After what felt like five minutes of sleep. I was woken up at dawn by one of Bekhi's brothers.
I reached around sleepily to silence the annoying alarm clock, but my hand only ended up cutting through thin air as the boy dodged around my sleepy blows. "It's too early to get up. It's at least half an interval before the waking hour."
"Interval? Waking hour?" The kid seemed genuinely confused by the unknown words until he seemed to realize what I was talking about. "Oh, right! Bekhi mentioned those in one of her letters. Well up here we get up at sunrise to do chores before breakfast. Now wake up!"
I was rudely pushed out of bed onto the freezing cold floor. "Alright, I'm up. But I'm not happy about it. Now point me to the fire and I'll get the bellows going." I sleepily asked about the chores I normally had to do back home.
"No bellows here, Kvalinn. Up here there's cows to milk, sheep and pigs to feed, and chickens to collect the eggs from. Now let's move it, dark dweller." A splash of icy cold water from the bedside jug was poured over my head, fully waking me up.
Several choice swear words that I had learned from the Elders over the past year rushed to the forefront of my mind, but considering the youth of the kid who had woken me up, I stifled the vulgarities and got dressed. Looking out the window, I could see the first rays of the sun just barely peeking over the horizon.
I took in the sight with a nostalgic smile. This was the first sunrise I had seen in this world, and it looked… Blue?
Rubbing my eyes in disbelief, I looked at the sun again. It was definitely bright blue instead of the yellow sun I was used to. Evidently this world, and thus its sun, was much younger than any other fantasy world described in stories, and my own. I wondered if I would be a super dwarf if I ever made it to a different star.
"Kvalinn! Hurry up! If you don't do chores then you don't get breakfast!" Bekhi yelled to me from downstairs. Prompting me to quickly get dressed in the layers of warm clothes that were left out for me, and rush downstairs.
A few minutes later, I was in a brown painted barn being taught how to feed cows, chickens, and sheep. I got demoted to poop cleaner though when I kept giving the animals food related nicknames.
"Move aside, chicken sandwich." I nudged a yellow chicken aside with my foot. "You too, chicken stew. I need to clean up your bed." I shoved a green chicken out of its coop to collect the eggs. The odd assortment of chicken colors was unique, but at least they weren't classified as monsters in this world.
"Stop calling them that, Kvalinn!" One of Bekhi's younger sisters petulantly yelled at me. "That one's name is Ruki Egglayer. And the other one is Gron Featherfall!"
After the dinner last night with Bekhi's family, I had pretty much given up trying to memorize their names since there were just way too many of them. So far as I had learned in conversation, Bekhi had at least eight older brothers, seven older sisters, two younger brothers, and one younger sister. For a grand total of nineteen kids! Of course, all the kids had been born over the span of around fifty years, so several of them had already grown and moved out.
"I'd listen to Vinga if I were you, Kvalinn." Bekhi chimed in from behind the cow she was milking. "The baby of the family always gets their way until another baby comes along."
Bekhi's little sister definitely looked and acted like the baby of the family. She was a very cute girl of around four, with chestnut pigtails that were tied up with pink ribbons. The look on her face though took away from her cuteness with its very bossy expression.
"Alright, but can I at least call the cow, Meatloaf, and the pig, Bacon?" I asked while looking at two animals who looked particularly tasty.
Vinga jumped in front of the two animals defensively. "No! You can't eat Trol Milkmaker and Rik Slopeater! They're too nice to eat!"
I was tempted to keep teasing Vinga, but Bekhi emerged from behind the cow and shot me a glare that warned me off. It was the same glare she always gave me in Advanced Combat class when she knew I was slacking off, and was about to receive a beat down. So I wisely raised the white flag.
"So what's for breakfast?" I asked to change the subject.
"Flapjacks with butter and jam, oatmeal with honey and milk, and a side of bacon." Bekhi answered with a smile. "Mom always goes out for New Year's meals when I come to visit."
"Well what are we waiting for! Let's finish up the chores!" I resumed cleaning the barn while seeming to walk on air. Bacon, flapjacks, oatmeal, it had all seemed like a fantasy for so long and I'd finally get to taste all of it again! For once, I forgot all about steam engines and technology and just focused on food.
An hour or so later, when the last of the animals had been fed and tended to, it was finally breakfast time. The long table was laid out with heaps of food that was nearly instantly attacked by the horde of hungry kids, myself included.
"So this is the destructive Kvalinn Disasterbringer?" Bekhi's oldest brother shook my hand when he came over for after breakfast beers. He had already moved out of his parents and was just coming to visit his family. "Thanks for looking after my little sister and giving her weapons. I'm Rarik Metalbelly, but you can just call me Rarik."
I winced at the old name being brought back up. I thought that I had lived down that name by now from a year of uneventful living.
"Gree-Good morning, Rarik. I'd appreciate not being called Disasterbringer. My clan hasn't given me that name, and hopefully never will."
"Are you kidding!?" Another older brother said with a laugh. "Based on Bekhi's letters, you are the most destructive student in school! Especially with the runed weapons you can make. Speaking of which, I don't suppose you can make one for me? The rune of snow she described sounded truly epic."
"No fair!" Another brother said with a mouth full of food. "I was going to ask for a weapon first. The rune of heat that could melt shields would make me the champ at spring games shieldwall!"
"You couldn't win a game of shieldwall, Krildrer, even if your entire team had runed weapons." Dak chuckled as he dumped a bucket of cold water on his son's enthusiasm. "You and your friends have to stop ditching training if you want to make it to the semi-finals, let alone win."
"But, Dad! Your training is so intense we can't do our chores for days afterwards!" Krildrer protested. "Bekhi is the only one who ever survived a full training session with you."
"Sorry to say this," I interrupted, "since there's so much potential business, but unfortunately I've been forbidden by Elder Thrikrondromm from crafting any more runes unless he is supervising me."
There was a series of moans and groans from around the table. The girls complained just as much as the boys did, showing that Bekhi was not the outlier in this family when it came to fighting. I held up my hands in an attempt to silence the loud gripes.
"But! I do have a few weapons that just happened to be in my bag that are questionably safe that I'd be glad to give you, in exchange for some more food and drink. Bekhi, have you shown your father the hammer I gave you?"
"Oh, that's right!" Bekhi got up from her chair and rushed upstairs to her room. "Dad, you have got to try out this hammer! Kvalinn said he'll refit the handle for you to use."
After a few thumps from upstairs, Bekhi came back down holding the hammer with the rune of strength on it.
"Don't try it indoors, but when you swing it about, it feels like it's completely weightless! And on the trip here it sent the goblins flying like they were dandelions!"
"It can't be that strong. Let me try it!" One of Bekhi's older brothers snatched the hammer out of her hands and swung it at a shield that was hanging on the wall. The hammer broke a hole through the shield, and the wall, letting a gust of cold air burst into the room.
"Sardrem! I told you not to use it indoors!" Bekhi slugged the overeager brother before covering the hole in the wall with another shield.
"You're cleaning that up, Sardrem." Dak said while slathering a flapjack with jam. "And you can't go with us to the tavern until you do."
Evidently the threat was an extremely effective one, because the teenage dwarf sped out of the room, muttering excuses that he was going to fix it as soon as possible.
After finishing his flapjack, Dak carefully took the hammer from Bekhi. "Impressive weapon, Kvalinn. I'll take you to the local blacksmiths after breakfast so you can refit the handle for me. What about the other weapons you were mentioning?"
I returned to the guest room and came back down with my bag of trea-I mean, bag of weapons. Passing them one by one to Dak, who laid them out on the table.
"Rune of strength, rune of precision, rune of dancing, rune of laws, rune of sunshine, and rune of starlight. I don't think I've ever seen such an unusual collection of magical runes before in all my life. We just saw what the rune of strength does, but what about the rest of them?" All eyes focused on me with laser intensity. Mentally probing me for answers.
"To be honest, I don't know." There was an immediate sigh of disappointment from around the table. "Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a forge song stuck in my head, I get the urge to alter it, and these are some of the results. And since I can't use the testing room without telling Elder Thrikrondromm that I broke his express orders, I can't test them. They are probably dangerous, but I can't say how deadly they are." The songs I was referring to were actually songs from my home world translated into dwarven, but I couldn't exactly tell them that.
Dak gave a glare worthy of the elders to all the kids who were leaning forward with anticipation, before returning his gaze to the weapons. "We can hold onto these weapons and test them in the forest during the summer. The Thane of Vesturhildrun can secure them in the necessary containers if they turn out to be too dangerous."
There was a round of chuckles that I didn't understand the source of, but I was just grateful that the weapons would be out of my hair and would get tested. They were probably not world-endingly powerful, probably.
The conversation moved on to other topics, like the upcoming marriage of one of Bekhi's older teenage sisters. A girl of around nineteen named Mulgri.
"Wait, I thought dwarves couldn't get married until we were at least thirty winters?" I looked around for an answer while Bekhi facepalmed. Dak was kind enough to explain.
"That's correct, Kvalinn. But, it can take up to a decade to work out the bride price, dowry, building a house for the new couple, deciding where they will work in the town, and all of it can be for naught if the couple turns out to not get along."
"Don't worry about that, dad." Said Mulgri with a laugh. "Trauker is a good man, and we will be very happy together."
"I don't have any objections to him myself." Dak said with a shrug. "But his sword work is a bit sloppy, and his hammer blows leave much to be desired."
"And you can't forget his shield technique." Bekhi chimed in. "Last time I visited, he got his shield knocked out of his hands within five seconds of our match. And that was before I spent a year taking Advanced Combat class."
"Bekhi, dad is the only one who can fight you on equal terms. Especially now that you have your own personal weapon maker. Besides, with that sword you used last year, you didn't knock the shield out of his hands, you sliced it into ribbons!" Mulgri defended her future husband, but since she was smiling about it, I guessed that banter like this was common in this family.
The conversation drifted from there to numerous other conversations between family members. But eventually it had to come to an end. The older kids, who had already moved out from under their parents roof, left to visit other friends and family to celebrate New Years, while the other kids left to finish chores or to cook lunch. Dak took me aside, and led me down the street to the local blacksmiths.
"Grildem! Are you here?" Dak entered the business area of the blacksmith shop and pounded on the counter. A middle aged dwarf with a graying black beard emerged from a backdoor looking annoyed.
"What do you want, Dak? It's New Years, shouldn't you be celebrating at home with your family, like I'm trying to do?"
Dak took the not so subtle suggestion with a cheery grin. "Sorry to bother you, but Kvalinn is going to refit a couple of his weapons for me to use, and you're the only forge in town. I'll pay for any materials he uses, and you don't have to do anything. He'll do all the work."
Grildem glanced at me and grunted acceptingly. "Fine, but if he damages any of my tools then you will pay for those as well. This way, kid."
"Have fun, Kvalinn!" Dak called out as I followed behind Grildem.
Inside the shop, I found a setup similar to what my father had back home. The main difference being that there were more tools than weapons lining the walls and product areas.
"Do whatever you want, kid, just don't bother anyone." Grildem didn't even look back at me as he exited the workshop to go to the living area of the building. I heard the sound of relaxed partying when the door briefly opened, but it was quickly cut off when the door slammed shut.
Looking around the shop, assuring myself that I was completely alone, I rubbed my hands in glee and anticipation. Finally, I was free to work with no oversight, no deadlines, and most of all, with all material costs paid for by someone else.
In order to get the materials to make my steam engine back home, I had been forced to wheedle and nag for months before my father had agreed to let me use some of the steel meant for weapons. Here, Dak was going to pay for everything.
Firing up the forge, I quickly swapped out the handle of the hammer with the rune of strength, with a handle made of steel. With the appropriate counterweights to make sure the hammer could swing smoothly and without the head flying off. Then I got to the real work. I started off nice and simple, and soon got lost in the rhythm of the hammer.
First, I made a room sized Franklin stove. I was tired of the cold stone walls at home, and if the idea caught on then I could sell off the idea and have someone make full sized versions.
Then I got into a binge of making a range of kitchen tools, some steam powered, others were hand powered, while others were rune powered. I made a steam powered mixing machine, a hand crank egg beater, a rune powered waffle maker, a hand powered blender, and a steam powered blender just for fun, and finally, a meat grinder with a sausage maker attachment.
Just as I was about to move onto AC and heating systems made out of steam powered fans and runes of heat and cold, I felt a firm grip on my shoulder.
"Kvalinn." Dak had a cold tone in his voice, and I knew I had maybe gone just a bit too far with my experiments. "What is all this?"
I gave him the grand tour of everything I had made. Afterwards, Dak sighed heavily in annoyance. Trying in vain to get him to ignore the pile of scrap from my failed attempts at gadgetry.
"I'm beginning to see why Bekhi reacted like she did when I said that I had left you unsupervised, even if it was just for a few hours. The amount of destruction you can cause is unparalleled." I looked to Dak in confusion, since all of my creations today were pretty benign. So he clarified with a grimace. "I meant the destruction of my wallet. You pretty much cleared out all of Grildem's stock of iron and steel, so I'll need to pay for expedited shipping of new materials for him before spring. Now where's that hammer that you were going to fix for me?"
Passing over the hammer with the rune of strength and the battle ready handle, I made a mental note to apologize to Dak for going overboard. However, Dak had a different plan in mind.
Swinging around the hammer a few times, Dak grinned at me in a way that set off alarm bells in my head. "Excellent work, Kvalinn, and just in time for the afternoon matches. Com'n, you're my first opponent."
I was then dragged out of the workshop by my collar to a temporary arena area that had been set up in the town square. An announcer was waiting at the center of the ring, and he yelled out excitedly to everyone in a loud voice once we were in the circle.
"And here comes the town's number one! Thredak Fieryrage! He appears to be wielding a new weapon today, a small hammer that doesn't look too destructive. He must be going easy on his opponent today. Speaking of his opponent, we have a dark dweller who accompanied Thredak's daughter here in search of fresh food, so we can't fault him on good taste. Wielding his smith hammer, we have Kvalinn Ekgorsson! Place your bets everyone, how long will it take for Thredak to beat the ambitious young dwarf?"
"Wait, aren't you going to bet on me winning?" I protested. The only response was a deafening laugh from the audience.
"Sorry, kid, no one has pockets that deep to bet against the odds of you winning" The announcer said with a decidedly non apologetic grin. "Do you need a shield to fight against Dak?"
I shook my head grimly. I knew that the hammer Dak was wielding would make any shield matchsticks in seconds, and shatter my bones as well. So I would need to follow the strategy that was popular in video games in my previous life, dodge the blows of the hammer, and deliver my own to his turned back.
"READY!" The announcer called out, waiting for a nod from each of us before continuing. "BEGIN!"
Dak dove at me with the same speed and ruthlessness I had seen multiple times from Bekhi in our training sessions, and I reacted the same way I did with her. I dodged out of the way and took a backswing at his unguarded arm.
"Very good, Kvalinn!" Dak smiled with approval as he effortlessly moved out of the way of my hammer. "Not many can say that they lasted this long against me. I see Bekhi trained you well!"
A few swings later, all of which were deftly avoided by Dak, and barely avoided by me, the fight came to an anticlimactic end when he stopped his hammer mere millimeters from the side of my head. "Do you yield, Kvalinn?"
Gulping nervously, I nodded without a word. The announcer took notice and declared Dak the winner, causing money to exchange hands from their bets. I made my way out of the ring to where I saw Bekhi's family was sitting.
"Botvid's bilge, Kvalinn!" Bekhi half punched, half patted me, on the shoulder. "I told everyone that you were a good fighter, and you barely lasted a minute with dad. When we go back to school, I'm telling Elder Dworhick you need more training."
"I was just fighting cautiously!" I protested. "He had the hammer with the rune of strength, and a single blow could have seriously injured me. Besides, your dad is way too strong! Now I understand why you have always been such a good fighter."
"Don't let Bekhi's criticism get you down, Kvalinn." One of her older brothers said with a chuckle. "You actually did pretty good to last that long against our father. Most of us get sent flying from the first blow." As if to emphasize his point, Dak's next opponent went flying overhead.
Dak's unlucky opponent's shield was now miniscule splinters, but he got up from where he had landed with a laugh, and a definitely broken wrist. "That new hammer is almost cheating, Dak. Next assembly we'll have to ban it from the matches. Then I'll be sure to win!"
"Don't count your chickens before they hatch, Elder Hamnolir. I've got my daughter's weapon crafter making weapons for me now as well, so I doubt I'll be beaten anytime soon."
"What? The same one who made that infernally sharp blade for the lass? The blade that was banned from the matches last time she competed? That's most certainly not fair!"
"Fair or not, you'll just need to wait until the next assembly to ban this weapon. Now who's next!?" Dak turned to his next opponent with a feral grin and began the match.
"What's an assembly?" I asked Bekhi.
"It's the yearly gathering where the Thane summons the Elders of the town for a big meeting. Usually in places like Nurnwuhr, they just settle disputes that happened over the year and judge criminals, but since we have the yearly matches and games of shieldwall up here, people can move that certain weapons can be banned, or players be given a handicap. Although the rules say that only one weapon can be banned each year, dad will likely be using your weapons in the matches for the next several years."
We watched the rest of the competition together. I'd provide commentary on the state of each combatant's weapons, while Bekhi would tell me about the fighting abilities of each contestant. It made for a very interesting and in depth experience. Needless to say, Dak won every single match, and emerged victorious.
"That was a fun warmup exercise. Bekhi and Kvalinn, do you want to take me two on one? I'll even put one hand behind my back to make it fair." Dak walked over to his family with a relaxed smile on his face. You wouldn't have been able to tell he had been in one fight, let alone a dozen back to back matches.
"Not this year, dad." Bekhi said with a mild grimace. "After watching Kvalinn fight today, and getting beat myself, I can see Elder Dworhick still has a lot to teach us."
"Too bad, I look forward to the fight next year though. It should be fun. Well, now that the fun is over, who's ready to celebrate at Halfling's Haven?" A chorus of cheers came from Dak's family, as well as the surrounding families, and the crowd started moving to a building that I assumed was the local tavern.
Inside the tavern, pretty much the entire town was there partying. It was the very picture of a fantasy tavern, with a long bar with several huge casks of beer behind it, and long, sturdy tables that everyone was sitting and eating at. It was apparently the tradition to get a drink there after the yearly matches and games, before returning home for the last few days of the New Year's celebration.
"Welcome, Dak, and family! Welcome! Your victory out there was marvelous to behold! A true masterpiece of battle." The bartender called out a friendly greeting to Dak, before noticing me standing next to Bekhi. "Well who's this? Did young miss Bekhi bring home a sweetheart?"
There were several laughs throughout the room, and even from Bekhi's family, while Bekhi blushed at the joke. I was about to formally introduce myself, when Dak cut me off.
"This is Kvalinn, a friend of Bekhi's from school. He's been trading weapons for food down there and he finally came to the source of the food."
"Interesting!" The bartender hopped over the counter to take a closer look at me. Once he was nearer to me, I realized that the bartender wasn't a dwarf, but was instead, a hobbit! With bare wooly feet, no beard whatsoever and a cheery round face. "Welcome, Kvalinn, to Halfling's Haven, I'm Humbart Headstrong. Purveyor of the best beer, ale, and mead in town. Hopefully our food will have you coming back for more."
I was a little lost for words. The dwarven etiquette that had been pounded into me from birth only covered interacting with other dwarves. There was the occasional discussion of men, and several swear words regarding elves, but hobbits had never even been mentioned. So I decided to imitate Dak's manners. Even though it felt extremely weird to be so lax after over a decade of formalities.
I shook Humbart's outstretched hand. "If your food is even half as good as the meals I've had at Dak's home, then I'll definitely be back here next year."
Humbart grinned at me. "I'm not sure I can provide food as good as Lady Mubrim, but I can say with surety, that our mead is second to none on the mountain."
"That's because your mead is the only mead on the mountain. The only other place to drink it is in the Shire." Dak joked with Humbart. "Now bring out some of that famed mead, I could use a stiff drink to celebrate my victory."
"Right away!" Humbart rushed off to get the mead, and to serve his other customers as well. Evidently, the New Year's celebrations were a big money making time for him.
Once we were seated at a table that must have been their regular since the entire family occupied it with a practiced air, several dwarves came by with several compliments for Dak on his win.
"Congratulations, Dak." Said an older bearded Elder. "Once again, you emerged victorious from the yearly games. Although I must say, that new weapon you fought with was exceedingly fierce! Would the smith who made it be open to taking orders from my family as well?"
"I'd like to place an order as well." The Elder's son said with a slightly demanding tone of voice. "Just because you had the connections to send your daughter to the Vonur school in Nurnwuhr, doesn't mean that you should solely reap the rewards of her 'education.'" He placed a heavily sarcastic tone on the word education, signifying that he didn't think much of what was taught below the surface.
"If you wish to place an order, the smith who made the weapon is over there." Dak gestured to where I was sitting. The look in his eyes, however, was less than friendly. Long experience from Bekhi told me that the two of them were in for a verbal, and physical, beatdown. "But since he is underage, he can only accept payment in goods. Too bad your family lacks anything valuable enough to trade. Maybe if you beat me in a fight, you can have this one for free."
The hammer was laid out on the table with the rune of strength fully exposed. Basically telling everyone that this weapon had a magical rune on it, and was extremely valuable. Dak gave the two the same feral grin he had displayed before when he was in the midst of battle, challenging them to take up the gauntlet so that he could hand them their asses. Fortunately for their continued health, they grumbled into their beards before moving on. Another Elder then came forward to talk to Dak.
"Afternoon, Dak. Well done in the fight today. I wouldn't expect anything less from the town's number one." The Elder who was speaking to Dak was much friendlier than the other two, but seemed a bit nervous. "So this weapon, was it made by the same one who was called 'Disasterbringer' in your daughter's last letter?"
Bekhi and I both choked on our beers. I was surprised and annoyed that that moniker had made its way up here, and Bekhi was probably annoyed that her dad had shared private information from her letter home.
The Elder nodded thoughtfully. "It seems I'm correct. Is it safe, Thredak, to have someone with the title of Disasterbringer among us? Much less use weapons he crafted?"
"You worry too much, Elder Dalotgreck." Dak said while taking a sip of mead that Humbart brought over for him. "Kvalinn was only called that by one Elder in a fit of rage, and he has not been formally given the title by his clan, Thane, or King. And based on what Bekhi has been telling me since she arrived, Kvalinn has worked hard for the past year to remove any stain from his honor. So he is perfectly safe to host, as for his weapons. Aren't all weapons dangerous? What matters is the competence of those wielding them."
Elder Dalotgreck nodded once more in thought before answering. "Very well, Thredak. But if his weapons bring disaster to Vesturhildrun, then just know that I told you so."
The Elder and Dak moved onto other discussion points about the town which I tuned out, since Bekhi had turned to me to shyly apologize.
"Sorry about that, Kvalinn. I didn't know that my dad would tell everyone what was in my letters."
"It's ok, I still have a couple decades to make people forget that title. Hopefully they will replace it with something better for business. If Elder Dalotgreck's reaction is anything to go by, then the only people unstable enough to buy weapons from someone named Disasterbringer would be the humans." I was pretty sure the humans in this world and in my previous world were pretty similar, and if people were willing to use nukes to win a war on Earth, then they would probably buy weapons of large scale destruction from me.
"True, the empire especially would hire you in an instant." Bekhi said sadly. She looked between me and her beer mug a few times before speaking again. "Would you still make weapons for me if you lived with the humans?"
"Of course! You are the first person who wanted my weapons, so I'd need to make sure my first customer remains a loyal one." I answered without hesitation. So far, Bekhi was the only one who consistently wanted me to make weapons for them. And I wanted to make sure she always had a good weapon in hand, even if half the time they would be used against me in training.
The celebrations continued at the tavern for the rest of the day, and it wasn't until late in the evening that the tavern closed and sent everyone home. I went to bed that night full of delicious food, strong beer, and fell asleep dreaming about eating and drinking more tomorrow.