The Gift

By the age of seven Marcus had finally convinced his mother and father to allow him to attempt to use the forge but only under James' supervision. His first thing to forge would be special because it was a matching set of pendants, three in total.

Using some of his father's scraps he crafted the majestic pendants of silver and emerald dust. James had though nothing of his son using the dust he swept up from his gem cutting station that is until he'd seen the final product. For the pendants were an exact resemblance of his father's sword. It was also at that point that h'd noticed Marcus had removed the bracelet and his eyes where glowing as he scorched the pendants one last time before placing a paw on them and mumbling something.

How was it his son knew so much about magic already to know the enchantment words as well as to cast the spells he did as a baby. Now it seemed that without the hinderance of the bracelet he was even more skilled with the forge then James as he in his first attempt created three matching pendants all out of the rare and mystic material known as Vulparian.

A part of James wanted to take this pendants and sell them for they would more then take care of all of their family's financial needs but he also knew these pendants where meant for his son's friends and wouldn't dare ask him to sell them. Yet he was still amazed at his son's skills with a forge to be able to craft Vulparian pendants all at the age of seven.

Looking around James approached his son before kneeling down beside him and placing a paw on his shoulder before asking, "Son these are beautiful did you plan for them to be this unique and special?"

"Yes dad I only wanted the best for my only two friends and thus I took lots of time thinking and designing the mold." replied Marcus with a smile.

"But what about the metal of choice?" asked James with a raised eyebrow looking at the pendants once more and at how majestically they shimmered in the moonlight.

"I just used some of your old scraps why did I screw something up?" asked Marcus s he too examined the twin pendants.

"No son its just that you managed to forge those scraps into the lost art known as Vulparian. That alone makes these twin pendants very valuable but on top of that because you put your heart into it enchanted them in a special protective way thus making them priceless. Your friends should be very proud of you." explained James with a smile.

"Do you want them to sell in your shop?" asked Marcus knowing his family wasn't rich and could really use the financial boost.

"No son their magic will only work for your friends and you. Besides I could never take your gift towards your friends away from you no matter how hard things were." replied James with a smile. "Now go get yourself two leather cords and finish off those necklaces unless you want me to show you how to cast a small chain."

"I think the chain would work better father but for now Lt me just put these away and help you make something you can sell to make money." replied Marcus as he placed the two now cooled off pendants in a coin purse like pouch.

"Okay then I want you to design your own style of dagger and forge one for me. The first one will be yours to keep but hen once given a name you will make a few more for me to sell but remember what I've tough you." replied James as he cleared the forge workbench and laid out a piece of paper for Marcus while James worked on a mold.

Marcus quickly took ink to paper and drew out a majestic wavy dagger with bloodline and gemmed hilt. The design would then have a black leather wrapped paw grip. Once done he showed his father who smiled at the unique design before starting on a mold.

"Now I want you to start melting some of the scraps for your dagger and see if you can repeat your least feat. If not that's fine this is your test run anyways and you all ways want to test your mold with scraps." explained James and Marcus just nodded before grabbing the same set of scraps or at least what felt right and placing them in a bucket before slowly dragging them over to the forge at which point he'd start placing them one at a time into the melting pot.

Marcus watched as the scrap metals melted into a liquid form. It seemed to pull him into it, he was some how in a trance like state which partially worried James as he watched his son closely. It was almost as if he was ready to dive right in as if it was just water.

Marcus then lifted one paw as if to grab the handle in hopes of tipping the molten metal into the mold only to not grab the handle yet before James could even say anything Marcus dunked his paw right into the molten metal yet a red glow circled his paw and arm and when he pulled his paw out of the molten metal he had two equally size Vulparian neck chains. Marcus then carried it over to the rack to cool.

"Sorry father they just called to me." replied Marcus as he looked at his feet.

"It's okay Marcus but remember your magic might not protect you every time." replied James with a half scared smile, "Lets make that dagger of yours."

"Okay father." replied Marcus as he smiled and let his father pour the rest of the molten metal into the mold for his dagger.