As time passed, Kana was finally happy with the current degree of blending and began working on finishing her dagger. Three hours had already passed, and all the other students were done with their letter openers. "Almost done!" Kana exclaimed as she saw the shiny looking dagger in front of her. It was a little rough around the edges, but for her first time, she was very happy. But she still wanted to perfect it a little, so she did work a bit more on it. Once she was satisfied with the edges getting them as straight as possible with a hammer, she began grinding down the sides and making them flat. At the same time, she was sharpening it. When this was all done, she finally heated it once more and engraved her name on the blade. "Mmm… Complete! Now for a hilt..."
"Haha! Lass, you really amazed me. Let this old man take a look." Old Gamm asked as he looked at Kana's dagger with great interest. Kana handed the dagger over as asked. Old Gamm immediately went to work, checking it over. "Hmmm… I would say you blended it to about sixty percent. Very good for your first time. The edges are nice and sharp, and the edge is fairly straight. Next time spend a bit more time on hammering before grinding. It will allow the blade's edge to become straighter. Besides that, you did a very good job. Now come I will show you how to make a hit."
Old Gamm took Kana to the side where a small woodworking station was located. "Pick out a piece of wood. A size big enough for you to use as a grip for your dagger."
Kana shuffled through the wood until she found a nice dark cherry wood color. "Alright, now the key to a hilt is to make it smooth but also have a grip so it will not slip out of your hands if they are sweaty or wet. With this piece of wood, it would be best to cut some grooves into a pattern like so..."
Old Gamm whittled away at the cherry wood until he made a hilt that had caved out groves into it. He then sanded it down until it was all nice and smooth. "Now, for the final part, you need to cut it in half, then mark the width of the bottom of the dagger. After that, we will carve out the opening. Once this is all finished, we stick it all together. The best method is to secure the whole thing with a metal pin like so." With a little work, Old Gamm had already secured the hilt to the dagger. He polished it up with some red oil to add the final touch. "There, what do you think?"
"It looks amazing!" Kana smiled as she took the dagger from Old Gamm. Her eyes were sparkling as she looked the hilt over with great interest. She wished her handsome husband was here so she could gift it to him as it was the first weapon she ever forged.
Old Gamm smiled and nodded his head. He was happy to find such a talent. To be able to forge a weapon on her first try this good was a feat on its own. She was a natural at forging. " Okay, that ends today's training. Tomorrow all of you will be working on daggers. Dismissed!"
By the time her forging specialty was over, the sky had already darkened. Kana walked out of the forging building towards her dorm. Like most people who took forging as their specialty were male, she was the only one walking down the long dark road to the female dorms. Both sides of the road were lined by dense trees, and there were only a few lights lighting the path. Halfway to the dorm, twenty figures walked out of the tree line surrounding Kana.
A tall lizard man with a lizard head stood with a large axe in his hands. His gaze was cold as he looked at Kana. "Miss Kana, I will need you to come with us. You have angered the wrong noble families, so you will need to pay the price."
"Hmm? Noble families?" Kana let out a sigh. These people were acting no different than humans. Such a thing really made Kana feel sick. She thought beastkin would strive to be better than the human race in all aspects, but there still seemed some who had the same kind of evil intentions as the humans did. She knew there was never any good without the bad. But the way these people acted angered her to no end. Speaking her thoughts out loud, Kana said: "I do not understand why fellow beastkin act in such a way. It is no different than the humans who want to enslave us..."
The tall lizard man let out a sigh himself: "Miss Kana, it is not that we wish to do this but we have families to feed. Let's just say your luck is bad for stepping on the wrong toes.."
"I see… I guess I have no choice than to settle this matter with your young master before this turns into a habit. Lead the way I will not run do not worry. Plus even if I did run, none of you could stop me." Kana said with a smile. While motioning with her hands for the lizard man to lead the way.
The tall lizard man let out a bitter chuckle because he knew she was right. He actually did not want to come and do this because of the things he had heard about Kana. He knew she was the hero of Rural as well. But his family was under the care of his young master which meant he had no choice. "If you would follow me then." The tall lizard man said respectfully while waving his hand for his men to get into formation. They gathered around Kana keeping her in the middle of the group. Kana only kept smiling as she slowly followed the tall Lizard man.
