When he took her hand she smirked up at him and held his hand tightly. Her fingers weaved his as they walked back to Gemma. It just seemed right to her. Gemma had, of course, noticed it. They separated so that the girls could pick the flowers they needed to but it always seemed like Gaea would glance back once in a while towards Olvar. It was new for her.

Once they discovered the crack in his shortsword the talks of Arri began. “Yes, we would go to the capital of Rosenites… Sularia.” Gaea gave him a smile but it was Gemma as usual who was causing the fuss.

“Hold on tight to Olvar when you get there… You know how the Ignis season is there.” Gemma’s words brought a look of fear on Gaea’s face for a moment.

“I’ll punch anyone who dares to try.” Gaea’s eyes slit for a moment as she glared towards her sister. “They can find their own mates.” Not that Olvar was that just yet but there was a promise that it could happen. “The Rosenite race is terrible in that aspect but it’s not common for them to try and steal taken mates… Though there are some desperate enough in Ignis season. It’s a popular time to get pregnant in Arri.”

Gemma took her sister’s bag and stared at Olvar for a minute. “If we want to get technical you were hired to protect Gaea. I can get to Mamlak just fine and take the airship to Adeluna with Hamon. You and Gaea do whatever you two need to do. As far as I’m concerned as long as you are both together you are doing what Basselina hired you for.”

–

The trek through the desert was the most interesting part of everything. It was hot but lucky for them it was a dry heat. Gaea had worn a long cloak to keep the sun off of her in an attempt to keep shaded. The last thing she wanted was to be sunburnt or worse. Every once in a while they would stop by a cactus to get the water out of it. The trek through the desert took at most two weeks with Ojuk going full speed in the sun. “We’re in Arri now.” Gaea pointed down to the sand as it shifted from the white sand of the Harena to the red sands of Arri.

“Red like blood.” There were tales of how the sand became such a color but Gaea wasn’t sure if any of them were true. It took another day past that point see the tree lines. They arrived at the edge of Sularia’s oasis midmorning. She pat Ojuk’s head. “You can slow down now. Take a nice break.” It had to have been hard for him to get through. Gaea took off the cloak and held it in her arms as she watched the city gates coming up.

“Remember what Gemma warned us about. She was being serious. Ingis a good season for men to be around Sularia… Though pretty bad for men with women.” There was a smile on her face as they passed by the female guards. “This is the castle district… We’re going to want to go left Ojuk.” The roads were crowded but Gaea found them an alleyway to go up. “We should board Ojuk in a stable and let him rest. I happen to know some people who can help.”

Gaea got Ojuk set up in a fancy stable all of his own with lots of water. Gaea rubbed his head and smirked up at Olvar. “We’re in the White Court district which is good. There is a talented house that has blacksmiths in it. Family actually.” They set out to walk the less crowded roads now that they were on their way to Toya’s. Well sorta.

Gaea held out her arm as a young drake came crashing through the city. People were screaming and Gaea even jumped a bit as the fire got set off.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?!” The voice hollered. Gaea looked up and she smirked. The woman was taller than she was about five feet five inches with long brown curls. There was a toddler on her hip with messy blonde curls and blue eyes. It was obvious she was talking to the drake. She walked past Olvar and Gaea for a moment before turning around. “I need you to take my kid for a moment.”

A mouthy comment from Olvar and Gaea threw up her hands. “Aunt Toya please this is Olvar and he–”

“I don’t give a fuck who he is.” Toya grabbed his arm and tossed him into the nearest wall before she threw her fist right through the bricks next to his head. “Words of the wise Wolf Boy… This is my district.” She took Olvar’s arms and put Sparrow into them. The boy looked up at him with a grin as he started to make wolf-like noises as if he was practicing. He smelled half lycanthrope.

“Now you! You little ass nugget of a drake. How many times do I have to remind you.” She walked right up to the drake while he was snapping at her. At one point she had his tongue on her hand and she pulling on it as it squealed. Toya took his leg and started and smash him on the ground back and forth. “I AM THE MASTER AND YOU ARE THE PET.” Back and forth over and over and over. That was until there was a defeated noise from the drake. Toya dropped the drake and put her hands on her hips. “You do this again… and you’ll end up a god damn tapestry on my wall. Do we have an understanding?” The drake cried towards her. “Now get out of my sight.” The drake scampered of scared.

Toya meandered back over and plucked Sparrow from Olvar. “Now why on earth are you here?” Toya looked at Gaea.

“Olvar’s shortsword has a crack in it and I was hoping Uncle Blaine could take a look at it.” Gaea held her breath for a moment.

“Is that true Asswipe?” Toya turned her attention to Olvar now she looked less than thrilled.

With Gemma confident in her abilities to get to Mamlak safely, Olvar and Gaea packed the necessities for their trip north. He kept it light, bringing along only what was absolutely needed. Any extra weight would just be more of a burden for Ojuk when they inevitably crossed Harena, and he wanted to make the trip as seamless as possible. After wishing Gemma luck and safety, they headed on their way, Olvar walking alongside his mount to save his energy.

Arrival in the desert was harder than expected to pinpoint exactly, since the farther north they went the more barren the land actually became. It was unclear when exactly the scrub brush clinging to life on the outskirts gave way to only blowing sands, but one thing was for certain: “I should have brought something lighter,” he told Gaea, holding his coat above his head like a tent as Ojuk took a break at a steady walk. The lycan was still beginning to burn on his ears and shoulders, despite his makeshift protection. After two long weeks with carefully controlled water and food, he was relieved to hear that they had arrived. Almost as relieved as Ojuk, who had been carrying his fur coat with his the entire way, as well as his naturally thick hide. “Let’s get you cooled off,” Olvar mumbled, rubbing the warg’s ears.

His attention returned to Gaea, although a bit amused at her concern. “If I’m kidnapped by Rosenite women, make sure you bathe Ojuk every few weeks. He gets ripe,” he advised. For now, the warg was brought to a private stable and boarding comfortably. Olvar promised to return, then hurried off with the woman he escorted.

The city felt bigger than he’d expected. It felt like it had settled into where it was over a long period of time, becoming one with the harsh desert around it like an oasis. Looking across the elegant buildings and vast crowds of people–mostly women, as the twins had told him–he kept a hand on Ojuk’s shoulder. He was out of his element in cities, and while his training with Simon had taken them through a great number, none of them had been like this one. He was reluctant to leave his warg anywhere. “He’d better be well cared for,” he grumbled, but was set at ease by the multiple buckets of water offered to his mount. Ojuk settled in quite quickly, drinking down two them right away.

“Is everyone in this city related to you?” he asked with a sigh, a bit grouchy from the desert heat. An arm smacked against his chest, halting both the conversation and forward progress. A winged lizard the size of a horse came crashing through the city. People scattered, Olvar went for the blade at his back, but before he could draw it a commanding voice boomed after the reckless creature. It hardly seemed to match the woman it came from, and Olvar frowned when the stranger ordered him to babysit. “Do I look like a nanny to you?”

He barely had time to glance at Gaea before an astonishingly strong hand snatched his arm, swinging him to one side like he weighed nothing. His back found a hard wall, and he grunted painfully. A fist came flying toward his face, and he flinched, arms raised in a pathetic attempt at defense. He wasn’t struck, but the wall behind him now had quite a scar to its structure. Wide hazel eyes watched for a second blow, but all he got was a warning and a child dropped into his arms. As the woman turned away, the boy made a few small woofing sounds. He smelled vaguely of wolf.

For now he ignored the toddler in his arms, instead watching the woman who he belonged to throw the drake around like a ragdoll. The beast was quick to submit, scampering off in fear once released. Olvar hadn’t even been in this city for a day… What was with this place?

He was quick to return the child once his mother returned, and a step closer to Gaea gave him a bit more comfort in being around the angry blonde. Uncle? A curious glance was sent his companion’s way. Then again, she had called the woman “aunt” before. Dear gods, this woman was part of Gaea’s family. His attention quickly jumped back to Toya as she spoke, her tone leaving no room for his usual attitude. With the hole in the wall behind him, he didn’t care to misspeak anyway, despite being called “asswipe”.

“Yes, ma’am,” he answered, pulling the blade from its scabbard just far enough to show the crack in the steel. He dare not say more unless spoken to, lest his words betray him.

Blaine knew of the drake going berserk all over the district, or more so being a pain in Toya’s rear end. But this was a situation she was best suited for and he would have left her be if not for the fact that Aurora had told him that she had taken Sparrow into this chaos. And ever since leaving the house, he had been swearing in his mind over it as he looked for that bonehead of a wife and his poor child. The path itself wasn’t too hard to follow- one just needed to look for the damages this chase had brought into the area. Toya wasn’t about to reason her way out of this one, no way in hell would he accept any reason why she took their youngest when he and the rest of their children were at the house.

When he smelled their scents being close, he growled beneath his breath and rushed pass the now fleeing drake. It looked rough for the wear, meaning she had already found it, but Blaine didn’t care at the moment about that. When he reached her, she already had an audience with her, but his eyes instantly sought out Sparrow, who was babbling wolfspeak, or trying to. In any other situation, he would have been joyous and attempt to correct him, but soon the larger came over and snatched him away from his demented mother. “Toya…” The tone certainly showing how pleased he was with her letting him being so close to the danger, even if he was just a few feet away, it didn’t matter. It wouldn’t be very hard to spot that the child was his since they practically looked alike aside from the obvious size and age difference. Once scooped up, Sparrow happily growled at him. “You knucklehead, what ails you? Sparrow could have been harmed by that drake. I don’t care if you want to chase it since it's your specialty, but at least let the boy grow up some before dragging him to your hunts.”

Looking at the young man and woman, he sighed. The girl was one of Angela’s sets of twins, though he wasn’t too sure which twin she was.“Did you rough him too? Don’t mind her, she just has a temper problem. It’s nothing against you.” His eyes then cut to Toya, “Ain’t that right, dear?”

Good, there was a look of respect in the man’s eyes as Toya stared up at him. She may have been a small lady but she knew how to run her district. It was nothing for her to deal with the rampant drake. “Fine, I can take you home I suppose.”

That was until he showed up. “Blaine…” Toya’s eyes moved to her husband as she backed up just a bit with the baby. “Sparrow is fine. He is fine and I had him at a safe distance with this knucklehead.” Toya pointed at Olvar. “Besides I was running out of babysitters in the house. Aurora was to stay with Tempest in the forge… Did she nark on me?” Toya glared a bit in the house's direction. “Anyways I already had Sparrow in hand when the call came in to come get the drake. I didn’t have time to drop him off. I wish you had faith in me… You know your wife of thirty-some years.”

Toya put a hands on her hip as she stared at Sparrow in Blaine’s arms for a moment. “For your information… He deserved it. He had an attitude problem and I corrected it.” She spoke with her hands now as she looked at the damages to the city. “In any case, I’m going to have to get the Red Court to clean up… This is more their specialty. Destruction is mine.”

Gaea held up her hands. “Please… Stop fighting for a moment. This is Olvar like I was saying before you threw him, Aunt Toya… His shortsword is broken and we would like it repaired and we were wondering if Uncle Blaine or someone could fix it.”

Toya got a look on her face. “Don’t you know you don’t interrupt a married couple’s fight? It makes the sex better the more you keep it going.” There was a groan from Gaea now. “After thirty years and seven kids we need the spark, trust me.” She was teasing now as she waved her hand. “This will be good for Tempest actually.” The mighty White Queen took a sigh as she cupped Blaine’s face and kissed him. “I… apologize that I brought Sparrow into a dangerous situation.” It looked like she almost gagged saying it.

“She’s your daughter, Toya…what do you think?”, Blaine said sternly. They both knew that Aurora told him what happened, likely as payback for having to be stuck watching Tempest. “I have faith in you doing your job, what I question is how safe would he had been if they weren’t here to watch him”, he spoke, pointing at the couple. “That drake has been a pain in the ass, but a minute or two of dropping Sparrow off wouldn’t have caused even more vital damage.” He cupped his face with his free hand. Her excuse of how the man treated her would have made his eyes rolled.

“The pot calling the kettle black…haven’t you learn from all the times you “mouthed” off to her mother?” He referred to Gaea as she would have known the stupid rivalry between her mother and aunt.

When Gaea pleaded for them to cease, Toya kept on going and he did his best to ignore his wife. Even her vulgar comment didn’t phase him so much as he bounced the happy little boy in his arms as he sat in his father’s grasp. “You think Tempest should repair that then?” His mood changed slightly and his expression softened with her embrace. She was damn good at getting him fired up as well as cooling him down. Damn, lovable woman.

“Is the sky supposed to fall?”, he jested over the rare incident that was her apologizing. “Anyway, I’m Blaine, Toya’s husband. The sword should be an easy fix. Tempest can handle it and I’ll merely make sure that she gets it right.”

“Don’t joke like that… I would take Ojuk and run them all over and kidnap you back.” Was it really kidnapping if she took him back though? She took his arm and kept him close to her as they walked. “They will take good care of them Olvar. I promise. I’ve known them for about two hundred years or so.” She could tell he was getting grouchy with her as she gripped his hand lightly and tried to smile towards him. “Nope, most of my siblings don’t live in Arri. So mostly everyone in this city isn’t related to me. I have a big family but they don’t tend to stay home.” Soon though the drake was running past them.

–

Toya stopped making excuses for herself but didn’t let on that it honestly had come to mind that it was a bad idea. “Oi, Angela is a bitch. An old hag. Her age has gone to her head and so did her pregnancy with those twins…”

Gaea winced a bit. “Glad to see you and mom are getting along as good as always.” Toya started to mutter and Gaea chuckled up at her now that everything seemed to be fine.

“I think she should… Tempest needs a real challenge. She is already leagues ahead of most apprentice blacksmiths. She and her brother are very talented. Even if their father was a jackoff.” There appeared to be bad blood but Toya waved her hand at her husband after she apologized. “Don’t expect another apology from me for another thirty years.”

After the introductions were done the five of them, that included Sparrow, made their way up to a huge house in the corner of the district. There were larger dragons lounging around in an open grass spot and Toya pat their bellies as she walked back. They opened their eyes saw it was her and went back to sleep. Gaea leaned over to Olvar as they walked. “Sularia has seven districts. The castle district which is under the rule of the Empress… The five Rose court districts, like we’re in now, that are ruled by the five queens, and the Oracle District. My mother is the Queen of the Red Court and Toya is the Queen of the White court.” She pointed down. “You can tell the districts by their pathways. Each pathway is different for each district… Each district specializes in something else. For the Red Court, we special in healing and gardens.”

When she thought about it more she blushed. “I… guess that would make me a princess in that regards…”

“But being a princess in Arri doesn’t mean jack shit unless the caverns want you.” Toya peered back. “They wanted me and here I am. I don’t even want this damn job. I would much rather live in a forest with my small family and do what we did before this circus.” Toya was still salty about it. “To be considered Queen in Arri you must pass the trials of your element. Passing their challenge will grant you the right to rule. Anyone can rule as long as they can pass it but the current holder of the title must be dead before it can be passed on. Meaning we have no idea who will take over until then. We can name our heir but it doesn’t matter until the day we die. Gaea’s brother Lucian is heir to the Red Court for example.”

Gaea held onto Olvar’s arm as she watched him. She was well aware that the world outside of Sularia was vastly different. “Each child of the noble courts is required to take on a trade. Whatever that trade is should be to the benefit of Sularia. No one is allowed to just sit on their butts all day unless they try for a trade. We do have the delicate types but even they study diplomacy of some sort. Everyone pulls their weight here. This is a desert and not a place where we can have lazy people.” Gaea explained as they got to the huge mansion. “That’s why Toya’s Tempest is a blacksmith apprentice.” Inside of the house, it looked like any other family mansion. There were portraits, bookcases, weapons, and armor about. All of it told a story.

Toya tilted her head as she saw her husband go upstairs to take care of Sparrow. “This way.” Toya led them through the lower levels of the house until stopped dead in her tracks. “AURORA ROSE-WINTERCREST YOUR ASS WAS TO STAY WITH YOUR NIECE.”

“Don’t worry Ma she isn’t going anywhere. I made sure of it.” Aurora bounded up the stairs and Toya looked back at the others in distress.

“Follow me quickly!” They ran through the house until Toya opened up a room to the forge that was off the mansion with a slam. “Tempest?!” There was a large barrel on the other side of the room. Two short legs were wobbling back and forth.

“GRANDMA HELP ME I’M STUCK!” There was a cry as Toya came over and grabbed her from the barrel. “Grandma, Auntie Aurora put me in the barrel.” Her eyes were full of tears. She had long brown hair that was a mess from the heat of the forge. She had goggles resting in her hair and her face had soot on it from the barrel. She looked to be around four feet and ten inches tall, still very much growing for a girl her age. Her eyes were a bright blue as she spotted Olvar. “Whoa.” Her distress turned to amazement as she ran over to Olvar. “YOU ARE A LYCANTHROPE TOO!” The young girl no older than fourteen immediately had his arm as she looked him over. “This is so cool! YOU ARE SO COOL!”

Toya got a grumpy look on her face as she took Tempest by the collar of her shirt and pulled her back to give Olvar some room. “This is Olvar… and he’s commissioning you to fix his sword.”

“OH! GIMME, GIMME!” She held out her hands for his sword as she flailed in her grandmother's arms. "I've never met a Lycanthrope that wasn't family before!"

Olvar relaxed some when Toya agreed to bring them back with her, and when she appeared satisfied with his answer. He was less likely to be abused again, and if her family was as good as Gaea made them sound, then he would most certainly have his shortsword back to full strength soon enough.

He caught scent of the other lycan before catching sight of him, and his stance shifted once again with his nerves. While he knew that the other wolf was most likely allied to Gaea in someway, and therefore indirectly to him, there was still a natural distrust for other shifters ingrained into him after years of conflict. This one came across as being quite polite, however, unlike his wife. Olvar brushed off being called a knucklehead, instead answering the older wolf. “No real harm done.” Just a dull ache in his back. To avoid offending a second time, he let Gaea explain their situation, and hid the small smirk that crept up at Toya’s offered lesson.

“Both of you have my thanks.” Being able to draw two weapons was something he’d been worried about during travel. If they had been attacked, he was fairly confident in his ability to keep them safe, especially with help from Ojuk, but fighting with only one blade always left him feeling exposed on one side.

As they walked through the district, Olvar took the opportunity to learn what he could from Gaea about her homeland. He’d learned very early in his training that information on an area could result in dramatic differences for the better when there. The dragons were unexpected, and unnerving at first, but once they proved more interested in lounging than eating, he relaxed. Instead, he listened carefully as he was told about the seven districts, the five queens, and most surprisingly about Gaea’s title. “You’re…?” His question trailed off, and Toya took over speaking quite bitterly about her position and how someone would get there.

Naturally giving Gaea his arm when she held it, he walked onward after Toya and Blaine. The city and people living within it were sounding more impressive with every new fact he heard, and it became increasingly clear how such a prosperous city had come to exist in the middle of a desert.

The inside of the mansion reminded him of Chateau du Montefort, where he had received his earliest formal training. Less extravagant, but with the same sort of atmosphere inside. The owners of this place were people of authority, not to be challenged lightly. The younger lycan almost felt out of place. He startled once at Toya’s booming voice, watching the exchange curiously until the order was given to move. Following after the Queen, he kept pace with Gaea, overcoat billowing behind him as he ran.

Hot air from the forge clouded in his face as soon as they entered, the smell of burning fuel hanging around him. His eyes wandered the room while Toya rescued a young girl from her plight with a barrel. There was a weapon everywhere he looked, either in the process of being made, or in the process of being refined. It was clearly a space used often, and he couldn’t help the quirk at the corner of his mouth. It reminded him of the smithy back home, though the weapons there had been of far inferior quality. It took little refinement to make farmers’ tools, but the man had always been working on some project or another.

Olvar was immediately brought back to the present as young hands grabbed his arm, and excited blue eyes stared up at him. The girl smelled lycanthrope, but not as strongly as Blaine had. Perhaps only half, he thought to himself as the girl spewed admiration at him. It brought back his half-smile, even as Toya pulled the girl back from him. He’d never met anyone who was excited about his lycanthropy before.

“They said you were the one for the job.” He pulled his shortsword from its sheath and offered her the hilt. It was a simple weapon, but one that had been with him since the very beginning, back in DaeLuin. “The blade was cracked during an ambush when I was forced to drop it,” he explained. A shiver ran down his spine at the memory of the silver arrows that had weakened his hand. “Can you fix it?”

Tempest took the blade into her hand and she tilted her head as she let go. Her blue eyes looked all over it. “The metal in this blade is blended too much. It’s a novice mistake.” There was more musing from her. “I will reforge the blade and mix it with Lacriamium for strength. The blade shouldn’t break for another fifty years if I do it that way… And you won’t have to sharpen it as much. Then there is the question of the how the steel was made.” She ran her fingers along the sharp enough it cut her skin but it quickly healed from her wolven blood. She turned it around until she found the blacksmith mark. “It’s a moon… Grandma is this from Adeluna?”

Toya took a look. “No, it is from a place called Mooncrest. The mark for Adeluna is different.” Tempest made a confused face as she spun the blade in her hand more.

“It’s slightly off balance… Just slightly though probably from the fall.” Tempest caught herself muttering now as she looked it over more. “I can fix it. It will take a little bit. I’ll have to make new steel since I’m not sure how yours was made. Mixing steel types would make it worse than better… so I’ll forge a new blade.” Tempest looked up to Gaea. “Hey, Gaea?”

“Yes, Tempest?” Gaea tilted her head.

“Can you run into the marketplace and get me some steel? There’s a guy there that makes it and is damn good at his job. I want his steel. It’s the best in Arri. Tell him I’ll owe him if he does it.” Tempest was good at bartering for what she wanted. “I got Lacriamium here… I’ll melt the steel and mix in the Lacriamium.”

Gaea nodded and ran out the door to go fetch it. Toya was sitting in the corner just listening now but it was Tempest who spoke up. “I didn’t mean to offend you if you made this… Or if you got it as a gift. It’s my job to make things better.” Tempest really liked Olvar for some reason. “So… Are you a born Lycanthrope or a made one?” Her eyes squinted a bit as she observed the man for a moment.

In the marketplace, Gaea picked up what she needed to but on her way back she found them… Her eyes got big. She felt an impulse.

Tempest took an ingot of solid diamond-like metal and dropped it into a smelting pot. She didn’t put it into the fire though. “Hey, Kaa come here for a moment and heat this up to temperature.” A small dragon came in and shot fire at it and kept going until the liquid was melted. “Now stay put and keep doing it every so often so it doesn’t harden in there. We forge by dragonfire here. I’ll use my own fire for the blade work though.”

It was many moments later when Gaea came back with a crème colored warg pup in her arms. He was the size of a small cattle dog. “Olvar… I… did something.” The door was closed behind her but there was scratching on the door.

Toya got up. “What the hell did you do?” The queen opened the door two more wargs much bigger than the one in her arms ran in and were jumping on Gaea's legs.

“I couldn’t just leave them! They were going to sell them to people who were going to make them fight…” Gaea hugged the smallest warg to her as she looked up at Olvar. “So… I got all three.”

At first, Olvar was hesitant at the idea of anything but a steel blade. It had served him so well for years after all, but the more Tempest described the perks of a blade with Lacriamium, the more he considered. She certainly seemed to know her craft, far better than the smith he’d bought the sword from. His curiosity went from Tempest’s appraisal to Toya at her knowledge of MoonCrest. Had she been to DaeLuin? Or had she only heard? The shifter was reluctant to ask, and dropped his gaze again to avoid staring. Challenging her was not something he wanted to do again, even accidentally.

As Tempest remarked on the balance he gave a small nod, having noticed the weapon sitting slightly differently in his hand. After so long feeling the same weight, it became startling easy to tell when something was off, even slightly.

With Gaea out to fetch steel, he was left alone with her family. Luckily, though Toya intimidated him, Tempest seemed all too friendly, and she was quick to jump into conversation. “You didn’t offend me,” he assured her. “It was made not far from my home town. I’ve had it for nearly a decade, so it’s more sentimental than anything.”

The next question gave him pause, but only for the length of a breath. “Made,” he answered simply, content to leave it at that. Her natural curiosity though… It was only a few seconds before he gave up more information. “My family was cursed. When I was about your age. A witch’s last desperate act.” As he answered, he watched her move about the forge, collecting a metal that shone like a gemstone and dropping it into a pot. At her call, a miniature dragon arrived, going about a job that it seemed all too familiar with. What a strange place this was. “What about you? Are you and your family born lycanthropes?”

When Gaea finally returned from the marketplace, he turned at her call, eyes widening slightly. He immediately recognized the creature in her arms, but was having a hard time believing it. “Gaea…” The pup in her arms was male, with gangly legs and a long lolling tongue, with blue eyes ringed thinly in black. On the other side of the door, he picked up the sounds of scrabbling claws and tiny whimpers. Two sets. “Gaea, what did you do?” he asked, but already he’d dropped politely to one knee. The other two raced in, jumping up on their savior before Olvar distracted them.

One was a female, with a dark, if not black coat, and eyes like emeralds. The other was another male, brindled with amber eyes. They looked close enough to be littermates, but the runt was either a half-sibling or from another pair altogether. Olvar sighed as he rubbed the ears of the jumpy, larger male. “You’re not allowed to go to the market by yourself anymore,” he decided, but couldn’t hide his smile as a huge tongue swiped under his chin. “Ojuk is going to be bitter at you for days.”

Tempest seemed pleased when Olvar opened up to her. Her eyes got a bit big with his story. “Rosenites were made by Hedgewitches.” After a while, she thought about it. “We’re born for as many generations back as Grandpa has told me about. I’m sure that wasn’t always the case but the Wintercrests were a royal family. Cousin Jordas is the king now for the Wintercrest tribe but Uncle Krystopher is our alpha. We listen to him…. And Cousin Liz is his mate. She’s the only non-Wintercrest in our pack.”

Gaea gave Olvar the best smile she could as he got his answer. The crème colored warg in her arms seemed happy with her affection. “I… couldn’t help myself. I was originally just going to get Lofe but then the others… I was going to walk away but then they started to cry. Olvar I hate it when babies cry it makes me sad… so I had to get all three of them. They were going to use Lofe as bait because he is so small. I couldn’t let them do it.”

“Lofe? Like… a loaf of bread?” Tempest was confused.

“I know it is weird… I KNOW! But he looks like a Lofe.” Gaea put him down and Lofe ran up to Olvar and got up on him as well.

“Well, the black one looks like a Shade to me. So you should name her Shade.” Tempest came over and pet the wargs. “They are all so cute!”

Gaea was happy to see Olvar’s smile as she laughed. “I’ll sweeten Ojuk up don’t worry about it. I’ve been thinking about how I’m going to make this up to him.”

Toya tilted her head. “Tempest the forge… Also, you can’t travel with pups… You’ll have to figure something out until they get bigger.”

Tempest got the steel from Gaea and started the forge up. She smelted the ingot down into the lacriamium before stirring it. She easily created a cast for the blade so it was similar and moved from there to make the blade. This was a long process and Gaea watched with interest as they spent time with the pups. Each one of them was lovable and were in love with Gaea.

After the blade was set Tempest let out a large flame from her lips. The heat from the fire breath sent the temperature in the room up. The flame was white the hottest flame in existence besides the gods. She hammered, and hammered, and hammered. Getting a stamp she pressed it into the blade. She had periodically put it in water to check it out. Once she was satisfied with it she moved over to sharpen it after pulling her goggles back up. “It’s done.” The blade was now tinted a blue as she offered it up to Olvar.

“Since Gaea got you warg puppies I want to gift you something I’ve been working on too. Give me a few seconds to finish it.” She grabbed what looked to be a bone blade off the water and scurried over to the forge. She shot it with hot fire so she could imprint her signature on it. Insetting jewels into the hilt. Her work was detailed and she was getting only faster it showing how long she had been practicing alongside her grandfather.

“It’s made of wyvern bone. I brought it home to her from Horae. She’s been working on that for five years now since she decided she was going to become a blacksmith… You must be something special if she is giving it to you.” Grabbing it after it cooled Tempest brought it over to Olvar and held it out for him.

“I want this to be my very best apprentice weapon! So I need you to show it off for me and get people to come see me!” Tempest bounced a bit with excitement. “It is my very best work even better than your short sword.”