The Guild House

"Please! Forgive me! KAH" Gregor pleaded with Baba as he was doing a handstand with a circle of weapons pointed at him.

"No. Why would I do that?" Baba playfully asked as she wiggled a finger around, causing the weapons to twist around Gregor as they poked him in odd places while the others just looked on.

"Why are you lot just watching!?" Gregor yelled at the group of City Watch guards that he had brought with him to deal with just the situation he was currently in, but all of them were just sitting around talking as he got played with by this wind spirit.

"We'd rather not, reeve." One of them spoke up with a hand waving over to Saffire and Gram who were keeping a watchful eye on them. "We're good at dealing with thieves and drunks not those kinds of people."

Then luckily or unluckily for Gregor, the slow gallop of horseshoes was heard as Blake appeared looking at the scroll Deller gave him in one hand while the other was holding a basket with Risabeel and the others following behind him. "Hey, guys, we're Baaaa-?!" He looked up from the scroll only to freeze in place as he not only saw that self-important bird guy Gregor doing a handstand with floating weapons pointed at him but Sarah ower of the Heated Scale cowering behind a tree, while a group of City Watch guards was lazing around. 

"Explain!?" Blake's widened eyes quickly shot to Baba, Saffire, and Gram, all of whom gave him different looks in return. Baba had her usual aloof face on as she waved at him, Saffire looked pissed for getting yelled at, and Gram was the only one who even seemed to be sorry as he pulled back his ears and hung his head low.

"~Oh~? Reeve big bird here came over saying something on the lines that you weren't fit to stay in the city and wanted to throw you out starting with your cart, but I promised to look after it for you, so here we are." Baba answered for the trio.

"So, you guys fought with the guards he brought then took all their weapons and pointed them at him!" Blake yelled at the three of them while pointing at the random spots around them that either had burn and/or claw marks put in them and the small platoon's worth of weapons floating around Gregor.

"~Yep~/Don't yell at me!/Y-yes...?" Were Baba's, Saffire's, and Gram's answers, respectively.

"Ugh..." Blake slowly pulled a hand down his face after listening to them. "...just let them go, please."

"Well, those over there could get on anytime they wanted to, but it looked like they wanted to make sure Reeve big bird here was safe...but if you say so..." Baba mentioned over to the guards as she let all of their weapons fall to the ground and freed Greoger from his medieval twister session.

"KAH! Never have I been treated in such a way by ill-manned folk such as you!" Gregor now freed straighten himself up and marched his way over to Blake, bringing his beak right up into the Smith's face. "Have you anything to say for this!?"

"Baba..." Was all Blake said and once again Gregor was surrounded by all manner of weapons that the guards once used. "...not much other then I'm sorry for my friends' manners...they and I are a bit new to city life if you didn't notice the first time around..." He lightly tapped a finger to Gregor's messed up beak. "...but we will try to abide by the laws as best we can if you'd allow that, Reeve Gregor?"

"Though I am unable to do anything at this moment, know that I shall have your head for this!" Gregor warned as menacing as he could get while forced to hop on one foot thanks to Baba lightly whacking his other one with a mace. "Do you understand me, boy!"

"Yes, I do, by the way, you're not the only one who wants me out at the moment, the other guy's that craftsmaster named Deller..." Blake answered, giving Gregor a playful nod as the Avian wiggled his way out of the weapons once Blake told Baba to returned them to the guards.

"Craftsmaster Deller wants to see you out, eh? Hmph! My, my, that is rather interesting? He usually keeps most of your types in as workhorses..." Gregor while still very much miffed to say it nicely by Blake's and his group's actions he found it quite odd that the craftsmaster would want to toss out a new crafter right off the bat. "Dare, I ask what you could have done?"

"Being raised by his old rival," Blake answered, leaving Gregor with a raised brow about to ask more but stopped himself.

"Hmm? Well, if you're a true blacksmith, then I'm sure you will likely take the word of the craftsmaster over mine on how much you and your band of misfits do not belong here, so I shall leave you alone for now. But understand that when you are finally forced to leave, I shall be there to kick you out myself!" Gregor declared, walking past Blake. "Come, men! We depart for more important matters!" He ordered, trying to give himself a bit of a grand exit.

"Yes, sir!" The guardsmen yelled as they marched right behind Gregor on a path towards the city.

"Now that he's gone, we can get down to business, Hubby," Baba cooed as she floated over to Blake's side. "Well?"

"Well, what?" Blake asked annoyed at what he saw; sure Blake would have done the same thing to Gregor if he was there, but he thought his items would have a bit more self-control than him at the very least maybe Baba would.

"Well? I believe we did a good job of watching over things for you even with such a come out..." Baba started to explain as she floated around Blake all while he gave her a look asking her to get on with whatever she wanted to say. "...I was just thinking that a reward is in order, yes?" She finally asked now laying in the air with her arms resting on one of Blake's shoulders.

"Oh? Then here have one of these..." Blake muttered out as he brought up the basket of rock cakes he was carrying, however. "Huh?" Once he pulled off the cloth used to cover them, he found that most of them were a burnt almost black. "Shit! I forgot these were with us during that Fire Elemental fight!"

"I am not one for sweets either way...." Baba shook her head at Blake's offer then flew up into a tree. "...but, I'd still like a reward for keeping an eye on the cart." She winked at him from there, making Mari glare up at her. "Oh, please, you had him all to yourself for most of the day, little sister-in-law, can't Mama have some loving too?"

"Don't call me that, Granny! And leave my brother alone!" Mari yelled at Baba, but it just went through her like a breeze.

"No meat? I'll past." Gram said after taking one whiff of the burnt treats. "Ugh, are they suppose to smell like that?"

"Hey, don't groan, I'll get a bear or something for you later, okay?" Blake promised Gram, getting him to smirk then the wolf moved to Nash to sniff him for any new smells. "What about you...ugh?" He asked Saffire, but something in her eyes told him that she wanted the whole basket. "...just take them."

"Fire Elemental...?" Saffire asked as she grabbed at the basket from Blake and started going in on the charcoal black treats. "...I thought you were looking for stuff for that shack of yours...?" She asked with her mouth stuffed full and black crumbs falling as she spoke. "...not bad!"

"Oh? Well, if you want more, you can get them from that Eastern Raptor over there." Blake answered then looked at where Sarah was hiding, and sure enough, she was still there with her tail sticking out of her hiding spot. "Hey, the reeve's gone, and my friends aren't gonna hurt you!"

"Really?!" Sarah gasped as she stuck her head out and shifted her gaze from Blake to the others then slowly came out. "Whew! That was horrifying, you know! First, you come by a punch my reeve then when he comes to he goes off to find some guards, comes back to me and orders me to show him where you live! Then those three happened!" She darted behind Blake while staring at Baba, Gram, and Saffire. "Seriously! I thought you were a blacksmith! What are you doing with Greater Wolf and two mages!"

"Sorry about that." Blake apologized with a bowed head, and some gold dropped into Sarah's claws. "And those two are an Ala and a Dragon I picked up on my way here...huh?" He added, pointing at Baba and Saffire but at Dragon Sarah's head spikes along with some on her neck and the tip of her tail shot up.

"D-D-D-Dragon?" Sarah's head slowly turned to Saffire, who just finished eating the ruined rock cakes. "A r-r-real one!"

"Yea? I think? Saffire! You're a real Dragon, right?" Blake called over to the girl as a joke.

"What was that, Scaleless?!" Saffire groaned at Blake with smoke and fire coming out of her nose and mouth as she stomped over to him. "Of course, I am! Just watch this!" She roared as she transformed her human head into her Dragon one expect a lot smaller. "GRRRRAAAH!" Which she used to roar right into Blake's face covering him in smoke.

"*Cough* Okay, dumb question answered *cough*" Blake retched at smell and heat of Dragon breath hitting him as he moved away from Saffire to save himself. "I was just showing her, that's all!" He pointed at Sarah as he got a rug from Mari.

"Green Scale!" Saffire turned her scaly head to Sarah's whose mouth was just left open a gap and held up to the heavens as if trying to catch rainwater or she was just trapped in a soundless scream of endless joy. "Hey? What's up with her?" The Dragon looked at Blake for an answer to that.

"Huh? Oh, Lizardfolk worship Dragons, you being in front her like that is like looking into the face of a god." Blake answered as he went back to the two of them and waved his hands in the raptor's face, but nothing happened, so Blake came up with an idea. "Hey, did you like those rock cakes things even though they were burnt?"

"Yeah! Got more!" Saffire's Draconic head twisted in a huge fang filled grin at the question.

"I can make more!" Which Sarah got out of...whatever was happing to her with a claw raised high over her head. "But wait? Maybe I should try something else? Like Brownies? Shortcake? Sweet biscuits...?" She went on and on like that while causing Saffire to drool at the sound of so many sweet treats. "EEEEEE! I'll come back later!" And with that Sarah took off with her claws clapping together.

"Scaly creatures are such odd things," Baba mused as she floated down from her tree and over to Blake. "But, on to more important matters, you said something about someone called a craftsmaster wanting to throw you out? Did you do something bad and is Mama gonna have to punish you for it?"

Blake promptly took a step away from Baba. "I didn't do anything to the guy! He knows my old man from back when he used to live here and has some bad blood with him, so when I came up saying that I was a new blacksmith from Fairmaw and said who trained me he wanted to kick me out."

"Hmm, but you don't seem to think much about that?" Gram asked from under a tree with Nash.

"That's because I made a bet with him to show off my stuff and when I win I can work here in Gorz and finally start my business, haha!" Blake was already fired up to get down to business as he was walking over to the cart, which was when he noticed the piles of rock that were put there by Saffire. "Hey? Where did all of that come from?"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Dug it out of that cave inside there," Saffire answered with her head changing back to her human one.

"Inside of the mountain...huh?" Blake picked up one of the rocks and looked it over. "Hey, Bread, get your little ass over here!"

"What is it old ma-OW!" Bread said as he came over then got a rock to the top of his skull. "What was that for!?"

"See this right here?" Blake held up the rock used on Bread to the boy's face. It was mostly brown with some silver to it on some spots. "This is iron ore and its time for you to get to work."

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Six hours later inside Blake's Smithy

"Woo! That should do it, I think?" Blake patted a rag to his sweaty forehead after moving around some crates inside his new smithy which he had just finished cleaning from top to bottom.

All of its tools found or replaced, polished to a shine then placed perfectly around the work area. The fuel of the furnace was arranged neatly with most of it being wood and coal once Blake looked into them, oil that was gonna need to be bought at some point but that was for later, all in all, it was about as ready as it would be for work.

"Now for the materials..." Blake walked over to the center of the smithy with two piles of rocks. One had just normal looking stones while the other was much smaller and made up by iron ore.

"N-G-GAAH!" Came from the cave entrance with the sound of minecart wheels slowly scraping along the tracks. "RAAAAGH!" After a few minutes, another set of pained groans and grunts came along followed again by some more scraping.

"Come on! You lazy price of shit you're almost there!" Blake yelled into the deeper parts of the cave and was met with more moans from whoever was down there.

Then after another couple minutes in which Blake got a chair from upstairs to sit on, a minecart finally came into view that was inching itself forward until it fully entered the smithy where it started to roll itself down into the center where Blake was.

"Aaaaaghh..."  Standing or rather bearly holding himself up at the entrance was Bread covered in dirt, bruises, and some dried blood around his feet and hands, tied to his back was a pickaxe almost as tall as he was with a pick twice as wide as he was. "W-w-w-a..."

"Water?" Blake asked, holding a waterskin that he tossed at Bread after the boy nodded slowly.

"Ah!" Bread almost fell over as he reached out to the waterskin then ripped it open with his teeth and drenched himself in the sweet, magical, refreshing liquid of life known as water 

"Good picks you got from down there you should be hap-" The sound of a body hitting a stone floor cut Blake short. "Really?" He rolled his eyes as he got up and walked over to Bread, laying face first on the floor. "Get up..." He gave the downed boy a kick to arm earning a low groan from him. "Too bad you're not dead, now up?"

"Ugggh..." Slowly with as much reluctance as possible Bread pushed himself back up to his feet with a defeated look in his eyes. "...there's more?"

"Of course, there's more..." Blake answered, pointing at a shovel next to a pile of coal in front of the furnace. "Be happy that I at least got it ready for you." He added, walking over to the furnace to open it up for Bread to get started on filling it.

"Is that why you asked me to get in this thing?" Baba's voice echoed out from the inside furnace as the pipes leading out from it started to shake and creek with a cool breeze coming out of it until Baba appeared out of it with arms wrapped around Blake's neck and partly covered in soot. "When you asked if I was okay with getting dirty I didn't think you meant this."

"Well, you didn't disagree, so that's on you." Blake shot back at her while looking slightly away since Baba was inches away from his face and still hanging off of him. "HEY! Get to it, will you!" He yelled at Bread, who was standing there for a bit.

"Right!" Bread forced a shout of determination as he started shoveling coal into the furnace.

"Hmm? Look at him go...you're really working him hard aren't you?" Baba asked, watching Bread work as hard as he could then turned to Blake. "I can't wait for my turn on our date."

"Date?" Blake quickly turned to face Baba then turned away when their noses were touching. "What are you on about, Baba?"

"~Oh~ remember back at that fort we stopped at on our way here? You promised me a date then," Baba cooed into Blake's ear, blowing into it to get him to turn to her. "Mama's still waiting on that and you better come through before I take matters into my own hands?"

"Uh, what do you mean by that?" Blake asked, thinking or rather not thinking about what Baba meant by that. "I mean...I've been busy with getting a house and stuff then there's this bet I made so I might have forgotten about it...sorry."

"That's fine; I know how hard you're trying to make things nice and cozy for all of us..." Baba nodded to herself, then rested her head on Blake's shoulder and let out a small '~Oh~' at something she saw. "...well at the very least can I get a hug to top me off for a few days and I'll promise not to come and bother you."

"A hug? Yeah, sure..." Blake went an along with it and wrapped his arms around Baba, giving her a hug that she melted into as she was pressing herself onto him. "...is this okay?" He asked since Baba was rubbing her head against his neck and tighten her hold on him. "Hey! Get back to work!" He yelled at Bread, looking in their direction.

"Bu-" Bread tried to say something, but Blake glared at him, so he just went back to work.

"~Hmm~ Don't worry about him but could you go a little low just for me?" Baba asked as she tried wiggling upward, trying to get Blake's hand from her back to her ass.

"What!?" Blake was taken for a loop by Baba's demand and action getting hotter and hotter...wait? Was he sweating now? But the furnace wasn't turned on yet? "Saffire's behind us, isn't she?" Blake asked still hugging Baba and dared not to turn his head.

"Hot-head? No, she's nowhere near here, and you shouldn't talk about other women when you got one right in your arms like this." Baba answered with a small smile on her face as she was looking at Saffire who walked out of the cave a moment ago.

"Of all the things to see just outside of my room!" Saffire growled as her hands were set alight. "Fucking take that shit somewhere else!"

"Oh, dear..." Baba faked a cry of fear as she floated away from Blake.

"Woah!" And gave Blake enough time to duck under a fireball tossed at him.

"WAH!" Which landed right into the furnace as Bread was tossing some more coal into it and caused the whole thing to burst into flames that almost hit him. "I tried to tell you she was there!" He yelled at Blake after jumping into the pile of coal he was shoveling.

"Well, you should have tried harder!" Blake yelled back before slamming the furnace shut before some of the flames jumped on to something. "Oh? Thanks, Saffire!" He then turned to Saffire, giving her a thumbs up.

"Tch!" Saffire just spat out some smoke and looked away. "Just make sure I don't see something like that again got it!"

"Of course, of course, I just wanted to feel Hubby's big, strong arms around me ~mmm~ you should ask him to do the same to you sometime..." Baba had her arms wrapped around herself as she floated above all the others. "...and since you're a lot more sensitive than me, I'll let you get him to yourself." She flew out of the smithy without any more words.

"Grrr!" Leaving Saffire growling with a searing heat coming from her as she wheeled around to Blake and Bread while the both of them were trying their best to act like the blazing furnace was the most exciting thing in the world at the moment. "Tch! Better not keep too much noise while you two do whatever you're doing got that!"

"It's called smithery and no promises." Blake corrected her but was still looking into the fire and hoping that he wasn't going to look like it in a few moments.

"Just make sure you do a good job cause I just got this place good to sleep in and I don't want to move..." Saffire warned as she walked back into her cave.

"Okay, ready for the hard part, brat?" Blake asked Bread as he went over to the pile of iron ore and dropped a few of them into a thick metal bucket called a crucible that he picked up with a large pair of iron tongs.

"The thing I was doing earlier was easy!?" Bread's eyes snapped open wide, he just spent the last few hours digging up random rocks hoping that they were the ones Blake asked for inside a nearly pitch-black cave and if it weren't for Saffire lighting the way for him, he would have gotten lost in there.

"Well, you did only go in there to get materials anyone can do that..." Blake answered Bread's question even though the boy didn't want him to. "...moving on, have you ever roasted marshmallows?" He asked out of the blue with Bread nodding after giving Blake a look. "You know how it gets all soft and sticky? Well, we're gonna do that with the iron ore inside here." Blake declared as he brought the crucible next to the furnace and placed it on a grate over the flame.

(Fun-fact marshmallows were made as far back as ancient Egypt)

"So, all we do is heat those up?' Bread asked, looking at fire dancing over the crucible. "How long is that going to take?"

"Depends on you, brat," Blake told Bread while walking over to the workplace of the smithy and came back with a bellows that he held out to Bread. "Get to pumping."

"That's it?" Bread asked, raising an eyebrow, how was this harder than swinging a pickaxe around? "Heh! Cakewalk!" He cheered and started mashing the bellows making a small gust of wind that shot into the furnace. "AAARRHH!" But the next thing he knew an inferno suddenly erupted out towards him.

"Careful now! You might burn off your eyebrows like that." Blake joked, catching Bread before he could fall. "You have to be strong but gentle, quick but in control, something...something...balance..." He muttered as he held on to Bread's hand and showed him how hard, fast, and what angle to pump air into the furnace. "There, you're not trying to cast a fireball of someone you're melting iron so do it right."

"O-o-okay..." Bread stuttered since Blake wasn't yelling at him for once and was acting kind of like a good teacher.

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Sometime later

"Ugh...my arms...*pant*...are going to...fall off..." Bread was still blowing air into the furnace for...if only he knew how long with Blake checking in on his work as time went by.

"Hmm? Let's take a look at the soup." Blake was standing right behind Bread leaning over him with tongs to take out a now red-hot crucible inside of it was a slushy mix of liquid metal. "Looks good let the fire be for a while." He told Bread as he carefully brought the crucible over to one of the two anvils that had a metal box on top of it.

"Finally!" Bread just threw his arms up into the air throwing the bellows as hard as he could to get that thing away from him. "What's next!?" He looked at Blake as he was pouring the melted down iron into the metal box through a hole at the top of it.

"Catch!" Blake, without looking back, tossed his hammer at Bread as he was getting another pair of smaller tongs and an iron rod.

"Hey, you could've hit me with that!" Bread yelled as he caught the flying hammer before it bashed his face in.

"Then get over here and start hit this thing!" Blake called Bread over as he pulled the metal box open to show that the iron was shaped into a rectangle that he held in place with the smaller tongs.

"R-r-right!" Bread ran over and was about to take a swing at the still reddish yellow mass of hot iron before Blake smacked him behind the head. "Rgh." He gritted his teeth at the pain but waited for Blake to tell him what to do.

"Good, you're leaning!" Blake nodded at that then tapped on a spot with the iron rod. "There!" He shouted, and Bread brought the hammer down. "There!" He called out again, tapping a different spot then he flipped it over. "There!" Another placed was tapped, and another strike came down slowly shaping it into a smaller block.

"Hey? *clang* Why aren't we *clang* using Monsters Ore?" Bread asked while striking the iron block on Blake's taps and learned how hard to hit over the course of all it but still needed Blake to take over sometimes.

"Not everyone wants stuff made out of monster Ore, kid..." Blake answered as he grabbed yet another pair of tongs that were holding a thick nail. "...that's about right?" He held it over the center of the iron block which was pounded into a hammerhead now. "Drive it in!"

"Right!" Bread went at the nail pushing it deep into the hammerhead once it went as far as it could get Blake pulled it out then flipped the hammerhead over and told Bread to repeat what he did the first time. "But monster Ore's different right?"

"Yeah, it is and not really," Blake answered once a clean hole was made through the hammerhead, making him nod and after a few more hits in the right places, he dipped it into some water to cool off. "A long time ago people used to with forge monster Ore just like this."

"Really? What changed?" Bread asked, dropping to the floor with beads of sweat pouring down his everything.

Blake tossed Bread another waterskin that Mari and Risabeel brought for them earlier. "I asked my old man the same thing when I started too. All he told me was that one day a smith was working with monster Ore and started thinking about all the amazing things that monster could do then pictured how it would work as an item like a sword or spear then after three swings of their hammer a monster item was forged! Or so the legend goes I guess? Not much of history guy."

"Whoa? That's what I'm gonna be doing in a while?" Bread muttered, looking at his hands even with all the pain, blood, and sweat that was on them, he still felt that he could do some more work.

"Cool your fire, brat, let's see what your first job looks like first," Blake smirked at the look in Bread's eyes remembering a smile Reiner once gave him when he started out, then he took the hammerhead out of the water. "Hmm? Not bad..." Being honest, it was the lowest of the lowest and misshaped a bit but useable which for his first try was pretty good on Bread's part. "Let's make a few more!"

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Serval hours later  

"That should do it..." Blake was at an anvil with a chisel and his hammer in hand working on something with dozens of failed hammerheads around him, all works of Bread.

Then the smithy's door opened with Risabeel poking her head in along with a lantern showing that it was either close to or at night, likely the latter since the Demon girl had a drowsy look in her eyes. "Ah? Sir Blake? Are you and Lad Nobel still *yawn* working?"

"Nah, it's just me." Blake continued to work but pointed at Bread wrapped up in some blankets and laying near the furnace which was now giving off a light warmth to the room. "Just passed out after a while..."

"I see, you two have been in here for quite some time I hope it has not slowed you in work towards Craftsmaster Deller's challenge...?" Risabeel wondered out loud, as much as it pleased her that Blake was taking his training of Bread seriously if he did not win his bet with Deller it would all be for not.

"Hmm? Don't worry I've still got 6 days to get things done..." Blake assured Risabeel with a smile to show how confident he was and finished up what he was working on. "...don't worry about me teaching this brat..." He walked over to Bread a dropped something wrapped in cloth next to him. "...in fact, I think he might just be what I need to show up that Orc!"

Chapter End