Chapter 29

Build, build some more!

Suddenly, I woke up from the wet slather of a child, sucking the top of my skull. My body was gripped uncomfortably around his soft human hands, as he dribbled his opened mouth saliva onto my slick face. Apparently I was so exhausted, I had been replaced as a spare pacifier in my sleep.

I gingerly pulled myself off Art’s instinctively grasping hands. Noticing Peb sleeping beside me, inebriated and full from last night’s supper, I smirked with an idea. I dragged him to the baby as my replacement, for the crime of his audacity in having a good sleep. With that done, I stretched out my arms whilst peering down at the fair folks sleeping around me. Oona was gone, which was typical of her; Teka and Sera--on the other hand, were spooning each other asleep. I had to rub my bleary eyes to see if this was real. 'Did they? No, I don't want to know.'

Cursing at the thought, I glanced around for Wink--but I could not locate him. I groaned figuring where he went. I swiveled back to see my unconscious sidekick getting his arm gnawed by the toothless child. Grinning satisfied at the image, I turned to peer up at my colossal mecha who I had parked standing next to the cot, like a metal sentry guarding her charge. I grimace at spotting a few flecks of dried blood that were crusting around the rivets of the breastplate, recalling the image of that man’s once lively eyes full of snivelling greed, turn lifeless in a span of a few seconds. Flexing the stiffness of my shoulder, consigned with guilt, I vaulted off the cot and climbed my mecha to ready to start with my day.

Unlatching the rickety wood latch that locked my rented room, I opened to a town guard in his blue attire dozing off in the morning hours. “Ahem.” I coughed into the voice-modifier, after closing the door to my sleeping friends and my charge. The guard hearing my alerting coughs, again, hustled awake clutching his pommel as he blearily peered up at me on his seat. Calling his partner, who was in another room, asleep, we hurried downstairs of the Inn to the barely populated tavern below. Wink was sitting near a platter of bread, atop the bar table, where Suzie the barmaid, had stopped to talk to the small man. Oona was also nearby, sipping water through a straw, with a hangover expression. Prompting Amelia to give Suzie a wave of good morning, I stiffly directed my mecha towards the two small folks.

Wink was munching on a morsel of bread that was happily sliced by Suzie. I salivated, looking at the brownish glaze, famish. The two guards beside me asked Suzie for a morning ale, which inspired me to direct Amelia with her gauntlets to grab one of the loaves atop the platter. I was about to open my visor and chuck the whole bread in when I realized that it would look strange to the giant participants around.

Groaning, I ripped a decent chunk and squeezed it through the visor. Suzie peered at me strangely at my actions. Wink, gratefully enough, understanding my continued charade--distracted Suzie with a limerick.

“There once was a beauty named Suzie, who wasn’t particularly choosy, she met a man--a puny fair man, who she felt woozy with her big booty, admired by yours truly, now come give me a smoochie?”

“Oh, you! You are such a wicked man.” Suzie abashedly poked Wink, who gave her a wink, as he watched her figure with naked abandoned.

I placed my palm to smother my face at the stupid rhythm. Sometimes I want to strangle that peculiar fair folk. I just cannot fathom why the world had fated me to this small man.

When Marcus arrived, I had chewed a morsel of crunched bread that had been shoved inside through the visor's vision slit to the consternation of the two guards sipping their ale. I crammed a reasonable amount for storage, for my small little stomach to savor whilst Marcus took a long sip from the tankard of morning ale he was offered, giving me a peculiar glance at my strange habit.

“You don’t have to be ashamed of your scars, Sir Ghras...” Marcus commented, gently wincing at the morsel of bread pieces that were crushed through the visor’s slits.

With a pocket full of bread in my mouth, I stirred Amelia’s helm in the negative as a response to his comment. The veteran shrugged at my reply, then turned to analyze the small folks situated on the bar table below.

“Well, let's go.”

Before I had departed with Marcus and the guards escorting me, I told Wink about the sleeping company above and to look after the place while I was gone. It was a tall task I had given him, with no mecha to assist, but he was the only sober and awake subordinate that was around.

“Don’t you worry. Mister Knight, Sir.” Suzie responded. “I’ll make sure this little devil doesn't get into trouble and help him look after your child.”

Grateful at the barmaid, I gave her a nod of thanks.

When Marcus and I were heading to the Mayor’s house with the two guards following behind, I asked him about the brigands from last night, and how they were doing.

“Oh, those fellas…”

He told me that three of them needed stitches on their faces because they had splinters of hard grass that managed to pierce through their flesh. He looked at me then, with an inquisitive expression. Noticing he wouldn’t get a reply from me, he continued on with his summary of the damages. Apparently, the town medicas had to pull those splinters out with tweezers, before the stitching could occur.

“And the body was identified as one of their colleagues, and not a passing stranger, which is good.” He eyed me, a tense note as he spoke.

Discerning my mechanical stiffness as a message, Marcus continued about the grass wrapped dagger they found and confiscated from the alleyways and about the broken rapier that had a lightning enchantment, which was an expensive accessory for your average brigand. He thought it was mine for a moment but then shook his head because he didn’t notice a sword on me when we first met. His voice went soft all of a sudden, as he described to me the clean cut of the body and the curiosity of what could cut through an iron slab off a Warhammer.

"How could such a feat be possible?" He queried the air, directing his nervous glance at me. Recalling the visceral memory that I had shoved to the deepest furrows of my mind, I nearly spewed out a vomit of slimy bread but---held it, not wanting to give away my guilt.

Tilting a shrug, I replied with “Magic?”

Marcus grunted at this, unsatisfied with the answer, but could not reject the possibility. Ah, yes...Magic, for everything unexplainable, magic is the course to go. Otherwise, I'd have to tell him the mechanics and lethality of a vibro-blade.

“So what will happen to me and those brigands?”

“Well, judging from your story and your two other witnesses, I’ll have to confine you and them---until the next Magistrate hearing.”

I gritted my teeth at the thought, being properly imprisoned would hinder my plans and oath. Thinking throughout, I had no other way but to escape, because there will be a likely chance that I will have to show the small face under the helm if I stayed.

Reaching the Mayor's three-story house, built from solid stone and framed with oak, we had halted in front of a group of town's guards marching alongside regular townsfolk armed with spears, they were heading towards the direction where the town's gate was situated. There were twenty townsfolk alongside the whole garrison of the town of Ebenfurth that was mobilized. Marcus had eyed the troops with a perplexed expression. “I didn’t recall there was a muster today?” He remarked, intrigued.

“Ah, Lieutenant Marcus!” A guardsman standing at the door spotted their company out from the hustle. “Sir, come inside the meeting had just started.”

Baffled, Marcus glanced at the helm of my mecha, then headed inside followed by my contraption. We entered a room crowded with soldiers and the Mayor. There were three other soldiers, one of them was young, and the other two were old with their white beards prominent in their strong bearing. They were all standing beside the Mayor, all hovering above an intricately drawn map of the town of Ebenfurth and its surroundings. Hearing the heavy boots of our entrance, the mayor Hamlin peered up. “Marcus you are here.” He then noticed the metal sheen of my mecha at Marcus’s back. “And you brought your prisoner, why is he wearing his armor and not shackled? Nonetheless, fortuitous for us. ”

I paused at his question that ended with a dismissal with vague undertones.

“General! Oh sorry, sir---I mean Mayor. Sir Ghras, here, had two witnesses to back his issue, and since he has been cooperative, and not armed, I seemed it fine, for him to be decently attired.”

Hamlin grunted when Marcus called him that specific title. He sagged then, defeated with the familiarity of a man, wearing old socks. From what I can surmise, by the soldiers' treatment of the Mayor around the table, Mayor Hamlin, must have been an officer before he became a mayor, and a general no less.

The Mayor nodded at Marcus' explanation, and was about to continue with his discussion with the men around him when Marcus interjected. “Why was the militia deployed?”

“Timmy. Tell the Lieutenant, ” Hamlin commanded.

“Yes Sir.” The young soldier hovered his finger atop a specific location that was circled. The black charcoal was roughly circled at a specific location inside the inked drawing of shrubs and trees, signifying the forest beyond the open plains around the town of Ebenfurth.

“The goblin horde led by their troll leader had temporarily encamped within Fang forest---here. Early this morning, close to sunrise, the goblins had started removing their picketed tents. From what I can tell, from their scouting paths, they are headed to Ebenfurth.”

“How many?” Marcus queried, scratching his short beard as he peered down at the map below.

“Roughly, 300 goblins, give or take a few ogres and trolls.”

“That’s an entire Warband!” One of the old veterans hollered, angered by the estimation. “You did send a missive to the Duke Agenchord for troops when they were harassing the outskirts of our farms--Hamlin? Right?”

“Yes,” Hamlin grunted. “A week ago. He should have gotten the missive by now, and probably had sent soldiers to assist us.”

“Judging from this scout’s report, they’ll be too late to help us.”

“How soon?” Marcus inquired.

Looking back at the scout, he said “Maybe after midday--close to twilight?”

“So this arv? How many men have we mustered?” Hamlin asked the second old veteran.

The veteran with a long frazzle white beard was huffing a pipe when he was asked the question. He coughed and huffed a reply. “Ahem, garh, ahem. Yes, Mayor, 27 guardsmen, not allocating John who had been crippled in his left shoulder and Richard who had been recently lashed for harassing one of the farmhand’s daughters.”

“--That's barely a company.” The other veteran remarked.

“We also had mustered 40 militiamen, who were recent war veterans and adventurers, and they are decently attired.”

“That’s not enough.”

Watching them talk through their plans on defending the town on Ebenfurth, I pondered on an escape plan for my subordinates and my charge before the siege ensues. For a siege was inevitable, judging from the wooden walls and ramparts around the town, they might be able to hold them off with 70 or so men.

“How about that thunder mage from the mercenary company?”

Hamlin then directed his stare at Marcus who, timidly stood still at the query. “About that Sir.”

“--Come on with it!”

“Sir, those were the brigands, I talked about in the missive. They were the one who instigated the altercation at the alleyway behind the Tawdry Inn.“

Red face, the Mayor glared at Marcus to continue. “They were harassing Sir Ghras here,” he, unfortunately, directed to me. The Mayor turned his glare from Marcus to Amelia’s helm, where I was currently situated upon, thinking of a way of escape.

“And what kind of altercation, Sir Ghras, did you have with that particular mercenary band?”

Huffing at the building tension the Mayor was giving off inside his study room, I replied. “They tried to harass me, while I was taking a whizz.”

“Harass you?” Ignoring my peeing reference.

“Sir, it was a brawl, a 5 against one--no less. Two witnesses can attest Sir Ghras is innocent..”

“And the mage?”

“There was one casualty and the rest are currently being stitched up unconscious.”

“Damn it.” The Mayor slammed his fist atop the map, making the wooden table below chatter by the force. “Sir Ghras, I’m guessing you are here to wait for my judgment, I’m no magistrate, for they don’t come here till Fariday.”

I was about to deny and direct Amelia to shake her helm in the negative when Marcus coughed out. “Yes, he is here, for that. And we will not investigate last night’s altercation, any longer.”

Hamlin eyed Marcus for a moment, then directed his focus on me. “Judging from Marcus claims, and if your witnesses can attest to what occurred, I might let you off with a warning, if you join our defense?”

“Oh, you savvy human,” I muttered. “Okay, I will assist in your defense of the town. But I have a few stipulations, for my expertise.”

“This is an outrage, he just murdered a man and we are letting him off, and he is asking for more?” One of the bearded veterans growled,

The Mayor eyed the man into silence, then inquired, “Stipulations?”

Grimacing at the soldier’s word, I sighed. ‘Don’t think I’ll work for free.’

“Yes…” Pausing to recall the grass sword that hasn’t yet been returned to me, then at the enchanted rapier that was broken. “I will require my grass sheathed dagger, alongside any of the broken or otherwise equipment that was left during my complication last night.”

“Is that it?.” The Mayor looked at me puzzled at such a meager request.

“That’s not my stipulation.”

“Then what?”

“I will like the use of your town smithy--if there is one, and the free use of any materials I use in that smithy.”

“What for?”

I stirred Amelia’s gauntlet to point at the hole in her pauldron. The soldiers and Mayor glance at it then understand. “I’m sure the blacksmith can repair your armor for you?”

“No, no, I don’t like strangers touching my equipment.”

“Well if you say so and as long as you don’t escape this town, then it will be done!”

When our agreement was agreed upon with everyone in the room. Marcus had guided out of the Mayor’s house. A familiar soldier greeted me at the door. It was a young soldier who had introduced me to my newfound name. The Grass Knight. The young man had a furrow in his brows when he saw me, then he saluted to his superior. “Sir.”

“I want you to show Sir Ghras the smithy and ask Roderick, that the lord will require the use of his smithy.”

“Roderick ain’t gonna like that.”

“Just do it, and make sure you retrieved all that was confiscated at last night’s brawl and give them to Sir Ghras here. ”

“Yes sir.” Nodding to the commands. The town guard directed me which road we should take to the smith. It was close to the Tawdry Inn, so I asked for a detour. Reaching the Inn, the guard said he will return with a bag of all the confiscated goods, impressed at his suggestion, I nodded. Entering the Inn, I called all my subordinates to meet in the room we had rented. I then told them what had occurred during this morning’s meeting with the Mayor and our conundrum.

“We should leave as soon as possible. We shouldn’t involve ourselves with humans and their squabbles.” Oona remarked. Teka had agreed to her point, whilst Sera and Wink were against it. Peb on the other hand was munching on a bounded stone with the properties of alcohol fused within.

“Well, if we don’t join the defense. We will probably be in prison for desertion, until the Magistrate hearing.”

“Why did you agree then?” She inquired, perplexed.

Shrugging, I said, “I’m not working for free.”

“So we are getting paid?” Oona had brightened at this. ‘Ah, yes,’ I supposed that would get Oona’s gears turning.

“You could say that.” I hinted.

With no other choice, the rest of my employees decided to follow my plans. Wink had suggested staying in the Inn to babysit the child with Suzie, who was enjoying the side-gig. I also instructed him to talk to the bard Merrywind, and asked for their assistance for the upcoming battle. It wasn’t anything strenuous or violent, just something they'd be familiar with. Oona, Sera, Peb, and Teka decided to come with me to the smithy, to build a couple of contraptions I had in mind.

Putting the cloth wrapped baby back into the golden backpack, we carried him out of the room on Amelia’s back. Oona had opted to hover above Amelia instead of being stuck in the helm with me. At the steps downstairs, we spotted the young soldier inside the tavern room flirting with Suzie, which prompted Wink to bluster a curse.

“Oh stop it! You’re embarrassing me.” Suzie said, abashed.

Hearing Wink’s quiet rant on my pauldron, I sighed to then interject myself in the two humans’ conversation.

“Well, soldier? Do you have my stuff?”

The young man shifted to see Amelia and the grass man who gave him a glare on her shoulder. He peered at the angry grass man with a baffled expression, then nodded to my question. He took out the leather bag that was strapped to his shoulder, offering its contents to me. Taking the bag, I instructed him that, “We should go to the smithy now.”

Before we left, Suzie had halted us with Wink atop her shoulder, nuzzling her. “If you’re going to the blacksmith, I might tag along with you gents, and say hello to my father.” She offered. “--Maybe bring some food? ”

I gave her a toothy grin when she mentioned food, of course, she could not see, so I responded. “That would be great, of course, we wouldn’t mind.”

We all exited the Inn, after waiting for Suzie to grab some luncheon for us for the day.

While we were walking together on the pavement of the town, I heard Wink and the young soldier named Phil, bickering with one another. They were clearly arguing for Suzie’s affection, which was awkward as heck, to the spectators around.

“What could a small grass folk offer fair Suzie?” Phil queried with a sarcastic snort.

“Well, clearly wit, for the lack in her companions.”

Phil scoffed at the notion. “I’m witty, and large, which is something you are not.”

“Large you maybe, but skillful, I doubt.” Wink countered.

I groaned again, three times already in our walk to the smithy.

“Oh you guys, stop your bickering,” Suzie commented, a giggle accidentally slipping.

Finally, after a grueling walk, the worst one I had to witness, we were there. The distinct odor of coal dust and molten iron was prevalent in my nostrils, elating me to stir Amelia faster. I was ecstatic, when we were in front of the smithy, for this was the closest thing to a modern workshop in these middling times.

The smithy was a two-story building, which was twice as wide as the other townhouses around the premises. The second floor was fully enclosed with an opened staircase to the second story. I surmised that this was the living space for the blacksmith and his family, by the clothes hanging by a line across the side. Other than that, the rest was open space, with only a few walls secluding workspaces within the first floor of the smithy.

Cloud streaming smoke was coming out of a working bellow, with a forge nearby sizzling coals in its mouth. There were a variety of anvils in the large workshop. A burly bearded man stood in front of the biggest one, hammering a steel ingot with a dark rounded hammer. Noticing our approach, he had stopped to look up. His face was ashen from the coal and the smog but had brightened when he spotted Suzie amongst the crowd.

“Baby girl!” The blacksmith Roderick hollered.

When introductions were done, Phil told Roderick of the Mayor’s commands. Roderick was peeved at the notion of a stranger using his smithy, but it was soon nullified by his daughter who had argued for me. “It’s for the town, daddy.”

“You do a good job, maintaining your gear.” Roderick analyzed my Knight Mecha and it’s metal sheen, from head to foot. Finally, somebody acknowledged and understood my taste. I have been polishing Amelia’s plates every day since I had her, it was comforting to know my work was admired even for a little.

“I could repair those dents back into its original form and also add several enchantments, for example, heat resistance to your gear?”

“Heat resistance...Yes, I’d take you up on your offer.” I hastily replied, ecstatic at the idea. I needed to first be alone in his workshop though, to build my contraptions beforehand. “But, please spend some time with your daughter, she has been eager to see you all day, so I have heard.”

It took some time to convince him, but, when I had introduced the baby, the man had huddled down adoring the small child. He had always wanted a son, he had told me. Roderick along with Suzie, who had the baby and Wink, went upstairs to have their midday luncheon. I would have joined them, but I was too eager to test my idea with the enchanted rapier.

Phil, the young soldier, had saluted me before leaving for the Mayor’s house, eager to assist in the defense of the town. When I was alone with the bulk of my subordinates, I began to micromanage them into my trade, which was the trade of experimentation and building.

Taking the sapphire stone that had sparks of electricity dancing around it, I put it inside a wired rubber frame. The rubber frame was cut out from a rubber bound stone that Peb had created for this occasion. I instructed Peb to bind more rubber stones for the Mecha, for I needed an extra layering of rubber to be a retardant against electricity, in case we encountered similar enemies in the future. Teka was hammering iron triangle coifs, large and thick enough to meld two into a flat diamond by the length of a human finger. He had created 30 iterations of these flat diamonds coifs.

Teka had asked me to assist him in making a new weapon for him. So during my break on waiting for the furnace to soften the other ingots we had gathered, I constructed Teka’s new spear.

After the diamond coifs were all completed, we started circling them around the enchanted sapphire near the furnace. When everything was placed with the furnace heating the coifs into a mailable state, we activated the enchanted stone by saying “Bolt.” We then waited for the electricity to charge each iron coifs to give them a magnetic field, which magnetized them to the voltage of the sapphire. I could not estimate how much voltage the small sapphire could magically expunge but it was enough to magnetize all the diamond-shaped coifs.

We then took a copper ingot from the smithies storage to the anvil. With the assistance of Amelia and her vibroblade, we cut slices off the copper ingot, then hammered those into a wire. When the grueling procedure was done, we began to shape two steel ingots into four thick rods. With Amelia, I search around for a large stone near the smithy. Finding it, I returned to Peb who bound it with rubber. After carving the stone into a hollowed-out cylinder handle. I attached one of the diamond coifs atop.

With four Iron rods and 30 diamond coifs, I made a hollowed-out sword tied with wired copper. When the base of the sword was done we attached the rubber handle below. The hollowed-out sword was 150 cm in length, as big and as thick as a great sword but hollow as a wireframe. It took a few minutes to make rubber cartridges for several air stones, which would then be compacted inside the interior bottom of the handle. Before we put the air cartridges in, we gingerly pushed the sapphire stone in its rubber frame, then linked the copper wire around it.

Fastening it all tight, we went to ask for Roderick's assistance on adding fire resistance to the metals. Roderick was happy to disclose general information about human Classifications, unaware of the grass folk pretending to be one inside the Mecha. Apparently he had garnered active skills for Enchantment from his classification, Metal Wright.

The humans had a pantheon of gods that had varied between elements and roles in their religion. They all offered unique classifications for the humans to choose, which was unlike the Grass folk’s gods, limited with only three classifications. Before humans reached adolescents, they had to choose a classification by a representative priest of each god. When they have made their choice and received their classification, they have the option to be apprenticed by the guilds depending on their classifications. Seeking advancement in society was motivated by joining an adventuring company or having patronage from guilds. For levels in the society was a rank in itself of mastery of one's classification.

There were other methods of leveling, some had required little to no effort to obtain the essence experience required to level, but those methods were secret to only the higher echelons of human society.

Having finalized my prototype for my new weapon, I helped build more microphones for the plan I had in mind for the siege. When all was done, I retired upstairs to finally eat some meat. Halfway through the steps, I heard the large brass bells ring--echoing across the town. The audible noise brought an eerie tension to the inhabitants of the town of Ebenfurth.

It appears the goblin horde has arrived.