Lessons Learned

Author Shortey 83

Chapter 10 A Sword to call my own.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own InuYasha or Skyrim! I only borrow ideas because trying to drill them out of my head with power tools doesn't work! ^.^

Story Start:

To say that the next few weeks that went by were easy would have been a lie. Never had Takara worked so hard for anything, but every day she spent her time hauling up water from the lake while learning the meanings behind new words of power that Yolheimin and Sahloknir both taught her. It seemed like her blue scaled friend had decided to stay and keep the both of them company, not that she minded at all. Each day that passed, Takara was able to learn the new words for Shouts that she would be able to use in battle should she ever have need of them, although she hoped she never would.

At the end of each day she was just as exhausted as the last, but when she had finally managed to fill up the basin, Yolheimin had poured some of it into a smaller basin and set in on the far side of the room. She was irritated, but bit her tongue and continued the next day to refill the first basin. Yolheimin did feed her and care for her while she worked after all. At the end of the day when her muscles ached from the work, he made sure she had a meal ready for her in her alcove which she devoured before she went and made a final trip to the lake to wash herself in a smaller, separate spring of cool water and washed her clothes before heading back to her little bed and fell into an exhausted sleep.

When the basin of water had been filled, the next task Yolheimin gave her was to beat the dust out of the fine rugs he had pulled from his hoard. Takara felt like she was doing housework, but kept her mouth shut and did as he instructed. He must have really liked rugs, because he seemed to have a lot of them. He had set up three rows of posts and rope along the length of the cavern and draped the rugs along all three lengths of rope. He instructed her to beat them out, facing certain directions and using the amount of swings that he would give her on each rug. This went on for almost two weeks before he moved her on to another task.

The ruby beast had pulled several large boulders into the center of the forge cavern and handed Takara a hammer with instruction to break them. This task proved to be even more daunting than the water hauling. It took her almost a week to figure out how to effective break down the large stones with just a hammer. She had learned that once she initially broke the surface of one stone, she needed only to follow the fault lines that ran from it to break down the stone. She began to look for the weak spots and imperfections within the stones and used them to her advantage. Once she had learned how to turn the boulders into rubble, the following six of them all were reduced to the same pile of destruction within another week.

It had been almost two months since Takara had left the village and she had to admit that she missed everyone. As much as InuYasha irritated her, she missed her games with the half demon and Kagome. She missed the sounds of the children playing, and she especially missed Rin's squeals and giggles as she played with Kaos. Boy did she miss her furry friend. She couldn't remember a time when she had been away from him for more than a few days at most. She wondered if he would even remember her after so long.

It seemed like it had been an eternity when Yolheimin finally announced that she was ready to begin work on her sword. Sahloknir had brought with him a few visits ago a good number of the bones from the Earth dragon Takara had slain. He then handed her a garment that resembled an apron along with a set of gloves that he claimed were made from dragon scales for protection against the flames.

With instructions to place a few of the bones into the hot coals of a smaller forge Yolheimin had taken the time to build for her, Takara began to heat the bones like she was being instructed. It was amazing to watch the bones heat up and glow like metal did. Once they began to glow almost as red as the coals, Yolheimin instructed her to remove one piece at a time and to lie it on the anvil before giving her instruction on how to hammer the material.

By the end of the first day, she had succeeded into making two rectangular blocks, but according to Yolheimin, this was no time to rest. He allowed Takara to eat the meal he had prepared for her and a brief nap before he woke her to continue her work.

All night and into the next morning, Yolheimin coached her on how to form her sword's blade; apparently the hilt would come after the blade was finished. Now she understood the purpose for all of those seemingly pointless tasks. The hauling water had served to both build up her strength as well as to bring water to fill the basins had been needed for the cooling of the bones. The beatings she had given the rugs had helped her in aiming the placements of her swings for the hammer. It helped her form the shape of the blade. Finally the breaking of the boulders had shown her where to find the weak points in the bones she was forging.

Finally by noon on the second day, Yolheimin was satisfied with how the blade had come out and rewarded her with a feast followed by a long rest. That night she slept a fulfilling and dreamless sleep. The past few months-worth of sleep had been filled with hammers, rocks, rugs, and buckets. Needless to say it was nice not to dream for once, just to rest.

"Wake up, little one" Yolheimin's voice woke her the next day. "Today we finish your sword, we have to fit it with a hilt. Yawning and rubbing her eyes, Takara then placed her hair up with the chopsticks and comb as she did every day and followed the sound of Yolheimin's voice. Stretching, she walked over to Yolheimin and hugged his large snout like she had taken to doing a few weeks into the training. "Good morning" she greeted him as she scratched the ridge above one of his eyes. He allowed her to caress him for a few minutes before he lifted his head and told her to follow him. They passed the forge and that was when she saw a tunnel leading behind the sculpted forge.

They walked down a maze of tunnels before they finally came to where Yolheimin had been leading her to. What she saw then took her breath away. It was a cavern larger that the forge cavern and it was filled with piles of gold, silver, and jewels of all kinds. This was Yolheimin's hoard. "Amazing…" she breathed. While there was probably more gold here than had been in King Tut's tomb, Takara couldn't possibly fathom the reason behind such vast amounts of treasure, so she asked. "What do you do with all of this?" she asked him "Don't get me wrong, it's beautiful, but what do you use it for?"

The dragon settled down on a pile of gold and watched her as she looked around the room. "What would you do with it?" he questioned her as she observed various pieces. "I wouldn't want it, honestly" she answered as she bent down and studied what appeared to be an amethyst the size of a baseball. "My life would be in danger all the time from greedy people. I wouldn't be able to even sleep at night without the fear of dying." She bent down and put the amethyst back down picked up an emerald that was next to it. Yolheimin didn't speak as he watched her inspect various pieces of his collection.

"Hey" she said as she picked up another piece. "My mom had a set of these, except they were a little smaller." She showed it to Yolheimin. It was an ivory elephant that fit in the palm of her hand. "There were two of them and then two jade tigers… Like these!" she exclaimed as she found one of the tigers. Holding them in her hands brought back memories, one in particular. "The only memory I have of my mom is when we were playing with these when I was really little. I'm not even sure how I remember that. I was so young."

"What happened to your mother, little one?" Yolheimin asked as Takara placed the little pieces back where she had gotten them. "She died when I was little. She was very sick and after having nine kids, her body wasn't in the best shape." Takara sighed. "I've always kind of blamed myself for how she died. I feel like if I hadn't been born then she would have had time to build up her strength before she was diagnosed." She had never told her dad that, never told anyone that to be honest, but then again had never bothered to ask, not that Yolheimin did, but he caught her at a moment when she was thinking about her mom.

"I am sorry for your loss. I know it is hard to lose your kin, but to answer your question I use my treasure for the same purpose all dragons use it. It calms us." Before she could ask how he called her over to him and settled her down between his forelimbs. "Close your eyes, Vulombrii, and listen." Takara moved to prop herself against one of his red forelimbs, closed her eyes and listened. She wasn't sure what she was listening for but it wasn't long before she found out.

She could hear the strong, steady rhythm of Yolheimin's heart to begin with followed by a low rumble in his chest, not quite strong enough to be a purr but yet not silent either. That's when it began, little twinkles of sound from the room around her. It was as if each piece of treasure now had its own voice and it all resonated around them. It was a relaxing symphony that called out to her very soul. She didn't know how long it went on for and she really didn't care either but as the rumbling sound in Yolheimin's chest quieted, so did the twinkling of the room around her.

"That was beautiful…" she whispered looking up to the dragon. "You see, Dovahkiin, these treasures were once parts of the Earth which we dragons are the spirits of, in different forms; Fire, Ice, Earth, Lightning, and Water. For some they are meaningless objects, used to display one's wealth, but for few, like your elephants, they are the treasures they are meant to be. Each piece of my hoard was taken from those who did not value their pieces of the Earth." He looked down to her. "I bring them here to erase their pain and to bring myself comfort."

If she hadn't just heard their music with her own ears, she might have been skeptical, but after that performance there was no convincing her otherwise. Yolheimin leaned his large head down to her. "I noticed your comb as soon as you walked in." he purred. "I could feel its saddening song lessening by the day. I knew then that you treasured it as it deserved to be." Takara reached up and felt the comb that Sesshomaru had given her and smiled. The massive ruby dragon was right; she did treasure her little comb that Sesshomaru had given her.

"Now then, we must choose an item to use and forge into the hilt of your blade." Takara gave him a wide eyed look. He wanted to give her something from his hoard? It was as if he knew what she was thinking. "You have a big heart, Vulombrii. I know anything given to you would be cherished." He bumped her back with his snout "Now go and find something to use."

She didn't even know where to start! There were piles and piles of treasure to sort through… or was there. She closed her eyes and thought back to the music that had surrounded her a few moments ago and remembered a few sad sounding twinkles that had come from her left. She climbed to the tops of one of the piles and slid down the other side with a giggle. Looking against the far corner of the cave there was a piece of black metal lying on top of one of the smaller piles. Upon closer examination, it appeared to be the hilt of a broken sword.

As soon as she wrapped her hand around the cool, dark metal she knew it was what she wanted as her hilt. "An interesting choice," Yolheimin spoke from behind her. "That blade was broken many years ago and the hilt cast aside. I have been unable to ease its pain, but perhaps its true desire is to again be whole." Takara nodded an inspected the hilt, it didn't seem to be anything too spectacular, which was a large part of reason she had chosen it. There were grooves and divots that seemed to have once held jewels of some sort, but now it was bare except for a few strange carvings on both sides where it joined to the sword, but other than that, it appeared to be just a black piece of metal.

Takara followed Yolheimin back out to the Forge cavern and over to her little forge where the broken hilt was tossed into the fire. Again, Takara was following Yolheimin's instruction for a bit, but once she had the basic shape down he instructed her to reform the groove that had originally run up the length of the hilt. So Takara made a spiral groove that wound all the way up the swords' hilt, but before she could dunk it to cool Yolheimin had yet another surprise for her. Lifting up the scales that guarded his heart, he used one claw to cut through the skin there, but to her surprise, the wound didn't bleed; instead it glowed. Reaching his clawed hand into the light near his heart, Yolheimin pulled. She wasn't sure what she had expected, but it wasn't a glowing strip of what appeared to be flesh. Before she could speak, the great beast dropped his scales back into place and moved the strip of flesh to the sword. "Ro Kun Vul…" he told it as it wound itself around the hilt.

"Quickly, Dovahkiin, grab the blade and join it with the hilt. Holding the dull, unsharpened blade in one hand, Takara placed it into the grove of the hilt where it was supposed to be joined before she began hammering the two pieces together for a perfect fit. With that she dunked the hilt into the water to cool it, but when she pulled it out was when she noticed that the hilt was still the same dark metal, but what was wrapped around the hilt was the same as her bowstring.

"Now your blade shall be guided as your bow is" Yolheimin told her as he examined the fruits of their labor. "Now you will not be led astray during battle." That was a relief to Takara. She didn't want to be the one to end anyone's life, let alone an innocent person's life, and it was pretty cool seeing that a dragon's heartstring was indeed a heartstring from a dragon.

For the rest of the day, Yolheimin showed Takara how to both sharpen and care for her new blade. Since it wouldn't cut anyone that was not an enemy, it didn't require a sheath, but instead, Yolheimin went through the trouble to forge her a little belt to go with it.

That evening when Sahloknir entered the forge cave, he too revealed that he had been learning to forge as well. Taking the scales of a defeated Thunder Kin, he had forged, with Yolheimin's help of course, a set of dragon scale armor. The scales of the Thunder Kin were a deep black that glistened in the light with a few shades of blue scattered about. "I thought it would match your pretty eyes" Sahloknir purred as she emerged from her alcove for them to inspect its fitting. She almost hated the two dragons for knowing her size so well when she couldn't do that herself. Never had she been able to judge if clothing of any sort would fit her simply by looking at it.

The armor, however, had sort of a westernized look to it. The small scales resembled chainmail around her upper arms, neck, waist and thighs, while larger scales had been molded together to protect her back, chest and abdomen, her hands as well as her shoulders and feet. Best of all, it wasn't heavy in the slightest and it didn't hinder her mobility.

"Finally," Yolheimin began "What kind of teacher would I be if I did not show my student how to wield her blade?" "A horrible one" Sahloknir answered "And I would be more than happy to help you there." Next they ushered her outside of the cave, following right behind her. Before she could even ask how they were going to help, they both began to glow with a light that matched their scales as their forms shrank and changed. In the next instant, the two dragons stood before her in the forms of human men, devastating handsome human men. "I know, you don't have to tell me" Sahloknir began "We are the most handsome creatures you have ever lain eyes on." Takara laughed at his dramatic show. Oh yes, Sahloknir was quite the charmer, but he wasn't as handsome to her as Sesshomaru. No one could compare to him as far as looks went. The man was the demon form of Adonis. Yolheimin was a bit more modest and a bit more honest with Sahloknir. "Too bad for you she seems to think otherwise." He nodded his head in her direction. "She seems to have another male on her mind, so give up and draw your sword." That's when it began.

To complete her training, Takara spent one last week working on her swordsman ship and found that again all the little bits of training she had done to prepare to forge her sword had paid off. She was able to move faster and swing more accurately. She was also trained to look for weaknesses in her opponent's movements and armor. She wasn't an expert by any means, but she would be able to defend herself if the situation arose.

It had almost been three months since her time with Yolheimin had begun and summer was coming to an end. Now she needed to get back to the village to help prepare it for the cold winter ahead. Not to mention she had desperately missed her friends. With her bags packed, Takara hugged the human form of Yolheimin and thanked him for everything she had learned and he extended his welcome to her anytime she wished to visit him. Boarding Sahloknir, Takara realized that she couldn't wait to get back to the little village she had begun to think of as home.

She asked Sahloknir to set her down away from the village because she wanted to surprise Rin and the others. She waved goodbye to her blue scaled friend and headed down the road to the village. It took a little more than an hour for the little cluster of huts to come into view and the sound of the children playing and Kaos barking made her smile. At least her dog wasn't unhappy. She saw them playing in the field with the dog throwing his ball back and forth in a game of keep away.

Putting her fingers up to her lips, she whistled loudly to where her dog and the kids would hear her. They all seemed to freeze at the sound and turned to face her. She dropped her bags and knelt down. "You guys missed me?" she yelled to them and then they were charging to her, of course Kaos was in the lead. She was tackled by the happy canine and then dog piled by the village's children and nearly choked to death by Rin. She hadn't realized how much she had missed these guys until now and she really hadn't expected them to miss her as much as they appeared to have. She had to admit, it was kind of nice being missed; it meant they thought and cared about her.

"Takara!" Kagome's voice sounded above the children's questions and laughter. The next thing she knew, she was being pulled from the dog pile by InuYasha with Rin still firmly secured to her neck. "Rin, let go. You're making it hard to breathe." The wetness she felt at her neck told Takara that the little girl was crying. "I missed you, Takara. Please don't go away for that long again." It was touching that she truly missed her as much as she always had, but as soon as Rin released her, Takara found herself being crushed by Kagome. "I missed her too, Rin. You need to share" Kagome laughed giving Takara a tight hug.

"Kaede told us you would be gone for a while, but we were worried that we didn't know where you had gone." She released Takara then "We didn't know what you were up to until that blue dragon came to get the dragon bones." Her hair was suddenly being tussled by the half demon. "It's like you think that we couldn't protect you, idiot." That was his off the wall way of him telling her that he would do all that he could to protect her.

With a smile she gave the obnoxious guy a hug. "I know, InuYasha, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to do everything that I can to help you guys protect myself. I am kind of danger prone if you hadn't noticed." The group laughed at that as they all turned to head into the village, and quite a few things had changed in the few months since she had left. There were several new couples and it seemed that Shippou would be spending the cooler months in the village, but Takara knew better. The little fox demon just wanted to spend time with Rin who was inturn completely oblivious to the fox child's advances.

Another change was that Takara wouldn't be able to stay with Kaede anymore since the old priestess' hut was full with the addition of several village girls who were preparing to be married the following year. It seemed like their mothers were busy tending to several children that had been born that year and their hands were a little too full to be preparing their daughters to be wives and mothers themselves. She would have to find a place to stay for the winter but fortunately for her Kagome and InuYasha and some of the other villagers offered to build her a hut of her own despite many of the men being concerned for a woman living all alone with no man to defend her. That was kind of funny. After all she had been through, the men of the village might soon be coming to her for protection. Now she had only one person she had left to see was Sesshomaru.