69 We Need a Forge (1/2)

After collecting a large amount of Moon Iron Elanor and the boys return to the village. They'd taken a little over a week to reach the cave and returning. By the time they return, Rosie and Kendra have already left. It seems that Mellisa demanded to go with Laurel to the Sunny Spring sect.

The boys all have bright smiles as they return home. They all jump into their mother's arms as soon as they see them. All but one mother cries at the return of their boys. Anna just smiles and give the boy a gentle hug. ”Did you gain some good experience?” Anna asks.

”Yeah! But better then that we got this,” Franklin says as he pulls a shining piece of metal from his pocket.

All the boys happily tell their adventure story while leaving out the part that didn't happen. Then after calming down and eating a good meal, they find Wilbur to show what they'd collected. When Wilbur sees the metal, his eyes nearly fall out of their sockets.

As Wilbur holds the metal, his breathing speeds up, causing his black beard to puff out, ”How did you boys get this?!” Wilbur exclaims in amazement.

”The treasure cave,” Louis says with a bright smile.

Franklin observes Wilbur's excitement and asks, ”You know what it is?”

”Indeed this is Moon Iron! I only saw it once as an apprentice,” Wilbur replies. He then shakes his head, recounting, ”He wouldn't even let me touch the small stone. He said it was worth more than our lives.”

Wilbur turns the chunk of metal in his hands and sighs. ”It's to bad we don't have a forge. I could make a small knife out of it. I would have been a famed blacksmith back in town,” Wilbur speaks wistfully.

”Pfft,” Elanor fails to hold in her laughter, ”Hahaha, this garbage a treasure wheeze.”

Franklin scratches his head awkwardly. ”Elanor threaten to blow up the whole mine since the metal was junk to her,” Franklin informs Wilbur reluctantly.

Wilbur's bright face turns sour as he looks at the woman rolling with laughter. ”Lass, are you trying to kill me?” he asks while holding his chest.

”Please, it's not a big deal. Just this one mine had enough metal in that even if you worked your whole life you wouldn't use it all up,” Elanor explains while waving her arms in front of her suppressing her laughter.

”What!? There's more than just this?” Wilbur huffs.

”That's right! We all got a few chunks,” the short Douglas exclaims while digging out his couple pieces of Moon iron from his sack.

Roy also pulls out his and says, ”We could barely get the stuff out of the wall, but Elanor just grabbed it out with her bare hands. She gathered a bunch for us.”

Wilbur looks at Elanor with his jaw-dropping to the floor. ”Is this true?” he asks in a murmur.

”That's right thanks to me Elanor! You will no longer have to use literal garbage as equipment,” Elanor boasts while slamming the center of her chest with a palm. Elanor's smug face and now bouncing mountains made for a unique visual experience.

Wilbur shakes his head and responds, ”Moon iron is pretty unique. It's not easy to forge. We'd need to build something able to produce quite a lot of heat.”

Elanor shrugs suddenly losing interest. ”I don't know anything about it,” she dismisses.

Later that day the men gathered to discuss the new wealth the village has gained. Arron, Gregory, and Wilbur sit around the fire with serious faces. To create a forge out here would be a tremendous endeavor.

Gregory sighs and rolls his old shoulders. ”I think there is value in it. But can you even forge Moon iron?” Gregory asks Wilbur.

”If we just had what the kids brought I wouldn't dare. But since we have plenty of practice material…” Wilbur says a bit embarrassed. 'I would be wasting a treasure… Will, my teacher, come back from the dead and curse me?' he wonders to himself.

Arron frowns with his head resting in his palm. ”The metal is rare right? In the future if the Red River Empire finds out about the mine…” he reminds.

Gregory nods at this and mentions, ”Even if it becomes troublesome in the future our current predicament can't go on forever.”

”With our guardian spirit and the kids growing up I doubt they'll want to fight us… We may even be able to make a deal,” Wilbur reasons optimistically.