The next day after her duel with Cybil, she was already back at the smithy. Every muscle in her body was screaming and she could barely lift a hammer but she was still working.

"Start off slowly so your muscles get to stretch a bit. You'll feel a lot better later in the day."Cybil had instructed her.

She was doing a large order of kitchen knives, it was slow work at first but as Cybil had said her muscle ache and the fatigue slowly faded after each hit on the anvil. After finishing her order she felt like she had shed off something extra and felt a lot better. With no other order she started working on her new project, a weapon.

She drew up some plans, thinking what she needed of a mace that she could wield two handed. A handle big enough to withstand its weight and force, the head had to either be balanced correctly or completely symmetric. The length of the handle and the size of the head effected everything. She drew multiple variations of a mace.

Tavin happened to be walking past her and took a look at what she was doing. When he took a look at what she had wrote he shook his head.

"That's no mace."

Aleyn not having noticed him approach got a slight jump scare and turned around.

"Huh?"

"That's no mace I said. That's a war hammer." Tavin explained

"A what?"

Tavin having heard her ignorance shook his head again.

" Haven't you ever read a history book?" He said as he started explaining what he was on about.

War hammers were just what the name implied, a huge hammer used for fighting. They were a very common weapon in dwarven history used almost exclusively by great warriors and kings. These days they were very rarely used as weapons with blades were regarded better.

After hearing Tavin explain what a war hammer was, she had a new surge of inspiration. She had been too focused on the idea of a mace and had not realized that it wasn't what she wanted at all.

She grumbled the drawings into a ball and threw them into the furnace. Which surprised Tavin

"Hey! What are you?..."

Immediately after throwing them she started working on new sketches. Even though Tavin was curious he realized he actually had work to do so he left her to her sketching, he could always come back and see what she had cooked up. She once again drew multiple ideas and sketches while thinking of what best suited her.

A head which had two blunt sides expanding from the middle outwards. A handle bar that reached from the floor to her chin, the handle bar was thick and had two spaces evenly spaced at the top and at the bottom of it for her hands. It was very plain, but this wasn't what she had in mind for a final product so it didn't matter quite yet.

With no work in sight and nothing but time on her hands, she told Cybil she was going mining and took off for the rest of the day, only returning to bring her load of ores back to safety in the smithy.

The next day she had actual work which she finished diligently and started working on her project.

Compared to any of the armor pieces it only took half a day to finish the weapon, but she knew that wasn't going to be the end of it. She went to test the hammer out at the edge of the forest, hitting rocks and trees while getting a feel for the weapon.

After hitting rocks a few times she noticed the weapons head was already starting to lose its shape and cracking.

"Not good enough, not to mention its way off balance."

Her first version had been a failure but that was to be expected, she had crafted some pieces of her armor multiple times before she was satisfied with the quality. She returned to the workshop and made some notes for the next day as she didn't have enough time to try again. With little time to spare she helped others with their work until closing time.

The next day, after she had finished her work she used the rest of her ore to try again with the new improvements in mind. It took a bit longer than half a day but she finished the second version.

The War hammers head this time was bigger making it slightly heavier but it was a negligible difference.

She again went to the forest to try out the weapon. The balance this time was better but the weapons toughness didn't change as it was on the verge of breaking after a few swings.

While returning to the smithy she thought about her problem.

"As hard as I try I can't seem to make the weapon tough enough. I can work on the balance and form but if it breaks that easily then it's useless for testing."

As she was almost at the house she noticed something glimmering some distance from the house on the ground and thought.

"Did I forget something?"

Thinking she might have left some trash lying around after her duel with Cybil she went to pick up the forgotten weapon, but as she approached it she realized it wasn't one of the weapons she was using.

"Cybils blade.."

It was the blade that had broken off of Cybils weapon. While looking it over she started remembering the fight and how he had defended against himself for a long time with the sword.

"That sword was strong, wonder what it was made off..."

As she asked herself she came to realize what her problem was right now. Even though Iron was good for trying out armor designs it was absolutely horrible for weapon testing.

As she entered the smithy she immediately threw the broken weapon next to the smelter and head for Cybil's office and knocked on the door.

"You actually made two iron hammers already? What a waste." Cybil frowned.

"You can smelt them, I don't need them anymore."

She had a brief pause.

"More importantly you got any insight for my plan?"

Cybil crossed his hands and started thinking.

"You really want the weapon right now?" Cybil sounded frustrated.

"Well no, I'm not in a hurry anywhere since its a side project."

"Oh! You don't have enough work is that it?" He grinned.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

"Well you could say that, but I'm just an apprentice."

"Nonsense, if you're saying you don't have enough work then I need to give you work." Cybil said with a cartoon villain expression.

Aleyn rolled her eyes.

"Okay then... its the apprentices job to work." She gave in.

Cybil narrowed his eyes on Aleyn and took a more serious expression.

"Tomorrow I'm going to Dvalfgar for a day or two, and once I return I want the other workers to express their cheer and happiness over your efforts. Got that?"

"As you command." she said sarcastically and bowed.

"Good. Now go on."

The next day in Dvalfgar Cybil was sitting in an Inn drinking while waiting. He sat there for quite a while, but eventually the one who he was waiting for arrived. They both ordered more to drink and started talking.

"So boy, whats so urgent that you wanted to see me in person?"

"What? I can't come and see my teacher if I feel like it?"

"Pffft.. Having problems running your shop so you have time to come and talk to old men ye?"

"You would love that wouldn't you.." Cybil said in a sarcastic manner.

The person sitting with him was his old teacher Camedyr Tin-flame. Camedyr by dwarven standards was huge, he was probably one and a half heads taller than Aleyn and anywhere you could see his skin his muscles were bursting like it wanted to get out of him..

His face was old and wrinkled he had dark rings around his small brown eyes which were burrowed deep in his head. He had shoulder length red hair and his beard was in a single braid that reached below his waist. He wore a simple shirt which had burn marks and leather pants which were held up by suspenders that he wore over his shirt.

They both sat quietly for a moment until Camedyr cracked and started laughing and Cybil followed up shortly after. Once they calmed down the old dwarf took a deep breath.

"Haa...it's nice to see ya boy."

"Likewise Old man." Cybil took a sip of his drink.

"So what brings ya to the mountains. Tired of the town?" Camedyr asked curiously.

"Not in the slightest, Me and my woman are actually expecting a baby and I've taken an apprentice in my shop."

"Good on ya boy, you're at the age you need to settle down and an apprentice? Someone to call you teacher and look up to you huh."

"That's an exaggeration old man. That apprentice of mine is some work... Take a look at these."

Cybil dug out his badge and started showing the blueprints he had taken from Aleyn. Camedyr didn't seem too fussed at first but his facial expression changed very quickly into a more serious look as he went through the drawings.

"And they've actually made all of these?" He said with a slightly surprised tone.

"Yeh, the gloves were finished just a few days ago. The whole set is something to behold."

"Never knew you were such a good teacher boy." Camedyr chuckled as he took another sip

"That's the more interesting thing. All I did was let her work amongst the other workers for a month or so. I myself barely taught her anything, She's pretty self sufficient to say the least."

Camedyr froze mid drink and put his mug down.

"She did what? And She? Your apprentice is a woman?"

"Yeh, it's a dwarf girl." Cybil answered.

"You seriously did that? You know perfectly well women rarely are suited to work in the forge.." Camedyr said with a hint of disappointment.

"Yet this one goes out to mine her own ore, hunts wolfs with a bow, learned to work at the smithy in month no less and even has these side projects of her own."

The old dwarf stared blankly at Cybil.

"Why?" was the only thing he even needed to ask.

"I asked her the same thing before she became my apprentice. You know what she answered me? ""Because I want to improve myself?"" not word to word but it was the message I got."

"You found a weirdo, huh." Camedyr picked up his mug and chugged the rest of it in one gulp.

"ONE MORE!" He waved the mug in air and yelled.

"Yeh, she is a weird one. But I think she has a certain charm to her." Cybil answered as he ran his finger in a circle on the table.

After a small pause to sip his drink Cybil threw out a question.

"I was wondering, could you take her in. She should be around rank three right now I think?"

"Huh, why? Shes your apprentice." the dwarf questioned.

Cybil frowned slightly as he started to explain.

"Problem is my shops got nothing left to teach her, she is basically just a normal worker there at the moment and will eventually want to leave. I think she could become a great smith if you took her in and taught her about the finer parts to blacksmithing."

Cybil ran through some reasons which only made Camedyr question him.

"Why don't you do it? I taught you well I remember."

Before he could finish Cybil took Camedyrs hand and forced some energy through his hand. It wasn't much but the old dwarf immediately knew what he was trying to get across.

"I see..."

Cybil withdrew his hand and took a sip of his drink.

The old dwarf eyed Cybil up and down and shrugged.

"Suit yourself boy. So when do you think that little lady's coming."

"You're willing to take her in?" Cybil asked with a happy tone.

"Of course, if she's everything you've build her up to be then she is one of her kind."

"Thank you teacher. I'll talk with her and send her your way." Cybil gave a slight bow.

"Enough of that then, lets get more drinks!"

Camedyr raised his drinking hand and ordered more to drink for both of them and they drank and chatted for the rest of the evening.

Cybil slept in Camedyrs workshop and spent the next morning keeping him company until the evening when he left Dvalfgar.