For a while, Glory had curled in his makeshift nest and had rested himself, letting his magic restore naturally before he attempted again. If he failed too badly, with his energy so low, he could do some serious damage to himself. But now that he was awake again, he felt much better and much stronger. He walked back over to his forge and hopped onto the edge of the dish again.

He opened his beak and let magicka well in the back of his throat. But at the last moment, he shifted his feet and suddenly found himself losing his balance. Surprise, he clapped his beak shut on instinct and the fire blazed in his throat. He coughed and screamed from the pain as he fell back, his entire mouth and throat burning with agony. He needed water! Water now!

He scrambeld blindly to his feet and staggered outside of his cave. There was a pool not far. A small pool but it would work. He tried to fly over, but in his haste and pain, he lost his blance in the wind and instfead was thrown to the ledge. With a heavy thud, he slammed into the rock, but didn't stop to register it. He crawled over to the pool and stuck his entire head into the water, his beak open wide, drinking water as if he had never drunk in his life.

He was there for a solid three minutes, coming up every so often for air before he dunked himself back in. After about a minute, he let his entire body slide into the water and floated on the top, his eyes squeezed shut as the fire began to calm.

Once he felt considerably better, he struggled to get free of the water and collapsed just on the shore, breathing heavily, gasping in air. It hurt to breath from the burns, but every breath was easier and easier.

He was so angry with himself. He had purposefully rested so that something like this wouldn't have happened! His stupidity had led him to getting seriously burned. He wondered if he dared to even cast the spell againl.

No. No! He had to! He had to try until he did it! He struggled to his feet and shook himself out to get as much water out of his feathers as possible before he staggered back to the edge of the ledge. The wind whipped through him, drying him off more and he stood there for a moment before flying back up to his own cave.

Once Glory was back at his forge, he decided that he would rather test his spell out before he tried to do it on his forge again.

He turned towards the edge of his cave and steadied himself. He welled the magic in his throat again and felt pain sear along the burns. He was a little surprised by how much it hurt and coughed just as the spell released. Instead of a blaze of fire, he ended up swallowing fire while a few sparks came from his beak. The first burned in him and he heaved, as if trying to dislodge something stuck in his throat.

This was ridiculous! He was Glory, the eagle of fire! The blacksmith! He wasn't supposed to be failing this much! He was happy that there was nobody around to witness his terrible fails.

An extremely stubborn bird, Glory was not going to give up until he had his forge running, at least! He didn't care anymore if he destroyed himself casting this damn spell! At least the last time, sparks had flown out. If he had been in front of his forge, it would have started!

Coughing a little more, he turned back and stalked towards his forge, not bothering to climb up, or hesitate. He ran the magic into beak again and just opened it up and spit out a small fireball. It blazed along his burns, but he did everything he could to resist flinching so as not to mess up the spell.

But it worked and, within seconds, the forge was blazing. Glory hopped back, his eyes shining as fire roared in front of him. It worked!

He would have to wait a little bit for the fire to get hot enough for metal, but that would give him enough time to set himself up. He already had found a nice big, sturdy rock with a flat top that he would use for a makeshift anvil. He would be doing something about it soon, though.

But now he needed a hammer, of course. He wanted something pretty solid so that he could create his own by hand, later. He pressed his claw against the ground and pushed magic into the rocks, curling his claw around the shape that he was forming. It was a lot of work, he had never made something so big and so tough before, but finally, it was completely shaped. A small hammer of pale orange corundum, with a flat, strong head that fit perfectly into his claws. It would do for now and he wondered if he would need to make a new one later. Well, perhaps not. He would have to see.

Glory wasn't really sure what he would do first, though. The fire was definitely hot enough to heat metal enough to weld and shape, but what to practice on first?

Perhaps something easy, something small! A band, just like the one he had kind of made in the other cave! Perhaps some kind of cover for his talon to hold down his metal. Yes, that would be good. He hopped over towards his metal scraps, completely forgetting about all the burns in his throat and snatched up a thick piece of broken breastplate, some thin stripes, and a scrapped piece of leather.

He carried them back to his forge and put aside the leather, placing the heavy piece of armor on his rock. It was just a shard, only a little bigger then his talon. He would have to shape it to make it an easier piece.

Carefully clamping it with the tip of his talons, he slid the piece of metal close to the fire. He waited a moment until the ragged edges had turned orange before carefully and swiftly pulling it back to the anvil. Taking his piece of leather and holding it down on the cooler edge, he stood on top of the fabric and held up his hammer with the other. A few swift and strong taps straightened the side and Glory, immediately realizing what he had forgotten, grabbed the piece with the leather and took off towards the pool. As soon as he was there, he flung it in and heard the sizzle as it rapidly cooled and steam rise from the water. Another problem he would have to deal with.

Leaving the piece of metal to cool off in the water, Glory flew back up to his forge and found a spot next to his rock anvil where it would make a cool cooling spot. Projecting magic into his beak again as he collected saliva, Glory fixed on a spot and narrowed his eyes. It was starting to get very painful on his tongue and, when he couldn't take it anymore, he spat out a thick wad a lava-like substance. When it hit the stone, there was a loud sizzling and the rock began to melt away. Satisfied with what he had done, he turned back to his forge and picked up the pouch he had left there. This would be his best way to carry water to and from the pool.

But he needed to let the hollow melt first. Instead, he realized that he would need a good, sturdy glove over his talons to safely work around the forge. Or at least something to wrap around his foot so as not to burn himself.

Going back to his pile, he picked through until he found some more scraps of leather, some with string or thread woven into it. ROLL

While he was waiting for the lava to cool, Glory made his way back over to the pile of metal and junk he had collected and started to sift through, looking for anything that looked like leather or fabric. He was starting to feel absolutely exhausted so he had to keep himself from doing any spells. This wouldn't be a huge deal, though.

He found some leather scraps. some with thread still through it and sat down in his makeshift nest. He picked out as much of the thread as he could without breaking it and lined up the biggest pieces beneath his foot. After some trimming and tearing of some other scraps, he was able to make a little glove around his talons. Using the thick thread and his sharp talons, he weaved it through until the whole thing was one piece of leather. It was a crude, messy glove but he was sure that it would work for what he needed.

After a quick rest, Glory was sure that the hollow would be mostly cooled by now. When he went to check it out, he was pleased to see that it had made a fairly deep dent in the rock. Perfect, that would hold his water good enough! He would probably have to get something else later to finish it, but this would be okay for now.

He picked up his sack and flew down towards the pool, scooping up as much water as he could. It leaked a bit in a few places to he flew back up as swiftly as possible to get it into the hollow before dumping the water in. There was a sizzling as the still-hot rocks were rapidly cooled by the water.

He did this a number of times more, flying to and from his cave to the pool and back again. By the time the pool had been completely filled up, he did one last fly to grab his cooled metal and put it on the anvil. He dropped his satchel and flung himself into his nest, completely spent. It had been a long, tiring, but fulfilling day. He had achieved what he needed to do! He was a blacksmith!

*exit