Blackstone Foundry and Forge; Saturday [04/13].

[special_rabbit]

To wake up that morning to the sound of activity clearly going on downstairs in the forge was a little disturbing and worrisome, but, at the same time, Amaya was pretty accustomed to the way things worked around here by now. Still, she figured it was wise to execute caution when going to investigate, so she made a pit-stop in the kitchen for a frying pan before heading down the stairs.

"Fjord?" she asked, not really expecting him, although, really, that was the most logical possibility. He was the only other person with a key and if there was any time he'd want to take advantage of the fact that he was welcome to come in at anytime to work on stuff, it would have been this week. Besdies that, she could hear the forge going, and what kind of theif would break in and go through all that trouble? But as she got to the bottom of the stairs, her questions were answered all too swiftly thanks to the familiar blonde teenager that lifted her head and turned around, nearly thwapping the person she was with in the face with her ponytail.

Amaya lowered the frying pan with a sound that was half-grunt, half-groan, and all misery. "Zephyr," she said. "So you're back, eh?"

And she had a friend?

"Mother!" Zephyr laughed brightly to see her there. "Good morning! I was just going over some ideas with Djodge about a new sword. He said he'll forge me one for when I can finally enter the Knight's Tournament! Wouldn't that be wonderful? He's got some very good ideas, but I still think there's not nearly enough spikes."

"Djodge?" Amaya asked, and that's when the other kid, slightly younger, turned as well, offering Amaya a faint smile on his pale green face, which certainly helped click that mystery into place. "Ah. Right. You must be Fjord's boy, then. Passed down the trade to you, did he? Good for him. Guess it's no real surprise the two of you managed to find each other, at any rate."

So now it was just a matter of figuring out if she should let him know. There was a good chance no one told him about the whole random kids from mysterious future partners thing; Amaya herself had rather been hoping it was a one-time thing, but with Zephyr there in all her shining armor, clearly that wasn't the case.

And if the green skin wasn't enough, there was a serious, thoughtful, tight-jawed frown on the boy's face that left no doubt in Amaya's mind that she'd called it on whose kid he was as he regarded her.

"I have got a question, though, Mom," he drawled.

But anything he said after that was completely lost to Amaya as she nearly dropped that frying pan. "I'm sorry," she said, "who?"

Zephyr snickered deviously. "Really, Mother," she teased. "I know you and Papa have had your issues, but a secret family? The scandal of it all! And a secret forge? And with an orc!"

"Half-orc," Amaya responded automatically, not even realizing that she and the boy had said it at the same time. And she was going to take a moment to just sit down on the steps, noting that she needed a chair or two in here if people were going to come waltzing in, being the apparent son of her and her apprentice. At least with Zephyr, she could write it off as some ridiculous thing that would never happen because she didn't even know anyone who ran around with the name Whisper. But this was...was...

"Clearly, the two of them simply must duel," Zephyr was continuing loftily with a toss of her ponytail, "but don't worry, Djodge. I'll help take care of you when my father completely destroys yours."

"Not very likely," Djodge countered. "My dad'll demolish yours."

"Ha! You have clearly never met my father!"

"And you've clearly not met mine."

They were likely to go on like that for a while, which was definitely not going to help Amaya process this any better. "I need some coffee," she murmured, getting back up and heading up the stairs to do just that...and maybe tipping a little bit of whiskey in there, too, before heading back down to make sure the two of them just didn't start dueling each other instead.

The Forge is open!

Comments

[built_fjord_tough]

Kia.

Fjord had a kid named Kia.

With Fenris. Somehow. He had no idea how the hell that worked. There were things about elf physiology that he'd never asked before, and really, he intended to keep it that way.

Of course, this meant he was going to have to be... paternal... or something. And he had no damn clue how the hell to even approach that. But parents gave their kids gifts, right? That was a thing? So maybe he'd get Kia a dagger. Seemed like a solid life choice. He waited until Fenris had collected the girl, and then set off toward the forge to see if there were any kid-appropriate daggers in stock.

Two steps through the door had him pausing for a moment, of course.

"You're not Amaya."

Neither of them were, actually.

What.

[tough_bunny]

And both those Not-Amaya heads lifted up from a bunch of sketches and prototypes on a worktable toward the voice and the person walking into the shop.

"Dad!" Djodge grinned a little, glad he'd finally made it back so he could really show his blonde knight-wannabe half-sister what her father was in for.

"It's the orc!" Zephyr gasped, dramatically, eyes blazing with excitement.

"Half-orc," Amaya corrected again in a grumble from where her face was permanently buried in her palm.

Welcome to the Forge, Fjord. It has been a day.

[built_fjord_tough]

"... Oh, shit," Fjord said, eyes going wide. "Another one?"

He'd just escaped the first one.

Why was this happening?

What was this damn island trying to do? And he couldn't even deny it was his, because how many other green people were there on the island? Himself, Hera, end list?

[crumble_and_shine]

Both of the kids went rushing toward him, which probably wasn't going to help, both in a rush to speak first.

"Dad," Djodge peristed, "tell Zephyr how you would kick her dad's butt in a duel. She doesn't believe me!"

"Of course I don't!" Zephyr insisted. "That's probably the puniest orc I've ever seen."

It should be noted that Zephyr had never actually seen an orc at all. And Amaya started to correct her with a "Well..." but then realized how pointless it was, because the kids were still going.

"Tell her!" Djodge insisted, grinning wildly, because now that he was here, obviously, his sheer presence would really make Zephyr eat her words. "Tell her her dad doesn't stand a chance! You'll pulverise him!"

"No way! My father will turn you into shish kebob!" Zephyr insisted, sounding way too gleeful about the whole thing. "It'll be the battle of the century!"

[built_fjord_tough]

Yeah, uh, there went Fjord's pride taking one hell of a ding, there, since even by half-orc standards, he was... kind of a runt.

He cleared his throat and looked helplessly over the heads of both kids towards Amaya, trying to figure out the best way to defuse this situation and having no damn clue where to start.

"I try not to start fights if I can avoid them," he attempted, aiming for diplomacy, here. "But if anyone comes at me looking for fights, I won't hesitate to finish them."

That seemed... fair...?

[crumble_and_shine]

Thirteen year old girls were brutal, Fjord. Sorry not sorry!

And that thirteen year old girl was grinning up at you, Fjord, shaking her head with some sort of amazement. "Oh, he'll come looking," Zephyr assured him. "Soon as he catches wind of this, you'd best watch out for the great, the amazing, the inscrutable..." Dramatic pause. Wait for it...waaaait for iiiiit....."Whisper!"

Zephyr barely finsihed with the surprisngly loud whisper before Djodge snorted and rolled his eyes.

"What a dumb name," said Djodge Bjuick Blackstone.

[built_fjord_tough]

A pjerfectly respjectable njame.

"Ah... Ah'm still tryin' to figure out just how there's any of this to catch wind of," Fjord admitted. And his voice only cracked nervously twice! Bonus! "Uh. Amaya?"

All he'd wanted was a stabby thing to give to his daughter, and now he needed to consider whether his son was going to want a stabby thing, too. This was terribly unfair while his head was still killing him from last night's attempt to drink Seivarden right out of his brain.

[special_rabbit]

His son could make his own stabby thing, though!

And Amaya supposed she had to come out from behind that facepalm eventually. She sighed, dropping her hands, shaking her head, and then folded her arms in front of her.

"Island does this thing, sometimes, Fjord," she offered. "With, uhhh....kids. Future kids. I got Zephyr here last year, but I didn't think much of it. No right idea of who her father actually is," Zephyr gasped dramatically at this information. Again, "which appareantly is a huge scandal." Everything was a scandal with Zephyr. "Someone who runs around calling himself Whisper, "--Whisper!, Zephyr echoed for dramatic effect, and Amaya bristled slightly. "Whisper! Like I would ever go around with someone calling themselves Whisper."

Whisper!

But that was neither here nor there and didn't much help Fjord much, though she doubted this next part would do a lot in that regard, either. "And this year, I got Djodge here," who gave a little sheepish wave, although, really, it felt a little weird that his mom was introducing him to his dad, "who, well..."

She didn't really need to say it, did she?

"At this rate, next year, I might have enough for a small army. Noticed you said 'another one' when you came in, though, so you've at least caught wind of that much."

[built_fjord_tough]

"Yeaaaah," Fjord drawled. "Tryin' not to think too hard about the logistics behind the little quarter-orc-half-elf Fenris and I woke up to this morning."

Because he had been pretty sure elves didn't work like that, but what the hell did he know?

"... Why does the island do this thing?"

Because it hated you, personally, Fjord.

[special_rabbit]

Amaya had a better question for you, Fjord.

"Why does this island do any of these things?"

...at least the kids seemed to settle down on the whole 'my dad's going to beat up your dad' thing for the moment. But she could tell by the way Zephyr was still speculatively glaring at Fjord that she was at least still thinking about it. While Djodge was just mostly trying to get his sister's attention back onto what they'd been working on.

[built_fjord_tough]

"Because it," Fjord paused and thought better of saying, 'wants us to suffer,' and instead supplied, "likes keepin' us on our toes, I guess."

He shook his head a little.

"Wouldn't have minded maybe a break between the last thing and this, though."

Though he supposed he could appreciate the correlation, there.

[special_rabbit]

"I'll bet," said Amaya, speculatively, while carefully watching the kids because one of them had discovered the box of ninja stars, and they both clearly knew their way around weapons and Zephyr had that nice shiny armor, so they'd probably be fine, but they were also two kids with a box of ninja stars, "some chucklehead was just sitting around the other day, moaning about being bored, and so the island just picked up and said, 'oh, yeah, is that so? Well, let's just see about that,' and so..."

She gestured toward the kids.

She gestured over her shoulder to denote everything that came before it.

Then gestured in general good riddance to all that rubbish.

[built_fjord_tough]

Fjord paused for a long moment before clearing his throat a little and noting, "Whelp, I'm never lettin' myself get bored again."

Decision made. Good. Moving forward, he'd just stay... somehow not bored.

Oh boy.

"Gonna need four more jobs at this rate."

One more for each day of the week that was left.

[special_rabbit]

Amaya took a second to watch as Djodge apparently decided to take a hammer to Zephyr's breastplate to test it, an activity that had clearly been her idea as she beamed and laughed triumphantly as his swing was deflected with a ringing, metallic sound.

She then turned her gaze back toward FJord.

"I know where you can pick up a good babysitting gig if you're interested," she offered.

[built_fjord_tough]

Fjord stared at the kids. And then turned a, 'you have to be kidding' look toward Amaya.

"... They would die," he informed her, not even about to pretend to mince words, there. "I would drop 'em or they'd choke on a bone or somethin' and they'd die."

Fjord, they weren't babies or dogs.

[special_rabbit]

"...drop them?" Yeah, Amaya was going to blink a little at you for that one, Fjord. "How old do you think those kids even are?"

The bones thing seemed a pretty fair concern, though.

[built_fjord_tough]

"I... I dunno. Eight?"

In fairness, half-orcs did grow up faster than humans.