eyes and reached through the ground, feeling for anything I could use.
The pull I got came from the snowbanks, so I moved closer. Snow’s not my thing, water, in any form, being the antithesis of all my powers. Yet when I looked closer, I noticed an oddity—a crown of bare branches poking up from the other side of the mound’s crest. A tree sapling, maple perhaps, growing out of the snowbank. Caeco is the bio major, not me, but still I was pretty certain that trees didn’t randomly seed in snowbanks. I reached through the ground at my feet and found a significant mass of dirt, stone, broken concrete and old asphalt debris buried deep under the snow. The mound next to it was the same, as was the one next to that. They were probably bulldozed there when the parking lots were redone. Perfect. After a quick glance around for witnesses (the subzero air made that unlikely, but not impossible), I made a request of Earth. The snow shook as I received my answer. Reaching further away, I felt the vibrations of cars and trucks on Main Street, busy even on a weekday evening. Perfect.
Back down the ramp, I cracked open the person door to get to the controls for the overhead door, which were mounted on the wall between doorways inside the building.
“-do you say warlock like it’s a negative?” a voice carried across the floor. Ariel’s, I thought. I froze, the door only open a couple of inches, and listened like a creeper. Old habits die hard.
“Because me dear, the history of warlocks is a bleak one, it is. Ye see, we were a fearsome people and when we found the isles, we fought to keep them. Males with a bit o’the Craft, we found, could power these glyphs if they were applied jest right. A bit tricky that, getting the layers of runes down correct and all. I’m more than a bit impressed that the boy was able to mark his own self… but don’t ye go telling him. I don’t want him thinking I approve of what he done.
“Anyway, a male so marked became known as a warlock. Some think the word comes from the Middle English word warloghe, one who breaks faith. Fitting in this case, aye? But there’s some what think it comes from another Middle English word werre, which means strife. One who breaks strife… one who wins conflict? So strong and fast, so inured to pain and fear they were that they were much like the berserkers of the Vikings. Kept us mostly free. But here’s the thing… once a warlock used the glyphs in battle, they became permanent. And the warlock would inevitably grow to crave the thrill of battle, as it were. A nasty, vicious spiral it was, leading the poor man from battle to battle until eventually his luck would run out and he would be killed,” my aunt’s voice answered.
“And you think Declan will do the same?” Ashley asked.
“Oh, no dear. I fear much worse than that,”my aunt said.
“But he’s good. I mean, he’s a nice guy, a really nice guy. He protects little kids and stuff. He wouldn’t go bad, would he?” Matthew asked, his voice not one I expected to speak up.
“Yes he is, dear. That’s me grand hope. He’s very much the lad you described. It’s jest that we all have the seed of darkness inside us and I wonder if using the glyphs is akin to planting it,” she said. “But enough on that topic.”
It was wickedly cold outside, seeping through my sweatshirt and jeans, and the conversation about warlocks and crazy nephews was over so I loudly opened the door. Quickly closing it behind me, I paused to shiver and rub my hands together without looking at the others. I hit the UP button on the overhead door control, the steel panels immediately rolling up.
The parking lot lights were blotted out by the massive shape waiting on the other side, and once the twelve-foot-high opening was fully clear, I brought my Earth in.
Stepping through on four ponderous legs, the mass of dirt and concrete was over twenty feet long, ten feet high, and a roughly lizard-shaped eleven feet wide. The floor shook as it waddled through, its gait rough as I struggled mentally to make it walk. A trail of dirt dribbled behind it and its back was layered with a thick coat of dirty ice and snow, the little sapling sprouting