about a year to get it right. Then I infused him with some power and set him loose in the course I had built. It was inside a circle, so that became his invisible fence. But he was free to hide and hunt his prey.”
“Prey?” another kid asked.
“Yeah, I spelled him… programed as it were, to hunt any double D’s that entered his domain. He ignored everything else, like our cat or the mice our cat refused to catch, but put a little soil warrior in there and he’d wake up and start hunting. By this time, my obstacle course was inside an old barn on our property and took up most of a twelve foot diameter circle,” I glanced back at Britta. She was giving me a weird look. “What?”
“Double D’s?” she asked arching one eyebrow and crossing her arms over her impressive chest, which made me flush as I realized her confusion.
“Ah, yeah. Awkward. Double D’s was what I called dirt dudes. I was only eight, so I didn’t realize it could be taken a different way.”
“The other kids in your aunt’s circle must have loved it,” Paige commented.
“We never had a circle. My mom and my aunt were betrayed by their circle in Ireland. We never joined another,” I said, making the pterodactyl fly at double D, who had reached the top of the candle and stood, arms raised, like he had conquered Everest.
“You’re from Ireland, Mr. O’Carroll?” Miss Berg asked from the left side of the circle. By now, it looked as if the entire class was watching the little drama on the candle.
“My mom and aunt are... were. I was born here. Anyway, that’s it. Just a kid’s game. Kind of dorky. I even called it Wytchwar, with a Y instead of an I. Always wanted another couple of kids to play it or against or something,” I said, standing up. The candle snuffed out at my thought, the flyer flapping valiantly for a second before running out of gases. Double D did a back flip off the candle into my hand, gave the crowd a little salute, and then collapsed back into a pile of dirt.
The faces around me looked disappointed at his disappearance.
“Well, I must say, they taught you an excellent way to build your skills. You handle your Craft well, especially for a warlock,” Miss Berg said. “ And this exercise uses very little power, so again, it must have been perfect for a fledgling warlock.”
I looked at her in disbelief but she was still looking down at the candle, lost in thought. I glanced over at Ryanne, who rolled her eyes at the teacher before flashing a broad smile. I wondered what Miss Berg would have thought of the seven-foot-tall dirt dude I made at age ten. It weighed in at close to five hundred pounds and could carry multiple times its weight in logs. Aunt Ash pitched a fit when she found me using it like a garden tractor to help with my firewood chores. Little power, my ass.
“We should play Wytchwar here. As a group. You know, have competitions and shit,” T.J. said.
“That would be so cool,” another kid agreed.
“But we’re not all witches and there’s only, like, two earth witches?” Ashley protested.
“But there’s so much more to do than just drive the dirt people or fire people or what have you. Declan basically made a robot dragon out of dirt and wire. He could make more. I could make all kinds of electronic robots. Then there need to be people to build and change the course, people to plan tactics or pass information. Remote flyers could look for traps for their teams to avoid, the telepaths could referee the game to make sure there isn’t any cheating. Like that,” T.J. answered, getting more excited.
Other kids joined in, the idea flaring around the room like a fire. Miss Berg cleared her throat.
“That’s an excellent idea, T.J. I will ask Director Velasquez if we can use some of the empty space in this building for a game field. But before we can have a game, we have to define it, its rules, and have an order of play. So, your homework has just changed. You will each submit to me by, say, six PM tomorrow, an email with your ideas for the game. Make them as detailed as possible and like T.J. suggested, describe as many roles as possible. I will then attempt to put them together into some semblance