I went back home to find Laela and Maudene cooking dinner and told Laela whom was coming to dinner. Her face was still green but hearing Angus’s name made her smile and change color to a color closer to normal. Maudene looked concerned but tried not to show how concerned she was.

I went out to the foundry and began to work on the new blade for Angus’s sword. I knew that it was going to be hard to make a new blade from the poor steel we had but I also knew I still had some of the finer steel that I kept hidden in the back for my own weapons. It was strange mixing the metals again and folding the steel as I use to when I was younger. It would take a better part of the next month to make the blade but it was worth it. This sword would be as fine as any I’ve made before or since but I still had it in my mind to find out how he broke it. That was not a story I wanted to hear or I will retell here. For that you will have to read on.

It wasn’t long before Nathaniel showed up and he began to work on the bayonets for us. It was going to be a long three months but I knew we would have the work done before they needed it done. With the three of us working together we would have the job done in no time.

About an hour later Maudene called to us to come in for dinner. I looked back to see Angus moving towards the house and for the first time I truly noticed how old he was beginning to look. This was something that would play out in my life over and over again. People that I first met when they were children would grow old and die when I would stay young, aging about a year for every ten years. I think now of all the friends that I have made and lost and I realize why I don’t like to think of my past very often.

We all retired for dinner and our house felt more full than it had since Laela and I had first had children. This got me thinking about those years so long ago when we were happy before the journey and war with the Rakshasa. It was so long ago and my train of thought changed yet again as Laela left the table for a moment then returned.