Ignita stepped into the smithy with a plan to help some of the fighters learn how to work on their armor. Bas had suggested it and she was delighted that she could help them be prepared before the next raid.

She called through the Col for her students to come for the lesson. As she waited for them to arrive she would continue to gather the elements together for them to choose. She wondered how many had already gotten their armor together, or if they needed to build it. She had a stack of hard-boiled leathers to piece together, and some old chain mail she had found in the mess behind the smithy, in some storage, and she had some sheets of steel to help form into plate with a mallet.

She would greet each student with a warm smile and a welcome as she tended the fire. She was not a wait-patiently-in-place teacher, she was always very paws on.

"Ignita"

Wylan had attended every lesson Ignita had started so far, and he didn't intend to miss this one. He trotted towards the smithy and found Ignita waiting to greet him. His tail wiggled behind him and he grinned at her. 


“I keep seeing you at the smithy.. And now I get to learn how!” He commented with a delighted laugh, and took a seat where he would be leaving room for others to join. Who else would be attending today? He had heard a rumour that his sister would be in attendance! He'd been spending more time with Wynter lately. He would be pleased to spend a lesson with her, too.

She had been pondering her potential armor and weapon for a long time and now that she was old enough to join in on the raids she knew she had to make a decision on what she wanted to do. Luckily she heard that Ignita was going to hold a lesson all about smithing armor so hopefully that would at least give her some ideas and some tips of where to start! When she heard their teacher calling for them she make her way to the forge and when she got there she found Wylan already waiting. She returned Ignita’s smile before settling next to her brother and giving him a grin.

"Wynter Fatalis"

C A S I M I R

he heard rumors of basilisk's assistant holding classes for fight training at the smithy. he thought he'd make an appearance and earn some training. wanting to strive for a higher rank, he was always on the go. after some moments, a call of convenience filtered through the spring air- a gathering for a fight lesson it seemed. he quickly followed suit, his large alabaster form making way to the scene & sitting across from the others. he smiled gently at others before nodding once and introducing himself, "Hello, I'm Casimir." he glanced at them all before returning his gaze to the assumed professor.

"talk" "think"

table by scarlet/art by luni

She laughed at Wylan, glad he could come and continue his learning!

"Welcome, Welcome!" Ignita started, pulling the string for the bellows pushing fresh air onto the coals. She wanted to keep the fire going in case they needed to use it.

She turned to her students and saw a face she hadn't quite met yet and almost mistook for the healer Ollie!
"Casimir! I'm so glad to meet you finally! I'm Ignita! Wynter and Wyl! Glad you're here! Let's get started. With the raid coming up, we must make sure our warriors are well protected! I can show you how the smithy works, how to build your armor, and how to keep it in good shape with some mending and the like!" She loved this part, sharing so much information and seeing how each student responded! She brought their attention to a collection of materials.

"If you need to build your armor, I have hardened boiled leather and strips for securing, I can teach you how to put it together. I also have some plate we can work on forming to your body! It's heavier than the leather and doesn't provide as much movement as the leather." She walked over to the anvil and mallet, which also had the string for the bellows close by, to which she gave it a pull.

"Now what I'll actually teach everyone is how to make fasten plate armor with leather straps! Questions?" She asked brightly, adjusting her goggles over her head.

"Speech"

Wylan perked up at the new face that appeared. This wolf must be new to the Armada! ”I’m Wylan! Nice to meet you he said” and then grinned at Ignita, as she said basically the same thing over him. He settled down to listen to what she had to say. He didn’t need armour built, but perhaps he could learn a thing or two about mending the armour he already had. He leaned forward as she spoke of what the lesson would be, and when Ignita asked if there would be any questions, he shook his head, no question from him! At least, not yet. He wanted to see what would come next. "Speech"

A pale man that she had yet to meet came into the smithy to join them, introducing himself as Casimir. Wynter offered him a smile and nod and introduced herself as well, saying, "Hi, I'm Wynter." She then focused her full attention on Ignita. The energetic woman immediately went running out of the gate, listing off a bunch of different materials, telling them all of the things she could teach them, and how a couple of different kinds of armor could behave. There was so many more options than she imagined! Eventually though, she got down to what today's lesson would be about which was fastening plate armor with leather straps. The floor was opened for questions and Wynter most certainly had questions, but too many right now to know what to ask so she shook her head for now and just gave their teacher her full attention to soak in as much information as possible.

"Wynter Fatalis"

C A S I M I R

as everyone became easily aquatinted, casimir watched & listened closely to the words of ignita. she kept a fresh fire going as she spoke about different materials and their profiles. going into depth of her desire to teach them about mending & creating armor. "i'd need to create one. what materials are these exactly?" from where did she obtain the leather & plate? he wanted to know how to restock their supplies and create on his own later. he glanced at the array of materials, eyes scanning them over.

"talk" "think"

table by scarlet/art by luni

Excellent students all of them. She nodded to Casimir, perhaps she had glossed over the materials or spoke too quickly. She will have to remember to slow herself down! She has been reminding herself of this since she was small.

"Materials! The hunters typically take their hides and kills to the smokehouse on the beach." She said, trying carefully to even out her tone so it was a little less exuberant and overexcited. "From there they work to tan the hides and furs, dry some of the meat and select a few hides for the hardening process. When they have a load ready, they deliver it to the storerooms where I've set up a nice little organization system that they... try their best to remember." She said with a half chuckle.

"The plate is some flat steel sheets I found in storage. I'm still working out how to smelt it and make our own sheets, but I can weld them together and hammer them enough to make them the shape we need." She nodded and grabbed an already premade shin guard.

"Now, this is already shaped for someone, I just need to add the straps!" She pulled out a thick strap of leather and an iron nail. "We need to punch a hole in the plate-" To which she carried the plate over to a tool that when pressed down punched a small hole into the metal and brought it back, "Then we take our leather strap, punch the nail through where we need it." She punched the nail through the leather and lifted it up to show her students. "Then we place the leather and the nail through the hole to the nail comes out the other side. Flip it nail side up, grab a hammer and flatten the nail from the other side, making it as flush or loose between the strap and the plate as you like!" She went about holding the hammer and making the loud ping ping ping ping noise of the hammer on the nail, flattening it and securing the leather to the plate.

"There you have it! Leather strap on some armor!" She'd teach them about buckles too and by the time they were done here, both Wynter and Casimir would have their own armor! And Wylan would now know how to restrap his armor if he needed to!

"Ignita"

Wylans tail picked up behind him as Ignita showed them how to punch a hole and attach the strap to the plate. That was much heavier than anything Wylan would wear. With his giant wings, he was already carrying a heavier load than most every day. He stuck with leather, and watched the process of how she dealt with the leather carefully. “How would I go about repairing damage to my leather bracers, or fixing scuffing and pulling?” he asked, showing her a part of his bracer where a small hole could be found. He wasn’t even sure, would she have a fix for such a thing? "Speech"

Wynter was very interested to hear about the process behind how they went about making and preparing the materials needed for the armors they wore. Maybe one day she'd try her hand at crafting one from start to finish including hardening her own leather, but she knew time was of the essence so she'd need to use the leathers provided for them in the stores. Ignita moved on to showing them how to punch a hole in the metal bracer she was using to demonstrate and how she would fit leather wrappings through it to make it into a usable bracer. Wynter made a little sound of awe as she watched Ignita work. Maybe she'd have to come back and learn more from her about how to smith things like this again! This felt like just the tip of the iceburg. She hung around as long as Ignita was willing to answer questions, but now Wynter was inspired so she went off to start working on her own armor as well. Hopefully Ignita wouldn't mind her coming back with questions and maybe even giving her a little help to finish it in time for the raid.

"Wynter Fatalis"

C A S I M I R

casimir watched in awe as ignita went to work, hammering down nails in the plate whilst attaching the leather. he hummed, understanding the process. wylan then asked a valuable question- frankly one that casimir pondered of shortly before the male spoke. he sat still, leaning forward as if to soak in all the information that would pour form ignita's lips next, not minding the pretty fae that drifted away to work on her armor.

"talk" "think"

table by scarlet/art by luni

Ignita perked up at Wylan's excellent question! She briefly looked around at her collection of leathers and armor and pulled one off the pile with a mild scuff. She had carefully selected each piece of leather for her students and took into consideration the quality of each piece. She had discarded most of the pieces that weren't up to par.

"Here we go! If some leather is scuffed, or has some mild cracking or dryness, it's important to oil and polish it regularly!" She grabbed some nearby lard she had on a different shelf. The care of a leather water bottle was an important task when she grew up in the desert. If it became too dried out, it would crack and weaken and leak its precious water.

"I wonder if the hunters know how to make neatsfoot oil..." She muttered half to herself. It was the best quality oil for preserving leather.

She let her students see the tub of lard and the scuff on the leather.


"Speech"

Maintaining of your Leather Armor: 1/3