tool could screw things,” he’d laughed. Lesson learned.
My particular carry knife has a sharp can opener blade, and I used that to score straight lines down the inner length of both bracelets. A simple but concentrated use of Earth power caused the metal to separate along the lines, and I was left with five hinged pieces of bronze. I had cut one bracelet into equal thirds, the other into one third, two-thirds sized pieces. Two for legs, two for arms, and half of one wider one for the torso. I found a small bundle of roots from a sapling that had never grown much and used that to bind the five pieces together. The other half of the wide piece flowed and molded under my fingers, becoming a bronze sword.
Using the same can opener, I scribed some basic runes into the metal and pushed a bit of power into them. Then I packed muddy dirt around each limb and the body, pulling heat from around me to bake it hard. I left the lower arm and leg on each side just as bare bronze, the edges forming a makeshift built-in blade for climbing or even fighting. I did fasten a small piece of stick to each forearm to give me fuel for the fire runes I carved underneath the sticks, and scribed runes of binding that would let my avatar hold things like his sword or other artifacts.
My aunt approached, leading Delwood of all people, as I was finishing up. “Almost done, are ye? Good. I’m having each of the shifters partner up with an avatar driver to see what they can add to the team. You two will work together or you both will lose,” she said, her tone brooking no argument.
I looked at him, he looked at me, we both frowned and nodded. A temporary forced truce as it were.
She left and I worked the final touches. Delwood said nothing, leaving me free to ponder why she would pair up weres and witches. A though occurred to me. I had a little pad of paper in my back pocket and I used it to write him a question.
You want to observe or participate?
His frown got deeper. “I’m not the spectator type. I’d rather do something then watch you play with dolls.”
Give me a hair from your head.
“What? Why?” he asked.
I just held out one hand and waited. Finally, he plucked a hair from the thick mass of black on his head and gave it to me with more frowns.
I stuck the hair on the blank face on my dirt dude and cemented it there with a thought. Then I carefully drew some tiny runes around it in the hardened mud.
“Whoa! What the fuck did you do? I smell dirt and metal,” he said suddenly, rubbing his nose. “And my hearing is all fucked up.”
I set my dude onto the backside of the course and powered him up. Delwood shifted beside me to see what I wrote on my pad of paper.
Linked your sense of smell to where his nose would be and your hearing as well. You can use it to warn us of danger… like, say, the smell of plastic or the creaking of Barbie joints.
“No shit? Yeah, I’m getting all the wet ground smells that I would if I had my nose pressed down there. So you want me to smell for the dolls and listen?”
I nodded, strapping the last of the tangle of roots like an assault vest around dirt dude. Using pebbles and pieces of stick, I made some surprises and stuck them in the vest, finally weaving the little sword in as well so that it hung down his back. We were ready. Just in time.
“Alrighty then. We begin the hunt,” my aunt called from the other side of the mountain range, where the rest of the class was.
A quick glance at Delwood showed he was watching me cautiously. I turned back and set my dude to walking, heading up the escarpment that divided us from the rest of the course. Time to hunt Barbies.
Chapter 23
On this side of the ridge, the incline went steep pretty fast. Dirt dude had to go to all fours, digging his exposed brass-bladed feet and hands into the soil to climb. I took him toward my left, approaching the ridge nearest the back wall of the long room.
Excited voices from the rest of the class drowned out any sounds I might have picked up from the doll