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Rydan is the son of Myrida and Ai'iandaroch. He chose the blacksmith path like his father and now runs a huge household full of kids with his lovely wife Thea. Parenthood has been quite challenging but also very rewarding. He enjoys spending fun quality time with Thea and helps to manage their brood of stubbron and hyper children. He couldn't be happier.

Rydan originally thought he was going to be a rider when he was young as the troupe he liked to hang around with were airborn mercenaries basically, but then everyone got older and he was tired of being an omnipresent third wheel so he took his kinfa and went out on his own. He ended up chosing to be a blacksmith and he was greatful if he had never gone off on his own he would never have met Thea.

Sang and Hissed

The time had come at last, the summer festival had started in the nearby Matori town and was ablaze with activity. Rydan like so many others had been caught up in the glory of it all, he walked by the events when the smell of hot coals and metal got his attention, a metal stake was midfire but there was no attending blacksmith.

That was odd. A campfire was nothing to trifle with never mind the power of a forge fire, the potential for disaster multiplied with the capacity of a forge, especially with the fondness for straw huts.

It had been a long time since he had practiced. Before he knew it he was strapping on a spare apron and gloves. The coals hissed and sang a welcome to him when he pumped the bellows. The stave was bright with heat when he pulled it out a vibrant cherry red. He placed it on an anvil and began to hammer away. Sweat beaded on his chin and his arm took up the familiar ache, he was so focused on his work that he seemed to be consumed by it.

Without his knowledge, the smith, a matorian lady, came back bouncing a toddler on one hip. She looked him over silently before deciding to comment just as he turned to face her.

"Well its plain as day to see that you have spent some time before the fire. Still kind of skinny but you will fill out with time I'm sure."

The baby fussed and Rydan surmised the little girl had been the reason for leaving an active forge unmanned. Well if there had ever been a good reason a rampaging toddler was it.

"It is not my first time no." He said as he dipped the slowly forming saber into a water bath.

He wasn't too keen on the knowing look in her eyes.

"It calls to us all eventually, the fire. You can try to fight it, but you will be drawn like a moth to a flame."

"I don't know what you mean, I'm not a smith."

"Indeed, and when you set up your forge un-smith, do it far enough away from me that you do not confuse or steal my customers. I have worked hard my whole life to get them."

She waved a hand at him, cheerfully enough, he sensed that she had been through much in this life. It would make her a good teacher one day.

He peeled off the apron and banked the forge. Quickly he walked away, but the fire still sang to him.

___

That night he shivered through a bad fever, his friends checked on him periodically. One moment he threw the blankets off and the next he clasped them to his shoulders. Fever dreams took him into alternate fantasy realities. One of which made him roll right of the bed, he would have bruises. A healer was called when his condition continued to worsen. Arriving in time to prevent any permanant damage, the healer set about cooling his body and fixed the blocks and issues that occurred in the body. After having been worked on for a while, and using much of the healer's strength, he was able to sleep properly. When he woke groggy, the things that he has seen in dreams came back to him in flashes.

He slept for most of the second day and was feeling almost normal on the third day, only then did he remember the Matorian god of fire Atun had come to him through his dreams, rising up out of the darkness like the prow of a proud ship.

Except Rydan wasn't remotely Matorian.

You belong at the forge boy as one of the great coles, let go of your hot air and let yourself glow. It pains me when you try to dry up to ash and dust, embrace who you really are. Cease this foolish running.

Rydan held his head, oh yes he remembered, was the fever a coincidence? He knew not. It was all to easy to just blame it on the high temperature, but he felt like this was more than that somehow.

Perhaps it had been his subconscious, perhaps it really had been Atun.

It was good advice though, he had been running from the decision for a long time. His destiny, he knew all along that he belonged to the forge.

His father spent more time at the forge than actually doing his real job. Perhaps that had confused Rydan, or he had not wanted to take his father's thunder when it came to metal working. The truth was he liked everything about the forge, the heat the light, the straining muscles. Everything working together to create the best weapons, each a peice of the smith's soul represented in each item.

Rydan sighed, there was no point anymore in resisting, the universe had made it known. He wouldn't go against the spirits even grandmother Aisha liked smiths, maybe a little more of him would be recognized by her, maybe dad knew more and maybe he should find an alkidike and ask them about it. Maybe he could go see her, Aisha.

Magic sure was strange sometimes and he had gotten a double whammy. His mother used magic and his father existed because the magic of the tree created fertile offspring, somehow taking the essence out of the earthing on who's behalf the alkidike prayed.And mixed it perfectly with her own essence, nothing else could explain that even with those fancy do dads and whats its the belreans had.

He had quite a bit of magic but it was more fun to put the extra energy into adventuring or the forge. What was left now? To set up his own forge and get started? Frig no, he needed guidance but not parental guidance. He wanted to prove himself to them by actually being good at what he was doing before they ever saw his work.

He hung his head and sighed dejectedly when he realized he would have to go back to that woman. He could already see the knowing look in her eyes too.

____

The next day saw him back at the forge, this time the smith was mid-piece and he patiently waited and watched from the sidelines as she concentrated on finishing it. He was rewarded when she held the finished piece out for his inspection, a perfectly formed lance head.

"A fine specimen as i am sure you know."

"Oh I know only spent the better part of five years to get it just right.
That is why you came back for right? Knowledge?

This lady was pretty accurate.

Oh don't look at me like that boy, I did the same thing that is how I knew why you returned."

"So, will you help?"

"Fine but you will work for me here, and no arguing, we may discuss things but no arguing, I have no time for yelling or carrying on, I'm already going to loose my hearing from all the banging. If it helps though, I think you will make a great smith one day, the start you made on that saber was impressive."

He nodded accepting the compliment.

1208

Great Grandmother Aisha

Rydan set foot into Aisha's glade, permitted by his father's good standing and with his own clean slate. It was seriously one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, the regal ancient tree, both in love with and producing her gardeners. A part of him felt that was right, even though he was a few generations removed from her. He was so grateful to know her, to be able to visit an ancestor like her in physical form, knowing that she will be there for him for forever, even when his parents had passed on.

He padded up over delisciously soft moss to where one of her thick roots pierced the ground, he could see the spot where the soil had been amended with nutrition for the tree to absorb. Creating your own race must take a lot of energy, but the tree took it in stride, blooming, budding, growing new branches. A stately lady in her palace. Tended by her devoted children. He reached out a tentative and gentle hand out to brush against the bark. He had been a part of this tree once, somehow. A lizard came down to lick his hand, a more blatant sign of acceptance he had never seen. He rested his forhead against the tree and said thank you. Then he knelt down to pray.

Great Grandmother Aisha
I am so very pleased to meet you today, I hope you do not think me tawdry. I thought that you would want to know that I have chosen to be a blacksmith. Now like you I may create beautiful things. It did not feel right to move on to the next stage of my life without coming to you first. I still honor your name.

I wanted to say as well that I have a particularly close friend. Her name is Thea. She rescued me and accompanied me home, she is a free spirit, I think you would like her.

I am honored that she chose me as a friend and I pray for these feelings that I have for her be allowed to continue and grow to perhaps bloom into something more. I can tell that she is special and I don't want to loose her, ever since your great grand daughter Ruulu had kids, I feel separated from them as a family.

I want my own future, I suppose it was a bit rash of me to choose rider so early on in life but that was more wanting to be accepted than what I actually wanted to do.

Thank you for listening Aisha, I hope that my decisions so far please you, I accept your guidance in whichever way you chose to send it

He bowed his head before standing and backing away so that someone else could take his spot. He thanked the attending woman and gave them a gift for the tree.

He felt way more balanced when he left, like a part of him was now fully accepted by the rest of him, he was ready to show the world what a good blacksmith he could be, it was time to reveal his hard work to his father.

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