FOUR

Rufus really enjoyed the library. He found his escape in reading books, reading for hours without pausing for any distractions. He felt better if he could imagine himself in another world.

Within a few days of being at the school, Rufus had found a quiet place in the upper section of the library where he wouldn’t be bothered. He could read and no one would find him. His Fortress of Solitude.

It had been three weeks since he’d started at the new school. He had been given detention because of the prank on the Bristons. Detention, however, was better than the stocks, or whatever Blackwatch called them. But, he still didn’t like having to spend an extra hour in the main office each day. Meme was ok, but he would rather be outside or in his spot in the library.

He was sitting in this spot one day before he had to report to the front office for detention.  He was there reading his copy of the Hobbit. He had chosen this book for his test and decided to re-read it even though he had read it a hundred times before. On the other side of the library, Rufus saw the Principal come out of a room. The Principal looked left to right and then turned and locked the door. He walked away at a sharp clip.

Rufus waited until the Principal left the library. He got up, looking around to see if anyone was watching him walk towards the door. On a small plaque right below an opaque window there were the words “Archival Vault.” Rufus tried the doorknob, but it was locked.

Why would he need to lock the archives? Rufus thought. It seemed silly to keep books locked up.

He went back to his spot, grabbed his book and made his way to the Main Office.

“Hello, Rufus.” Meme said as he entered her office. “Would you like a cookie? I just got them from the cafeteria.”

He sat down in his usual spot on a chair opposite of Meme’s desk.        

She let him enjoy his cookie.

“How are you doing here at the school?” She asked him a moment later.

“Fine, I guess.”

“How is Odyssey for you?”

“Uh…I guess it’s ok.” He responded. They hadn’t done much but read books and talk about imagination. Some of it was interesting, but it was difficult for him to pay attention. The way Biggie had chattered on about it, he’d thought it would’ve be different.

Rufus didn’t realize, but he was slipping into his usual ways. His classes would bore him, he would stop paying attention and stop doing his homework. This would make his teachers frustrated and then he would be labeled slow or inept. All Rufus really recognized was that he would stop getting along with his teachers. Meme knew this type and she knew how to work with them.

“I don’t know if you know this.” She said. “But I have worked with a lot of children while here at this school. Many children come through these halls and most of them don’t know what their potential is. They get bored with conventional learning and they stop trying. I wonder if you are getting bored in your classes.” She smiled kindly at him.

Her smile made him uncomfortable. “Yeah, a bit, I guess.” Rufus was guarded.

“The Principal usually takes a bit more time than he should. He studies the imagination so much that he forgets that others, especially young people with short attention spans, don’t find it as interesting.” She sighed. “I’ll have a talk with him.”

After a few moments Rufus asked “Ma’am, I was just wondering why I’m here by myself. How come, Jimmy and Biggie didn’t get detention too?”

“Hmm.” Meme looked up from a book she was reading. “Well, Mr. Worthrite and the Briston’s, for that matter, have a different type of punishment. Here at our school, we try to apply detention based on what the student needs.”

He was half way through his detention hour, when someone knocked on the office door and threw it open at the same time. “He’s seizing again. Meme we need you quickly. Now!” Blackwatch was in the door before either of them knew it. She scowled at Rufus as Meme stood in a flurry and was out the door.

“Rufus—you are excused!” Meme shouted down the hallway. “Shut the door as you leave! Thank you!”

Rufus still sat there with the last bite of his cookie in his hand. He slowly put it into his mouth. He was getting up from his chair when a brass glint caught his eye. He grabbed his backpack and turned back to the object covered by a paper on Meme’s desk. He walked around the desk and lifted the paper. There was a key. In Meme’s flurry to get out to whomever was having a seizure she knocked the paper off of it.

Rufus picked up the key. And he remembered the distinctive shape. It was the same key that Blackwatch had used to turn off the fire alarm and that Meme had used to unlock the stocks.

Without thinking much more about it, he slipped the key into his pocket.

…

Rufus went back to his room. Biggie was on his bed. Ever since Rufus and Biggie had gotten detention, he had been short with Biggie. He knew it wasn’t Biggie’s fault, but he didn’t think it was fair that he got Detention and the other two didn’t.

Rufus climbed up on his bed and laid there with his book.

“You know it isn’t my fault you have to go to the office. I asked you and Jimmy not to pull the alarm. If Jimmy hadn’t done it we probably wouldn’t have been caught.”

“That isn’t my problem, Biggie. I don’t get why you and Jimmy don’t have detention and I do. It isn’t fair.”

“Little do you know! We got detention…well, at least I did. I don’t know what will happen to Jimmy. I have to be a Wimp for the first three Weekend sessions!”

Rufus sighed and paused looking at his book.

“What’s a Wimp?” He guessed he shouldn’t be mad at Biggie. Considering the disgust in Biggie’s voice.

“A Wimp?” He paused. “A Wimp is where you don’t get to use your imagination to build your character—your Projection. You get a protective spell put on you so you can’t get hurt. I’ll still get to go into the Arena and interact, but I can’t work on my Projection.” He emphasized the my.

They sat there in silence, it was getting later, and the cafeteria was about to close.

“You hungry? Hey, Jimmy you wanna go eat?” Rufus asked his roommates.

“Always.” Said Biggie.

The closet door slid open a bit. Jimmy peeked out at the window. It was getting dark. “Yeah, I’ll come.”

On their way back from the cafeteria Rufus took out the key he found. “Recognize this?”

Biggie looked at it. “No. Should I?”

“It’s the key that Meme used to unlock us from the stocks.” Rufus explained.

Jimmy stopped. “Wait, how did you get that?” He reached over as if to take it. His fingers got close and the key started faintly glowing blue.

“I grabbed it from Meme’s desk, after detention today…What is it?”

“That was a key given to Merlin.” Jimmy said. “By my father. It’s name is DragonLock”

Both Rufus and Biggie stopped. “Your father? You have a father? I thought we were all orphans here.”

Jimmy stopped and looked back at them. “Both of my parents are alive. But, they have disowned me. Merlin and Meme were nice enough to bring me in.”

“Anyway, that key can open any lock. It is a very powerful artifact. Not surprising that Merlin misplaced it. He can get really spacey.”

They got back to their room and instead of unlocking their door with one of their keys, Rufus used the DragonLock. The key glowed faintly as he pushed it into the keyhole. The business end changed shape and formed to the correct size of the keyhole. The teeth changed from jagged to square and square to jagged to match exactly the needed patter. Rufus turned the key.

…

A couple days later Rufus and Biggie were standing in line to get dinner. There was a TV that had been wheeled into the main eating hall so that everyone could see the news.

“New weekly matches between these Titans, Bob.” Said a recognizable voice on the TV. Rufus looked over and saw Nathan Barber — the guy that was there on his first day — talking on the TV. “You have never seen these types of matches. Only Computer Graphics could produce creatures like this, but these students are able to use an adaptive technology to generate their characters. We will be airing the whole tournament here, live, on channel 7.”

“So you are saying that this technology allows the students to take anything they imagine, flying, super-speed, arms made of steel, and put it into a character?” Said the main News Anchor.

“That’s right. So you never know what abilities are hidden in each contestant.”

Biggie and Rufus both grabbed the first thing they could find from the Cook’s offerings. Which happen to be a bowl of cereal and sat down to watch the rest of what Barber was saying.

Biggie was eating it up. “We do a tournament each year. That’s what you saw in that picture on the ceiling. That was the final battle of the tournament for 1941.”

He took a bite of his cereal. “This is really cool. Its the first time anyone has ever seen what we do in Odyssey, from the outside. I wonder how much Merlin will show. I mean, how it all works. We all have our theories, but…this is really cool!”

Biggie was ecstatic all the way back to their room. Even while they were supposed to be doing their homework he continued to talk about it.

A short couple hours later—well into the night—Biggie shot out of bed. His stomach was rumbling. “I am so hungry.” He grumbled. The clock said 2:35 am.

Rufus was a light sleeper and woke up. “Biggie, we have to go to sleep. We have class in just a few hours.”

“I know, but I am so hungry. I only had a bowl of cereal.”

Rufus threw down a pack of saltine crackers, he had taken from the cafeteria.

“That’s not going help!” Biggie said as he inhaled them.

Jimmy had come out of the closet and had been sitting at one of the desks. “You know Rufus, you could use DragonLock to get into the Cook’s pantry.”

The pantry had all of the best foods in it. Jerky, cookies, snacks and candy, it even had a fridge where she kept the pastries and pies she makes.

“That would be great.” Biggie exclaimed. “I would even get a bit extra so we wouldn’t have to go so often.”

“I don’t know. We are already in trouble.” Rufus thought out loud.

“Exactly. We are already in trouble. So what are they going to do if we get caught? Put us in detention again?” Jimmy was egging Rufus on.

“No, but they could add on to it, at the least.”

“Please, Rufus? Look, I’ll go by myself. I’ll be right back.”

“Weren’t you the one complaining about being made a Wimp for Weekend Sessions?” Rufus argued back, but his resolve was weakening. What did he really care? Meme was nice, but that was the only thing keeping him from sneaking out again.

Ten minuets later, they made their way over to the cafeteria and into the back of the kitchen. There was a large oak door with a keyhole and doorknob. Rufus took out his key and inserted it into the keyhole. As he did, the key changed shape to fit the keyhole, again emitting a slight glow. Square sides changed to round, round to jagged. It altered enough that the key he was holding no longer resembled what he had taken from Meme’s desk, but was, instead, an exact replica of the Cook’s key.

The boys stocked up on as many snacks as they could carry and made their way safely back to their room without incident.

The next morning Rufus headed for his math class. He sat down at his desk and daydreamed the hour away, thinking what door he would like to get into next. The cars! He thought. Maybe I could take a car for quick spin! He was only twelve, but those cars were amazing, and he wasn’t going to steal it, he was just going to take it for a quick spin. What’s the worst they could do? Meme didn’t seem like she would let anything really bad happen to him.

As he was having this thought the bell rang. He started collecting his books and made his way towards the classroom door, attempting to shove the books into his backpack as he walked. Suddenly a pointer stick blocked him from doing so. Rufus stopped and his eyes followed the stick to an old, bony hand and then skipped upwards to the teacher’s face.

“That book is not an experiment in gravity, you know? It has other purposes, like math problems and solutions, and it is required to be opened if you plan on passing this class.”

“Yeah, I-I know. I’ve been busy. Sorry, Mr. Sineter. I’ll get yesterday’s assignment to you tomorrow.”

“Hmmm. No, I don’t think you will, unless…” Mr. Sineter paused, folded his arms and looked down his long thin nose at Rufus. “…unless, yes, unless you have some incentive,” Another short pause. “I’ve spoken to the Principal.” He paused for a few moments. “Please go directly to the Vault. He is expecting you.” Mr. Sineter dismissed Rufus and turned to his chalkboard to erase that day’s lesson.

“No, wait! It’s just an assignment. You’re gonna send me to see the Principal because I didn’t do one assignment?” There was no response from Mr. Sineter. “I just need another day, man! I swear I’ll get the assignment done,” pleaded Rufus.

“Oh. OK, that would be nice.” The older man said absentmindedly—his thoughts having moved away from the current conversation.

“So. If I do the assignment I won’t have to go see the Principal right?”

“No. I didn’t say that.” Sineter turned his head to look down his nose—his left eyebrow cocked. “The Principal still expects you. You should hurry; he has a class that will be starting soon. He won’t like it if you are late.” With that, the discussion was over. Rufus stuffed his books into his backpack and forcibly zipped it closed and stormed out of the classroom.

“Rufus, please come on in.” The Principal was standing at his lectern as Rufus made his way down the last few steps that lead into the Vault. The Principal moved towards the back of the desks. The sound of their footsteps reverberated off of each other as they approached. “Please have a seat.” The Principal indicated a pair of desks at the last row. Rufus sat down next to the Principal and folded his arms. He held out his hand indicating that he wanted the copy of the book that Rufus was holding.

“Do you know why I asked you down here, Mr. Fenuch?” quested the Principal.

“Because I didn’t do my homework for math?” Rufus shot back.

“No…No and yes. I have discussed your situation with all of the teachers and they fear that you have potential that you are not willing to use.” he paused for a moment. “This book means a lot to me. It taught me many things about what we should try to accomplish. And when we try and fail, that is still okay. Because we learn, and we have purpose. What do you think? Do you think you are attaining your potential here at my school?”

“I guess not.” Rufus didn’t really like to talk about himself.

“Well, I am going to give you some incentive, to see if we can’t get you to start down the path to meet your potential.” With that, the Principal stood up rested his hand on the back of the chair he was sitting in and asked “Do you know the dragon Smaug?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Ok. Close your eyes and picture every aspect you can that corresponds to the dragon.”

“What do you mean every aspect? Is this the test?”

“Well, sure call this your test. What do you know about the dragon? What does it look like to you? Where does it live? What did it horde? What made it angry? How did it think? I would assume, from how your book appears. that you have read it quite a few times, and these answers should be very easy for you. Are you ready?”

The Principal looked at Rufus and said, “I am going to show you what Odyssey is all about.” A loud grinding came from the foot of the stairs. Rufus saw a large stone slate slide across the stair’s opening—shutting them completely inside the Vault. The principal grabbed the metal lump attached to the ring on his finger and flipped it over exposing a small, deep red gemstone. Next the room slowly disappeared—blurring between the gray lamp-lit walls of the Vault and a large, open field with a blue sky and mountains in the distance—the open field finally won out.

Rufus was still sitting at the desk—his mouth was wide open. “What just happened?” He reached down to grab a clump of grass and clover to make sure it was real.

“Hang on. If you think that was interesting, watch this… Now, concentrate on the dragon!”

Rufus felt a rushing wind rising up the hill and towards him. It hit him as the Principal was speaking, and it drowned out the words as it rushed through him. He could see the wind rush into him and, as it did, he almost lost the image of the dragon his mind had created. He could feel the wind was a power that fed off of the thoughts in his mind. He “projected” the thoughts of the dragon into the wind and started constructing all of the aspects he could come up with. After a moment he felt as if the pressure of the wind was subsiding—as it did he felt an impending desire to force as many facets of the dragon as he could into the wind. Eventually, the pressure was gone and he realized he had been clenching his eyes shut. The whole process felt as if it had taken a thousand years, and yet he knew that he had only been on that hill for a brief moment.

Rufus opened his eyes, and his brain practically exploded with energy and new sensations. His perspective of the open field had shifted, as if he had been transported from the ground floor of a building to one several stories higher. The next thing that he realized was out of place was that there were smoke tendrils coming out of his nostrils. Smoke! Wait, my nostrils are on the top of my snout! I have a snout? Several similar questions were running through his mind.

A fly landed somewhere on Rufus—on an extremity that was new to him. The fly bothered him so he shook that extremity and felt a strong wind from behind his head. He turned his serpentine neck to inspect what had caused the wind and realized that, in trying to rid himself of the fly, he had moved one of two massive wings connected to his back. To put it mildly—he was amazed.

“Did you find the Arkenstone?” Said a voice to Rufus’ left.

Not knowing where the voice came from, anger shot through him. He had a memory of a creature that had tricked him, one who was also invisible. The mind of Rufus the human was all but extinguished, and the dragon took control of the body. Flame erupted out of its mouth and covered the hill in a roaring fire, turning it immediately to charred earth. Rufus flexed his powerful legs and shot up into the air. The Dwarves! They were the ones that sent that foul creature! Where are they? He launched himself into the air with a few beats of his powerful wings.

Rufus sailed through the air looking for something to destroy. He saw a town by a lake and dove toward it—spewing flame as he came into range of the town’s buildings. There were no living creatures, just empty structures, but that didn’t register—his fury was blind and, to him, very real.

Rufus was about to crush a building with his tail when he could feel the changing wind rushing out of him, and the scene of destruction and burning buildings and pastures disappeared from his view and was replaced by the Vault’s gray drab walls. The desks were unmoved, except the one he had been sitting on, which was on its side.

Rufus, back in his own mind and body, was panting and collapsed to the floor, gulping in air.

“Give yourself a moment as the effects wear off.” The voice was familiar. It was the same one that spoke to him when he was a dragon.

“You! You knew that I would flip out like that!” Some of the rage that he’d felt as the dragon still laced his words—if significantly less potent.

“No. I expected you to create a piece of the rage and anger that Smaug felt, but the amount you channeled was very impressive. I was testing you, but do you see what this class is about? Our minds are very powerful, and if we do not concentrate on the right aspects of a character, then we will never be able to control our projections. I’m waving the requirement of the initial test.” The principal walked over to a shelf and picked out a book. The title was Millennium Child and it had an image on the cover of a woman, standing on a high peak.

“Imogen was given a copy of this book. You and she will be tested together next week. Call it a quiz on how your projection interacts with another character projection. Also, I have one other requirement for you.” The Principal moved away from the back of the class to his lectern. “You must pay attention and apply yourself with gusto in your other classes. Failure to do so will result in your removal from Odyssey. Please don’t make me do that. Do you agree to these terms?”

Rufus hesitated. The dragon experience was terrifying, but had felt completely real. If this Odyssey class could allow him to live in a world that was anything other than what he was currently in, he would do whatever was required to be a part of it.

“Yes. I agree.”

“Good. Now, I have to prepare for my next class. You are dismissed. Make sure you are here tomorrow.”

With that, Rufus grabbed his backpack, paused, and looked down at the overturned desk. Normally, he would have left it but, for some reason, he ducked down and righted it before scurrying up the large staircase, his excitement propelling him up the stairs.