Carth followed the two while carrying the hiver, which was surprisingly light. After traveling for about an hour they reached the entrance to what looked like a run down small fort, but in reality this was the village they were telling him about. 

"Who the hell have you brought now?," the front and center guard shouted, drawing their blade. "Do you know these are not spies?" The guards wore the same as the Holy Nation guards at Rebirth but painted black.

"Calm down Lilith," Braith quickly said, pushing Lilith's blade down. "This is Carth, the one we were looking for." Lilith quickly put her blade away and apologized for threatening him. 

Lilith stepped to the side and let them in. Inside the walls were several square buildings, all one floor each. In the far back there was a much larger building, a metal dome sat on a platform supported by pillars underneath. There were small gardens on the side growing greenfruit, a melon type plant that looks like a cucumber mixed with an eggplant, growing around a makeshift well. The refugees of the place gave odd or terrified glances at the group. Some were even hiding behind whatever they could find. At first Carth thought the glances were directed at him, but he soon realized it was directed at Shela and the unknown hiver on the group's shoulders. 

"Don't worry about them, let's first get that hiver to a bed and the shek into a cage," Denz said, moving towards one of the few buildings.

"Wait! Just put her in a bed too, my work slaves are loyal to me," Carth openly lied, "I will keep an eye on her till she wakes up." Denz shrugged and they took the knocked out individuals to beds next to each other. 

"Then you will be on guard duty," Braith said walking in the building with some steamed greenfruit. "Here eat this you must be starving after that travel, being in a prison, and carrying that hiver on you all day. It may not be much but every refugee gets their daily allocated food for the day." 

"Thank you," Carth remarked, taking the food and eating bits and pieces, he wasn't very hungry, starvation does that to a man. He looked over Shela and the unknown hiver, making sure they are still alive after the journey. 

After a few hours, as it was getting dark there was a groan. "Ugghh, my head." Shela said, starting to wake up, still shackled. She quickly shot up and looked around in quite the panic. "Where am I, this is not Rebirth!" She turned and saw Carth resting his head on the bed, fast asleep. she was confused, one minute she was in Rebirth in a cage, now she is in a decent bed, Carth was asleep trying to watch over her. Looking around she saw two guards in completely different uniforms from the Holy Nation looking in, whispering to each other. She calmed down a little to try to take it all in. She was semi-free, but still clearly shackled. Where was she? A bit of memory came back, that shadow of a person that hit her was no dream. She looked back at Carth, which was starting to sweat tremendously, she stayed quiet but kept a close eye on him. She decided to rest with him til morning. When the morning came Shela woke up before Carth and heard him mumbling.

"N-no not them," Carth mumbled in his sleep. He began twitching here and there mumbling to himself. Shela started to silently panic as she never expected to end up in such a scenario, let alone have someone asleep next to her having a nightmare. She quickly nudged him awake

Carth quickly opened his eyes and looked around. "Is she finally awake?" Carth mumbled. He looked up to see Shela staring down at him with a worried look on her face. He quickly sat up realizing what position he was in. 

"I am sorry for worrying you," Carth said a little bit flustered, "Listen, I may have lied to these people that you are my work slave in order to save you from Rebirth." Shela nodded her head, still very surprised with the rush of information he just laid in front of her. She? A work slave? That is quite outlandish. She never even touched a forge in her life, how could she fake being a work slave? Just then a dark skinned woman with purple eyes walked in. Braith entered the room to see if the shek woke up yet .

"Ah it is good to see you two awake!" Braith, with her purple eyes glaring into Shela's dull brown eyes. "Your master saved your life from Rebirth. He seems to care for you more than you think. By the way my name is Braith." Carth chuckled at the thought of the things Braith pointed out. Shela, putting on her straight face nodded and looked at Carth

"Thank you master for saving me from Rebirth. I am in your debt even more." Shela said, trying to act as a slave as Carth told her just a little while ago. "I hope I can serve you well, but my one request dear master is that these shackles be removed. I wish to serve you with all my ability, but these shackles hinder me from doing so." Shela clearly trying to act how she thinks a proper slave would sound and act, she has never seen one before. 

Braiths jaw dropped just slightly and spoke up, "that is the most proper and devoted slave you got there and a shek on top of it all. Carth, I am honestly surprised she is this loyal even up to this point." 

Carth through a drowsy voice said," she is a good one, glad to still have her work under me. I am still surprised with her loyalty. If you are wondering, she forges the ingots for my work."

Shela nodded her head and accepted her job. Braith walked to Shela and unlocked her shackles. "Behave shek" Braith declared glaring at Shela. "Last shek we had here hurt many, do not make the same mistake."

Shela nodded once again in understanding. She already is in a bad position, doing anything would make things even worse.  The three gathered themselves together, Braith led the way to a larger rectangular structure, this must be the forge house. Before entering Denz showed up and told them he will be in one of the refugee houses if they need him. They soon entered hearing clanging of metal and then a loud crash "Dammit," a voice rang around the wall. 

Braith whispered to Carth, "she is trying to forge fancy blades to impress you but failed many times, she apparently even tried to make a copy of one of the stolen Holy Nation soldiers swords, the Paladins Cross. And let me tell you, it did not work, it turned out to be a lousy two handed club more than anything." They soon turned the corner to see a small woman about four foot five with tan skin and light brown hair.fire reflected off her tan, soot blotched skin as she drove her hammer into a piece of heated metal in the rough shape of a sabre class sword, one that Carth is very familiar with. 

Carth stood and watched with an intriguing glare. The woman was so focused on forging she did not seem to take notice of the group watching her. She hammered in a pattern quickly as the blade cooled down, making it harder to shape. Carth saw flaws in a few of her swings. The swings were making a slightly uneven point, making the entire blade more jagged than smooth. The blade didn’t even look like a sword anymore, to Carth’s perspective, it almost ended up looking like a blunted training club. After cooling it and looking at her work she got angry once more "DAMMIT ALL, THIS PEICE OF SHI- '' The smithing woman looked up and froze seeing the onlookers watching her failed attempts at smithing. "h-hi, how.. How long were you guys watching?"

"Long enough to see you still need help" Braith jumped in first, "His help specifically. By the way let me introduce you to Carth Lostforge of the Lostforge smith line and his work slave that helps tend to the forge. Behave before someone gets hurt." Braith exclaimed glaring at the woman,"introduce yourself."

"H-hi my name is Eliza," the smithing woman introduced herself, stuttering all the way. "It's a pleasure to meet you Carth, I have heard many stories about your works. M-my favorite is the ringed sabre that withstood a whole group of bandits without even getting damaged!"

Carth chuckled "I was not expecting a fan of my works. Honestly I am just glad to hear people utilize my blades for good and not evil. Though nowadays I can't tell which is which. Besides, it is good to meet a starter smith trying with no guidance. Though it is clear you're not doing well, it is obvious to me that you weren't planning on giving up anytime soon." Carth looked around the forge and saw very basic smithing, at least this was better than starting from scratch. He grabbed one of the ingots and heated it into the crucible. Everyone stepped out of the way except for Eliza, who was very eager to see him at work. He looked over the molds and picked a rod shaped one. After the metal was molten he poured it into the mold and waited until he let it cool to a glowing yellow and chipped it out of the mold.He let it cool before starting the next step. Making sure the rod was sturdy enough He began to  heat it up so it could be shaped and tempered. Quickly placing on the anvil he grabbed the hammer and began swinging to a beat, " swing back, hit the crack, forge more, til your sore." He repeated this rhyme while hitting the rod into the shape of a Longsword, but did not stop there, he reheated the metal and continued to forge it by beveling both sides to make the sharp edges. He let the blade cool and heated it once more, doing this about three times to normalize the steel. "Do you have any sandpaper?" Carth requested looking at Eliza. She quickly ran and grabbed a roll of sandpaper and handed him it, he sat with the blade all cooled off and began smoothing and sanding it. 

Hours went by and he kept at it, sanding here and there making all the surfaces smooth, except for the edges, and kept at it. When he finished sanding he got up and reheated it at a lower temperature to relax the brittle metal and reduce the stress on the blade to become sturdy and hardened. While the blade cooled at a slow rate he grabbed a Chunk of wood and began sanding it down to a fine cylinder with a notches for the blade to slide into. Grabbing a rough like leather that was crudely made, slid the blade into the notch and carefully wrapped the leather evenly around the newly made hilt and fastened the blade to it, then grabbed the scraps of metal scattered about. He put them into the crucible and heated them up and poured the molten metal into a mold of a ball. Letting it cool he grabbed it and stuck it on the end of the hilt and let a small amount of it mold into a small hole he made in the hilt so the ball would stay, like a screw. Proud of his work with limiting tools he raised the blade and took a swing at the table, cutting a decent line into it. "This will do," Carth remarked on his blade, tying it to his belt with a shabby looking sheath. 

He looked up realizing everyone was watching him this entire time, he was so busy trying to get a feel back into his works and making of blades he completely forgot that he was not even in his own workshop. "That was amazing!" Eliza smiled ear to ear, "you forged an entire blade with basic tools easily! Would you be able to teach me and some others how to forge blades like yours for our group?" Carth laughed out loud. The idea of him becoming a teacher is quite amusing. 

He was about to say yes when a guard of the village rushed into the workshop and shouted at the group "The hiver has woken up, better wrap up what you guys are doing, you were the guys who brought him in, you decide what to do with him."