“Phew.” Sarey sighed upon realizing something wrong. Grabbing a piece of metal on the ground, she looked at it with curiosity while pulling it up. This was the last piece of the 3 blades Allan made. It was still hot for some reason, so she used a piece of her clothes to pick it up.

“You are really something, Allan. So are you, little one. Small, yet so incredible.” She muttered as she glances from the blade to the curious face of the soul-fire.

Walking a few steps to her left, Sarey knew what to do, since Allan forgot about something. The blade still need a quench, so she dropped the blade into the barrel of an unknown liquid.

Sizzle and smoke resurfaced as she placed the blade inside. She knew what was up, and since Allan forget his quenching, she could do it instead. Otherwise, his work could become a failure or a waste of time.

Leaving it there for a few dozen moments, Sarey pulled it out and put it on the table with the rest of his work. This was the most she could do.

Meanwhile, soul-fire observed the action of this being, who ignored it, apart from the voice. It even noticed the rather familiar smoke and sounds. Some memories resurfaced in its mind. It was a picture of Clayton once again, but it still left some impression. Especially right now.

“What? Are you impressed that I can do something with blades as well? I can do some things with my watchful eyes. You should see me using a real regular blade, little fire.” Sarey says before Allan's face and checked the curious face of soul-fire.

It was lost in thought and did nothing but sit there with unknown intentions. Perhaps it was pondering about something.

“Hmmm. You had enough, I guess,” she mumbles as she notices Allan's condition.

He was looking exhausted beyond his sense. Even a bit of sweat on his forehead indicated his workflow. A calm and relaxed body needed some rest, as he collapsed on the spot. Noticing the 3 neat works on the table, it was obvious that he overworked himself today.

“What a lunatic. All of you. Now, what's up with you, little guy? Do you want me to help him to the bed?”

Not understanding the implications, soul-fire stared at the near face of Sarey. It saw this face this close once again. It left quite an impression, but no fear for some reason.

It was an ally. It thought, before calming itself down in no time whatsoever. The smile of the soul-fire followed the bright shimmering flame from its core. It was a form of compassion or a kind intention. A decision was placed in its mind that there was a person it could trust.

“Oh, you can smile fine. I knew you could do that. So?” Sarey asked as she moved to Allan's legs and tried to lift them up. In truth, she was sweating quite a lot, and Allan's body was quite heavy.

As she moved closer, the temperature rose while the proximity of the soul-fire was very exhausting for her.

“This will be hard. Oh, well.”

All of a sudden, seeing the intention of this being, soul-fire decided to act. Jumping down, a flaming hand pulled Allan's hand into the air. They rested on the ground, but the hand placed them 2 meters up, as the soul-fire pulled Allan up into Sarey's back.

“Ahh! What! He is too heavy for me. Ohh...” Surprised and almost falling over, Sarey stopped herself by holding her knees together from almost falling over. Step by step, she pulled her knees up, with Allan on her back. Sarey moved out with some difficulties.

Meanwhile, Soul-fire was watching everything from up in the furnace. The flaming hand was the manifesting flame from its own hand. Noticing the care this one made for the person it found so pleasant, it decided to help as well.

Jumping down, soul-fire ran across the vast distance for such small legs. It reached Sarey, while the flame surged from the ground and pulled some weight off Sarey's back. Pushing Allan a little up to lessen the weight on her back.

This time, soul-fire helped a bit more, by grabbing his both shoulders.

“Thank you. You are quite strong as well.” Sarey muttered through the lessened weight on her back. While completely unaware that the reason she got him to his back was because of the soul-fire's help.

The fire showed a little flickering as the soul-fire flexed his body as if it wanted to show some of its muscles. Sarey couldn't help but chuckle, as she watched this little being trying to impress her.

It followed Sarey, as they walked outside. Reaching the door into the home was not a big issue with such help. The flame themselves seemed to be very gentle as they burned nothing it touched. Although, it is lifting Allan's arms so it could be fine. The only pain was the heat, but that wasn't something destructive, but uncomfortable.

Both walked into the hallway, which was quite close to Allan's and Sarey's rooms. With some difficulties, Sarey managed to reach the room. Kicking the door open, she tosed still sleeping Allan into the bed. She couldn't help but lose the strength in her knees as she dropped beside him.

“Phew, I hope there won't be a second time something like this happens.”

The ball of fire seemed fine as it watched its surroundings. This was also something new to its memories.

“Thank you very much, little fire. It is nice of you to help me.” Sarey get up and smiled at the ball of fire that stood in the middle of the room.

It retracted its flaming hands back as she dropped him to the bed. Now, it glanced around and noticed a smiling Sarey on the bed that was looking at it. It did the first thing that came to its mind. Again flexing its nonexistent muscles to show its dominance.

“What are you, really? Such a small being. How did you even get here? Are you even aware of this boy besides me?” Sarey asked, but got no answer back. She figured there was no point in expecting words from it, but yet, it felt it was understanding. Emotional, compassionate, and quite humane.

All of a sudden, footsteps sounded from outside. Someone was approaching at this hour, and it alerted Sarey almost immediately.

Soul-fire was the first to panic, as always. It jumped away before Sarey got a chance to do anything, as the door was still open. Before the figure appeared on the doorsteps, it had disappeared into Allan's chest.

“Oh, I wanted to talk to it some more at least... How disappointing.”

Knock. Knock. A figure of Zigmund appeared within the doorframe, who made the customary knocking on the open door.

“Sarey, what is going on?”

“Nothing. Does something matter?” she answers while sitting beside Allan's bed.

Zigmund Stood inside, half asleep but with the same working clothes.

”What is going on? It is so hot here. It woke me up.”

“Hot? I don't think so. It's quite hot weather tonight. Right, it seemed Allan had some issues and collapsed in his forge. I just got here.”

“Oh? Whatever, as long as everything is fine. Go to sleep. It is so late already.” Zigmund yawned and closed the door before asking any other questions.

“That was a close one. I would have no idea how I would explain the situation to him in any normal way.”

Sarey sighed in relief, and couldn't help it to be honest. Only bad thing was that the soul-fire was nowhere to be found. She barely noticed it as it disappeared back into Allan's chest.

Sarey couldn't help but put a blanket across Allan and went to sleep as well.

This little episode was quite exciting for her. Their new ally doesn't seem that bad after all.

“Good night, I guess,” she says before closing the door to Allan's room.

Another day went by, while another morning came back from the playful night. The shimmer of the morning's sunny glow made quite an impression. It will be another gorgeous day.

Only small side clouds were drifting out of the regions of the sky, but that wasn't the worst thing.

Inside the home, Sarey was still asleep. This night was quite hectic for her, and no one had any chance to wake her up. Surprising to no one, Allan was the same.

The only fleeting life in this home was Zigmund, who was enjoying a sumptuous breakfast. He prepared it himself. There was nothing more pleasing to him than morning for himself, with no worries about the next day. All his work was coming through, and his plan to make his assistant work more had been successful.

Although there will be some potential trouble with money. He could figure something out by himself. So far, the restaurant had an unsteady flow of income and made some seasons with no profits. Zigmund's money helped quite a bit, and employees were quite glad to have such an owner. He had a rather melancholic and careless attitude about the state of his own efforts. Any problems were solved from his own pockets.

“Hmmm. Delicious! This ham from the Wild Husk Rabbit is absolutely flawless! The only downside is the quantity. Why the bloody hell they can't grow any thicker in the wild... How disappointing.” He complained while licking his fingers.

Pulling meat into the sandwich, Zigmund ate his fill in a wild manner. No one was here to judge anything because this was his home.

With the last piece gone, to his dissatisfaction, there were only empty plates left. Zigmund couldn't help but clean it up and relax afterward.

In this amount of time, Allan reached the kitchen as well after waking up. There was only so little that he could do at this hour. He felt only somewhat refreshed and couldn't help but be confused about waking up in his bed. Memories of the forging last night were still quite fresh. There was no disappointment as he pushed himself to other heights. He couldn't remember the last time he went that hard on the forging before.

“Good morning, Allan,” Zigmund said from the table.

“Oh, You are here quite often at this time. Morning, mister Zigmund.”

“Want to prepare some meal? It seems Sarey won't wake up for some time.”

“Why? Did something happen?”

“Nothing much, I guess.”

“Hmmm. I will make something myself then.” Walking without his pole, he reached the kitchen with some trouble.

“You alright?” Zigmund asked as he seemed rather strange.

“Well, that staff of mine is handy for me. I don't know where I left it, though.”

“You won't find anything when you are like this. It is probably in your forge, so I will go fetch it for you.” Zigmund remembered something Sarey said last night, so this could be the answer to his worry.

Going outside, Zigmund reached into the forge. He noticed the mess around, as well as the rough-looking pieces of 3 weapons.

“Oh, quite impressive. So he decided to waste no time and went for 3 at the same time. Spearhead, some kind of thick chopping blade and rather slim-looking double-edged sword. Seems like he got an interesting amount of experience. For such a young man to already start making warlike weapons.

If my superiors of that time noticed these weapons, they would think little of them. Once finished, they will be quite impressive. I can tell it myself.”

Turning around from the table, Zigmund found the staff which was laying in the corner of the wall.

“There it is. Hm? What is this? He was wielding this sort of thing all this time?” He exclaimed from unexpected discovery.

This was the first time he wield his new weapon. He was not so clear about it himself, about its weight, but the attacks he endured indicated something like this.

The weight did not surprise him all that much. The unnatural balance of heaviness on each side was the reason. If one walked with it as a walking stick, it swayed and left some strain on the arm's muscles.

“That freak of nature is even training when walking. Hilarious. Heheheh. No way I can keep up with such a madman. So be it! I can live with it.” Zigmund found it rather intriguing. Once he lifted it up, as Allan did, he found an acceptable point of stability.

A two-handed staff, where the metallic strengthening made it quite different.

This was a marvelous craft and weapon itself. It also made it quite clear to him about the possibilities in the future. After all, the staff had a lot of practical usages to get used to two-handed long weapons. Like a spear, for example. He could imagine Allan being very proficient with a such weapon when he would get familiar with the staff.

This weapon of his had two further tips and points of mass. It had a very different approach to wielding such weapons, but it may as well be called, more difficult.

“Hmmm. This boy, he knows what he is doing, but this... I wonder what were his thoughts when making this stuff.”