A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 45

With the sand mold prepared as painstakingly as possible by Randi with Rudhi offering her constant suggestions, it was time to pour the steel and they looked at each other for a moment. "I keep taking a deep breath to start this and then I just take another one," Randi smiled as she reached to carefully lift the crucible with the tongs.

The pour was done with the greatest care and the crucible returned to the fire. "I thought that there would only be enough for the one," Rudhi said quietly, "but now I believe that we will need another mold. I think that I can see that you will have a dagger as well out of this."

As the molten metal in the first mold cooled, Rudhi made up a second box and using her blade again, she shaped a second mold. This blade would have the same style, but it would be smaller. Before the next pour, they broke the hot blade out of its mold and Randi quenched it by shoving it into the water as quickly as she could and the sound was a loud bang.

As she swirled it around in the tank to keep bubbles from forming, she felt Rudhi's hand on her shoulder. "A good loud sound, that was," she said, "To us, it would say that this blade's birth begins well."

The blade was drawn out still very dull red and hot, but cool enough now to begin to work a little and Rudhi took it and knocked off the rough flash from the edges, carefully saving the metal to put back into the crucible. "This is where the work begins," she said, offering Randi the hammer, "Begin now to beat it out flatter, and stay away from the groove on each side."

As Randi began to beat it carefully, Rudhi set about pouring the second blade. Both of them were already sweating and they wore a covering of dirt held there by their stickiness. Randi knew what to do from this point and she laid several hammers out as she needed them, one of them being quite small to work the outward edges of the scallops carefully. Rudhi knew at once that her friend knew how as she listened to the steady double beat after Randi drove the hammer to begin and only guided it as it fell, bouncing once each time before she picked it up again for the next stroke.

As soon as the metal had begun to cool a little too much to work, Randi thrust it into the fire again and one or the other of them would work the bellows to get it hot once more. With the second pour done and waiting, they undid their aprons and put them back on, but folded in half to protect them lower down from hot shards which might become dislodged from the beating out of the steel. The two women worked from opposite sides of the huge anvil bare-breasted and pouring sweat as they pounded the blades out between them so that the forge rang to the beat of two hammers.

Again and again, the blades were sent back into the heat and the flames as they were forged, heated bright red and orange and almost yellow, over and over, only to be slapped back down on the anvil and beaten more. The work was hard and Randi's arms and shoulders ached, but it was honest work and she'd never been one to shy from that. She grinned a little over the anvil between them as she watched Rudhi wipe her brow with the back of her hand, leaving a large dark smear behind. Of course, she didn't know the dark smears that she wore herself, having made the same motions many times already.

At one point, she stood there for a moment catching her breath. There wasn't much time for it, but she needed a few seconds, though she was mindful of the old saying to strike while the iron is hot – even if it was steel that she was working here.

In that moment, Rudhi was passing by on her way to shove the second blade into the forge again. She kept her face impassive as she passed, but Randi yelped in surprise and looked down at her breast.

"Hey! You left a handprint."

The only reply was a quiet chuckle, but Randi left a handprint of her own a moment later when her friend bent a little to work the bellows.

With the second blade being smaller, it took less time than the long one and they were heated together again and when they had reached the right color, they were withdrawn and coated with a heavy layer of black dust and heated once more to harden the skin of the steel. Randi stood and watched carefully, looking for hot spots which would show as white-hot and would be areas where the steel would be softer. "Their births are almost complete," Rudhi said quietly with her arm around Randi's waist.

"I know," the redhead replied, just as softly, as though she was afraid that a loud word now would have the same effect as a sudden noise when baking a cake. "I am so tired and beat. Should we put the edges on tonight?"

"No," Rudhi replied, "Let us and them rest first. Once it is begun, you will not want to stop, and I will need time for the engravings and then, you know that it will be hours of scraping and polishing. These do not carry long, straight edges. Each wave, each groove will be a work to sharpen."

When she judged that the time and the color was right, Randi nodded and the two women removed their aprons and the blades were pulled out. They stood on opposite sides of the quenching tank full of black and filthy water and nodding that they were ready to each other, they thrust the hot steel into the tank again and there were a pair of detonations. They swirled the things for long minutes, changing hands as they grew tired, but they were careful not to bang the new blades into each other and they kept them moving until long after the point where the water stopped boiling against the surface of the steel.

After a careful examination by the light of the hot forge, Rudhi pronounced that it had gone well and the rough and dark shapes were set on the anvil for the night.

They looked at each other and smiled, "I still don't like girls," Randi said, "but, ..."

Rudhi nodded, "I think that I need a kiss as well now. Other than a bath, I cannot think of a better thing to do."

They embraced and Randi laughed as they slid together from the sweat that they wore. "My God, we smell awful," Randi said and Rudhi nodded, "We are filthy and we smell, but I like it. I cannot help it, Randi. I like anything with you."

She laughed, "We know each other only a day and some, but I am closer to you than I ever was with my sister."

"You had a sister?" Randi asked as she brought her lips against Rudhi's lips.

After a moment, they pulled apart a little and Rudhi blinked, "I think I had a sister – the foul-mouthed and ambitious little snot that she was. I would have- "

"Just kiss me, Rudy, "the redhead sighed, "You can tell me about your sister later."

Randi was struggling a little. She didn't know what she wanted, she only knew that she loved being with Rudhi beyond any doubt now – and she still didn't want a woman. She just needed Rudhi. She had no idea what to do with the thought, and Rudhi's nipple rings were driving her crazy right then. It just felt so good to hold on to each other and slide their sticky bodies together, though there was an awkward and slightly painful moment when Rudhi's belly ring was caught on Randi's navel stud for a minute.

Randi gave up trying to be quiet and she moaned loudly. "I love this, Rudy," she whispered when they pulled apart for a moment. "I love my friend Rudy, who's a girl and I don't like the idea of being with a girl one bit."

She pulled her head back and stared at Rudhi. "What am I supposed to do with a girl, anyway?"

Rudhi pulled her back and she leaned in as she kissed Randi's throat, "You are doing it," Rudhi groaned softly, "I love being with you as well, and I cannot help it."

"I filled the tub and I'm sure the pots are boiling by now – if they haven't boiled themselves dry." Randi said, trying for some semblance of normalcy, "We need to get unstuck and have a bath."

"We need to stay here and do this forever," Rudhi moaned as one of Randi's nipples slid against her own.

"Oh fuck, yes," Randi groaned as she tried to work her thigh between Rudhi's, "I even want to do this, but we're covered in ..."

The thought flew from her as Rudhi's thigh connected in the right place and the pair of filthy women stood clutching each other as they kissed and rubbed together.

Outside in the darkness, there was a being standing in the cold rain and wind as she looked in through the thin gaps in the planks of the doors. She'd come there attracted by the sounds of the hammering and she'd been there for long enough to have gotten bitterly cold, even though she wore fur.

She wasn't bothered by the rain which had long before soaked that fur. She didn't feel much of it as she stood leaning against the closed doors a little. She was an enigma here, but she was thankful that it had happened, because she was able to feel some things, such as the pleasure that her own fingertips were providing her as she watched two fascinatingly lovely beings through the doors. Narreth had never really been one to want for the touch of another female, but this was a thrill that she was enjoying – to see them like this was such a beautiful thing to her.

They were both so beautiful to her as she watched them. Before long, she even came to a couple of ideas as she tried to sense them. What was returned to her was even more confusing and fascinating. One was human, but not entirely so. The other was entirely different from a human, and what she was to Narreth was what made her long to know them both, but most especially the one with the black mane.

As they finally pulled themselves apart to leave the chamber, Narreth shook herself to get some of the rain out of her pelt before she ran off a little and she spread her wings to fly back to her home.

-----------------------

When she'd told him what she'd seen, he looked a little confused and after he'd listened to where Narreth had seen it, he nodded. "I believe that I met the one with the red mane," he said and then he spoke of what had happened. "I didn't know that there was another person there," he said, "It felt to me as though she lived there alone. So then she survived it all," he smiled, "Good. We didn't say much to each other, and she was frightened of me to begin, but I liked her. My feeling was that she is a nice person."

"I think that you should look in on her," Nerreth said, "to make certain that she is alright, of course."

The way that she smiled made him guess at what lay behind it. "Narreth," he smiled, "even I can see through what you tell me to do. I think that it would do no good. She was terrified of me, only settling down near the end and by then, I am sure that she shook most of her ability to be frightened away.

And anyway, from what you say, she has someone for her."

"I will say three things here," Narreth smiled, "First, there is not much to be seen when a female – and I think that it is true of any kind if there is a brain in their heads – slowly gets over something which she might have feared and then finds little reason to continue to fear. The reaction begins far quicker than it abates.

Secondly, I will tell of what I saw. The two like each other very much, being new friends. The one which you met is not all human, and the other is not human in any regard. That one carries some power to her, and in her I saw that while she might like the one which you met, she holds back, for she knows that the one with the red mane does not much like the notion of loving with another female. They kissed and made a bit of noise to each other, but I doubt that anything will come of it in a bed.

Lastly," Nerreth nodded, "there is no kingdom here, but there is a king – or one who could have been one. A king needs to know when to dare. Those females are the closest people near to us, which makes us almost neighbors. In the more human one of them, it is their way when they live far from others to look in on those living nearby at times to be sure that they are alright. Do you know her name?"

He shook his head, "Getting words out of her was hard. She shook and shuddered from the cold. As I turned to go, she asked me if I had a name. I didn't think that something like 'Ayt'han' would sound very friendly, so I gave her the human name that Laish called me by – Billy."

"So, let us hunt up a fine pair of deer for them both and we will try to visit," Narreth smiled, "You may try to learn of that one's name if you can and I wish to learn of the other one. I seek to know about how many spirits dwell in this body – two or only one. Perhaps she can tell me this."