Heyna's Tale Chapter Ten

Revelations

The night was chilly and the leaves were starting to turn. So, when everyone had eaten their fill, Heyna helped Jakintu build a large fire in the hearth. Beetah and the Fennec gathered around, enjoying the warmth and safety of the old Gryph’s hospitality.

“May I?” Jakintu asked Sronban, who nodded. She touched the jewel and gently probed the edge where it was fused to flesh. The jewel glowed faintly at first, but the inner light grew brighter the longer Jakintu was in contact with Sronban. “Amazing. I’ve never seen one so recently joined. Thank you.”

“Wait! You’ve seen Fennec before?” Heyna asked. Everyone stared at Jakintu.

“Long ago, I thought you were just a legend like everyone else. One day, two of your people came to see me. I was living in the city at that time. They had heard of my talking stones and were looking for a supplier. They tried to glamour me, but I recognized them. I pretended to see what they wanted me to see. Unfortunately, my stones at that time came from a merchant who claimed they came from a place far to the East. He didn’t say where exactly. He hinted that the place was near, Uzezaguna.” Everyone looked at her quizzically, “The Sheltered Land? You know, the unknown continent?” Everyone but Heyna shook their heads

“My parents!” Sronban said. “They must have been my parents! What happened? Where did they go?”

“I don’t know. I let them have one of my stones to use to try to track down more. They seemed so desperate. This was more than ten years ago.”

“I thought they were dead,” Sronban said. Her eyes were filled with tears. “I suppose that they could be, after all these years.”

“That isn’t certain. You may be surprised one day,” Jakintu said.

“I hope you are right.”

Heyna stood by her friend and groomed her gently.

“We all hope the same,” Tooly said.

“Unknown continent?” Tooly asked. “What’s that?”

“A legend that sailors tell,” Jakintu said. “Like the Fennec Isle. Far to the East is a land from which no one returns. There are all sorts of fanciful tales of monsters and strange beings. You’ve never heard of such a place?”

“No. We don’t hear much from the outside world.” Tooly said.

“Not in Paititi, either,” Heyna said. “The Quetz are not big explorers. They haven’t even gone very far into the interior of their own continent.”

“Nor much for adventure stories,” Beetah said. “Our novels are all about commerce and artists.”

“And diplomats,” Heyna added.

“We grew up in a place called the Misty Isle.” Sronban said. “We don’t hear much about the outside world. But there is one book in my library, ‘Strange and Wonderful Tales’ by Cillian. There’s a story in that book that says that there are three continents in the world, not two. It’s just a passing reference. I never gave it much thought until now.”

“Well, well,” said Jakintu, chuckling. “Now it’s time for tea and sharing. I want to know everything, Heyna. Start at the beginning. Tell me everything.”

As everyone began sipping their tea, Jakintu pulled out a large drawing board. Heyna began to tell Jakintu her story. Sronban and Tooly added their remembrances and Beetah chimed in with her parts. The old Gryph sketched on wide sheets of paper and dropped each page as she finished it onto the table for the friends to see. Each drawing depicted a scene from their narrative, but each was in a different impressionistic, surrealistic, or hyper-realistic style.

“By all the Gems!” Tooly said. “You’re fantastic! You’d be very popular on the Misty Isle.”

“He’s our best painter,” Sronban said.

“Not by half,” Tooly said.

“He’s modest,” Heyna said. “The night before we left, he had the whole town applauding a house painting.”

“That you had nothing to do with?” Tooly added, grinning.

“Well…” Heyna said.

“They’re just my doodles,” Jakintu said. “Drawing helps me remember what I want to remember. Keep going. What happened next?”

They spun their tale far into the night and drank several pots of tea. As Ilaargia, the largest of the three moons rose, Jakintu showed them to their sleeping places. Hammocks for Beetah and Heyna, a bed for Sronban and Tooly.

“Oh…” Sronban stammered. “We… we’re not…”

“Er… not…” Tooly said.

“Aren’t you…?” Jakintu asked the Fennec, who looked at each other in embarrassment. “Well, maybe not… yet,” Jakintu added with a wink, and led them each to a separate room.

*

Ezgukia, also known as “The Brighter” rose and its slanting rays shot through Heyna’s tightly squeezed lids. She held up her hand to shade her eyes.

“By the Trees!” she complained. She reached for her glasses, cleaned them and put them on. Her hammock, hanging in a alcove just off the kitchen, swung alarmingly.

Jakintu was up and already preparing breakfast. Tooly and then Sronban came from the back rooms.

“Anything I can do to help,” Tooly asked.

“Get Heyna out of the Hammock and stow it there,” She pointed.

“I got it,” said Heyna. She jumped down and took care of the hammock herself.

Jakintu put food on the table.

“Dig in,” she said. “Don’t be shy.”

They ate. Heyna noticed that she was happy for the first time in months. She ate her svella with honey and blueberries.

“By the Trees! This is so good!”

“Everything is great,” Sronban said. “Thank you, Jakintu.”

“You are all welcome. Eat up. Today, we work! Heyna, bring your carryall.”

The second day star, Taiyang, was just rising as they finished breakfast. Jakintu led them by the trail behind her cottage past the mine to a forge in a wide clearing. The ground was covered with bracken and brambles from the forge to the forest.

“We need to cut the bracken back away from the forge,” Jakintu said. “We’re going to fire that thing hotter than the suns, and I don’t want a stray spark setting the underbrush to blaze. Here,” she gave them each a scythe from a tool rack in the forge. “Start at the walls of the forge and work outward.”

“Like this,” she said as she demonstrated how to smoothly slice the plants close to the ground. Then she took an arm full of the cut plants to a pile at the edge of the clearing. The friends started to work, but Jakintu shouted, “Stop! Stop! Spread out. Those tools are razor sharp. We don’t want anyone losing a limb.” The team spread out and started the hot sweaty work.

It took them a while to get the hang of using the scythes. After much grunting, stooping and cursing, Heyna started to sing. Her song was timed to each swing of her tool.

“I am tired and all alone

Cutting the bracken, cutting the bracken

I am tired and all alone

Cutting the bracken endlessly.”

Beetah and the Fennec laughed and joined in.

In a couple of hours, the ground was cleared.

“Jakintu took the scythes back to the forge, rinsed them off, oiled them, sharpened them, and put them back on their rack. She grabbed axes from the same tool rack and handed them out.

“Now, wood,” she said. “Fan out! Only dead wood, thick branches and trunks no wider than six inches. Chop them if you have to. Here, watch me, firm grip, don’t swing with a tired arm, proper bite angle. If you do this,” she demonstrated a glancing blow to a log, “you can chop your foot.”

“Not going to need an ax,” Heyna said. “I’ve got these.” She pointed to her teeth.

“Right with you, Heyna!” Beetah said. “Let’s see who can create the biggest pile, Kit.”

“We’re out,” Sronban said. “We’ll just work over there and stay out of your way.”

“Okay,” Jakintu called. “Loser pumps the bellows. Go!”

The Fennec chopped and gathered slowly with awkward strokes. Beetah and Heyna moved quickly and surely. They cut and shaped the logs just as Jakintu had prescribed with such skill and speed that each of their two piles dwarfed that of the Fennec. In a couple of more hours, Jakintu called a halt.

“We have enough!”

“Who won?” Heyna asked.

“Looks like Beetah by a log or two, but you’re pretty close.”

“As long as we can stop,” Sronban said. “My blisters are developing blisters.”

“You all can stop,” Jakintu said. “Let’s fire her up.”

Jakintu began to stoke the forge. She showed them how to pump air into the furnace using a giant bellows. With each stroke, the fire glowed brighter and hotter.

“First, your task for Eeeaouuu.” Jakintu said the strange name as fluidly as the Kelpie herself. “Let me have your vial of gernu. And you and Beetah will have to express some fluid from your glands. The fluid must be the scent of memories of your family, preferably parents.”

“Why, specific memories?” Heyna asked.

“Chemical composition,” Beetah said. “Different memories, different scents, different chemicals.”

“Right,” Jakintu said. “Now, the task.” The old Gryph pulled several broad sheets of paper from a portfolio on a desk. “Look at these.” Drawn on the paper was the face of a Kelpie, but it was distorted. The beak looked like half had been sheared off. Tongue and bottom jaw showed through, exposed.”

“That looks painful,” Tooly said. “You want Heyna to forge a replacement beak to cover the wound?”

“Yes.”

“Wait!” Heyna said. “I haven’t forged anything since… since school. I made a screwdriver in shop class. This… is something completely different.”

“Yes,” Jakintu said. “Here are precise drawings of the piece with measurements. This is something different.”

“Why me?” Heyna asked.

“The Kelpie helped you. You agreed to perform this task. They are sure that you are capable. I can guide you. But this is something that must be crafted by your hands. It’s your debt. You must pay it. And,” the old Gryph added. “You might learn a thing or two.”

Heyna looked at the drawings. The piece was not very big, only eight inches on a side and less than a millimeter thick, but a slight mistake would make the piece worthless. It would have to fit perfectly over the remaining part of the beak and replace the missing piece. It would have to be thicker on one side and thinner on the other. How was she going to do that?

“It will be made of Gryphish steel. I have several billets, enough for three tries. And this…” Jakintu pulled a cloth off a sculpture at the side of the desk. It was a bust of the injured Kelpie. “You can use this to fit the piece. This sculpture is exactly to scale.”

Heyna ran her hand over the face. The difference in thickness between one side of the new beak and the other would be less than half a millimeter. This was not going to be easy. Not for the first time, Heyna wished that she had paid more attention in class.

“The fire’s hot,” Jakintu said. “Let’s get started. Gloves and goggles! Now grab one of the billets with these tongs and put it into the fire. Tooly, pump that bellows. Keep the coals red.”

Heyna took the billet and placed it in the hottest part of the fire.

“Keep it moving,” Jakintu said. “You want to heat it evenly. Watch the color. Too dark and you won’t be able to shape it. Too hot and you’ll burn it and it will be brittle.”

Heyna watched the color of the billet change from black to red, moving it all the time.

“Now, bring it to the anvil. Hammer time! You want to turn the billet into a sheet of uniform thickness first.”

Heyna began to hammer. At first the metal was soft and moved easily. She hammered with all her strength, but her arm tired quickly.

“Don’t try to pound hard,” Jakintu said. “Let gravity do the work. Now see the color? Back into the fire.”

Heyna worked the metal until it began to take shape. She used the gernu flux when Jakintu said to. She surprised herself. She compared the piece to the drawing and the sculpture. It was coming along, but she was growing impatient and wanted to move the metal faster. She left the piece in the fire a bit too long.

“No! No!” Jakintu said. “See the color. Take it out, quick!”

When Heyna next dropped the hammer, the piece snapped in two.

“Argh! Why?” Heyna dropped the piece in a bucket of water.

“It’s what you have to do. You’ve got the hang of it. You just need to feel the metal. Let it show you how it wants to move. Don’t rush. Let’s try again after you’ve rested. Let’s eat as well.”

Heyna wasn’t hungry. She was angry with herself. She was annoyed at Jakintu, the Kelpie and even the Fennec. Tooly and Sronban looked so hopeful and obviously wanted to help, but their encouragement just got on her nerves.

“Drink! Eat!” Beetah said, with an expression that said she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Heyna ate and drank and rested as commanded. She curled up in a corner and closed her eyes. She saw the injured Kelpie in her minds eye and thought she’d fallen asleep and was dreaming. The Kelpie spoke to her in a language that she didn’t understand. The words were soothing and supportive. Confidence flowed through her her, and suddenly, she knew that she could do it. She jumped up and went to the forge.

“Sronban. Your turn to pump the bellows.”

“Right.”

When the fire was hot, Heyna grabbed the billet in her tongs and heated it. She watched the color as it rose. Inside her, she could still hear the Kelpie. She didn’t rush. It was like she was suddenly in a trance. She could feel the steel. Her awareness flowed down her arm, through the tongs, and into the metal. She imagined that she could see the molecules vibrating, wanting to take the shape that was in her mind.

She pulled out the billet and brought it to the anvil. The hammer seemed to rise and fall on its own. Her arm did not get tired. She could feel when the metal cooled and needed to go back in the fire. Back and forth she moved. Heat, hammer, examine, compare with the sculpture, it all was going smoothly.

Everyone was all smiles, even Jakintu seemed satisfied. She worked with smaller and smaller hammers as the work became finer and finer. Heyna put the piece in the fire for one last heat. She looked around and thought how admiring her friends looked. She thought that she was doing really well for someone who’d only made a crude screwdriver before. Then Jakintu yelped.

She’d let her mind wander, and the thin metal was suddenly burnt and brittle. Heyna cursed herself for a fool.

“Remember,” Jakintu whispered into Heyna’s ear, “this is not about you.” She started walking towards her cottage. “Enough for today. Tomorrow, the suns will be brighter.”