Chapter Five
The Firestorm Arises

After several weeks of the strange rushing of customers, Alex and Moon decides to rearrange the shop. Alex wakes up in the upstairs bed with Moon on his side. He moves her gently and gets up, stretching, leaning back and cracking his back. “Oof, that hurt.” Alex walks downstairs and starts on the morning shop chores, removing old materials and placing them in the scarp bin. As he begins sweeping, Moon comes downstairs in her nightgown, stretching and rubbing her eyes. “Morning furnace boy. I only woke up because I got cold.”

Alex chuckles. “I get hot when I sleep. I’m surprised you haven been burned yet.” Moon walks over to him and makes him bend down to kiss her. “I’ve worked in a forge since I was three years old, if molten steel doesn’t burn me anymore, then you sure as hell don’t.” Alex laughs and hugs her. “Yeah you’re a forge master but you put me in charge of forging.” She smiles and strokes his chin with one finger. “You have a natural talent I’ve never seen before.”

Alex kisses her forehead “Well let me finish and get dressed, we’ve got a bit of work to do today, then I’ll take you out for a meal tonight” Moon laughs “Look who’s giving orders” Moon goes upstairs to change as Alex finishes up in the shop and comes up front to find Moon already working. They start rearranging the shop, Alex moves the shelves and Moon moves the weapons. She arranges them on the shelves by weapon type and size. In the center of the shop alex sets up a round display and they put the cheap weapons in it. Alex laughs at his ‘bargain bin’ idea, sparking Moon to laugh as well.

As they are laughing Alex turns and looks at the window display and sees the carbon steel knife with the gold dragon on the blade sitting on a dusty crimson silk pillow. He carefully puts the dagger into it’s leather holster and gives it to Moon to hold as he dusts the pillow and fluffs it, then he puts the blade back on display and uses a soft brush to dust off the knife. When he looks up, he is looking into his father’s eyes. Alex Realises that his father has been looking through the window as the knife while he was taking care of it.

Alex stands back and leans on the bargain case as his father enters the shop. Alex notices that his father is carrying a message rolled and wrapped like a scroll. Cartolous walks over to Moon and gives her the scroll. “The knife in the window is my son’s design, as well as many of the other weapons in here.” He starts to look around quietly as Moon reads the message. “Wait you’re evicting me? But I paid this month” Cartolous bends over to look in the bargain case with his hands behind his back. “Yes, that notice is for the end of the month.” Alex starts to get angry. “You rent from my father? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Moon tosses the message on the counter and puts her face into her hands. Alex pushes his father away from the display case. “I don’t know what you’re doing here, but I want to know why you’re evicting us.” Cartolous remains stoik as always. “You two have been providing weapons to everyone, there is a rebellion growing in my city and I will do anything to keep the peace. As another problem, you need to come home.” Alex takes a step closer and gets into his father’s face. “I refuse to live with someone who treats my woman the way you do, or who commands me to live as you want me to.” Cartolous gives an easy push to get Alex out of his face. “I didn’t think you would. As a bit of compensation I would like to purchase all of your inventory including all forge equipment.”

Alex grabs the carbon steel knife from it’s pillow. “I refuse to sell anything to you.” Moon looks up with tears on her cheeks. “Alex, we have to. How else will we be prepared to move?” Alex becomes furious and puts his fist through a cabinet full of daggers, shattering the glass and knocking down all the daggers. After a few seconds he takes a deep breath and regains his composure. “The price for you is ten million.” Moon looks up confused at the ridiculous number. “Alex, you know the whole building isn’t worth that much.” Alex looks directly at his father. “I know that.” Cartolous  Looks between the two. “Ten million is your price then? Alexander I expect you to use it well. Invest in something and have a nice life” Cartolous leaves the shop and a few moments later Cartolous enters with two of his servants carrying a massive chest, one of them being Alex’s friend.

The servant looks at Alex who has a confused face “Sorry bro, he threatened me…” Alex shakes his head and looks at his father. “What are they here for?” Cartolous snaps his fingers and the servants put the massive chest on the floor and open it. Inside is nothing but gold, stacked neatly filling the chest completely to where it barely closed properly. Cartolous looks to Alex and Moon who were both standing in front of the counter. “Your mother and my wife saw this in her visions, she knew you would ask for ten million, so I came prepared. Alexander you must understand I am not against you.”

Alex puts the carbon steel knife into its Holster and attaches it to his belt. “It’s all yours, Moon start packing, we’re leaving today. I’m not staying in this city.” Cartolous looks at the knife. “It would be nice if I could take that as well. You’ve made a perfect piece of art. I would give it to your mother.” Alex puts his hand over the knife “This is mine, you have an entire shop full of nice weapons to give to mother.” Cartolous extends a hand “Very well, it was nice to do business with you, Alexander.” Alex pushes his hand away. “If all I am is a business to you, I have no reason to stay. Now please take your things and leave.” 

Alex goes upstairs and starts packing while the servants start moving things from the shop to the wagon waiting outside. Moon leaves the store to find some sort of way to move. While walking through town expecting to find a wagon and horses, she is stopped by the sudden sound of popping, accompanied rumble. She looks over to see a wagon with some sort of machine on the front, the wagon looked unusual, it was lower to the ground than usual. She walks closer and notices the wheels are different, a steel disk with a rubber outside lining. She walks up to the man working on it. The man wears a top hat with goggles on the base, his tunic was high quality leather and silk, he wears straps connected to his pants, they seem like they should be over his shoulders, but he lets them hang. 

His outfit is decorated with copper and brass. As moon is walking up, the rumbling machine lets out a puff of steam and the man lets out a shout of aggravation as the machine sputters and shuts off. “Damn you, jagrivate!” He hammers on it a couple times and starts it again. “That’s more like it. Hey you there, come here I need some help.” Moon hurries over to him. “Are you okay?” The man looks at her and nods, moon notices his glasses with different magnifications connected over the front of the lenses, he has a few of them flipped out. “What do I need to help with?” The man points with one hand at his toolbox. “Hand me that tool with a plus sign on the end of it” Moon leans over and picks up the tool. “What is this?”

The man tightens a screw and the engine stops popping and the sound evens out into a low rumble. “The machine is what I like to call an auto-wagon. It doesn’t need horses.” Moon is surprised and looks at him in disbelief. “A horseless wagon?” The man jump into the seat and holds what looks like a wagon wheel on a stick. “Want to come with me for a test?” Moon smiles and jumps onto the seat beside him. “If it goes somewhere, take me to the forge, I want my boyfriend to see it. The man nods and pushes a lever, the whole wagon lurches forward and the machine turns off. “I must find a way to fix that.” He starts it again from his seat and the machine starts to pull the wagon forward. The ride is smoother than a regular wagon ride, she is surprised and smiles as people stare at the strange wagon while it passes.

The wagon rolls to a stop in front of the shop and the man pulls the lever back, the wagon lurches forward and dies again. “I’ve got it, it needs another lever to neutralize the gear transfer unit temporarily. I could make that in about three minutes and I have enough tools in the wagon to do it… Say, are you moving? There is a lot of boxes out front.” Moon looks at the servants putting the crates onto the other wagon and nods. “Yeah we just found out today, it was kind of sudden. Come inside when you’re done working on this thing, and I’ll tip you for the ride.” The man nods and jumps down, working quickly as Moon walks inside to a mostly empty shop, all except for the chest of money and Alex sitting on it with his duffle bag.

Moon goes behind the counter and gets some money from the drawer “We’ll need to tip the driver of the wagon.” Alex looks outside and looks confused. “That thing doesn’t have horses, how does it move?” Moon smiles and walks to the front door “Come and see.” Alex leaves his duffle bag and walks outside with her as the man with the hat pulls a cable up and connects it to a new lever, then pushes his magnifying lenses out of the way of his normal lenses. “I think I got it. Didn’t even take as long as I thought. Come! Let us drive around the block!” Alex jumps on followed by Moon. “what the hell is this thing and how did a human build it.” The man jumps into the driver seat. “This human has a name, you know. Jack Ramsey at your service! And I call this thing an auto-wagon. I plan on making more and improving the design” He starts the machine and pushes the new lever forward, then pulls the other lever back, then pulls the new lever black and the machine smoothly starts to pull the wagon.

Alex watches the machine attached to the front and starts to get a vision, he sees the inside and how it works, he watches as fuel is dripped into the chamber and ignited by a spark and making the bottom push down and come back up, but only igniting the fuel every second stroke. He snaps out of it when Moon puts a hand on his lap. “Are you okay?” Alex looks at Jack. “Is this thing for sale.” Jack keeps his eyes forward to watch where he is going. “Yes but it is expensive, fifty thousand gold, enough to build two more.” Alex grins “How about one hundred thousand and you build four more?” Jack presses a foot lever and the wagon slows quickly, then he pulls a hand lever by the seat and the wagon’s wheels stop turning, sliding the wagon to a stop in front of an old lady doing her best to cross the street. “You sir, are a generous man. If you’re going to buy it, you should learn how to drive it. Over here.” Jack gets into the back while Alex scoots over, then Jack plops down in the middle. “Release the hand brake on the other side, then push the blue lever forward, then I’ll tell you how to start it..” Jack reaches over and pulls a black lever, making the engine shut off.

Jack points at the black lever “This is your ignition, that toggle under the turning wheel is what I call a suffocator, pull that out. Now push the black lever forward.” As it starts, Alex laughs and Jack chuckles. “Good job, how push the red lever forward and pull back the blue lever. Now pull back the red lever and push that tall pedal at your feet. I said the tall pedal not the wide one, the wide one is for non-emergency stopping.” Alex pushes the pedal all the way down and the wagon moves forward quickly. Jack holds his hat as he is pushed against the seat “Be careful with that throttle, the Auto wagon pulls as fifty horses would.”

Alex slows down a little as he figures out the controls quickly. “This is so fun, You may have yourself a regular customer if you make better ones” Jack laughs and puts his hands behind his head. “That is the plan my friend. Basic design is always first, then I rebuild and improve.” As they stop in front of the forge