89 New blade

When Leo reached the workshop the dwarves had taken, he was greeted with the sounds of metal striking metal as they hammered away. He walked though the area, unable to use his nose due to the high amounts of heat and sweat in here, until he found Agmundr. When he also saw Leo approaching, Agmundr quickly finished what he was working on before making his way over with a grin on his face.

"Finally, we get to start working on your personal weapon, this ought to be a masterpiece." Agmundr was born after the dwarves quit working with adamansteel, and so he never worked with the material and was looking forward to the challenge. He was also looking forward to using the chance to forge a masterpiece that would please his patron God, Hephaestus. He was also excited, as if Leo accomplished what he swore and killed Arthur, then his weapon would most likely be the one used to do so. Leo was excited, as according to the dwarves an adamansteel weapon would last him his whole life.

"First we need to see your fighting style, to know what dimensions would be best. After that we'll take your measurements as well as any preferences you have for your own blade. It'll take us a couple weeks, but it should be ready in time for the attack." Leo nodded, excited. As they were talking, Jack joined them as he was a fellow smith and understood what the dwarves wanted for references best.

The two faced each other, Leo had a larger practice sword and Jack had shorter ones in each of his four hands. The two rushed at each other, and Leo swung first. Jack used two of his blades to block him, and the other two lashed at him from the sides. He danced out of the way, and swung once more from the side. Jack swept his own swords, and Leo's swung by him harmlessly. He then used Leo's momentum against him, and swiped at his shoulder. Leo ducked and was about to attack once more, until,

"STOP!" Agmundr called out. The two stopped their movements, and turned to look at him. Agmundr then said,

"We should have what we need, now it's time for the measurements." Leo nodded and walked forward after putting the practice sword away. Agmundr surprisingly did everything himself, as hehad Leo hold his arms out, and took his measurements. Leo then asked,

"Don't you have any assistants?" Agmundr nodded and replied,

"Yep, but they wouldn't be of any real use here. I plan to do everything to make your sword myself, as it's harder to make a masterpiece if there's holes in the process from others helping." Leo nodded in understanding and didn't ask more. After the measuring was done, it was time for the rough draft to be drawn. Agmundr got out some paper and started drawing. When Leo looked over he saw a large sword curved to look like a fang. If he understood the dimensions right, it would be so big that he'd need both hands to use it, but he would only need one hand while transformed. He was excited to see that he would be able to use the sword in both of his forms, he wouldn't be able to use it as much inside, but that's what his claws were for.

***

Iris returned to the room later feeling a sense of relief. She almost ran out of time to make the tea and received quite the scare from it. She put that matter aside, and set to packing for the upcoming trip. They had just under a week before leaving and they would be in the labyrinth for around three this time once again. What she worried about though was when they reached Heliantis, as she would have to keep her hood up or be identified as a mutant. The one most concerned though, was Hilda as she didn't want Iris to walk right into the slave Capitol.

Over the winter the two had grown much closer, seemingly to make up for all of the time they lost. She also grew closer to her brothers as well, by teaching the three of them how to use chi. She had even taken Michael out into the forest a few times, to learn more about the native animals like tusk Giants to learn about taming some of them. When Leo mentioned it he seemed to have an excited glow in his eyes as he talked about the possibilities from using the tusk Giants muscle. As she expected, after returning from Lucy's Hilda was waiting for her. She stood when she saw Iris and said,

"No matter how much I think about it, I still can't get used to the idea that my daughter became a queen, even if Leo hasn't been officially coronated yet. A queen that's going to march into battle no less." She finished with tears in her eyes. The idea of a queen fighting wasn't strange in the past, in fact during elder grandmas time it was almost expected. Only royalty that would spill their own blood for their citizens were respected, man or woman. She had been told all this of course, but Hilda couldn't help but have the thought that she was going to lose her daughter again right after getting her back into her life.

After moving here she never spared a thought for what happened to Shane, a state of mind shared with her sons. She was shocked to see the change in them after moving, as due to their father all three grew up cold and silent. However after moving she saw each of them smiling more and even caught them flirting with a dwarven or beast girl on more than one occasion. She didn't discriminate of course, as all she wanted was for all her children to be happy.

The mother daughter duo then spent the rest of the afternoon speaking to each other, treasuring their time together before being split once more.