Chapter 9
Phoenix?
The ground started to shake violently and the volcano started to light up a little bit. Selene and I looked up at the volcano until it stopped shaking about two minutes later. "Thats not good. It must be the Phoenix awakening after 400 years of dormancy." she said. "Phoenix?" I asked. "Yea it is the clan protector but if it were to waken it would probably destroy us. So I am going to teach you how to forge your own sword." she said. I thought about forging a two handed sword like the werewolf leader had. It was very large, longer than its body. "Follow me." she said. She threw me a pickax and I started to follow to the base of the volcano into the underside of it. "Underneath the volcano there are several metals and minerals that you will need for your sword. Iron, steel, obsidian, diamond, coal, and possibly a phoenix feather if you are lucky." she explained. "A feather?" I asked. "If you were to forge it into your sword it is said that the phoenix that is dormant will reawaken and become the spirit in your blade, aiding you in combat, giving you wisdom, imbuing it with special powers, and only you would be able to use the sword." she explained. I liked the thought of only me being able to use my sword. I spotted some coal started to swing my pickax. Selene brought a hide bag that she made along time ago to hold ores from whats down here. I got about three pounds of coal. I found a diamond and threw it in the sack as well. "You see this wall? See how black and shiny it is? Thats obsidian." she said. "I grabbed my pick and swung at it and three large chunks broke from it. Selene picked up the obsidian and put it inside the bag. Iron was also down here so I had to find it. When I finally found it, it took me a while to break it because of its hardness. I put the iron ore in the bag and looked around a little more. When I turned a corner I found a orange feather sticking out of the wall so I decided to pull it out. When I pulled it out the volcano began to shake again so we headed out. Selene and I quickly headed back to the house because we were in danger of the cave collapsing around us.
When we got back to the house I set the bag down on the ground and set the pickax inside of the closet where it belonged. Selene said that her forge was in her basement. She walked over to a grate in the floor and lifted it up and tossed the bag down inside and she climbed down the ladder. I followed behind her, shutting the grate behind me. It was a very dark room that smelt heavily of iron. It was definitely warm though which is what I like the most. I could see two or three anvils, clamps, hammers, water bathing trays, molds, the furnace, and a large wet stone and grinding wheel. I picked up the large bag and set it next to the furnace and awaited Selene's instructions. "Now we need to get the fire going in the furnace. It has to be gas fueled so it can stay lit and you don't have to keep fueling it." she said. I was listening but I was also looking around at the weapons she had made. Swords, pick axes, battle axes, axes, maces, daggers, knives, and armor even. When the fire in the furnace came alive it lit the entire room enough for me to see fine. "Now throw the bag into the furnace's bowl." she instructed. I walked over to the bag and picked it up. I saw that there was a large bowl made of rock that would hold the metals and I would be able to pour it into a mold. I tossed the bag inside of the bowl and closed the doors. "Did you include the feather?"she asked. I nodded. "Good. It won't burn. But it will be encased into the metal. Now do you remember that deer you killed a while back?" she asked. I nodded. "I kept the hide for you to make leather out of for your hilt." she said. I saw it in the corner of the room hanging on a line waiting to be sliced into long slivers of leather. I grabbed one of the knives off of her knife racks and started to cut the hide into strips. When I was done I layed the strips down on the table and waited for the metals to melt. The metals and obsidian were melting quickly but it would be some time before the diamond melted. I saw a steel bar sitting on the table and started to hammer it into a small flat piece of metal. When I got it into a dagger like shape I wrapped some of the hide around the hilt. The dagger hand no hand guard and was pretty much a spike. It took me a while but I created a top for it the screwed into place and made it look like a cross. The blade was indiscriminately hid so I could just wear this as a cross. By the time I was done making a chain for the makeshift dagger the diamond had melted. I set the chains down on the table and went over to the furnace and opened the doors. I grabbed a large two hand sword mold and placed it on the floor next to me and pulled the bowl out of the furnace and poured the molten metals into the mold. When it took shape I drenched it in a 85% water, 15% oil mixture to harden and cool it. When the sword was cool enough but still warm enough to work I took it out of the mold and grabbed a hammer off the wall and placed the soon to be sword on the anvil. I began to hammer the sword until it was a half inch thick and 5 inches wide. It was five feet in length and weighed 125 pounds. After I was done working the metal I took it over to the grinding stone to begin the sharpening process. I ground one of the edges down to a sharp point all the way down the blade. I then placed it on the wet stone and sharpened both sides to a razor sharp point and then cleaned the blade with a large block of foam that wouldn't dull the blade but would take off the small metal dust that was on the edge. The blade was done now but the hilt wasn't. I grabbed the rest of my leather and wrapped the hilt to make it comfortable but grippable. I placed the sword on the anvil for the next day so that I could make a sheath for it and a strap so I could carry it on my back.