just that. Following my Earth connection through my body and the concrete under me to the little man, I pushed myself into it until it shook. The next part was the hardest because at this point it was natural to want to see it move, but I had to remain focused on feeling it move. I said as much to Michelle as my dude started to take his first steps toward her figure. He walked over and bowed to the frozen brown female form who was shaking but not moving.
“Close your eyes,” I said.
She looked at me, frustrated. “How will I see if she’s moving?”
“That’s the point. You have to feel it, not see it. Here, close your eyes. Now touch your nose with a finger. Okay, remember that feeling of how it is to move without seeing. Now, keeping your eyes shut, follow the bridge you made to Princess Paydirt there.”
She snickered but kept her eyes shut. A little furrow appeared between her eyes as she focused and her right arm twitched like she was going to touch her nose again. Instead, the dirt girl’s arm shook. A second later, the slender little brown arm swung around and smacked into the formless face.
“You did it,” I said.
Her eyes popped open and she looked down to see what she had done.
“I did. I did move her,” she said, bouncing a little in excitement, before shutting her eyes and trying again. This time, the little figure took a step, and then a second.
She slipped one eye open as it took a third, then opened both wide as the little feminoid marched right at my figure. It occurred to me that she might not stop, so I swung my guy out of her way just in time to avoid being marched right over.
“Okay, that’s just damn cool,” a voice said and I turned to find Zuzanna and Tami now much closer and obviously fascinated with our creations.
“Um, but fire people are cool, too,” I said. Their attention snapped from the dirt couple to me.
“Say what?” Zuzanna asked. She had a slight accent, just a trace of something I couldn’t place.
“Fire people. Same thing as these, only you form them from fire. Actually, burning gases, but it’s the same thing.”
“Show us,” Tami said, intent.
“Well, we don’t have a campfire to work with. It works best with burning wood.”
“I’ve got a candle here,” Tami said, pulling a big white candle from her bookbag.
“I guess I can show you what I mean, but it’s harder with a smaller flame,” I said, igniting the three wicks on the pillar candle with a thought.
“Okay, look close ‘cause he’s gonna be tiny,” I said. The flames were a bit bigger than expected and the three wicks were clustered fairly close together, so I tried something different. A tiny little flapping fiery creature formed about two inches over the flames, its form kind of like a primitive pterodactyl, flying in a circle limited by the candle’s three flames.
“Holy shit, that’s wicked cool,” Michelle said. Her dirt girl collapsed into a pile on the floor but she ignored it, instead watching the little flaming bundle of flapping gas as it swooped around the candle top. “Is that how you made the dragon?”
“No. I made him out of clay, over a wood and wire frame, but I put a charcoal briquette inside it. Used one of those ones with the lighter fluid already soaked into it. It took a lot of trial and error, but eventually I could move him and kindle the briquette at the same time. But it wasn’t any fun to run both him and my warrior at the same time. Couldn’t surprise myself,” I said, concentrating on having the little flyer fly straight up, then loop over backward. Meanwhile, my dirt dude was approaching the thick candle.
“So what did you do? With the dragon?” T.J. asked. I looked over and found more than half the class was clustered around us, watching avidly.
Dirt dude got to the candle, but it was too tall to jump. I concentrated on his little fists and feet, hardening them till he could jab them into the white wax and climb.
“Well, I took it apart and rebuilt it. My family uses runes, so I layered his frame and body in different runes.”
“To do what?” Britta asked from behind my shoulder.
“To program him. Again, it took a lot of experimentation, but my mom had just… died and I needed something to focus on. Took