Chapter 8

Owen continues the Narrative:

I spent most of the remainder of the day in the shop with Joe. There was work to do on some items that the local farmers had brought in for repair. Frank joined us to observe later that morning.

“I’ve always been interested in blacksmithing, but there wasn’t any opportunity to do it or even to see it done where I used to live,” he told us when we had taken a short break after finishing the work on the first item.

“Where did you live?” I asked, curious.

“I lived in Philadelphia, but it was at a time much later than this,” he told us without being specific. After seeing the music system that the O’Connells used, I could believe that it was a considerable time in the future. Margie came out to get Frank shortly before 5:00 when we were ready to quit for the day.

“We’re about ready to start,” she told him, as they prepared to leave.

“Start ... start what?” I asked looking out of the shop at the daylight that was already beginning to fade.

“We’re going to deal with the brush and weeds that Mr. Hickey complained about this morning. You’re welcome to come along and observe, if you like,” she told me with a twinkle in her eye.

“You’re going to use Magic, aren’t you?” I asked, as I checked the forge to ensure that it was cooling down and the fire was going out.

“Not exactly, but I believe that you will find the operation interesting,” she told me.

“Should I bring Grace?” I asked.

“Yes, I believe so. It’s time that all of you knew about this,” she answered, and I went to get Grace from the house while Robert joined his Wife. I noticed that he was carrying something.

By the time Grace and I joined them, they had been joined by Celeste, and all of them were at the edge of the field on the south side of the house. Joe had also trailed along behind them.

“What are you going to do?” Grace asked, as we joined them.

“We are going to make it easier for Mr. Hickey to do his job,” Margie told her, as she and her Husband set up the small screen that he had been carrying.

“It will be a couple of minutes before Robert is ready,” she told us, as Robert stepped behind the screen.

“We would have liked to have started this earlier this afternoon, but we didn’t want the survey crew on the Lane to see this,” she continued, and paused for a short time, before there was a very bright flash of light from the other side of the screen, which fell over.

Standing there where the screen had been was a creature out of fairy-tales, legends, and horror stories. It was a Dragon, but not an overly large one, being about about the size of a draft horse at eight feet tall with a long neck, four feet, wings, and a long tail on a fairly short body.

“What is he doing here?” Grace squeaked in shock pointing at the Dragon.

“Crendenor is going to clear the fields so they can be surveyed more easily,” Margie told us, as if it were an everyday thing ... perhaps it was for Wizards, I thought.

“But how?” Grace asked still confused.

“By flying over them,” Margie told her as the Dragon took several steps, spreading its wings, and took off. It quickly climbed high into the sky, but I noticed that it didn’t grow smaller as it climbed and I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“Let’s all adjourn to the southern edge of the fields south of the lane. He’ll be clearing them first,” Margie told us and cast a spell. We all instantly re-appeared at the far southern edge of the fields, south of Plantation Lane.

“Frank, you and Celeste take the side of the fields along the road, and we’ll cover this edge,” Margie told her Apprentice and her tutor, both of whom promptly disappeared.

“I still don’t understand what you’re going to do,” Grace told her.

“After Robert enjoys himself up in the air for a time, he’ll swoop down and come in over the fields from the east and spray them with Magic Fire to burn the brush and weeds away, dear,” Margie told us.

“But these fields cover over 140 acres. How can you control the fire over such a large area?” Grace asked. “It will burn out of control and we’ll be in trouble,” she added in a frightened voice.

“No dear, that’s why we are using Magic Fire. It’s very easy to control, although any fire is easy to control with the use of Magic,” she told Grace. Joe hadn’t said anything during all of this but looked terrified by what he had seen so far.

We could see Robert now as a speck well off in the distance from our location, which was about midway between the road to town and the west end of our property. As his Dragon-form swooped down toward us out of the sky, his image grew and grew as he approached the ground until he was huge even at the distance that he still was from us. As he crossed the road from town, he was gigantic in size, and started to breathe fire in a spray that was twenty feet wide at least, while he flew right down the center of the fields moving very swiftly. By the time that he passed over us at the height of a four story building at least, his wing span was as long as two railroad passenger cars. I continued to follow his progress down the fields past us by turning, and I soon saw him beat his huge wings against the air to return to the sky high above us.

Heat from the fire drew my attention back to the ground, as the fire raged there in the fields. It was rapidly spreading from the center of the fields to their sides and the flames were approaching the area where we stood. I heard Margie casting a spell and drawing something in the air with her fingers before she turned sideways and pointed her right arm down the side of the fields toward their east end. She then turned and pointed toward the west end of the fields. Nothing appeared to happen, but I could see the fire at the east end of the fields, near the road from town, stop its advance and then go out as it reached the invisible line that Margie had apparently created. She also pulled Joe, Grace, and me over her line so we would be out of the fire’s path.

I stare in a amazement as the fire continued its advance all of the way up the line of fields which were some 6,000 feet long, but it stopped spreading when it reached the edge of the fields, and not just on our side but also along the north edge of the fields along the entry road where Frank and Celeste had gone.

“That’s amazing!” Grace said, as she watched the flames extinguish themselves at the edge of the fields as it advanced all along their length.

“We’ll need to move to the northern-most edge of your fields before Crendenor burns them, but there is no need to hurry, as he is cooling down following all of that exertion, and won’t be ready to continue for a time,” Margie told us. “Frank and Celeste will only need to cross the lane to do their part,” she added.

The fire had nearly finished spreading all of the way to the far end of our property, and I saw the last of it go out as she finished speaking. As I looked out over the fields which only minutes before had been covered with tall weeds and brush, all that I could see all the way to the lane was black ash covered ground.

“The rains will soak the ashes into the ground and enrich it,” Margie told me with a smile on seeing where I was looking. A few short minutes later, she transferred us to the northern extent of our fields before Crendenor, swooped down again from high above. I wasn’t so startled this time and observed his flight as carefully as I could. His long neck was lowered so that his head was below his body and wings while his long tail acted as a rudder on the air keeping him straight as he glided down the length of the fields spraying fire. This fire burned just as the one in the south fields had and went out on reaching the sides of the fields where Margie had again created her invisible line or whatever it was. It also stopped at the line along the lane which Frank and Celeste had created.

It wasn’t until we were ready to return to the house that Grace had an insight to what had happened.

“What about our house and the other buildings. Did they burn too?” she asked in a worried voice.

“I protected the house and its surroundings area with a spell similar to that needed to stop the fire in the fields before we started. There won’t be any damage to your property,” Margie assured us as she scanned the sky for her Husband.

“Crendenor will return after a time. Robert loves to fly in his Dragon-form, and it will be daylight up where he is longer than down here. He’ll return when he’s ready,” Margie told us before casting a spell that returned us to the yard behind our house.

“I’m going in and start on supper,” Grace announced after we had been standing there for a minute or so still coming to grips with what we had seen.

“I’ll go with you and help,” Margie told her, and both headed for the back door, discussing what to make for supper. I had no idea where Celeste and Frank had gone after we had finished, but was sure they would eventually show up. That left just Joe and me standing in yard in the dusk of sunset.

“Mr. Owen,” Joe asked very quietly, “Is Mr. Robert de devil?”

“No, Joe, he isn’t, but he is a very powerful Wizard who can also turn into a Dragon ... A very large, powerful, fire breathing Dragon when he wants to, but he is as human as you or I am,” I assured him.

“Yes sir, if you says so, but I’s don’t feels comfortable ‘round him just now. I be eaten’ later when yous be finished,” he told me before heading for his rooms in the carriage house. I decided that I would go inside and wash up before seeing if the ladies needed any help with supper.

I was in the kitchen a-half hour or so later when Robert came in carrying the screen. I noticed that there was some dust on his clothes and some on the screen, but he had the biggest smile on his face that I had ever seen from him. He grabbed his Wife around the waist and twirled around the kitchen with her for a few seconds before planting a big kiss on her lips.

“I haven’t felt this good in some time,” he told her when they came up for air with an even broader smile ... if that was possible.

“Yes, I could feel your joy in doing the job and in flying,” she answered as he released her, but she was busy rubbing herself against him and didn’t appear to notice immediately.

“I hope that you don’t have too big an appetite after all of that flying,” Grace said as she turned toward the pair. “We only have enough prepared for five. Margie told me that Celeste and Frank wouldn’t be joining us this evening.”

“I only have my usual appetite,” Robert told her, “for food anyway,” insinuating that he had an appetite for something else presently also. We had a quiet supper in the dinette as usual, and Margie used Magic to clean up the dishes and other items quickly before they both disappeared after telling us that they would be back tomorrow. Joe didn’t join us until after the other O’Connells had gone, and he was very quiet when he did.

Grace and I spent more than our usual amount of time that night studying Magic. What we had seen today encouraged us to learn more about what could be done with Magic, so that we too could enjoy some of its benefits. We slept very well that night.

We were up the next morning just before sunrise and had finished breakfast when Mr. Hickey arrived at our front door. He was able to do that since we had left the small personnel gate in the front fence open for the last few days.

“Good morning, Mr. Hickey,” I said, on opening the front door.

“Good morning,” he said but seemed distracted. The reason becoming apparent in his first question.

“How did you do that?” he demanded.

“How did we do what?” I asked, unsure of exactly what he meant, but having an idea.

“The fields! The weeds and the brush are all gone, and there is nothing but ash on the ground. Some of it has already soaked into the ground from the bit of rain that we had last night,” he stated in a confused voice.

“Oh that, my O’Connell Cousins took care of that last evening. They assured us that you wouldn’t have any trouble doing the survey now,” I told him, enjoying his confusion.

“But no one can control a fire that precisely. It looks as if they drew a line on the ground and the fire stopped there, but that’s not possible,” he said in a questioning voice but still confused

“If it simplifies your job, where is the problem?” I asked him, but he looked at me strangely without answering the question before changing the subject.

“Another thing, someone has put in stakes all along your entrance road. It looks like someone surveyed the road. Do you know anything about this?” he asked.

“Yes, they were put in yesterday by the surveyors working for the company that will be paving Plantation Lane for us,” I told him.