Chapter 14

It had been two weeks since Aldos and Ordria had discussed about the trip to the Shir Fisk, and Aldos had spent the entire time locked up in the small hut behind the house, smoke constantly rising from the multiple chimneys as he taught Ozymandias the fine art of weapons forging. Ordria would occasionally drop by from time to time to leave a basket of food for the duo before going back to training Synd.

Inside the hut, Ozymandias wiped the sweat off his brow as he stared at the dagger in his hand, the cracks that decorated the entire weapon an obvious sign of his failure. "Another failure" he sighed, his purplish red eyes examining the dagger for flaws while his father watched him and waited for him to explain where he went wrong. "The hardening process" he stated, his eyes having told him everything.

"What about it?" Aldos asked, taking the dagger from Ozymandias and twirling it between his fingers before throwing it in a basin that contained the failed daggers that Ozymandias had made in the past two days.

"I heated it too quickly and then the cooling wasn't even" Ozymandias responded while turning the basin of failed weapons into a giant crucible. Using a pair of tongs to lift the crucible, he placed it in the heated forge, took a deep breath and baptized the pan and its contents in a torrent of fire from his mouth as he had done for the past week. Ceasing the torrent after thirty minutes, he grabbed a cup of mead resting on the table and emptied the contents in a single gulp, the sweet and cooling liquid washing away the rubbery taste that plagued him each time he breathed fire.

His father had reassured him that it was perfectly normal; a side effect of the flesh in his mouth and throat changing into something more fireproof to prevent his own fire from roasting him from the insides, but that did nothing to get rid of the taste. Pouring the molten metal into a pair of dagger shaped molds that had prepared beforehand; he took another deep breath to steel himself for the next process; extraction of impurities.

He had spent days working on this process, and had regrown his eyes several times a day as well as repairing his brain from the damage that the overload of information caused whenever he used his eye's special ability. Aldos had refused to let him forget the fact that his first attempt to use his eyes left him brain dead for an entire day. After an entire day of having Ordria and Synd poking him and laughing at him, he finally managed to grow back the damaged parts of his brain.

Shaking his head to drive away the memory, he activated his eyes, wincing in pain as his eyes broke down the components of the mold and shoved information regarding the metal and the impurities it contained within into his brain. Wiping away the bit of blood that was leaking out of his nose, Ozymandias began the extraction process.

Placing his hand over the red-hot metal, he began to pull out the various impurities that he had missed in his former attempts. "Don't take out too much iron this time" he heard his father advise from his side of the room. Nodding in understanding, he continued the extraction of the impurities. With a satisfied expression on his face, Aldos watched as pieces of unnecessary metal and molten rock carefully floated out of the mould and landed on the floor.

'Almost there' Ozymandias thought, a thin trickle of blood flowing from his nose, a testament to how much stress the constant influx of information was putting his brain was under. "Done!" he gasped, wiping the blood off his face with the back of his hand while staring at the glowing hot mixture of tungsten and iron that rested in the mold. Sitting down to catch his breath, he took a damp piece of cloth from his father and wiped his face clean before placing the jug of mead to his lips and guzzling it down.

"What's her name?" Ozymandias choked on his drink as he heard his father's question. "And how soon are you planning to give me grandkids?" he asked in a half serious half joking tone, enjoying the look of embarrassment on his son's face.

"She's just a friend!" Ozymandias hastily defended; his cheeks red with embarrassment at his father's accusation. He had barely been able to handle his mother's teasing and requests for grandchildren, and now his dad had joined in.

"You learnt how to forge decently," he heard his dad start. Before his son could come up with any excuse to defend himself, Aldos continued "You pushed yourself to learn new skills and use them competently" he heard his dad point out. "Something you've never done in all the time I've been training you," he turned to look at his son, his purple eyes analyzing his son.

"I was always interested in making weapons," Ozymandias protested, squirming under his father's gaze before attempting to change the subject. "I think the daggers have cooled," he got up from the chair to check on the moulds, missing the knowing grin on his father's face.

Standing above the moulds, Ozymandias placed his hands above them and began to draw the heat from them, his eyes analyzing the dimly glowing blades to make sure that the daggers were cooling evenly.

"They're ready" he proudly announced to his dad as he freed the daggers from their mould and presented them to his dad, his eyes glowing with excitement. Taking the daggers from his son, Aldos examined them carefully, his eyes transmitting all information regarding the unsharpened weapons to him.

"They're decent" Aldos commented, raising one of the daggers to eye level and examining it even further. Satisfied with what he saw, he held both the daggers in a reverse grip and proceeded to perform a series of thrusts and swings before ending the display with a flick of his wrists that launched the daggers with enough force to bury them handle deep into the wall.

"Perfectly balanced," he commented, pulling the daggers out of the wall. "However they're too heavy for your girlfriend," he laughed at his son's embarrassed groans and complaints. "I mean friend." He placed the daggers on the table, a smile on his face as he bonded with his son. Taking out several strips of leather from a drawer, he tied them around the handles as a final touch before sitting down at the sharpening wheel.

Placing a dagger against the moistened wheel, Aldos pressed his foot against the peddle to get it spinning which resulted in sparks flying and lighting up the room. After several minutes of sharpening, he raised the dagger to examine its extremely thin yet durable and sharp edge. Finding nothing wrong with it, he placed the dagger aside and picked up the second dagger to sharpen while his son watched on in curiosity, his eyes protected from the sparks and glare by a thin layer of membrane that had grown once the sparks started flying.

Finished with the sharpening process, Aldos moved to the worktable where he picked up the burin that laid on the table. Holding the tool in his right hand, he made sure to reinforce it with his kjarna before placing the tool against the center of the dagger "What did you want them to do again?" he turned to ask his son. Apart from having him make the pair of daggers, Ozymandias had begged him to add several abilities to the daggers. He had originally refused, but after hours of listening to his son's whining and begging, he finally caved in.

"I want it to always stay sharp, always come back to her if she throws it and I want it to always fix itself" he heard his son eagerly list "They're a gift, so I want her to be the only one that can use them."

"Are you sure she isn't your girlfriend?" Aldos teased, turning his attention back to the daggers while sorting through the runic knowledge he had gathered over the years while blocking out his son's protests. Placing the burin to the dagger, he began to carve the runes his son requested.

He became aware of his son breathing down his neck an hour into the engraving process. Putting the dagger and burin down, he turned to look at Ozymandias who had a studious expression on his face. "What is it?" he asked.

"What are those?" Ozymandias pointed to the half-finished runes that lined the flat of the blade.

"Those are runes" Aldos pointed to the first row of runes with the burin. "Each one represents a letter and effect" he explained, using the burin carving out the kenaz rune "ᚲ" onto a piece of leather that laid on the table. Under Ozymandias's gaze, the leather strap burst into blue flames before turning to ash.

"Lemme try!" Ozymandias grabbed the burin from his father's hand and carved the same rune on another piece of leather, his eyes glowing in excitement at the prospect of the leather bursting into flames. "Why isn't it working?" he asked, poking the strap with the burin. It had been five minutes since he carved the rune and nothing had happened.

"It's because you don't understand what the rune means" Aldos explained, taking the burin from his son and continued carving out more runes unto the blade.

"But I know what it means" he grumbled, poking and prodding the leather strip that laid on the table, "It means fire, I know it does, so why didn't it burn?" Ozymandias let out a stream of fire from his mouth, turning the strap to ash.

"Knowing what it means doesn't mean you know what it means or how to use it" Aldos finished carving the second line of runes on the second dagger and moved onto the third line.

"That doesn't make any sense"

"What I mean is that each rune has multiple meanings and is connected to several effects" Aldos toned down the explanation into one that his son could easily understand while carving the last part of the fifth line of runes. "To be able to use a rune, you have to understand what it means and all the effects it has." Placing the finished daggers on the table, he brought out a pair of normal looking sheaths from a box and slid them in. "Here" he handed the daggers to Ozymandias, who from the looks of it was paying attention.

"I also added a set of runes to make them lighter than they should be" he explained, watching his son pull the daggers out of their sheath, only to fall over and convulse in pain. "That's the protection you asked for" he explained before getting up from the table and plucking the daggers from his son's hands, freeing him from the pain he was going through.

"Y-you c-could have told me" Ozymandias gasped as he slowly got up from the floor.

"Where's the fun in that?" Aldos retorted, picking him up from the floor and carrying him out of the hut.

_____________________________________XXXXX___________________________________

Ozymandias had spent the entire day sitting beneath the tree waiting for Safi to arrive. Brushing away the leaves that had fallen on him, he looked at the circular door which led to the network of tunnels underneath the massive tree that served as his family's storage, the memory of how he and Safi met surfacing; it was four years ago and Ordria had sent him to retrieve supplies from the tree store in the middle of winter.

Twisting the door open, Ozymandias slid into the entry burrow and closed the door behind him, keeping the biting cold out. Brushing the snow off his body, he made his way to the central burrow where the supplies were kept, carefully checking and avoiding the traps his mom had taught him how to set up.

It had taken a lot of sweat, blood, tears and several smacks upside the head from his mom before he had finally learnt how to set them up right. He was brought out from his reverie by a chewing sound which came from the central burrow. Coming to a halt, he reached to his side and pulled out the ax from its handle, a serious expression on his face as he got ready for a fight. It wouldn't be the first time that something had found its way to the central burrow, and it wouldn't be the last time the intruder would be added to the store.

Crouching down like his mom had taught him, he slowly inched forward and adjusted his hold on the ax to one that would allow a quick throw if it was needed-which it always was. Peaking from behind a corner, he saw something hunched over an upturned barrel of dried meat. Taking careful aim, he threw the ax at the figure before dashing behind it, an action born from hundreds of hours of repetition. The ax's flight was swift, silent and deadly, and by all accounts should have buried itself in the figure's head and while it was reeling in pain, he would tackle it to the ground.

However, what should have happened was not what happened. Rather than burying itself in the creature's head, the ax buried itself in the wall next to its head, startling the creature and causing it to let go of the piece of meat. Before it could react, it was slammed into the wall by Ozymandias's tackle and pinned to the wall by his forearm.

"S-s-stop" he heard a weak female voice croak. A younger, more naïve him would have let go at the sound of begging, but he wasn't falling for that. Not again. Blocking out the pleas, he maintained the pressure on the intruder's neck until their body went limp, unconscious from the lack of air.