Chapter 26

  As they exited the inn, they found Rakxa and Ralf conversing nearby under the shade of an awning.

  Fuku waved and started bouncing towards them. “Hey, guess what? We’re gonna stay another day,” he said in greeting.

  Ben saw Rakxa slightly deflate, while Ralf's eyebrow tweaked upward.

  “We gotta get Ben a sword. Wanna take us to the blacksmith?” Fuku asked, either not aware of or choosing to be ignorant of the guards' slight unhappiness at his news.

  There was a glance shared between the lioness and the wolf, then a slight nod before Rakxa turned to speak.

  “We have two blacksmiths here, but neither specialize in weapons,” Rakxa said. “Though Fergum does make decent quality shields.”

  “You can find a decent sword at the general store,” Ralf added. “It’s a little expensive, but they are serviceable.”

  Fuku rolled his eyes. “Ralf, do you think a normal sword is going to work for Ben? Look at how big he is…”

  “Uhh…” the wolf-kin froze, his ear twitching as his eyes rose to meet Bens. He had to tilt his head up in order to do so.

  “We can go speak with this Fergum,” Ben said, stepping in to relieve Ralf from having to respond. “A shield is technically the more important item, anyway. Can you point us in the correct direction?”

  “Hrrrmmm… Yes, a shield will keep you safer than a sword,” Rakxa offered cordially. “Here, we can take you over to Fergum’s shop. You obviously understand why we’re here, so we may as well fulfill our duty as an escort rather than a tail.”

  Ben tilted his head. “I appreciate the honesty—and the companionship."

  They walked out past the houses that ringed the commercial area of the town. The street ended at a large wooden building with smoke billowing from the rooftop. This was the blacksmith’s workshop, and not the one they had visited the day prior. For starters, this one’s chimney seemed to be in better working order.

  As they approached, the smell of burning wood and hot metal increased, but unlike at the other forge, the smoke carried up and away, so they weren't left coughing.

  Fuku read the wooden sign hanging out front before stepping inside. “Sixtails Forge,” he announced.

  “Rakxa, this town’s name is Sixtails, right?” Fuku asked. “It’d be weird if all the shops were named after it and the town wasn’t. But, hey—I’ve seen stranger things.”

  “You’ve been to a place where the town is named different than the shops?” Ralf blurted out.

  Rakxa shot him a sharp glare for speaking out of turn.

  “Yes, Fuku,” she said. “Our town is named Sixtails.”

  “Okay good. No offense, but ‘Sixtails’ sounds a little silly. Nine-tails—now that’s a satisfying number of tails.”

  Both guards stared at him like he’d just spoken in an unknown language.

  Ben had heard the Tanuki use the term before. He didn’t understand the reference, but he knew it meant something to Fuku—so he simply joined the guards in looking at him with the same mix of awe and confusion.

  They strode to the door, but Rakxa didn’t bother knocking. She opened the door wide and beckoned the rest inside. All but Ralf. “Stay here and guard the door.”

  Ralf’s ears drooped. “What? Why do I have to stay outside? I wanna see what’s new in there too… I mean, what’s gonna happen in the few minutes that—”

  Rakxa closed the door, cutting off Ralf's whining.

  A small woman with white fur stood in the center of the showroom, wearing a pink dress and a stained—what used-to-be-white—apron.

  “Good morning to you,” she said as they entered. “Captain Rakxa, it’s good to see you again.”

  “Bonny, it's good to see you as well,” Rakxa replied. “This, as I am sure you are aware, is Ben, the Minotaur, and his companion, Fuku.”

  Fuku bounced up to Bonny and offered a paw. “Hi Bonny! You have amazing ears. Ben here needs a shield, and Rakxa says you make good ones.”

  Bonny gently took Fuku’s paw and shook it. “Uhhh… thanks, Fuku. It’s not me personally that works the forge—that’s my husband. He’s the one making all the noise in the back. Uhh… what are you?” Bonny asked, then her face blushed and she withdrew her hand. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so…”

  “I’m a Tanuki!” Fuku answered merrily. “My kind don’t live around here; in fact, I am very far from the land where Tanuki live. I’m surprised though—you’re the first person to ask me that here. Thanks!”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Ben chuckled and shook his head. Fuku was ever surprising.

  “You’re a bunny, right?” Fuku went on. “Or do you prefer rabbit, or hare? I haven’t gotten all the names right yet.”

  “Most prefer hare, but I like bunny. It rhymes with my name: Bonny bunny,” she said and giggled.

  “It does!” Fuku said, laughing along with her. “Bonny bunny! Now that is a great name!”

  Though she wore a guarded smile, Rakxa cleared her throat to get the conversation back on track. “Bonny, you don’t by chance have any… extra-large shields that might fit Ben’s stature?”

  Bonny looked away from Fuku to Rakxa, then up to Ben, and her eyes widened. “Oh… oh, yeah. A shield for the Minotaur? Wow.”

  “He’s super strong! He pulled a tree right out of the ground,” Fuku added proudly.

  “Uhh… okay, wow again. So… Oh!” she said and bounced on her toes. “I think we do have one that will be just right. Come this way.”

  She practically hopped into the back room, with Fuku bouncing right on her heels.

  Rakxa turned to Ben, whose grin was obvious. “You really like all that energy?”

  Ben chuckled before responding. “It can be a lot, but after 700 years alone with nothing to do but kill people… it’s exactly what I need.”

  He ducked through the doorway, following Fuku and Bonny into the back room. As he passed, he heard Rakxa whisper behind him, her voice full of disbelief.

  “Seven hundred years of killing people?”

  ***

  The rear area of the shop was what one would expect to see in a blacksmith’s forge. There was the forge itself, the huge furnace where coals burned and kept the metals hot. There were shelves and racks holding everything from tools to ingots to aprons.

  And of course at the center of the room stood a heavy metal anvil.

  Clang, Clang—came the sound of the hammer as it repeatedly slammed onto an orange-hot piece of metal. Ben had been in blacksmith's workshops before, this part was nothing new to him. But what was new was the hand wielding the hammer, or rather the huge paw. Standing behind the anvil was a shirtless bear-kin. Though his heritage landed firmly on the bear side, more than the human.

  From the ears on top of his head to the massive paws on the ground, this person looked like a huge black furred bear pounding at an indistinguishable chunk of hot metal.

  Sweat slicked his dark fur, plastering it to his body and outlining the powerful curves of his biceps and chest. His thick legs were rooted to the floor like tree trunks, and with every thunderous strike of the hammer, a ripple of power ran through his frame, sending a fine mist of sweat spraying into the hot air.

  He wore only a heavy leather apron, tied high on his waist. Ben’s imagination wasn’t up to guessing what the blacksmith might be wearing behind the apron, but had to admit that he was slightly intrigued.

  The entire scene seemed to drip with a raw, masculine energy.

  It was the dedicated focus, the obliviousness to their presence, that made this blacksmith-bear all the more intriguing to Ben. He stared, his eyes spellbound. The scene before him was mesmerizing.

  He vaguely felt a small paw tug on his finger—breaking the spell. Fuku stood next to him, looking up expectantly. Ben leaned down, and Fuku latched on, pulling himself up to where he could whisper into Ben’s ear.

  Fuku leaned in close, his voice a conspiratorial whisper. “About what we talked about this morning... I take it back. I do want playtime, if it’s with him.”

  Ben quickly glanced over to his partner, who wore a mischievous grin. “Well,” Ben whispered back, “I can’t blame you. I kind of want playtime with him as well.”

  Fuku’s eyes went wide, wider than Ben had ever seen them go before. His mouth opened, then closed again without a sound. The mischievous look he wore was replaced by one of confusion and awe. Ben could practically see the frantic questions racing behind those wide eyes.

  Fuku finally managed to stammer, “But… I was just… but—I mean… and you’re… would it really work?”

  Ben winked—leaving Fuku to wonder if he were being serious or teasing—and walked away.

  He followed Bonny as she moved to the back of the room. He watched as Fuku’s eyes continued to glance between himself and the hard-working blacksmith. Fuku’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly, no words fully took shape as his mind spun in circles.

  ***

  Bonny stepped through a back door and held it open for the rest to follow. “It’s right out here,” she told them as Ben ducked and stepped back out into the open air.

  The backyard of the shop was littered with debris. There were old plows and tools, strange circular gears, and broken armor pieces. Then there were things for which Ben had no words.

  “Fergum gets these things from the city,” Bonny explained. “They get broken down, and he can buy them for cheap. He likes to take them apart. He’s studying to be an artificer, and this helps him learn new skills.”

  “Oh wow… these are automatons, right?” Fuku asked, his focus finally drawn away from the blacksmith. He bounced off of Ben to check out the strange devices.

  Ben moved further into the yard, interested in what these things did as well. He spotted what looked like a metal horse, but it was in pieces. The head was separate from the torso, the legs were splayed apart, and small gears and servos were strewn about on the ground.

  In another area, he saw what appeared to be a huge pair of legs. They stood upright, the waist coming up almost to Ben’s eye level, but then they simply stopped. The rest of the machine was no longer attached, leaving uncoiled springs and wires hanging over the side.

  Ben stepped further into the salvage-strewn yard. A strange dizziness made his head swim and he began to lose his balance.

  His hand found the haft of what appeared to be a large, double-bladed axe to catch himself. Its gleaming metal handle sticking upward from where the blades were half-buried in the ground.

  He could feel his breath becoming ragged as if the air around him had thickened. His hooves felt like boulders as a wave of weakness swept over him.

  “Fuku…” Ben started to say, but he was too late. The world began to spin, his vision passing from ground to sky.

  ‘The metals—’ he realized only now.

  “Ben?” He heard his name, but it sounded distant. He felt his body go limp just as the hard ground slammed into his back. His vision was going dark.

  Then Fuku’s face swam into his line of sight, but it wasn't in the right place—it was sideways. ‘Fuku can’t float like that, can he?’ was Ben’s last thought before unconsciousness overtook him.