Hephaestus

Part III - Making Introductions

For several seconds Melanie sat in stunned silence, her mouth hanging open as her brain tried to make sense of what the man just said to her. "Made?" She finally asked in a drawn out, whispered sense of almost disbelief. "Someone on Snowpiercer MADE this?"

Layton nodded.

"Who...who made this?"

Layton quickly stood up and offered her a hand. "Come with me and I'll introduce you. In fact, he'll be thrilled to know you liked his 'gift'."

"Gift?" Melanie questions as she allowed him to pull her off the sofa.

"Yeah. Everything Hes makes he calls a 'gift'."

"Hes?"

"That's what we called him in the Tail. Sort of short for..."

"...Hephaestus?" Melanie quickly supplied as a guess.

Layton nodded. "Well, on account of his being so good with working with metals. Really, there's nothing this man can't make."

Melanie quickly followed Layton out the door, her 'gift' still held safely in her hand.

As they moved down the train, the closer they got to the Tail the closer Melanie stayed to Layton. It wasn't that everyone in the Tail hated her still. In fact, most of them appreciated the things she had tried to do to make life better for them. But whenever she was in this area she never dropped her cautionary side, opting for the mindset that it only took one disgruntled person to cause her or Layton serious harm. Several people actually greeted them as they past by. Though she quickly noted the greetings seemed more aimed at Layton than her. A few times he stopped and talked with someone. She quickly noted these people were his lieutenants and other elected leaders under his governors for the Tail section, as they would fall into a quick discussion of conditions in the Tail and what still needed improvements. Melanie stayed quiet during these brief delays, but took careful note of what was being said. Anything about the train that threatened it's fragile stability among the people living on her always got her full attention.

But as they continued to proceed through the back area of the train, she noted even Layton kept his guard up. In some respects he wasn't anymore out of danger in his one time home than she was. But this mostly came from the fact that the Tail was now also populated by more than a few one-time First Class passengers who had lost their treasured upper train living space to someone more determined to take it from them than they were to keep it. This left the only place for the displace First Class passengers to go to was the Tail section. Any one of these people would likely have gladly dealt out a portion of their misery to Layton as much as some of the original Taillies still living there would likely have dealt out the same to her.

But finally she noted a more relaxed stance in him as they entered another car in the Tail and Layton called out a greeting.

"Hes! You here?"

Melanie stared at the interior of the area they entered in amazement. She knew changes had been made to the cars as the years rolled by under the train. But she had no idea something like this existed or how none of the Jack-boots had ever found it.

But she also knew the Tailies were extraordinarily skilled in hiding things, and could make any amount of counterban disappear from sight whenever the enforcement detail came down the train. Or any size.

She had also noted that getting to that section of the car was not exactly an easy path. It was very clear to her that whoever had made the route to get there did not want to the room to be found. Layton had even had to carefully guide her through several well hidden booby-traps that she would have otherwise easy tripped.

The room was not overly large and was dimly lit, with the main source of light coming from the object set near the back of the area. In one of the corners sat a small, but unmistakable forge. A small circular pit lined by a wall of concrete about three feet high with a blazing hot fire burning in the middle of it.

Standing over it was a man dressed in a pair of tattered old pants, a leather apron on over his upper body to protect the front of him down to his knees.

The man seemed to react to the greeting with irritation as he paused in his work. With a sigh that echoed in his body as his shoulders came up, then dropped down again, he pulled whatever he was working on out of the fire and dropped it into a metal bucket next to the forge. A loud hiss and plume of steam emitted from the water as the object made contact.

Wiping his hands on a towel draped over his shoulder, Melanie could clearly see the man give a slight limp as he turned to face his visitors.

'Hephaestus indeed.' Melanie mused to herself as she looked the man over.

He was a solid built figure. About six feet tall, his height was diminished slightly as that he seemed to carry himself in a permanent hunch. He straightened the curve in his back a little as he turned away from the forge, but not by much.

Melanie thought he looked like he stepped right out of a medieval movie set for what a black smith should look like.

In the dim light she couldn't make out much of him that wasn't covered in soot or marked by a scar of some old injury. A few new burns were evident on his arms, but his hands were covered by thick leather gloves that he was already pulling off as he assessed his visitors.

He didn't seem to be much past his late 40's, but in the dim light of the room and with the light of the forge behind him, it was hard to assess his age with any real degree of accuracy.

As his gaze fell on Layton, he seemed to relax a little. But his cautionary stare came back into place immediately as he lay his eyes on Melanie.

"Aye." Was all the man said by way of returning Layton's greeting.

"Hes, I brought someone who very much wanted to meet you." Layton stated by way of introducing Melanie, but keeping her close until he could gauge the man's reaction to the one time leader of the train.

The man seemed to look her over the same way a wolf would sniff out a new creature to determine it's level of danger to itself.

"Soooo," he finally drawled out, stepping forward with the same slight limp as he looked her up and down. "you are the one time great Mr. Wilford?"