The tattoo artist was a lovely young woman, who said she had been learning about tattoo art since she was 12, after her sudden interest in her father's work, she couldn't have been much older than us, but she promised she was as good as most professionals, and that her father would be back in soon, but until then, she could do some of us. I volunteered to go first, and sat down cautiously sat down, asking if there was any chance the ink poisoning me, which she laughed at and replied with the fact that hundreds people have been through here, and all of them were fine, as her father was a professional and trained well, using proper equipment.

I asked for a knife to go up the inside of my right forearm, inscribed with Jacob along the length, which made me feel even closer to the person I left behind. She agreed and started, drawing the blade exactly like how I had designed my knives, which was a bit scary, but I was willing to go along with it, until she asked it I wanted colour on it, such as red on the gem, which she had drawn at the end of the hilt, which scared me to the point I wanted to just sprint out of there and never come back, but I stayed, calmly replying with the fact that I would like if it was just in one colour, which she seemed fine with, and finishing off my tattoo just as her father walked in, who, instead of taking from her daughter, simply moved to the cubicle next to her and asking who was next.

I paid the girl and then moved to the back of the room, with the girl calling after me, asking me to keep a special cast on it, which apparently was unique to their practice, so I let her place a special case over the top of the image, and told me that I would still be able to do anything with that arm, I just needed to be mindful of the case, and to remove it after two or three days. I thanked her and said goodbye to the rest of the group before jogging all the way back to the mansion, heading straight up stairs and smashing the hammer into the metal within seconds of entering the forge, smelting helped clear my head, which was very helpful in this sort of situation, as I was on the point of crying. I decided that I would finish all the knives, and then do the gemcraft, before realizing that I would need to reheat the knives to be able to properly fix the gemstones into place, so I started the slow and emotional process of making the knives to their entirety. I finished three before needing to sit down and calm down, I then continued, working as hard and as fast as I could, while still producing things to an outstanding quality. It was a race against time, both against the others and myself, but somehow I managed to finish it no more than five minutes before the other eight streamed through the door downstairs, to find me there, ready to hold any excess baggage, which there was a bit.

These guys proved to me for the umpteenth time how good friends they are to me, because somehow they had collaborated to give me my very own red diamond ring, which went well with a lot of my knives, I was so thrilled with it that I sprinted back upstairs and started planning a presents for each of them. which I then started working on until about 6:00, when Sling came up and said I was supposed to be cooking tonight. I apologized and left me projects in the forge, but before I left, I shut the metal blind on the door, locked the door with a key that I had found in the forge, and asked Sling to make sure no one enters the forge, as I have a surprise that I don't want it to be ruined. I then turned and ran downstairs, where it took me about twenty minutes to set up a roast, with a vegetarian roast also made up and placed into the oven, in case people didn't want to eat meat, but I added a giant amount of vegetables, because I was through with the lack of the greens we had been having for the past three nights.

I set an alarm on my phone for one minute before the roast was due to be completed, giving me one second to close up and run down 137 stairs, which wouldn't be an easy feat for normal people, but I wasn't by any means normal, so that was alright. I climbed back up the stairs as fast as I was able to, and re entered the forge, and worked for what seemed like a minute, until I was jolted back into reality by the alarm beep, just as the final hammer stroke came down, which was so coincidental I stood for two seconds, just staring at my work, before closing down and taking the stairs four at a time down to the kitchen, where I whipped the roasts and their vegetable companions out of the oven, and then took them and laid them in the centre of the dining table. I then went upstairs and grabbed my presents, then came down, setting the table, placing placards with people's names on them, and placing their corresponding presents on their seats. I then went and called dinner, and had everyone come down, and as they pulled out their chairs, they gasped when they saw their gifts.

I had made each person their weapons, changed from the styles at C.L.O.U.D. by what they had complained about when we had trained with each other all those years ago, or as it felt. I had made accessories, such as finding wooden staffs for the polearms, and hand-weaving the material used in the hand grips of the swords, and the entire weapon that belonged to Sling.

Everyone stared at me for several seconds, so gobsmacked by my work that I became uncomfortable, bringing their attention instead to dinner, which snapped everyone out of the trance, and made a rushing sound towards the food, some people taking the meat, others taking the vegetarian, and everyone taking a large amount of vegetables, to the point where they were all gone.

The dinner was great, even better than I had expected it to turn out. The carrots were at just the right stage where they were soft, but not mushy, their orange colour almost throwing a different mood through our group, who was so used to having green vegetables, that this sudden addition of colour was completed out of the blue and unexpected. The beans were done to the point where they tasted lovely and fresh, but still tasted cooked at the same time, which was an interesting blend of texture and flavour, giving off the more amazing taste, which made your mouth water for more. The potatoes tasted like they were from a restaurant that specialized in potatoes, purely because of the amazing taste, which sent shivers down the spine when tasted. The beetroot was another dash of colour which was well received, as it blended nicely with the rest of the dish and left a satisfying purple mark on the plate, which made me feel like a vandal, which wasn't necessary a bad thing in my mind. The meat tasted so good, that it was clear that it was everyone's favourite part of the meal, taking as much as they could fit on their plate, which was a lot. The vegetarian roast was just as good, with people turning to that when there was no more meat left to take. All in all, it was well received, but conversation started drifting from food to fashion shortly afterwards, with everyone saying that they were going to take me into the city tomorrow, to walk through shops for better clothes, which they hastily added would be able to be worn in whatever weather and still conceal 30 knives, which was a humorous thing to even think about when you looked at me. I was a scrawny but tall kid, with no muscles to speak of, and such a thin frame people have often asked if I had eating disorders. Finding clothing of what they were promising was about as likely as finding a particular needle in a stack of other needles, impossible without 10 years of spare time behind you.

But they insisted so I agreed, doing the calculations and finding that this would mean they were more likely to leave me alone, no such luck, the girls went off and whispered about which outlets would have the best clothes for me, while the boys came over and started asking if I was able to make them things to give to their girlfriends, and if they could pretend that they had done all the work. I waved them off by agreeing and, noticing that everyone had finished diner, began clearing away plates and platters, which left me walking towards the kitchen with a lot of things bundled underneath my arms, which made me feel like a pack pony, which wasn't too bad, but I could have still used all the help I could get, which would have been a lot if the girls weren't too busy working out the next bit of fashion for myself, and the boys working out the next way that they could impress their girlfriends.

I didn't mind too much, I simply washed up, dried and put away, then went up onto the roof. The moon had just risen over the city, illuminating the sea out in the harbour, which made me stare at it and remind me sadly of my days at C.L.O.U.D. when I would sneak up onto the roof almost every night and stare at the sea. But those days were gone, I wasn't that same kid anymore, I was a changed individual, ready to make my change in anyway I was allowed to, or not allowed to, whichever worked out best for me.

As I stared out, I didn't realize that the rest of The Storm had come out behind me ready to surprise me yet again. Raven almost killed me by pushing my shoulders slightly too hard, making me lean dangerously close to the edge, which would have meant a twenty foot drop to the bottom, not a trip I was willing to make.

I turned around to find a school bag had been thrown next to me before everyone had scattered. The bag painfully reminded me of Jacob, to the point where I almost cried, but I held on, staying strong against it. I picked it up and opened it, inside was a black and crimson trench coat, coupled with several button up black shirts, both short and long black pants, and one pair of black flats, and one pair of crimson ones, amazing work up into each thing was amazing, but that wasn't all.

Below this was a whole heap of pins and paper for drawing and writing on, as well as a few new books. I was so amazed from all this that I wanted to go and hug each and every one of them, but knowing them they would be in their rooms, pretending to be asleep just so they didn't have to deal with me wanting to hug them, so I settled for just sitting and appreciating the clothes and utensils for a moment, before heading off to bed, which I didn't want to do, but I didn't really get a choice on when the curfew started, which, according to the rest of The Storm, was right now, and so I respected their judgment, and walked slowly to my room, where I found Adrianus, curled up, fast asleep, I got changed into my pajamas and climbed into bed, taking out the first book I saw in the bag and starting to read it. As I tried to open the book to page one, I noticed a piece of paper sticking out the top about halfway through the book, making me immediately think that they had left the receipt still in the book, but I was mistaken.

It was a note, written by Katana saying 'see you tomorrow out the front, ready by 8:00 sharp' so I set my alarm and went straight to bed.