Earthly exhalation

[Iuchi Prashant]

Prash does his best to do his fair part of the cleaning after the afternoon lesson quickly, then goes back to the dormitory, gets some more mud and twigs left from his work in the previous day among his belongings, and calmly goes to the forge. He walks inside to find the hematite powder he had asked the previous day in one bench, and smiles fondly.

He had thought about it for quite some time, and he thought he knew what to do and how to do it.

He gets another piece of parchment with drawings in coal. It is a scheme of an ornament in a circular shape, made of interwoven threads of clay, well thought-out and planned to include in its centre some odd, apparently gaijin letters, made with the threads of clay themselves. He looks at his plans again, gets the pouch with the remaining clay from his obi, takes a good look at the hematite powder, keeps looking at everything for a moment, then starts talking to himself in a really low voice.

"Right... I should mix the hematite only in the poem and the outermost circle. These parts should shine through and take on a more reddish, earthy colour. As for the poem..." He pauses for a moment, looking up. "I can still remember mom saying it as she trained outside, kicking the earth and dirt up as she changed her footing for her Kata".

He speaks gently, quietly and dreamily, almost as if in a trance.

""Mäkceu ykeṣṣa kektseñe || tāu kenaṣṣe satāṣlñe""

"Wherever the place-held body lies
The earthly exhalation this land comprises... Something like this"

He smiles, takes another look at his plans, writes down the poem in the parchment again, slowly, as if feeling the shape of each part of the gaijin words. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath. "I wonder if I can include some of the 'exhalation' of this land, this Earth."

He walks outside the Forge for a moment, comes back with some more Earth removed from the ground, takes it close to his nose. "I'm not sure the smell will stick, but it's worth trying..."

He then starts slowly shaping the clay to actually follow his plans and get the piece done. He feels that his work could have been a bit better, but it seems to work mostly alright, and he hoped the colours and the irony sheen would be there. He'd have his third charm ready for the lesson on Earth.

OOC
Day 6 Monkey - Artisan: Jewelry/ Intelligence. Creating a Clay netsuke in the shape of a circle with a Tegensai poem inside, in a size that could be used as a (somewhat large) pendant or a brooch. 1 Raise called, TN 17. 1 VP used. Rolling 6k5: 6d10o10k5 21

If anyone's interested in the poem: search for "earthly exhalation" here