| Forging The Blade pt 1 |
| How long it had been since Argyyle had been stranded, he hadnt bothered to keep track of. He had given up hope that his father would come to rescue him, and had began plotting how he would avenge himself on both his brother and his father. He would become strong, independant of anyone. He could not let himself weaken and contact his sister, for he MUST do this himself. He had smoked as much meat from the thing he could, and had a hefty supply. Argyyle had searched around untill he found a medium sized stream. He had then taken cover plates from his speeder and fashoned a container, which he burried in the mud near the stream. Argyyle figured that should keep the meat cool, and any scavangers out. He had constructed a crude hut from sticks he had found, and some of the huge leaves that were abundant in the area. He had started a fire by sprinkling a few drops of the last couple of liters of fuel that remained on some wood, and using his "sword" to strike sparks off of a rock. He had carefully husbanded that fire, keeping it going day and night. He looked at the smoking racks, with hanging fish and small animals he had managed to catch. That, along with the meat from the thing he had killed, should see him through his next task. He just hoped he was not interrupted, for if he was, all his work would be for nothing. Argyyle looked at the crude forge he had constructed from rocks and mud. He had soaked a large supply with the last of his speeder fuel, hoping that would make the fire burn hotter, He had constructed a very crude bellows using some convienently shaped panels and the rubber-like material of his seat. There had been much more than he had thought there would be, and he might be able to use the rest for something else. He was using the motor itself for an anvil. It had been a royal BITCH to get that to his new home, the wood poles he had used for skids catching on the jungle floor as often as not. He found a sturdy rod, and an oval metal part that felt heavy enough, and had a hole in it. He had mated the rod and part together, and formed a hammer. The rod had regular holes along its length, and he had used 2 of these, along with pins he had salvaged to anchor the part to the rod. He had used the "hammer" to pound and shape 2 support spars with holes in the right places into tongs. He was rather proud of the tongs, as they provided a sort of test for the hammer. To quench the finished peice, he had searched around, untill he found a large diameter tree trunk about 3.5 meters in length. He had been very glad it was close by, for it had been even more difficult to move than the motor. He had burned out the stump along its length, producing a hole about a half meter deep and a little over a meter long. Before he had found this place, while he was butchering the beast, he had drained the blood into some empty containers he kept in the storage compartment of his speeder, along with some nutrition bars, a canteen, and some tools for effecting basic repairs (fried wiring, loose bolts and the like) He had poured the blood of the creature into these containers, as well as into the one empty fuel cell. The other had had a few liters of fuel, so he could not use that one. He estimated these would fill the hollow in the log about half way. not as much as he had hoped, but maybe it would be enough. The front plate of his vehical, by far the single longest on the little craft, he pounded into a rough half pipe, open at either end. This he would nestle in the coals and cinders to melt the claws once he had broken them. The entire reason he was going through all this effort was his "sword." He just couldnt seem to put an edge on the damn thing. Not one that would stay, at any rate, and the claws he had kept from the beast had never seemed to loose theirs. They were also metallic in nature, and he thought he might be able to break them up and melt them into the edge of his blade. His education at home had been excellent, but he had been allowed to study anything that interested him in addition to his regular instruction. The construction of ancient armor of all kinds had fascinated him, thought he didnt personally care for mandalorian armor. The creation of weapons had held an eq ual attraction, and as a result he did know the basics behind metal working. In theory, that is. He knew his "forge" was far from ideal, but he hoped he might be able to do SOMETHING. It was time. Everything stood ready. Argyyle began by covering the claws in the remaining seat material, holding them with the tongs, and smashing them one by one. The were brittle, and broke cleanly, though not easily. He had had to use far more force to hit them than he had thought he would. a good sign. He looked at the trough, and saw that it was glowing bright red. Excellent. He removed the trough from the fire, and set it on the ground, lining the pieces of claw up so they were overlapping. He then replaced the trough with the tongs, and began pumping the bellows, praying to the force that everything would hold together. He was surprised when the claws began to melt fairly soon after being placed on the flame. Even more surprised that he was right, and that they would melt at all. The claws melted into a long, thin line (there had been 20 of them total, five on each paw, about 15 cm in length, and about a half cm wide at the base) about the thickness of a finger, and nearly a meter in length. He quickly removed the trough from the flames, and took it over to the stream, dunking it to cool the liquid material, and give it some rigidity. When the hissing had stopped, he took the trough from the stream, and carefully removed the crude ingot. He did not know why it had shaped itself into a perfectly round bar, rather than spread out flat as he had expected, but it had. He plunged the rod into the coals again, heating it untill it was gloing cherry once more, then placed it on his "anvil," he began pounding it flat with the hammer. The rod seemed to resist, almost as if it resented its current shape and was being stubborn about being given a new one. it took him several heatings to get it pounded flat, about 6 cm wide. he then pounded it over onto itself, making a long v. He hoped to fit his current blade into the v, and heat them together, pounding them and heating them, folding them untill they merged. |