Chapter 2

First thing to do was make several more tools. He needed an axe to chop wood with and he needed a weapon to hunt and defend himself with.

On his way back to the cave, he examined the ground and to his surprise, found that many of what he had taken for stones and rocks on the ground were in fact nodules of the ore that the note had described. As he was examining one, he also noticed a couple of flints spread amongst the nodules. He gathered up half a dozen flints and an armful of nodules; and returned to his cave.

In the cave, he placed all the nodules in the bucket, and after returning from gathering some tinder from outside, managed to start a fire in one of the furnaces using one of the flints. He set the bucket in the fire and waited.

His thoughts turned to what weapon he could make. A bow was out of the question as he had no idea where to get feathers, glue or a bowstring. He had seen some birds, but wasn't sure how to catch them.

He then thought of a sword, but quickly realised that while he could make one, it would serve no purpose in hunting, though it would be a good defensive weapon if any animals, or people for that matter, tried to attack him. No, not a sword for his first weapon.

A spear. The perfect weapon for both hunting with and defending himself with. And it wouldn't look out of place in this time. As he thought about its dimensions, an image of a Doru came to him. He tried to discard it as the spear was normally only used in combat and it s size would probably lead to difficulties while hunting. But no matter what he did, he couldn't shake the picture of it. Giving up, he decided to make one, if only to silence the picture in his mind.

Coming back to himself, he realised that the raw ore had melted down and was softly bubbling in the bucket. Going over to the moulds, he selected two, one that would give him an ingot with a ready-made hole in it, from which he could form an axe head, and another to form a spear head from. He laid them on the ground, took off his coat and wrapped his hands in it and picked up the bucket. With careful motions, he poured the molten metal into the moulds. Finding he had some left over, he selected another mould for a spear head and poured the remainder into it.

While they set, Leon chose to go and get the wood he would need for the haft and shaft for the axe and spear respectively. Donning his coat again and checking he still had his knife, he left the cave and headed for the trees to the south.

It took him almost half an hour to get to the trees. As he entered, he began to look along the ground for the wood that he would need. Until he had the axe, he would be unable to chop the wood from a tree. After an hour of searching, he found a length of wood that would make a sturdy axe handle. It would only make a small axe, but that was alright, with it he could chop wood for a longer handle for a larger axe when he needed it.

Finding an adequate shaft for his spear however, proved to be rather difficult. None of the fallen branches were straight or long enough. But he did find a nice sapling that would serve his needs. He would just have to return once he had his axe made.

Back in the cave, he examined the ingots and found they weren't quite ready, so he sat in the seat of the wagon and, using his knife, began to trim his handle down to a smooth surface. When he was satisfied, it was as smooth as he could get it without sandpaper. Setting it aside, he re-examined the ingots and found they were ready.

Grabbing the bucket, he walked to the river and filled it, before returning to empty it into the slack tub. He repeated this until the tub was filled to the brim with cool water.

Taking the mould over to the anvil, he carefully hammered on the back of it until the ingot slipped out onto the anvil. Putting the mould aside, he grasped a pairs of tongs, and holding the by the hole in it, set the end that would be the cutting surface into the still lit furnace to heat up. While it was heating, he stripped off his coat and shirt.

Once the axe head was hot enough, Leon took it out of the fire and set it on the anvil, before he began to hammer out the end that would be the bit. Slowly shaping the head, Leon lost track of time as he heated the head in the furnace, hammered and shaped it before quenching it in the slack tub and repeating the process over again.

Finally he was satisfied with the shape of the head and set it in the furnace one last time. Looking out the cave entrance, he realised it was getting dark; he had worked the entire afternoon away. He washed the sweat off his body with water from the slack tub and stood in front of the furnace to dry. Once he was satisfied that the head was hot enough, he removed it from the furnace and dropped it into the tub, cooling it and locking the carbon from the furnace in place.