If You Give An Elf A Gun

I reached to touch a beautiful, yet alien red flower I didn't recognize, but was stopped by a beautiful elf's hand gripping my wrist, just inches away from the flower.

"Touch that and you'll wake up the Green Terra beneath us." She warned, releasing my wrist and backing up. "If you want to die, go ahead. I'll watch."

I chose to back away from the plant.

"Wise choice." She nodded, taking all of me in, her gaze lingering on my ears. "Come with me."

"Why?" I had some trust in her since she had saved me, but I wasn't foolish enough to blindly follow her.

"Because I saved your life. And because you owe me a life debt now." She responded, leaning against a tree. "Don't believe me, eh human?"

She picked up a rock and threw at the flower.

I watched it draw a shallow arc until it hit the flower, which abruptly erupted with vines that coalesced into a net and then receded into the ground.

"Oh." I said stupidly. That was the moment I accepted I was no longer on earth.

She giggled. "Coming?"

I figured she's be able to at least be able to guide me out of the forest.

After a while I finally decided to start asking questions.

"Where are we now?" I asked, hoping it wasn't a dumb question.

"We're now on the west side of Fernein Forest." (I know, I know. This was a speedwriting contest. Shut up.) She responded, laughing at me.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked.

She looked at me over her shoulder, giggling and saying nothing.

"Why did you save me?" I asked, aggravated by her laughter at the same time I was captivated by it.

"Because there are several instances of humans randomly appearing in remote areas with knowledge far beyond that of anything anyone had even considered." She stopped and poked my chest. "You have knowledge like that, right?"

It appeared she only just realized she should have asked that earlier.

"That depends." I responded mysteriously. "What kind of knowledge do you seek?"

She laughed outright, the sound enthralling me. "I want to know about weapons!"

She turned back to me and wrapped her arms around my neck and hanging on me.

"Won't you teach me?" She looked up at me, winking.

"I'd rather not." I pulled her arms over my head and distanced myself from her. "The weapons I know of have incredible power, and will harm more than help."

"Oh, come on!" She pouted cutely. "How destructive can they be?"

"I could erase cities with a single bomb." I said, recalling the published blueprints I had studied in my free time when I was still in my homeworld. "Not to mention the energy it would release contaminating the area around it and killing everything."

She gaped at me. "You... You could level a city with a bomb?"

"Yes." I nodded. "And destroy everything around it with radiation."

"What's that?" She asked curiously, returning to her usual attitude.

"It's an energy that harms your cells. You'll basically rot alive if the dosage is on the lower end." I explained, finding her shock funny. "If it's high enough you can die in as little as five minutes."

"But a sword is faster." She pointed out.

"A sword can't kill almost one hundred thousand in an hour." I chuckled when I saw her face of abject shock.

"So you won't make one for me?" She asked, pleading with her eyes.

"Hell no!" I exclaimed. "Even if I would, I doubt you'd be able to find the Uranium or Plutonium to make it; much less enrich it."

"What is Uraniumorplutonium?" She asked, mashing the words into one.

"It's Uranium and Plutonium." I corrected her. "They are radioactive elements that can be used to jumpstart the fission reaction that can level cities."

"What do they look like?" She asked hopefully. "Maybe I could find you some."

"I just said I wouldn't make you a nuke!" I exclaimed. "And even if you were to get them, you'd die of radiation poisoning."

"Oh." She hung her head and began trudging away.

"Oh come on!" I exclaimed. "Are you mad?"

"Yes, I'm mad!" She exclaimed. "I want a bomb like that!"

''I just told you I couldn't make it even if I wanted to!" I wanted to pull my hair out at that point.

"But-" She turned to me again, hoping to argue more.

"Tell you what." I interrupted her. "I'll make you something else."

"Oooh~" Her previous act of sadness vanished without a trace. "What is it?"

"I'll make you a gun." I sighed. Only after I said I would make her a gun did I realize it was probably a horrible idea.

"Yay!" She pumped a fist into the air and merrily led me through the forest. "You're the best!"

Seeing her attitude, I realized I didn't have the heart to tell her no.

We walked in uncomfortable silence for a while longer.

"What's a gun?" She finally asked.

"It's a weapon that fires projectiles faster than the speed of sound.'' I responded nonchalantly.

"WHAT?" She exclaimed. "HOW?"

"Well, through the rapid combustion of a propellant which used gas to them make the bullet fire." I explained.

"Propellant? Combustion? Bullet?" The elf repeated, uncomprehending.

"Propellant is something used to make something move, propel if you will, often at a high speed. Combustion is the process of which something burns. And a bullet is what a gun shoots." I felt like a schoolteacher trying to explain physics to a first grader for a moment.

"Wow! You're so knowledgeable!" She squealed in delight. "I can't wait to have one!"

"Didn't you say that other humans have come to this world?" I asked, recalling our earlier conversation. "What knowledge did they bring?"

"Well, one was brought to the capital and sold to the king. He made instruments that the king loved." She thought for a moment. "Another brought what he called 'glass', which introduced what he called 'telescopes' and 'mirrors'. He was bought by a noble.

And the last one brought the steam engine. He is free as of now, and pioneering steam technology."

"Hold up." I stopped. "Sold? Like slaves?"

"Yes. Exactly." She smiled at me. "But I won't sell you. You're mine~"

I got chills.

"I don't think I want to go to the city." I said. "I'd rather live here, where I won't be less than anyone else. Here I will be just as food as the rest of the animals."

I sat down and patted the ground.

"The ground will swallow us all the same." I nodded. "The ground is fair."

"What kind of nonsense is that?" She demanded, stalking back towards me. "Up. We're going to the city."

"Did you not just hear me?" I looked up at her.

"I heard you, and you have no choice." She grabbed my collar and began dragging me towards the city. ''You've got to make me my gun when we get there."

"Why couldn't I make it here?" I whined. "I don't want to be a slave."

"Too bad." She said unsympathetically.

I seriously considered stabbing her.

She continued to drag me along the forest floor, no longer bothering to check the surroundings. Her focus was entirely on literally dragging me to the city.

Luckily for me, she managed to bump into some vine monster which promptly encircled her and began tugging her towards the ground.

"Fuck!" She shouted in fury. "And things were starting to look up, too!"

The plant left me alone entirely. It probed with a few tendrils, but quickly retreated when it got near to me.

"Help me!" She growled at me, seeing me entirely untouched.

"Why should I?" I asked. "You want to sell me as a slave."

"Who said I'd sell you?" She demanded, violently struggling against the vines. "You're mine and mine alone. No one else can have you."

My eyebrows rose.

"What makes me yours?" I asked curiously.

"I found you!" She screamed, thrashing about. "That means you're mine! Finders keepers!"

"That's a horrible mindset." I noted. "In my world, slavery has been banned."

"This isn't your world!" She growled.

"I know." I nodded. "Anyway, have fun."

I turned to leave.

"Wait! No! Don't leave!" She struggled in vain, trying to reach out towards me. "I don't want to die!"

"I don't want to be a slave either." I said reasonably.

"Help me!" She demanded.

"Promise me I won't be a slave." I said reasonably.

"But then I won't get to keep you." She began crying.

'What the fuck is her deal?' I wondered. 'I have no idea what the hell is going through her head.'

"What does that even mean?" I demanded.

"I wanted to keep you!" She sobbed. "I won't make you my slave and I won't sell you, just stay with meeeee!"

I ignored the last bit of her statement and thought for a moment.

'If the vines avoided me, is it reasonable to assume they fear me?' I wondered.

I walked towards the vines and as I anticipated, they fled as I approached.

I stood directly in front of the shocked elf and watched the vines unwind from around her body.

"We're even." I said.

She stared at me dumbly.

I pulled the stunned elf out of the area of the vines.

"That...What...How did you do that?" She sputtered.

"No idea." I admitted.

"Thank you for saving me despite my words." She blushed cutely as she spoke, embarrassed by either her apology or her earlier words. I couldn't tell.

"You are very welcome." I smirked, amused. "Hey, what races are present in this world?"

"Well, there are elves and humans as of now." She responded, relived to move on to another topic. "The first human appeared two years ago. There are three known humans."

"Four now, then." I held my chin in my hand. "Is it really a good idea to take me to the city?"

"Why are you ignoring the fact that you saved my life?" The elf seemed bewildered.

"We're equals now." I said. "We're watching each other's back now. Why should we focus on thanking each other for saving our lives when we can focus on repaying the other?"

She looked at me strangely.

"You're overlooking the fact I wanted you as a slave?" She asked, stunned.

"Well, from the start you treated me like someone to be protected." I admitted. "It kind of felt nice to have someone care whether I lived or died."

"Did...Did people not care if you died?" It seemed like human society is an enigma for her.

"Well, there were seven billion humans on the planet." I shrugged. "If I died someone would replace me."

"That's a horrible mindset." She exclaimed.

"So is slavery." I extended my hand. "I'm Samuel, but you can call me Sam."

She took it and pulled herself up. "I'm Sarah. Thanks again for saving me."

"We're both lucky the plant feared me." I shrugged off her praise. "We both could have died there."

She shivered. "Do you know what those plants do to you?"

"I don't want to know." I figured it must be something bad if the thought of what could have happened gave her shivers. "We just get out of this forest, but I don't actually think that going into the city would be an excellent idea."

"Why do you want to avoid the city?" Sarah asked. "It's a beautiful city."

"I'm human." I explained. "I think that I, being human, would draw enough attention that people might put a target on your back."

"You make a good point." She fell into silent thought as she began leading me through the forest once more.

"Why don't we enter at night with stealth?" I asked. "How are the guard patrols structured?"

"You wouldn't be able to sneak in." Sarah shook her head. "There's a formation that marks everyone who comes over the walls."

"Troublesome." I glanced at the sky briefly. "Hey, shouldn't we find shelter? It's almost nighttime."

I pointed to the sun that had begun kissing the horizon and dyeing the sky with streaks of red orange and purple.

"Oh shit!" Sarah cursed abruptly. "This might be bad."

"Could we not just sleep in a tree?" I asked.

"Certain trees are carnivorous." She replied. "And they look identical to the herbivorous ones."

"Well, shit." I sighed. "Are they only active at night?"

"Yes." She nodded. "But that doesn't make them any less deadly."

I inspected the tree nearest to myself, hoping to find some clue as to whether or not it'd kill me.

"Perhaps we ought to dig a hole." I said, giving up on trying to identify the plant. "And then fill in the entrance."

"We don't have time!" She hissed.

"Well, we don't really have a choice other than to do that, do we?" I rebuked. "It's that or man-eating trees."

She scowled and picked a spot where the ground was comparatively softer and began digging with her hands.

I scraped away the nearby foliage and helped her by moving the dirt to the side, making it ready to partially fill our hidey-hole.

We worked rapidly, creating a shockingly spacious hole just before the sun sank entirely beneath the horizon.

I grabbed a bunch of sticks before getting into the small hole with Sarah and used them to poke holes through the soil into the air above, creating vents for us to breathe.

We sat with our legs out and our backs against the side of our hole.

And so began our first nerve-wracking night together.

For the duration of the night, we heard scary noises and loud rustling, as well as the snuffling of some large animals around our hidey-hole. The sound was promptly cut short by a rapidly receding squeal as the animal was carried off somewhere.

Sarah seemed to be the most affected by this, judging by her rapid breathing.

I blindly reached to the side until I found her shoulder and patted it, hoping to offer some comfort.

She yelped in surprise before abruptly stifling it when she realized it was my hand.

"Sorry." She whispered, shivering.

"Just calm down." I whispered back. "It'll be over in a bit."

I heard her scuffle about and then I had to suppress a gasp of surprise when I felt something warm begin to press against me

Sarah had huddled up against me, shivering.

"Sam." She hissed. "Why don't I hear sound from the forest?"

I listened closely and heard nothing.

The hairs on my neck stood straight up as I heard a blood-curdling screech right above us.

I instinctively held Sarah, holding her close to me.

She seemed to draw comfort from my touch judging by the fact that she began pressing herself against me as much as possible.

The screech was soon replied by a howl.

"Do you think the animals are fighting for territory?" I whispered to a shivering Sarah.

She remained silent, intently listening to the sounds outside.

The howl sounded again, closer this time, and the animal nearby let out a screech. I heard the beat of wings and prayed with all my heart that it had left.

My prayers were answered when the sounds of the forest came back in full force, as if they were waiting for the animal to leave.

I released the deathgrip I had around Sarah and realized she was asleep.

Her head was leaning on my sternum and her breathing was deep and even.

'I wish I had that skill.' I thought to myself. 'I would have lost a lot less sleep in Iraq if I did."

As I listened to the sounds of the nocturnal forest start to ebb, I heard a deafeningly loud keening that ended as abruptly as it started.

The sleeping Sarah jolted awake, blearily taking in her surroundings.

"What was that?" She whispered.

"I have no fucking clue." I responded, taking a stick and widening a vent so I could see through it.

"Look through the vent. See if you can see the sky." I whispered.

"It's grey." She whispered. "Dawn is coming."

"Thank CHRIST." I whispered in relief.

"I think that sound was the morning gerbil.'' Sarah whispered. "They keen loudly like that at dawn to attract mates."

"Fascinating." I whispered. "So should we go outside?"

"Not just yet." Sarah shifted herself off of my front and returned to her side. "If you're tired you should sleep. I'll wake you when it's safe."

"Do you think I could sleep after a night like that?" I hissed.

"Don't phrase it like that." I could hear the blush in her voice. "It makes it sound like we did something bad."

"You understood what I meant, yeah?" I knew we were just bantering like this just to relieve stress, but boy, did it feel good to let it go. "It's your dirty mind that warped it like that."

She didn't respond, but I could tell she was embarrassed.

I sighed and shifted my weight so I could cross my legs.

A while later, Sarah pulled on my pant leg and began digging out the soft earth that we had blocked our hidey-hole with.

"You helping?" She asked as she dug.

"Yeah." I nodded, though she couldn't see it, and began moving the dirt to fill the cave we were vacating.

Once we punched through to the surface, a breeze of gloriously cool and fresh air brushed past our faces.

I clambered out through the small gap we had created and helped Sarah out behind me.

"Sam." Sarah froze, still half-crouching from exiting the hole. "Look to your right."

I looked to my right and saw the largest snake I had ever seen.

It had scales the color of a midnight sky, speckled with stars to match. Its eyes were lapis marbles struck through by black and reptilian irises.

Its meter-and-a-half thick body had cleared a large and perfectly circular area around our hidey-hole, and it was staring right at us.

"Uhm...Hi?" I had no idea what to do in this situation, and my already tight-strung nerves just snapped and I began laughing.

The snake approached slowly as I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"If you're going to eat me, kill me first." I said, still laughing as I walked towards it.

The snake stopped when I was close enough to touch it and bowed its head.

"What the fuck?" Sarah asked from behind me.

I tentatively reached out and stroked those resplendent scales, relishing their smooth and cool texture.

The snake pressed its head against my hand, tilting it as if it were enjoying my head rub.

"I have no clue why it's letting me pet its scales, but I'm just happy to be alive right now." I stated.

Sarah began giggling uncontrollably, failing in her attempts to stifle her laughter.

"We brushed with death so many times in the last day and we have now met a friendly Shadow Snake." She laughed until she couldn't stand up properly and plopped down onto the ground, still laughing.

I glanced at the snake and helped Sarah back onto her feet.

"Why are they called a Shadow Snake?" I asked.

"Because they can hide themselves in any shadow." Sarah responded after her laughter finally subsided. "And because they are known for poisoning you and then following you through the shadows until you die so they can eat you."

"Oh." I said. "I'm naming you Kevin."

Kevin shook his body, as if pleased by my naming it.

After naming him Kevin I suddenly felt slightly weak, but I chalked that off to exhaustion from walking all day and then not sleeping for a night.

I had stayed up for longer at a time back in Iraq. I could shrug off a little exhaustion.

"Kevin is molting!" Sarah exclaimed. "Can you use naming magic?"

"What the fuck is that?" I demanded. "I only named him. What's so special about that?"

"Named monsters are much stronger than normal monsters, and even tend to evolve more!" Sarah yelled. "And you just named Kevin and now it looks like he's evolving! What the FUCK!"

"I don't know either!" I shouted back.

Kevin's body began shortening as his torso expanded. His skin he was shedding was pierced by spikes and slowly split as a newly formed Kevin pushed off the old skin.

Now, before me stood a proud lindwyrm, or basically a wyrm with legs.

"I have no clue what the fuck he evolved into but he's beautiful." Sarah said, approaching the newly evolved Kevin.

I patted Kevin's scales as Sarah let him smell her hand.

Kevin rubbed his head against her hand, signifying his approval, or so I thought, and we resumed our trek towards the city Sarah spoke of.

"You don't suppose Kevin would draw more attention, would you?" I wondered. "You said that Shadow Snakes could hide inside shadows right? Does that apply to moving shadows?"

Kevin demonstrated for me, diving into my shadow and vanishing from sight.

"Woah." I said as Kevin poked his head out of my shadow. "That's cool. We can smuggle him into the city like this, right?"

"Probably." Sarah nodded. "But to think that we're smuggling an evolved Shadow Snake in the first place..."

"This makes me want to learn magic." I chuckled. "With magic I could probably replicate this."

"I doubt humans can use magic." Sarah stomped on my dream as soon as it was born.

"Why not?" I asked curiously.

"Because humans are born in a world that doesn't utilize magic." Sarah responded. "The lack of magic makes it almost impossible for humans to use anything more than a simple water drop spell."

"But I wanted to learn magic." I complained emptily.

"Who knows? For all you know you might be able to use magic on the scale of the nuke you spoke of." Sarah laughed.

"I wish." I sighed. "Hey. We still haven't decided on what to do about entering the city."

"Just wear a hood." Sarah said flippantly. "It's not like they'll check everyone. They don't have time."

"And what of my clothing that doesn't match yours?" I pointed to my jeans and STARSET sweatshirt.

(STARSET is a great band. Check them out.)

"Uh..." Sarah was at a loss for a moment. "Say you got it as a gift from a human."

"Are you sure that wouldn't draw more attention?" I asked patiently.

"It shouldn't." Sarah responded. "It's not uncommon for humans to make and give gifts to people."

"So I just have to wear a hood and I'll be fine?" I demanded.

"Probably." Sarah sounded uncertain.

"Probably?" I felt like strangling her.

"It's better than staying in the forest again." Sarah pointed out.

That shut me up.

We reached the city Sarah spoke of by noon, and were queued up behind nearly a thousand people.

"I'm your bodyguard, alright?" I suddenly spoke.

"Why?" Sarah glanced at me.

"It'll be easier to explain that I'm guarding you, rather than explaining you found me in a forest and decided to keep me, isn't it?" I chuckled.

I was looking forward to a bed more than anything.

"Fair enough." Sarah nodded as we stepped forward in the queue.

It took hours for us to reach the front of the queue. During those hours I spent my time memorizing the thousands of large runes that had been carved into the massive stone bricks that made up the city walls.

I didn't memorize very many, but I figured I could write down a good many when I wanted to recall them later for study.

The guards of the gate looked curiously at my hoodie before dismissing me and Sarah into the city.

"Told you." Sarah giggled.

"Yeah, yeah." I waved her off. "What did you want to do in this city anyway?"

"Well, I wanted to have you make my gun here, since there are plenty of raw materials, as well as magically refined materials." She pointed to a stall that sold glowing ingots. "Orichalcum is mana-infused copper, adamantium is mana-infused diamond, and manasteel is mana-infused iron."

"You can't make steel yet?" I asked curiously.

"What do you mean?" Sarah pointed to an iron ingot. "Iron is sometimes referred to as steel."

"Steel is different." I responded. "It has carbon in it, which makes a much stronger alloy."

"Carbon? Like a footprint?" Sarah looked at me strangely.

"Carbon is an element." I said. "a carbon footprint is what you leave when you burn large amounts of fuel. When you burn fuel it releases carbon dioxide. That is what referred to as a carbon footprint."

"You know a lot of things." Sarah said, impressed.

"Say, what did the other humans that came here look like?" I suddenly had an idea as to why no weapons had been introduced.

"Their skin is darker than yours, their eyes are narrower, their irises are black, and their hair is black." Sarah struggled to recall their exact appearances, but was able to give general descriptions.

"I think they're all Asian." I said thoughtfully. "That would explain why they haven't brought weapons."

"What does their nationality have to do with their ability to make weapons?" Sarah wondered, avoiding a clump of tightly packed people shouting bids for a piece of red metal.

"I came from America." I replied. "In America we have access to many types of weapons due to the country's constitution. In many Asian countries, they have either a weak constitution or it has been discarded by their government in favor of acquiring power."

"What does that have to do with weapons?" Sarah asked, pulling me through a crowd of elves who were gawking at a sword made of orichalcum.

"When a government wants more power, taking away a civilian's ability to protect themselves is the best way to pave the way for a dictatorship." I recalled a world history lesson back in ninth grade. "Take North Korea for example. Their leader has completely disarmed the people and now is able to rule with an iron fist, entirely able to ignore the wishes of the people. Why is this? Because none of them have anything more than kitchen knives."

"So the humans hailed from nations like that?" Sarah asked, stopping in front of a building I could only describe as a mansion.

"Probably, yeah." I responded, wondering why Roman inspired architecture was present here.

I pushed the thought to the back of my mind as I followed Sarah through the arched doorway and into the white marble room behind it.

"Welcome to my humble abode." Sarah spread her hands magnanimously, fully expecting a gasp of surprise from me.

"If this is humble I would hate to see the king's castle." I remarked, looking around and noting the gold and silver accents on the walls and pillars.

"I've never been to the king's palace." Sarah admitted. "Come. I'll show you to your room." She led me through a series of convoluted hallways until we stopped in front of a gold-embroidered tapestry. "This is your room."

She pointed to the tapestry, dead serious.

I reached out to pull the tapestry aside and found a door behind it.

"Nice." I said, pulling open the door. "Secret rooms, however poorly hidden, are awesome."

"Poorly hidden?" Sarah demanded angrily.

"Yeah." I laughed. "In my world you had to find the right stone or something to reveal the door behind the tapestry."

"That sounds really cool." Sarah admitted, her anger evaporating.

I nodded, stepping into the room.

The room was richly furnished with a gold-accented desk and chair, along with a massive bed that dominated the floorspace.

"Do beds really need to be this big?" I asked, seriously wondering how they got it into the room in the first place.

"Large beds are a status symbol." Sarah explained. "And this chamber was initially built for my future husband."

"Why are you giving it to me, then?" I looked around again, trying to figure why someone would spend so much on furniture at the same time I wondered why she gave me her future husband's room. I then wondered why the future husband needed a secret room.

"Because you're mine!" Sarah held her face in her hands, blushing.

'Ah. She's a yandere.' It all made sense now. She clearly had tried to suppress her nature, but it still shone through.

"Why am I yours?" There was no reasoning with a yandere. I knew this well, but I figured there would be a reason for her twisted affection for me.

"Ever since I laid eyes on you, I decided you were mine." She giggled, tilting her head to the side. "And since you saved my life, you must like me back!"

"That's not how human emotion works." I didn't want to destroy her dream like this, but I figured it'd be like a band-aid. "Saving someone's life is important, yes, but it doesn't denote love."

"Then I'll make you love me!" She laughed and pushed me onto the bed, landing on top of me. "You'll have to love me after this!"

I sighed, grabbing her wrists with my hands and transferring her hands to one of mine, rendering them immobile.

I then held her waist firmly, preventing her from moving her lower half.

"This is even less how human emotion works." I said, waiting for her to tire herself out from her struggles. "Perhaps by getting to know each other we could spark something between us."

She stopped struggling abruptly.

"What do you want to know about me?" She asked playfully trying to give me a kiss.

"Why did you decide I was the one for you?" I was genuinely curious.

"To start out with, humans are so much more attractive than elves." She grinned and struggled to free her hands again. "And you're so strong! I like it when you hold me down."

I was speechless. Elves had the same sentiment as many of the human men I had been close enough to discuss things like that with. While I shared that sentiment, Sarah was a bit much for me.

"And you kept pushing me to survive!" She continued dreamily. "No one I know would have stayed to help me. You were the first to stay by me when things got tough!"

"In my hometown, that is a given." I said, thinking that elves were the same as in storybooks.

"Are all humans like you?" She asked curiously.

"No, not at all." I responded immediately. "I grew up in a tight-knit community of people who would help each other. When I served in the military, that belief won me some amazing comerades. It's a shame I had to leave quarters on their graves."

"What's a quarter?" Sarah asked.

"It's a currency. A dollar is a hundred cents, a half dollar is fifty cents, a quarter is twenty-five, a dime js ten, a nickel is five, and a penny is one." I explained. "A penny left on a military grave means someone visited the grave, a nickel means you trained together, a dime means you served in the military together, and a quarter means you were there when they died."

"How many have you lost?" Sarah asked sympathetically.

"Eleven brothers-in-arms." I said, remembering their smiling faces back before we had enlisted.

"Every one of them must have been as good as you." Sarah said sincerely. "But you, alone, are for me."

"Can you collect some iron? And some coal?" I asked, changing the subject because she made me uncomfortable. "I'm going to make some steel for your gun."

"Yay!'' Sarah's attitude did a full one eighty as she struggled to get up again. "You need to let me go if you want to make that weapon. Unless...You wanted to make me yours...?"

I abruptly let go of her, letting her get up and run out of the room giggling to herself.

I sat up, smiling to myself.

Fuck. Was she growing on me?

I shook my head and began wondering what weapon I should make her.

After a moment of contemplation I laid back down and decided to catch up on lost sleep.

I awoke late into the night to a sleeping Sarah hugging me like her life depended on it.

I didn't move for fear of awakening her, instead trying to go back to sleep.

As I lay there, I wondered at my luck. I survived that forest purely because Sarah saved me, the vine plant feared me, and because Kevin didn't attack me. These occurrences were the reason for my survival.

I mentally thanked the heavens for my good luck as I began drifting back into the realm of dreams.

I awoke the next morning to bright sunlight streaming into my face.

I sat up, awakening the elf that still clung to my side.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." I teased, rolling out of the overlarge bed.

"Do you...Not want a taste of me?" She asked tentatively.

"It's not that I don't want to, it's that I don't feel that I know you well enough." I explained reasonably. "My rational mind is able to curb my desires."

"Oh." Was all she said as she got up and moved to leave.

"Where is the iron and coal stored?" I asked as she left. "I need to make a blast furnace to make steel. And I also need sand and other wood and a ruler if I am to begin making your gun today."

Her attitude...I swear. One moment she's sad and the next she's joyous and carefree as can be.

After sending her out into the market several times to purchase the materials I needed for the furnace and molds I was making, I began making the outline for the furnace so I could also place a bellows, allowing me to make purer steel.

Since I needed to wait for the bricks to set completely, I began questioning her about her style of fighting. If she were a game character, she'd be a nearly exclusive dexterity build.

I decided to make a sniper for her.

I sketched out the blueprint for the weapon and began carving out parts of the sand molds I had on hand for pouring.

Two days later I had dug into the ground and made a blast furnace successfully.

Now I needed to begin heating it up.

I tossed a bunch of coal into the furnace and covered the top after lighting it.

I chose to make steel because I didn't know what properties the magical metals had. If the metals reacted with something in the bullets or cartridges, it might cause an issue. So I chose to stick with what I knew.

I was also making my own gun at the same time I made Sarah's. I wasn't about to let her have all the fun.

After the coal heated up the furnace immensely, I added a bunch of iron ore and began pumping the bellows, cycling the air to burn off the impurities. This is called the Bessemer Process.

It didn't matter if I added the iron ore directly to where the coal was. The coal would float as the iron melted. It would also mostly burn off, leaving only the carbon in the iron.

As I waited for everything to melt, I continually pumped the bellows.

It was difficult work, and Sarah had come outside to watch me strain and sweat at pumping the massive bellows shirtless.

I ignored her as I focused on my task.

Once the impurities burned off entirely, I lowered a orichalcum cruicible that Sarah had assured me would not react in any way to the high temperature or the molten steel.

I then poured the molten steel into the many sets of molds I had prepared.

I had to go back several times to properly fill every single mold, and I made several spare barrels because I worried about how straight they would be.

It was at times like this that I wished I could use magic.

Any excess was poured into ingots.

After the metal had entirely cooled, all I needed to do was to assemble the weapons.

Oh, boy, did it feel good to feel the familiar heft of a sniper rifle.

I made myself a Barrett M107, while Sarah got an AWM.

Both were great rifles, in my opinion, but I wanted to have Sarah focus on accuracy. If she got a semi-automatic rifle immediately I feared she would just dump rounds until she hit her target.

Before she could have the gun, I explained basic safety, such as to not try and catch it if she drops it, to not look down the barrel, and where to put her trigger finger.

I finally gave Sarah her AWM and began wondering how I'd make the primers.

When I asked her about it, she said she could go to a nearby mage and ask about it.

I explained the concepts behind the bullets and cartridges and left her to it.

In the mean time, I began moving the leftover ingots into a pile so they could be forged in the future.

After that, I had a bunch of free time to wander the empty and intricate halls of Sarah's mansion.

I had no idea why she was so rich, but I wasn't about to complain about money. It certainly made life easier.

Sarah came back several hours later with a bunch of pieces of paper and a few functioning rounds of .50 BMG and .338 Lapua Magnum.

"It's impressive that they managed to make what seem to be fully-functioning rounds in such a short time." I said as I loaded a few bullets into the magazine for testing.

"The people in the Tower of Glass were very impressed by your AWM design." Sarah said, proffering the papers. "These are patents for my AWM and the bullets you ordered to be made."

"Oh there are patents in this world?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes." She held the bullets and copied how I loaded the magazine. "How do I put this in?"

"You pull back the bolt and it'll go in." I showed her how to reload.

"Mason Crystal, the head of the Tower of Glass and the maker of these bullets wants to meet you, by the way." Sarah said offhandedly, aiming at one of her windows.

"Hey. Don't do that. We can use targets." I hurriedly stopped her from shooting her window.

I put a piece of paper against the rough stone that made the outer walls of her mansion and told her to try and hit it.

"Is Mason trustworthy?" I asked, wondering if the accuracy of my weapon was up to snuff. "Would he try and kill us for my knowledge?"

"No." Sarah said as she fired, then yelped and missed the paper by a good six inches. "He's known for pursuing knowledge, but he wouldn't kill for it."

She looked at the weapon in her hands with newfound respect.

"Like how it kicks?" I asked, squeezing the trigger and hitting the improvised target nearly dead center.

She looked at the rifle in her hands again and grinned.

"It's amazing." She laughed.

"It suits your combat style." I said, to which she straightened her back as if I gave her a wonderful compliment. "Do you think I could meet this Mason, then?"

"But then more people will know of your existence and try to take you from me." Sarah pouted.

"But we'll have connections to a powerful man." I explained. "And we can make him sign an NDA if he wants to meet me."

"A..What?" She asked.

"NDA. Nondisclosure agreement." I fired again, hitting closer to the center, which I thought was good, especially considering I hadn't put on iron sights yet. "Basically it means that he'll have to pay an exorbitant sum if he reveals my existence."

"That's smart." Sarah complimented. "And we'll have a person who would help us immensely if need be as well, right?"

"Yes." I chuckled. "It's a win-win."

She unloaded the magazine and fired the round remaining in the chamber, managing to hit the target this time, before setting the weapon down and entering the mansion.

"I'm going to draft up the document so you can meet the man." Sarah said over her shoulder.