The Non-Human Society

Chapter 98: Chapter Ninety Seven – Renn – Master and Friend

"After grinding these ores, we mix them into the batch that gets thrown into the furnace," Lellip handed me a fist sized chunk of silver looking metal.

"What's this?" I asked as I followed her to the next giant barrel.

"That becomes tin, eventually. This becomes iron. Or well, pig iron," Lellip said as she then handed me a darker colored stone, from the next barrel.

The iron felt a little lighter than the tin, oddly. But it was half the size.

"We use this to grind them all up. It has giant rocks inside that help, which Vim and my grandfather made. I never learned how to make them, so hopefully they never break..." Lellip said as she pointed to the large device at the end of the hall.

I quickly put the two stones she had given me back into their respected barrels, and hurried to follow her. She was talking and walking quickly, not really giving me a lot of time to process everything... and there was a lot.

The large device was circular, and had large wooden poles sticking out of the sides. Lellip walked over to one and patted it. "We push on these, after pouring the rocks and stuff into the top, up there," she pointed to a large opening that had a small staircase leading to it.

"Push..." I tried to imagine how hard it was. The device was nearly as big as the whole building. In fact it looked as if it had been built first, and then the building around it. The thing itself was made of heavy looking stone, and had lots of metal and wood all over it...

"Grandpa said humans use water to grind their ores. We don't have anything more than a few wells and small creeks here. It's a good thing we're strong, I guess," Lellip said.

"Can I push on it a little right now?" I asked.

"Hm? Sure. There's already a batch inside but it's ground up already... So it will be a little easier than usual, but I guess it'll let you find out if you can do it or not," Lellip said as she stepped away from the one she had patted.

I nodded as I approached the wooden handle. Running my hand along it for a moment, I realize it was smooth and...

Pausing my fingers along a pair of ridges, I realized what they were.

"Grandpa. He was strong," Lellip said softly.

I nodded. He must have been. And his hands must have been huge... nearly thrice or more the size of mine.

Finding a good position I took a deep breath and slowly started to push on the wooden bar. For a brief moment, the thing wouldn't move at all. For half a second, a horrible sinking feeling filled my stomach. Was I that week? Lellip could do it and she looked younger than I did!

But no. The thing started moving after a moment.

"Oh wow," Lellip lightly clapped as I took a few steps, judging my strength as I pushed the wheel along. As it rolled, I heard the loud sound of...

"Is that sand?" I asked as I stopped pushing it, just in case I was going to ruin something.

"Yes. Basically. There's another smaller tumbler too, that we use for other material. I'm surprised at how easily you did that... how hard were you pushing you think?" Lellip asked.

"Uhm..." I stared at the thing and tried to think how much more I could have pushed it. "I could have done that even if it was a few times more harder, I think," I said.

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"Really...?" Lellip sounded a little surprised.

"Am I weak?" I asked, worried. She was looking at me oddly.

"Far from it, Renn. Grandpa usually pushed for me, since it's a little hard for me still. I can push it but it's a struggle, it wears me out for the rest of the day," she said.

"Wears you out..." I tried to think for a moment. "How long do you usually have to push it?" I asked. I hadn't taken that into account.

"A few hours usually," she said.

"Oh... then yes I think I'd get exhausted too," I said. I wasn't entirely sure how long I'd last of course, but I could see how it'd become extremely tiring.

"Well we'll find out, trust me," Lellip said with a smirk.

Great.

"After grinding the ores, we either go straight to smelting or we mix with other materials... depending on what we're making. I'll go over all of that with you later. Let's look at the furnaces next," Lellip said as she pointed to our right.

A heavy wooden door led us to another section of a building. One with a long hallway, that was a little... "Soot?" I asked.

"Yeah, I usually sweep it out every few days but lately... Hm..." Lellip's tone told me the reason why she had been slacking in her duties.

"I'll help you later," I offered.

She nodded with a small humming sound as we rounded a corner and entered a... very hot and noisy room.

The large room had a huge door on one end, that was as big as the building itself. The doors looked as hard to move as the grinding wheel earlier. Across from those doors were three large ovens, and one of them was blazing loudly.

"These are the furnaces. That one's a blast furnace; it sucks in air from the bellows there, three times a day we need to pump the billows a dozen times or so to keep the fire going," Lellip said as she pointed to nearby levers.

This room was hot. The type of hot that made even breathing uncomfortable. Which was strange since there were a few large windows, and all were open.

"Bellows?" I asked.

"They blow air into the furnace. They're outside, but we pump them here. I'll show you later," Lellip said.

Lellip then pointed to the ceiling, I followed her point and I found a large metal looking crate that hung on a metal chain. It looked kind of like a carriage, and was actually pretty big. There looked to be something dark inside it at the moment.

"We pour the ore and flux in there. The other furnaces are used normally, you light them and put the metal in the front latches like so," Lellip opened one of the smaller furnaces front openings to show me. Inside was dark, and full of white sand looking stuff.

"What exactly do you make here Lellip?" I asked her.

"Everything. Anything. Sometimes the society sends us requests. A few months ago they wanted us to make iron beams. For boats, Grandpa thought," Lellip said.

"Boats...? Wait, they don't tell you what the stuff you make are for?" I asked.

"Not always," she said, and did so in a way that told me she didn't care if she knew or not.

Lellip guided me to the large door, the one that took up the whole wall. With odd ease, she naturally pushed it open a few feet to let us pass through.

Walking along the building alongside her, we went to the other side of the building and she pointed at what looked to be a huge box... yet it had ridges and...

"The bellows. Or one of them at least. We need to make sure no animals ever bother them, since they like to chew the leather," Lellip said.

"Oh? When I spend a long time somewhere forest animals usually stop coming around," I said.

"You stink? I hope so, I hate them. Deer always eat our farms, foxes steal our chickens, and bears try to get into the forge all the time. Think if we put you to work and make you sweat it'll work faster?" Lellip asked.

"I'd laugh but you sound rather serious," I said.

"Well... yeah? I'd pick stink over the annoying animals any day," she said seriously.

"I can tell. Well I don't know if sweating will help, but maybe...?" I wasn't too excited over the idea of actually making myself smell but if it'd help...

"It's probably not really your sweat, but you yourself. You're a predator. A real one. Vim said a forest one too, which is probably why," she said.

Lellip guided me to the third and final building, and it was the biggest. A huge two story building that had no windows, and a flat roof.

"Here's the workshop. And storehouse. And where Grandpa used to sleep when he got tired of my parents," Lellip said as she opened the door to it.

Walking in with her, I wondered if I should comment on that last part or not. She sure did mention her grandfather a lot.

She seemed to have been very close to him. Her parents last night, when Lellip and Vim had been out of the house, had made it rather clear that I was to be careful in mentioning him around her. That she was still not entirely adjusted yet.

Which I found a little odd, since it had been clear that Pram had been bedridden before our arrival. She was pregnant, but didn't look sickly or weak. It had to have been because her father had passed away, just like Lellip she was feeling grief.

I understood grief.

The workshop was a little dark, until Lellip pulled on a long leather strap. Several rows of window shutters flipped open as she tugged on it, and I had to blink a few times to let my eyes adjust to the sudden brightness.

Somehow the windows were amplifying the sunlight... They glared to look at, similar to the way the sun would shine off something metallic in the distance.

"That parts the warehouse. It's full of junk, be careful if you go into it. It's easy to get hurt, lots of sharp stuff," Lellip warned with a point to the right. There was a huge metal fence surrounding dozens of tall shelves and crates.

"Here's our lathes, and other stuff. I'll teach you what I can about most this stuff, I'm honestly not sure how much Vim wants you to learn yet... but we'll figure it out, I guess," Lellip said as she slowly walked past workbench after workbench.

There were dozens of large tables, and twice as many shelves. There were rows of tools lined on all of them, and some were very... big. Too big, honestly. I walked up to one of the bigger hammers, and tried to imagine a purpose for it. The thing's handle alone was as big as my waist.

"A lot of the tools were stuff Grandpa used. You won't need to learn how to use stuff like that, I think," Lellip said softly.

"Ah... okay," I nodded, and glad for it. I didn't know how I'd use such a thing anyway.

Just how big had that man been?

"Here's the metalwork stuff. Over there's where we do leather work... Here's my favorite, a clay bench," Lellip smiled as she pointed to one of the corners, where there were two tables and... something weird sitting between them. An upside down wheel?

"What is that?" I asked.

"A wheel for pottery. Not very blacksmith, I know, but... I like it," Lellip said gently.

"Oh? Neat," I hoped I'd get to learn about this too.

Lellip hummed softly as she walked over to one of the larger workbenches. It had a black leather mat lying on its surface, and it looked old. It was so worn there were parts that had holes from wear.

"There used to be several more smiths. Guess we're not as steady as we thought," Lellip said as she stared at a small chisel.

So her grandfather had been only the latest loss then. Wonder who else they had lost recently. No one had mentioned it, not even Vim.

Walking along the tables and benches, I realized how much more was entailed into crafting than I had thought possible. There were hundreds of different types of tools. Not just hammers and blades, but pointed needles and things with strangely shaped hooks.

Was a month enough to learn whatever Vim expected of me? It looked as if it'd take many months just to be told the different names and purposes of these tools alone, let alone how to use them properly.

Pausing before a table that had something being worked on, I studied the small leather strap. It had other leather sewn into it, and had little holes... to attach something to it. Maybe some kind of saddle piece for horses? Or straps? Whatever it was, it had been given a small design. Little flowers and trees were etched into the leather work, and they kind of looked out of place here.

Glancing at Lellip, I wondered how old she was. Vim had called her a child, but it was obvious she wasn't. She was no Lomi. She was probably closer to my age than she was Lomi's, based off her appearance. She looked a lot like her mother, but her arms were thicker. She had muscles, real ones. Ones that couldn't be hidden by her sleeves.

She's been working here from the moment she could walk, by the looks of it. It was probably why she also kept her hair short. It gave her a boyish appearance. But she seemed to have a girly side, based off the little designs on her clothes. She had sewn in little flowers and other things into her clothes, and usually in the same color as the clothes themselves. As if to hide them from obvious sight.

"Do you think Vim is angry with me?" Lellip suddenly asked me.

"Angry...?" I wasn't sure what to answer. Vim had seemed... bothered to learn of Nebl's death, but angry? Let alone at her?

Lellip took a deep breath and slowly released it, but only nodded.

"I don't think so, Lellip. If you promise not to tell him I told you, he actually told me to be your friend this morning," I said to her.

Lellip looked away from the bench in front of her and to me. She frowned as she studied me; she looked as if she hadn't believed what she had just heard.

I nodded and stepped forward, to make it clear. "Really. But don't think my friendship is just because he told me to, please. I thought you a friend since the moment we greeted each other yesterday," I said.

The girl smiled at me, seemingly amused. "He told me to not make you angry, since you'd just get angry at him," she said.

"Which makes no sense at all, I'm always angry at him for one reason or another," I said.

Lellip chuckled as she stepped away from the workbench finally. She put down the weird chisel looking tool, and nodded at me. "I look forward to our time together, Renn. No matter how long or short it is," she said as she extended her open hand.

Taking it I nodded. "Likewise. An old witch I once knew wanted me to call her teacher, so teacher Lellip, what will be my first lesson?" I asked as I took her hand.

"First lesson is we're called masters, not teachers, here in the forge. Second is, unlike what Vim thinks, it's okay to decorate!" Lellip said happily as we shook hands.

I blinked at the sudden mention of Vim, and nodded quickly. "Not entirely sure what that means... but I agree, Master!" I said happily.

Lellip smiled broadly, and I noticed the small gleam of tears in her eyes. Thankfully though, they faded quickly as she went to teaching me the different types of craftsmanship her family knew and used.