Chapter 12. Meeting the Wind Lord.
Joey was in his second day in the exhibition camp. He didn’t quite understand why he was here yet. He DID know it had something to do with the dig site up ahead. He walked around the town looking around what there was to do. He saw some people still searching for valuables in the dumb he and the crowd opened the other day. He walked to a market which only had dried up tomatoes and some moldy fruit for sale. He really was in a poor world. Joey walked back to the house where he found Nico was about to leave for something.
“Hey, where are you going?” Joey asked.
“I’m going out of town to sell this stuff” Nico replied.
“I thought you couldn’t leave because of the guards” Joey said.
“True, but if you’re a merchant, they’ll let you through right away” Nico said. “And I can’t use this metal anyway. Joey remembered a book he read that Jin gave him. Something about making weapons out of scrap metal.
“Well… if I remember correctly, there IS a way to use it.” Joey said while crossing his arms.
“Really? How?” Nico said while putting the enormous bag of metal down.
“If we can melt it, and make a cast, we can make weapons out of the metal” Joey said.
“I see, but how in heaven’s way are we going to make a furnace, and with that temperature?” Nico asked.
“I might have a solution to that. I see this entire town is built out of stone. It wouldn’t be hard for the ones who made it to make a furnace right?” Joey asked.
“Well I guess your right… I’ll leave the metal here and trust you with that, since you helped us after all.” Nico said. He walked out of the door to talk to some people. He managed to make a furnace with some of the town’s craftsmen.
“Hey Joey! Were done!” Nico yelled to the house. Joey came out with the metal in his hands. He placed the metal in front of the furnace.
“Okay... That looks sturdy enough… did you also make the things I asked for?” Joey asked.
“Yeah, we got them right here” Nico said, while handing him a big stone pot.
“Okay... now if I remember correctly...” Joey put some of the metal into the pot and placed it into the furnace. “Now it very important that air comes into the furnace. Just leave the fire to me.”
“Right, everyone, fans ready!” Nico said. A small group of men had a fan in their hands to wave the air into the furnace. Joey was standing and the back of the furnace, so no one could see him using magic.
“Lets do this… I can do it… happy thoughts…” Joey’s hand started to shine blue as a constant stream of fire was created from the palms of his hand. “Okay! More air! I got the fire going!” the men from the group started to wave their fans, making the fire even hotter. The pot started to bubble slowly.
“It’s working! Hear it bubble boys!” Nico yelled. In the meanwhile a small crowd was formed around them. Looking at what they were doing.
“Okay, I’ll put the fire out now! Get the cast quick!” Joey said. Nico went to get the cast and placed it on a small stone table. Joey quickly went to the front of the furnace to grab the pot that was attacked to a stone stick. He slowly poured the molten metal into the cast.
“That should do the trick. Now we need to let it cool down until it hardens” Joey said to the group of men. A few hours later Nico and Joey returned to the cast with a hammer.
“So you’re saying we need to get it out of the cast and reheat it so it can be made sharper?” Nico asked.
“Yep. That’s exactly what I’m saying” Joey said. Joey hit the cast with a firm strike, the sword shaped metal coming out as a whole.
“Wow, it looks like a sword already” Nico said. “So now we reheat the top right? Put it in fire?”
“Yes, let’s do that now.” Joey said. He walked to the backside of the furnace and secretly heated the cutting edge of the sword with his magic.
“Wow, that was pretty fast” Nico said.
“He he... Yeah I know.” Joey took the hammer and started hitting the red glowing sword. Slowly it started taking the shape of a high quality sword.
“Did you have the bucket of water I asked for?” Joey asked Nico.
“Yeah, everyone tipped in since we don’t have too much water, so this better work.” Nico said while giving Joey the bucket of water. Joey slowly placed the cutting side of the sword into the water. Vaporizing half of it.
“Wait! Where did the water go?” Nico said surprised.
“It vaporized... But look at this thing” Joey said while holding the sword up.
“It looks like yet another sword to me” Nico said.
“Wait until you saw this” Joey threw a stone up from the rubble of the cast. He swung the sword at it, perfectly cutting it in half.
“Wow! Is that thing for real!? It just cut that stone in half! And without a scratch on it!” Nico yelled surprised. Joey smiled at him, kind of relieved since this was his first time crafting a weapon.
“Just imagine what people would give for a sword this fine.” Joey said.
“Your right! That scrap metal was maybe enough to eat and drink for a week. With this. We can eat for a month! And it wasn’t even a lot of metal we used! We can make dozens! We’re finally out of troubles!” Nico yelled while hugging Joey.
“That’s right; things are looking up for you guys. And think of this… we can train with these too, so we can break out. And make the town flourish.” Joey said.
“Oh my god you’re so smart! I would have never thought of that!” Nico said. “I’ll gather the town people to listen to you so they can learn how to make a sword!” Nico said, but as soon as he finished his line someone came running up to them.
“He is… he is… he is here!” the man said.
“Who is?” Nico asked him.
“The Wind Lord!” He yelled. As he finished his line he ran away
“The wind lord… the last time he came here he killed a lot of people… saying they weren’t strong enough.. Hide!” Nico said to Joey while grabbing his arm. But Joey stood still. “Didn’t you hear me? Let’s get the hell out of here!” Nico yelled again.
“I’ll stay… I have a feeling… you go…” Joey said. Nico did as told and he ran to the house. Joey stood in the middle of the road. In the distance he saw a whole group of armoured men walking towards the middle of the town. In the middle of them. A man dressed in fine leather, carrying the most dangerous knives he had ever seen. The group stopped in front of Joey, The Wind Lord looking over the men what stopped them. He saw Joey and smiled a little bit. Joey felt a dark presence near. He thought that this man was the reason why he was sent here. This man was no good news.