With every passing second I was truly beginning to learn just how little I actually knew about forging. Until a couple hours ago, I hadn’t even known it had a name. I had to try to find a way to convince Alexis to not only spare my life but also to teach me what he knew. I finally started to look around and was only able to see a handful of houses. None of which were terribly close to each other, but more importantly, I saw no sign of Alexis. He isn’t in the cab, did he move to the front of the truck?
Either way there was no use trying to search for anything in this blackness Alexis would come to me in his own time. Instead, I refocused on the other issue. What did I do wrong? Normally when I tried to transmute something I just had to focus on what my intended result was, but that hadn’t worked. Was working with something as sparse as air so different? I was not trying to change something into something else, well not really. I was trying to take the air, something I couldn’t see, and manipulate it. When I thought about it I realized that I sounded a lot like a blind man trying to perform surgery.
So this time, instead of focusing on my goal, I focused on my starting point, a single molecule of air. From there layering on another piece of air, and then another piece of air, and another, until I held a small marble of air in my hand, at least in my mind I held one. I was just about to power that transformation when I received a fairly strong shove, which naturally broke my concentration, as Alexis said, “Hey boy…”
As I opened my eyes I whipped my head around and saw Alexis looming over me. I was a little aggravated at the interruption so I interrupted him, “Would you please not call me boy. I do have a name you know.”
With a shake of his head Alexis responded, “Not yet you don’t. Boy.” His tone brooked no argument so I didn’t start one. Instead I listened to him, “Like I told you earlier, I’m going to leave you in the truck, is that clear?”
I knew that I should have just said, “yes, sir.” That was what I should have said, but I didn’t. I guess it was because he had interrupted me before I could finish my test. I was still ignorant as to how he had managed to do what he had done to me and I was unable to restrain my curiosity. “You use air, don’t you?”
“Excuse me?” Alexis asked, apparently puzzled by the change of topic.
This is what I really wanted to talk about at the moment so I took his question as permission to continue. “In order to protect yourself and when you restrained me, you were using the air?”
While Alexis hid his reaction fairly well I had just finished playing poker with some pretty good talent and there was no comparison between the two. I was right. Leaning down to me he whispered, “How did you come to that conclusion?” I simply stared into his eyes and refused to back down. When he saw that I wasn’t fooled by his poker face it melted into a look of astonishment.
Cracking a smile for the first time since winning the tournament I responded as straightly as I could, “You didn’t answer my question Alexis.”
Nodding his head Alexis replied with a voice that was as inflated as he could manage. “You’re right, I didn’t answer your question. At least not directly. And that’s more than I’m willing to give you at the moment. You’re still staying here while I go in and retrieve Dempsey.”
“Whatever you say, only,” I hesitated for a second before rushing on. “Could you take this harness off of me?” The astonishment instantly dried up and his glare regained its full affect, but I refused to back down from it. I knew that, eventually, the glare would crack me so I offered a compromise of sorts, “If I’m not here when you get back I’ll willingly let you execute me.” What am I thinking making that kind of an offer?
I guess that his lie detecting eyes saw the truth in my words because he slowly began to nod his head. “I’ll hold you to that promise, boy.”
With that he turned around and walked back towards the cab. When I stood up to watch Alexis as he walked towards Dempsey’s home I found that he was already gone. It was as if he had just disappeared. Now that was truly impressive. Questions ran through my mind as I wondered where he was and how he would get in and out of Dempsey’s home. But the thoughts vanished from my mind as I lowered myself back onto the truck’s bed and realized that I had been standing up, the harness had been taken away.
I was certain that Alexis would spare me and eventually reveal all of his secrets. I didn’t care if I had to beg for the information, I would learn everything that he knew. With a smile on my lips I turned my attention back to creating a marble of air. Over the next few minutes I had successfully made two marbles and was working on my third when I heard Alexis speak. “You better get into the cab so our friend can have the entire bed to himself.”
I leapt out of truck and Alexis immediately laid Dempsey down before taking the necessary steps to secure him into the bed. Next he moved towards the hood as I climbed into the passenger seat. Alexis was doing something to the road in front of the truck but I had no idea what it was. But before I could climb out to ask he was standing up and walking back to the driver’s side door. Without saying a word, Alexis climbed into the cab, made a series of fluid motions, and his seat belt flew across his body clicking in just a fraction of a second before the truck roared to life.
In contrast with the frenzied pace upon his arrival, Alexis now merely withdrew his foot from the brake, allowing the truck to slowly and gently creep its way forward. Puzzled I looked over at him but was greeted by one of his fingers, which was pointing out the front window. Instead of asking him anything, I silently looked out the windshield and was startled when I saw that a good chunk of the car’s front was missing. Despite missing almost a third of its engine I could still hear the truck’s roar and, by all the visible evidence, it was still functional. Only the sheer awe of what I was seeing kept me from asking the first logical question. What in the world is going on here? As I saw the vanished section slowly creep towards me I couldn’t stay quiet any longer. “What did you do?”
“Show me how clever you can be, try and figure it out on your own.”