Teachers

There was a yellow dot with an arrow coming out of the bottom on his map. He looked at the legend of his map and learned it was a waypoint.

He left his room in the Inn and followed the map. As he entered through the gate separating the residential area from the trade area; he discovered four people standing near the entrance.

He didn't think much of it at first, but then he noticed they were standing in his destination, according to the map.

"Excuse me, are you here for me?" Kyle asked.

"Mmmph bmpfl," a strangely dressed person said. He was wearing a large leather hat over a round wool head tied at the neck. It had two glass eyes and a beak. It looked more or less like a bird wearing a hat.

A robe hung down from its body, and leather gloves covered its hands. It had a stick in one hand and a box-like leather container strung over its back. Thick leather boots were on its feet.

"Dr. Heller, you don't have your squawk box on, how is he going to understand you?"

A large man with a gray beard white Linen shirt, gray pants, black leather boots, and a black leather apron over his front and a black hat on his head looked at the weird birdman.

<<bzzzt.>>

<<Thank you, Mr. Davenport, I forgot I turned it off.>> The electronic voice said.

"How many times do I need to tell you to call me Wayland?" Mr. Davenport said.

<<Likewise, I have instructed you to call me, Harvey.>> the electronic voice said.

"You first," Mr. Davenport said back.

"There, there boys, you're making us look bad in front of little Kyle Cain, or do you prefer G-Hawk,?" A beautiful woman in her mid-twenties asked.

She wore a tight-fitting blue dress, light purple sash, and a golden crown with leaves coming out from the bottom of the crown, and wore gold bracelets around her wrists.

Delicate rings adorned her ankles and light purple linen shoes were on her feet.

"Lady Galgaba, these two are always fighting, let them be," A small but fierce-looking man said. He was about 5'9" with dark brown skin. He looked Indian as far as Kyle could tell.

He wore a blue undershirt, black overshirt, and black pants. He also wore flexible black leather boots.

His black hair was neatly combed and he looked like he was in his mid-forties. A royale beard covered his face.

"You're right Master Khanda, we should let these two children bicker," Lady Galgaba laughed while placing her hand over her mouth.

Dr. Heller and Mr. Davenport stopped arguing. They looked at Lady Galgaba with veneration and Master Khanda with a little fear.

Kyle stood quietly listening to the four adults. They all seemed more like children than kids he knew.

"Which name should we call you by?" Lady Galgaba asked Kyle once more.

"May I ask who you are?" Kyle wasn't sure how they knew his real name, but it probably involved Gramps. He said he needed to meet some people. Maybe these were the people who he was supposed to meet.

"We are going to be your teachers from now on," Master Khanda said.

"I am Master Thoda Khanda, you may call me master, master Khanda, or master Thoda. I teach combat arts and military strategy.

This delightful young woman is Lady Galgaba. She will be your formations teacher." Lady Galgaba waved happily at Kyle.

"The bird looking man is Dr. Harvey Heller." Dr. Heller gave a courteous bow.

"He's your chemistry and medical arts teacher.

Finally, the large man in the black apron is Mr. Wayland Davenport, he will serve as your forging arts teacher." Master Khanda said.

"All of you are my teacher?" Kyle asked.

"Indeed," Master Khanda replied.

"Then you can call me Kyle, Mr. Cain, G-Hawk, or whatever you feel comfortable with. Is there a school building I need to come to every day?" Kyle asked.

"No, each day you will come to one of us and the next day you'll rotate to a different teacher. I'm the only exception.

You will report to me every day in the mornings at 5:00 am and again in the evenings at 8:00 pm." Master Khanda said.

"Today, you're with me, boy," Mr. Davenport the forging arts teacher said. Kyle was very excited. He was always curious about how things were made. Especially the magical items in this world.

The other three teachers left and Kyle followed Mr. Davenport back to his forge.

The pair walked in front of a large furnace. Mr. Davenport grabbed a couple of pieces of ore and introduced Kyle to the process of removing impurities from the ores.

His first task was to master the process of turning ore into ingots that could be used for forging.

Before he even began, Mr. Davenport took him out of Star Tear Village into the hills and showed him how to identify magnesite and collect it.

There was actually a lot of the stuff above ground, and he didn't need to do any digging at all. He used a sifter to get rid of all the sand and little pebbles until he collected the magnesite he needed.

The process wasn't fast but it wasn't slow. The one thing he needed to be alert for was beasts and people who might seek to hurt him. However, with Mr. Davenport there no one bothered him.

After four hours of finding magnesite, he finally collected enough of the material. After using water to sift out the useless dirt; he moved onto the next phase which involved removing the oxygen from the gathered iron oxide.

Mr. Davenport showed him how to use leftover carbon coke to remove the oxygen and some limestone for flux.

Next, he used a pestle and mortar to crush the limestone into powder. He also crushed up the impure carbon coke and mixed the magnetite, and crushed limestone and carbon coke.

He also added a little soda ash. After getting the mixture Mr. davenport taught Kyle to make his own furnace.

He placed all of his materials in the furnace and lit it until everything melted together into a glob of iron.

After he poured the glob into a little box it cooled until he was left with cast iron.

"You'd have to work this a bit ta be able ta make anything useful from it because of all the carbon, but you see how you can find metal everywhere. We could make a bunch of this and refining it and make it less brittle or even turn it into steel," Mr. Davenport said.

Kyle was extremely impressed by the whole process and couldn't wait to do all of this on his own.

"I suppose the old man gave you a book on basic forging skills, but that's no good 'til ya learn some geology. Here are some books you need ta memorize before we meet again in five days.

Now, get out of here and go and see Master Khanda, at the training field." Mr. Davenport said.

<YOU HAVE RECEIVED: PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY BY RUSSELL PLACKARD>

<YOU HAVE RECEIVED: HOW TO IDENTIFY DIFFERENT TYPES OF ROCK BY KATTY STEVENS>

<YOU HAVE RECEIVED: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO ORES, MINERALS, AND FOSSILS BY EUGENE BRIGGS>

<YOU HAVE RECEIVED: PRIMITIVE FORGES BY KARMAN CARTER KELLINGTON>

Kyle was very happy from his day of learning and couldn't wait to see what would happen in the days to come.