Completed A little bit of Smithing (Kaili and Smithis)

[Kaili]

--the 4th of Spring, 513AV--

Kaili was hunched over a small scrap of paper, and holding a stick charcoal. To any who looked once, it would seem obvious that she was drawing something, but if you watched for a while, you would notice that there was nothing on the page, and Isur not once moved her hand. She had been like this for the better part of an hour, thinking hard on a design for her next creation. A man had requested a mirror with an ornamented border, and it was this that Kaili was working hard on. She had the mirror, and she had a backing (which was easy), and she knew what she would make the border out of: bent wire. But the design for the border was the hardest part, and was just not coming. The experience was similar to a writers block, but instead with crafting. Once, the woman stood up and wandered around the room, moving towards the forge and away. The desk she was working at was in a large room, with a forge on one side, tools lining two of the walls, and the last wall held this desk and a large opening to the outside. The forge was flaming, and actually also being used. Kaili's mother was working in the same room, in silence, so the brainstorming was in unison to the clang of metal on metal. Some would find this noise irritating, annoying, but Kaili found it soothing and that it helped her think.

Eventually, the Isur gave a small, rare smile, and finally began to draw on the paper. Others might have given a small whoop of joy, or at least said something, but this was not Kaili's way. She could be said to be emotionless, boring almost, and it was quite true. She held no surprises, except perhaps that such creativity lived in such a bland person. Once the drawing was finished, studied, changed slightly, then studied again, Kaili stood up. She picked up a hammer that had been sitting next to her, and went to one one of the walls and took the various tools down that she knew she would need for her work. Also from that wall she grabbed a roll of wire she had made the day previously, in preparation for this project. Moving over to the forge, she put down her tools at another work space, since there was two there, so at least two smiths could work at any given time. Her mother said not a word, but silently continued her work, occasionally dousing the metal she was forming. Kaili took a large pair of tongs, and massive wire cutters, and snapped off a meter long section of the thick wire. She held it carefully over the flames of the forge with the tongs, arm stretched straight, for several minutes. By the end, her arm was shaking slightly from the effort, but she was used to the feeling and recovered quickly. Grabbing a pair of two smaller tongs from next to her, she began to bend the wire. At first she bent the wire in four places, and checked that it was the same size as the outside of the mirror. Seeing that the ends did not connect, she bent it again, this time in the correct places. She heated the two ends of the wire she had been working on, now a rectangle, and forced them together. Once they had stuck, she doused the border in a trough and put it to the side. She repeated the process with a shorter wire, cutting and bending it, until she had a smaller frame to fit into the bigger one. Now for the design. The wires she cut then were much shorter than before, and created into more circular patterns. Doing this was a lot more challenging, and the Isur had to scrap several sections to re-melt them again.

Kail’s work continued like this for quite a while. She and her mother worked for a few hours, until the elder glanced at a large clock on the wall, packed up her things and left. Kaili had finished the other project recently, and was now casually working on some small, personal projects she had been working on the past week. One in particular was a small figuring of a dog, with the beginnings of etchings on it. She worked on engraving more images and shapes on it for quite some time, leaving the forge to die down. She had picked up this skill as a hobby rather than having been taught it, since neither of her parents practiced it. Since it was self-taught, she was not very good at it, so worked very slowly and carefully in order to avoid mistakes. Kaili made grooves around the dog’s eyes, to outline them, and carved little holes to make pupils. She then outlined the ears and made a few designs on them, attempting to repeat the pattern. Looking back on her work, the Isur noticed the eyes were quite shaky, and one pupil deeper than the other. The second ear of the dog was much nicer than the first, obviously showing that she getting better at the art. Sighing deeply, as she didn’t like creating things that did not look nice, Kaili set the dog onto the desk she had been working on earlier. It wasn’t like she was going to sell it or something. The figurine was just for practice. She consoled herself, but she still couldn’t shake off the feeling that she had failed slightly. Deciding that it was time to stop her carving practice, the Isur moved on to other work. She glanced up at the clock after a while, and frowned sadly. It was almost time for Smithis to come for his lessons. She had to stop her work...

[Smithis]

True to his ways as any man could get, Smithis aimed to be inside the forge at the first chime of his lesson. Some could even argue that he was a mere tick or two away from making a perfectly correct appearance. They wouldn't be too wrong either. It was in the man's nature to be punctual, and Kaili seemed to know this as she greeted him with a bland gaze. Even though he knew this transaction was beneficial to both of them, Smithis couldn't shake off the fact that she seemed quite sad to have him arrive so early. To her he was likely of as little importance as impure metal, she'd still smite it, sure... yet it was not where her heart followed.

Raising the crimson arm, he'd calmly announce his presence in perfect quiet before turning towards Kaili's mother and bowing as slight as he could respectively keep it. She didn't appear to be looking, but he was certain she saw him. There was no need for acknowledgement, so he quickly turned his full attention to the other smith present, small daughter. It was a shame to be taught by what Valon would try and woo if he was present, but it was yet another imperfect feeling that he had to hammer away from his skull in order to fulfill given purpose.

Smithis knew better than to try and verbalize his interactions with the woman. She was much too high in her own stalactites to get too excited about someone as grounded as he had been during their time together. The only time the girl ever allowed emotion was next to a forge, doing something a bit more inspirational than training a fool to the art. He'd endure and await instructions. She might've been less than eager to deal with the social side that was the male, but she was quite an able smith and the student had no doubt she'd find a purpose for him sooner than a question would part his lips. She only needed to say, and he'd obey until such a time he was good enough to have her listen to him. Such was the path to betterment, his father had taught him that one long talk, and several years ago.

[Kaili]

Kaili already had a plan in mind for today's lesson, and admittedly, it was a good one. She had spent almost all their time together teaching him the basics of smithing, and creating plain things like tools, or other simple metal creations. She had spent quite a while explaining how to build a forge, and another long while about sanding the metal until smooth. She had never really gone into detail with the artistic side, and had a bad feeling she'd created an appearance of blandness in the art of smithing. Today she'd teach him what she had actually been working on before, manipulating wire and bars into the correct shape. Not really feeling like spending an extra day before creating the implements they would need to do this, she had just created an extra large batch of wire when preparing it for her mirror work.

She looked at Smithis and felt a small twinge of guilt. Their relationship had never been good, and even though they'd been teacher and student for a while now, they hadn't really gotten to know each other well. Maybe this lesson, being interesting as it was, would help them get closer. It was probably best to include him into the group of people she was close to, however small it was. Really, all that tiny collection included was her mother, father and sister, so it was extremely exclusive. She had never intended on expanding it until now, hoping to live a quiet, busy life with her family, but having a student was never on her list of expectations. At first, it had been slightly annoying, since the Isur disliked anything new, but she grew to enjoy teaching others, and Smithis was a very good student.

"Today we will be working on the artistic side of black smithing. I shall be showing you how to manipulate wire into various designs, and you will soon have a project using this skill. Now, first. Get the equipment you will need" She informed him bluntly. The last statement was a test, one that happened at the beginning of every lesson. It was to remind him of the different uses of different tools, though it wasn't very hard if working on the same thing for a while. Today however, he would be forced to remember the tools used for wire. It included something they rarely used, the thin pliers, and she hoped he would remember that as it was one of the most important aspects. She also was looking out to see if he remembered to bring down the wire creator, which was a very strange rack, with holes in it growing increasingly smaller. It was unnecessary for what she had planned today, but it still was included with the subject of wire using and creation. She stood by the forge, arms crossed, and waited for him to complete the first task.

[Smithis]

As soon as she looked at him, she already looked like she had a plan – which was good. She seemed purposeful, for lack of a better compliment. Her demanding presence got on his nerves, yes, but at least it symbolized she wasn't here to waste his time. It was only proper for him to return the favor and immediately head for the tools. However what initial drive he had upon hearing her request perished when faced with too much choice. Give him a forge hammer, and an anvil.... and he'd.... he'd... ah, stupid wire! Still if he had anything better to do, he'd be doing it already.

The less important tools like those wire related all looked pretty much the same to him, and he couldn't remember any of them off the top of his head, so he stood for a moment thinking. What he got was a diversion if anything, pretending to cough in his hand abrupty, he was trying to give himself more time to think things through. They certainly needed the wire creator, as the name implied... but besides that there were also some sort of pliers, there must've been. The problem was, Smithis didn't know how this item either looked or was called exactly. Instead of being picky, he grabbed anything that didn't immediately associate him with some other aspect of the art and headed for Kaili with arms full of tools and trinkets. The thin pliers were certainly in there somewhere, but by Izurdin, half the known world was.

Feeling more like a fool with each step, he'd rest the tools to the side of the workstation next to his teacher. God be gracious she'd be thinking about his creative initiative instead of what a fool she had for a student. Yet he couldn't really admit that he didn't outright know this answer. He believed himself much firmer than that, even if it cost him some pride.

„My own..“ he'd begin, interrupting himself at clangs of her mother's hammer „..project?“ clang clang „What did you have...“ clang clang clang clang... had this woman no rhythm? „In mind?“ he'd sigh quietly, the uneasiness present on his face. It wasn't even a conversation, but it gave them something else to discuss besides the petchin' wire tools.

[Kaili]

The Isur woman raised both her eyebrows at the large collection of tools her student had collected. Certainly, he had grabbed all of the correct items: both the small pliers, the large tongs, the wire cutter and creator, but his arms held quite a bit more than that. He had even picked up a few of her engraving tools, surprising since they didn't look like they had anything at all to do with the subject of wire. It was obvious he wasn't sure what he was doing, and, admittedly, Kaili had to give him some lenience. It had been a while since they'd gone over all the tools, and they had never dealt with anything like the thick wire they were using today before. Still, he could have put a little more thought into the collection. She may have been demanding, but she was certainly very patient. A smith needed that, because not thinking over things led to mistakes, and when working with metal it is particularly challenging to erase things. The smith looked at the pile before her with little expression.

"My. I do believe half the wall is on there." It was a rare spat of humor from her, and she could see the surprise in Smithis' face when she had said it. She felt a small twang of guilt making the male Isur think she was completely emotionless, but she was not very good at dealing with other people. She really needed to put more effort into their relationship... but it, like all things, took time.

Kaili picked the tools she had been using earlier that day from Smithis' arms, and placed them on the anvil. "Put those things back, they're useless for what we're doing now. And really, if you need more time to think, please, go ahead. I'm very patient" She voiced her earlier thoughts to the pupil, to attempt to remind him about the importance of thinking things through. She could have sworn they'd gone over this many times, or maybe it had just gone on in her head. She sighed inwardly again, noting yet another mistake she had made in her teachings with Smithis. Things really needed to change. Not only would they become closer, but his learning would probably go much faster then, and they could move on to the even more complicated and interesting subjects.

"When you come back, I'll go over the basics" She called to him while he was over putting the tools away, then suddenly remembered his previous question, the one about his project. Really, it had just been a ghost of an idea, but normally she didn't state random thoughts, so obviously the student took it seriously. She couldn't blame him. "And the project is just where you're going to make your own piece of art with wire. Trust me, it's fun creating designs" Realizing what she had just said, Kaili was quite stunned with herself. She'd actually said the word 'fun'. That was probably a first around Smithis. The happiest word she had said to him was most likely 'intriguing', which wasn't much. Oh how they'd gotten off on the wrong foot...

[Smithis]

She might've raised both her eyebrows at him brining her everything in arm's reach, but after what seemed to be an attempt at humor on Kaili's part, Smithis felt like he needed to go outside and gather a mob just so they could all stare in shock together. And then someone would probably believe him when he later mentioned the woman as anything less than a rock. Not that her more or less emotional self interested him much, but it would've been a relief to discover you were in fact working with something more than a humanoid construct with coal for a heart.

Then just like the humor came, she took it away with her flatline approach. Picking out the correct tools, she motioned him to return the rest. Hesitating only for a moment to make sure he had remembered the exact tools she picked for this job, he'd resume putting everything else back in its place. He was good with assigning items to their previous locations, it was all memory really, and he had plenty of that. What he lacked however was organization and soon enough even after all the items had been mounted to wall or shelf, he'd find their new layout quite distasteful. The whole bunch lacked order or symetry which did little but irritate the already weary Isur.

True to her word, she was very patient which only made the student made even more like a child when within her reach. It wasn't an entirely unpleasant feeling, but it did make him feel impotent, and he couldn't have that. He was raised better and could never allow too much of such a thing.

Soon, the male would return with his arms once again empty. Smithis was hoping Kaili wouldn't notice the ruckus he thought he made when placing everything back to place of origin. Even if she did, that knowledge wouldn't bother him much in her eyes. The word 'fun' however felt like something searing went down the canal and into the brain. This golem actually could have fun? He knew she found some amount of pleasure in her work, but to actually hear that word associated to Kaili in any way was crazy. Bridging his excitement and shock, he'd push on with the inquiry. „What would be the scope of this project? Would I require help?“ as proud as the young Isur was, he didn't yet feel confident enough to work solo on anything important. Given his answers, he'd be happy to listen to anything she had to repeat about the basics of the art. That's what they were here for after all.

[Kaili]

Kaili watched her student returning the tools to the wall, with some noise. She didn’t really blame him, metal and metal did make quite a racket. She approved when she saw all the tools were placed back into the correct spots. Smithis did have a good memory, and he was a very good student, something which she didn’t give him much credit for. Once he had returned and was standing before her, waiting for instructions, she answered his question.

“The scope will not be that big. You will be working with the same thickness of wire as today, though we will go over other sizes. You shouldn’t need help, since manipulating the material is not that hard, but I am willing to provide assistance should you need it.” That should be good enough to satisfy his curiosity. Truthfully, she was making up most of the idea on the spot, but it seemed like a good idea and the Isur was quite surprised at her speed at coming up with a plan. Speed in general was unusual for the smith, since she was patient and careful to an extreme. She looked at her pupil and began the lesson immediately, not letting him get a chance to speak.

“First, you have to cut whatever length of wire you want, using these,” She hoisted up the large tongs and wire cutters, “Make it as long as you want, since you can always shorten it, but make sure you don’t make it too short as that is hard to fix. “ She used the said tools to cut off a large section of wire, then held it over the forge while still watching her student. “Next, you heat it for several minutes, until you see the signs that it is soft enough to mold. Wire doesn’t need much heating, since it’s very thin, and you don’t want it that hot anyways. So keep an eye out. Then you take the two tongs there and bend it into whatever shape you want. The first thing you’re going to make is a circle, one of the easiest shapes to make.” She had pointed to the smaller pliers, then removed the wire from the flames. It was now a dull orange color, but still stiff and straight. She quickly switched the metal from the large tongs to the small, and skillfully formed it into a circle, with both ends touching. She really hoped he had been paying attention to her hands then. After showing the finished product to Smithis for a second, she grabbed it again with the larger tongs and dunked it into the trough of water. Placing it on the anvil and putting the tools she had used down, Kaili took a few steps back and told her pupil one word: “Go”

[Smithis]

Kaili didn't seem too bothered by the new layout of her tools, and for that Smithis was pleased. Even the instructions seemed easy enough. Cut wire, heat wire, bend wire... easy enough for a child to do it. Still most Isur children were better smiths than he at that point, so there was no place for him to argue.

Taking the cutters, he'd chunk off a large piece of wire, still unsure if he had cut it properly. When his teacher did it, it all seemed like a poise movement, yet when he cut, the wire seemed to flinch before his nervous hands. Taking this as a sign he did something wrong from the get go, the Isur could feel his mood worsen. Then he'd put the wire peace into the flames using her tongs. Just like she told him, perhaps a bit too much. Smithis was ashamed to realize that in nervous spirit he copied everything down to her eye movements and was now staring back at her for a moment before finding purpose for his eyes in the flames.

He was not a mathematician, so there was no telling exactly how much time she had held her wire in the heat. There was another tell of course. If he stared really intently, Smithis could see subtle changes in the material's color. Bit by bit and it changed more and more towards the desired dull orange. Every few ticks of the clock, Smithis would pull out the piece to make sure he hadn't ruined it with too much exposure which only prolonged the heating. Eventually the metal had to yield and the wire was ready. The only thing left really was to use the smaller pliers to manipulate the cord into a circle, just like Kaili asked him to.

Whoever said circle was the easiest shape never had to make it as a fool to the art. For as hard as Smithis tried, he couldn't quite get the job right. At first his circle looked like someone kicked it from the side, and then when he rectified that, he found that he had bent one end of his wire too far to the side and that separate points couldn't meet at all. Finally he'd use his dominant arm to hold the piece as he used the pliers to force the two ends together, thus forming something that would've been a circle had there not been for a certain crookedness to it's frame. Yet the metal was almost fully cool by this point and there was no way for him to reshape it further. Dropping the product in the water he'd step away from it all and look at Kaili. Hopefully this wouldn't be his only chance at this, as he was certain he could get it next time. Hearing her opinion and perhaps advice was all that had been left for him.

[Kaili]

Kaili looked approvingly at the... ‘circle’ her pupil had created. It was nowhere near as perfect as her’s, and it wasn’t quite a circle. Though Smithis had ended up using brute force in the end, all the steps before had been almost perfect, and the Isur was impressed. He had heated the metal to almost a perfect temperature, something which often set a lot of people off when working with the material. He had done quite well for a first timer, and Kaili almost smiled. She picked up the finished work with her purple arm, impervious to the still burning steel. The smith carefully inspected the metal, and found a few flaws on it’s surface, but it was mostly un-tarnished. The only person she had known who had done better that this on their first time working with wire was... right, herself. Feeling slightly foolish at the mental bragging, since that wasn’t something she did or approved of, Kaili plopped the finished circle into her student’s hands.

“That was excellent for a first try. I’m impressed. Try again, maybe a few more times until you get the shaping right. You just want to take the ends and bring them together at a consistent speed and angle.” The Isur nodded, and took another step back. Since her mother had left recently, without a word, Kaili moved onto the other anvil to work on some other things, mostly practicing manipulating the wire so if her student needed any examples... she was right there, doing exactly what he was. She retrieved more of the tools (since they always had extras) and wire from the wall, and began to make tight spirals. She was using a much thinner wire, easier to break so harder to use.

Kaili, after cutting and heating the wire (which was much faster) carefully took one end in one of the smaller pliers and used the other to slowly move the other end to wrap around the first. She had to constantly change the grip of the pliers, to avoid including them in the pattern. After finishing the spiral, she doused it and observed it once again, then growled softly, so Smithis could barely hear. There was a small lump at the beginning, causing the entire design to be a slightly wonky shape. She tossed the metal into the scrap bin and started anew. Spirals were something she detested in particular, since one mistake could mess up the entire pattern, and you had to constantly move the pliers.

[Smithis]

When Kaili actually praised his attempt at a circle, he wasn't sure whether to hug her or steer clear from what seemed to be making fun of him. In any case, it was a welcome change to the usual dull mood. Therefore, Smithis launched himself back to work while he still had the motivation for it.

Grabbing some more wire, he'd take his time considering the proper length before cutting. Kaili's circle would've been of different size than his had he succeeded in creating one. Therefore he should probably stick to his own parameters. It was best not to alter much until he got the technique right. Trying to remember just how long the first 'circle's' wire was – he just couldn't. Instead he picked the failure again and forced the wire apart only to use his dominant hand and a large tong to straighten the broken thing out. What he found rather surprised him. The circle it seemed had the girth that he couldn't really grasp at once in length. Instead he put the again stretched wire onto his workspace and used something he knew the dimension of to measure it. After a while he'd conclude that the wire was in fact two thin pliers and his little finger long. Which was considerably long when took his skill into account, at least Smithis thought so.

First he made sure he remembered the reference he made about the wire's length before proceeding. One thin plier, two... and then his little finger – there he'd lay down his left thumb and hold down the wire as he brought forward the cutter that would give the desired length. It was a joyfully easy process since he remained certain he was doing something right for a change. Once measuring was over, he'd put the wire into still blazing flames. Heating up the wire was easy even the first time, but he wanted to simple things like this more by gut and certainty than by sight. So he carefully counted to himself as he watched for the right color to manifest. To his surprise, when one wasn't pulling the wire out every tick, the whole process only took two and a half chimes with wire this thick.

Then came the tricky part. Switching up large tongs for small pliers, Smithis would try and remain calm as he was proceeding towards what he was quite certain he'd fail at. Manipulating the wire wasn't his favorite part of this expirience obviously, but it needed to be done to obtain perfection.
As he learned from both cutting and heating the wire, preparation was everything, so he made sure his hands were steady and his mind clear before he even bothered touching the wire properly. This in turn caused the metal to cool a bit. Because of his sluggishness of thought, he'd only have one shot at this, and he knew it to be so. Breathing in, he'd try to manipulat the two ends into meeting at a single spot, and much to his surprise it looked like he would have perfect, steady finish. Yet this was when another accident happened. Forgetting to breathe from all the excitement, Smithis exhaled abruptly just as he was about to point the ends completely towards one another. Even with this hiccup, he still managed to close the ends. Although, the end result was a bit eggshaped at one end. In other circumstances he'd curse his lack of composure, but currently he was too content to do that. He could do this! Not that he'd shout it to the kingdom or anything, but he COULD do this! Not wanting to show the imperfect work to Kaili, he'd throw the mistake in the water without looking twice and repeat the whole process. This time however the breathing was correct as well. After cooling the circle for a bit, he'd raise it to her vicotriously. This was likely quite childish and insignificant to her, but he, petchin' Smithis the clumsy, had made a circle. It was the most important circle in the world, if only for that one chime he held it.