Harpia Harpyja

There was only one word to describe the room I had just entered. Actually, scratch that, there are many words.

 

Beautiful. Amazing. Awe-inspiring. Colorful. Enormous. Exquisite. Gorgeous. Magnificent. I could go on.

 

The room itself looked like the interior of a huge cathedral. Huge glass windows stretched from floor to ceiling, showing a looming mountain behind it. There was a river of glowing orange lava snaking down the side of the mountain and directly into the classroom.

 

There were several hundred forges scattered around, with large pipes crisscrossing all over to carry lava into them.

 

The glow of the lava filled the bottom of the room, which would have left the upper portions unlit if not for the collection of floating magic glass orbs that refracted the light so it filled the entire cavern. And not to mention the red light of the setting sun that streamed through the windows.

 

And floating at the top of the chamber, above everyone else, was a massive serpentine creature.

 

They were huge, probably somewhere around three hundred meters long. A set of large, fishlike fins near their front and their dragonlike head told me that they were a sea serpent.

 

"What is that?" Kathyrine asked in a scared whisper, pointing at it.

 

"That's the smithing teacher's summon," Scarlet explained. "It's a sea serpent, but it has incredible fire magic that it uses to help with the class."

 

"It's beautiful," I said. "It and the room. Everything here is so pretty."

 

"Yeah, it is," Scarlet agreed.

 

We walked forward, following the path of red stone set in the floor that led from the door toward the back. It sometimes branched off into orange walkways that went between rows and rows of forges. I also saw yellow paths branching from the orange ones.

 

When we reached the back, we found a tall, imposing woman.

 

She had jet-black skin that sparkled like the night sky and blood-red hair that cascaded down her back. She didn't look like any of the races I had learned about before.

 

When she saw us approaching her, she got up from behind the metal desk she was sitting behind and greeted us.

 

"Hello, and welcome to the blacksmithing classroom," She said. "I am Chalybia Flamacian, and the floating serpent is my dear friend Achtorgin. I am the greatest blacksmith in the country and also one of the few demonkin in existence."

 

"Demonkin?" I asked.

 

"That's what I am, lass," Chalybia replied. "We're descended from actual demons, who have long departed from the world. I'm half Steel-type and half Fire-type. 'S why I'm so good at forging stuff. Now, you obviously are new here, so first I gotta know whether you have smithing experience."

 

"I've done it a little bit before," Scarlet said. "But not much."

 

"I have no experience," I added.

 

"None here," Kathyrine said.

 

"Well, then, you'll want to go down the red path until you find orange number seventeen," Chalybia told us. "Then branch off at yellow number twenty-five. Ask for Masamune and Brokkr. Tell them I sent ya and they'll give you a hand."

 

"Thank you very much, Miss Flamacian," Scarlet said.

 

"Oh, pish posh," Chalybia said with a laugh. "Don't be all fancy with me, like I'm old. Only a few thousand years tucked under my belt, deary."

 

She waved us away and we turned back and followed the red path again. Now I noticed small numbers carved into the stone. We found the orange path labeled with the number "17" and followed it, looking for the number "25".

 

When we got there, we walked along the yellow stone path up to a forge. There were four people around it, with one of them being a bit of a distance away.

 

"Is there someone named Masamune or Brokkr here?" I asked.

 

"Ayy, did Chalybia send ya?" A short man with bright red hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and a thick accent asked, walking up to us. "Masa! Get yur ass out here!"

 

There were some noises from the forge and then one of the other people came up to us.

 

It was a tall and devilishly handsome man with sleek, golden hair and a pair of glittering silver horns. His eyes sparkled like rubies and he had a long tail covered in gleaming gold and silver scales. From his aura, I could tell he was a true dragon.

 

"What is it, you dumb oaf?" He asked the short man.

 

"Chalybia sent these three here," The small-statured man replied. "New students."

 

"Alright," The dragon said. When he examined us, his eyes caught on Scarlet. "Well now, I wasn't expecting this. How've you been, Scarlet?"

 

"Just fine, Masamune," Scarlet told him. To Kathyrine and I, she said, "He's my cousin."

 

"Yep yep!" Masumane said. "Our mothers are both daughters of the Grand Dragon."

 

"And my name's Brokkr," The short man informed us. "I'm only a lowly dwarf, but my smithing skill is on par with this doofus of a dragon over here."

 

"Shut it, shorty," Masamune told Brokkr. "Anyways, get some smithing gear and come over here. We'll show you the basics."

 

After a few hours, we had learned a lot.

 

Brokkr and Masamune were both amazing smiths, despite their personalities and banter indicating otherwise. They taught us about the basics of smithing and how everything worked. We even got to forge something!

 

It was a small dagger imbued with magic while it was made, so it could be bonded to an individual. I wanted Kathyrine to have it, but it turned out that she already had a pair of scimitars of her own, so I took it.

 

As we were finishing up, I asked Brokkr, "What's the detox chamber for?"

 

"A few things," The dwarf replied. "For one, it gets rid of any stray magic and metal particles from the smithing process. And some metals give off a kind of harmful aura that the chamber gets rid of. Another reason is that this whole classroom is more than a thousand miles from the actual school. The chamber teleports you from here to the main building and back."

 

"Oh, that's really cool," Scarlet commented.

 

"Sure is," Masamune said. "Now shoo. We gotta clean up."

 

"Alright, bye," I said. "Thanks for the help!"

 

"Feel free to come back any time," Brokkr added as he waved us off.

 

As we were walking down the red path to the detox chamber, someone ran up to us. I turned to see the wolfkin woman from the re-placement tests that used the giant battle axe.

 

"Here!" She shouted, shoving a piece of paper into my hands, before running off again.

 

"What's that?" Kathyrine asked.

 

I opened it up and read what was inside.

 

To Evelyn Orchard                                        
Please meet me in the library tomorrow  
morning at 9:00 o'clock. I'll be waiting.

 

"Huh," I said.

 

"It might be a confession of love," Scarlet guessed, smirking.

 

"She's kinda cute," Kathyrine noted. "I'm fine with her."

 

"Well, we'll see what it is tomorrow," I said. "Right now, let's go to sleep. It's late."

 

We used the detox chamber to get back to the school's main building before going back to our apartment and falling asleep.

 

As I slipped into a dream, I vaguely wondered just why this woman wanted to meet with me.