Chapter 2: Growing Up (1/?)

<b>Vanyar Palace, Taniquetil, Valinor</b>

<i>'Clank, Clank, Clank'</i>

A six year old elfling was busy hitting his smith hammer upon a small piece of metal atop a shining anvil. The elfling was exhausted but his face was full of determination and concentration. Ingkal was tired, very tired. He was trying to make a worthy dagger after receiving some advise from Aule 3 years before. However, he always failed to make a 'good' dagger, and always ended up making some ordinary daggers that he later gave to his brother Ingwion.

His brother was quite confused why Ingkal see this daggers as a waste even though they were a good standard for ordinary elves. But he never questioned Ingkal's strangeness and accepted the free daggers anyway.

'I just wanted to make a good dagger for Eru's sake, why is smithing this hard. I don't want to make those ordinary daggers, simpletons like the Noldor made them in large numbers. There's no way people will acknowledge my genius then' Ingkal thought. He wanted to be the best, he was born to be the best, he knew it. 'Calm down Ingkal, release a little bit of your soulpower into the hammer, and guide it.'. This was some of the things Aule taught him years ago. 'A great artifact is an artifact that has life, a dead artifact is just some items you see everyday. You as the crafter should bring it to life'. Lord Aule never specify how to bring the items to life but Ingkal figured that he could use Vanyar's skill in poetry and songs to bring it to life. The Ainur created this living world by singing the song of creation. So he engraved a poem that can bring a near death plant to life that his mother taught him to the hot steel he used for the daggers. The poem needed to be written or carved in this case, with feelings. To do this, he would spend a lot of time in the garden and admiring the plants and their beauty and most importantly their feelings. He developed quite a close relationship with the plants in the palace's garden.

Because of this, he was able to master the poem quickly and succesfully engraved the poem into the hot metal. With the magical nature of the poem in the metal, the engraving did not dissolve after countless hammer hits upon it. However despite this he seemed to be unable to successfully forge a great dagger. Every time he finished the forging, he felt that the daggers missed something. He found that despite the poem, the daggers seemed half-dead. They had a certain life in it, he was sure about that, but they didn't have a big enough consciousness, so they cannot connect spiritually with him.

Just as Ingkal finished the last few hits to stabilize the magic and the metal in his dagger, he finally realised something. He stopped hitting the dagger that is forming in the anvil and after the slight pause, he began to recite the poem he engraved in it. He recites it with emotions that he had learned from the plants and he added his own feeling into it. His feelings of desperation, sadness, and tiredness are not the only thing he poured into the dagger, as he struck down the hammer to the anvil, he recites the last few word with a different tune. This tune represents his ambition, and desire.

After he finished reciting the poem, and the last struck happened, a bright light escaped from the dagger and it was followed by a loud 'Zeng' sound. Witnessing this scene, Ingkal did the most reasonable thing that his brother taught him and ran. He ran from the forges and hide behind the doors. After a few moments, he peek at the anvil and see a glowing light from it.

'Did it work ?, This is my first time doing this, what was that all about ?' Ingkal thought inwardly as he slowly walked towards the forge. In the anvil he saw the dagger he forged, and after inspecting it for a while without noticing anything unnatural beside the bright light surrounding the weapon, he held it.

Being held by Ingkal, the dagger's light became less sharp and more warm to the eye. Most people seeing this would just see an elfling playing a lightsaber, but Ingkal felt something from the dagger. 'Emotions'. He sensed the emotions coming from the dagger, the feeling of warmth, that he felt near his family. ' I did it, by Eru, I did it' Ingkal exclaimed inwardly as he ran towards the throne room. ' Hahahaha, this genius elf did something similar to those Noldorin craftmaster, I am the best, hehehe' Ingkal ran, giggling as he did so as many elf and ainur around the palace looking at their prince with a weird expression on their faces.

<b>Throne Room, Vanyar Palace,Valinor</b>

The current court had just ended, the amount of work he needed to make sure that the Eldar elves does not kill or hate one another was quite a lot. Finwe's firstborn, Feanor, is not the most likable elves, worse still, he was more talented than he was arrogant. This presents a complication as Feanor's prestige began to rise rapidly in the Noldorin's rank, and Finwe not doing a bloody thing about him. His old friend was busy in his grieve and it seemed unreasonable for me to tell him about his son's problem. As he was ready to retreat to his palace and rest with the rest of his advisor and queen, the door to the throne room burst open and Ingkal appeared running as he approach the throne.

" Father, mother, I did it, I forge a good dagger, it had emotions in it." Ingkal told them. As Ingkal began to describe the process from his failures to his success. ' A six year old elf, can forge this kind of thing?, only Feanor had ever done such a thing' Ingwe silently thought to himself. Ingwe observe the excited expressions of Ingkal and was surprised at his method of crafting. ' A Vanyar talented in craftmanship' Ingwe was quite bewildered, ' It's like saying how a Noldor could write poems, quite ridiculous' Ingwe snorted and said " Well done Ingkal, you can go to Aule's hall if you wished, I'm sure Lord Aule would be pleased with your work, Unfortunately your brother is unavailable, but I shall send you some retinues to accompany you, will that work? "

"Yes , Absolutely, I'll be packing now", Ingkal replied and not wasting a single second, he dashed to his room.

" A Vanyar that could forge like a Noldorin?, this.. this" An advisor stammered and looking at the royal couple with a complicated gaze.

Ingwe and Ilwen's eyed turned sharply to the advisor, " He is our son, Andil, Lord Manwe himself verified it in person, do you dare question my or my wife holiness ?" Ingwe narrowed his eyes toward Andil. "Forgive my king and queen, I had no intention of such thing, Please forgive this lowly elf" replied Andil, frightened at the royals cold gaze. Ingwe snorted and waved his hands to dismiss the court and retreated with Ilwen to their room. Ingwe and Ilwe as King and Queen of all elves knew what Andil was thinking, they are not ordinary Eldar and they can read a lesser elf mind easily. They were proud of their son's accomplishment and would not discourage it. Besides it is good to have a good smith in the Vanyar's arsenal to expand their heritage and made sure that the Noldor would not try anything funny.