For two remaining days of my trial, I spent my time near my cave and stream. Nothing much happened, nothing attacked, and I was able to get all of my food either by fishing or by gathering edible plants. I plan on taking the big ball of howlers with me, should probably earn me some cred with the village or something. That and it just doesn’t feel right leaving them here. In the end I decide to just roll it all the way home

After the last two days have passed I make my way through the forest, hoping that I didn’t forget the path home. It takes me a little while but after a lot of walking, and a couple wrong turns I finally get back to the spot Agni and Skanda left me. When I actually reach there, who do I find but Agni and Skanda. They both look a little weirded out by the big ball that I am rolling around. I am sure they’d be even more weirded out if they knew what was in it. “you’ve made it back” they say as one. Kind of creepy but whatever. They then gesture for me to follow them as we journey back to the village.

After a while of walking silently with Agni and Skanda we finally reach the village. The orks all around stop to look at me walking past. I would look too if some guy was walking around with a gigantic ball of stone. After a little bit of that we finally reach the chieftains place. “you’ve made it boy. What’s that huge stone your carrying around though?” the chieftain asks. Instead of saying anything I start levitating the ball, lifting really high, before dropping it. The ball hits the ground shattering and releasing all the howler corpses within.

The chieftain stands in place, stunned. Agni and Skanda standing behind him look the same .The chieftain then yells for his daughter, asking her to grab something for him. She comes a couple seconds later, looking befuddled at the scene on front of her, handing her father a slate. The chieftain then quickly writes something into it with his claws, handing it to his daughter and telling her to put it somewhere safe.

“well boy, it seems that you’ve passed this trial and beyond. Hopefully you’ve already decided what your next trial will be” the chieftain says, taming his expression and posture and regaining his composure. “yes chieftain I’ve decided that my next trial will be the worth trial” I reply hoping that I’ll be able to go through the next trial without any major screwups. “hmm. Well boy, as before Vegter is going to be taking care of you for the next three days until the trial” the chieftain says, his composure almost completely salvaged.

I then go down to Vegter’s shop, sure that he would be there working since it’s was almost noon already. When I get there I see Caden manning the front desk. “wow, you made it through your trial. How was it?” Caden asks. “I killed a bunch a howlers, other than that though it was pretty average. How were you guys while I was gone?” I reply. “yo that’s awesome, how’d you manage to kill ‘em. We’ve been doing fine, though Vegter’s been kind of anxious about how you were doing ” Caden says. “speaking of Vegter, I better go and tell ‘im that I am back” I say.

Caden clears me through, opening the door into Vegter smithy. When I go inside I see Vegter hammering away at dark red metal. “what’cha making Vegter?” I ask. Vegter looks slightly surprised for a moment before going back to forging it is that he was forging. After a couple seconds Vegter finally says “don’t worry about me boy, how was your trial”. “it was nice, I ran into some howlers though. But I did managed to kill them all, which seems like a pretty cool achievement if I do say so myself ” I respond. Vegter looks a little surprised for a second before asking “how many?”. I start getting a little nervous after hearing this, knowing that the actual number is probably going to make me look different in his eyes. You can’t just tell someone you killed twenty (what basically amount to smart wolf/fox hybrids) and not expect them to think of you differently.

Instead I decide to try to change the subject at hand. “well Vegter, I told the chieftain that I wanted my next trial to be the worth trial. The chieftain then said that you would be taking care of me for the three days preceding the actual event” I say, hoping that Vegter just drops it. “well boy, what did you have in mind when you chose the worth trial?” Vegter asks. “well I was planning on forging something to show that if all else fails I can work here in the smithy for you” I answer. “oh I also need to learn to read and write, since I plan on doing the actual written test last. I was hoping that you could teach me, along with letting me help here in the forge” I add. “well boy the next three days are going to be busy ones for you” Vegter says, a sadistic smile on his face.

And so they were. Me and Vegter plan the next three days for me. I work with Vegter forging constantly forging with an intensity I’ve never really had before until some time at around noon, when Vegter start teaching me how to read and write in this villages language. Utilising me fast-learning ability I am able to get to a decent level with only the three days of time I have. In terms of forging skill and ability I have reached a level where I can forge almost anything I can think up. My understanding of metal and how it is shaped is pretty masterful by now.

All the while I was practicing constantly for my trial I was thinking of what I can forge for my test. I should be able to forge some weapons that were previously found on earth. Something otherworldly should raise my value in these peoples eyes .The people here don’t really use many bladed weapons, usually preferring more blunt weapons like hammers and such, so the weapon I am going to make is probably going to be a bladed weapon. Something with an edge, somewhat otherworldly, and yet somewhat familiar. I ponder on this for a long, long time thinking near constantly on it in my three days.

By the time the three days are up and the trial actually begins I’ve gained decent mastery with the forge, and the basic bits of the ork language. Me and Vegter stand in front of the chieftains place, waiting for the chieftain to show up so that he can oversee my trial. After a couple more seconds of waiting the chieftain comes out with his daughter. “sorry I’m late, things took a little longer than I thought they might so I had to run a delay. Oh and I’ll be taking my daughter with me to get some experience overseeing things like this” the chieftain says.

“so what did you have in mind to show our community that you are worth being here?” the chieftain asks, putting special emphasis on the word worth. “well I was thinking I could forge something” I say. “hmm” the chieftain hums to himself. His daughter next to him looks pretty impassive. We then go down the road to Vegter’s place so that the actual trial may begin. We go into the smithy in the back of Vegter’s workshop, and I start to forge something. To prove my worth.

I take a big bit of metal, and using the tongs, shove it into the forge. I wait for it to turn a little red before pulling it out with the tongs. Thud thud thud. After hammering away at it for a bit I put it back into the forge with the tongs. This cycle repeats a couple time, with me getting more and more used to it. The fifth or fourth time I do this I am almost doing it all subconsciously. After an hour or so I start changing up the pattern, starting to take out other tools around the forge. The piece of metal starts looking a bit rectangular by now, so I start using a reinforced blade to taper the edges a bit. Looking around a bit I see Vegter looking a little confused, but not really interfering. The chieftain and his daughter seem slightly impressed although still quite apathetic.

Another hour or so passes by, with me shaping the metal so that the blade comes out perfectly. It took a while for me to make the perfect blade, so I plan on not working as hard on the hilt, since it’s not as important, but then a flash of inspiration strikes me. I then start working feverishly, pounding and shaping and changing the metal. I get so into it that I start using my magic to put the metal into and out of the forge. Levitating the metal all around using air also messes with the heat of the furnace a little bit so I start just using air magic for that too, to balance it out.

After what must have been two to three or so more hours I am finally finished. It felt like nothing but a moment to me. I look around the room and see astounded face. Vegter looks completely and utterly astonished. I was going to make fun of him, but remember that the chieftain and his daughter are here. Speaking of the looks on there show nothing but utter amazement. The chieftain see me looking at him, and near instantly his face goes blank. His daughter though takes no heed to this and continues to look at the weapon in my hand. “well done. Truly magnificent” the chieftain praises. “the only thing I, and I am sure the rest of the occupants in this room want to know though, is what is it, and what is it’s use” the chieftain says.

Ah yes, I forgot that they might not know what it was. I look in my hand and see a perfectly crafted sword, with completely made of metal. The hilt has a decorative carving of sharp toothed howlers heads howling and roaring on both sides of it. Truly a work of functional art. I do say so myself. Although the functional part isn’t really assured since I haven’t ever used a weapon before, just crafted some with Vegter, and most those were definitely nothing like what I have here in my hands.

“ah, well it’s a weapon” I say slashing it around in demonstration. “it’s used to cut things apart” I say. “I added the howlers sort of a s commemoration to them” I add. “well boy, with this you definitely pass” the chieftain says. “although some of us in this room may still have some questions for you” the chieftain says, probably referring to Vegter. Well that’s a thing for later I think.

As I start easing up my muscles a bit I start cramping slightly. Guess being an ork doesn’t make you immune to those. “sorry everyone but I need to go get some rest. This was the longest ever project I’ve ever made” I say to everyone, planning on crashing in Vegter’s bed after eating Clara’s wonderful food. I start to leave the room hoping that everyone will let this slide because I am starting to feel a little weak in the knees.

Vegter says his goodbyes to the chieftain and his still somewhat stunned daughter and then follows along with me. Vegter tells Caden that the work day is over and that he should get home as he walks by him .We journey on home silently, Vegter being understanding about the fact that I truly am too tired to answer any questions right now.

We get home to the scent Clara’s magnificent food, ready and waiting. I eat silently as Vegter explains to his wife and mate what happened. After finishing my food I leave to my room. “goodnight you guys” I yell before falling into bed and sleeping instantly.

That night I dream of a thousand swords and a thousand howlers