Dust: An Elysian Tail

Before The Storm

Written by WildSnivy

Chapter 7

Courage

The forge goes dead silent for what seems like forever. I continue to stare at Nikolai determinedly, standing behind my words. Meanwhile, I'm still working on deciphering what mood his face is trying to convey at the moment. Right now it's in some strange state between horribly confused, bewilderedly stunned, and shockingly scared.

But mostly, he's probably thinking I lost it, if I'm going to be honest. And why wouldn't he? I just gave him one hell of a reason to train me. You have me, a guy with no combat experience save for the occasional slap fight I'd have with Ginger when we were young, wanting sufficient instruction to ward off a commander of the Royal Army, who probably has enough notches on his sword to fill an auditorium with the shavings.

Wow. Maybe I really am going insane.

"I don't think I heard ya correctly the first time there," Nikolai finally responds, tugging on his leather glove.

My eyes don't leave his. "I don't have to hold him off forever, Nikolai. But if he does come after Ginger, I want to give her time to escape."

"If he comes after you, I'm expectin' ya both ta run," Nikolai immediately retaliates. "Cassius is not a man yer lookin' ta mess with."

I can feel my eyes narrow at the blacksmith. "I'm not going to actively pursue him, Nikolai. That'd just be reckless," I point out. "I just want to..."

The blacksmith turns his back to me, facing the forge again. "Not interested."

He finally gets a blink out of me. My brain needs a second to process his response. "Sorry?"

"You heard me," Nikolai responds bitterly, not even bothering to look at me now, pretending I'm not even here as he loads the metal bars into the furnace. "I ain't helpin'."

I take a step forward, not daunted by the negative reply. "What about my birthday, Nik? You said you'd..."

"I know what I said," he snarls over me. "I know I made a promise. Ya wanna know why I did that?"

I don't answer. He explains anyway.

"When I offered you fightin' lessons, I did that assumin' you'd know when ta use them right. You've always been a smart lad, and when I said I'd help train ya, I did that thinkin' you'd be smart enough ta know how ta take yer fights, and ta know when ta back off."

He finally turns his head. There's not a hint of anything but gravity in that leer, and I can feel it bore right through me. "Well, sorry ta say, Jin. But you just proved me wrong."

"You don't trust me anymore? Is that what the deal is?" I demand.

The blacksmith pauses, then slams the door shut on the furnace before turning back to face me. "Ya know somethin'? No. No, I don't trust you, Jin. If anythin', I'd say you got a death wish, considerin' what you just asked o' me." He speaks furiously, but with suppression, like he's holding back the full force of his rage.

I feel the base of my spine freeze for a split second, and I have to wait for it to vanish before I say anything back. Meanwhile, the blacksmith crosses back over to the table, where I'm still sitting, and leans on the back of the chair across from me.

"I don't have..." I finally start to argue.

"Lemme tell ya somethin', Jin. And this is somethin' I've noticed 'bout ya ever since I first met ya. Ya must've been, like, eight when ya first moved in down the street there. Two days later, yer explorin' the town with yer sister and decide to pop by 'ere.

"Back then, I'm in the middle of makin' a real beauty of a weapon, so I'm dressed up all the way. Got my bandana, my apron, my dark glasses, my hammer, the whole getup. So when I hear you knock on my door and I move ta open her up, you musta took me for a murderer or somethin'. 'Cause the first thing you do, and I swear this is true, is shove Ginger behind ya, put yer fists up and challenge me ta fight ya.

"Now, o' course I'm no murderer, and you calmed right down soon as I took my glasses and bandana off. But let's play pretend for a second, eh? Say I really was a killer and I was out ta getcha. What woulda happened, you think? The way I see it, yer dead. Sure, ya made sure Ginger escaped. But 'stead o' runnin' with her, you decided ta fight. You knew damn well you had little ta no chance, but you didn't care. Ya stayed behind instead of savin' yer own life. And I'd say with ninety-nine percent confidence you woulda died there if I had my way."

His gaze narrows even more. "Yer a smart kid, and I still stand by that. But if there's any one thing out there that's gonna be yer downfall, you don't know when yer outmatched. I'm doin' ya a favor by sayin' no. 'Cause if Cassius comes for you, yer gonna be with Ginger, and yer gonna live to see another day. I'm not lettin' you throw yer life away tryin' ta fight someone yer never beatin' in a hundred years."

The forge goes silent again, and Nikolai is still breathing heavily. His latest rant wasn't nearly as bombastic as they usually are; he's kept his voice on the softer side for a change.

He sighs and shakes his head at me after a moment. "I still haven't gotten through ta ya, have I?"

No. He certainly has. He wants me to run. It's logical. It keeps me alive. Cassius can't kill me if he can't find me, if that's what it came to. But for some reason, even though every part of my mind is telling me to just take his advice and move along, I can't convince myself it's the right thing to do.

Nikolai glares at me again, leaning forward on the chair. "Yer not gonna leave me alone until I say yes, are ya?"

No. Or, at least, that's not what I meant to imply. And I want to say that I'll back off if Cassius comes for us. But I can't speak. My mouth is refusing to open.

He slams the back of his chair with both hands and stands up straight. "Fine. I get it. But yer not gettin' any help outta me. I'm not gonna be the man who helped ya get yerself killed."

He stomps back to the furnace and pokes the flames a little bit, as my body starts obeying again. "Nik, I'm..."

"I really don't care whether yer sorry or not," he grumbles as he stokes the flames. "If you don't wanna listen and take a fight you've no business takin', then you go right on ahead. I'm done tryin' ta stop ya."

He turns a head over his shoulder, a single, crackling grey eye firing at me like a lightning bolt from across the forge. "But you oughta know there's a very, very thin line 'tween bravery and downright stupidity, Jin. And you'd best think long and hard 'bout which one applies 'ere. For yer sake as well as yer sister's."

We continue to stare at each other for another intense moment or two, me with a sorrow I can't quite communicate and Nikolai with a fury that he can't seem to fully direct.

In the end, he just turns back to his furnace and points a finger off to his side. "Now get the hell outta my forge," he barks. "We both got work ta do."

The bacon is still hot when I return to the house. Ginger had cooked off a good amount of it, and there is plenty still to be had once I come into the kitchen. She's preparing some orange juice as I walk through the doors, and out of instinct I walk over to help her. But, true to her word from last night, she points me right over to the table instead, refusing to let me interfere with her work.

I'm actually kind of glad she doesn't want me to help out this time. I'm trying not to show it, but that feeling from last night, like my mind weighs fifty times more than it should, is back. I stagger my way over to my seat and collapse into it, a little more noisily than usual. Ginger looks over at me out of curiosity, but I give her a weak smile, like it was just an accident, and she smiles back and returns to work on our breakfast.

With her back turned, I rest both of my elbows on the table and grapple the top of my head, like that will alleviate the pressure somehow. I don't want to think about Nikolai. I don't want to think about whether I'm brave or an idiot. I don't want to think about what I'll do if Cassius finds that one piece of evidence he's looking for.

But my brain has other ideas. Incessantly, it's egging me on, practically coercing me into picking my questions apart. Did I just lose Nikolai as a friend? And what if I did? Actually, so what if I did? Maybe I can teach myself how to use my sword correctly. But what if I can't? Is there another way to hold back Cassius? Maybe trap the house in some way? And how do I tell Ginger any of this? Would she understand any of it? What if she reacts like Nikolai does? Can I even risk that?

My skull feels ready to split, and I clamp it back together with my hands. I want to vent the thoughts out of my head. I need to clear myself. But they continue to eat away, constantly pounding away at my sanity with each question I can't answer, each fear I can't rationalize. I think I might have to run to the door and get back outside...

"Jin? Jin!"

I feel my whole body twitch as I realize Ginger is standing right next to me, holding two plates in her hands, looking at me with apparent concern.

Shakily, I take a deep breath in and move my arms. "I-I'm sorry, Ginger," I stutter as she drops off my breakfast and takes the seat next to me.

I pick up a fork and break one of the bacon strips in half, but that doesn't do anything about that leer my sister is firing at me. "What did you do this time?"

"Nothing you need to be worried about," I reply, crunching into the strip. A little well done, but still very good. Are nimbats carnivorous at all? I wonder if Fidget's ever tried this before. Maybe I'll try inviting her over here next time I catch her in town.

"Jin?"

I catch my mind drifting away again as Ginger shocks me back to reality. She blinks, and I stare at her for a second before hiding my face behind my hand.

"You're really, really out of it today," she tells me.

"I'm not out of anything," I fire back.

"I can tell you're hiding something."

I snicker a bit. "I'm just lost in my thoughts a bit. That's..."

She audibly sighs over that last part and rests her head on the back of her hands. She's smiling, but this is less of a friendly grin and more of a smile you give to someone you're beating in a chess game. "I've known you for the past nineteen years, Jin. I know when you're not telling me something on purpose."

I don't reply to her, and just flip the remainder of the strip into my mouth.

She turns back to her plate. "You were gone for a pretty long time, you know."

"It wasn't that awful. Half-hour, at the absolute worst."

"It doesn't take a half-hour to just get payment for a job."

I swallow the bacon and clear my throat. I don't dare look up at her right now. "I just needed to talk to Nikolai once Marcia left."

"What about?" she presses.

Oh, you've stepped in it now, Jin. What are you going to do, lie to her? Have fun with that.

I timidly glance back up at her, like I might be violating some sort of legal code in doing so. "I..." is about as far as I get before I realize that nothing except the truth is going to work with her. It's that stare that does it for me. There's something serene about those eyes, something that keeps me from lying to them. They feel placid, pure, like contaminating them with bad words would be something I'd never forgive myself for doing.

She wins.

Told you.

My head falls back to the table. "I asked Nik if he could show me how to use a sword," I say.

Those pristine blue eyes suddenly freeze over and fire an icy stare directly at me. "Why?"

I feel like I still have an option to back out and cover up something, but I sure she won't let me. Not anymore. "Self-defense," I try to dodge. It's technically the truth, in a way.

She doesn't buy it. "You're going after Cassius, aren't you?"

I nearly snap. That's almost exactly what Nikolai thought. "No, Ginger," I promptly deny, a little louder than I would have liked. "I'm serious. It's purely self-defense. I just don't want the army kicking our door in one day expecting us to..."

"Jin, look at me."

I don't want to. But I look back up at her anyways. I've seen Ginger look concerned plenty of times before this, but I can say with complete certainty that this is probably the most genuine and deep worry I've ever seen her carry.

"Promise me that you won't do anything stupid."

Ginger, we live in a village full of Moonblood sympathizers. We live on doing stupid things.

But I know better than to smart mouth to her. Especially when seeing her like this. So I go with something a little more conservative. "I thought that kinda went without saying," I reply with a faint smile, trying to cheer her up.

"That isn't good enough," she shakes her head.

"Nikolai said no, by the way. And I think it's because he's scared for me."

That doesn't move her much if at all. "I can't say I blame him."

"Ginger, look..."

"Promise me, Jin!" she forcefully demands. "You're my only family now. I thought you'd understand that by now!"

"I do, Ginger. And..."

"If you did, then why would you think about doing something like this?"

"Because I'm your brother, Ginger!" I retaliate. "I told you before, I wouldn't be doing my job if I wasn't watching out for you."

"But who's watching out for you, Jin?"

I open my mouth, but there aren't any words coming out of it. I don't have an answer.

She sighs and looks away for a brief moment. "I...don't want you to be in any more danger than you already are," she softly says.

"Ginger, if this is about me trying to learn how to..."

I stop talking. This isn't what she's on about. I can see her hand twitching a bit. She moves her other one to it, trying to get it to calm down.

"I don't have a problem with you learning sword, Jin," she tells me. "But promise me that you won't use it unless you have to."

She glances back up at me. The sunlight breaking through the window lights her sapphire blue eyes up again.

"If Cassius decides to attack, I want you to promise me you'll run. And you don't fight him unless he doesn't give you a choice."

The kitchen is quiet, save for a couple birds' chattering penetrating through the windows. Ginger continues to stare at me, waiting for me to say something back.

I don't know why I delay my response for so long, but I finally give her a nod back. "Of course," I say after a moment more. "I can do that."

My reward is a hesitant but grateful smile from my sister. "Thank you, Jin," she says after an almost perfectly silent exhale. "I was...just worried, is all."

"Don't be. I promised I wouldn't leave you alone, Ginger," I remind her, putting a hand to her shoulder. "And even if Cassius comes for us, I'm not going to leave you alone then either."

Her smile looks a little more relieved now, to my relief, appropriately enough. "Alright. Big Brother," she responds, finally with that special little bit of lightheartedness and kindness only she knows how to properly combine.

I let myself get lost in her eyes for another second or two, then turn back to my breakfast. "You did a good job on the bacon, by the way," I tell her as I bite into the second strip.

I pound on the door in a quick burst of three, then wait for a couple seconds. No response. I fire off another set.

"Workin'. Come back later," comes the annoyed response. I'd normally yield to that, except I'm not willing to wait this time. Rebelliously, I knock on the door again, refusing to comply with the warning.

I'm rewarded with the pounding of heavy footsteps and some grumbling. "Ach, for the love o' all that's holy..." Then the door slams open, Nikolai scowling at me from over the dark grey bandana masking his face from the nose down.

"I told ya already, I'm..." His voice trails off as he notices the source of the disturbance is me. I politely wave to him, but it does little to alter the peeved, even frustrated look I'm getting from him currently.

He doesn't say anything else to me for the moment. "Hi, Nik," I greet him.

"What are you doin' back 'ere?" he quietly snarls.

I take a second to make sure my thoughts are aligned properly before I say anything. "You were right to get on me this morning. About Cassius."

I can hear him exhale from behind the facemask. Again, he doesn't respond. "I...talked about things with Ginger. I'm still going to protect her. But I also want to be there for her afterwards."

His gaze softens by an almost immeasurable degree, but I can tell he's listening. "I still want to learn how to use my sword, and I still want you to teach me. But it's not because I want to keep Ginger safe. I want to keep both of us safe."

The blacksmith continues to glare at me from over his bandana for a few seconds, and I can see him analyzing me, studying me almost, every calculation being reflected in the dank greyness of his eyes. Meanwhile, I stare back at him, as convicted as I could manage.

I'm not doing this for just Ginger anymore.

He gently pulls his bandana down, revealing a friendly, slightly proud grin. "C'mon in, then," he nods over his shoulder and moves out of the doorway.

With a newfound enthusiasm, I gladly reenter the forge. My new studio. Without prompt, I quickly remove the sheath from my belt and place it onto the table as Nikolai shuts the door and locks it behind me. Casually, I look back at Nikolai's work area. The flames are still roaring in the furnace as the metal bars from earlier are being smelted into the armor molds, the yellow hot steel slowly cooling and solidifying in its new form. On his anvil is the work I probably unwittingly interrupted, a relatively large great sword, the tip of which is still hot and unshaped. I peer up from the floor, at the wide collection of arms and protective wear on display. Nikolai knew when he made a masterpiece, and took care of them accordingly. A pair of engraved battle axes above the side window. Below it, just above ground level, a triangular buckler made out of some alloy I can't identify immediately. And next to the furnace, just above Fidget's head, lies a...

"Fidget?" I ask with a slight degree of disbelief. She looks like rather comfortable at the moment, seated on top of the black cast iron, propped up against the wall, casually chewing away on a banana for her lunch. If her mouth wasn't full, I'm sure she would have greeted me verbally, so instead she just waves her paw at me for the time being.

"I see you met my new assistant, eh?" Nikolai asks as he walks up to my side. "Found her while you were at yer house."

"Your assistant, Nik?" I skeptically say back.

"Aye. The deal is she comes ta my forge and helps out when she can, and in return she gets ta stay 'ere for the night, outta the way o' any nasties lurkin' 'bout in the forest."

Fidget swallows and chimes in as well. "And I also get full access to the kitchen," she adds on. "You're right. He can be a nice guy when he wants to."

"Key words bein' 'wants ta,' mind you," Nikolai states as he points at the furnace. "Keep those flames roarin', aight? Still plenty o' work ta do."

"Aye aye, captain!" the nimbat replies as she sets her lunch down, zips up to the bellows chain and yanks down on it as forcefully as her body weight can manage. Which, to my slight surprise, actually brings a solid burst of air into the forge, rejuvenating the fiery glow inside.

Nikolai unties his bandana and tosses it onto the table, then picks up my sword and inspects it. "Just as I remember her," he reminisces as he starts to slip the blade out. He shudders for a moment as it slips out of the sheath a little faster than he expects, then lifts it up and down a couple of times, like he's checking the weight.

"Ya took her ta Sereth's, if I didn't know better," he observes as he replaces the blade and returns it to me.

"The oil tipped you off, I'm guessing?" I ask as I reattach the weapon to my side.

"Sharpsword oil," he clarifies. "Only one guy I know who can make it that well."

"Well, he knows what he's doing."

"Aye, that he does," Nikolai agrees as he motions me towards the staircase leading upstairs. I glance over at Fidget once again, who seems to be enjoying yanking on the chain a little too much, then catch up to Nikolai.

"Now then," the blacksmith says to me as I start up the stairs. "Let's see what we can do 'bout that sword arm o' yers, eh?"