. Often I want both a second helping and a dessert,” Saph joked, and they both had another chuckle. “Either way, I think I am going to go see what Essy is up to and if she needs a hand. If not, maybe I will go pester Tom about that cookbook.”
“You do that. See you later, Sapphire,” Ray replied, looking back to her work. “I will have the whole hall sparkling.”
“Just don’t work too hard. Later.”
“Later.”
_________________________________________________________________________________
Well then, it was time to see what had come of the labors on the gun. Tom hadn’t taken that much of an active role in the project aside from the few times Edita had wanted to explain to him what they had been up to over the last couple weeks. She was always so excited, so how could he say no?
It didn’t hurt that it was literally a magic gun. Despite Edita trying her best to explain the magical circuits to him, it made about as much sense as when Linkosta had tried. It was like programming with ones and zeroes, only you had hundreds of runes to work with. And from what Linkosta had said, they didn’t even know all the runes.
It was very cool though, even if he was a little bit worried that it wasn’t a very good idea. Magic could go wrong for sure. The whole anti-jamming system wouldn’t be much good if it killed the shooter after all.
The .50 hadn’t exactly been blessed with reliability thus far. Hopefully if they had a catastrophic failure it would be today where they could all haul Jacky off the gun before it did anything bad to her. Tom could definitely foresee a scenario where someone was hanging onto the gun on Jarix’s back in the middle of battle and didn’t have the sense to let go of the gun currently trying to kill them. But if it worked, it might be worth the risk to have it keep firing.
“Everyone ready?!” Jacky called out as she racked the gun without any issue, smacking the handle to make sure it was fully forward. “Right. Yeteekayeee nother cucker!”
“That’s not-”
THUN THUN THUN
The gun roared to life, spitting lead out into the distance from the greeting platform, Jarix and much of the keep watching as the steady rhythm reverberated against the stone walls behind them and out over the rolling hills. Every round flung fireballs out the end of the weapon like in a Hollywood movie. If it had been nighttime, he was sure it would have looked absolutely wicked.
As it was, it was just fucking loud. Loud enough to all but drown out Jacky’s cheering as the gun thumped on.
It didn’t take long before they had their first bad round. It sounded more hollow than the others and there was nowhere near as much fire. Tom spied burning embers getting flung out the end of the barrel. Bad powder it would seem. Maybe it had gotten damp at some point.
There was a slightly longer than normal pause, but the next round came before Tom even had time to register there was a problem. Jacky seemingly didn’t either, letting the gun loose a few more rounds before she got her thumbs off the trigger.
She had curled up a touch, taking a moment to draw a deep breath as she straightened back out again.
“Woooaaah that’s a feeling alright! Don’t get me wrong, this is fucking amazing. But damn, that’s not comfortable. It sucks the life right out of you.”
“Probably for the best to be honest. It’ll remind you to let go in a hurry if it doesn’t work,” Tom added, Edita nodding enthusiastically, clearly pleased the test had gone well thus far.
“Or just let go of the trigger, that would do as well,” she added helpfully.
“Yup yup, I get it. You told me. Whooo… right, let’s try to get it hot I guess,” Jacky replied, not giving any warning before the light and smokeshow started up once more.
There were a few complaints as hands went back to plug ears in a hurry as the firing resumed. Jarix had elected to sit up on his haunches, both forepaws pushing down on his ears to try and drown out the noise. The dragon had a big dumb smile on his face despite a bit of pain showing through.
Tom didn’t know if the dragon had been disappointed thus far with the gun. It had fallen a bit short of the sales pitch. But now? Now it seemed to actually be able to live up to the hype.
Either way, he was certainly one happy dragon.
There were a few more bad rounds in the mix, but the enchantment worked as intended. It certainly took a toll on Jacky, though, as it kept thumping away. They were coming up on the end of the belt when finally they had a simple click, with but the tiniest puff of smoke coming out the end of the barrel.
Tom was just about to shout out to Jacky to get her finger off the damn trigger when thankfully she turned the gun to the side to look at the receiver, finger safely off the trigger button.
“What was that?”
“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot, squib!” Tom called out, jogging over. “Just ehm, leave it be. Don’t touch it."
“Dude, if it’s dangerous, get back. I’m the one in the armor here,” Jacky protested, looking at him as he approached.
“No no it’s fine, just don’t pull the trigger. We might have a bullet in the barrel. Shoot again and it could blow up.”
“Oh right… so what now?”
“I uhm… I suppose we need to check the barrel… just let it cool down and we’ll take it inside. Later.”
“Did it work? Is the cooling running?” Edita added excitedly as she ran up completely without regard, placing her hand on the shiny polished barrel shroud. “Oh it did. Feel it, it’s barely warm!”
“We didn’t even fire a full belt, but I suppose it is nice to know it turned on.”
“We will get it to do it, don’t worry… what went wrong?”
“Yeah, why did I have to stop, why not just rack it and try again?” Jacky complained, though it was clear she wasn’t too upset. It had still been absolutely awesome.
“Squib round. The primer went off but the powder didn’t light, so there might be a bullet in the barrel. If so, we need to get it out. You got the cleaning rod, Jacky?”
“It’s over there, mum would you?” she called out, pointing over at a wall where the small box of bits for the gun had been placed, the rod laying down across the top. Shiva dutifully walked over and picked up the rod, pegleg thunking against the stone as she walked along.
“Probably easier to leave the barrel in the gun,” Tom muttered as he opened up the top cover. “Jacky, rack it back and hold it there, would you?”
Jacky did as instructed without making a fuss, holding the bolt back while Tom looked inside.
“Is it safe?” Shiva questioned, standing with the rod.
“Yeah, it’s good,” Tom replied as he picked out the belt, checking the chamber. The round had extracted, so that was good. “Try and ram the rod down the barrel, it might be very stuck.”
“Understood.”
Shiva knelt in front of the gun, sliding the ramrod down the barrel and trying to push. It didn’t budge. She pushed harder, and Jacky started to snicker.
“Come on mum, you got this,” Jacky snickered, evidently finding the struggle very entertaining.
“Quiet you,” Shiva grumbled as she put her back into it.
“Might wanna tap it out… with a mallet or something,” Tom offered, feeling at least a little bad.
“Is there anything else we can do for you?” Shiva grumbled, looking up at him.
“No, I think that would be all,” Tom said, pretty much regretting it immediately.
Luckily for him she didn’t decide to smack him and rather just grabbed the rod tighter and slammed it home. With a ping, out came a bullet.
It looked to be in pretty good condition, and the rifling was cut into it quite nicely, so that was good.
“Right, throw that one in the scrap pile and let’s try again,” Tom concluded, Jacky sending the bolt back forward as Shiva got up, taking the rod with her.
They took their positions once again. Ears were plugged and Jacky let rip. *THUN THUN THUN* They got a mighty three rounds before there was a loud ping and the gun failed to cycle, with the bolt being left halfway open.
“What the! Shit, did it break?” Jacky questioned, turning the gun to the side to inspect for damage.
“I think that was the recoil spring,” Tom admitted, sighing deeply. Edita glanced around a little uncomfortably. “Welp. We’re done for today.”
“It wasn’t anything I did, was it?” the artificer questioned cautiously.
“Nah, this happens… but maybe there is some better steel in what you brought for-”
“There was nothing wrong with that steel. It was fine crucible steel from Bartelion. You won’t find finer,” Shiva objected, clearly taking the comment to heart. Tom did recall having asked for the best she had for that damn thing. Even so, apparently it was not good enough.
“Of course, but it is still crucible steel. There are many ways to make steel stronger, not just carbon as you know.”
“Oh you speak of alloyed steel?” Edita interjected, lightening in mood after being persuaded her enchantments were not to blame.
“Yes, some chrome and uhm vanadium would do wonders.”
“Of course… uhm… I do not think I know that second one.”
“It’s my word for it, ain’t got a clue what you might call it… We’ll have to see, I suppose. If not, chrome it is.”
Shiva grumbled something to herself, shaking her head, likely about how her steel was just fine. Tom knew that a problem with the temper or just a small nick or dent could also be to blame. He also knew better than to say that in front of Shiva.
“I suppose Apuma and Linkosta will have to do for any winter raids,” Jarix added in good spirit, surprisingly enough to Tom. He would kinda have expected the dragon to be bummed out. Maybe it was because the dragon was banking on them having plenty of time to fix the gun before it might be needed again in spring.
“Slow down there, young one. We are not quite ready yet,” Apuma spoke up from the line of observing dragonettes.
“You did promise we could try at least something before I have to sleep for the winter.”
“And I shall try to keep it, but it is no trivial thing. It is very dangerous if done incorrectly.”
“I’m sure you’ve got it. Ain’t that right, Lin?”
“I’ll do my best, I can promise you that,” the younger mage added more enthusiastically. She was perpetually excited a lot of the time, and this was clearly no different.
‘Lin?’ Tom thought to himself, letting out a slight chuckle. He hadn’t heard the two of them on nickname basis just yet, so that was good. Maybe his role as dragon-bound fire mage was in danger of getting supplanted.
“I know you will. It is a shame I am not any bigger, or I could carry you all into battle and the gun. Alas, I might need to share.”
“Dibs on Tiguan. I’ll blend in nicely on his back,” Tom joined in with a chuckle.
“What do you mean dibs on someone other than me? At least go with Baron or my mother so I won’t feel so bad,” Jarix replied, clearly in jest judging by the big grin.
“If you wanna feel good, know I would take you over your mother aaaany day of the week.”
“Sadly she tends to be the sort who takes without asking.”
“Yes, I am familiar.”
_________________________________________________________________________________