Crassifax Bellhold, Hammermound dwarf smith working in East Osterly, smiled up at Fawnlum through his densely whiskered face, as she beheld the product of his labors.  After Sienna and Dreighton had delivered Banacheck’s note, he had asked few questions, but went right to work.  In the time it took the other humans and dwarves to return to the city, he and his fellows had crafted the first batch of the little barbed blades.

The shards were made of good, quality steel, as they sat before her en masse, razor-sharp and easily able to slice her finger.

Alcon and Chipwise, with similar joyful enthusiasm, presented her with an ugly substance, like molten tree bark with a foul odor, as she stood with her friends in the Nacklegems’ shop a few days later.

“Quite a wonder, that substance,” Alcon said to Sienna.  “Your sample left us many gifts to share with other oils.”

“Just give me the type that burns fast and hot, and I’ll be happy,” the big Coastal girl replied.

“But not in this case.  Here we have a resin!”

“Don’t light a pipe or strike any metal to stone,” a soot-covered Hiram told the dwarves, as they filed into the rear workshop.  “The fumes in here will explode in a cloud of flames, given the slightest spark.”

Eyes of battle-hardened warriors darted back and forth in trepidation.

“Oi,” Sienna said, looking through another door.  “That’s a nice furnace you have there.”

Fawnlum looked with her.  It was a large, mound-looking thing made of what looked like pink stone.  It looked like a giant half-egg, 20 feet in diameter, with long metal tables in front and in back, sitting before its doors.  It was set in a small courtyard behind the store-front, where there was no roof.  A couple of smaller brick furnaces with other equipment sat on either side.

“Aye,” Hiram said, with a sigh.  “We’re quite proud of her.  The dome keeps the heat in.  Gets good and hot, it does.  She set the building on fire from this far away once.”

“Hmph!” Bluntwerk huffed.  “Ye char yer metal before ye refine it.”

Fawnlum wondered, as Hiram turned back to his wares.  He was not just unfazed; she saw the gleam in his eye.  It was the Nacklegems’ delight to be jolly, in the face of the surely dwarf’s criticisms.  She wondered how long they had been dueling over the different philosophies of their respective crafts.

He joined Alcon and Chipwise around the long-table.

Now they applied their resin on the spots where the enchanted twines held the small, sharp barbs in their braided knots.

“Into the oven!”

The way the gnomes darted back and forth reminded Fawnlum of bees in the height of summer.  After the talk about exploding fumes, nobody wanted to bump into anything, or be bumped by anyone.

Gently, they laid the twines upon long trays, and slid them into the kiln-slots of their marvelous furnace.

<*>                                                          <*>                                                      <*>

They finished cutting through the log, and the great piece of wood fell to the ground with a thud.

Bluntwerk and Gritcomb nodded with a hearty chuckle.

The ‘string-saw’ had worked perfectly.

“We’ll need a few more!” Banacheck said to Hiram.