Chapter 3: Swordplay

As he made his way home Leonard noticed that the village was showing signs of life now. The sound of young children playing in the darkened streets could be heard while the mothers in the village could be seen going about making the morning meal or hanging out clothes to dry on the porches which most houses in the village boasted.

Whistling softly Leonard reached the house he shared with his father and pushed the door open with his hand as his eyes flicked to the corners and hiding spots in the main room of the house. He'd been surprised one too many times by David deciding that to test his awareness of his surroundings.

Being aware of his surroundings had been drilled into Leonard for quite some time by David and Connor both, as each claimed that they had come a hair breadth too close to death because of their inattentiveness one too many times. This was very easy to understand as Connors career as a Knight(however short) had consisted mainly of dealing with bandit attacks on villages and he claimed that several times he had been jumped by a couple of bandits when he thought they had left the village they had attacked. David meanwhile said very little about exactly why he was so aware of his surroundings but Leonard could piece bits and pieces together from his lessons which gave an overall picture that David had been either some sort of thief or even an assassin. Naturally Leonard had asked but David was always very tight lipped about the subject, something that everyone respected.

Finding nothing of concern in his brief glance of the room Leonard went to the small hearth set into the back wall and began re-awakening the fire from last night. Once there was a respectable fire going Leonard prepared a small pot of porridge which he hung from the hooks set into the fire surround.

Knowing it would be at least twenty minutes before the Porridge would be ready he made sure there was nothing flammable near the fireplace and set off out again.

The first rays of sun were now bathing the village in an eerie pre-dawn light as Leonard headed for Naikos house. Seeing Connor jogging about the village square, something he did every morning regardless of weather, Leonard smirked and smirked at him causing Connor to laugh and shake his head at him.

Connor knew that Leonard was planning something new for their bout later but was unaware of exactly what it was and he hadn't asked either.

As he reached the other side of the village square he saw that Naiko was already up and was working with Jim Benson the villages own leather-worker and tanner. They were stretching leather on the large porch which joined on the side of his house unlike the rest of the houses who had front facing porches.

Leonard hopped onto the porch and took note of how many hides there were scattered about.

"Good morning Leonard" Jim greeted cheerfully.

"It is indeed Mr Benson, and hopefully it'll be a good day too" Leonard replied grinning. Finishing his Sword Breaker had made him very cheerful.

"Oh my, someone woke up on the right side of bed this morning" Jim joked.

"Nah, he'll be fighting Connor later and he's got some sort of trick up his sleeve apparently" Naiko added with a grin.

"Oh really, now what would that be?" Jim asked curiously.

"Ah, if I told then it'd wreck all my careful preparation wouldn't it?" Leonard grinned at the two men.

"That it would lad" Jim agreed. "Good luck with it anyway."

"Thanks Mr Benson. I presume Katelyn told you about the bout then?" Leonard asked looking at Naiko.

"Indeed. Girl is about wetting herself to find out what you been cooking up." Naiko said with a grin.

Jim and Leonard laughed at this, both fully aware of how impatient Katelyn was.

"That girl could sit stock still in a tree for five hours straight easy, but keep a secret from her and she gets ants in her pants all of a sudden" Jim joked.

"Who has ants in their pants?" Katelyn asked as she joined them.

Her question just set the three of them laughing again, which of course caused Katelyn to pout.

"What's so funny?" She demanded.

"Nothing, don't worry Katelyn these two old men are just bullying you." Leonard said with a sly grin toward Jim and Naiko.

Katelyn glared at the two older men as they tried to look innocent.

"Er, did you come here for anything other than to get us both in trouble Leonard?" Naiko asked hastily.

"Actually yeah, I was wondering if you had that leather I asked for ready, and if you've got a little spare rawhide I'd be grateful."

"Oh yes, I've got the leather right here" Naiko said as he pulled a rolled up piece of tough leather from under his workbench. "I've got rawhide no problem, how much do you need?"

Leonard accepted the leather he was holding and considered a second before answering. "About two foot?" He asked hesitantly.

Naiko nodded and pulled a roll of rawhide out from under the bench too and cut two feet off.

"Thanks very much, this should be just what I need." Leonard said happily. "I'm afraid I've got to dash, I left some porridge on the fire for my da. It was a pleasure gents and lady of course." He said winking at Katelyn.

Katelyn just blushed and began examining her feet. Though two years his senior Katelyn had little time for boys but she enjoyed flirting a little with Leonard every now and then.

Smiling at his daughter's embarrassment Naiko winked at Leonard. "I think we may come down and watch your little fight with Connor later. I'm curious to see how good you are with a sword."

Jim nodded in agreement with Naiko and Katelyn looked up with a wicked grin.

"You'll see what I told you, Leonard is a really good swordsman even Connor says so." She said excitedly. "However he's yet to beat Connor in a straight fight" She added with her own sly grin.

Leonard simply smiled at her not rising to her tease. "Maybe that'll change today"

Nodding to the two men and winking at Katelyn he headed back to his home at a steady jog.

He was relieved to find that the house was still standing when he got back and dumped his leather in one of the chairs in the small sitting room and set about ladling out two bowls of porridge which he then placed onto a tray with a pitched of watered down cider.

Placing the tray on the side for a second he doused the fire once more before tying his rawhide around the leather which he had rolled around his new sword breaker. With the bundle under his left arm and the tray balanced on his right hand he set out for the forge once more.

As he walked slowly to the smithy he let the beauty of the small village sink in as he walked. There were now several children playing horseshoes on the village green while a few mothers were standing nearby gossiping. Smoke was rising from the various chimneys about the village and the thatched roofs, wooden porches and cobbled streets gave the village a very quaint but tidy look.

Leonard understood that Hockley Heath was different from most villages in the respect that the entire village had been constructed around the same time meaning that it looked very similar all the way through which helped give the small village a greater sense of community.

As he reached the smithy he tapped the door with his foot to attract his father's attention as his hands were full at the moment.

When he opened the door Domitan De Savros snorted as he saw Leonard balancing the tray on one hand while holding a bundle of Leather under his other one.

Taking the tray from Leonard he beckoned the boy into the forge holding the door open for him.

"Thanks da." Leonard said gratefully.

"No problem. What's the leather and rawhide for?" He enquired as he set down the tray at one of the few free workbenches in the smithy.

Setting the leather down on one of the benches that his father used for leatherwork he pulled a stool to where his father was now sat pouring himself a mug of cider.

"I need to make some sort of sheath or scabbard for my new sword breaker. And I need a new thong for Ma's ring, my old one broke this morning."

Leonard noticed that his father flinched at mention of his mother. This wasn't entirely uncommon as his father really didn't like to talk about his life before Hockley or how Leonard's mother had died. For the past couple of years Leonard had been suspicious about this for a variety of reasons but he knew that his father respected him and would tell him eventually.

The two ate in a companionable silence each lost in their own thoughts about the work they had to finish. Until the thong for his ring had broken Leonard had completely forgotten about his plans to make a scabbard for his new weapon. Luckily he had asked Naiko to prepare some stiff leather earlier in the week in advance.

Once the two had finished their breakfast they went back to their respective works. After glancing at his father it was obvious that he was working on Connors armour, most likely because it stretched his abilities a little more. Something Leonard was sure his father missed. Both of them had the ability of master smiths but there was very little call for such work in the village which meant they were often doing very mundane work in the smithy if there even was any call for work that week; however this left them lots of time to work on their own projects when they liked.

Leonard set to work with the leather first by laying it out flat and putting his sword breaker over it and drawing two outlines in chalk and then cutting them out with a few inches to spare. He then applied a liberal amount of a resin which would harden the leather and make it waterproof.

Once he had finished this he left the leather to dry and set about making his new thong for his mother's ring. He had decided to make a thick leather braid which is why he had so much rawhide. He worked at a steady pace though he knew he could do the job much faster he wanted the braid to last so was very careful to prepare the braid properly. After cutting the rawhide into two strips he set about dying them, one a light cream the other a deep brown.

While waiting for the dye on his rawhide to dry he checked the leather and saw it was coming on very well so he placed his sword breaker on one piece so there was a few inches space around the blade before coating the margin in a thick glue which would hold the leather together while he worked with it before placing the other piece on top and placing weights on to keep it in place.

He then switched back to his thong and quickly set about braiding the now dry pieces of rawhide which was no easy feat considering the stiffness of the hide but he finished in good time and after threading the braid through the ring he tied the braid about his neck in a simple knot. He was certain that the new braid would last for some time and it looked a little more presentable than just a piece of plain rawhide around his neck.

Leonard shook his head as he realised how obsessed with his image he was becoming now. Before he would have simply used plain rawhide because it was simple and durable but ever since he'd started noticing that Katelyn was becoming a beautiful young woman he had put more effort into his appearance something that Katelyn commented upon on occasion. Her comments usually caused him to blush with embarrassment at being caught caring about his appearance but that was usually outweighed by the happy fluttery feeling he got in his stomach every time the older girl complimented him.

He went back to his new scabbard and removed the weights from the leather and pulled the blade free from its confines and wiped the excess glue off. Replacing the blade inside the new rough scabbard he took a spindle of thick wool, which had been treated to be tougher, that was used for leather work. He began sewing the two pieces of leather together as close to the blade as possible, a feat which took the best part of an hour due to the need to flip the leather and heavy weapon over constantly. When he eventually finished he sighed and pulled the weapon out once again cleaning it of extra glue before replacing it.