A Dragon's Curiosity

Throwing the mass of scraps back into the fire, Nisha sighed and prepared the formation to reheat the iron.

At this point, Conner appeared next to the smithy which occupied the furthest spot away from the dwarf teaching the class. Out of breath and sweating slightly, he gazed at the tools lying around; as well as the elf earnestly working to create something before being able to gather his breath and speak.

“Sorry, I’m late. My dad didn’t let me go, and I had to run over. What are you doing?”

Glossing over the details and inquiring about the state of the forge roaring as the flames turned the formerly deep red mass into a bright yellow-orange, the young man put down the bag he carried and took his spot on the opposite of the anvil.

“It’s alright; I’ve just been messing around anyway. And it’s not like we have to show up either, I don’t think the teacher even realizes we are here.”

Shrugging her shoulders and replying in a languid tone, Nisha glanced over at the dwarf who had started to instruct the other students on how to forge something new. At least, it looked like that from her position.

Noticing the commotion after observing the elf, Conner turned around and did his best to spot the item being created by Fithe.

“Oh, they moved on and started working on daggers. My father said the same thing; after you learn how to make an ingot, a dagger is the next item on the list. They are relatively easy to make too, as long as you keep the design simple. We should be all right if I ask my old man for some more instructions and share them with you.”

Suddenly the already overcast skies burst open and light, warm summer rain began to fall, drowning out the sound coming from the other groups.

Patting down his dry clothes Conner released a sigh of relief.

“Looks like I came just in time. Otherwise, I’d be drenched right now. Lucky.

In any case, it’s not that hard to go from making an ingot to actual items. I see that you already tried a bit on your own. Care to tell me what you are attempting to craft?”

As the son of a famous smith, he naturally had the ability to say whether the elf simply practiced casting iron bars again or attempted to create an item. Only looking at the failed attempt, she had thrown back inside the furnace earlier the young man arrived at this conclusion.

“You have sharp eyes. It’s nothing much really, I got tired of doing the same thing over and over again and gave making something simple a shot. It’s not as easy as I imagined.”

Nisha replied while shrugging her shoulders in a noncommittal and indifferent manner.

“I was going to make a mask I had seen earlier in a shop display. When I saw it, it looked simple enough, but it turns out I can’t quite replicate it.”

Anyone listening in on their conversation would be quite astonished, the elf made it sound as if she expected to succeed on her first try easily.

Of course, Conner knew of the difficulty of crafting a regular ingot and turning one into an item.

“You shouldn’t hope to accomplish everything on the first try. Show me what you did and I’ll see if I can give you some pointers.I have to warn you, everything I know I’ve learned by observing my dad, so I can’t promise it’ll be helpful.”

Aside from messing around with some low-level first tier materials, the two did not take the current situation too seriously. Thus they felt comfortable with wasting a few resources and gaining experience with the actual process. Nisha also appreciated getting a few pointers, even if they just happened to be observations from the work of a real smith.

The impulse to recreate a mask she saw in passing struck the dragon when she waited for Conner to show up and had some scraps of iron on hand. With her financial prowess, a single item counted for nothing, even purchasing a hundred of them could be considered as cheap for the young mistress.

The challenge laid in recreating a piece with her own hands, and the dragon was not one to shy from a complicated process.

Retrieving the now heated iron piece from the forge, she nodded to the young man opposite from her side of the anvil.

Repeating the already familiar steps, the dragon hammered the iron into the shape of a crude mask, roughly giving it a rugged appearance. Without a proper technique and due to the lack of instruction, the surface reflected each hammer strike. Although getting the rough form already commended praise from the observing young man, Nisha hesitated and kept going. Slanting the hammer and preparing to create the eyes, ear, and mouth gaps, the previous failures repeated.

Not taking the shifting density of the material into consideration the iron tore apart, actually ruining this attempt as well.

Frustrated from another botched attempt, the elf threw the iron back inside the furnace to melt it down.

“I’ve been trying for some time now to get the finishing touches under control, but every time I succeed in one place, another area fails instead. It’s pretty annoying.”

Unable to vent properly Nisha pouted in silent frustration.

Seeing her pouting expression, Conner felt stunned due to the rare sight. Even when the blue scarf she wore should have covered her mouth, the powerful aura still conveyed her feelings perfectly.

“It’s not that hard; actually I’m rather impressed with how far you have come on your own. Take a look around you and tell me what you see.”

After Conner had collected himself enough to speak without stuttering, he guided her gently towards the solution.

“What about it? There are hammers, some other tools, as well as carvings to protect the building from the heat of the forge.”

Not noticing the oddity in her seeing the enchantments the young man made a mental note to copy the idea and protect his forge as the Royal Academy did. Then he pointed out the exact thing he was going for.

“A smith does not only rely on a hammer, right? You can probably forge a mask without using them, but to complete it safely and steadily you should also use the other tools. Once you finish the basic shape, take one of the shaping tools and hollow out the gaps before the iron cools down. Then you should be able to craft your first item.”

Showing off the knowledge, he accumulated while assisting and observing his father and his guests recently, Conner took a fitting utensil from the wall and demonstrated how to use it.

“That makes sense. Guess I’ve wasted time when I did not look for advice.”

Somewhat unhappy to be impeded in the learning process due to the racial tension between elves and dwarves Nisha felt all the more thankful to the youth on the other side of the anvil. Maybe she would have discovered the way to forge a mask without any other tools or the usage of the shaping utensil later on. Yet the results and the experience gained in the process came much faster with proper guidance.

Working together once the previous failure melted down the duo completed a similar mask to the one the dragon had seen in the shop. With only a little time before the allotted time for class ran out, both of them fetched one of the empty scrap boxes and sat down while the finished item cooled down.

“Thanks for helping me out. Are you alright with me taking the mask? We both worked hard to make it.”

“Don’t mention it, I only contributed a little bit, all the actual smithing was done by you anyway. I reckon we are still among the first groups to have completed an actual item, so I will just take the bragging rights as payment.”

Waving his hand in dismissal Conner packed up his stuff and released a deep breath he had held inside ever since he arrived at the forge and saw how the elf handled the forging hammer. If he did not know she was a complete beginner, he would have never believed how much progress the girl made. Of course, the young man would never admit it either - his pride as the son of a blacksmith did not allow him to.

“Still, I can’t just take it like this. Think about something simple you want to make for the next lessons, and I will try to help you as well, so we can call it even.”

Nisha did not mind owing Conner, yet she also wanted to pay him back soon lest her public image faltered and people call her ungrateful. Not that she had a pristine reputation, as a defiant student who argued with the dwarf instructor, the others avoided her already. Repaying kindness with kindness and evil with evil seemed like a good policy to the dragon.

Discovering no obvious drawback for the suggestion, the youth agreed with her and waved.

“I’ll go ahead and leave, and you should let the mask cool for a while more before you take it with you. I’ve seen a lot of burns ever since I was young when careless people came to my father’s forge. Take care.”

Holding his bag above his head Conner charged into the increasingly heavy late summer rain, protecting himself from getting wet while Nisha sent her goodbye after him.

Now alone in the empty smithy, the dragon approached the plated table where the item lay.

Tempered with many hammer blows, the slight curvature, and gray color captured the image she had focused on in her mind; giving the dragon great satisfaction to have reached her goal.

Unafraid of the heat, she traced her fingers along the nicks and creases. While it might not have been a masterpiece or even a perfect example of craft, Nisha still had forged it with her own hands and poured her strength and aura inside it.  The iron still had a dark yellow glow. Any other elf would have screamed by now. Thankfully her body still hid her abilities of a dragon, even holding her hand straight into the furnace might not leave a mark on her skin.

Since there was still some time before the magician class started, the elf picked up the gleaming hot metal item and carried it towards the anvil. Struck by a sudden thought, she retrieved a carving tool from the wall and pulled her box next to it, contemplating what to engrave.

At first, Nisha thought about copying the [Flickering Cover] spell she invented; turning the regular mask into a magic item used for disguise.

Unfortunately, no one besides herself had the ability to use that particular enchantment to full capacity, at most they could just partially turn invisible.

Without having a definite goal in mind, the dragon’s hands began to carve a formation circle on the iron, filling it with runes and fire mana.

Shining in her hands, the mask gradually changed from a dull gray tone to a bright silver gleam as the enchantment neared completion.

As the picture came together under her pondering, Nisha ultimately drew the magic dissipating formation she had discovered with her [Spirit Sight] and arranged it in a suitable variation for her own devices.

If any magic lecturer or staff from the magician department belonging to the [Royal Academy] had the chance to witness this coming from a first turn student, they would either beg her to become their student or try to nip the prodigious talent of this irregular in the bud.

Luckily - or not, depending on the viewpoint - no one remained in the simple smithy aside from the elf, who completed the now silver mask.