Marteen continued wolfing down the stew set in front of him, paying little heed to any of the people around him. All he could think of was the stew in front of him and getting back to Aurora, Korin and little Sophie. He hadn’t been away from them this long in he couldn’t even remember.

Sophie had just learned to read and write and wouldn’t stop chattering about the latest thing she had read or the word she had written. He and Aurora took turns reading to her and having her read, then getting her to write out some of the things she had read. She was learning so quickly and had taken after her mother with her Air Magic affinity. It usually went that way. No one quite knew why but daughters tended to go after their mothers and sons after their fathers when it came to magical ability. So, Korin had inherited his disappointingly lacklustre magical ability in Earth magic. Something he had tried to build on before having the children.

Everyone knew that children inherited affinity from their parents to some degree. Therefore, each parent tried to improve their Affinity to magical elements before conceiving. It meant that the wealthier connected noble families had children with incredibly high Affinities in multiple schools of magic. In contrast, poorer people were left with their natural and usually lacking magical abilities. Lucky for him, his wife had a very high natural Air affinity and had passed that one wholly to their daughter.

His eyes shone when he thought of his exceptional daughter and what she would be able to do in the future. She was his future, after all. And where Korin might lack magical ability, he more than made up for physical attributes. With him working with Marteen in the forge part-time when not at the Academy, she boosted those particular talents even further. He had made sure to take both children with him to the forge from time to time. It was more Korin than Sophie because of their interests. Still, even Sophie loved blowing wind into the forge fires to get them to blast hot air, sometimes even when he didn’t need it. Entirely too enthusiastic about that one. She was too small yet to do much more than that, but physical stats were vital for the longevity of life, more so than mental or ranged stats were.

He looked up when he realised that the spoon he had put in his mouth was empty. Oh, I finished it. Hehe. He hadn’t expected it and looked about, hoping for someone to get him a refill, or perhaps he could just. No, there is the chef. She won’t allow me just wander around in this chaos. A bull in the wheat, mum, would say. Come to think of it. She did say that to me. She says it more now than before, ever since I started blacksmithing. I guess I am much bigger now.

Marteen recalled he had been about Enron’s size before coming to Brewyn. The years forging had done much to his body and physical stat growth, having spent most of his formative years behind a hammer and anvil. He recalled his first day at the forge.

“Wass tha’ then!...” He was shocked from his reverie by Head Cook’s screeching while bearing down on Haemish and Rion. Both of whom happened to be sitting near that thing, in the bag. What is that anyway? Mr Haemish and the slime, globule, sludge were talking, actually talking, for most of the journey today, what? Mr Haemish and Rion looked up from staring at each other, a hint of guilt on each of their faces. It was hard not to feel guilty when Head Cook stared you down in Marteen's opinion. He didn’t even know her name, which made him ashamed, which led to guilt, but everyone just called her Head Cook.

Maybe it’s a Class? I heard some people who have been in the same Class for so long that their actual name gets lost in time. He seemed to be in an odd mood today. Being away from his family this long was making him think crazy thoughts. All the more reason to get that refill and get out of here, he thought. However, there was no chance of that until Head Cook’s inquiry was entirely satisfied.

“Weel!!?” she was not known for her patience, that was for sure…Marteen made sure not to make eye contact, that was a certain way to gain her ire, and even then, nothing in life was guaranteed.

“Uhh, just something we found in the forest. Herbs and plants and such! Nothing to be bothered about.” Mr Haemish was stammering, abort, abort! The sweat beaded on his forehead, and Rion and Taler could see the explosion coming how the woman managed to get so angry over trivial matters.

“So, sho’ me! Let’s hav’a look-see!” does she not know how to speak at a lower volume? The whole kitchen had gone silent from the second sentence. A wooden stirring spoon clattered to the ground on the far side, and tomato sauce spilling all over the floor was ignored as everyone collectively held their breath for imminent impact.

“Who told you lot to stan’ around? Get to it! Come on! Off you’n go!” from pin drop to cataclysm in five seconds, and marten could attest to the devastation of that spell. Unreal, the woman could have cleared a room in one high pitched screech.

Not willing to let the four ferrets in front of her wriggle away, she snapped her attention back. At that moment, under that scrutiny, Marteen forgot that he was a blacksmith with decades of experience. He was regressing into the boy he used to be when he first met this woman, nail-biting, on edge and ready to bolt.

“Here…y-you g-go…there, see!” incredulous Marteen turned to see a patch of grass sitting in the bag. Not the slime he had seen earlier, and It-it was a perfectly mundane bundle of grass-like freshly picked from the ground! He realised that his jaw had dropped, as had Taler’s jaw across from him. They turned to each other and quickly clicked their mouths shut. Rion and Haemish were more dignified in their expressions, and Rion’s eyebrows had quirked, and Haemish just barely Managed to hide a self-satisfied smirk.

“Hmmm…you didn’a get these from the garden outside, did ya, eh?”

“No, no, not at all, Head Cook. We pick these from the forest! I assure you they are special….”

“Don’ smell any special te me…very well, ya cun eat, fer now. I’m watchin’ ye! An’ put the bag‘o’grass on the graund!”

Then she strode away without a look back; wooden spoon brandished like a truncheon at anyone who got in her way. They had received the business end of that one as well this time. Marteen violently shuddered as she left. He wasn’t sure he didn’t need a change of underwear after that encounter. He hadn’t even been the main one to receive her hateful glances. She would give you food but under her terms. While the “no animals” rule had been as close to sacred and inviolable as it could be without being blasphemous, right from the start. “Woah, that was intense. Thank Ursa, that was just a bag of grass.” he sent the large sweating man a wink and was rewarded with a weak smile. Mr Haemish was likely glad to be sitting down; his knees looked none too steady.

“Nice work…” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth to the seemingly innocuous bag of grass. Haemish was still recovering and wasn’t in any state to say much of anything.

“Thank you, thank you very much!” okay, his voice was weird before, but now it’s all happy and jolly. What is going on with this creature? Just use your own strange dry paper crumpling voice!

“We should probably finish eating and get out of here before she realises that the grass is talking. Before anyone realises that.” Haemish had Managed to pull himself together and hiss out the words so that no one but they heard. Marteen, taking the initiative, walked up to the lad Taler had been making eyes at and proffered his bowl for him to refill. He did so quickly and efficiently, and soon Marteen was back at the table wolfing down stew. He would not spend another night away from his loved ones, which meant that there was absolutely no time to waste. Taler and Rion quickly followed suit while Haemish seemed to have lost his otherwise prodigious appetite.

“Bes’ ‘o ea’ now Mr. ‘aemish.” Marteen cajoled around a mouthful of food. Haemish grimaced and told him to keep his mouth shut. A shrug was all Marteen gave before returning to his task with gusto. Within another five minutes, all the plates had been cleared, under the watchful eye of Head Cook, she had reappeared just a minute later to confirm they were behaving, and the four were saying their goodbyes. The four parted and planned to meet early the next day to test the creature that talked, Resh, as well as the other flora and fauna parts they had acquired in the forest.

“See you all tomorrow!” Marteen couldn’t get away fast enough; Taler dragged his feet while Rion and Haemish walked deeper into the palace to their private quarters.