Chapter 2: An Unusual Burn

Hockley Heath was still covered in darkness. It was almost three hours before dawn but Leonard De Savros was already awake and alert. With a grace of someone much older than his own fourteen years he silently slipped out of the small house he and his father shared. Being up three hours before dawn was not totally unusual in Hockley, mainly because dawn in Hockley was two hours later than anywhere else in Terra Lucis due to the high peaks of the mountains.

On this morning however Leonard was the only person who was out at this time of day. After a large successful hunt that had come in yesterday, the hunters were all abed enjoying their beds for the first time in a week since their expedition up into the higher parts of the hills to thin the wolf herds. Leonard was sure that his various teachers would be up already, Margaret the village healer was often up before anyone else meditating, while the other would likely be up preparing for the coming day. All of his instructors were very focused people who didn't believe in rest. The only reason his father wasn't up yet was because he had been up late the night before helping Naiko store the pelts and few kills the hunting party had brought back. It was rare his father took a lie in and Leonard was careful not to wake him this morning as he headed for the Forge.

In theory Leonard didn't need to be up for a few hours yet as he always worked with his father in the morning, but today Leonard had a special project he wanted to work on.

After three years of work his swordsmanship training with Connor was beginning to pay dividends as Leonard seemed to go from strength to strength with the weapon, but Connor was still able to beat him soundly every time they did freestyle combat. Connor had experience with using a shield and sword together that Leonard didn't. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't match Connors skill with both shield and sword. With swords alone Leonard was confident he could be a threat to Connor but he couldn't grasp the concept of the shield no matter how much he tried. Leonard had a completely different fighting style to Connor due to his size and stature.

Connor was a large man at six foot three and packed some serious bulk too, it seemed that Connors waist was wider than Leonard's shoulders. Unlike Connor, Leonard was slight in his build. At five foot eleven he was a respectable height but he wasn't as wide or heavyset as Connor. Leonard was small but still packed muscle, his shoulders were not very wide and he wasn't thickly built but he was heavily muscled and very limber and flexible thanks to his hand to hand training with David.

Today Leonard planned to create a new weapon for himself that he could use instead of a shield allowing him to make use of his superior speed and reflexes to best his mentor. His fourteenth birthday was last week and his father had given him his 'scrapbook' which contained all of his designs and recipes for alloys that he had used over the years. The tome had proved to be very useful when Leonard had designed his new weapon, he based it off of a design his father had once made for a knight for a similar purpose. The design was labelled as a sword-breaker and vaguely resembled the hilt and bottom third of a bastard sword but the pommel was wider and had a sharp point at the bottom and sides of the pommel that could be used for stabbing an adversary. The top of the pommel had a jagged pattern made out of a steel alloy which would allow the swordsman to capture a sword with the jagged edge on the wider pommel and twist to break the blade, hence the name.

Leonard had improved upon the design for his own purposes. He made the hilt curved and added a bridge on much like one would expect on an ornate cutlass but made it much wider so as to protect the wielders hand. He had also added a jagged cutting edge to the bottom of the hilt with a raised piece of steel between to the wielder wouldn't cut his hand when using the weapon but could use the jagged edge to tear into an enemy's flesh. He had also made the design for the pommel much more intricate to account for the extra wide bridge he had included. The pommel, bridge and holder for the jagged part at the bottom of the hilt would be made from a very strong alloy that was mainly steel and tungsten with other elements to make them as durable as possible but so they would rust or shatter if hit hard. He had kept the jagged edge on the top of the pommel of the blade like his father's design but he had also changed the blade itself. The blade was about four inches wide at the base with a jagged edge which faced downward so that he could capture a blade between the jagged bit on his blade and his pommel and snap an adversary's sword easily. After the jagged edge which extended about six inches from the pommel the blade then became about two and a half inches thick and the top had two crescents cut out so the blade ended in a vicious spike that could pierce armour.

His designs were complex with these parts alone but Leonards designs were a masterpiece because he had designed his weapon to be multi-layered for the most strength. The core of the weapon would be made out of a heavy alloy which was a mix of lead, steel and titanium which would give the weapon a sturdy weight and provide a decent base for the weapon. On top of that he added a steel alloy which had been folded many times to give strength in a criss-cross pattern to make a lattice over the lead alloy core.

This made his weapon extremely difficult to make as few had the know-how to create such alloys or to manipulate steel in the ways he would need to form the lattice over his lead-alloy core. However Leonards father was one a master smith who had taught Leonard everything he knew. The villagers suspected that Domitan was more skilled than he let on but if they knew the extent to which his abilities went they would likely be amazed. There were few people alive who could manipulate steel in such a way to create folded steel but Domitan was one of the few.

Leonard had then added another layer to his weapon. This alloy was made to be deadly sharp and retain an edge and had slight red tinge making the blade look rather demonic but was brittle and could be broken or bent if the blade was forged out of just this alloy. He had then added a final layer to the two flat sides of the blade which would give it a shiny exterior but with a blue tinge to it. This alloy was made mainly to be decorative but Leonard found that it resisted scratches well and if made properly could be as reflective as a mirror whilst holding a deep blue shine that looked very attractive and contrasted with the red tinged cutting edge. As a final touch to his blade he had etched decorative designs into the pommel, bridge and up the centre of the blade which were all finished with the blue-ish alloy.

The overall design looked brilliant and Leonard was very pleased with it, he had almost finished it and he was pleased with the weight of the blade as well as the edge on it, but today he would be filling the etchings in with yet another alloy that served no purpose other than being a deep shiny black, he thought this would make the etchings very prominent and be just the right finish for the weapon.

As he padded softly down the street that went straight through the village and the village square Leonard could hear very little, birds waking up and the sound of small animals moving in the bushes around the village. Undoubtedly foxes and the like returning to their homes for the day. As he passed Connor's home he could faintly hear what sounded like a Connor beating on a sack full of sand and dirt. Connor had rigged up a large sack filled with dirt then added a padded leather exterior so that he could use it as practice to keep his boxing abilities sharp. Leonard smiled as he thought of the lesson they would be having later, he knew that Connor would have them both warm up and practice forms for a while before going on to some freestyle one on one. He couldn't wait to see his face as he unleashed his new weapon, with it he would be able to block much like he could with a shield but he could also slash, hack and stab making the weapon very dangerous and with the added bridge it would be almost impossible for Connor to disarm him.

Smirking Leonard reached the forge. It was on the end of the village and at some point had been some kind of small barn or large shed but the previous smith had converted it into a fully functional forge and Leonard and Domitan had expanded it even further so they could make larger pieces and smelt ores and create alloys there too. The house nearest to the forge was at least two hundred yards away so Leonard could easily begin work this early without waking anyone.

Unlocking the door and setting the padlock aside Leonard went straight for the forge first and checked to make sure the airways for the bellows and pipes to extract fumes were clear, as he had been taught by his father, seeing that they were he pumped the bellows a few times while raking over the coals left in the forge from the previous night, to awaken the fire that lay dormant in them. This was his favourite part of the day, simply stirring up the unassuming black rocks and seeing their hidden treasure of glowing embers thrust into light, where they would burst into flame once more.