Alari Strongarm, called MetalMaker, was born in the time of our most distant forefathers, nearly 20 generations ago. She learned the craft of smithing from her adolescence, and was accomplished at her trade. As she traveled to her home to establish her own smithy there, her path crossed that of a faerie creature named Melian, disguised in the stuff of mortality in order to direct her to the town of Rivenstream. She encountered faerie creatures there, and captured a leprechaun who did service to a blacksmith his own realm. Alari claimed as payment that the leprechaun would guide her and a companion, Aral Fairhair, into that realm to learn the secrets of faerie smithcraft.
The leprechaun could not refuse this order, but neither was he obliged to make the trip easier. Their way was long, tiring and difficult, but in the end Alari Strongarm beheld the faerie forge. Melian stood before the anvil, recognizable even without his mortal guise. He allowed Alari to remain for one day only, warning her that if she tarried longer, the way back to her world would be gone, and both she and her miner companion would die in faerie. Alari watched, amazed, as the smith combined elements of more than one metal in order to create another, stronger and keener than either of them. She was awed by this accomplishment, but Melian refused to share his knowledge of how this was done. At the end of the day, Melian closed down his forge and left, as did the leprechaun.
Alari and Aral had a charm to return to the Twelve Nations, but little knowledge of how to use it. With nothing to lose, Alari searched the smithy and found Melian's journal, in which he had recorded things that day. Written in the faerie language, it seemed of little use, but Alari and Aral took it with them as they fled. Their talisman saw them safely through the mists,although it deposited them more than a month's journey from their homeland.
On their return trek, they encountered an elf who could read some of the journal. In return for his help in learning Melian's secrets, he went back with Alari and Aral and joined them in creating a forge that would be hot enough to bind carbon and iron to form steel. The amalgam of materials changed how weapons were created and used, and fueled many wars between human folk. Alari MetalMaker lived long and her craft was among the finest of all dwarven smiths -- and so her tale passes into history.
Copyright Jennifer Doran, 1999. All rights reserved.