Sand Sculpture.

'This will be my first set of metal armor… I'm almost too nervous to actually start making it…'

"Chika? What are you doing? And where are your clothes?"

My body stiffened slightly. "What's wrong with my clothes?" I looked back at Mochi as she poked her head out of the house. "I guess it's a little cold out, but it's not like it's that bad…"

'The shorts are a little thin and baggy… But that's kind of the point…'

"I don't want to get sand in any of my new clothes." 'Oh, right, It'll be time to eat soon, she must be hungry. Tooly and Kesh left already, so it's just us again… Us…'

Her expression remained unchanged as her eyes slowly lowered to the small pit I was standing in. "Chika?" Mochi said again before stepping outside. "What's that?"

I looked down, shifting my feet in the sand. "It's a sandbox. Didn't you use one when learning earth magic?"

She shook her head. "It looks weird…"

'I guess the cave was stone and dirt… Does that mean she's never even seen sand? Or I guess hadn't till recently at the very least.' "Come here." She walked up to the edge and stood on her toes on the wooden border, staring down as if she was afraid it would swallow her if she took another step. "Come on…" I said again, offering her a hand.

When she took it and tried to step in, at first she stiffened up, holding herself in the air just above it and supporting her weight with my hand, but after a few moments, she finally let her foot touch the sand. Then, after not being swallowed up, she put her other foot in as well, a shudder traveling up her whole body as goosebumps ran down her skin.

"So, what do you think?"

She stiffly moved, picking her feet up a few times before building a small column. "It's earth… But it's not… I don't get it… And it's sticky…" She shuddered again, starting to cry.

'Does she hate it that much? Most people like the feeling of sand under their feet…' "Is it that bad?"

"Bad? No… Just strange…"

"I… See…"

She sat on the wood board at the edge and kicked her feet out using earth magic to shake the sand off. "It's weird…"

'That's more like the reaction I was expecting.' "It's a place for kids to play. Because sand is so easy to move around, it's easy to make fun shapes, or even little houses or castles. Bigger ones like this are used to help teach people earth magic."

I slowly closed my eyes. "Unlike stone, sand shifts with the other grains of sand around it, making it easier to connect to a larger portion of the earth at once." Sliding my foot I sent a small tremor to the edge of the box and dug a ravine, filling it with water, then I twisted the sand like a snake to make it take on the form of a river, guiding the water to the other end before closing it in on itself. "And when you add water it becomes soft and holds together." I slid my other foot out in front of me lifting up the entire block of wet sand like a stone pillar. "See, no way I could do this with stone, or even dirt honestly…"

She leaned to the side of the pillar to see me. "So you're training?"

I sank the pilar back into the ground and chuckled, a bit embarrassed. "Well, not really… Sandboxes actually have another purpose related to forging. Do you know how molds work?"

She nodded.

I stepped closer showing an example. "Right, see, if you just press your hand into the sand, it leaves behind a handprint. Then I can pour metal into that, and when it cools I'll have metal in the shape of my hand."

She narrowed her eyes, tilting her head again. "But…"

"Right… Generally, the problem here is that you don't want metal in the shape of your hand, but rather to cover, the shape of your hand. The best method for this is a bit messy though. You can't account for every grain of sand after all." I stood back up and walked to the center of the sandbox. 'This is the real reason why tier four, or at least high tier three earth magic is so good for smiths. The ability to use living armor.'

I lifted my arms out to the side and spread my fingers, covering my whole body in the sand, letting it completely spread over my skin and even under my clothes. After a few moments I forced the sand forward, and it instantly shifted around me and retook its original shape. "There you see?"

She stared at it blankly before slowly turning slightly red. "The statue is naked…"

I quickly lunged forward, cutting it in half with my arm and making it come crashing down with a swipe of my hand. "That's not the point…" I cleared my throat. 'I guess an exact replica… Probably isn't necessary…' "The point is that it's really useful for creating molds, and even when you aren't creating molds, it's still useful for creating basic shapes. For instance, I can just make a sculpture of myself, and then fit the metal to the sculpture, then it will fit exactly to me in a way so perfectly that other people won't even be able to wear it."

"What about joints…"

"You're ruining my fun with logic…"

She looked back at the pile of sand. "So… You're going to make armor that looks just like your naked body?"

"That was just an accedint!"

Her eyes widened slightly as I raised my voice. "Sory…"

"N-no, it's fine… I'm not mad."

She tilted her head again as if asking why I yelled then.

"I'm just… A bit embarrassed… That was my first time casting the spell so I may have done it wrong… I've honestly only ever heard about this stuff, I don't really know how it all works exactly…"

She kicked her legs out and landed in the sand, walking over to me with her arms stretched out like she was walking a tight rope before placing a hand on my shoulder. With a confident "Humph." She looked me in the eyes and gave me a thumbs up.

'At least the other expressions I kind of understand… What's this though… Pity? I hope not…'

"I'm hungry."

I let out a defeated sigh. "Yeah… Let's go in and eat… But I'll take a bath first to get the rest of the sand off…"