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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Today's #flashfiction #TheElfsRobot

“May the force be with you.”
Isaac Newton* #quote

        Tomorrow my Grandma and a few other family members are having a garage sale it will be a good opportunity to spend time with them so I shall socialize and peddle some wares.

The Elf's Robot

         “Elves are beings of magic.”
         “Elves are beings of magic.”
          That's what's the humans say, that's what the goblins say, that's what the ogres say, that's what the dwarfs say, that's what we elves say. All except for me though. I say I don't we don't need to cast spells. Though my family and friends yell at me because those words dare to exit my mouth.
          “You just don't want to work hard at your spells!”
          “You just won't admit you're bad at magic!”
           Yes, I am bad at magic. But I've admitted it. But I won't devote myself to the other jobs that elves are supposed to do if they aren't “magically inclined” genetically. I spend my time reading in the library. People think my magic is even worse because I spend so much time in the library and still can't do well. It's just I gave up doing magic. I started to read up on just about everything else. Even the oldest, dustiest books.  Funnily enough the words in the my old books grew more complicated than the words in the high school magic books.
         After much reading I approached the clockmaker. I asked him for all his broken clocks that he could no longer use. He wanted to know if I wanted to be a clockmaker or just scrap them. I told him I was interested in trying to rebuild them. The clockmaker could repair some of the broken clocks but he would make more money by making new ones.
         To pay for the clocks I worked for him. I ran across other things besides clock making that interested me. I enjoyed complicated things. But I couldn't do magic. I met with a chemist as another discipline. Chemists often made many spell components by chemicals. My parents were glad I was going to these two people. Apprenticing under the chemist meant I would be working with spell components and doing something with magic and it made my parents very happy I would be working with her. Chemist or clockmaker my parents were happy that I now had options.
         And I did do something. I saw the winding mechanism of the clock, the weak power from winding. I saw the power from chemical reactions. Both subjects interested me. I realized I could combine the two. The power of chemistry powering the clockwork.
         It took three years. I graduated high school and was working under both the chemist and clockmaker who had become like another mother and father to me. But I made what came to my mind. And without them knowing. I felt afraid they would tell me not to make it, the materials I used came from spare things I took from them telling them it was for “practice”.
         But when it was finished and I tested it several times I brought it before my family and the chemist and clockmaker.
         “Son, your surprise for us is a little elf statue?” My father asked.
I then pushed a button on the back of it. A chemical reaction fueled gears and made it walk forward at a steady, efficient rate.
         “It's a golem! You learned magic! What spell did you use to animate it?” My mother yelped with glee.
         “It's no golem. It's clockwork and chemistry. Not a single bit of magic. It's a machine. I've said that elves don't have to be creatures of magic. Do you believe me now?”
The chemist and the clockmaker smiled.

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