“And that’s when I told her, ‘Do you have a name or can I call you mine?’” Krinn said with an earnest smile.

“You really did that?!” Ellie asked with a surprised expression and disappointment. Jude laughed, Cairfay cocked an eyebrow, and Nellie blushed. Wen was used to this behavior, so she barely reacted at all.

Krinn continued like nothing happened, “Then she told me: no because her name was Mionie. It was such a shame that this pickup line was wasted!”

Everyone laughed, but Krinn was still distraught over the matter. To him, she could have been the one! But it seemed his friends didn’t understand. But he also wasn’t so thick-headed that he didn’t see the humor in it, so he too quickly laughed along with everyone else.

“Alright, it’s my turn,” Ellie said, taking up the mantle of the story teller.

“It’s not going to be the one about when Jude saved you from the wannabe bandits is it? Or that one about you guys going to Grimwar Caves?” Wen asked. “We’ve heard those a thousand times; you need to share something different this time!”

Ellie rolled her eyes, “Of course I’m going to tell a different story.”

Then she paused for a moment gathering her thoughts, “This will be the story of how I built the Auto-targeting X-Crossbow of Ultimate Might with Auto Loading and Accuracy Orientation. Or the ATXCUMALAO for short.”

“What a terrible name…” Nellie whispered in her mousy voice, while several of the others groaned in disappointment.

“You see, Theodwin taught me that how to use some of the Crafters base skills to emulate Artificer skills. The reason this is possible is that Crafter is the root of all the advanced classes. Because of this, Crafters can do all the basics of each job. The only catch is that it is not obvious and it takes a lot of practice.

“You all know that I created the base design of the X-Crossbow in Grimwar Caves with Jude. But what you don’t know is that I had been working on the plans for this device for much longer. It was only in that desperate situation that I finally attempted to create it.

“After I started my apprenticeship with Theodwin my design became much more robust and reliable. But it wasn’t until Theodwin saw it that the real improvements came. Theodwin is a brilliant teacher, he didn’t tell me what to change, but rather got me to think of ways to make it better! Then—“

“STOP!” Wen interrupted, “If you are going to tell us how you cosh’ing made that crossbow, then I’m going to need to put my spear through my ears!”

“Really?!” Ellie was peeved, “When you told us all how you single handily took down a cyclops, no one said a word. Even if it was a bunch of gonnthad.”

“What?! My story was about heroics and might. It was enthralling and captivating. Your story is a hot steaming pile of thad! No one wants to hear how you made your cosh’ing crossbow.”

Krinn swooped in and took Ellie’s hand and said in a romantic voice, “I would love to listen to the rest of your story. Why don’t we step away into the woods and you can tell me?”

Nellie gasped in shock. She wanted desperately to put herself in-between the two, but she was too shy to make such a bold move.

Ellie ground her teeth at the antics of these two siblings.

“I would like to hear the rest of the story too,” Jude spoke up. How things worked had always interested Jude, and this was no different. Jude couldn’t craft, but he still loved the theory behind it.

Ellie instantly brightened up and pushed Krinn away.

Nellie nodded her satisfaction and was much more interested in hearing Ellie now.

Krinn was disheartened, but not too much so. He was quite used to rejection.

In the background, a slight snoring could be heard from Cairfray, but no one seemed to mind.

Ellie continued her story, “When a blacksmith strengthens a weapon, it is done so by the picture engraving. Runes are applied by Wizards with . But an artificer is different. They use a combination of runes, engraving, and mechanical movement!

“A simple example of this is to image two gears working together. On each tooth of the gear, there is a different rune or engraving. So when the gears move, these teeth come together and form different relationships which cause different effects. It’s amazing!

“But now combine that with multiple gears, levers, and pulley’s, and you create a system that is exponentially more intercut than any other engraving or rune work.”

Ellie continued for quite some time as she expounded on how different engravings and runes work together. Then how they worked and influenced the other gears which in turn created new conditions that set off a whole new chain of events.

“In the end, I wasn’t able to do all of the work myself. Theodwin did a lot for me.”

Jude asked, “Is Theodwin also an Artificer?”

He had known Theodwin for a while now, but the elf was very secretive. So he hadn’t pried too much.

Ellie replied honestly, “I’m not really sure. Sometimes I think he is, especially when it came to this project. But at other times it seems like it’s not.”

“What do you mean?” Jude asked.

“Well, when he setup all his security for the shop, it’s all very rudimentary,” she replied. “If he were really an Artificer, his pride wouldn’t allow such low quality work.”

“Ugh, you told your story,” Wen said, “Now it’s time for my story about the time I killed the Negab Beast!”

Krinn cut in, “You killed the Negab Beast? It sounds like you have forgotten a few things.”

“Not this again,” Wen complained, “The blow you did to the neck wasn’t deep enough to end its life. It was me piercing through its heart that ended it.”

“Except the heart was on the left side, not the right,” Krinn poked at his sister.

“Like you know what the heart of a Negab Beast looks like. That thing you cut out was its liver.”

The argument continued on unsettled and more stories flowed between the friends.

The night deepened, and the fire grew dim as they all rested underneath the willow tree. The willow Anthea.