by Tom Larcombe
“Of course Rynn,” Anguis said.
The two boys went running after Anguis as the dragon turned and headed towards where he thought the Fae might be.
* * *
Rynn went inside to Michael's workroom. Eugene and Michael were talking inside, loud enough for her to hear. It sounded like Michael was explaining how the ward crystal worked and how he wanted to change the spells on it.
Actually it sounds more like Michael is talking himself through what he wants to do, just doing it out loud so Eugene can hear as well.
She knocked softly and waited. When Michael told her to come in she opened the door. Both Eugene and Michael had turned to see who it was.
“Michael?” she asked.
“Yes?”
“I'd like your permission to do a little modification on the house.”
He shook his head.
“What?”
“I want to add a door at ground level so Anguis can come in and out.”
“Umm, Rynn, he's a little bit big for that,” Michael said.
“He told me he can shrink his size down, but that his weight stays the same. So I want to give him an entry into the basement. That should hold his weight, right?”
Michael thought for a moment.
“Do you know how heavy he is? I mean, he's the size of a pony, but made from metal. I have no idea how to calculate that.”
“Is he solid metal?” Eugene asked.
“No, he isn't solid,” Rynn replied. “Metal probably makes up about half of his volume, but it's mostly heavier metals. Copper, iron, bronze. He's got some lighter metals in there also, but not much of that. He far prefers eating the heavier ones, but...”
Eugene stopped paying attention then. He grabbed a sheet of paper and pencil from the table then started scribbling furiously. Rynn looked at Michael and shook her head while Michael just grinned.
They just watched for a minute or two, then Eugene set the pencil down.
“I'd guess that he's under a ton, anywhere from a half ton to a full ton, but let's call it three quarters of a ton,” Eugene said. “I just rough estimated his volume from when I saw him, then figured out how much that amount of iron would weigh.”
“Well,” Rynn said, “I was trying to tell you, something about him metabolizing the metals makes them lighter weight. They keep their strength but lose some weight somehow. I never did figure it out, I just say it's magic and leave it at that.”
Michael's interest was piqued now.
“Wait, he can make the metal lighter but keep it at the same strength?”
Rynn nodded.
“How much lighter?”
“I don't know for sure, it's not like I ever weighed him. But he probably cuts the weight down by half or more.”
“Well,” Eugene said. “That makes him a max of seven hundred and fifty pounds by my calculations. I'd say that's safe for the basement, but I don't know that the upper floors would hold.”
Michael grabbed Eugene's sheet of calculations and looked them over.
“Sure,” he said. “Go ahead and make him an entry. While you're at it, if you want to make it at the level of the basement floor and create a ramp down to it, anyone down there could use it as an exit if they need to get out.”
“That's a good idea,” Rynn said. “I'll get right on that and let you get back to what you were doing.”
“Okay, but ask Anguis if he'd mind chatting with me and maybe letting me look him over at some point. If I can figure out how to lighten metals while keeping them full strength, think of the applications.”
Michael started ticking off on his fingers.
“Bicycles that are far easier to use, guns that don't weigh as much, a shovel that doesn't break your arms after using it for a few hours, trailers for bikes that are far easier to pull. The uses for something like that are almost endless.”
It's good to know that the old Michael is still in there, even after everything that's happened, she thought.
“I'll tell him, but it's up to him.”
“Of course,” Michael said. “But if the request comes from you he might be more likely to agree. After all, he just met me today.”
The last statement had a bit more force behind it than she thought Michael had intended.
“I'm sorry you never met him when you visited before. Dad decided that we should keep his existence a secret.”
Michael gave her a lopsided smile.
“I suppose I understand why, but...”
He shook his head.
“I'm going to head down and try to get that entry done before dark,” Rynn said.
Michael nodded. He and Eugene turned back to the large crystal sitting on the table. Rynn left, closing the door behind her.
The hardest part of her job was going to be moving the dirt. She had virtually no ability with Earth Magic at all.
But I know someone who does, she thought.
Andi was still in sight, so Rynn went down to get her.
“How are you doing?” Rynn asked.
Andi sounded defeated when she answered.
“Not so well, I can barely reach the house or the lake shore from here. I can see things coming for a lot longer than I can sense them.”
“That's fine. Your range goes up with practice. That's probably enough for now though. Would you like to exercise another part of your earth power? I could use some help.”
Andi looked up, as though Rynn were trying to pull one over on her.
“You're kidding me, right? I've seen what you can do.”
Rynn shook her head.
“My abilities are in Fire and Air, not Earth. I have two options for this, do it the hard way or get some help. Unlike Michael, I prefer not to shovel.”
“What do you need?”
“We're making an entry into the basement so Anguis can come in the house. Also, so anyone in the basement can get out easier. With what's been going on recently the idea of having another exit from the house seemed to please Michael.”
“Okay, show me where.”
They walked back up to the house. Rynn decided this exit should be on a side of the house since there was already one each in the front and back.
After they'd picked the location it only took Andi a couple of minutes to clear out the dirt and form a ramp down to the level of the basement floor.
Rynn traced a door sized section in the exposed cinder block wall, marking it with soot from a smoky flame on her finger.
“Can you remove the cinder blocks in that area?” she asked.
Andi nodded.
“It might take me a minute or two, I haven't worked much with cinder blocks before, but I can do it.”
A few minutes later they had the exposed doorway set. Rynn took a door that had been on one of the rooms in the basement before Eugene altered it, then mounted it in the new opening. It wasn't as good as a normal door in protecting from the weather changes outside, but they had time to replace it with something better before winter.
When Anguis returned with the two boys, both of them riding on his back, Rynn showed him the new door that he could use to get inside. The boys slid off his back before he gently opened the knob by grasping it in his mouth and giving a gentle twist. He shrank his size, then walked into the main room of the basement. He looked around and gave a nod before curling up in a corner of the room.
* * *
* * *
Chapter 21
Walter was panting now, but he was almost there. He'd run out of water a few hours back, food even earlier. But now he recognized the landmarks around him. He'd be home soon, if he could only keep his eyes open long enough to finish his run.
It had been three days since he went AWOL from his unit, three long days where he'd done nothing but run, run, and run some more. He'd even run while he ate and drank, the only stops when he needed to relieve himself, then right back to running. Seventy-two hours without sleep wasn't a major deal, he'd been trained to go longer than that if necessar
y. But those same seventy-two hours, constantly pulling on his Earth Magic, had exhausted him. He could barely keep his eyes open and the only way he'd kept moving was by imagining what some of the animals in his former unit would do to his mother if the plans he'd overheard were implemented.
His gaze went to the sky overhead. It was clear and blue with only scattered clouds, but there was a mass of black in the sky ahead of him. As he drew closer a smile spread across his face.
The crows, he thought, the ones that mom always used to feed. I must be nearly there and they must be begging her for food again.
He took a deep breath and continued running, directly towards the swirling vortex of birds.
When he saw the open flat area, fenced in to protect the chickens from four-footed predators, he knew he was there. The house was just on the other side of the fence.
I made it, he thought, and it looks like I'm in time.
He stopped running at the edge of the yard, stretching his legs out and trying to cool down a bit as he crossed it. He knew he was going to pay for his efforts sooner or later, but if he could make the payment smaller with a minute or two of delay, he was willing to do so.
The door opened to his hand, although he'd pushed it a bit too hard and it slammed into the wall.
“Who is it?” his mother's voice called out.
“Mom?” he croaked, his voice barely audible.
He heard her footsteps as she came to the back door and when she came around the corner with a shotgun in her hands, he wasn't sure if he should laugh or take cover. She looked like she knew how to use it.
Miriam cocked her head to the side and looked at him.
“Michael?” she asked, then as she drew closer recognition spread across her face.
“Walter? What are you doing here? I didn't know if you were alive or dead, but shouldn't you still be with your unit?”
“Mom,” he croaked again, “they're going to attack the town and the mine.”
“I'm sorry Walter, I couldn't hear you very well. It sounded like you said they're going to attack here.”
He nodded. Then, having achieved his goal of making it here and warning his mother, his legs gave out under him and he sagged to the floor. His vision grayed out before everything went black.
* * *
When he woke, it was dark out. There was a lantern burning on the table, plus a pair of small crystals that gave off a faint light.
What the hell? Who gave my mom sun crystals? Admittedly, they're tiny, but...
He tried to get up off the couch but his legs felt like two logs, stiff and unmoving, when he tried to sit up. His throat felt better though and when he looked around again he saw a bottle of water within his reach.
Mom must've gotten some water into me or something, he thought.
He grabbed the bottle and took a long drink. A contented sigh escaped him before he remembered that his mom hadn't been able to understand him well before he passed out.
“Mom?” he called.
“Walter? Are you awake now?”
His mom entered the room and came over to him. She saw that he was holding the bottle of water and nodded.
“You drink some more of that and I'll refill it,” she said.
He tilted the bottle back and drained it dry. She took it from him and turned to leave the room.
“Did you warn anyone?” he asked.
“About what?” she replied.
“That they're going to attack the town, and the mine.”
“Oh, Michael and his friends drove off an attack just a couple of days back.”
“An attack from the army?” Walter asked.
She looked at him and shook her head.
“No, it was just raiders.”
“Then it's not the one I'm talking about. My old unit has been tasked with taking the mine and town here. That's why I showed up. I went AWOL and got here as fast as I could so I could warn you. How long was I out?”
“A few hours only. Don't worry, we'll warn them in the morning.”
Walter's mouth snapped shut. He wasn't going to be able to do anything about it on his own right now, not until his legs were willing to function again.
But I'll let them know tomorrow, even if I have to crawl to do it. Any one of my unit would've just shot mom dead when she came around the corner with the shotgun like that. She's going to need as much help as she can get. Okay, the town's going to need the help, but that includes mom.
“I'm going to go refill this for you. Make sure you drink all of it before you go back to sleep,” Miriam said, before leaving the room.
She dropped off the full water bottle a minute later.
“I'm going to bed and you look like you could use some more sleep as well. There's nothing we can do now, everyone's probably asleep or near to it, so we'll warn them in the morning,” she said.
She tucked him in, then turned and left the room again. Walter took another drink, then laid back down on the couch, sure that he wouldn't sleep. Two minutes later, he was out cold.
When he woke in the morning Walter discovered that his legs would work again. They complained when he moved them, his knees ached when he bent them, and he almost screamed when he put weight on his feet, but they worked.
His mother was in the kitchen making breakfast when he staggered in.
“I need to let the sheriff know what's going on,” he said.
“You need to eat first. You still look exhausted. You're pale, grimy, thin, and you need to get cleaned up. Then we can think about trying to contact someone. I don't know that the sheriff would be any help since he's brand new.”
She paused and shook her head.
“Poor Dan was killed helping drive off the raiders. They said he died heroically, but that doesn't change the fact that he's dead. You'll probably want to talk to Michael. It seems that he's the one holding everything together nowadays. Him and Father Anderson anyways.”
Dan's dead? Walter thought. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. I know how those other towns looked when we were sent there, but somehow I forgot that Crystal Beach would be changed by everything that happened also.
“I should talk to Michael or the Father then. This is a lot more serious than you seem to think mom.”
“I can't believe that the US Army would go around attacking US towns and property. I'm sure there's some other explanation.”
“Mom, it isn't the US Army any more. There are other people involved who have taken over. Most of the unit doesn't even realize it and I couldn't convince them, so I had to come here and warn you.”
“What?” she asked, shock written across her face. “Since when can someone take over an army unit and have no-one the wiser?”
“Since everything fell apart and we lost communication with higher authority,” he replied.
Although with what I remember from that patrol where I was ambushed, it sounds like higher authority is still there, we're just not contacting them. Who'd be the wiser except for communications and taking over a couple of guys in communications would've been easy for them.
“Is it really that bad? It hasn't seemed that way here.”
“Mom, you just said that Michael and some of his friends had to fight off raiders. That Dan is dead from doing the same thing. You think that's not that bad?”
She's as bad as some of the people we've talked to in combat zones. What did they call it when they warned us? Oh yeah, normalcy bias, and it looks like she's got a really bad case of it. At least she had her shotgun on her when I showed up though. Although she used to have that handy to protect the flock, so that's normal to her too.
“That doesn't matter anyhow. If you want to talk to anyone, we'll have to walk most of the way. I ran out of gas a couple of weeks back.”
She walked over to the small crystals he'd noticed the night before and plucked them out of their holders, placing them on the windowsill in the sunshine.
“Where'd you get those anyway mom? I noticed them last night when I w
oke up.”
“Michael, he traded them to me for some eggs. He said they're the latest in solar tech and that he'd been following the advancements in it so he can make them. He even made a couple of larger ones for the town, almost like streetlights.”
That's slick. I thought someone had let the cat out of the bag about magic, but I guess not. Plus, he's got all those crystals from the mine to work with. I wonder what else he's come up with?
“They're nice, I might have to ask him about getting some for myself.”
Or at least some charged crystals so I have more power to work with than just my own personal energy.
“Well, you're breakfast is ready. Sit down and eat. You might be an adult, but you're still my growing boy so make sure you clear your plate.”
Walter winced and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. His mom was a wonderful woman, but he was already remembering why he'd been so eager to leave home.
* * *
After breakfast, they set out towards town. Walter found that his legs were hurting less as he used them, but his feet were still putting up a fuss. As a result, by the time they reached the police station, he was in a foul mood.
When they entered the police station, it was virtually empty. There was no-one there, but there were sounds coming from the attached garage. Walter headed for the door to the garage and found a man in it, wearing civilian clothes, operating a hand pump attached to a fifty-five gallon drum. The smell of gas that hung heavily in the air and the gas can at his feet suggested he was hand pumping gasoline.
“Excuse me,” Walter said.
The man jumped and spun. When he saw Walter standing there, in his military uniform, he sprinted towards an open door.
Now that's a guilty reaction if I've ever seen one, Walter thought.
With a gesture and a little focus of his personal energy, he caused the concrete of the floor to rise up in a hump just in front of the man's foot. The obstruction caught a foot as the man continued to run, sending him sprawling to the floor. Walter trotted over, his feet complaining all the way, and grabbed the man before he could stand again.