Kyuden Shika

"Let me show you my craft then, though I think you will find it is far from magical." He stood up and offered her a hand, leading her back into the forge. All the coziness of their intimate moment were gone and it was just a dirt floored workshop again. "This is where the magic happens, but what to show you. Hmm. You wanted to learn how to make arrowheads right?"

"Hai..." She nodded. "I've seen some of the Fire Dragon Temple maidens make such things and have been very creative with the heads."

"Well Smelting pig iron into steel takes more time then we have tonight, it's usually done by teams of four over a number of days, but there is another method I can show you now. Grab that hammer next to you and give it a few swings, get used to the weight while I grab so things." He began to rummage around a pair of boxes while whistling a familiar tune. "What kind of arrows do you want to make?"

She gave it some thought. "Rope cutters, I have willow leaves but I wish I have something less deadly and more utilitarian." She took the hammer with out much trouble.

"Nice, those are actually a bit tricky to sharpen but because bushi usually only carry a few of them you can get really creative with the look of them." He pulled out a small steel plate, only a few millimeters thick. "This method is usually used for ashigaru arrows I hope that's okay. basically your going to hammer them out of the steel, then we can work on shaping and sharpening." He placed the steel sheet down on the anvil. "We heat up a metal stamp that will cut it out but you really need to put your weight into each swing, the fewer strikes it take the less chance of the steel cracking." he placed the metal stamp into the hearth and began to work the bellows, flooding the area with heat.

"Haii..." She tried her best to follow Soyokaze's instructions. The girl swung the hammer but she put the force on her bruised leg and winced. "Like that?"

Soyokaze's keen eyes caught the wince and odd movement and wanted to dive on her and nurse her back to health but held fast. He said he wasn't going to baby her and he had to live up to his word. "Switch your stance, put your weight on the other leg and use two hands like a katana swing, I will hold the stamp you focus on the strike."

"Anoo... I don't know how to swing a katana..." She sighed. "I don't like it..." She understood what he meant and held the hammer with her two hands. Bai swong the hammer upward and the weight pulled her. "uh oh... woah..."

Soyokaze jumped up, he had thought she might lose her balance, a lot of people underestimate the weight and momentum when the first swing a mallet, he'd hoped the switch in posture would help but her bad leg must have been worse than he thought.

Sloppy.

Before he could think to tell her to let go his hands were already around her, one on the elbow of her weapon hand stopping its momentum the other hooked under her other arm pressing her close to him, holding her there in an embrace as he braced her weight against his.

"Silly me, I should show you a few first. I'm not a very good teacher to Hameko either, sorry about that." He brought her arm down so that the head of the mallet rested on his shoulder, his hand interlaced over hers holding the handle.

The Phoenix giggled. "Did you know that the earth calls my name?" Her hands with his like this made her blush. Sweat started to fall from her brow, be it from the heat or something else.. who knows. "You... your support is... is well warranted."