~~~~~
\"A long time ago, nobody remembers clearly, lived a man called Andyus Calaris in a settlement called Shiil. It was a human town, with only a few number of inhabitants. No one has ever counted them, but according to the stories about it, it might have not been far more than one hundred. This small village was located on a plateau in the Shiilea-mountains, in sight of the very top. The village entrance was a few hundred feet away from an ancient path, leading to the top of one of those mountains, called Fyallo. Many didn\'t return, because climbing the top was a dangerous thing to do... not only because of the rough path.
Some times, adventurers entered the town, in search of a place to stay at night, on their way to a risky search for very rare minerals and crystals on the Fyallo, which they could sell in Hydlaa for astronomous prices, since those minerals were said to five smithed items special powers. No one knows something precise, as many years have passed since the last wanderer climbed the Fyallo\'s top.
However, Andryus Calaris lived in Shiil, working as weaponmaker. He smithed iron spears and cut bows from oak\'s wood, which people used to hunt in the surrounding woods. The climate never changed much, most of the time it was rather cold, yet sunny and it hardly ever rained and never snowed.
One day, or we better say night, because the moon already glinsed over the mountain\'s edge on the horizon, a young man knocked at the door of Andryus\' smithing hut. He was one of those who came to risk their lifes, in exchange for possibly being extremely rich when surving the journey. When the man, whose name was Darrin, left again, early in the morning, Andryus had the strange feeling, that he would meet him again.
For the next days, Andryus carried on with his work, Copper, tin and iron ore was easy to find an mine around Shiil, so the hardest job was it, to create the weapon itself, and not to get the raw materials. Many years of experience reflected in everything Andryus made. Whether his perfectly shaped and sharpened iron spears, which flew in a perfect curve, or his oak bows, which allowed extremely precise and far bows let anyone doubt that he must have been one of the greatest smiths the land has ever seen.
On an early morning, the sky just turned from a very dark blue into a pinkish glow, Talyus was on the way to one of those big rocks, where he could mine iron ore very fast. He was just about to swing his pickaxe into the rock, which was still wet and glittering from condensation, when suddenly he heard a scream.
He turned to the right, where he had heard the voice from, and saw a person in a robe running away in panic, followed by two guys in shabby leather armor, one swinging a broadsword, the other one a dagger. After a second, he recognized the voice. It was from the man he had offered a bed a week before, and it seemed like his followers were about to rob him. Andryus took his pickaxe, and followed them. After a hill, he saw Darrin fighting with the two bandits in a dead end. The young man was elegantly swinging his old and rusty sabre against the sword and dagger, just trying to defend himself, and slowly being pushed back to the wall. Andryus was still sprinting towards the battle, when finally one of the two bandits crushed his dagger into Darrin\'s body, just above the rips. The wanderer sank to the ground, still swinging his weapon with this right arm, but he was chanceless. When the guy with the dagger was just about to strike again, he was heavily hit into he side with Andryus\' pickaxe. The swordfighter turned around in surprise about the new combatant while the other one rolled around on the ground and tried to crawl away.
With a fast strike, Andryus smashed the sword out of the robber\'s hand, and pushed him to the ground with a powerful punch. Having lost his weapon, also the second evildoer decided to gain distance and fled into the wood.
The smith stepped over to Darrin, who was powerless leaning on a rock, heavily bleeding from the side and on his arms. Screams of pain left his mouth, when Andryus tried to lift him up.
\"No... leave it... please...\"
\"But...\"
\"It has... no... sense, anyway....\"
\"Please...\"
While blood was rinning also from his nose now, he continued, breathing heavily.
\"I cannot see you... anymore, but... I.. know.. who you are. Please,... take a look into... this small bag..., please...\"
\"It\'s a ruby....\"
\"I\'ve found it... in a cave near... the top.... and since my senses... are fading... away...\"
\"Whom shall I bring it, please tell me...\"
\"Oh..., my dear, good-hearted sir,... I wish that you keep it... I have no-one to give this to... so the last man to... do... me something good... shall have it. I wish... you...\"
He sacked to the side, and was dead.
\"Farewell, brave adventurer.\"
Andryus gently closed the young man\'s eyes forever, took the blood-smeared little bag out of his hands and put it in his pocket, then shouldered the corpse and headed homewards.
The next days, Andryus spent his time with smithing a small iron gravecross and engraved a sentence into it\'s middle. \"A brave man can disappear, but his brave soul will never be forgotten\". He placed on the headsite of the wanderer\'s grave, at the graveyard of Shiil.
Many days passed, when Andryus decided to look at the gem again. He slowly pulled it out of the bag, which has been cleared from blood trails a long time ago, and hold it into the sunlight that entered his hut\'s window. The orange color reflected in many thousand poins inside the small ruby, and it seemed as if a fire was burning inside it. Like a prisma, this mineral split the light and threw it on all walls of the room. The orange shine of the stone made it look as if gold was glittering all over the walls. Andryus decided to embed this stone in a sword\'s grasp, and it should be the finest sword he has ever made so far. And that was what he did. After days of picking and refining the purest raw materials he could find, he started smithing for more than week, without leaving the hut.
The outcome was a sword of astonishing beauty, and yet unkown powers. The sword glowed in the night, and filled the room with an ambient orange lightm which looked as if the fire-place was lightened. Also, the sword seemed to burn an enemie\'s skin, if he was just near the blade.
Here the legends and tales stop telling more about it, than vague asumptions. Fact is, that years later, something strange started going on in Shiil and its surroundings. Dangerous creatures appeared, that have never been seen there before, and even less wanderers ever returned from the Fyallo\'s top, and those who did told horrifying stories. As time passed by, hardy any more wanderers took the path up the mountain, and hunting became a dangerous need for the Shiils. More and more people disappeared in the nights, patrouling town guards were soon found brutally slayed to death.
So people started leaving the place, wandering downwards to spread all over the land and find a new home.
Andryus, being far over 90 years old, stayed. No one knows why, it may have been because he was too much bound to his hometown, or because he was just too old and frail for such a journey.
His sons and daughters and their families also joined those who decided to leave the Fyallo forever. Some of them knew about his fireblade, and with the people, the legend about it spreaded throughout the country and is also known and retold in Hydlaa. Yet, Andryus\' fate and end is unknown, still we know that the Calaris line still exists. Today\'S Shiil is a ghost town, consisting of ruins inhabited by dangerous species. The fireblade is ought to be somewhere there, yet no one trying to find it has ever returned, and people today avoid the Fyallo and the area around it. Too many horrifying stories and too many lost adventurers have made this mountain a place of fear, danger and darkness.
But who knows, maybe someday a brave hero will be able to find the legendary Fireblade of Andryus Calaris.\"
~~~~~
The old man finishes his story, yeels for the bartender and orders another mug of beer for himself and his young mate sitting on the other side of the table.
