A third chapter in the space of an hour, insane! I wish I could do this for my other stories, would make life so much easier!
But seriously I love this story and as I said I have so many ideas for it so hopefully I'll be able to keep churning out chapters for this, and ones of a decent length too hopefully.
So hear is chapter three, hope you like it!
The next day Faelan cheerfully walked to Morris Armoury where she worked humming along to her Ipod and thought back to how she'd even got what most people thought of as an extremely odd job for a teenager to have.
It had all started when she was five and found her dad's Barret M95 sniper rifle from his days in the army before he retired and joined the police force. It was just sitting collecting dust in the attic but when he'd seen how interested she was he began to teach her all the components and how everything worked. When she was seven, having in the meantime started learning various martial arts, he decided she could have it although he never gave her any bullets for it and told her she had to wait until she was at least twelve before she was allowed to learn how to shoot.
Faelan had treated it just like a human being and constantly talked to it even naming it Bullseye, but since she wasn't allowed to learn how to shoot yet she set about finding weapons that she could use now, especially ones that she could incorporate into her martial arts. Her next weapon was in fact a bow when she took up archery to broaden her field, her parents bought her a full sized bow (which was promptly named Hood after Robin Hood) for when she was older so that she had a goal to aim for and knew exactly how strong she was going to have to get to be able to draw it properly.
At ten she decided she wanted to make it more personal and be able to make her own weapons, as you can imagine this was not a normal pursuit for a ten year old and her parents didn't know what to make of it at first but relented when they saw how determined she was. With some difficulty her father found an armourer named Ken Morris who ran his own forge and store. He found it strange that a ten year old girl wanted to know how to make weapons but agreed when he saw how enthusiastic she was and that she asked intelligent questions proving that she'd already started doing her own research.
By the time she was twelve he was very impressed with how far she'd coming considering he'd been hesitant to let her do anything other than watch for the first twelve months. So for her twelfth birthday he presented her with two tanto blades he'd forged that he had let her help with. Although she hadn't made them completely herself she felt that even helping a little bit had given her a greater connection to the weapon and was determined to make as many of her own weapons as she could.
By this point she was also old enough to learn how to use a gun, a fact she was quick to remind her father of, and whenever she wasn't in school or working at the forge she was down at the shooting range practicing with Bullseye.
Her next weapon was also the first she made completely by herself, a large hunting knife she named Cutthroat which her parents were wary of her carrying around although her dad did admit he felt better knowing she'd probably be able to seriously hurt anyone that came after her with a knife that sharp.
Next she decided she wanted to try axes which they got quite a few requests for from historical re-enactors. Although Ken did think it was a bit ridiculous that she wanted to make a double headed war axe considering how big it was in comparison to her. It took her a while to make one she was satisfied with, mainly because the blade was a completely different shape to the knives and swords she was used to making.
But she did finally make one which she named Splitskull which Ken thought was very appropriate since just the weight of the thing would probably crack someone's skull open. She also made two small throwing axes named Shriek and Whistle for the noises they made when thrown to help build her strength up enough to be able to wield Splitskull.
She practiced with all of her weapons daily as well as still attending her various martial arts classes but she'd realised that apart from Cutthroat she didn't really have any that she could easily conceal to carry around daily, this prompted her next project. She made a set of four throwing knives, two smaller than the others that she could strap on to her arms and legs.
By this point she was fifteen and had made another pair of swords, wakazashi blades named Phoenix and Dragon, before going onto her most complex challenge so far in making a pair of gauntlets with blades that extended from the knuckles which appealed to her more visceral side and reflected her favourite animals: wolves, which is why they were named Sirius and Lupus after the dog and wolf stars.
Sixteen is a pretty big birthday and most American teens look forward to it because it means they can get a car and that means freedom. However as already established Faelan was not a normal teenager and was way more interested in her weapons, her parents may not have really understood her fascination but they support both their children in all of their endeavours and her father enjoyed not having to worry about threatening future potential boyfriends because honestly there was a pretty high chance that she'd just do it herself.
So for her sixteenth her parents bought her two G20 glocks and the licence to carry them which made her ecstatic and led to her immediately naming them Blaze and Blast and running off to the shooting range to test them out.
A few months later she finished a mini project of installing a pair of blades that would extend and retract from the front of her shoes, which she promptly named Prick and Poke despite the weird looks it got her.
Her latest project was nearly finished, she just needed to do the final calibration test tonight and her crossbows would be complete. It was one of her more complicated projects, she'd basically cannibalised a pair of handguns so that she had a pair a smallish semi-automatic crossbows. Ken had taken one look at them, called them lethal and that he would have her committed if she ever built them for anyone but herself.
So it was with great glee that she entered the shop to start work and begin drafting her next project.
A phone rang breaking the silence of the shop where Faelan sat idly at the front desk sketching on a piece of paper. After a few seconds she sighed and picked up the offending noise maker.
"Hello this is Morris Armoury, we fulfil all your weaponry needs, whether it be sharp and pointy or a bullet to the brain. How may we be of service today?"
"… Is that seriously how you answer the phone to customers?"
Faelan blinked and glanced at the back door that led to the workshop. "Ken? Why are you ringing me from the next room, just stick your head through the door."
"Just making sure you're working and not planning out another one of your 'babies'." She glanced down at the piece of paper in front of her guiltily since that was exactly what she had been doing. "Don't forget Mr Barrat is coming in to pick up his order today."
"That's the double headed axe right?" she asked shifting through some of the order forms on the desk. Mr Barrat re-enacted Viking battles, in fact a lot of their orders came from historic re-enactors or historical enthusiasts with the odd army guy coming in for a special order.
"That's it. I think we can close up after he's picked up his piece, I don't see us getting anyone else coming in today."
She nodded absently, "How's the knife coming along?"
"Almost done, I'm just cooling it off to harden now. You don't want to use the forge today do you?"
She glanced down at her sketch in thought. There was no point starting anything at this stage in the day, plus she wanted to ask Ken a few things to make sure her design was sound, the mechanism was a bit tricky and the last thing she wanted was something backfiring on her.
"No I'm ok, I want to ask you some things though to make sure I got everything right." The front door bell rang as the door opened, Faelan glanced up and waved at the large man who had grinned at her in return. "Mr Barrat just arrived, see you Ken." After hearing him acknowledge her she put the phone down and smirked up at the man. "Looking forward to testing your new axe out Mr Barrat?"
The man's grin grew wider. "You bet, I've been looking forward to it since I put my order in, especially after seeing the work you do."
It was kind of funny actually, he'd come in to order a hunting knife and she'd brought in her axes to sharpen them, he'd taken one look and asked how much she wanted for them. Obviously she refused to sell but said she was quite willing to make one for him, so the two sat down and discussed exactly what design he wanted and agreed on a price while Ken watched on in amusement.
Faelan grinned and went to the locker where the finished orders were stored and lifted out the doubled headed war axe the he'd ordered making him whistle in appreciation. It was a beautiful piece with Norse knot work etched onto the blade and the handle. He hefted it in his hands getting a feel of the weight and balance before reverently laying it down on the desk.
"I'm going to be the envy of the battlefield," he stated making her smirk, she handed over the leather cover for the head and accepted his final instalment on the payment. "Don't be surprised if you get a lot more orders soon."
She laughed "I'll consider myself warned," she replied waving him out the door.
She sighed happily and looked down at her sketch again, she couldn't wait until she could start work on this. She jumped startled when the shop phone rang, she gave it a strange look, seriously who was ringing this close to closing time?
"Hello this is Morris Armoury, we fulfil all your weaponry needs, whether it be sharp and pointy or a bullet to the brain. How may we be of service today?" she intoned monotonously.
"That is a seriously creepy way to answer the phone Fae."
She blinked in surprise, "Sam? Why are you ringing me at work?"
"Erm… you know just making sure er… well…"
She rolled her eyes, "Sam I've already said that I'm not going to the party, you know I don't like those kind of parties."
She heard him grumble, "Come on Fae! Mikaela is going to be there and I was hoping for some back up! I mean Miles is coming but…"
"Miles is weird," she agreed nodding in commiseration.
"So are you," he muttered sulking.
"True, but I'm an awesome kind of weird, Miles is just weird full stop."
"See! So I need someone other than Miles to back me up!" protested Sam. "Seriously Fae, help a guy out!"
Faelan rolled her eyes again, "I'm not going Sam. Hadrian will be there though so you have my permission to use him as back up."
"Seriously?!" asked Sam brightening up. "Hadrian is cool, that'll definitely help me."
"Are you satisfied then?" she asked grinning. Sam mumbled for a minute before sighing.
"Yeah I guess it'll do," he joked. "See you Monday for school then?"
"Nah I'll come round tomorrow so you can tell me how Bee did for his first longer trip," she told him.
"Ok, thanks Fae, see you tomorrow!"
"Bye Sam," she stared down at the phone as Sam hung up and sighed sounding amused. "Moron."
A ringtone cut through the silence of the night and a hand groped around on the bed side table in search of it before eventually finding it. Faelan sat up groggily and stared blearily at the screen groaning when she realised that Sam was calling her.
"What the fuck Sam?!" she snarled into the device. "It's frigging two in the morning you ass!"
"Look Fae I know it's the middle of the night but-" babbled Sam.
"Get to the point Sam!"
"My car's been stolen!"
"What!"
"And it just stood up!"
Silence while Faelan stared oddly at the phone in her hand.
"… Are you drunk Sam?"
"What! No! I'm being serious-"
"I'm going back to sleep Sam, ring me again in the morning when you're sober."
"Wha-! Fae don't-"
She pressed the end call button and threw the phone on her table. "I'm gonna kill him in the morning."
Haha wonder how she's gonna react when she realises he wasn't lying... that's gonna be funny.
So yeah that was chapter three hope you enjoyed reading it, please review I really do want to know what you think.
Many thanks people!