“He's here!” Marie almost threw off the small child she had sitting on her knee, her ears strained to hear the engine she knew and loved but she didn't hear the rumble of the pipes. What she did hear was the cough and strain of an old engine, diesel if she wasn't mistaken, moving the small child to go and play with the blocks Marie got up and looked out of the windows.
Spring had changed the grounds, new life was everywhere, flowers had erupted from the beds and the trees were sporting a green that if you stared at it long enough would hurt your eyes. Looking over to where Jubes was pointing she saw the farriers old truck. The horses needed their winter shoes taking off and the new growth of hoof taking away before they could be ridden again. Jubes smiled and nodded to the ring hand, “Come on, we'll take the kids out to see what he does, he always likes to see the new ones.”
So wrapped up for the still cool weather Marie and Jubilee took a group of children out to see the farrier who was setting up at the stables. His forge was being manhandled down by Pete and Bobby, Marie hadn't seen the man before and didn't know what to expect so when he turned around she almost swallowed her tongue.
Dark hair, blue eyes like sapphire chips, tanned skin, a beard and a laugh that seemed to run through the world. Jubilee just threw herself at him and he caught her mid jump and spun her round like a child, their laughter making the children dance around them both. Dropping Jubilee he turned to the small crowd of children and picked several up, holding one under his arm whilst carrying another. He just turned and walked with them into the stable block, the rest following like chicks after the hen, Jubilee just grabbed Marie's covered arm and dragged her with her into the soft warm fug of the horses home.
“Now watch this,” Marie watched as the farrier took the heated shoe and pressed it against the foot of the horse, smoke curled in the cool air and yet the horse stood quite still and calm. “See, it's like your hair or fingernails, he can't feel it but I need to do it to see if I've got the fit right. Just like you he needs to have shoes that fit well or he'll go lame and that means no riding.” Several of the kids 'oohed' and 'ahhed' as he pulled and pinched the shoe on the horse. But after seeing him do two horses the kids were beginning to get bored, Jubilee stepped in and took charge of the situation.
“Who wants to go on a ride?” Suddenly there were too many hands in the air and Jubilee ushered the rest of the kids toward the hacking blocks and the carriages, Bobby helped out by giving some of the older kids the tack they'd need to harness the horses. Leaving Marie alone with the farrier and the horses.
She didn't know what to say to him, where to start really but as she thought she pulled the gloves from her hands to warm them by the heat of the forge. The ring now making it's mark on her skin and settling into it's own position on her hand. It didn't take him long to notice it on her pale skinned finger. “So, you're the one are you?” The farrier just smiled at her and made her blush from her head to her feet, his eyes taking all of her body in in one sweep, the smile on his lips part lust and part joke.
Finally Marie found her voice, “Yeah I'm her, I wanted to know how you made it.” Her fingers went to the ring and turned the hand hammered surface over and over, the farrier stood back up the still warm shoe in his tongs. He looked at her, but she felt he was looking 'through' her and his smile had vanished, like the spring sun on a blustery day, you felt it's loss immediately.
“Why do you want to know?” Marie found it hard to meet his eye, her words stumbled in her throat and she found herself struggling to be coherent. He flustered her somehow, his presence reminding her of Logan, the way he stood, the way he moved,even the smell of him reminded her of Logan. Her mind grasped at the inscription that was on the inside of the ring, “Did you inscribe it? Or did Logan?”
The farriers face softened then, as the sun peeks out from behind a cloud, he took the now cold shoe and heated it again, his arms pumping the bellows to make the coals spark his voice shifting in the roar of the forge. “Aye lass I did that, for a year of his memories I made that ring for him. A year of precious memories from the youth of his life, of the love he once had.” His eyes pinned Marie to the spot and took the questions from her mouth, “Innocent love, a child's love for his own but powerful none the less.” The shoe was now sparking orange, he turned himself to her full view and held the shoe aloft to her eyes using his bare hands. “See girl, when you are made of iron, iron cannot hurt you. But when you are given it unwillingly it burns through to the bones of you, tears a man in two. He wears his iron already and he gave you a part of it girl, what he did for me is between us but what is in that ring is between you two, I did not write upon the metal you wear upon your finger. It 's what was inside the metal he worked for you, those are the words of his soul Marie, the words of his soul.”
The shoe was nearly black when he threw it back into the coals, but his hand was unburned, Marie in shock didn't recognise that until he grasped the shoe again, this time with tongs and went toward the patient waiting horse. “Are you like us, a mutant? To be able to do what you've just done you must be? Holding metal like that, it'd burn you to the bone in seconds.” The farrier just smiled at her and winked, his voice beginning to sing as Marie walked out of the stable block, her ears catching the first few words.
'No man am I, nor god to one, a smith of old, a Wayland's son,' hurrying away as she went to talk to Jubilee. Pulling on her gloves as she went to join the children, it wasn't until she saw the old truck pulling away that she remembered something. He'd called her Marie, but she hadn't told him her name and when she'd told Katherine later in the dark hours of the early morning in her kitchen all she'd done was smile and touch her hair. Saying “He knows everyone's true name Marie,even Logan's, the one he's forgotten himself.” Katherine refilled both mugs and added a tot of brandy to each mug, “Just be happy you got what you wanted, he took a year from his past, not from his future.” Taking a hit from her mug Katherine swallowed and slapped Marie on the back, “Old gods can be bastards sometimes.” With that she left Marie to ponder the truth she'd found in her kitchen as she pottered around finishing off a bit of baking. Marie was still pondering when she went to bed and she knew the only one who could answer her questions was still half a world away.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Marie finds out who made her ring and what cost it was...
Chapter End Notes:
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