13. Responsibilities

Once the body had completely turned to ash and the coal had finished burning, Mark removed the cage and then brushed all of the ashes over the side of the mountain with a broom. There was a backdraft from the mountain behind him so as he brushed the ashes off, they shot down instead of spreading out which prevented anyone in the village from having to tase James' ashes.

Mark then went into the house and grabbed all of James' stuff and proceeded to throw that all down the side of the mountain as well.

He saw no sense in keeping anything as it was all useless garbage at this point. 

Anything that was made of metal was set aside so Mark could re-smelt it for use later. There was nothing useful in the room anyway, just some mementos.

Once Mark had cleaned out the room he grabbed some more water and splashed everything down with it. Then he used a broom to scrub from the top of the walls to the floor and brushed it all outside before he lit a fire in the furnace to dry everything. Since the house was made of stone and iron, it would all heat up just fine during the day and there was no danger to leave the furnace burning while he took care of everything else.

The part of his father dying that Mark disliked the second most, after having to waste time burning the body, was having to inform the village. He knew they would feign grief for him since that is what they had done when his mother died and it would likely take a while for Mark to get them to leave him alone.

"I wish I could just get back to the forge. . . sigh"

Of course, Mark was only thinking about the forge.

"At this rate, I will barely get to finish orders today, and tomorrow I'll need to go get more iron ores to make sure we have a good stock...errr....to make sure I have a good stock..."

Mark talked to himself before setting off as he was feeling a bit frustrated.

He walked to the center of the village and added James' name to a tablet that had the names of people who died and when they died.

The village had these tablets to put in their hall of remembrance where the dead could be honored. It was their way of having a graveyard where families could go do grief and mourn their dead in whatever way they did that.

Mark just did it so everyone would know that the head blacksmith was dead and the new head blacksmith was the one they had been working with the most the past year.

James had started to check out a year ago since Mark had become proficient enough to do most of the work and he had shown up to work less and less as he acknowledged Mark as a master blacksmith.

Everyone in the village already knew who to go to for their blacksmithing needs so it was not a big change.

After Mark carved the name people started to walk up to him as they had all seen him when he started carving and a few people could be seen walking up from their village management hut.

The leader of the village, old Craig, was walking with a couple of people who had gone to get him when they noticed what Mark was doing.

As was the custom, Mark waited until everyone that was gathering up had come within earshot and he announced the death of James.

"As you all suspect, James is dead, he died in his sleep peacefully last night and has gone to be with my mother."

He kept it short and he noticed immediately that people were already feigning their sympathy for whatever show they wanted to put on.

It didn't matter to Mark. He knew that people only cared for the blacksmiths as long as they were producing the things they needed and agreed to act as the village muscle.

He then headed over to the management hut with the chief after receiving everyone's condolences.

The chief needed to make sure they would continue to have the support of the blacksmiths.

He knew that Mark had been in charge for the past year, so this was more of a formality than anything. He also had to show his sympathy for the loss of a member of their community.

As Mark neared the chief, he said, "I am sorry for your loss Mark, your father was a foundational member of the community. The services provided by your family have always been one of the main things keeping our little community going. We are here for you if you need anything."

Mark just wordlessly nodded his head as they approached the building.

It was made of wood with a thatch roof which was typical for buildings in this village.

The insides were mostly empty in the front where people could congregate and in the back behind a door, there was a lounge area where people could sit and chat.

The chief led them to the lounge area and had drinks brought in.

There was a table with some rudimentary snacks and fruits on it already. The drinks were brought in from the back door by a maid. 

 Mark looked at his cup, recognizing the wine typical of this village that was made by fermenting a red fruit that looked like a strawberry. It was called Zor wine since that little red fruit was called Zoreple Fruit.

The difference between it and a strawberry was that the insides had the texture of mangos.

As a wine, it had a sweet scent like watermelon and Mark was quite fond of the taste. He proceeded to take a swig of it before looking over at the chief. 

'Surely he wants to talk about something right?'

They hadn't talked about anything since they had arrived so Mark assumed that old Craig was letting him get comfortable.

The chief looked back at Mark and decided to begin their discussion.

"I am sure you know that we hold your family in high regard, not just because you provide us the tools and repairs needed to keep this village going but also because we have always been able to rely on the blacksmiths for protection."

Mark knew that this was going to be the discussion they would have. "Chief, nothing is going to change even though my father has passed. I have the capability to handle everything on my own and as a matter of fact, it has been my responsibility to keep the smithy running for the past year. Everything that has needed crafting or repair has been done by myself, with the exception of just a few things that James took care of because he was bored."

"So, is there anything else that you want from me chief?"

The chief was not surprised to hear the rumors in the village be confirmed. It had been a long time since he had seen James and even when he had seen him, the old blacksmith had been drunk.

Everyone knew that his wife was the love of his life and that her passing had been especially hard on him.

They also knew that the family was not bonded like a normal family due to the passing of the mother.

It was common knowledge in the village that the two oldest sons of the blacksmith had left the village and neither of them had been seen again for at least a month or more.

The concern was that Mark would also leave, which would put the village in a difficult position.

"Mark, I know you probably want to grieve in peace so I won't keep you here longer than necessary. We just want to know if you plan to stay in the village."

'What the hell? Why would I leave the village?'

Mark's thoughts were incredulous.

He looked into the eyes of the chief to see a stern gaze locked into his own.

'Oh, he is serious. . .'

The chief could see Mark's confusion so he explained a bit more.

"Young man, I don't know if you have noticed but your brothers have been gone for quite a while now. George was seen leaving with a caravan months ago and Rick had left over a month ago. With this pattern, we were worried the passing of your father would result in you also leaving the village."

'Ah, so that is what this is about.'

Mark had a look of understanding on his face now.

'I guess my brothers took off, I didn't even realize they weren't around anymore.'

George had actually told Mark that he was leaving, but Mark was busy thinking about his prototype at the time and couldn't be bothered with such useless information.

Mark just looked back at the chief.

"I will not be leaving the village anytime in the foreseeable future. My forge is here and my work is here and also my home is here so I have no reason to leave."

The chief was visibly relieved so he sighed and took a drink of the wine.

"The only other thing we are concerned with is village muscle. It has not happened in a while but when a visitor of the village gets rowdy, the village has always relied on our blacksmiths to be the strong arm of the village. While we do have guards, it always tends to be someone much too powerful for the guards to deal with, and for some reason, you blacksmiths are even stronger than the stonemasons."

"We had an incident a few years ago that your father managed to bring under control within minutes of arriving at the scene that was being caused by a drunk guard from one of the caravans. James managed to knock the guy out and carry him back to the merchants he was there to protect."

"We want to know if you also have this strength. We know that you regularly come back with warg pelts and bones so I think I already know the answer but I need to ask if this is something you can deal with in the future if we need you?"

Mark was unsure of how to answer a question like this.