Chapter 9. Meeting

As they approached the general area of the temporary living arrangement of the caravan, Bo called out to his protege.

"Hey Ricky! Come here for a second."

George was unaware of the fact that his brother was the one that the master of the caravan had such a high evaluation of and he just waited to the side in ignorance.

Since Bo was such a large man George actually didn't see Rick approach them at first.

"Master Bo, did you need me for something?"

Rick approached while wiping his face off, it seemed he was in the middle of eating something good.

"Yes, I would like you to meet. . ."

As Bo turned aside he was interrupted by the brothers.

"George?!"

"Rick?!"

They were in shock, they never thought they would meet each other after so long under such circumstances.

In their mutual stupor, an awkward silence ensued to which Bo felt the need to break.

"Ahem. . . It seems that the two of you know each other, I hope you didn't steal his woman or something Rick."

"Ah?"

"Ah!"

Rick was the first to register what Bo was saying which resulted in him taking on a rather embarrassed look.

"Master Bo, actually. . . "

As Rick was trying to explain, George finally got over his initial shock and interrupted him.

"Rick! What the heck are you doing down here!?"

Rick felt the need to explain things to Bo but his curiosity got the best of him.

"When am I doing here? What the hell are you doing down here George? I don't even remember the last time I saw you!"

George was a bit taken aback by this. He was sure he had let someone know that he had come down the mountain with that caravan a few months ago. . .

"Damnit!"

George suddenly yelled out.

Bo was beyond confused at this point. Did they both know each other from the village?

George continued, "It was Mark! I told Mark I was coming down the mountain a few months ago!"

This caused Rick to pause. 'A few months ago? What the actual fuck? I haven't seen my brother in months and I never noticed?'

Rick took a deep breath.

Then he turned to Bo.

"Master Bo, George is my middle brother and the other one he mentioned is my youngest brother Mark."

Bo nodded to the explanation. 'Makes sense, it seems they don't have a great relationship. It seems that Rick didn't even notice George was missing, yet that Mark didn't even tell his family that the middle brother was leaving, or he may have even forgotten what his brother told him from the sound of it.'

Bo laughed at this point. 

"Hahahaha!"

'This is only good for me, it sounds like I don't have to worry about Rick getting homesick on me!'

"Alright boys, it seems like we have a reunion going on here, how about we get some food and drinks to catch up?"

With that, the trio headed to the area with food and alcohol. It was normal for the caravans to celebrate a reunion by drinking all night and tonight would be no different than any other. Actually, Rick would soon realize that the caravan people would find any reason to finish off their supplies of the cheap stuff.

Back at the mountain village.

"Achoo!"

'What the heck, I haven't had a cold since I was a kid.'

Mark was getting his personal things together as he was preparing to try some of the new techniques he had learned out on his sword. He wanted to line up his refined colored ores so he could grab any part that he needed when he wanted to use it.

After teaching Mark the last part of their inheritance he was too tired to continue working and headed back to the house to drink. This resulted in Mark taking over the rest of the work for the day but it was a light load anyway. Thus, Mark now had several hours to work before he even lost daylight.

After getting his ores in order, he took out his personal sword and placed it in the forge. With everything in order and no one to interrupt him for the rest of the day, Mark allowed himself to get lost in the flames of the forge. He watched as they danced around the sword that way lying on the hot coals. It seemed that the flames were trying to tell Mark a secret, one that was just out of the purview of his understanding. It was as if he was just about to understand what the flames were trying to say, but he was never able to understand.

Nevertheless, Mark devoted all of his attention to this process and he watched as the sword gradually heated up. He would turn it from time to time to ensure that the heat spread perfectly across the entire blade and no part of it was heated up faster than any other part.

He continued to study the flames until eventually he felt that the sword was ready. With the signature level of intensity of glow that the sword gave off when it was ready, Mark placed it on the anvil so he could prepare to perform the second step of his inheritance technique.

The first thing that Mark ever learned was how to tend to the forge and to heat the metals to the proper heat to be worked on. Then he was allowed to learn how to prepare the metals that would be worked on for further refinement by smoothing out any imperfections in the shape of the metal from the heating process. The second step of the blacksmith inheritance techniques included how to grind the metals down to finish them after all the work had been done. The reason for this is because these parts of the forging process were easy to teach children.

The third step of the inheritance techniques included repairing and shaping/reshaping metals. This was the most intensive process and is where George and Rick gave up. This process required a strict attention to detail and the ability to spot imperfections in a piece of metal while it was glowing with the intensity that was given off when the metal was hot enough to be worked on. This step included sub-steps that had to be followed in order to perfect the object being worked on, whether is was a sword or a shovel.

The fourth thing that Mark had learned was how to refine the metals he was working on by adding different metals to it that could strengthen it in some way. This was much harder than the third step because it required several techniques to heat the original metal in a way that it could safely be removed while the new metal was added and bonded to the rest of the original metal. This technique was required to reinforce weaknesses in weapons and tools that kept getting damaged in the same ways over and over. This technique could also be utilized to upgrade a weapon with superior metals or to create an alloy without affecting the integrity of the original weapon/tool.

The fifth and final technique that Mark learned from his father just this day was how to alter the crystal lattice structure of the metal directly.