Irkith had been hard at work for many solar revolutions, while the Life Giver watched over him.

  His husk was unlike that of the Life Giver, with six legs instead of two, giving him greater stability and speed, with strong mandibles suitable for digging. His segmented husk was constructed from a red-hued granite that had been banded together with a glittering, brass-like metal, to make it more durable. He saw with a pair of eyes fashioned from two large, smoothly-polished, green gemstones and he bore a pair of metallic antenna, through which he smelled and touched the world, with great sensitivity. His body was covered in tiny, hair-like metal filaments, which were most sensitive on the tips of his feet and the joints of his legs, allowing him to sense vibrations in the earth and hear the words of the Life Giver.

  It was a good husk, clearly designed for the purpose of tunneling through the ground, a task the Life Giver had charged him with, in search of the metal ore required for the Great Purpose.

  He still remembered the first husk his life stone had been inserted into, which had been fairly small, with only two legs. It had been glorious to suddenly have limbs for the first time. However, after seeing his difficulty with balancing on two legs, the Life Giver fashioned another husk, this time more like the one he used today, with six legs, patterned after one of the smallest of living creatures in the world. The Life Giver then patiently taught him to care for himself, paying particular attention to ensuring he knew how to feed himself, by suckling life from the back-biting trees and grasses of the world.

  Deep in a tunnel of his own fashioning, Irkith returned to the large pocket of ore he’d discovered, confirming his location by smell of the ore. In the dark, he carefully bit another piece free, using his mandibles. The ore chunk was easily lifted with his mouth, even though it was almost as heavy as he was. Unable to see past his burden, he navigated by smell and sound, until he emerged into the light, where he returned to the side of the Life Giver.

  He set the ore beside a hundred others just like it, all of which were somewhat shiny, gray rocks. Nearby were many piles of other ores, in various colors, including a bright green pile, with some small amounts of blue mixed in, though most were red and brown shades.

  Stolen story; please report.

  He was about to go for another when the Life Giver called out, “Come. Observe.”

  Irkith joined the Life Giver and looked into the furnace they’d built by fashioning bricks from clay. They’d been feeding the flames of the furnace with dead wood from the back-biting trees of the forest, as well as some black rocks that burned well, when greater heat was required.

  The Life Giver quietly demonstrated the process of smelting and purifying several ores, including turning the shiny gray ore into a silvery metal, while the green ore transformed into a reddish-brown metal.

  When the work was done, they stood back and instructed, “Demonstrate.”

  Irkith obediently got to work. It wasn’t easy to manipulated small objects with his mouth, but he completed the task by repeating the actions he’d just memorized. He was slower than the Life Giver, but he more than made up for that inefficiency by being able to dig quite quickly, which was the most time-consuming portion of the Great Purpose.

  “Good.” The Life Giver pronounced, after Irkith had demonstrated knowledge of smelting all available ores and then instructed, “Observe.”

  The Life Giver began work on a fresh process of combining metals, by melting specific proportions of ingots together, stirring with their fingers, as required. With some very special metals, once the stirring was complete, they held a limb over the mixture, in deep concentration. Irkith sensed them pouring a measure of life into the mixture. It wasn’t enough to bring life to the metal, but it was enough to start the transmutation of an alloy into a single metal. These transmuted metals took on new properties and gleamed from within, almost as though they were glowing, slightly.

  Toward the end of the training session, the ingredients for two different transmuted metals were mixed, melted down, transmuted and then poured into tiny, hexagonal forms made from cut stones, which were allowed to air-cool before they were cleaned and polished. The end result was a metal alloy made from the transmuted metals.

  Once again, the Life Giver requested, “Demonstrate.”

  Irkith struggled with some of the most delicate steps and spilled some of the metal, but ultimately succeeded in making another batch of the small, metal hexagons, after having demonstrated his knowledge of alloys and transmuting.

  “Good.” The Life Giver nodded and Irkith returned to his tunneling.