Challenge

"He's back again… Look at him the weirdo writing all over the windows…" Harnio turned and looked around the students surrounding him. He sighed and lowered his head. "Wwwhat is it nnnow?"

"Hahaha. You already know the answer weirdo… We told you don't come here. Go back to whatever weird place you came from…"

"Hahahaha… Weirdo doesn't seem to understand us. We must beat it in him." Harnio was pushed against the wall and felt blows to his stomach and face. He looked at the window with tears in his eyes.

"Ddddon'ttt touch ittt. Ittt'ssimmporrtannttt…"

"No it's not… It's garbage. It's dirtying up the view. Get rid of it."

"Noooooooo!" Harnio struggled against the students holding him as another student wiped his writing on the walls.

"Good it's clean now. Look weirdo you don't belong here. You're not good enough to be in the tower, we're the elite, and we belong here… If we see you again in the library we'll be breaking your arms and legs. Let's go and clean ourselves."

"Hahahaha. See you weirdo. Let's see you do your duties now. The senior tower professors will choose us since their eyes will be opened to your weirdness. There's no way you'll be selected even as a professor…"

He crouched on the ground holding his stomach as tears fell. "Not strong enough… Need to be stronger."

He stood up and stared at the window that was wiped and sighed. He picked up the parchments and books that fell on the floor. "At least they didn't damage you this time."

He patted the book and limped towards the exit.

"Harnio… I was just told… Are you okay?"

Harnio wiped his face with his sleeve to hide tears and kept his head down.

"Professor Eiken, I'm okay. This time they didn't hurt my friends… Just wiped out my research."

"Come to my office… We can talk there. It seems there are many ears here."

"Yes professor…" He could feel fresh tears forming and followed Eiken slowly not listening to what he was saying.

"Harnio… Are you listening to me?"

He walked into Eiken and looked around shaking his head. He bent down to pick up his book. "Sorry professor… Just thinking…"

"Harnio… don't let the words of others control your thoughts. Come we're almost there…"

Harnio looked up and stared at Eiken's back. "Why is he trying to help me? What does he want from all this?"

"Here we're… Come inside Harnio. We can talk in here."

Harnio nodded and followed Eiken into his office and sat in the chair in front of Eiken's desk and stared at the book.

"Harnio… It's safe here to talk… Are you okay?"

Harnio stood up and put the book on the chair taking a deep breath and turned around and pushed all the items and parchments he could off Eiken's desk.

"AAAAAARRRRGHH!"

He cursed and paced around the room throwing any object and battery he could. He stopped pacing and stared at the books in the bookshelf. "Not you. You are too important to be thrown."

Harnio picked up the batterys he threw on the ground and threw them against the wall.

"ARRRRRRGHH!"

"Have you finished now? Please relax and breath apprentice. Use the pipe."

Harnio pulled out the pipe that was given to him and looked at Eiken's desk. "Why? Why are you wanting to help me? Why don't you just throw me out since everyone else wants me gone…"

He cursed and threw the pipe at Eiken's desk. "Here's your pipe… Take it and kick me out. I can spend my time outside the tower. I don't need this place!"

"Calm down… Harnio calm down and breathe… Think things through."

"Think what through! I've been left on my own. People here call me weirdo. Professors treat me as some book with all the answers in it. That's not what I came here for."

"Harnio! Relax! Why are you here? What's the reason that made you want to do the test and enter the tower… Not just enter but pass the test as an artificer."

Harnio looked at the desk and took a deep breath. "I came to learn and read the books… Learn about Athlos, learn about the batterys and how they work. Now every time I take a step in this place people call me weirdo and then threaten to break my arms and legs if I go to the library."

Harnio hit Eiken's desk with his fist, then looked at his fist and cursed letting tears fall.

"Harnio… if you wanted help from me, you'd have told me about this sooner. To me it seems you wanted to solve this yourself. Am I right or wrong?"

Harnio looked at his feet and nodded. "Yes… You are right. I wanted to become stronger. Yet… I haven't become stronger… I am still weak... Here see, look for yourself." He emptied his pockets and placed the batterys and glass gems on Eiken's desk.

��Harnio… what are these?"

"The battery is like your battery, can create clouds… the glass gems can be attached to armor and can change the properties of the armor based on what the wearer wants…"

Harnio shook his head. "Each time I go to learn about the language of the ancients more in the library. I get beaten… This is the best I can do with the knowledge I know."

He looked up at the items and watched as Eiken's hand touched the glass gems with a shaking hand. "Harnio… Do you know what you have done?"

Harnio nodded. "Yes. I created a way for essence to be implanted into an object… This I can do in my sleep."

"You… can…ddddoo. This in your sleeppp?"

"Yes… I worked out the patterns are actually part of a language… but I can't learn more of the language since I need to be in the library…"

"Hey Harnio… I'm wondering could these language fragments be placed on a parchment?"

Harnio looked up and stared at the bookshelf. His eyes opened wide. "Yes… Which would mean I can protect my friends and be stronger."

Harnio smiled picked up his book and walked to the door. "I must go professor… I need to do some calculating."

"Apprentice… Next time come to me before things turn bad, and maybe you'll have a solution without throwing things around…"

Harnio nodded. "Thank you professor… I must go"

Harnio walked along the hallway and into an empty classroom. "I must write this down and work it out before I get distracted." He picked up a piece of chalk and started writing on the board.

He looked at his hand and smiled. "It's happening again…" He blinked and all the sounds around him faded away. Time seemed to slow down as he focused on the board.

"Need another board…" He walked to another board and kept writing.

He took a step back and looked at a desk. "Hmm, bread. I'm hungry…" He picked it up, while staring at the board and kept writing.

Harnio took a step back and smiled. "I… did it… I DID IT!"

He turned around and felt his face turn red and looked down at his feet. "Sssorry… I thought this was an empty classroooommm."

He picked up his bag and turned to leave. "Student wait… I have some questions about your discovery."

He looked at the door and sighed turning back to the full classroom of professors and students. He looked around the classroom. "All the information is on there. This proves that the patterns we see on the batterys that we've been copying for all these years are a language…"

"Student… All this time we thought they are a circuit for the energy to pass through, but with this here… You've proving all our theories wrong… How did you come to this realization?"

Harnio scratched his arms and shook his head. "Not trying to prove any theories wrong… I haven't even had a chance to read them. It's about observing, and this is my conclusion as an artificer…"

He turned to leave. "Harnio wait…"

He sighed as he heard Eiken's voice. "Yes professor?"

"You've been in here for the past three days working on this. Go back and get some rest. If there are questions from the professors and students, they will give them to me, and I'll pass them to you."

"Yes professor…"

He picked up his bag and rushed out of the classroom which was buzzing with activity and made his way out of the tower and smiled as he walked into the smith.

"Finally… I can be stronger…" He fell on the cot in the back of the smith and instantly closed his eyes falling asleep.

Harnio opened his eyes and sat up on the cot. He looked around him. "Best sleep I've had in a long time." He stood up and stretched smiling.

"Ting… Ting… Ting… Ting…"

"Blacksmith must be working on something." He walked out of the back room and stood watching the blacksmith hammering on something.

"Since he's working hard. I too must work hard. I need to test to see if the parchment idea can work…"

He sat at the design table and started mumbling to himself as he stared at the paper.

"Cough… Cough… Harnio how long are you going to stare for?"

Harnio blinked and looked around glancing at the blacksmith wiping sweat from his face. He scratched his arms. "How long was I staring at it for?"

"You've been like that for half the day… What are you thinking about?"

Harnio looked down at the table lost in thought. "To me it seemed like it was a few minutes. I've been thinking about the language of the ancients."

"You mean the patterns on the batterys and the bow we've made?"

Harnio nodded. "I've been thinking what would happen if these patterns as you call them were on a piece of parchment coated in the nature essence…" He looked up at the ceiling and shook his head. "That wouldn't work because the energy required would set the parchment on fire…"

He put his head in his hands and sat in silence.

"Hahahaha… This is why we're a good team. I know what you should do. Why would you coat the paper in the essence, when you can see by the bow we made and the glass gems…"

Harnio turned and looked at the anvil that the blacksmith was leaning on. His face smiled. "I see what you mean… The parchment would not work, but the tools used to write the language will work…"

"I knew you're a smart kid, all you need to do is design the tool for writing and I'll make it… Ohh. I have something here for you as well."

Harnio watched in silence as the blacksmith placed a pouch on the table. "This is your share from the glass gems. I know you didn't do any of this for gold… But blast it. It's yours…"

Harnio looked at the pouch and nodded. "Thank you blacksmith… You've helped me so much I don't know how I can repay you…"

"Hahahahaha… Kid your funny. You're the one who's helped me, not the other way around. My life as a blacksmith was going downhill. I was almost at a point to try salvaging up on top before you arrived."

Harnio felt his face turn red and tears forming. He wiped his face with the sleeve and looked up taking a deep breath.

"Blacksmith… You're a person I can really call a friend…"

"Kid… If you call me a friend I'll hit you over the head… Call me your older brother. We're family… Don't you forget that when you're famous all over Athlos…"

Harnio smiled. "I've never had an older brother before… Okay blacksmith I'll call you older brother…"

"Happy to hear it. Now as you design the writing tools, don't give it a weird name like you usually do…"

Harnio shook his head and sighed. "What's wrong with my names? I call them exactly what they do…"

"Hahahahaha… You've got a brain little brother… But you don't understand people. That's where I come in. You do the thinking, and I'll deal with the rest. Now you need to get to work on the tools…"