dirt remained packed tight around the robot’s legs.
Michelle shrugged. “It’s an Earth grenade. I’m not allowed to directly use my power on the game course, remember. So trapped is trapped.”
“Tis true. Once yer beastie or avatar is trapped or down, yer done till the game concludes. Then one o’ the witches can set ye free,” my aunt said, nodding to me to release the robot.
It was no sooner out than I found myself surrounded by witches looking for repairs to their golems. The rest of the class had gotten their avatars activated and were now climbing up and about the game course. The whole thing reminded me of a kindergarten class gone amok. Aunt Ashling apparently felt the same way.
“Enough,” she said loudly. “Witches, see Michelle or Declan for repairs and then help the others learn to navigate the course. The rest of ye bring yer dirt people over to the game pitch and climb on up. Time to get organized, don’t ye think?”
“Listen,” I interrupted the concerned gaggle that surrounded Michelle and I. “You helped make these things, remember? Most of the damage is self-repairing with a little dirt. Here. Just grab a handful and pour it over the wounded area and watch,” I said, dropping soil onto the upper thigh of Erika’s dirt girl, which was missing some patches. Most of it fell off, but some, just enough in fact, stuck to the leg and filled the leg back out to its pre-damaged proportions.
“Ooh, that tickles. Do it again,” Erika crooned, vamping it up and smiling at me in a way that made me nervous. “Pour some on her chest,” she said.
“It’s not damaged,” I replied.
“Yeah, but I like it,” she said through lowered lashes.
“Next,” I said, not liking being made fun of. She pouted and flounced away, her avatar copying her motions exactly.
Britta was already pouring dirt on her own gal’s arm, watching the repairs happen all by themselves.
“That’s truly very cool,” she said, smiling a normal smile. “Will they fix any wound?”
“No,” I said, calling my Double D to me. He came, limping the whole way. “When your avatar has had the shit kicked out of it, you may have to bring her to either Michelle or I to recode the spell that holds it all together. You may be able to do it yourselves, as it’s not that complex and we’ve already laid the foundation,” I told the remaining witches. I found Ryanne was right next to me, just about pressing up against me in the crush of witches.
I demonstrated the spell and then pulled the dirt off of D so some of them could give it a try. Michelle was standing at the back of the pack, watching and listening, none of the witches having gone to her for help. I raised eyebrows at her lack of patients and she grinned, silently pointing at her friends, then putting the back of one hand to her forehead, mimicking a swooning Southern belle. I frowned, first at her then at the witches around me, some of whom were just looking up from Ryanne’s attempt. Instantly spotting me sharing a look with Michelle, they snapped around to see her expression, but she was too fast, pulling her arm down and assuming an innocent look.
“How’s that then, do ye think?” Ryanne asked me, looking up from Double D, who looked mostly normal except for the repaired leg, which was bigger than the other.
“Pretty good, although he’s a bit out of kilter,” I said, tweaking her spell slightly to bring him back to normal. “There, now he won’t walk in ever-decreasing circles until he disappears up his own ass.”
“Oh, yer the ass, that’s fer sure,” she said, but she was trying not to laugh as she said it.
Most of the witch damage was minor, so they poured soil on their loam ladies and then went to help the other students learn the game.
Tami’s avatar needed new wood fuel sticks for her avatar’s arms. “Here, let’s try something new,” I said, retrieving my book bag. Inside was a box of fire starter sticks I’d picked up at an outdoor gear store on Church Street for just this purpose.
The classes’ avatars were all built over heavy wire cut from clothes hangers. I pulled the dirt away from both arms of the dirt girl and removed the charred remains of the sticks. Then I pulled two short pieces of small diameter copper pipe from my pack. I had had a couple of