Kelwyn Temple Cinco

[Torc Ironwood]

64th day of Spring, AV 500 Wham, the hammer struck the red iron. Spark flew from the strike like angry fireflies bouncing off Torc apron. The iron fire spit that Torc was creating kept his mind off the thing that had taken over his life. Mona… It had been a fortnight since Torc had kissed her. That perfect kiss which awaken every fiber in his body. He still felt her lips on his, how they brushed like feathers then like coals from the fire they began to ignite the passion in him. In that moment, the world had melted away and it was a connection of pure energy that he lived in. The hammer struck flatting the iron bar as he twisted it again. His hands seemed to have a mind of their own as his focus was on the lines of the spit. Softly he was using less strength and smaller hammer strokes to make the bar into a rod. As the sparks flew up, the memory of Mona floated with them. It had been one of those perfect evenings in the grass. They had laid down on the grass watching puff carrying seeds drift through the air. Torc remembered looking into Mona’s brown eyes, and seeing life, love, and everything dance with them as the seeds floated about them. A crooked smile had appeared on her lips. He remembered his friends telling him that her lips were thin, and yet Torc looked down upon them like they perfect for kissing. He remembered her laugh, sort of low and thick and yet filled with joy and simple pleasure. Mona didn’t mind her laugh or smile around Torc, she gave them voice and as the seed few about them they caught in Mona’s brown hair. It was perfect how the sun made her hair shine and darken underneath. He could have run his fingers threw it for ages and died happy, he remembered the scent in the air and felt it was like fresh linen and wildflowers. Torc shoved the rod back into the forge, pumping the bellows to create more heat. Waves of heat and anger came from the forge, and the fire began to build. Priest Ano placed a few piece of copper in the forge and Torc began to scale back his pumping. Sweat had appeared on Torc as he put all his energy into his work. After all, Torc needed to burn everything away. Last night the rumor was that Mona had been courted by the miller’s son. Torc pulled on the chain with all his might as the bellows expanded. Torc remembered the swell of Mona’s hips. How her dress slowly rolled over them as she walked. How Torc had lightly placed his hands on them to help Mona reach an apple blossom on a tree. How they felt warm, soft, and perfect. How as he lifted her up, he felt like he picked up a goddess. Worry had gone through him that his grip was to tight, and yet the gentle strength within Mona spoke of warmth. Energy had coursed through Torc hands and he didn’t know how long he had held her up, as she plucked flowers for her hair. When she asked Torc to put her back down, slowly he set her down even though his arms were shaking from holding her still, and as she turned around he saw a crown of apple blossoms. Softly, he took it from her hands and laid it upon her head. He had never thought about what he said till this moment, “Everyman should bow to such a queen as you.” She had blushed and giggled, and yet Torc knew that she had become a queen to him. All the land around him was his land, and he would build a kingdom for her to rule if she asked. Yet she never did, she had merely entwined her hand in his. Torc began to take pieces of iron and wield them into the spit. He had hammered indents into the rod with a chisel, and picking up flux he began seeking the iron dust and quick melt into the cavities as he pressed iron filings into each one. The hammer came down striking the two pieces together, the flux oozed slightly out of the cavity and Torc took time to hammer the melting metal into a fold over the filings. Slowly he created the four tongs that would pierce a stab of meat and allow it to rotate on the two poles. As he finished, Priest Ano came over, “Torc, finish up you it’s approaching evening meal.” Torc looked up and realized that the Priest had been right. The sun had begun to set across the horizon. A purple haze had been followed it. Stars had began to slowly take up their place in the sky, and laughter could be heard coming from dining hall. Torc grunted, for he knew that if he had to go in there to eat, he would hear her voice, her fake laughter as the girls around her made fun of its deeper timber and snort at the end of it. He would have to listen to the other men talk of women that they had bedded or would bed. It would be another night of pain and hurt, and Torc didn’t want it. So as Priest Ano left Torc continued, all there was left was work. Nothing could erase Mona except for work, Torc worked like he was possessed; he worked till he there was not enough light to see. He worked it his muscle felt like they would off. And as he continued to hammer the point on the end of the spit he heard a sound at the entrance to the forge. “Torc…” it was the only sound that could crack the shell of work. It was the only voice that could have crumbled his world of work. Mona had come seeking him out. Torc lost his connection with the metal, and for a moment felt like he had lost all knowledge of blacksmithing. Slowly, he looked up at Mona, there she stood framed in the setting sun. Her hair looked almost black in the dying of the light. Coal dust and the smell of cooking iron filled the air, yet all he wanted to do was rush to her side and smell her scent. He wanted her to fill his world like she had done before. Softly, like she was floating on air she came over to the work bench and set down his food. As she turned Torc somehow took in every perfect detail of her and he grabbed at her hand. His fingers entwined in hers, and as she turned her head he saw that in her eyes she was afraid and yet wanted him. “Torc, I…” Torc didn’t care, he stepped forward and gave her a kiss filled with everything he had thought of over the last fortnight. His hand had clasped behind the small of her back, his lips slowly closed upon hers, then as he felt her body relax, his lips began to part. His hands moved down Mona’s body, and he felt him pick her up. His hands had clasped her thickly muscled thighs and brought her body upward as their kissed continued. He felt love and passion grab a hold of him, the long kiss only fueled such feelings and he heard the crash of tools ring on the floor as he placed Mona’s body on the work bench. He began kissing her neck, nibbling at her ears, sucking slightly her skin to taste her body. As she undid the top of her dress to allow Torc access to more of her skin, his hands began to become impatient and he heard the rip of the top of her dress as it exposed her bare skin. He felt Mona’s hand grab at his hair as he began kissing her chest. Strangely, they helped guide him to pure points of pleasure for his mouth to explore. She gasped as he found them, and laughed with joy as he kissed ticklish spots. Clothes began to fall to the forge floor, as the two people began to explore each other. Neither was in a rush to end their coupling and so they fingertips, lips, and teeth began to explore each other’s skin. By the time they joined together, their bodies had began to burn for one another. Torc and Mona lost track of time as they joined one another in one of the oldest acts of mankind. Neither of them could tell if their lovemaking was slow or furious, it simply was. Being both young, the couple continued even after they had finished. They continued till they both fell back on the workbench in complete exhaustion.

[Torc Ironwood]

64th day of Spring, AV 500 Torc awoke to shivering as the light of a predawn crested through the forges entrance. The only warmth that existed was the naked bundle of Mona that he had wrapped his arms around. She had rested her tired body against his, pressed together they had shared the warmth of each other and the forge. Softly he moved his head on the work bench to look down at her. Her hair was a mess, little eye crusty had formed at the corner of her eyes. He saw the harsh tan lines of the sun upon her skin and where it stopped at her dress. Yet in his eyes she looked perfect, somehow her naked form fit perfect against his, and as he watched those soft lips take an inward breathe he heard the softness of snores. He laid there watching Mona sleeping for long as he could. Softly the kinks of the hard boards and night before made Torc realized that he needed to get up and go wash. Softly he bent his head down and kissed Mona on the top of her head. She moaned in his arms, it was a soft cry that told him that she didn’t want to get up. Torc allowed his finger tips to softly trail up and down her back and sides. Softly her eyes opened, and all Torc could say was, “Your beautiful.” It was the most heartfelt thing he had ever said, and he saw in her eyes that his comment had somehow struck her like an arrow from its mark. She began to blush, and as they kissed with horrible morning breathe, his hands roamed over her form. She playfully swatted them off as she rolled her muscular thighs to sit on his stomach. Torc gazed upon the naked woman in front of him and his hand touched her muscular stomach and began to roam upperwards to a breast. As he touched it squeeze the small soft mound she gasped and bent down to kiss him one more time before rolling off him. There was a moment of gathering clothes and of silence, as the two young adults began to recover from the previous night events. Torc felt sore all over as he bent to pick up his pants and boots. Strangely, Mona seemed to be clinging her dress to body as picked up stockings and undergarments. In a way it was like a giant explosion of clothing had happened in the forge, as each person found an article for the other in some defy defining place. As Mona placed her dress on, Torc realized that he had torn the side stitching of it, and now the dress could be held together without repair. For a long moment they talked in hurried tones, to Torc the conversation was almost all forgotten expect for the promise to see each other again and the last great hurried kissed before she scurried off to the ladies dorm holding her dress together as she shuffled across the courtyard. Torc went down to the river and began to bath in the cold water. Softly, like tidbits of the night came to him as he washed the coal and iron dust from him. Slowly with sore muscles, he waded out into the cold water bring a rock to scrub his skin with. His nose was filled with smell of their mingled scents and love. He almost hated his scent compared to hers, but yet to get rid of his, he had to let go over hers. Softly, he walked up the path back to the forge, Priest Ano sat outside of the forge smoking a pipe. As he saw Torc, he nodded for a moment and spoke, “Thought you might be ill, came earlier this morning and saw the remains of your dinner on the floor…” Then Ano briefly held out a cloth that had come from Mona’s clothing for Torc. Embarrassed Torc quickly grabbed the cloth and placed it into his pocket. The older man snorted and went into the forge. Since Torc had not gotten up early to stoke the fire, he was forced to sharpening knifes and other tools. A part of blacksmiths work wasn’t always creating, sometimes it was about doing upkeep for the things that they did create. Torc began putting edges on axes, knives and work daggers across the whetstone. Pouring water with a ladle across the stones surface as he began to set a dagger to its rotating edge, Torc legs began to pump the paddles that turned the whetstone and softly Torc began to hear the grinding of the dagger against the stone. Softly the day went by as Torc worked the wheel. Perhaps not as glamorous as creating but certainly needed.

[Torc Ironwood]

65-89th day of Spring, AV 500 The days of Spring went by in a flash as Torc continued to work by day and by night found Mona in the fields. They didn’t meet every night in fact most of the time there was days before they could meet. So nights it was filled with passion and love making. Other nights they sat together and talked about life and dreams. It was a simple time in Torc’s life, his work now had tapered and revolved around fixing items from farmers and tradesmen. Mona completed him, and at night it felt like the two of them were a family. At times he joked with her about making a baby, he could see in her face that weird look of fear and happiness. Yet Torc desperately wanted one, he wanted to make Mona his, he wanted a family with her. As they held each other in their arms and slept, Torc dreamed of a little forge in the village with Mona. He dreamed of holding up a son and daughter in his arms. He dreamed of seeing Mona’s face at the kitchen or doing housework as he fixed something. His dreams were simple and pure, and every day when he awoke with Mona’s sleeping form in his it felt like they were one day closer to that dream. Torc went in every morning to wield cooking pots that had broken a seam, or a pan that needed to re-forged. The spring had been good, and though Torc often hated the lull of work that beginning of summer usually brought, he didn’t mind so much now that him and Mona shared their nights. Torc picked up a copper tea pot and saw the broken seam of it. Slowly, he placed the copper in the forge and began to heat up the section of the tear. Torc brought out tools to reach inside the pot and anchor its hammering stock to the anvil. After the tea kettle turned red from the heat Torc pulled it from the fire. Softly, and with a small flat hammer, Torc began upsetting the metal so that it would overlap. Repair work was often more time consuming then actually banging out a new item. Still as Torc stretched out the soft copper so that it overlapped the tear. The hammer came down as Torc quickly threw some dusting of flux in-between the sandwiched copper. Each stroke made the metal thinner and at times Torc had to go back to before the tear to pull the metal into the thinning wield. Each softly the metal was reheated and Torc went through the process again and again. He dunked the tea pot into the quenching barrel and as he pulled the teapot back out he saw that he had missed a small hole in the seam. Sighing, he went back to the forge to began again. Steam came off the drenched tea kettle and finally as metal began to glow Torc was able to bring the copper off the forge. The hole was at a bend in the metal and slowly Torc began to work the hard angle in the kettle. It took him just as long as it the rest of the tear to work the small hole. Bending and folding the metal again and again till the metal was even. Setting aside the kettle, Torc stretched and thought about all the money he had made. It was enough for him to start building a small house for himself, and it made sense that he needed to start such things, because soon he would be let go of the temple and set out into the world.