Yae's Journey 6

Bakan leads Yae to his storage room, where numerous monster materials are shelved.

“Most of this stuff I can’t find ah use for,” Bakan merrily says with an accent, pulling out a large crate with ease, revealing hardened leathers. “These are excess materials or ones that never made it into a piece of armor or weapon, so feel free to use what ya can find in this room.”

Yae nods as Bakan leaves to continue his work, leaving her alone.

She spends the next hour carefully looking at each material and formulating a design in her head. Most of these materials are from low-tier monsters, so whatever she makes won’t be powerful. However, she just needs to show that she can preserve as much of the quality of the materials as she can so they retain as much of the effects of the materials as she can.

Crafters, at least in Runalymo culture, are judged based on their ability to preserve or even enhance the natural properties of the materials. Being able to make something with no power loss compared to the quality of the material’s properties is proof of an adept and competent skill; making something beyond the normal quality is proof of a master.

It is possible that the culture of this land judges crafter competency by a different metric, but she won’t pander to the expectations of others. She will be judged as a Runalymo. If these people don’t like how her people do things, then it’s their loss; she won’t compromise her heritage.

Her first look through of the spare materials is quite fruitful. She ended up with a good pile of materials, but now she needs to cut it down and pick a theme. She has to choose between armor or a weapon, and ultimately it’s Faela she needs to convince to hire her people. Also, armor is not her area of expertise, and she doesn’t know as much about it as someone dedicated to the craft, so a weapon is the easier choice.

She puts all the materials she put aside for armor back in their crates and is left with the items appropriate for weapons. There is a good fang with lightning properties that was probably only unused because of how weak it is; then there is the stinger with a fire-enhancing property.

After careful deliberation, Yae picks the fang. It is easier to work with, and she hasn’t specialized in monster material work, so she needs all the help she can get.

The other materials are a spindle of a type of sticky thread with a strengthening quality to it, an ivory horn with a weak lightning manipulating effect, and a long strip of iron-hide leather from some sort of metal-type monster.

“I’m ready,” Yae says, finally walking out of the storage room with her chosen materials.

“Took yah time!” Bakan complains, crossing his arms.

“You had a lot of odd materials; I had to figure out how to best use what I have available to me,” Yae responds, challenging his glare with her own.

“Ha! Got some fight in yah, I see! That’s good! Use the table over there, and if you need anything, let me know.”

Yae doesn’t plan on relying on him; she already has all she needs to accomplish her task. She starts by shaping the fang into a slightly curved double-edged dagger, following the natural curve of the material.

“Hmm, yah makin’ ah Spark Saber dagger, huh? I remember making one during my apprenticeship, it takes me back…” Bakan comments, getting a far-off look in his eye as he strokes his white beard.

The carving process takes several hours as Yae carefully shapes it to micrometer perfection, and once she is done with the blade, she shapes the tang, so it slightly flares out at the end. By the time she starts shaping the Ivory horn, night has already fallen. She shapes the horn into a handle after cutting it in half; then, she carves out a slot micrometers smaller for the fang’s tang so it will have a tight fit without any need for adhesives or nails.

After forcing the two halves of the handle onto the tang, she tightly wraps the silk around them to keep them together, leaving a long thread dangling before wrapping the leather over the silk and using the excess silk to sew the leather on.

“Hmm, ” Bakan hums. “Impressive, yah know how to work with materials, yah are clearly ah master at your craft, but you aren’t experienced in makin’ weapons, right?”

Yae nods. “I’m a carpenter, but where I’m from, we don’t usually work with monster materials, but the two professions have overlapping skills, so I’m the best fit for the job among my people.”

“I can tell, which makes your work all teh more impressive! With ah few more months of work, you could really be what we need!” Bakan slaps Yae on the back. “Let's show Faela what yah made; in my eyes, yah are good enough to satisfy her needs!”

“I’m not done yet,” Yae says, recovering from the rough treatment.

“Huh? Yah not? Yah been workin’ all through teh night, and teh dagger is done from teh looks of it. Oh! Yah mean to sharpen it! Of course, how could I forget!” Bakan slaps his forehead.

“Sharpening, polishing, and of course, the final decoration,” Yae says, Bakan’s antics forcing an amused smile from her.

“Polishin’ and Decorations?” Bakan tilts his head. “Yah aren’t makin’ this for one of those rich Orcs.”

“I know,” Yae replies, “But this is about Runalymo pride. Every work we do must be our best.”

“Yah haven't even eaten all night, aren’t yah tired and hungry? I applaud yah dedication, but yah need to take care of yah’self.” Bakan says with a little concern.

“Well, I am tired and haven’t taken a bath all day, but I want to be done soon so I can hopefully deliver good news back to my people as soon as I can.”

“Very well,” Bakan sighs and shrugs before returning to his own work. “Yah clearly know what yah are doin’.”

Yae sits down with an engraving tool in her hand and carefully carves stylized lightning designs running down the blade of the dagger and striking the sharp edges. After that, Yae sharpens the dagger and finishes it up with a polish to bring a shine to the blade, as if it is lit up by the flash of lightning from the dark leather as if a thunder cloud struck the blade.

Saberfang Lightning Dagger:
A dagger made by a skilled crafter to test her worthiness.
Delivers a shock to anyone struck with the blade.

“I could bring this to one of our enchanters to make it even better, but this is done now,” Yae says, showing the dagger to Bakan.

He whistles as he takes the dagger to get a feel for it.

“Expertly made. Teh weight balance is imperfect, but considerin’ yah aren’t ah bladesmith, that can easily be overlooked, and yah will get better in time. However, that is only just the form of the blade, teh real show of yah skill is how yah manipulated teh properties of teh materials to produce something new! Only royal crafters know how to do that! If yah are so skilled, why come to us? Yah can show them Orcs yah skill, and they will be fightin’ each other just to get yah to work for them.”

“We are exiles,” Yae explains. “We haven't been given a real chance to show what we are capable of because everyone thinks we are Fylox,” Yae raises a hand up as if to defend herself, “No offense meant, just that we share your discrimination.

“None taken, do not worry!” Bakan says with a warm grin, “I am sorry ahr reputation has poorly affected yah people!”

“As for our skill, this is what we consider a master crafter; most of my people share this level of skill.”

“Really?! I’d doubt yah, but yah work is proof enough! Well, let's go to Faela then; she should hear this!”

Bakan leads Yae to an archery range where Faela is training several adolescents on how to use a bow.

“Faela! We’re done! Come, see what this young woman has made!” He then turned toward her. “By teh way, I don’t think I ever got yah name. Do yah mind sharing? I am Bakan!”

“I am Yae.”

“Pleased to meet yah, Yae.”

Faela marches over and wordlessly takes the offered dagger and examines it while she flicks her tail.

“I know teh blade work could be better, but give her a few months and she’ll be making somethin’ worthy of kings! Hell, she’s already good enough; I don’t even know how she combined teh material properties to what teh dagger has now.”

“Really? You’d compare her to a royal craftsman?” Faela asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Faela, if yah want a chance at that damned Basilisk, then you need her and her people. She’s good enough to elevate materials beyond their potential.”

Faela grits her teeth in anger at the mention of the Basilisk.

“Alright, If you say she’s that good, then I trust your judgment,” Faela says before turning toward Yae. “I’ll hire you and your people. I’ll take you back to the city in a quarter-hour.” Faela returns to the youngsters, her tail still flicking in anger.

“Her husband was killed by a powerful basilisk,” Bakan explains as they return to his workshop. “She needs to complete the Rite of Blood if she wishes to remarry.”

“Rite of Blood?” Yae asks.

“She needs to take revenge and successfully slay teh beast to prove she can protect her future partner. And to do that, she needs stronger items; it’s why she started her monster-slaying mercenary group, so she can get stronger and get more powerful materials for armor and weapons.”

“I see. Is the basilisk powerful?” Yae asks.

“Yes, but I don’t know much about it, only that the city elites aren’t even ah match for it.”

“So Faela has a hard journey ahead of her.”

Although not in the same way, Yae also has a difficult journey if she wishes to bring prosperity to her people in these cold lands.

“We all suffer life in ahr own way; some have it worse than others,” Bakan says heavily.

“What about you?” Yae asks curiously. “Faela has her rite to do, I am exiled from my homeland.”

“Teh Dwarves” Bakan says coldly. “This village came to be from several tribes. Mine lived in teh mountains in ah place undiscovered by those stinkin’ four-armed bastards! They came with a battalion of steel fueled by ethereal flames. They took many of my tribe, but my family and I was fortunate to escape.”

Bakan takes a deep breath to recenter himself.

“G’orn helped us and showed us this village. We aren’t the only ones to suffer from the greater races. Some fled Humans, other’s from teh elves, however in teh past few years, refugees, not just from Fylox tribes, have dwindled.”

G’orn had taught her about the ‘greater races’ Humans, Elves, and Dwarves. In his words, the dwarves are by far the worst, the Elves misguided and manipulated by their three-eyed betters, and the Humans overly idealistic. Apparently, G’orn had lived in the Human lands for some time, and they welcome the goblin monks with open arms, even letting them do as they please, but that makes Yae question why people would flee from the Humans.

“Not all have ah good experience with Humans,” Bakan answers when Yae posed the question. “They kidnap entire villages and force them to live in some walled settlements, take teh children away as soon as they are weened off their mother’s milk, all teh while hypocritically claiming us to be ‘uncivilized’. But let that be ahr problem, Faela’s here now, so you better be goin’.”

Yae turns around to see the battle-hardened woman approaching.

“Let’s go; I don’t want to be on the road when it gets dark.”