"Dubs."
The hammer stopped halfway through its swing, suspended above a glowing piece of red-hot metal.
"What."
"I'm leaving."
A silence followed. Not the heavy kind of silence Emrys had imagined during the entire walk back from the clearing, nor the kind that usually came before one of Dubs' biting remarks. Just... silence. The hammer resumed its path, striking the metal with a dull, steady clang.
"Hm? Okay."
Emrys stood there, slightly taken aback.
"I can't say it's surprising, but is that really it? 'Hm, okay'?"
"What were you expecting, kid? That I'd break down crying?" Dubs replied without looking up, still hammering away with the same mechanical rhythm. "I saw it coming for a while now. So yeah. Hm. Okay."
"I was expecting a little more than two syllables and a grunt," Emrys shot back, folding his arms.
"What did you want? A speech? Confetti? A marching band?"
"Honestly, I'd have taken anything between 'okay' and a marching band."
Emrys fell silent for a moment, searching for his words, a hint of irritation mixed with disappointment he hadn't expected to feel.
"Seriously, Dubs. Five years. I tell you I'm leaving after five years, and that's all the reaction I get?"
The hammer stopped again, this time for good. Dubs set it down on the anvil with more force than necessary and slowly straightened up, his massive shoulders cracking slightly as he moved.
"You want my real reaction, or do you just want me to pretend for your sake?"
"The real one, obviously."
Dubs stayed quiet for a moment, as though he were genuinely weighing the question instead of searching for a clever comeback.
"My real reaction, kid... is that it pisses me off," he finally said, his voice losing some of its usual coldness. "It pisses me off because this forge was a lot quieter before you showed up five years ago, and I'd gotten used to that silence. Now I've gotten used to something else, and in two days I'll have the old silence back... except this time it won't suit me anymore."
Emrys didn't know how to respond, caught off guard by the giant's sudden honesty.
"I'm gonna miss you, basically," Dubs continued gruffly, as though he already regretted letting that much sincerity slip out. "There. Be satisfied with that answer. I won't say it twice."
"That's more than enough for me," Emrys replied, a shy smile spreading across his face despite the lump forming in his throat.
Dubs sat down on his usual boulder, the one that always creaked a little beneath his weight, and stayed silent for a while, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the workshop walls.
"You know, before you showed up, I'd been living here alone for... hell, I don't even remember how long anymore," he eventually said, his voice calmer, almost thoughtful. "Among the giants, I was a failure. Too small. Too uninterested in fighting. I preferred the sound of a hammer striking metal over the sound of a hammer crushing bones. So I left. I found this quarry, this forest, and figured it'd be enough. Work, silence, nobody around to judge me."
Emrys sat down on a nearby stool, not daring to interrupt such a rare moment of confidence from Dubs.
"And then one day, a blind kid literally fell out of the sky," Dubs continued, the faintest smile appearing at the corner of his lips. "Broken all over, couldn't take three steps without tripping over something. Honestly, at first I mostly thought you'd be a burden. Another mouth to feed—even if technically you didn't really need it. One more weight added to my well-ordered routine."
"Nice," Emrys commented, raising an eyebrow.
"I said that's what I thought at first. Let me finish," Dubs replied, without any real harshness. "Then the months went by. And I started to... hell, I don't even know how to say this without sounding cheesy. I started enjoying having someone to talk to, even if it was just to tell you not to make a mess in my workshop. I started listening for your footsteps whenever you came back from training. I even started worrying. And believe me, kid... I hadn't done that in a very, very long time."
A different kind of silence followed, heavy with an emotion neither of them tried to put into words.
"I knew this day would come," Dubs continued. "I even nudged you toward it, in my own way, with all those little remarks I kept making without ever really insisting. I didn't want to keep you here forever. You've got a mother to find, a world to see, a place to find that sure as hell isn't in my little backwater forest. Doesn't stop it from pissing me off, though."
"You could come with me," Emrys suggested quietly, already knowing the answer.
Dubs let out a short but genuine laugh.
"No," he answered simply. "My place is here. This forge, this silence... this is where I belong. Besides," he added with a mischievous glint in his voice, "someone's gotta keep supplying decent weapons to this world full of thick-headed brutes. And if I leave with you, who's gonna keep an eye on this forest while you're not around to deal with all those wandering red demons?"
"Fair enough," Emrys admitted with a wider smile.
"And seriously," Dubs continued, his voice regaining some of its usual firmness, "you need to learn how to manage on your own, without some old giant glued to your back to catch you every time you stumble. That's exactly what you told me earlier, isn't it? That you needed real battles. Real trials. Doesn't work if I'm always watching over your shoulder."
Emrys slowly nodded, absorbing the rough but undeniable wisdom behind those words.
"It's funny," he said after a moment. "Five years ago, I'd never have imagined you'd be the one pushing me to leave instead of the other way around."
"Life's full of surprises, kid," Dubs replied with a small shrug. "Five years ago, I'd never have imagined getting attached to some brat who fell out of the sky either. Yet here we are."
"So you're attached to me now? Is that official?"
"I never said that," Dubs replied a little too quickly to sound convincing. "I said life's full of surprises. There's a difference."
Emrys let out a quiet laugh, shaking his head.
"You'll be alright, Dubs? With all this, I mean. Staying here alone again."
"I survived five decades before you came along, kid. I'll survive after you're gone too," Dubs answered before adding more softly, almost like a confession he hadn't intended to make. "But yeah. It won't be the same anymore. And that's okay. Things aren't supposed to stay the same forever."
A comfortable silence settled between them, broken only by the crackling forge fire and the wind slipping through the workshop's half-open door.
"So, got a plan?" Dubs asked after a while, his voice practical again. "Or are you just gonna walk in some random direction hoping to stumble into a real fight?"
"I've given it some thought," Emrys admitted. "From what I've heard, Stigma is still recruiting. If I show up at one of their outposts with what I can do, it shouldn't take them long to find a place for me."
"A fifteen-year-old kid showing up claiming he can summon legendary weapons whenever he wants," Dubs repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Yeah... that won't sound suspicious at all."
"I've got five years of training behind me. It's not like I'm making this up as I go," Emrys replied, slightly offended. "Besides, I don't really need them to believe me on my word alone. One fight, one demonstration, and I think that'll be enough to convince anyone with half a brain."
"At least that's true," Dubs conceded. "Which outpost are you aiming for?"
"The closest one that's still accepting recruits. After that... we'll see where it takes me."
Dubs slowly nodded, looking thoughtful.
"That's a reasonable start. Better than charging straight into the front lines without thinking," he said. "But be careful about one thing, kid. Once you're there, you won't be the only little genius around. There are people who've been fighting in this war a lot longer than you have, with powers just as bizarre as yours. Don't start thinking you're invincible just because you can turn red demons into mince meat without breaking a sweat."
"I know," Emrys replied more seriously this time. "That's exactly why I'm leaving. I want to measure myself against real opponents. In a time of war like this, it's the perfect opportunity."
"Good answer."
A comfortable silence settled between them once more, broken only by the crackling forge fire and the wind drifting through the half-open door.
"I still have a few things to take care of before I actually leave," Emrys finally said, breaking the silence. "But I think I'll be gone in two or three days at most."
"That gives me enough time," Dubs replied, more to himself than anyone else, a thoughtful look crossing his face.
"Time for what?"
Dubs stood up, dusting off his hands with a newfound determination in every movement.
"Come with me," he said simply, already walking toward the back of the workshop, where Emrys knew there was a small room that was always kept locked—a place Dubs had never once invited him into in five years.
"Why?" Emrys asked, curiosity getting the better of him as he followed.
"Because we've got a farewell gift to make," Dubs answered, turning the large rusty key in the lock with a barely noticeable but genuine smile. "And trust me, kid... this isn't the kind of thing you throw together in five minutes."
Emrys felt his heart beat a little faster, a mix of curiosity and a deeper emotion he couldn't quite name rising within him as he followed Dubs into the mysterious room.
"What is it, exactly?"
"You'll see," Dubs replied, his voice carrying that rare spark of enthusiasm Emrys always associated with weapons and blacksmithing. "But I can tell you this much already: it's going to be the greatest thing I've ever forged in my entire life. And considering how long it'll take, you'd better postpone your departure by at least a week."
"I thought you wanted me to leave as soon as possible," Emrys pointed out with an amused smile.
"I want you to leave ready," Dubs corrected. "And right now, kid... you're not quite there yet. Not without this."
"A whole week for a single item? It must be something seriously ambitious."
"You can't even imagine how ambitious," Dubs replied, restrained pride evident in his voice as he disappeared deeper into the darkness of the secret room. "I've been thinking about it for months. Long before you made up your mind to leave. I was just waiting for the right moment to really start."
"Months," Emrys repeated, genuinely surprised this time. "You really knew this day would come."
"I told you, kid. I'm no prophet, but I've got eyes," Dubs replied. "Now quit asking questions and help me sort through what we'll need. We don't have any time to waste if we're going to do this properly."
The door closed behind them with a deep creak, leaving the main workshop to fall into temporary silence, while inside the secret room, something new had already begun to take shape.