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Blackstone Foundry and Forge, Wednesday

Fjord had taken on an apprenticeship in town, a Wednesday shift at Amaya's forge that, hopefully, would help him fill some of the large spans of free time he had during his week. A man could only drink and bathe so much, after all, and while the prospect of being a squeaky-clean if slightly pickled half-orc had... some weird sort of appeal, here... it was only going to be a matter of time before he did something stupid, like try to steal a ship or something.

Not that this island had a wealth of ships for the stealing.

Since this was his first day on the job, he showed up a little early, mostly to familiarize himself with the room and the items in it. He wasn't touching any of it, of course. He was still firmly on the 'not actually taught anything at all yet' end of his apprenticeship, and didn't want to disturb anything or burn the building down. Still, observing the basic setup of the foundry and the forge, checking out the tools Amaya used while she worked, and looking over some of her works in progress seemed like a good start, at least for now, until the snoring he could hear from upstairs ceased and his training could begin in earnest.

There was one work-in-progress that caught his eye in particular, since it was so clearly not a sword. If much of Fjord's morning was spent admiring the beginnings of what looked suspiciously like the power loader from last night's movie class, well... he didn't think anybody would blame him for being interested.

[OOC: Open! Fjord can't make anything for you yet, but he'll do his best to take your order or put you in contact with Amaya if you need anything specific.]

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Eventually, the snoring (or maybe it had been sawing? It was really hard to tell; Amaya could have had a lumberjack over for breakfast) had stopped, but at least it was an issue Fjord wouldn't usually have to worry about. She would typically have already been up and at-'em by now, but the power loader project had kept her up into the wee hours of the night. Not long after the snoring stopped, though, she emerged from the stairs toward the back of the shop, barely managing to cover a yawn as she held a large ceramic mug in each hand.

"Morning, Fjord," she greeted the new apprentice, and offered out a mug. "Coffee? Sorry I'm so late getting down. I'm usually..." Another yawn delayed her a moment, "...up well before now, but I got sucked right into something last night."

Considering that something was still strewn about the shop, yeah. He probably noticed.

"Had a good look around by now, at least?"

"Mornin', Amaya," Fjord said, nodding his appreciation as he reached for the mug. "And thanks. I had some time, so I figured it wouldn't hurt any to see how you've got everything situated."

He nodded toward some of the nearest power loader parts, and then took a sip of coffee.

"You found some inspiration, hm?"

"Kinda hard not to," Amaya grinned a little into her coffee, both hands now wrapped around the mug and breathing it in before she took a good long sip. "I figure, if anything, it'll help lead to some upgrades for the Crumbler, help her out a little with all the stairs around here. Or who know? Round here, might not be a bad idea having two variations of some apparatus to help plow on through whatever's gettin' in the way."

...maybe she should have gotten a bigger space when she bought the place.

Oh, well, nothing to be done for it now!

"Anyway," another sip, "anything you're particularly itching to get to learn, or is it all still sitting on the same level of newness overall?"

"It's all fairly new," Fjord confessed, glancing toward the foundry with a little wry smile before looking back to Amaya. "I suppose a more thorough explanation of the equipment wouldn't hurt before I get started on anything. You don't see many foundries on ships, after all."

Really, he couldn't have picked a more different trade, materials-wise, from the one he already had if he'd tried. From water right on over to molten metal.

"Certainly not the one we're used to."

Metal ships! Don't even get her started on that one!

"Well," Amaya looked thoughtful for a moment, "might as well get you started on the things you can be helpful with if I'm not here. I imagine a lot of it, at first, if you get anyone in, will be just hawking some of the current stock, like what's on the wall there. There's a ledger over on the counter with prices, but if they're in a haggling mood, I don't mind a little bartering on 'em. Anyone looking for something custom, just get as much info from them as you can and I'll try to get back with them. And if you don't mind, I think I might start scheduling some of my heavier materials to start showing up on Wednesdays. Now that I've got some extra brawn around here, might as well put it to good use."

Honestly, it would be a downright shame not to.

"You ever work with a sharpening wheel before?"

"Strong back," Fjord agreed, grinning a little over his coffee mug, "might as well make use of it. I'll probably enjoy it anyway."

It was satisfying, hunkering down and working, okay?

"And I've some experience with a stone," he added, "can't hurt to have some refresher all the same."

"Great!" Not that it was difficult, but Amaya could just tell that she and Fjord were clearly fluent in understanding the language of just good old hard work, and she was very glad for it. "Let's start there, then. Something easy enough, but useful. Not like anyone's beating down the doors to get their weapons sharpened, but I know hardly anyone around here's gonna want their blades getting dull. All it takes is one of those big crazy weekends around here, and everyone's needing to clean up and restore. Got a small stack of daggers over here that have seen sharper days, good practice to help you reaquaint yourself while I maybe do a bit on my current project; she's almost done, so she's just singing to be finished.

"Actually," as she talked it out, her plans took a different shape, "I've got to do some heat treatments on it, so let's actually get you started on getting the forge going. That should be pretty easy for you. Ever worked with a bellows before?"

Fjord made a note of the daggers, and then filed them away under, 'for later.' For now, he looked back toward the forge itself, tilting his head in thought.

"On occasion. Mostly on a much smaller scale, cooking ovens and the like. I imagine the idea is the same?"

Take air, make fire hot. Repeat.

"Yup, that's it's exactly," Amaya confirmed with a nod, gesturing toward the large bellows in question. "I've got it rigged on a lever system, too, makes it a bit easier for me to stoke the forge while I'm still poking around at it. So let's have you get that going for me, see if you can get something low and steady going for me, not too much heat for this part of the process."

Huh. The lever system was actually pretty clever. Fjord took a few moments to check it out, see what connected to where, before taking hold of the handles.

"Alright," he said. "Let me know where to hold it."

He'd go slow for now, pick it up if Amaya asked. Easy enough.

And while she left stoking the forge to Fjord (heh), Amaya moved on toward a thigh-high vessel not far from her anvil, kicked it a little, then slipped off one of her gloves enough to dip a finger in and rub around the fluid against her thumb. She nodded a little, poured a little more oil into the vessel, then went to grab one of many iron rods at hand. She shoved the rod halfways into the forge and turned to unwrap the sword she'd been working on for Peter from where it was on the main work table.

"In case you're wondering," she explained as she worked, "today I'll be doing hopefully the last round of tempering on this beauty here." It was hard for her not to hold up the blade, a much simpler design than some of the others on the wall, but there was something striking about its austerity, even she had to admit. "It's toward the end of the process; I hope I can get this to Peter before the start of next week, so you're missing all the real hard work. This part's mostly just a lot patience and repetition. Heating and quenching, heating and quenching, until you've achieved the right hardness. You'll see what I mean."

She walked to the forge to hold a hand to it, curling her fingers up a a few times in an encouraging gesture. "Give me just a little bit more," she said, "and I think we'll have it."

"Little bit more, then," Fjord replied, watching everything she was doing with a keen interest as he worked the billows that little bit harder. The repetition was fine by him; this was the first really physical task besides sparring that he'd had since coming to the damn island, and he was appreciating the chance to have even this much. "That is a mighty fine weapon you're working on, though. Looking forward to seeing how Peter wields it."

"I'm sure he'll wield it well," Amaya said confidently, maybe taking a moment to admire it again because it was good work and she wasn't going to feign modesty about that. "Apparently, the design he gave me's based on a previous sword of his so, assuming I didn't mess up the weight and balance, it'll feel already familiar. That's the hope, anyway."

She took a moment to check the rod she'd put in the forge, frowned slightly, and shoved it back in.

"Little longer," she explained, offering an apologetic smile. "Smithing's a lot of short hard bursts of work between a lot of waiting for things to heat up."

"I can keep goin' all day," Fjord assured her, not seeming terribly bothered by the need to continue on. "Or, I suppose, goin' until things have heated up, as the case might be."

He looked again at the sword, curious now what significance the design had to this world, what history might be there. He'd have to talk to Peter about it at some point, perhaps.

"We're basically just waiting for the rod to warm up enough to heat the oil I've got over there in the quencher," Amaya offered by way of explanation. It would wind up being a bit of a scattered education, going about it like this, but she figured it would work well enough. She had no doubt he'd be able to put the pieces together later on.

"So there's at least one lesson for you," she said, "and an important one at that. Never quench your sword in a cold vessel; it's essential to get it all nice and warmed up first."

"Drastic temperature changes aren't so good, hm?" Fjord considered the oil for a moment, and then glanced back toward Amaya. "Will it damage the blade?"

Might as well ask why it was bad on top of simply making note of it, here. It might be useful information on its own, someday.

Amaya nodded. "Sure will," she said, pulling out the rod from the forge and going to swirl it around in the quenching oil. "It gets real hot in that forge, even if we're not even getting it up to full blast, and if your quench is too cold, it'll make the metal brittle, might even cause it crack or shatter if you're not careful. The more drastic the temperature, the greater you run that risk, so warming up the oil even just a little can make a big difference."

She set the rod back where she'd gotten it, then plunged the sword into the forge, shifting it around a little to get it in a good position among the coals.

"And back to the waiting."

Fjord nodded along, making a note of that.

Shattering sword? Bad.

"Even this is interesting, though," he mused. "Is this part just... heating and then quenching, over and over, then?"

"Yup, that's pretty much it," Amaya agreed. "And that part's called tempering. Strengthens and hardens the steel."

"And already, I've learned something," Fjord replied, smiling. "Excellent. I can tell I'm going to enjoy this."

And Amaya couldn't help smiling back. "And you know what?" she admitted. "I think I'm going to, too."

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Blackstone Foundry and Forge, Wednesday

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