Final day of training pt 1: Dawn

You wake up early the next morning. Briefly you consider waking Brighid with some more morning sex, but you realize this is actually a chance to do something you have wanted to do for several days but not managed to find a chance for. You extricate yourself from her embrace, careful not to wake her up, then quickly put on some clothes and slip out the front door. You put on the protective leather apron, gloves, and hair covering hanging on pegs inside the forge, then light the furnace and pump the bellows until the coals are glowing and you can feel the heat rippling out of the small door in the front. Once you're satisfied with the heat, you grab an almost used up bit of chain stock and shove the end of it into the coals to heat up.

While the metal heats, you say the first genuine formal prayer you think you ever have in your life on either world. "Birgitte, Braihan, I do not know if Brighid's belief that You are my Patrons is true. Even if You are not, she believes in You and does her best to honor You, and this is to be a gift for her. Please, I know my Skill is not enough on its own yet to accomplish what I wish, but if You love her as much as I do, please guide my hand this morning."

You pull the rod out of the furnace, its tip glowing yellow-white with heat, grab the smaller smith's hammer off the wall, and take the rod over to the smaller anvil you're used to working on. You place the heated end on the anvil and begin to work, flattening it out into a rough circle. When your hammer strikes have worked it back down to a dull red, you heat it again, then fold it in on itself and pound it flat again. You repeat the process several times until you have a rounded square shape. Then you heat it again, secure it to the anvil with a clamp, and begin very carefully using hammer and chisel to engrave a stylized Olde English style capital A into the small object. Finally, after heating it one more time, you drive a hole through the top of your makeshift dog tag, grab it with tongs, and plunge it into the barrel of water to cool and temper it. Then you spend a few minutes on the grindstone grinding the edges down to smoothness and polishing the front facing surface. The last step is to snip off a small section of thin steel wire and bend it into a circle after passing it partway through the hole in the tag. You leave enough space between the ends of the loop to attach it to the collar.

Congratulations! You have reached level 5 in Smithing. You are now a Novice at Smithing; items you forge have increased quality.

You have found: Token of Aidan's Love. Rarity: Special. Item Quality: Well-Crafted.

Wiping sweat from your brow, you close the door on the furnace and quickly remove the leather smith's gear, then slip back inside the house. Somehow, Brighid is still asleep on the bed, her arms now wrapped around a cushion. You fetch the wooden box Siwan gave you from its hiding place and slip the tag inside, then close it and re-join her on the bed. You set the box behind you, under one of the cushions, then set to waking Brighid. You stroke her skin and fur tenderly everywhere you can reach, caressing her but not intentionally trying to arouse her. You slip back into her arms and begin to kiss her. After a minute or so she begins to return the kisses, and a little while later her emerald eyes open and she tightens her arms around you. She kisses you softly, slowly, and you spend a few minutes simply sharing your love for each other. Then, you pull back and tell her, "Flame of my heart, I have a present for you."

She perks up, working herself back upright as you reach behind you and grab the wooden box. She beams at you and takes the box from your extended hand, then opens it. She looks at you, puzzled, and you explain, "Back on Earth, there is a whole subculture revolving around sexual submissiveness and dominance. One of the ways which some submissives indicate their inclinations and readiness to play, so to speak, is to wear some sort of collar around their neck; it can be anything from a simple loop of cloth to an actual collar or even a piece of jewelry which is sized to be tight to the neck. The collar is a symbol of their sexuality and submission, but it is theirs; they decide when to wear it and when not to, and even a dominant they are partnered with can't force them to wear it without breaking the implied bonds of trust and likely ruining the relationship. Siwan agreed to make this for you to use in that capacity, so that you can tell me without words when you want me to be in control and when you want to manage your own path for a while. I will never judge you for how much or how little you choose to wear it. In addition, when a submissive decides that they only wish to serve a single dominant, they will place a symbol of some kind on the front of their collar, so that all can see who they belong to. I made the tag there in the box this morning; what you do with it is up to you. Just like the collar itself, I cannot force you to wear it."

Brighid stares at the contents of the box for several seconds, then she wordlessly closes it and sets it aside; your heart sinks and you start to get up from the bed. Before you have a chance to flee, though, she pulls you tightly against her and rains kisses all over your shoulder, neck, and throat. Tears splash against your skin and she hiccups and cries softly against you, but she continues to hold you tight and kiss you, so you're hoping these are happy tears. Tentatively, you return her hug, and she squeezes you tighter. Eventually, she pulls back from you and picks up the box again, opening it and lifting the choker out with infinite care. She looks up at you, tear still shimmering at the corners of her emerald eyes, and asks, "Will you hold my hair out of the way, my love?" Wordlessly, you reach behind her head and gather and lift her hair to bare her neck. With great care and precision, she places the choker around her neck and latches it behind her. You allow her hair to fall and she reaches back into the box for your tag, holding it up to her face to examine it closely. "This is very well made, Aidan. What does the symbol mean?"

"I didn't trust myself to do anything too fancy, so it is just a stylized version of the first letter of my name in the language I spoke back on Earth. Sometimes people get really fancy with their tokens, but ..." You shrug, "I could either wait who knows how long to make it until I was much more skilled, do without, or make it now with all the love and care I could muster and hope it's enough. I chose the latter."

Brighid smiles brilliantly at you and a stir of arousal goes through you seeing the choker around her neck. She kisses you then asks you, "Will you go fetch the pliers from the forge, my love?" You fetch them as asked, and she threads the ring on the tag through the ring on her choker then tilts her neck back and says, "Please twist the ends together tightly. I want to make sure this token never comes off." You carefully push the two ends of the wire together and then begin to twist them over and over until you're confident that the token is attached as firmly as it is likely to get. She kisses you again once you're finished and murmurs against your lips, "This is the reason you made such a big show out of taking my measurements in front of Siwan, is it not?" At your nod, she moans softly and says, "My Lord is cunning and devious. I had no idea that was anything but a way to make me burn with embarrassment and arousal. I love it." Her gaze turns intense, a raging green bonfire of love and lust. "Please, may your little mare make a request of her master?" You shiver slightly when she calls you 'master', the first time she has done so, and your cock goes from semi-hard to absolutely rigid and straining to get out of your pants. You merely nod at her again and she asks, her voice low and throaty, "Master, will you please claim all of your mare's holes with your big, thick cock? She wants to be taken and used and reminded just what it means to be yours."