Coliseum Forge

Job:

The sun had just started to crest over the buildings in Reim as Kerum made his way from the job board to the blacksmiths area of the coliseum. He had left his jacket behind, wearing only a plain white shirt and white pants. His sword Wraith was hanging from his belt.

It did not take long for Kerum to find the man and charge. "Hello, I am here to fulfill your order." Kerum bowed his head as he spoke showing respect to the man. The man was large, his arms and legs were ripped with muscle. He had shaggy brown hair and a cleanly cut beard on his face. He wore dirty clothes, probably from the forges.

"About time, well get to work." He grunted as he shoved his way past Kerum leading him to a empty forge among several forges. "This is your work space." With that he vanished leaving Kerum to work.

It took about half a hour for Kerum to get familiar with his forge checking what tools they had and what shape they were in. He longed for his own place where he could get the best tools he could. Everything he needed was here, this would take a few days.

He started right off by finding the bars of metal and quickly heating them to the desired temperature. Pulling it out the metal was bright red, with hard quick strikes he started to form the blade. Every time he reheated the metal Kerum would wipe his brow to get rid of the sweat pouring from his face. He had put his hair up into a bun to prevent it from getting in the way.

Kerum had let his skills get a little rusty, the process was long and much harder then it should have been. It took him most of the day just to get the right shape for a double bladed short sword. Sighing with relief he started the Annealing process. Placing it back inside the coals he let it grow bright red before placing it into a insulated material. There it would cool for the night.

"Only this far huh?" Grunted the man in charge as he watched Kerum work. "Good thing we pay you sorry excuses by the sword not the day." He spat as he turned and walked away.

"No wonder they have need of blacksmiths, who would want to work for that jerk long." Kerum muttered to himself as he got some food.

The rest of the day went much better, he got another two swords ready and in there own insulating sleeve. The rust was finally coming off as he made fast progress with the third sword. Now he would come in tomorrow and finish them up.

The next day went by quite quickly as Kerum unwrapped his first sword checking it over. Sitting at the grinder he started to pump his foot spinning the sharpening stone. A hour later he pulled back the sword the edges gleaming, testing it they were quite sharp.

Carrying it back to the forge he got it red hot again and pulled it out quickly dipping all of it into the water trough. Steam rolled out as he leaned back again. Checking it again he did it one last time.

He had one last thing to do to this one as he started to heat it up at a lower temp before dipping it into the water. A few times of this and the sword blade was ready. Sitting it to the side he moved on to the other two blades repeating the process.

The boss came around while he was in the middle of the second blade and inspected his first sword. "This is actually not bad, I mean not good enough for our soldiers but for the Coliseum it will work fine." Replacing it he left, leaving Kerum to work.

It was nightfall when he finished his third blade and went to clean up and rest. His arms were a little sore from the previous day but not having to hammer anything had helped them heal a bit.

On the third day all he had to do was finish up the blades. It was probably the easiest part of making a sword you had to just create the handle. This version of a short sword as by far the easiest as it did not need a hand guard. Taking leather and wood he got busy producing the handles with quick work.

Scooping them up into a bag he headed to find the boss. "Excuse me sir, here are your swords." Holding the bag out he took one out and swung it around a bit.

"These will do, here is your pay." Dropping a pouch into Kerum's other hand he snatched up the bag and waved him away. When he was almost gone he heard the bosses voice.

"If you ever need more work, or want to get better just come and find me." With a simple nod the boss entered his office. A small smile came across Kerum's face as he headed back to his cheap room he had purchased.

859 Words