Armed And Ready

 Millie continued watching the smith work his magic, steadily turning that huge slab of metal into two very thin blades. She was aware of her predecessors, and the fact that none of them had stopped the menace. But Bram was getting her a bit curious as to if there was something more to it all.

“So,” he began. “Did you want the two blades to combine?”

She thought about that. Double-bladed sounded like an interesting way to handle this thing, and there would already be a connection once she got the eraser aspect added.

“Well...see, there’d be a rubber eraser part here at the top edge. So, whatever keeps that from falling out mid-battle, I guess?”

“Joining it is, then.”

As he worked, she stepped aside, sat on the floor, and began trying to focus. If she could get the eraser part dealt with here and now, she could walk out of this shop with her completed weapon. Her Final Draft.

She eyed the blades, starting to think. To visualize. To will into existence a long slab of pink eraser rubber that could bend to fit the curve of her scythe. Not to be intimidated by the fact that this thing would undoubtedly be longer than she was tall.

Millie did her best to keep her focus on that and only that. She could feel her eyes and hands starting to heat up, and she was fairly certain her nose was starting to bleed from the effort…

But after several minutes and some just-barely-heard “Are you okay?”s, she felt something plop down across her lap. She opened her eyes, blinking away the pink glow, to see the eraser right there. Her head ached almost immediately and she felt like she was going to pass out, but she made her way to her feet and held up the absurdly-long eraser triumphantly.

Bram took that, gesturing to a nearby chair for her to rest in while he finished his work.

After another half hour or so, he stepped back, wiping some sweat from his brow. “There.”

Millie, having dozed off a bit, stood and approached the forge. She looked at her concept sketch, then at the real thing right there, and nearly cried. It was always a bit of a rush when something she designed came to fruition, but this?

This was a new high point for her. The pencil wasn’t yet sharpened, and she’d do that later. The metal part expanded into a full huge blade, complete with the eraser at the end. Gingerly, she reached out to take a hold of her new baby. Millie had never had much desire to be a mother, but fur babies like Nibbles or creations like this? Those, she could live with, no problem.

“Thanks…” she breathed. “You’re frickin’ amazing…”

Bram grinned, his fangs bared a bit.

“How much would I owe you for this?”

He considered this for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well...smithing tends to be rather thirsty work…” he said. “Could I trouble you for a bit of blood? No more than a pint. I don’t believe in draining, and turning others into vampires is something only the royals can do. The banks are a good source, of course, but nothing really beats, well, fresh, if you get my meaning…”

Millie sighed. So, he was asking to drink her blood. She’d gone to college for graphic design and had to take out a ton of student loans to do so, and the interest on those seemed to increase every damn time she turned around.

This, the drinking of a pint of her blood by a vampire blacksmith, honestly sounded a bit less painful.

“Neck or wrist?” she asked after a moment.

“Ooh. Neck, please!”

Well, he didn’t have to sound so giddy about the whole thing.

She moved her hair aside, as Bram stepped up to take a bite. Millie winced as the fangs penetrated her skin. He’d found the vein pretty quickly (which caused her to wonder if that was just a natural quirk of vampires). She stood and allowed him to drink until he’d gotten his pint, wondering if he’d be able to figure out when to stop.

Just as he completed taking his drink, there was a knock on the wall next to the forge’s entrance. Talia stood there.

“...I was just coming by to see how things were going,” she said.

Bram stepped away from Millie, eyeing Talia with a cold gaze.

“He requested some blood as a payment,” she said, putting a hand on where he bit her. “And given how awesome a job he did on that blade, I’d say it’s a steal.”

She picked up the completed scythe, showing it to the vampire that’d recruited her. The response she got was an approving whistle, complete with a nod.

“He always was good with his hands,” she said, the glint in her eyes making Millie think that his “just friends” comment earlier may not have been entirely truthful.

Bram blushed a little. “D-don’t try to butter me up!” he said. “I don’t like you in that way, or anything like that!”

Millie’s eyes went wide and she held back a laugh. Was this dude seriously a tsundere?! He’d come very close to giving that classic denial word-for-word, and she wasn’t sure if the good people of Nightshade had the frame of reference to say it on purpose.

“I...um, I’ll let you two talk things out a bit…” she said, having a hard time keeping a straight face as she left the forge with her new weapon.

Outside of the shop, she could see that none of the others were waiting. Millie figured they were probably just doing their own thing around town with the intention of coming back for her eventually, but it stung a little that Nibbles wasn’t right there.

As if the universe could read her mind, Nibbles came rushing right at her. She could smell freshly-cooked meat on the werewolf, so that cleared up one question she had.

“...Got hungry, huh?” she asked, patting the wolf’s arm.

“You should see how much yummy stuff there is around here!” Nibbles replied, eyes huge.

Millie was feeling a bit hungry, if she was being honest with herself. The fact that she’d just donated a bit of blood didn’t help.

“Ooh...is that the thing you were making?!”

She poked at the scythe, Millie grinning at her.

“Sure is,” she said. “Where’d Amaia and the other one go?”

The witch was still upset with the drider for how they’d met. She was, admittedly, pretty good at holding a grudge when slighted badly enough, and attacking her dog? That was a pretty bad slight.

Nibbles rubbed against Millie for pets (which she promptly received). “Well, the spider lady went looking at stuff, and the headless one’s been talking to some ghosts in the area.”

Talia soon rejoined the pair, a small smile on her face.

“So, what happened?” Millie asked her.

“We talked things out,” Talia replied. “Long story short, he and I will try going on a date when this whole endeavor is done.”

That felt like a major departure from how things had started in there. She could have sworn Talia had done something like kicked Bram’s favorite puppy or something. The issue between them, as it turned out, all boiled down to a sustained misunderstanding, two-sided unrequited love, and her having been a blood hog a couple centuries back (though she’d long since started atoning for that).

The trio began to walk through town, looking for their two other companions. Or if they only had to find one, Millie would have preferred Amaia. During their walk, various passersby gawked at the size of Final Draft. Given that Millie wasn’t especially tall, and Final Draft was probably bigger than she was, they were certain to attract some stares here and there.

“...Holy CRAP! THAT’S what you’ve been working on?!” a voice called from somewhere to their right.

Millie glanced over to see Sara looking at the scythe, head tilted.

“Yup,” the witch said with a grin. “Meet Final Draft.”

“Hello, Final Draft,” Sara replied, as if the scythe was going to answer.

That was probably more the case in a different world, but Millie was at least ninety-nine percent sure that Final Draft wasn’t sentient. At least not at the moment.

Amaia soon reappeared, their head hovering beside them. Their gaze immediately fell upon the ginormous scythe, eyes lighting right up.

“Oh, wow…” they said. “The sketch looked like it might be a bit ungainly, but this? I think this might exceed it…”

Millie wasn’t sure how to take the comment. But hey, at least she had her weapon now, large and possibly-impractical as it was.

“Training with that’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but we’ve both got this,” the dullahan followed up, cracking their knuckles.