The next day, Mark woke up feeling well-rested after another dreamless night of sleep. After eating his fill of monster meat, he made his way to the tanning area to see if all of his leather was ready.

The normal amount of time for the leather to be done tanning had already passed so Mark expected to have a few pieces of workable leather by now.

His morning walk to the tanning area was peaceful, the bird that sang in the elder tree was up and had already begun to fill the surroundings with its tunes. The morning mist was already settling onto the grass and rocks as dew but it suffused the air with a slightly sweet smell that Mark enjoyed breathing in deeply.

While enjoying his morning walk, he quickly made his way to the hides. They were a bit damp from the dew but they were ready to be taken down and stored away for later use.

After shaking them off one by one and rolling them up for transport, he gathered them together and carried them to the forge.

'I just need to finish up this sword and set it aside before I head into the village to see what the merchants are doing.'

Since this was not the first time this type of greatsword had been made at the forge, Mark already had a hollow-center mold with the pattern he needed for the bonding process among the store of molds at the smithy.

He mixed his alloy in the melting crucible in the same combination he used for the battle axe and set it in the melting area of the forge.

He watched the flames while he allowed the metals to melt together. As they danced and licked the crucible, he studied them to try to understand the secrets of the flames. The longer he looked, the more he felt that they were trying to divulge some secret of the universe that was just out of grasp for him to understand.

Before he was able to decipher their secrets, he was brought out of his stupor and realized that the metals had melted and mixed with big bubbles slowly coming out of the molten alloy.

With the alloy ready, Mark poured it into the mold and allowed it to set before removing the hardened metal with his tools so he could apply the bonding powder before he set it on the bone handle he had created the day before.

He then set them both in the flame so they would have an evenly distributed heat profile before he began the fifth step. He grabbed his purple crystal hammer and set the sword on his anvil before he went to work on the bonding process.

Mark completed the initial bonding process for the greatsword and swung it around a bit while he melted some of the alloy pellets in the crucible in order to create a smooth finish plating to cover the bonded patterns which looked weak. The plated finish would serve to connect the bonding patterns and prevent people from thinking there was a weakness in the blade.

The plating was applied to both sides of the blade so it had a smooth finish that made it seem as if the blade was made of one piece of metal that just grew into a bone at the handle instead of being fixed to the bone with multiple pieces of metal. There was no way to tell where the bone ended and the metal began.

Mark then applied the finishing touches by compressing the blade and sharpening the edge before he set it aside in the area for his latest works. With the work for the day out of the way, Mark began to get ready to set out to the village center where the free villagers went to relax on their days off.

All he had to do to get ready was clean up the forge and make sure the coals wouldn't catch anything on fire. He also got a rag and dipped it into one of his buckets of water before wiping himself down. A bit of black soot that had gotten on him came off on the rag which he hung up near the cooling forge to dry.

He felt no need to go by his house, so he checked the position of the sun and decided to head to the village center. At this time of the day, there should already be people at the open market selling different foods as well as some entertainment spread out around the main road.

It didn't take long as there was a stone path that led from the outer area where he lived to the main road that ran from the center of the village to the north gate. He just had to cross a small footbridge over the stream, that ran through the village, near the young elder tree.

The stream carried icy water from the mountaintops and was the main source of water in the village. It created the small pond in the park where the young elder tree grew which was where Mark sourced his water.

He perused the various stalls in the village center where people sold their wares every day. There were mostly food stalls from the farmers and people who cooked meat to sell for people walking around. Some people would also sell everyday items or advertise services since this was a central location that prevented people from having to walk to the other side of the village to a home shop or to get a service that someone provided without a shop.

As he was looking around, trying to figure out who he would ask about the merchants, he heard a feminine voice call out to him from behind.

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"Hey Mark, I never see you around here anymore!"

When Mark turned around he realized that Anabel, a girl about the same age as his brother George, was the one that was talking to him as she walked over to where he was stopped.

"Oh, hey Anabel. I was just wondering who I should go to in order to figure out when the merchants would be coming around."

Anabel walked up to him and giggled a bit as she twirled her straight straw-colored hair.

"hmmhmm, Mark, as one of the village shop owners, shouldn't you know the schedule?"

Mark was a bit embarrassed when she put it that way. Of course, he should know the merchant schedule, he just never discussed it with James or figured out how to get ahold of it after his father died.

"Honestly, my dad dealt with all the merchant stuff and I never bothered to learn it from him. I guess that was an oversite on my part."

Anabel squinted her eyes at him before grinning and replying.

"Well, since you protected my brother during the growth I guess I can help you out just this once."

Mark felt like she was messing with him but she was very nice about it so he didn't read into it too much.

Anabel was the sister of Phill, the guard from the west gate. Phill was an adult and the oldest child of the baker while Anabel was around 17 and the oldest daughter of the baker while there was another brother between the two of them in age and a child sister as well as another baby brother in their family. Since the baker was quite wealthy for a villager, he and his wife were more than capable of raising so many children at once.

'I remember Phill, he is a good guy. . . I guess I will have to thank him later since his sister is helping me on his account. . .'

Since Mark now had justification to drag Anabel around, in his mind, he went on to ask for her help.

"If you are willing to help me, Anabel, it would be much appreciated."

Anabel smiled big for Mark when he directly asked her for help. Her straight pearly white teeth accentuated her bright icy blue eyes which accumulated in a smile that would cause any other man to stumble.

'He is quite clueless, but he is cute when he asks for help so I won't tease him any further.'

She began to straighten the hair she was twirling on her fingers as she answered Mark.

"The merchants should be arriving at the third hour past midday. So you are going to have to wait about four more hours before they get here and then probably another hour for them to be ready for customers."

Mark looked at where the sun was positioned in the sky to confirm the time of day and realized that he had to contemplate his options at that point.

'If I go back to the forge I could probably craft another weapon or maybe try to reinforce some armor with the fifth step now that I have the hang of it. . . I could even try to incorporate some bones directly into armor to make a more sturdy light armor or a lighter piece of heavy armor. . .'

Anabel could tell by the blank look on his face that Mark was thinking deeply about what he should do with his time.

"Mark, if you are free for the next few hours then why don't we check out the food and entertainment that the village has this time around? I heard there are more activities going on for the next couple of days since the winter festival is this weekend."

Mark thought about it before he gave his response.

'It would be a big waste of my time to spend so many hours away from the forge. But she did help me out and she seems to be excited about these festivities. It is also much more festive today than usual. Maybe it's not such a bad idea.'

Once he had made up his mind he told Anabel.

"Alright, I could do with a break from work."

He inwardly cringed at the lie.

Though Anabel seemed to like the answer because, once again, her face lit up and she gave Mark a smile that would melt a normal man's heart.

She led Mark to the theater area first where there was a stage outside for plays.

"I heard there was going to be a play today so we should check it out first!"

Mark just followed along as he considered a polite way of how to get out of this side-tracked adventure.

'Sure a play can be fun for little kids but I really do have some good ideas for those weapons now. . .'

While he was still contemplating his options, they quickly made it to the stage where the play looked to have just started.

There was a bit of a crowd so Anabel grabbed Mark's hand so they wouldn't get separated. It reminded Mark of when they were kids and he would be brought along to play with George and Anabel. She would often pull him along by the hand through the village as they explored since Mark tended to wind up back at the forge with his father unless someone watched him.

As they watched the play, Mark realized it was an enactment of the legend of the Mountain Peak dragon. It was a common story told around the village from which it got its name, Dromorgen Village from the old tongue which just means "Mountain Dragon Village" but the old name stuck long ago.

The play was at the part where the first village chief was wandering the mountain tops while the village founders were stuck in a clearing as they fought off mountain beasts.

Mark thought it was kind of interesting how they acted out the scenes with people in costumes acting like beasts and songs that carried the scenes when there was a lack of background since they couldn't really make a substitute for a mountain.

Mark and Anabel watched the play until after the scene where the village chief encountered the dragon which took pity on the human and gave him a "key" which the dragon said a "great blacksmith" could use to "carve out" their place in the mountain.

No one really knows what it means but it is one of the many reasons the blacksmiths are regarded so highly in the village.

The blacksmiths handed down no part of the legend but from time to time whispers of secrets hidden by the blacksmith family would be spread around the small village.

Mark, of course, had no idea if there was any truth to the legend and his father had mentioned when they were kids that he thought it was just made up long after the village had been established because there were no secrets handed down by the blacksmiths before him besides the fifth step.

After the scene with the dragon, Anabel looked at Mark.

"I am a bit hungry, should we go see what we can find to eat? There is usually some good stuff being cooked nearby and I keep getting a whiff of something that smells amazing."

Mark wasn't too interested in the play so he didn't even have to think about his reply.

"Yeah, let's go get some food."

They left the play towards the nearby stalls that were selling different foods and Mark didn't even realize that they were still holding hands.