3rd Malachite, Summer 109
6 . . . 5 . . . 4 . . . Flint counted off in his head, hauling several lumps of blue stone. There were sparkling lines flowing across it. He held it as though it were a great treasure.
3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . “Carp, dog, what the carpin’ shit?” he shouted at the end of his countdown. Several dwarves working on similar stones in the crafters’ sector turned and stared at him. “What the carp er ye lookin’ at, dog?!” Flint shouted. The crafters resumed their work immediately. Flint continued walking towards his workshop.
He carefully placed the stone on his work table and selected a small chisel and hammer. He didn’t want to damage the thread. He placed the tip in a crack between the microcline stone and the metallic blue thread, tongue sticking out of his mouth in concentration. He struck the head of the chisel with his hammer.
Nothing. Okay, he thought, let’s try the next chisel . . .
The process of strand extraction was not new to the dwarves, but it had not been needed in thousands of years, and accounts of precisely how to process raw Adamantine varied greatly throughout the legends of old. One described the necessity of an Adamantine chisel, but this was dismissed once it was realized that a chisel of Adamantine could not be obtained without processing the raw form. Another described soaking it in the blood of a dwarf. Fortunately, Crispin’s arrow was removed at the time they tested this, so there was no great worry; however, it did not prove effective.
So finally the dwarves of Libash Tobat decided that it should be a process of trial and error. In other words, hitting it with bigger and bigger tools until they found something that worked.
Flint now selected his largest hammer and chisel. He held the two tools as before, and struck the head. The microcline fractured immediately, but the thread was not yet free.
“Shit” said, just for something to say. He then picked the smallest set of tools up once more and began chipping away at the fragments of the irritating stone trapped within the shining lattice. It would take a long time to get a full suit of the stuff . . .
That bit at the beginning actually happened to me this past week. I was walking to Pre-Calculus, and this guy in a hoody and low baggy pants just randomly starts shouting swear words. I looked around, and there didn't seem to be anyone he might be talking to. It wasn't even as if he had tripped or dropped something. It was weird