Sophie POV
So this is how I died. I died because of Alaric's stubbornness. I closed my eyes tight. I waited for the heat. I waited a shrapnel to tear through the air.
The roar of the explosion echoed. It felt like a blow to my chest.
I felt Alaric's arms wrapped around me. He pulled me against his chest. He was like a wall of muscle and heat. He shielded me. He was ready to die for me.
After some minutes. I opened my eyes. The ringing in my ears was already fading off. I looked toward the gate.
Thomas was already outside. He was fast. He moved like a shadow in the wind. Roland stood at our back. His feet were planted firm. His hands were spread out wide. He was ready to collect any bullet or shard of metal.
He was shielding the Alpha. The Alpha was shielding me.
Something began to fall from the sky. It looked like snow. It drifted through the thick smoke.
I looked down. I picked some of it up from the dusty floor. It was light. It was airy. It was rice pops. My eyes widened. I looked at the white grains in my palm.
"Wow. Kaelen is the one who started producing rice pops." I said to myself.
Alaric let go of my hands. After he checked my face for injuries. And he was sure everywhere was safe.
I moved toward the machine. I touched the cold iron barrel. It was a pressure vessel. It used steam and heat to expand the grain instantly. It is exactly what I need.
A machine that uses heat and pressure. That means this man can actually produce a pressure cooker. He already understands the mechanics of steam seals.
My thoughts were disrupted by a loud voice.
"Whoa! It worked!"
Kaelen ran toward the machine. He ignored us completely. He was a man with soot on his face. His hair looked unkempt.
He picked the rice pops off the machine. He started chewing them. He looked at the floor with a grin.
"Uhmm. It worked. Just that it is not sweet. It is bland. It is neither sweet nor bitter." Kaelen said.
He frowned at the white grains.
Alaric's eyes widened. He stepped over a piece of wood. The smoke was still thick around us.
"Can't you apologize for what you just did?" Alaric yelled.
His voice made the walls vibrate.
Kaelen turned to him. He did not look scared. He looked annoyed.
"That's what you get for barging into someone's house without permission." Kaelen answered dismissively.
He turned back to his machine. He adjusted the brass valve.
"Who are you talking to?" Alaric asked.
He stepped closer. I could feel the tension between them. He was ready to devour Kaelen.
"You, of course." Kaelen replied.
He wiped the grease on his pants.
"Who are you? What will you do?"
"I am the Alp..." Alaric started.
"Uuhmm! Uuhmm!" I coughed loudly.
I stepped between them.
"Sorry, Blacksmith Kaelen."
I interrupted the Alpha before he could reveal his identity. I looked at the gate. I looked at the smoking mortar.
"We just came here to see you." I said.
I tried to make my voice soft.
"Is that why you barge into my compound like that?" Kaelen asked.
He pointed to his gate.
"You kicked down my gate. You enter like thieves."
"Will you shut up, you rude wolf?" Roland said.
He gripped his sword.
"Will you apologize to the kin..." Thomas started.
"Ohh! Sorry, sir!" I interrupted again.
I looked at Alaric, Roland, and Thomas. "Let me handle this. Please"
"Why are you begging him?" Alaric yelled.
He looked at me with confusion.
"He almost killed us. Why are you telling him sorry?"
"Who is this one that is acting like he is the king of this kingdom?" Kaelen asked.
He gestured toward Alaric with a dirty wrench.
"So you don't know that I'm the kin..." Alaric started again.
"The King's Beta!" I completed it.
Alaric looked at me with surprise. He opened his mouth to speak. But I gave him a sharp look. I hoped he would remember his promise.
"He is the King's Beta." I said to Kaelen.
"He is very protective of his duties."
"Oh. That guy, the one called Cassian." Kaelen said.
He let out a snort.
"He is too proud. He has no respect for the arts of the forge."
Alaric was already burning with fury. His jaw locked tight. I could feel heat radiating from him.
"Please let me handle this. Please, Lord Cassian." I said to Alaric.
I used the name of his beta to keep the ruse alive.
I turned back to Kaelen.
"Please. We are here to ask for a favor from you. We need a pressure cooker for a competition. The future of the Blackwood Kingdom depends on it."
"I don't know how to make a pressure cooker." Kaelen dismissed me immediately.
He started sweeping the rice pops into a bucket.
"But you made this machine that made rice pops." I argued.
I pointed to the iron vessel.
"It's the same thing as a pressure cooker. It needs heat and pressure to cook the meal. It just needs a different shape and a safety seal."
I brought out the drawing of the pressure cooker. I had spent hours sketching it with the chefs. I opened the parchment paper.
"This is what it looks like." I said.
I showed him the drawing of the pot. The lid. And the regulator valve.
"I don't know what that is." Kaelen said.
He didn't even look at it.
"Will you make it? Or do you want me to torture you before you do it?" Alaric roared.
He had reached his limit.
"You want to torture me? In my own house?" Kaelen asked.
He stood up straight.
"You this glorified Beta."
Kaelen hissed the words.
I moved between them again. I touched Alaric's arm. I looked into his eyes. I whispered.
"You promised. Please."
It seemed that calmed him down. The gold in his eyes faded. Alaric took a deep breath.
I turned back to Kaelen.
"He didn't mean that Sir." I said.
"Even if he didn't mean it, I will not make anything for the royal household." Kaelen said.
His voice was full of regret.
"All they do is use people and dump them. They used my father. They dumped him. My father died miserably even though he invented many things for the royal household. He gave his life to the forge and he was left with nothing."
Kaelen gripped his sweeping broom tight.
"In fact, all of you get out of my house!" Kaelen yelled.
"Please, sir. I am sorry on behalf of the royal household." I begged him.
I felt the clock ticking in my head. We had so little time left.
"Out!" Kaelen roared.
I started bending in a bid to kneel. I wanted to beg him. I wanted him to see that I'm desperate.
"Get out! Or I will do to you what this machine didn't do." Kaelen threatened.
He moved back toward the wall. He grabbed a thick rope. He dragged down a leather curtain. Rows of mechanical cross-bows appeared on the wall. They were all aimed at us.
He placed his hands on what looked like an iron gear.
"I will pull this now. These arrows will kill you all." Kaelen threatened.
Alaric grabbed my arm. He pulled me toward the exit. We went outside the gate.
Roland and Thomas followed us with their weapons drawn. Kaelen slammed his gate shut. He locked it with a heavy bar. We stood outside in the dirt. We were stranded.
"You should have let me torture him." Alaric roared.
He paced back and forth in front of the gate.
"People like him deserve to be tortured. He is an exile. He has no right to refuse a royal order."
"Torturing him will only make things worse." I said.
I leaned against a tree.
"The sun is almost setting. We have less than two days to appease the blacksmith so he makes the pressure cooker."
"Appease?" Alaric asked.
He looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language.
"Yes. We have to find a way to appease him." I explained.
"He is refusing to make anything because of his father. He thinks we are users. We have to appease him. We have to assure him that we won't use him and dump him. We have to prove we are different."
"Any idea on how to appease him?" Alaric asked Roland and Thomas.
"No, Your Majesty." They both replied in unison.
"Let me handle this." I said.
"You all should stay here. Hide in the trees. I will go talk to him alone."
"No. I will go with you." Alaric insisted.
"No. Stay here. He is afraid of you." I said.
I walked toward the gate. I felt the cold air.
I knocked on the wooden gate. I waited. After a minute, Kaelen came to the gate. He opened a small hole. He peeped through.
"What do you want?" He asked.
His voice was gruff.
"I know how to make your rice pops sweet." I said.
"Rice pops?" He asked.
"Yes. The thing you made with the machine. It is rice pops." I explained.
"You know how to make it sweet?" Kaelen asked.
He sounded skeptical.
"Yes. I have something you can use to make it sweet." I said.
I put my hand in my pocket. I brought out a leather pouch. It contained sugar. I had carried it from the palace.
On long journeys, sugar is vital. It provides energy. It prevents salt depletion in the heat. It is a rare luxury that keeps the spirits high.
I handed the leather pouch through the hole.
"Add this to the next set of rice pops you make." I said.
"Mix it in while the grain is still warm."
He collected the pouch. He did not say thank you. He just closed the hole.
I walked back to Alaric.
"What did he say?" Alaric asked.
"I have not gotten any response yet." I answered.
"But I will get one soon. Let us just wait a little while."
We waited for a few minutes. The silence was heavy. Then, we heard the sound again.
BOOM!
Alaric shielded me like he did the first time. He threw his cloak over me. Smoke drifted over the wall.
"Yes! It worked!"
We could hear Kaelen's voice shouting from inside the compound.
I walked back to the gate. I opened the small hole. I peeped inside.
"Is it sweet?" I asked.
"Yes! It worked!" Kaelen said.
He ran to the gate.
"What did you give me to add?"
"Let me in so I can explain to you." I said.
He came to the gate. He peeped through the hole.
"Are they gone? Is that proud Beta still there?"
"They won't come in." I said.
He opened the gate a little. He let me in and closed it behind me. He was chewing on a handful of sweetened rice. He looked like a child with a new toy.
"What I gave you is sugar." I stated.
"It makes things sweet?"
"I know sugar." Kaelen said.
"But it is very expensive in the market. It comes from the north. I just want to make something that every wolf in the Blackwood Kingdom can afford. I want to feed the poor."
He looked down at his bucket. His face filled with disappointment.
"If you help us make the pressure cooker and we win the competition, we would no longer pay taxes for imported sugar from the Moon Crescent Pack." I explained.
"We would have sugar in abundance. It will be very cheap. You would be able to use it for your rice pops. You could sell your pops at an affordable rate."
Kaelen paused. He looked at the machine. He looked at the bucket of rice pops.
He was in deep thought. The logic was working.
"Let me see the drawings you made of the cooker." He said.
I felt relieved.
At least he was talking now. I opened the parchment paper again.
He looked at the drawing for a few minutes. He traced the lines of the safety valve with a greasy finger.
"No. I can't do it." He said.
He handed the paper back.
"I don't even know what this is. It is too complex."
"But it is the same as the machine that makes the rice pops!" I argued.
"Look at the seal. Look at the pressure chamber. It is the same science!"
"Please leave." Kaelen said.
He turned his back to me.
"I am an inventor of machines. Not a maker of pots. I can't make a pot like that."
I stood there in the smoke.
The sun was already setting.
We had nothing. No cooker. No plan.
Only two days left.
