Heavenfall

"See for yourself." Ko kept her back to the light, but her voice still carried just fine.

If Wu took it out of the sheath he'd see it was fashioned rather like an oversized arrowhead, fixed in an ivory handle with a lashing of thin sinew. It looked somewhat brittle, but was very, very sharp.

Wu inspected the blade but his gaze was drawn to the handle

''What is the handle made of? I never seen such a thing before''

"Oh, that? It's bone from a whale, a huge ocean fish. We only take one once in a great while. It's more dangerous than catching almost anything else."

Ko shrugged. "But one whale feeds the whole village, and the ivory is enough to use for a long time afterward. My uncle carved that handle for me."

The knife handle was decorated with scrimshaw designs of fish and people, or maybe half-fish half-people--the images were elongated and very stylized--and the scratches had been rubbed with some kind of dye that turned the incised lines a dark reddish color so they stood out better against the smooth yellow-white surface. The carving probably made the knife easier to grip securely as well.

''Impressive worksmanship'' the dragon commented as he put the knife back in its sheath to return it ''Jade arrow heads could be interesting but it would likely be one time use''

Ninube looked at the blade as Wu inspected it. "Very nice." She looked at Wu. "Maybe if we had more jade it would work. Well, we can at least let the Nezumi know about your idea. I am sure it will help them."

He nodded to Ninube ''I wonder why they have not thought of this already...seems simple enough. Perhaps they do not have large enough veins of the stone?''

"If it's that rare, maybe they can't spare it for arrowheads." Ko turned, again shielding her eyes from the light, to take the knife back once the two of them were done with it. "Or it doesn't flake well. But even if it does, all the chips of it would go to waste."

She tucked the stone knife into her belt again and ran a hand through her tousled hair, pushing it back. "At least they'll never waste a scrap, grinding it up into powder. That would take a really long time, though..."

''Agreed. At any rate I feel like we might have the 'opportunity' to experiment ourselves soon enough''

"Maybe that's why they have had such trouble with the Seidou. Or maybe they don't know?"

"Don't know what?"