Kaja's Backstory, Chapter 4
#4 of Kaja's Backstory
Gorrum was on patrol some weeks, and on other weeks he stayed within the city. Those were the best weeks of all. When not on patrol, he was home every night, laughing loudly over dinner and telling the girls stories at bedtime.
Sometimes, Agra would take the girls to watch Gorrum drill with his men. Grima shrieked with joy when her father sparred with the others. Kaja liked the shiny armor and weapons.
Out on the desert, the Tauren armored themselves with thick hides. They made their spears and hammers from wood and stone.
The Orcs forged metal in coal fires pumped with giant bellows. They beat glowing metal on mighty anvils, filling the air with sparks and a wonderful music unlike any Kaja had heard before.
She stared wide-eyed at the array of tools used to work metal. In a shop beside the practice-grounds, they had pliers and tongs of every shape and size. Hammers and chisels lined every wall.
A green ball with bat ears and far too many teeth hissed at Kaja from atop a work bench. "The blacksmith next door makes horse shoes, fuzz-ball."
Kaja ignored the rude creature as she took in the sights and sounds of men working metal.
Nogg growled angrily at the child in his doorway. He wrenched the bullet from a shell, and replaced it with a short length of fuse. A quick twist with pliers crimped it shut. With a single motion, he lit the fuse and tossed the device in front of the calf's hooves.
Pow!
Kaja dropped her ears to her head and covered them with her hands. Her head rang from the concussion.
Instead of fleeing, she set her dolly on the floor and retrieved the twisted copper jacket. The metal was hot, so she held it gently.
It was the most wonderful thing ever. The orange metal had been pounded thin like a leaf, but it was still as hard as stone. Pinching it tightly between her thumbs and primary fingers, she tried to flatten it out. The metal was crimped too tightly to get at with her nails, so she bit it with her teeth.
A nasty bitter soot coated the inside of the shell, and its strange acrid smell filled her nose. Kaja spit on the floor to get rid of the taste and went back to working the metal flat.
She squatted in the doorway, using the flag stone as an anvil and a small rock she found outside the door as a hammer.
"Kaja! We're leaving..." Agra shouted.
The child scooped up Halfa and the precious, copper trinket, waved farewell to a bewildered goblin and ran off to catch up with her mother.