Nat wasn't having much luck getting his Talent to deactivate early without having to explicitly stop it. That wasn't that big of a deal, but he felt that if he could start it, he should be able to indicate that it shouldn't go the full duration, or full strength, or whatever. He wasn't really sure what the proper vocabulary for it was.

  Lyn wasn't as much help as he'd have hoped — Ber apparently had some engineered understanding, like an instinct, that helped them use their Skills. Moira didn't even have a body, let alone Talents, so there was a lot of guesswork and inferring going on; it was not helping, if he had to be honest.

  As much fun as playing with this Talent was, a couple of hours practicing it was more than enough for Nat to start getting bored, and he was ready to take a break.

  So when they heard the coach approaching, the metal rimmed wheels loud on the stones of the riverbed, Nat jumped quickly to his feet.

  Lyn remained sitting — the improvised walking stick was fine for balance, but didn't make walking much easier.

  The coach rolled to a stop, and Nat walked over to greet the returning… duo? Wasn't Tanner supposed to have gone home?

  “Tanner, you're back? Wait, you're not Tanner.”

  “Huh. Never been mistaken for a wolf before. First time for everything.” Novek jumped down, and put out a hand. “Nat, right? I'm Novek.”

  Novek turned to help Ellie down from the driver's bench, taking care with her arm and shoulder.

  “You're hurt! What happened?”

  Lyn's relaxed — if still pained — posture immediately changed to one of alert, and they started to stand, before remembering they were missing a foot and stopped.

  Soot chose this moment to come over the ridge that had hidden her from sight of the recessed riverbed.

  Nat froze in place, quite normally this time; as his eyes kept rising to take in the entirety of the draconid's form.

  Lyn's voice came from behind him, “Soot?”

  Ellie, now on the ground, answered Nat's original query. “We've brought a couple of additional passengers. It's a long story. I'll tell it once the horses are tended to, while we see to these wounds.”

  The coach door opened at that moment, and Ceress pried herself out of the too-small opening. “Lyn. Staying out of that trouble you've been avoiding, I see.”

  Nat noticed that Lyn's held Moira's arc somewhat out of view, cupped downwards in one hand, before they answered. “Ceress. How many wounded are there?”

  “Only two — the driver, and me. She's the priority — I'm fine.”

  “Mmm. I'm sure. Ellie, come here, please. Nat, could you retrieve our medical supplies, please? Could someone roll a larger rock over here for me? Or a log? Something flat would be best.” Lyn looked around for a suitable candidate.

  The giant… cat? Maybe tiger? Nat wasn't sure, but whoever he was, turned and answered, “Sure, you want a bench? I can put something together for you in just a minute.”

  “I'd rather not delay, please.”

  “Oh, this won't take long. I was being literal. It will only take me a minute.”

  Ellie decided to adjust expectations regarding her participation. “You'll have a few more than that, I have to see to the horses, before anything. It's just a flesh wound, but without the horses it's going to be a very long, uncomfortable walk for everyone when it comes time to leave.”

  Lyn turned, “Ceress, that means you're up, then. You can sit on the ground, I doubt I could reach you on a table anyway.”

  Nat decided to be as useful as he could, “Unless anyone has any objections, I'm going to get a fire going, and warm up some of the leftover scrav.”

  Ceress turned at that, “You're serious, then? Who did that?”

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  Lyn answered before anyone else could. “Sit first. Then story time. Nat? Supplies, please.”

  Novek took a moment before everything got started to ask, “Hey, Ceress, you mind if I borrow Soot? I need some new knives, and bolts.”

  “Sure, you got metal to work with? Sand's not great for iron.”

  “Yeah, I picked some up from what the bandits left behind.” Novek walked over to soot with some metal bars. Nat was curious, but there was too much going on, he'd check that out after.

  Nat and Lyn's heads both turned. “Bandits?” they said, in unison.

  Lyn then shook her head. “No, wait — tell it after. Ceress. Sit.”

  She did, but still towered over the silverpaw, even so.

  Lyn looked at Ceress with the glowing blue eyes, leaned in, and pressed their hands on Ceress's ribs.

  Nat wondered when she was going to ask where she was hurt.

  “One rib broken outright, two fractured. You might shed the scales at the impact point — the soft tissue underneath was crushed — that's halfway replaced already. High speed hit?”

  “Yeah, I had increased density running after a landing, got hit from behind by a crossbow.”

  “There's also some mild internal organ bruising. You got lucky — this could have been much worse, even without it penetrating. You might consider dodging one of these times.”

  “Yeah, well, it worked, didn't it? Some soreness and a couple of weeks without a few scales is a better outcome than a kidnapping and a burial, or worse.”

  “Alright, that's fair. Once I've looked over Ellie, come back over — I'll stimulate tissue regrowth for a half hour or so. I can't spare much more than that, I'm working on my own foot still.”

  “Yeah? How'd that happen? Step on a baby scrav?”

  Lyn sighed. “It was a sessile adult, or close to being one. It got spooked by some aether event and attacked.”

  “Yeah? And how are you still here?”

  “That story can wait till we've heard yours. It's hard to explain.”

  “I've heard that before.”

  “I'm being literal. It is actually quite hard to explain. We aren't sure of the details ourselves yet.”

  Lyn paused a moment, in consideration, then snapped their fingers, and Moira's arc appeared.

  Moira's tinny voice came out of the arc, “Hi Ceress! How's Hekkan and Soot?”

  Nat was somewhat interested in the conversation, but at that moment the giant winged lizard spit what looked like molten metal onto the ground over by Novek and Ellie, and Nat's brain decided that was much more interesting. He immediately made his way over, trying to avoid bothering anyone so they wouldn't shoo him away.

  Novek was only half listening as Ceress reconnected with an old friend. He didn't need to be told there was some strained history there. Long experience told him to give them some space.

  Besides, Soot was in a playful mood, and wasn't properly focusing on what he wanted her to do. Which was fill some molds he'd made in the sand with the remnants of the metal poles he'd retrieved from their encounter.

  “Spit! Iron! Here!” He tried, but the enormous lizard was currently nuzzling his leg, which almost took him off his feet.

  Novek was unmoved by the attention seeking. “Yes, yes. You're adorable. Spit the iron in the holes, please.”

  Soot was not paying attention, unfortunately. She scored some of his ankle fur with a tiny amount of errant metallic drool, and he yanked his foot away before he lost more hair. Burning fur also smelled terrible.

  “I will get the damn cat to do this. Then who will feed you snacks, hmm?”

  Ellie had finished with the horses, and found whatever he was doing interesting enough to come over before having the healer see to her. Either her own wound wasn't bothersome enough that she wanted to be fawned over, or she didn't want to interrupt the reunion in progress. He understood entirely.

  “So what are you doing with the dragon?”

  “Draconoid. Or Que'ren.”

  “Uh huh. Spits fire. Wings. Dragon.”

  “I'm having her fill the molds I made, by pressing various parts, like my remaining knife, into some oiled sand.”

  “Yeah? How's that work?”

  “She's a portable smelter. Eats anything, and can selectively regurgitate it from her gizzard. The iron poles from earlier should do to make some new knife blanks. Then I'll just file them down. Easier than buying new ones, and cheaper.”

  “Doesn't sound terribly high quality.”

  “They're simple parts and some throwing knives — they're disposable. As long as they're roughly the right shape they'll do fine — I can fix balance with a file, easy.”

  “Yeah? Can you show me how?”

  “Happily. If I could just get this dragon to spit out the blooming iron.”

  Ellie appraised Soot for a moment, looking the distracted lizard square in the eye. Then, raising her voice into the commanding tone she used on the horses. “Soot! Spit!”

  The draconoid coughed molten metal into the waiting holes, and then bent low and shook her body side to side while looking up at Ellie.

  Ellie didn't need to be told. “Good girl!” She reached out and scratched soot vigorously behind her head ridge — the draconoid was almost purring. “See? Easy. You just need to know how to talk to a girl.”

  “Great. Hand me that flat rock by your foot. As soon as these have cooled down, then we just dig them up, and break off the sprue holes where the metal poured in. There's a trick to using the Talent to holding the shape you want in the sand once you remove the metal while you're making a mold, but that's just a shortcut, anyway.”

  “Oh yeah, I can't imagine why you might have a problem.”

  “Hmm? What's that?”

  “Oh, nothing important. So, what's next?”

  Novek continued without a beat, “Let me show you the most critical tools for cleaning up some rough metalwork. Being able to craft and refine your own tools is one of the most important parts of the job — you build a rough set, so you can build a better set, and so on.”

  The Human boy — man, maybe? — wandered over meekly as Novek got into his explanation. Novek noted that he stood to the side, just watching quietly, so Novek let him be.

  Ellie tracked Novek's eyes, then looked at the newcomer and said with a friendly, rising tone, “Nat, come take a look. Isn't this fascinating?”