Author’s note: So, I can finally switch back to my original writing style. That means the quality of each chapter will stabilize at a good level from here on out (unless I mess up again). Enjoy!

What originally started as a hunk of metal was poured into a mold of a spearhead. After the mold cooled a bit, it was placed on the anvil. Beads of sweat dripped off Kilot’s face onto the hot piece of steel below him. Each swing with his hammer sent a shower of sparks in every direction, but he was unfazed by that. He had been away from the anvil for so long, but he remembered everything to the way to control the temperature of the flame to the spots he should hit. Doevm stood to the side ready to help at any second with a pair of tongs. Frey was shooed outside. A pillar of smoke ran up the dusty chimney and over the Blood Forest. Kilot beat with his hammer again and again. The rough outline sharpened into an identifiable head of a spear. Kilot put it to the side to cool and got to work on his other projects.

“What kind of spearhead do you want?” Kilot asked.

“I want a typical double-edged one, nothing fancy.” Doevm replied.

“You’re no fun, you know that?” Kilot pulled out the mold for the spearhead and poured liquid metal into it.

“I know.” Doevm said. “But I want to master more weapons in the future. If I use all my time trying to master a new spearhead, how will I get enough time to move onto more weapons? How will I know which weapon is best for me?”

“Good man.” Kilot said as he shaped the spearhead. “Most people just stick to the first weapon they’ve laid eyes on. They never try things out. As a blacksmith, it infuriates me. I just make the same things for the same customers. I rarely get a challenge, kind of like this. Are you sure you don’t want me to make your weapons and armor better?”

“Well, I want my dagger to be better.” Doevm pointed to the horn. “It will be hard to hide its quality once I draw it. I need the handle to look regular, and the blade to be your best work yet.”

“That’s more like it.” Kilot laughed as he hammered away. “Put some more coal into the fire, will you? The storage is out back.”

Doevm rushed out to the back, picked up some coal next to a pile of leather, then stopped. He stared at the statue of the Goddess of good. She was smiling with her robe fluttering around her. In her arms was the holy scripture that Doevm could never look at in his old life. As a Lich, he could never practice holy magic. It burned him to even look at the spells and the face of the goddess, even if it was just a statue. Now as a human, when he gazed directly at her face for the first time in two lifetimes, he felt nothing but disgust. “You’re just a liar.” He hissed and went back inside with an armful of coal. ‘I wonder what Kilot would say if he knew the goddess was my enemy.’

‘He’d attack you.’ The Lich said. Doevm let the words roll off him like oil against water and threw the coal into the flame. It grew brighter, and the metal inside turned white.

“Alright, that’s good enough.” Kilot poured the metal in to molds for Frey’s armor. “I can take the rest from here, but I need two more things if I’m going to complete the spears.”

“I gave you your arm back,” Doevm said. “That’s not enough of a price?”

“No, you’ve paid me more than enough. I need materials for the spears’ shafts. Go get two sturdy pieces of wood from the Blood Forest and return. It’ll be a pain, but every other wood around here is only good for firewood like the stack I got out back. The Blood wood will also imbue special properties into the spear without distinguishing it too much. Be careful though, the forest can get angry. All the trees and grass are like one living hive mind.”

“I got it,” Doevm said as he grabbed Kilot’s hatchet and left. “Frey, we need to get some big sticks!” Frey shot out of the woods. “You don’t have to hurry so-” Doevm stopped as he saw the blood dripping off Frey’s spear. “How many?”

“Now there’s only two.” Frey breathed. “I could take them both out easily if it were under regular circumstances, but I can’t allow myself to get cut.”

Two men emerged from the bushes dressed similar to the raiders from before. One had a massive axe and the other had twin daggers. “I told you I saw smoke from the center of this forest.” The raider with an axe said. “Look what we have here. I bet you anything that famous dwarf lives in that shack. All we need to do is get through these two.”

“Careful,” The one with twin daggers said. “The big one took down two of our men. I’m betting he took down the four we sent in yesterday as well.”

“Frey,” Doevm whispered. “We need some shafts for our spears, but if we cut down the forest, the forest will fight back. Do you understand?”

“Not really, no,” Frey said.

“Shafts are made of wood. If we had to get wood, the forest would attack us.” Doevm kept trying to tell Frey without telling the raiders what they were planning. ‘Seriously, we’ve been fighting side by side for two years and he still doesn’t know when I’m planning something?’

‘I know what you mean,’ Frey thought. ‘But I don’t know if I can get someone to chop wood in the middle of a fight. I guess I can try though.’ He rushed at the man with two daggers while Doevm charged the man with an axe.

Doevm was bluffing. He had no idea how to use a hatchet and this throwing knives would end it too quick. He made sure to look like he was attacking but would dodge the axe at the last second. Frey, on the other hand, just knocked the man with twin daggers into a tree.

Doevm weaved in and out of range. He had so many openings but chose to act on the defensive. As the battle progressed, he got closer and closer to the border where the trees grew. Strands of hair were chopped clean in two. After each swing, the man got more confident. He thought Doevm was completely defenseless and got more reckless, when at last, the swings stopped.

The axe chopped straight through a Blood Tree. Doevm threw down his hatchet and ran. The man chased after, but roots wrapped around his legs. The man swung blindly, but was lifted in the air, where more roots surrounded him. Each root wrapped around a limb. He was torn apart, showering everything in the area in blood. Doevm looked at the tree the man had cut and smiled. ‘It’s perfect.’

Frey had an awkward fight. Every time the man attacked Frey launched him back. Every opening the man showed, Frey capitalized on. He tried to defend against the golden spear, but his daggers broke. His hands went up: “I surrender. I know when I’m beaten.”

Frey moved behind him and stood in front of a small Blood Tree. The trunk was just a little bigger than the golden spear’s shaft. Doevm couldn’t even look. It was so obvious. Frey turned his back to the man. “I think we should spare him. He’s not a threat without his daggers.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Doevm could barely look Frey in the eye and keep back his laughter. The man smiled, reached into his pocket, and drew a third hidden dagger. He aimed for Frey’s waist, but right before it hit, Frey dodged. The dagger cut the tree down. Roots shot up and tore the man into pieces. Frey smiled. “That was bad.” Doevm sighed. “Your acting was terrible. I know you picked up a few tricks from me, but make sure you have those tricks down before you use them. Imagine if you got cut.”

Frey kept smiling and said, “Y-Yeah, imagine if that happened. It was worth it though. We got other people to cut down the shafts of our spears for us. Let’s go back to the shack and see if Kilot is OK.” As he turned, Doevm saw a spore sticking out of his side.

“Frey!”

“I guess we can’t cut this one off,” Frey laughed as his world went dark. The last two things he remembered was falling down and Doevm running to him.