Prompt: A muffled clanging sound can be heard beating against the walls of the Furnace. Do you recognize the sound of a forge? How much experience do you have with weapons?

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Walking through the Earthen Furnace, Paladin and Majesty realized that their exploration might have been going far too smoothly. Things had been fairly quiet, they were pretty sure the smoke was not as bad as usual, and they had not run into anything remotely dangerous. While this would normally be a good thing, it definitely had Majesty, Quartz the mole, and Bloop the slime on edge. Paladin, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to this fact and just happy to charge ahead without a worry in the world. Not like he didn’t charge ahead in this manner when there was actual danger, but at least this time he has not gotten himself stuck in a trap, chased by a monster, or nearly gotten himself killed. At one point the mare and companions, Quartz having abandoned the stallion to ride on Majesty’s back instead, watched as the bay tobiano ran down a very long hallway without triggering a single trap.

“Paladin, is it just me or is something off?” Majesty asked.

“What do you mean?” Paladin responded to her question with a question.

“I mean that we haven’t run into a single lick of danger yet despite this level of the dungeon being more dangerous than the one we’re used to,” Majesty replied.

“Shouldn’t this be a good thing?”

“Until it comes to bite us in the butt later. All this good luck means we are gonna get slapped with the worst of luck later. I’d rather things be normal.”

Quartz and Bloop nodded in agreement. It was obvious the trio following behind the bay tobiano were hoping to be out of the dungeon by the time that bad luck hit them.

“Oh come on, that’s just silly!” Paladin chimed.

He shot a smile back over his shoulder, trying to reassure his adventuring companions, only to find they had put a considerable amount of distance between them and himself. Trailing behind and watching to see if Paladin would trigger any traps with his carelessness.

CLANG!

The lot of them froze. Paladin’s ears perked and swiveled, looking around at the walls of the hallway. Majesty’s ears flopped a bit and she just had this look on her face that screamed ‘And there’s the bad luck’. Quartz and Bloop wasted no time in hunkering down and preparing for the worse, making sure they would not fall off Majesty’s back in case the mare had to run.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

“I SPOKE TOO SOON!” Paladin began to panic.

“No kidding captain obvious,” Majesty rolled her eyes and began to move forward.

Nudging Paladin she got him moving again. The loud sound had caused him to freeze and it wasn’t until Majesty’s nudge that the stallion took off running. Majesty followed at a slow canter.

CLANG! CLANG! CLATTER!

The sound came from all around them, no matter how far down the hall they went they could not escape the clanging of metal. If anything the sound continued to get louder, surrounding them. Their ears were ringing forcing both Coursers to pin down their ears, trying to block out the noise. Quartz and Bloop held on for dear life as the Courser beneath them fled the unseen beast behind the walls. They bounced and nearly slid off but helped each other prevent an untimely meeting with the warmed stone floor below.

“IT’S GONNA EAT US!” Paladin sobbed and wailed.

“Not if you keep moving your big fat butt,” Majesty huffed back.

They were so panicked and moving so quickly they almost missed the doorway in the side of the hallway. Bloop could not hold on any longer and bounced off of Majesty’s back.

Sploot!

The little green slime hit the floor. Majesty dug her heels in, nearly causing Quartz to fly off her back from the sudden halt in momentum. The mare was not about to leave a companion behind. Paladin nearly kept going until he realized he could no longer hear Majesty behind him. Turning around he could see she had stopped in the hall, her head hanging over Bloop but looking at the wall next to her. Paladin slowly turned around and walked back.

CLANG! CLATTER! CREAK! CLANG!

The sounds had not gone away, but they soon made more sense as Paladin joined Majesty and looked at the wall. There was an arch there, leading into a mostly dark space. It was lit only by the lava flows that were clearly unnatural. Carefully shaped into straight lines, they flowed through the space and connected to various furnaces. The metal of some of the furnaces clanged and creaked as the lava kept them alive.

“Is this a forge?” Paladin asked.

“I believe so,” Majesty replied.

The gray chestnut retrieved the Bloop from where they fell, the companion luckily unharmed despite the high fall. They all then entered the new space, no longer scared of the loud sounds.

While the two Coursers had never been in a forge before, they knew of them. It was where weapons came from, something they also knew about from years of listening to the tales of dungeoneers. They used to hold sticks in their mouths and crash them together, only for their makeshift swords to break. Pieces of bark were made into armor, balanced on their backs or heads only to fall off as soon as they tried to move. Paladin especially had been interested in the idea of wearing armor, of being a famous Courser all geared up to take on the world, of nothing being able to stop him.

Paladin’s eyes went wide with wonder as he looked over everything, finding old broken molds, scattered failed projects, and just all the tools of the trade. Not that he knew what any of them did.

“We Found A FORGE!” Paladin squealed excitedly.

“Wow! So… the good luck only got better and now we can expect even worse backlash,” Majesty said, oddly calm.

Quartz and Bloop just stared at the back of her head, both wide-eyed and now more horrified at the fact their luck only seemed to continue.

“Please, don’t be a party pooper,” Paladin pouted.

Majesty chuckled.

“Sorry.”

Paladin smiled again and turned. Lowering his head he grabbed the handle of a bent sword. It was dull, rusted, and clearly useless, but he seemed excited about it regardless.

“Jhuft liiike ol tihmes.”

His voice was muffled around the hilt of the blade, but Majesty laughed, getting the gist of what he was saying as if they had done this many times before. Both Quartz and Bloop just looked confused and wondered if he would repeat himself so they could understand. Instead they found themselves lowered to the floor where they hopped off of Majesty’s back. After standing back up the mare found a sword of her own and lifted it to face-off against Paladin. The two were soon playing with the useless bent and broken swords as if they were once again foals chasing each other around with sticks. Careful still they were with the objects so as to not hurt the other, the clangs of their metal were drowned out by the clanging furnaces around them. The sound now a sound of wonder rather than one of terror.