Completed Sound the Alarm

[Danika]

"Gross," Danika wrinkled her nose in disgust. Sand wyrms were one of her least favourite monsters Malakath had conjured up. The sightless beings had a taste for the flesh of the Island Walkers; the great graceful creatures the desert folk used to build their cities on. Glancing back down at the bucket of water she carefully hefted the blade out and set it back down on the bench to wipe it off.

"Sylvi wants her scales to be used next, don't you girl?" she tsonye gave a great heaving sigh that suggested otherwise and set her head back down on her talons, feigning sleep. Danika laughed then held the sword aloft. From far away the blade looked as black as the depths of a stormcloud but as the smith turned it this way and that, letting it catch both the firelight and the sunlight that trickled in from the mouth of the forge cave, it revealed irridescent streaks of silver and tinges of blue. It looked as though lightning itself was trapped in the metal with every subtle swing. Up closer the blade too was not in fact just black but a mix of angry purples, deep subtle blues that went into making the unique shade of dark strom clouds.

Just like in the pictures the handle was an intricate lacing of left over bits of scale that overlapped one another to form a strong crossguard.

Danika passed it over.

"I need to finesse it but what do you think?"

 

[Nadya]

Never had Nadya felt such a longing for a weapon in her life. Nor had she felt particular sentimentality for one.

What Danika created was something that spoke to the Caliar woman. She may be the only Calaerys descendant bonded to a Storm Dragon, but to have this sword at her side called to a higher being within her. Nadya's mind began to fill with pride, but not of her own. It was the sentiments felt through Kalyss as his large head turned to pierce Danika with appraisal.

Nadya kept herself rooted in her seat, staring at the scales that made up her new sword. She felt honoured. Awarded.

In her hands was something so special, that unshed tears sprang to her eyes. Blinking her grey eyes, Nadya lifted her head to look to her friend. "Fuck, I hurt too much to cry over this." She laughed. Slipping off her seat, she winced and began to test the balance of her new blade and found it to be perfect. The weight was favourable, and it made Nadya grin after testing a swing or two.

"Oh I cannot wait to show this off to the boys." Especially Cullen. Nadya liked teasing him the most.

 

[Danika]

"Oh, you're going to show it off to everyone," Danika grinned and picked up a rag to clean her hand. She nodded to the blade as she brought the cloth up to wipe a smudge of dirt from her cheek too. "I had five people place orders already just from watching me work that blade. The other Smiths have been begging me for how I managed it," the grin she gave her friend was not short of pride. It was hard to come up with something new in a world of Gods, but this might be exactly what made her a name for herself as a Smith instead of a Rider.

"So I need you to go showing it off everywhere you can. When it's finished," holding out her hand she took the blade back and motioned for Nadya to take a seat again. "You can sit there feeling sorry for yourself while I do."

 

[Nadya]

Nadya returned the blade to the artistic hands of Danika.
Returning to her seat, she propped a heel at the edge of her seat and hugged her leg, then resting her chin on her knee.

"Well, it seems I am going to have to parade around the Wall and Ōmeyōcān. After that, I will have to show it off to the highborns."

All of which Nadya was capable of doing. She was used to attention, sometimes even craved it. It made her feel as if she belonged amongst the Ascendants. To prove to her mother her place was in the Thunder, not courting around the marriage mart and keeping the name Caliar in good graces.

"Even Kalyss is impressed. You are going to have to make me armour out of his scales one day."

 

[Danika]

"I might have maybe made a few sketches," Danika gave her friend a sly glance over her shoulder before returning to her work. Filing the sword was much harder with just one hand. She had returned it to the clamp to keep the blade still but unlike the other Smiths who would use two hands to seesaw a file back and forth across the edge, Danika rested her knee atop the blade and used more of her body weight to send the file back and forth with enough force to file the edge into a thin point. She was soon drenched in sweat from the effort.

Once done she wiped it down and polished it until it shone.

She unclamped it and turned it this way and then inspecting her work before finally giving a firm nod.

"There. It's done," Dani slid it into the sheath she had made and passed the whole thing across.

 

[Nadya]

Nadya knew better than to offer her help to Danika. She had done so many times at the start, but now knew that if her friend truly needed assitance, she would ask. It did not make watching her friend any less hard to witness, but a swell of pride filled her as the smith presented the finished product to her. Out from her seat again, Nadya held the sheathed blade and circled her arms around her friend and squeezed.

"You won't accept payment so I am buying you drinks at Rosita's for a year, alirght?" She murmured as she kept Dani in her embrace, laughing once she let her free and looked down at the pommel of the storm scaled sword.

"Leida is going to be the most jealous." Nadya's sister, second youngest of the Caliar daughters, always admired Kalyss and the life Nadya led as an Ascendant. She had shown her the basics of sword fighting, but she was a long way from being gifted blades like this. "So I best test this out on some poor souls first."

 

[Danika]

Danika snatched up the rag she had earlier used to clean her hands and then flashed her friend another smile.

"Yes, go. Bloody my masterpiece - you know you can only name it when you do so," it was an old superstition her father had held to, and his father before him. A sword could not possess a name until it had drawn its first blood. It was not an uncommon superstition amongst Riders.

Dunking the rag in the bucket of water she used it to wipe her face.

"When you beat up my brother, just make sure I'm around before," her grin grew before waving to the mouth of the cave. "I'll catch you at drinks tonight. Rest up. Don't want to be a lighter weight than Cullen do you?"

 

[Nadya]

Nadya knew the same superstitions. Many of the noble families adhered to it, and many Ascendants were taught such lessons. She never had any idea what to name a blade before, other than calling it her steel. Wielding the special made sword gave Nadya an excitement she hadn't felt with a weapon before.

She grinned, waggling her brows at Danika. "Oh I cannot wait to draw first blood." Of course, not to her friends, but to those on the Wall that thought themselves hardened with age and experience. Nadya was still young and fit, fast and elusive. She pushed herself to be beyond the capabilities of a normal Ascendant to prove her worth of bonding with an old dragon.

Sheathing her gift, she began to fix it to her leather belt and secure it at her waist. "Alright. Drinks tonight, and then we are planning my armour you are making to match." Nadya pointed a finger at her friend, as if that alone would hold her accountable before she backed away and made for her awaiting Storm Dragon.