I arrived at the pile of sand that had my iron in it, it was colored in a dark grey with the orange sunlight striking one side, the sun was setting but I didn’t really get bothered with it. I dug my tongs into the sand, removing it and it finally clicked with something odd and gritty texture. I took it out with a bit of confusion, the metal rod or rather 'thing'… Was like a stick, it was a weird amalgam of gritty dark material and a mix of iron, it took me a few seconds of touching it to realize it was the melted sand, or whatever it was at this point. 

“So, it turned out like that huh?” I questioned as I grinded it with a chisel, it was well… Grindy and hard, it made an oddly uncomfortable metallic raspy noise every time I removed the rock-like glass fragments of it, or rather, smashed them off. It took quite a while but I finally had a somewhat deformed iron rod, the shape didn’t really matter, what mattered was if it was soft. 

I moved to the pair of anvils that were close to each other, Aizen had gone off to sit on the chairs as she messed with the bucket every so often. She was still tired so she wasn’t really rushing it, I felt kind of bad for asking her help but I didn’t think I could take the bucket from her anymore. After a sigh of defeat, I placed the iron rod on the face of the anvil and hammered it once without much force. Sure enough, it bulged. I hammered it some more and made it a lot thinner. 

“Now where is the drawing plate? Hmm... I wonder⁠— Oh…” It was right next to my foot, I guess I never moved it from its spot. I lifted it up with slight difficulty, it was much heavier than what I had expected. I went for the largest hole and threaded a bit of the iron, it got stuck just barely past the entrance. It was to be expected. I decided it was going to take a while so I moved myself to the grass that was away from the forge and sat on the cold and fresh ground. 

“Alright… Let’s do this…” I muttered as I was getting ready for the insurmountable task in front of me. I pulled my pair of tweezers and pinched the tip of the metal thread, placing the drawing board in front of my feet; I started pulling. It slowly but surely started to advance, the drawing board remained in place thanks to my feet. It wasn’t the most elegant solution but it was good enough. 

I kept pulling it, sometimes it would get a bit of stuck and I would have to regrip it and pull it harder, it felt like I was brute-forcing it but I had never done something of such a nature. I kept pulling it, my back was starting to get tired, my arms and tummy started to feel a burning sensation, I kept pulling and then once it had advanced I would move my tweezers closer to the base of the drawing board, repeating the same thing over and over again. 

“Finally…” I only ran it through the top hole, but I was already extremely tired… With a gulp and a bit of intimidation, I threaded through the ever-so-slightly smaller hole. I started pulling as I grit my teeth. It was indeed and insurmountable task in front of me. 

 * * * 

“Ah… Ahahaha!” I started laughing as I struggled to breathe, panting on the ground; laying my back on the cold and oddly refreshing glass surface. The sky was on a tint of deep blue with orange. I couldn’t move a single finger, my back was hurting and pulsating as I felt it compressed, my arms were beating and burning and my abdomen was dying quite literally, my head was throbbing and my heart was racing. 

After a few minutes of catching my breath, I finally managed to sit up on the ground. “I can’t believe it was that hard… at last… I am done!” I exclaimed with happiness and short of breath, I was also heavily sweating. It was the first time I had been pushed like that. 

I felt oddly happy… “Why?” I quietly asked myself as I grabbed my racing heart, even though I had just been through a hell of an exercise I still felt happy. I didn’t know why I kept my hand in my chest, it was rapidly beating. My eyes widened for a moment, I had just realized something. It was the first time I had experienced something like this… 

I laid on my back with a smile plastered on my face, I looked at the azure and orange sky, it was truly beautiful. Everything was beautiful, I saw my vision be slightly blocked by something, directing sunlight into my eye and making me block it with my hand. 

“How long are you going to stay like that?” 

“Hmm?” Was I hearing something?

“Kuro, I don’t know how long you want to keep me waiting…” 

I finally managed to see, there was a silhouette, I squinched my eyes trying to see better. It was Aizen, she didn’t seem that happy about what I was doing. I rolled into my front side and got up. She smiled and rapidly extended her hand, there it was. A bucket full of ever so slightly bent and pierced scales. She was done. 

“There you go,” she curtly said before placing them on the ground and leaving to sit on the chairs. She fell asleep… 

“I guess she was really tired… Well, looks like it’s my turn…” I muttered with a bit of helplessness, at that moment Fenri rubbed himself against me, I had forgotten he was there, but at least he reminded me he could still help. I petted him and got up with the clumsily rolled iron wire I had. 

I made my way to an anvil and placed the bucket on top of it, just to not forget about it. I examined the perimeter looking for something oddly specific, I remembered seeing them before but for some reason, I couldn’t seem to find them. I looked down and one was on the ground, a metal stick or spear or whatever it was, I guess it was an iron rod, but whatever. The important thing was ⁠— it was circular. 

I grabbed the rod and placed it in between my thighs, then I grabbed the tip of the iron wire and started coiling it with my fingers on top of the iron wire. After two or three questionable loops it was secure, once I did that I started spinning the rod on its axis as I coiled the wire. The wire would get stuck every now and then, but coiling it wasn't that hard, it was actually surprisingly easy to get a nice and uniform coiled surface, well… excluding the top part of the rod, which looked as if someone had made a poor quality knot, even though it wasn’t supposed to be a knot at all… Well, I guess it could be considered a type of knot? 

I tilted my head as my thoughts got sidetracked. I shook my head. ‘Now it’s not the time, I must continue coiling it.’ With those thoughts in mind I kept spinning it, it wasn’t nearly as hard as drawing the wire threw the board, this one was a lot less brute-forcing and just more relaxed in general. 

After a few more minutes it was finally coiled on the entirety of the rod. I inspected the rod to make sure everything was as clean and flawless as possible, once that was done I started to remove the coiled wire from the rod by slowly sliding it off the top. It was slow but ti was cleanly coming off, it wasn’t warping or getting deformed by the pulling, mostly because I was being careful and slow with it. It took another few minutes of removing it but I finally had a perfect coil of iron. 

It kind of looked like a long spring. I inspected it and got ready for the next step, at that moment I froze. “How am I going to cut it into rings…” I didn’t have the knife the smith made with me, I didn’t have any type of weapon or that matter, I could have used a chisel and a hammer, using it as a stake, but that was only asking for disaster.  

I sighed, ‘looks like it wasn’t going to be possible to achieve the armor⁠—’ my thoughts were interrupted by the creaking of wood, I looked back, it was the dwarf. He scratched the back of his head as he gave the fallen door an apologetic look. 

“Yeah… that needs to be replaced…” He awkwardly said that. “On the other hand, why are you here working so late? Especially after all that happened.” 

“Ah… I am just making something special for my friend…” I explained with a bit of embarrassment, the dwarf raised his brow with discernment. 

“Special eh?” He smiled. “I can you both like each other a lot, I didn’t think it would go that route though…” What is he saying? “Anyway, is there anything you need help with?” 

I froze from his weird dialogue but quickly gained track of my thoughts once again, I lifted the iron coil. “Umm… I wanted to cut this into rings, but I didn’t bring your knife with me…” I said with a bit of shyness, he had gifted me a knife and I had forgotten it, how could I not be hesitant to tell him that? 

The dwarf thought for a second. “I see… Well, I am sure you didn’t bring my knife, which doesn’t really matter to me.” Huh? “You see missy, your knife is amazing!” Eh… He pulled it out and started rubbing it against his cheek, it was inside a custom made scabbard of sorts. “I had never used such a knife before! To believe it was made from simple iron!” He said with joy, I gave him a slightly crooked smile. 

He commented on a few other things and turned back to me. “Yeah, I can help you cut it.” He approached me and extended his hand. I handed him the coil without thinking too much about it, he inspected it carefully. “I have to say, you never cease to impress me, don’t tell me you are the master craftsman or something?” He said as he poked my shoulder… 

“Hahaha…. That would be impossible…” 

“I know right! I still find it mesmerizing though.” He admitted with happiness. “Well, moving into your rings. I will cut them for you, is that okay?”

 I nodded. He gave me a smile and breathed in and out, he unsheathed the knife I had made him and firmly placed it against the top of the coil. With more deep breaths his eyes shot open, I saw his muscles bulge and the knife started cutting the coil, small metal rings started falling, making subtle clinking sounds. I looked at the ground with confusion, there was another bucket and Fenri was wagging his tail next to it. I didn’t have to think about what happened. 

“There you go,” he said as he handed me the bucket, after I accepted it he opened his mouth once again. “I have to say, this dog of yours is very impressive, I might become a tamer just for one,” He nonchalantly informed me, I couldn’t help but awkwardly nod at his weird comment. 

He put away the knife and looked at me. “Well, I am done here.” What? I tilted my head. “I just came here to check if I had forgotten something, but it looks like I didn’t. I hope your proposal goes well. Hope you find the right ring among those, although they seem a bit small.” He turned away and waved off. 

“What?” I asked to myself in confusion, did he say proposal? Must’ve been my imagination. 

Azrie

Sorry if chapters feel short at the moment, they will be getting a lot longer. Polls are back!