Teaching (Locke)

[Ϛ The Inventor]

The Inventor was nowhere to be seen.

You might think this odd, considering this is, by all appearances, a story involving The Inventor, but you would only be half-right in assuming this, or maybe three-quarters right, because this story also involves a boy named Locke, a note, and a tree, and The Inventor himself won't be showing up until a little later in the tale.

If you're confused, I will elaborate. If not, congratulations, you can simply not read this, and can skip right to Locke's part when it shows up. I promise I won't be offended. Now, for the rest of us, some background.

A note was on Locke's bed the night previous, a note with a seal in the shape of a yellowish-green Ti encircled by a greenish-yellow line. This is only of importance if you recognize the seal of The Inventor, which Locke surely did, considering he was the man's apprentice.

The note read as follows, "Hey Locke! If this isn't Locke, you should probably not be reading this, and I will probably hunt you down if you are, so leaving might be a good idea!" There is a disconcerting doodle of a smiley face here, and then the note goes on. "You may be pleased to hear, I've finally moved the Workshop from England! It took awhile, but you'd be surprised at the amount of work moving a dimensionally unstable building across the world entails! If you're still interested in apprenticing, you should meet me by the willow tree at the edge of the forest after class tomorrow, and we can get started right away. If not, just throw this note out and I'll get the message. "Peace, homie!", or however it is Americans say good-bye. I'll see you tomorrow! (Or not!)"

And thus the focus of our story shifts from the note to the willow tree, which was patiently awaiting the arrival of Locke because I said it was and I'm the narrator. If you think trees don't wait, then you can go soak your head. They clearly aren't doing much else.

[Locke F. Herald]

Now, for a boy who knows everything...

Yes that is right, everything. For such a boy there are few things that could make him run. Not a new book, not a new piece of information, and certainly not for a being that broke and rewrote all the rules of reality like he was playing with little baubles.. It was a good thing Locke didn't know everything then, since he was indeed running straight out of his last class faster then any other student, which was odd in an of itself. He'd made it to the gates and threw them open as fast as he could, running full tilt towards the forest. He arrived by the Willow tree, slightly out of breath. But there was nobody there...?

Was it possible the note was a forgery? No way, nobody wrote or spoke just like him, nobody knew the secrets of his workshop, nobody would make blatant threats to an unknown reader through a piece of paper and make them seem real.

Nobody except The Inventor. So the only question remained, where was he watching him from?

[Ϛ The Inventor]

"I'm watching you from up here," The Inventor merrily called out from high in the willow tree. The branches were bare and a little snowy, but he was wearing a subdued grey, white, and brownish ensemble, and he blended in perfectly with the boughs of the tree. "And before you ask, no, I didn't read your mind. You're just so inquisitive it makes you downright easy to predict sometimes."

The Inventor pushed off of the branch he was sitting on and began a long fall to the ground. However, he seemed to decide part of the way to the ground that he didn't want to fall from such a height, and he disappeared with a small puff of smoke around fifteen feet from the ground, reappearing directly in front of Locke.

"Sorry about being all cautious on you. I think I'm being watched. Well, I know I was being watched, but I got rid of a couple of them awhile ago. They're harmless, really, these 'Agents', but I don't really like being followed, you know? Luckily, one of them wished the pair of them could be off watching football instead of 'following some weird guy around'."

He flashed Locke a knowing smile. He treated the whole thing very nonchalantly, but he was relieved, deep down, that the Agents had made getting rid of themselves so easy. He would really rather have not had to resort to more physical methods of pest removal; then the Academy would just have more people follow him around, and that was the last thing he wanted.

"They're not following you, are they?" he asked, suddenly grabbing Locke by the shoulders and looking over the short boy's head, as if to check if there was anyone behind him. "Well, no matter. We're out of here anyway. Do you need anything before we go?"

[Locke F. Herald]

At the sudden voice above him Locke jumped back, and looked up in time to see the Inventor jumping out of a tree. He then wound up in front of him, and Locke grinned.

"Normally I'd be surprised that someone can read me that well, but I've learned to stow the amazement when you're around, it saves a lot of time." He said. "Followed? I guess you haven't been too inconspicuous lately if the Agents found you important enough to follow. But no, I don't think I've been followed." In truth he hadn't been looking. "You still like playing the 'careful what you wish for' game with people I see." He quipped.

He then looked about the surroundings. No, there was nothing he needed here right now. Now it was time to learn.

"I'm ready to go when you are, it's been too long since the last lesson." He then stopped to think. "I'd ask if you were serious about moving an entire building through the fabric of space and time, and a building that doesn't conform to the rules of space and time at that, but I'm pretty sure you explaining it would just confuse me so let's get going then."

[Ϛ The Inventor]

The Inventor simply gave Locke a distracted smile in response to his first comment, since he was busy, at the time, looking for tails. These being of the separate-following-entity sort, not the furry sort that Locke always had, of course. It was a smile that said, "Oh yes, that's nice," and meant, "I'm not really listening but I'll try and be polite anyway for the heck of it."

But apparently he had been paying some attention, because when he was satisfied that there was no one in the vicinity he said, "Inconspicuous? Of course I've been inconspicuous! Aren't I always?" He sounded completely serious, as if he'd never done anything out of the ordinary in his life, which makes sense because to him, what could be more ordinary than what he did every day? But the question proved to be rhetorical when he went on without waiting for an answer.

"They follow anyone who comes on the grounds, generally. They're very hush-hush about it most of the time, but you learn a lot of things like how to tell when you're being followed when you live forever. I doubt they know what I am though, or they'd be all over me like flies on asparagus."

He took one more glance around and patted down his brown jacket as if looking for something in the pockets before slipping it off, revealing a pristine white dress shirt beneath. Then he pulled the jacket inside out and slipped it back on. At first it would look like he was now wearing an inside-out jacket, but as soon as anyone beholding him did so much as blink or look away for a picosecond, their gaze would, upon returning, fall upon The Inventor wearing his usual work clothes instead.

Satisfied both he and Locke were ready, he did a cursory shakedown of himself, as if to be sure nothing was loose and falling from his pockets, and then he proceeded to answer to Locke's last few comments in a decidedly rushed manner while pulling on a pair of gloves.

"'Be careful what you wish for' isn't a game, it has indeed been too long, and aren't I always serious?"

At the last comment he smiled, a glove still in his mouth, and, after quickly sliding it on, abruptly grabbed Locke lightly but firmly by the arm.

"And we're off!"

One puff of smoke later, the pair was gone, leaving the willow alone again.