A Vulcan's Experiment

Baldirak moved through the Haven, carrying half of large chunk of lunar rock in his right paw. He had broken the whole rock in half, and kept them hidden in his old dens, but a recent idea caused him to dig one up. He made his way to the forges and over to his own, sitting next to it. His pale gaze moved across the walls to the pieces of armor that hung there. They were ready to be picked up by their owners, so at the moment, Baldirak had no orders to fill. He was free to carry out his idea. And the idea involved armor. Baldirak would try to use the lunar rock to create a new kind of armor, or perhaps to strength the armor his tribe already had. Of course, he would try both, since he had enough of the rock to do so.

After breaking the halved lunar rock into yet another half, he tossed a piece into the fire. He added air and coals to the flames get them hotter and keep them going. Eventually, the metals within the rock heated enough to be extracted from it. He allowed the metal to cool before examining it. He decided to make some claws with it. Baldirak worked for half an hour and they were finally completed. He put them on then went to the training area to test them. First, he raked them on a block of wood. They held up nicely and made deep scratches in the wood. Next, he tried rock, to test the strength of the metal. Unfortunately, the metal turned out to be softer than he thought. Perhaps he hadn't allowed it to cool enough, or that was simply how the metal was.

Baldirak went back to the forge and decided to try something else. As he sat staring at the lunar rock, something occurred to him. Why not use the rock itself to create armor? For hours, the EarthWing tried different ways to make rock into armor. He found it was possible, but it only really worked as chest and head armor. The leg and tail armor need to be constructed with something that would move with the wearer. Perhaps he could combine rock with metal somehow... More hours of trial and error ensued. Finally, he found a solution that might work. Baldirak found that if he added crushed rock to molten metal, the finished product would result in a metal that had the strength of rock but could still move and bend. There were still improvements to be made, of course.

The EarthWing spent months perfecting the rock/metal armor, trying different combinations of rock and metal. He was covered in dust and soot... but there was plenty of time for a bath later. He found iron and sedimentary rock was the best combination. Baldirak had constructed a full set of armor with this combo and got one of the Scouts to try it. Both were amazed at how well it held up to testing, working just as well as the regular armor. Baldirak would craft more later, but for now, he began make armor for himself using the lunar rock. Like his other creations, the head and chest pieces were crafted from the rock only. The leg and tail pieces were instead crafted from an iron and rock mixture. As he completed each piece, after they cooled, he tested them extensively. Like his later attempts, the armor passed with flying colors, standing up to constant blows from a multitude weapons and weather conditions. He took it to his den and hung it on the wall, proud and yet hoping he wouldn't have to use it anytime soon. With a tired sigh, he went to wash the filth from his scales before returning to his den to sleep. Later--much, much later--he would begin making the rock/metal armor for all the EarthWings.