Chapter-15 In the Workshop

Rosa dragged her feet in front of the workshop. Her feet felt like big lumps of iron are attached to them. Her shoulders made creaking sound and felt sore to the bones. Every single inches of her body made her feel exhausted. She finally got the meaning of what is morning training. Randomly commanders will take all the members of this camp and train them for an extended amount of time. The commanders are chosen randomly such that the cadets and recruits do not get used to their commanders. They make all of the inhabitants in the camp train except for a few exceptions who train themselves. Rosa did not have any idea of what training is going to be neither anyone warned her about it. Her first day of training was more confusing and she did not even realize what exactly happened in the whole time. When it was time for her to face commander Roux; she almost thought of turning around and running away but that was just an impulse and she decided to let it go and walk in the field. She thought of taking one of the swords but in her heart she knew all of it is going to be useless for her. She took a short wooden sword its height was from her elbow to the tip of her fingers. It was still on her hand. She thought it will be lighter and easier to handle for a while. Her shaky legs finally took her to stand in front of the commander. He took one look at her and nodded to get ready. Rosa did not know what she should be getting ready for the fear of getting hurt. The men who went before her were much stronger then her and fell down really quick.

The commander just made a grunt noise. Rosa did not realize that it was the sound to start attacking it took only a few moments and she found herself flying and thrown down in defeat. She landed on the ground with a large sound. Maybe the fact that she was thinner than others played a role in this place. On that day Rosa found out she hardly has any stamina in her body. She could not do the pushups a few only. The cadets around her laughed at her and helped the little guy out to finish up the training. If that was not a hard thing for Rosa to endure she realized that they have to run back down the hill in the given moment or the person who came the last would have to do the dishes for the day in the canteen. Rosa somehow managed to avoid arriving at the last place. She washed up and walked into the canteen. She did not feel much hunger rather she felt more sleepy from all the running. Her body screamed in pain.

Rosa came back to her senses and moved into the workshop hoping to get a lay down. She did not manage it to the front door instead she quickly laid down on the ground. She closed her eyes for a bit to wake up with a wet cloth slapped on her face. She groaned and got up to a sitting position removing the cloth from her face. Babak was grinning down at her. “Welcome back kid, you are late.” She groaned again but kept silent. “Get up you need to get cleaning done.” Rosa groaned and scratched her head “The tools?” Babak nodded and held a hand up to help her get up from the ground. He almost picked her up fully. “Well you need to get more muscles in your bones. You are too light kid.” Rosa did not say anything she felt too exhausted to answer. She only wished to go back up to the bed and sleep.

She followed Babak to get inside the shop. The familiar heat from the chimney welcomed her. She saw Merlin with a hammer he waved to her. “How was your first training?” Rosa scratched her head with just laughing; she could not thing of what to say at the moment she just nodded to show that she understood the comment and moved to take the dust pan to help with the cleaning. The heat kept on increasing in the workshop where both of them went back to their work. Rosa would move around passing tools, cleaning then help handling stuffs as much as she could. Babak would not let her come near the fire as she is still young to handle it as he claimed. She would argue about it back in the village but this time she was trying to stay away from any communication. She finally took a seat at one of the bench watching both of them work. It looked like magic to her. Babak would handle one side of the place while Merlin would handle the fire. She watched them take different types of metal pieces. The wonderful thing about it was the fact they knew what amount of each type they need to mix. Rosa looked at their work carefully. The metal pieces were kept in a melting bowl. It was a strong heat absorbing metal is used for the bowl. Merlin whipped his sweat from his forehead and put it in the chimney. The bowl was kept on the warm coals. The bowl went red first then slowly turned bright red to bright orange and later yellow like the fire behind it. The fire made the wall all bright red to the point it was hard to see the edges of the bricks on the wall. The black smoke went up to the chimney hole to keep away from entering the room but some of the smokes did enter the room and make it grayish and foggy in the room. It was getting denser in the room. Babak bought out one of the mold on the iron table. It looked like a common long sword mold. Both of them nodded towards each other forgetting the fact that Rosa was also present in the room. They both looked to be in sync with each other. Babak bought out two more molds into the table. He took one of the mold sat down on one of the bench and put it horizontally on the ground. He took a hammer and started hitting the opposite corners of the mold. Rusts and grounded metals came out of the mold on the ground some were powdery and some were small chunked pieces. He looked at her with a pissed look. “What are you looking at kid? Clean this up and make sure you save them properly.” Rosa quickly jumped up from the bench and ran towards him with a broom quickly. She quickly took the dust and scraps away from the place and gathered the extras in a dust pan to separate them from good pieces to dust. Babak has a rule in his workshop nothing is garbage. The first main rule is to salvage every small thing that is a left over. Ores can be changed into material bars but her would save the leftovers to create molds or add to a new metal for the next sword. Rosa shook the dust pan and separated the small scraps to a small cart and poured the dust in the other. She looked at the tiny metals in the cart. They look twisted rusted even close to be broken. She could never figured it out how could Babak create anything out of scraps. ‘Are these really that good? They do not look that special right now.’ She scratched her head and turned back to look at both of them.

Merlin bought two more bowl with metals to melt the pieces. Rosa wondered what type of metals was used in here. They were red first slowly turned yellow. The first bowl slowly became too bright. Rosa thought it was almost bright like the sun. He looked at the bowl without moving his gaze. After a moment he took a long tong and picked up the heat bowl. It still had the color of bright yellow with a little bit reddish orange at the end. They poured the molten liquid on one of the mold. They waited for the liquid too cool down and take its shape before hammering. Merlin continued to pour more liquid at the rest of the molds while Babak moved around cutting from a part or twisting one of the strings. They waited for the metal to cool down before opening the mold and starting to hammer. Merlin went back to the fire place while Babak positioned the blade in the middle and started to hammer. The blade was still bright red like the molten lava. The hammering had a rhythm in it. The pauses in between was not less or more. Rosa unconsciously started to count in between the pauses between the strikes. Each moment it was exactly the same. It was addictive for her to see the whole process. ‘They have such a great job.’ She sighed and looked at the scrap metals in front of her cart. She pushed the cart and took it to the corner to clean away as much rust as possible. This was another extra task issued by Babak. He likes to keep even his scarps well maintained. Time went away really fast in the workshop Rosa was not even half way done with her choirs when a second whistle came to her ears. “Well that was a good time save lets clean up and go for lunch.” Babak quickly went on the back door singing loudly. Rosa looked at the huge pile of work she needs to finish she thought for a while whether she would stay back and finish first, but her stomach decided to revolt and grumbled loud. She decided to finish up later. Tossing the dirty cloth on the cart she looked around the workshop it looks messier then before. ‘The cleaning up is going to take so long.’ She sighed and followed the others to wash. Merlin and Babak spent the whole way talking about new materials for the new batch. One of Babak’s hobbies is to go on the search for new materials to make the weapons he would not trust the market seller words. Babak avoided the auction house instead he would go directly to the mines and make contract and buy ores. The camp changed that for him. He is trying to get adjusted to the regular ores for crafting. Mostly irons are used for armor and rarely steel. He worked with silver ones for the Captain with special permission. According to Merlin he did not see Babak get that excited. Silver is rarely given to the camps with special permission from the empire or one of the capitals. They cheerfully talked about the designs. Rosa did not get in the conversation rather walked a few steps behind. She would listen to them attentively but could not find anything to say to join the conversation. She saw cadets passing by them to quickly go over to the canteen. There is a rule in this camp you must arrive on time for food or else it will not be served again. Exceptional cases are only when they ride out for scouting. They passed the large building with the eagle insignia she saw on the first day. The building made her curious every time she passed it. There was this gloomy thing about it. The eyes of the eagle felt like it is directly looking at her. ‘I wonder how it looks inside the building. Is it the same as a normal one? Who resides there?’ Rosa did not get to see the captain yet but she feels more and more curious to know about him.

The canteen:

The place looked busy with everyone moving around to get the food from the large pot and bread was given as a side. “What is it with you lot today? Did you forget the rules of the place?” There came a large booming sound from the high table in the middle. Commander Roux was standing with his hands on his hips. There were other commanders joining him on the table. One sitting on the corner right side caught Rosa’s attention he seemed to be looking at her from the moment she entered through the door. There was a slight smile in his face. It made her really uncomfortable but the smile seemed familiar as if she saw it somewhere before. This put an alarm bell in her head she quickly hid herself behind Babak. The last thing she needs now is anyone recognizing her as a female in the camp she has to stay here at least till Felix is well settled and she knew about the females not allowed in the camp rule. She slowly moved around to get a seat for herself on the wooden table. She settled silently on the table just casually looking around the place there were people talking with smiles on their faces while some where having anger arguments. ‘A lot of the emotions could be seen in dining room.’ She thought smiling. “Babak, how is the new order coming along?” Roux came and shook his hands with Babak. “It will be done faster than I expected but I need more bars. Will the next shift arrive today?” Merlin and Rosa looked from one person to another. Roux nodded in confirmation. “It is good that the order will be completed soon we will be getting new recruits and how are your addition coming along. Your new one needs more muscles in his bones he is too skinny.” “Well your training will surely make him grow up better.” They both laughed. Rosa on the other hand felt danger incoming at her next training. ‘I will be thrown higher this time.’ She grabbed her shoulders thinking of all the pains she will receive. “You need to eat more than just a puny serving that will not get enough muscles for you.” Roux put his bowl down in front of her. It was meat stew; it looked different from the others it was more reddish in color and the bowl was bigger than the average one she uses. Roux patted her back and went forwards to meet others. One of the servers wanted to say something beside her but stopped when she looked at him. Rosa kept looking at the bowl it was nice of him to give her his bowl. She did not wait anymore and started eating the soup. Rosa teared up a few pieces of bread and ended the bowl quickly. She left the table as soon as she was done with her meal. She felt a bit heavier on the stomach. She was not used to eating a heavy meal. She drank the water quickly and excused herself to get back to her choirs in the workshop. When she left the canteen the cook approached Merlin and Babak carefully. “Babak is that apprentice of yours alright?” When they did not answer anything back he continued while sweating, “The bowl had double chili powder. Some of the cadets were angry with commander they wanted to get back at him from the training.” Merlin almost dropped his spoon in shock; he could not believe that Rosa ate it so well. Babak on the other hand looked calm and kept starring at the entrance of the canteen through which his new apprentice left. He expected something like this and sighed ‘I need to talk to that kid.’