Kobi #2

Kobi has settled into the Great Forge over the past days.

Even though the place is a massive labyrinth of caves deep into the mountain, the young would-be blacksmith is slowly mapping out the cave system between forging, reading and sleeping.

It’s the reading that surprised Kobi the most.

As a son of a poor smith, he wasn’t allowed a formal education. Before entering the forge all he could read was his name. Yet as soon as he stepped foot into the expansive library from one of the caves while mapping, that all changed.

He reasoned that the books must be enchanted somehow.

So he began reading for hours on end.

Dozens of books per day. His thirst for knowledge never quenched.

Only stopping to stoke the forge, and exhaustion have been able to tear him away from his studies.

Reading was his first shock, learning that he had broken the laws of the forge was his second.

When he forged his first weapon, he did so with iron strictly forbidden from being used in weapons. The material was blessed by one of the Grand Magi of the Forge for harvesting tools. Using it to forge a weapon would have been an automatic exile from the mountain in its prime.

The lost boy from the Gold Coast frantically worked to reforge the weapon into some sort of tool but he was unsuccessful. He would later find out through reading that once quenched, the blade can never be undone, no heat is strong enough to melt it down.

Kobi has beat himself up from being overzealous in forging a weapon so absentmindedly. But more than that; as a boy he grew up on stories of this legendary place only to desecrate it upon entering.

So he has been more careful, waiting to forge again until he knows the boundaries. Magic is a mystery to him.

He was compelled to take the illicit sword out of the forge. He propped it up against a table near the small orchard until he can find a solution in his books. Hopefully.

Kobi, learned that the type of magic determines the blades tint. Green as he learned was set aside for farming needs. Green blades could be imbued with magic to increase the harvest, but never to shed blood. It was once believed that shedding blood with a green blade would curse the person using it.

A couple of books have alluded to it, but none have explicitly said it.

He learned that red blades are for blood magic and were rarely ever forged on site. The writers of the books speaking on blood magic openly condemn the practice.

He has yet to have found all the color spectrum, but he has read that blue was typically used for sailors and fishermen, while orange was used for magic with fire. Orange is said to be magic based on the Suns.

Kobi realizes how much work needs to be done, and how much he must learn. But he has nowhere to go.

So he grabs another book.

As he opens the pages, he begins to have a craving for one of the sweet apples in the orchard. So he grabs a few more books, then stokes the forge before heading out to read until the second Sun sets over the Eastern sky.

As he exits the forge, something catches his eye to his right.

Standing on the edge of the cliff where Kobi made his climb is a man. A tall man, maybe seven and a half feet tall. With wings protruding from his shoulders.

It’s a Skyman!

Kobi had heard the legends of the great skymen who once lived in mass on the mountain range. He heard how they fought for the magicians in the Great War and were exiled to an island west of the Golden Coast. Because they could not be thrown from the cliffs as the magicians were. But Kobi only half believed them… Until now.

The tall Skyman has his back to Kobi as he looks off the cliff at the foothold ladder carved into the mountain side. Kobi soaks in his every detail from his wings to his feet. He is majestic!

Slowly the Skyman turns around and instantly freezes upon seeing the boy.

Each is locked into a staring contest that neither flinch at for minutes on end.

Kobi finally composes himself enough to say hello.

The Skyman leaps into the air yet hovers over the forge site for a few moments, enough for Kobi to yell “WAIT!” a couple of times.

The Skyman retreats into the clouds and out of Kobi’s sight.

Kobi stands in disbelief for a time.

His mind races through all the stories he heard about the flying men, and remembers that the Skymen were once known to have been fierce warriors with throwing discs that were forged on site. Surely one of his books will have the details! Kobi resolves to forge a set of disc as soon as possible to have ready to present the Skyman the next time he shows up on the mountain top.