I got fire in my soul

Titus turned and looked at him with the wide-eyed gaze of a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar—yet despite being caught, the boy continued to gnaw on the hilt of the sword. Artorias raised a brow as if silently asking "Really?". The boy had definitely gotten the trademark Carpathian headstrong gene. Matching fire opal eyes from both wolves locked while Art waited for his nephew's response, and when it came... well, it certainly knocked the Lord of Cinder off his feet! Titus recited the rule, then immediately countered by claiming he wasn't alone in the forge now and that Art was here. Artorias' expression was frozen as his mind crashed under the innocent logic of a child. Titus' excuse sounded exactly like something he would've said when he was a pup and getting into all sorts of misadventures and hijinks. Well shoot, looked like the lad was pretty savvy after all.

Seeing how happy and blissfully innocent Titus was to be here, all Artorias could do was stare back at the boy, the corners of his lips twitching up into a smile as his serious expression broke. Dammit, he'd gotten him! A chuckle rose from the dire brute's chest, turning into a full belly laugh. "All right, wise guy, you got me there. But no more sneaking in here on your own until you're older, okay? It's very cool in here, but everything is very dangerous if you're not careful with it." Walking over to one of the workbenches, Artorias fetched a piece of cocobolo wood wrapped in leather he'd been preparing to make a handle out of and handed it to Titus, trading him for the sword. "Here. You can chew on that. We don't want to be playing with anything sharp until you're big enough to pick it up."

Artorias lifted the sword up and brought it over to the nearby grindstone. He'd left it out after heat treating it to sharpen it and get it edged and ready for battle, so thankfully Titus wouldn't have been able to cut himself on the dull steel. Still, he didn't want to be teaching his nephew bad weapons safety habits. "Would you like to help me finish this blade, Titus?" Art offered, motioning for the pup to come join him and pointing out a pedal at the base of the grindstone. "Push down on that with all your might over and over. That'll start this stone wheel turning and I'll show you how we sharpen a sword." There were many parts of forging and honing a blade that were especially dangerous, but this was a fairly harmless way for his nephew to help him if he insisted on staying in the forge.

"Artorias Carpathius" | "Carpathian"