Arc the Second: Ashley Fyrehawke and the Mystical Journey
Chapter 2: The First Act
“That’s not my name,” I said bluntly.
“Oh, sure it is! It’s magical-sounding! How many mystical names end in ‘Smith’?”
“Okay, then. So what next?”
“Well, I’m handing these out all over town, and within the next day or two everyone should have one. I’ve already got it figured out, too! This side of town will be one house, the northern bit a second, our neighbors in the eastern half will be the third, and the college campus kids are our forth town. And we can have competitions and carve pumpkins and drink cider and it’ll be just a lovely Halloween!”
“And?”
“Just give me some time. Right now only I can use these and only for menial stuff like.. well, that. But give it time and that little tree will be a mighty driving force for the future! It’s a perfect way to describe the upcoming week, isn’t it?”
He walked off, taking out a clipboard and checking off a box. I stepped inside, closed the case, and set it to the other strange stuff I had from the summer. I still had no idea what any of this stuff was, and couldn’t do anything with it. Seems like a recurring theme here. I booted up Borderlands 2 and invited Isaac to play it with me online.
Another day passed and eventually we received a phone call. Felix had handed out one to every household that expressed interest in it, and assigned the four houses each an “element”. The northern edge had gotten earth as an element, the eastern folks water, we had air, and the houses surrounding the college campus had fire, which he went to great lengths to explain some safety regulations. Nobody would actually be harmed by this, he reassured, and any and all damage that might possibly happen was to be promptly repaired and households compensated as soon as possible. Our element was to meet in the park. I was there, as was Franklin, George and Nathan, and a few other people. Surprisingly, Nathan wasn’t the only one who had brought a laptop. Someone else was there, typing furiously. Nathan had at least closed his laptop. Felix was on his way to explain our instructions. “Hey,” Franklin said, “could you close that? Felix is on his way and it might be important.”
She scoffed at Franklin.
“Could you please?”
“Listen, I’m a popular blogger. Thousands of followers.”
Yeah she seemed like the kind. Hair dyed bright blue, multicolored scarf, dozens of buttons with that Doctor Who guy on them.
“Oh,” Franklin began, “Well alright then.”676Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnNMaEKeYNL
“Whatever.”
Felix stopped by and tried to get everyone’s attention. “Alright, now you guys, this is supposed to be fun competition, nothing too serious. Everyone wins in my book, and the prize is a cup of hot cider! But it is a competition, and we can have real prizes if we want. Just don’t get too worked up over them. Now, then, your element is what you start off with. You can learn more from the other people in your group and other groups as a whole. So tomorrow, we’ll meet back here and I want to see who can conjure up a tree. Experiment with it, learn from your friends, and have a bit of fun while you’re at it. Until then!”
And with that, Felix walked off. That was our instructions. That was all, really. Make a tree. I tried out what I had and I was able to create a light breeze. Wonderful, all the use of an air compressor but without any of the usefulness. That’s all our group had, really. Nathan had taken out his phone and was sitting on the bench, searching something. I turned to Franklin, who was enthralled by this. “This is rather marvelous. Magic isn’t real, but whatever this is, it’s really something. Hats off to Felix!”
The other person had already left the group, probably too concerned with blogging or something to care with this. The fire element group was mostly made of a handful of the college students, along with Francisco and a few others. They were trying to light things on fire, but to no avail. After all, Felix mentioned this couldn’t do damage. I asked a few other people for their input, and had learned how to (or that’s not the right wording, I guess you could say that the wand registered how to) create the small amounts of dirt, water and fire from the other elements. Franklin, Nathan and I decided to head towards the park, and invited George to come help us figure this out. We make it to the park, and waited next to an older cherry tree that someone had dug at to expose the roots a bit.
“Sorry to keep you guys waiting!” he said.
“It’s no big deal,” Franklin said, still conjuring up little things.
“So I have all four elements, and I think I know what to do.”
George created some dirt, and then added water to it. A little bit of grass sprung up suddenly. “So if we combine elements…”
“Then we get our tree!” Franklin said, “That’s fantastic!”
“But how do we make it a tree? That’s just grass,” Nathan said.
“We could try using more?” I said.
George added more dirt and water, but all that happened was more grass appeared in that spot. George then tried conjuring other elements at the grass. Fire just burned down his created grass, leaving the ground it sat on intact. He created more grass, and then hit it with a gust of air, and suddenly the grass became a little twig in the ground. Franklin gasped and quickly burnt it down. “Now that we know how to create it, we should keep it a secret. I mean, as enticing as ‘hot cider’ or whatever sounds, Felix did mention a bigger prize, so we should keep this all under wraps until we need it. George, keep experimenting on how to grow the tree, and see if you can make it bigger. Perhaps more water? Just make sure to burn it down when you are done. Hah, how wonderful!”
“Wait, isn’t this just the one game where you combine elements to make more elements and—“
“Oh, it’s a lot of things,” a voice said from the street behind us. Felix was wandering about, watching people try things out. “So how’s the tree coming along, folks?”
“Pretty swell,” George said.
“Oh, nice! So can I see it, or are you perfecting it and keeping it a secret?”
“Don’t want to give away a secret,” Nathan said.
“Understandable, folks. You kids keep learning. Having fun so far?”
“This is fantastic work, Felix,” Franklin said, “Say, how does it work?”
“Wouldn’t that just ruin the magic, Franklin?”
“Oh, Felix,” Franklin said as the man walked off to greet another group just outside the park.
I headed back home, and walked into Alex having a conversation with his client. “So, how do you like it? Oh, really? That’s cool to hear! Great. Great! Oh, thank you very much. Recommend me to your friends!”
He hung up. “Oh, hey Ash. So what did Felix want?”
“We got this,” I said as I showed him the wand.
“He’s a total madman.”
“But he loves his job.”
“Yeah, and I love mine. This is going really freaking well.”
“Glad to hear.”
I headed up to my room and looked the wand over again. It didn’t seem mechanical, and who knows what Felix does all day in that workshop of his. I got on Team Fortress 2 and decided on a server. Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow.
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