EarthBorn: First Days

3rd Day 5th Quarter

13 Quarters till sky change

Keep the fires fed burning hot as the sun, keep the coal going in and the ingots melting down, Wayke keeps the men rotating in shifts powering the new industrial works constantly, the huge cauldron filled up with alloy bricks and smelted, charcoal from the second fire pit consistently added to transform the iron to hard steel with two seesawing a hide fan once used to cool the shepherds cool they keep the oxygen flowing in and the flames roaring , with Earth hearts knowledge the native leap two eras of trial and error metallurgy, the smelting pot once glowing red and bubbling rolled over to release it’s steaming steel liquid that runs into the trenched moulds like a fire snake running a gauntlet, a snowflake of flame it fills the shape highlighting a complex star with the cauldron at the centre. The metal oozes into the shapes helped along by stone tip rakes, once accomplished revealing swords spear tips and a shield all connected tip to point to edge, they even it out making sure no part is shallow or thinner, two hundred strong the mould covers the entire training square arming two hundred with each pour at a time, with all settled children bearing buckets of water from the pond skip over the scalding steel onto each space dousing it sending huge clouds of steam into the air and steels sizzle cracking...

Wayke walks over to the now cooled mould, he bends grasping a shield from underneath and bends it upwards snapping it off from the star...

“ Do as I did, snap them all apart then lay them onto the second fires embers”....a young native boy asks freely from an blind spot unnoticed...

“why do you want to melt them when you just made them?”...Wayke walks over to a boulder that only shows it’s crown, he raises a spear tip above his head then attempts to thrust the tip against the rock shattering the untempered steel into hundreds of fragments...

“When you forge steel weapons you must reheat it to temper it hard and bind the atoms, or it will shatter like glass, no good in a battle let me tell you”...

“Are your weapons made this way too?”...asks the naïve child native, Wayke holds his axe shaft in front and brings it slowly to life, the edge sharp eternally, felled too many to count and bears markings who’s meanings are lost even to its wielder...

“...our weapons were forged from something only a few could ever manipulate, Centre core, the heart of our planet, they only respond to who the weapon was made and those equal and next of kin...if victory should welcome us it is only your name that will remain when such weapons as these reign supreme here , you are all many years from such things so best to fill your head with what’s important now young man”...

“One day I want to be a knight like you and slay the old gods!”... Wayke chuckles to himself at the boys enthusiasm...

“ I am afraid you are many years from that too! What is your name young man?”...

“Cleaver, Naws Cleaver and I’m 8 turns old”...

“well Naws cleaver, pray we are victorious in every fight from here so you will one day not have too face the reality and horrors of war, they are not for those of feint heart” ...Wayke turns his face away... “ They will.....haunt you forever”...

“ Do they haunt you then?”... Wayke stutters but cannot answer, a voice calls out in a stern manner saving the perfect warriors face...

“Cleaver!...Stop questioning Wayke he is going to be your commander one day, respect starts at birth young brother”... It is rift who calls to Cleaver, Naws turns to see him then runs straight over to greet him...

“I’m sorry brother, I was just curious”... Rift bends down to talk face to face with his younger sibling...

“ Don’t bother the commander with questions he has enough to deal with, you should be helping the others sort the stones from the sacks!...go on now!”...

“I Forgot what ones I’m supposed to get and the others make fun of me when I ask!”...

“Remember what I’ve told you to say”...they both recite together...

“We may have nothing but, only those who exist without can grow to the best they can be!...now go one red blue and white ones you need!...go....now!”...Cleaver runs off towards the barracks jumping obstacles almost as well as his older sibling, Rift opens up...

“You have to excuse him, he’s a curious child but he means no harm”...

“Hes very...intuitive for someone so young , he is your brother you say?”...Rifts expression turns troubled, Wayke sensing Rifts moral fracture...

“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to pry”...Wayke condolences...

“No it’s fine, he is not my brother, I took him in when our village was destroyed , he was only a baby in his sleep when the rock stacks attacked our village and killed both his parents and my own with them, , i took him in and decided to make him my own... To share the burden of loss, he thinks we share the same parents, i grieve for his and never had the time to say farewell to my own!”...Waykes heart warms and his fingertips tingle...

“ Even where I come from Rift It was rare to find someone who would do such a thing for another, you should be very proud of yourself.”...

“ I didn’t know if it was right I should tell him so young so i decided not to, when he finds out the truth, he will either love me or kill me.”...

“ In time you will know but when it arrives you must allow him to make that choice unhindered, we must get moving we do not have much time left”... the pair head back to the barracks to check on the progress...

When they enter the barracks they Find the new forged armaments starting to pile around the perimeter, several natives are sitting around with stones sharpening the edges of the tempered swords and spears giving then a sharp an edge as they can before moving onto the next, Wayke picks up one of the finished articles and runs his finger up the killing edge, a fine edge that slices his index, he picks up a shield and faces Rift with both spear and shield in hand, Anuk approaches to watch as Wayke places the shield on the ground face up, he assumes a finishing blow position, raising the tip high like a dagger he thrust it downwards hard and fast the alloy, holds true it passes into the steel shield face with complete ease, he leave the spear imbedded and turns to the awestruck natives that stand in watch...

“That is why we temper alloy weapons, it makes them stronger” ...the men stop to appreciate the shield and respect the one who showed them, Anuk now steps up to address Wayke, he raises his hands with a gem in one hand and shaven wood shaft, unable to speak fluent the same tongue he proceeds to push the tip of the shaft against the large diamond indicating there’s no way to connect the two to form an arrow, Wayke takes both from Anuk and begins pondering, orating the shaft in thought he spots a Hillsiders knife as he works and walks over to ask for it from the painted warrior, the sharp glass like material is set in a flexible split wood handle bound with twine and coated in a thick adhesive rich navy blue, Anuk immediately catches on and leaves the barracks hastily while Wayke and Rift await him to return...

“ We cannot attach the stone like this, they need to be fragmented into shards” says Wayke tossing the cannonball sized diamond palm to palm...

“Let’s just smash them with hammers”...Wayke laughs at Rifts enthusiasm...

“These are diamonds, big diamonds ,one of the hardest natural formations in the universe, the ruby reds and sapphire blues are next , you cannot simply smash them apart....but you have given me an idea”...Anuk reappears and jogs back over bearing a mossy mass in his hand, he hands it to Wayke then grinds his right hand against his left palm..

“You grind...grind it down?...Anuk nods up and down making a jittering sound gesturing Waykes correct...

“Rift I need as much of this moss as possible , take some of the children outside the gates, do not enter the woods and only pick around the wall, Anuk I need you to get some rope and a boulder and bring it to me”...Rift gathers a few bystanders and takes them outside the wall to gather as much of the mossy weed as they can never far from the walls shadow, Rift stands guard staring into the pitch dark wood while the children scatter, picking handfuls of the weed and begin dropping bundles of the plant onto the middle of a large square cloth that lay flat on the floor between the opened gates, a few minutes pass and the energetic children’s pile begins to mount up, Rift turns his head back to check on the gathering when a sound rustles from the trees bringing his eyes about back onto the darkness, he looks hard but can see nothing, he can sense they are being watched and calls back to the children to get back inside the keep...

“Ok that’s plenty get back inside , quickly now!”...he looks into the canopy and catches a glimpse of something, the moons rays revealed the stalkers position, a voice from right behind Rift scares him...

“There’s three of them...up there in the trees”...Wayke has slowly got close to him...

“How can you tell, I only see one! Even that is only a glimmer gifted by the moons...

“ A skill picked up many centuries ago.....come let us return inside, we have much work to do”...Wayke guides Rift towards the keep gate and signals the keeper to close the gate turning to look upon the spies once more as he stands centre of the closing gateway, they are no longer hidden...

They walk back to the barracks and all hands not resting are grinding away the moss in large cooking pots and women stamping them down grinding hard, adding a little liquid to assist the breakdown it forms a clear black ooze in the bowls tacky and thick, Anuk returns with some of his people bearing the boulder as requested and a long length of woven rope strong as arachnid web to scale...

“Perfect , take those over to the wall with some readied moss and the sorted stones”...with Wayke leading them they all pick up and carry the necessary pieces over to the wall, the huge footing stones wide and igneous pultrude into the keeps grounds deep a perfect platform for sandwiching between...

“Cover the top of that footing stone with glue and lay the biggest of the stones onto it so they are tightly fixed, Anuk take the rope up to the wall and throw it down when your ready, take your men with you”...Rift is confused ...

“what are you going to do...” Wayke smirks and says..

“smash them!”... They watch as the gluing of the grounded stone comes to a halt, Anuk now atop the wall tosses the rope down and Rift ties it to a sling around the boulder ...

“Ok Anuk, raise it up” ...The Hillsiders being to hoist the boulder up to head height, then above that to a great height above their heads at arms length...”HOLD IT THERE” ...Orders Wayke...”Now do the same to the under face of that stone”...the two natives apprehensively get under the free hanging boulder and hastily smear the bottom facet with the black ooze and clad with stones swiftly moving out from underneath...

“All the way now! Pull it up!...one diamond conquers another Rift” ...with the diamond crusted boulder twenty feet up Wayke tells everyone to take cover and shield their eyes and they all scramble for cover with no extra encouragement to do so...

“DROP IT!”...the Hillsiders let the rope go and the diamond faced boulder falls with huge force down onto the stone crusted footing stone, the sound rings out aloud with a almighty crunch, one hundred stain glasses breaking at once amongst a mushroom of particles...

The dust settles and Anuk and his men raise the stone back up so those down below can inspect the results, Rift walks over to the foot stone and picks up a shard glued flat to the top...

“It works...it actually worked haha”... He raises a perfect yet jagged stone shard slim and dynamic, everyway beautiful with a killer property...

“Keep this up , I want those two sacks finished by the morning when your done go and get some rest, but keep the workers rotating through the night, I’m going to check on captain Gore...has anyone seem him?”...everyone present nods indicating they have not seen the Captain so Wayke leaves to go in search of the AWOL captain leaving Rift to finish the shard creation...