We were riding in Alex's car. We drove mostly in silence except for the occasional “make a right” or “pull into the left lane". Tulip was sitting in the back seat behind Alex and Brad was sitting behind me. I felt a little bad for the six foot two guy cramped behind the back seat. In all honesty, it's a pretty small car after all. 

“So, any idea on how we're gonna fight these guys because I know we have your dog but does anyone have anything like actual strategy or weapons.” Alex asked around.

“I was just planning on punching them until they stopped moving.” Brad explained showing off his muscles as he did.

“If Hachiko fails then I'll just use some of my carpentry tools as makeshift weapons. I have a couple electric ones I can use.” 

“Speaking of electricity, I'm not the most physically fit person out there but I might be able to whip up a makeshift taser or something.” Alex suggested.

“Can you make a lighting knife?” I asked excitedly.

“I can't break the laws of physics!” She snapped.

“Oh, oh maybe you could make a gun for Hachiko," Tulip joked. 

“Ha I'd pay to see that, a dog with a gun.” I chuckled. 

“I can't wait to make some cool stuff out of all this magic.” Alex said excitedly. 

“You know there's actually a couple things about magic materials in the book. I don't have it on me because it glows, but it could still be interesting to look at it.” 

“Nice, you're gonna have to let me take a look at that book once we get there.” 

“Speaking of which, it's the bright red building on your right. There should be a parking space a little further ahead.” 

“Got it," as she backed into the small little parking space that was between us and the other shop, a hair salon called “Sophia's Palace”.

As we got out of the car and headed into the store, Tulip spoke up. “Wow Ink did you and your mom make all of this stuff?” 

“Yeah, it's all hand made,” I declared with pride, puffing out my chest. 

“This looks amazing!” Alex adored in awe, stark contrast to her earlier attitude. 

“I’m always impressed every time I come here," Brad said, some of the wonder in his eyes remaining after all these years. 

“Yeah, well when we first moved to Canada carpentry was one of the few skills, we had that could easily be translated into a job. After about two years of hard work and a little bit of luck on my end we were able to get this store and have been living and working here ever since.” I said, reminiscing. 

“Well to be fair it was hard work on both of our ends, not just mine. You played a massive part in all of this.” Mom explained as she walked through the entrance to the workshop. “After all, if it wasn't for your Dragon, I wouldn't have been able to make enough money off of commissions to be able to afford this place.” 

“Wait what Dragon?” Alex asked puzzled. 

“I'm surprised Ink hasn't told any of you. When Ink was a little kid, he won an art competition and was able to get a spot in the newspaper where he mentioned how I taught him everything he knew. Ink even ended up saying the name of the old company I used to work for and people who wanted a similar level of quality, tracked me down and commissioned me to make some furniture and eventually I was able to get enough money from commission to buy this place.” Mom explained proudly while I rubbed the back of my head bashfully.

“Really? How old were you?” Tulip asked curiously. 

“Oh, he was twelve, the happiest little tùzi around.” 

“Tùzi?” Tulip asked. 

“It means bunny in Mandarin," I explained extremely embarrassed. 

“You know I still have the newspaper if you want to see it.” She offered.

“Oh, we would love to see that,” Alex said mischievously. 

“Oh my God Mom! No!” I pleaded; my face was completely beet red at this point. My words fell onto deaf ears as my mom reached under the counter pulling out a shoebox and showing various newspapers clippings of me next to sculptures holding trophies and medals. Themes included landscapes, animals, buildings. All with a high level of quality with my age ranging from anywhere from twelve- to sixteen-year-olds. After what felt like an eternity of Alex and Tulip looking at photos of me with Brad sitting down on one of the display chairs laughing his ass off. 

My mom said, “Well I don't want to keep you from your studies any longer, take whatever you need from the basement. Just please take your shoes off before you go in and put everything back where you found it.” 

“Ok thanks mom.” As I hastily ushered everyone into the basement not wanting to give my mom a chance to embarrass me further. “It's over there,” I pointing to the boxes in the corner, that held a soft glow of a multitude of different colours all meshed into a singular white point in the center of the light. 

“How can you tell?” Tulip asked.

 “Magic eyes," I said tapping the side of my head. 

“Right, I forgot about that.” Tulip said. 

“Yeah, it's very useful for this sort of thing but it's a pain in the ass when I'm around Tyrone since the book has a massive aura and can be literally blinding.” We started to unpack the boxes of the previous tenants’ belongings, which we kept in case anyone related to them ever wanted their stuff. Until after rifling through maybe a dozen or so boxes we found all the items that had a glow around them. Leaving us with five distinct objects. 

The first item that was held in maybe four different boxes was an extremely old set of knights armor that glowed blue as dark as the bottom of the sea. Tulip was able to tell it was from the sixteenth century. Alex thought the craftsmanship looks a lot more advanced even compared to today's standards. The armor was barely keeping itself together, time clearly had taken its toll on it. The chest plate was relatively untouched by rust and had a strange poem written in Latin on the inside. Using Google, I was able to translate it to:

Dearest Bramith,

I worry for your safety in the upcoming war.

And even though I am weak in body I am strong in magic and mind.

So, I write this poem to you as a wish.

A wish your mind will not be shattered by the enemy's horrors.

A wish you will come home and help me raise our child, arriving by summer's end.

A wish we will once again be able to dance on top the stars.

A wish we will once again be able to gaze into the fire where we first fell in love.

So please take this poem and this love to protect you in your fight.

“Any idea what it does, or the poem is talking about?” Alex asked. 

“Not sure. I can only tell it is magical not what it does. Although looking at it more closely, I'm not completely sure but I think this is made from something my book called spell steel.” 

“Spell Steel?” Alex questioned raising her eyebrow, it was if she was offended by the simplicity of the name.

“Yeah, apparently its a special way to enchant steel so when you forge it into something it will have the properties of magic or a spell, even if you decided to reforge it into something else.”

“Oh, good to know because I don't know how useful this-” she flicks the armor causing a small chunk to break off “-is going to be… sorry.” 

“It's fine. Sad poem though. I wonder what happened to Bramith.” 

“Who knows,” she said as we looked at the next object.

This one was even more confusing than the first one. It was a strange light brown wooden cube, ten inches by ten inches exactly. The cube glowed with a strange green light but unlike the bright green Hachiko gave off this one had a strange almost pulsing kind of energy to it. The colour was a pale green and although it is gross it could best be compared to vomit. 

“Huh I wonder what type of wood this is,” I said, usually being able to identify most cuts I came across, on sight alone. I approached it, knowing a way that I could still get some information on it. I picked up the cube which was surprisingly light and started to move it closer to my face examining it. There were no seams or anything on it and the grain of the wood flowed like a river but nothing I could see gave me more information on the abilities or origins of the cube. As I brought it closer to my face getting ready to use a somewhat strange technique, I had to at the very least identify what kind of wood it was. 

“INK, DON'T YOU DARE!” I turned my head to see Brad sitting on the ground, legs out with an expression of annoyance on his face. 

“Why were you yelling, Brad?” Tulip asked, confused. 

“He was going to try and lick the wood to try and figure out what kind of wood it was and where the tree it was made from came from.” Brad explained with a mix of cringe embarrassment and frustration.

“He can do that?” Alex asked in pure disbelief. 

“Yes, it's really weird and it makes no sense.” Brad groaned already done before it even began.

“Ink that's gross, please don't eat the cube, " Tulip pleaded.

“I'm not going to eat the cube," I exclaimed defensively. “I'm just going to lick it, it’s totally different.” 

“No, it isn't,” Alex rebuked. 

“Yeah please, the look in your eyes when you do it is just so weird.” Brad pleaded already being traumatized by years of this.

 “If you lick it, I'm gonna scream.” Alex warned, trying to dissuade me. 

“Ink, if you lick that dusty old cube, I will throw stuff at you.” Tulip threatened. 

“Ok fine but I just want to say one thing before I put it down.” I tried to persuade.

“Which is? Tulip questioned with great suspicion. 

“One lick can’t hurt" I said as I gave the strange cube a massive lick the kind that a massive dog dose, one that you can't help but look for the nearest way to wipe the slime off. 

“OH MY GOD! GROSS!” Alex screamed. 

“Damnit every time.” Brad grimaced, holding his face in his hands. 

It was always a weird talent of mine were if I lick a piece of wood, I could tell exactly what kind of wood it was and where the tree was grown. According to witnesses when I do, my eyes start to bounce all around like a bouncy ball. Apparently my eyes turn orange, I couldn't explain the science if there ever was any, but it was like instinct how I knew. “Oh, guys this is Quaking Aspen and it's from the mountain side of the Grand Canyon.” I explained with surprise and excitement. “So cool! I've never held wood from the Grand Cany–umpff” I said before I was interrupted by the chucking of several items from Tulip. “Ahh stop throwing things!” I cried out trying to dodge her assault. 

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Fine," she sighed. “But I just want to say one more thing before we look at the next item. Is that okay?”

“Yeah, sure what is i—” I tried to ask before she threw the next item at me.

It was a strange pouch of about maybe a thirty or so golden coins. On the rim of each coin was fifty or so tiny little indentations. Tulip was able to identify them as Spanish doubloons from the mid sixteen to fifteen hundreds. They would have been considered authentic, except the tail side had a strange five ringed spiral instead of the Spanish crest. These coins seemed to glow a very pale red. 

“I wonder how much these are worth, " Brad questioned, holding one up to the light. 

“We aren't here to sell them,” I barked. 

“I was just joking geez," he tried to brush off in a somewhat annoyed tone. “Let's just move on to the next one.”

It was a purple leather bound book. Funnily enough, the same shade of purple that surrounded the book in a faint glow. There was a strange embossing on the book cover which looked like a cartoon thought bubble. I could swear it moved and shifted slightly whenever I wasn't looking directly at it. The pages of the book were filled with strange designs of inventions not even Alex could make heads or tails of. On every page, there seemed to be a blank space big enough to write something in yourself. 

The fifth and final item had many answers about its origin, yet held as many questions as possible about its nature. It was a simple polaroid with a family of four: a mother, a father and two sons who looked to be twins. The picture glowed a frosty blue. It was odd as it seemed perfectly intact in every conceivable way. There were no creases or tears anywhere along it. There didn't even seem to be any dust on it not even sun bleached. 

“Hey Ink, who are the people in this?” Alex asked. 

“Oh, those were probably the previous members of the house.” I answered nonchalantly. 

“Wait, is this the murder family's stuff?" Brad wondered. 

“The MURDER FAMILY’S HOUSE!” Alex screamed. 

“Why didn't you mention this?” Tulip said, pinching the bridge of her nose. 

“Why wouldn't you mention these were dead people's things?” Alex said extremely grossed out. 

“Okay to be fair, don’t most things we own come from dead things? Dead animals for our clothes, dead trees for furniture, dead dinosaurs for plastic dinosaurs?” Alex just gave me a shocked but silent expression like she was a single dumb comment from exploding.

Tulip seeing this and notably a bit less perturbed by this revelation, stopped things from escalating by asking. “Ink do you think the deaths here are related or the fault of any of the magic items in here?” 

“To the best of my knowledge no but it isn't the best about this subject.” 

“Ok that's fine I guess, I just wanna make sure if I take one of these things home with me, I won't end get hunted down and murdered.” Tulip sighed. 

“Hey Tulip, how come you are taking the whole murder house thing so calmly? No offense, but it's just when anyone finds out Ink lives in the murder house they scream and don`t talk to Ink for a while, especially when he gives that excuse for why he sleeps in one of their beds. Usually after the initial shock they start asking people that know him if he or his mom was the one that killed them.” Brad asked, describing his own reaction to when he learned for himself.

“Well first off, my dad is a cop. So, looking, hearing and talking about murder and manslaughter isn't anything new to me. Also, I'm not an idiot. Who would immediately jump to conclusions about something I have no business sticking my nose in. Plus, there is no way Ink is capable of killing anyone.” Tulip pointed out.

“Hey, what's that supposed to mean?” I gasped.

 “Look no offense but I think everyone was and still is under the opinion that you could not hurt a fly, even if you tried.” Tulip explained with Brad and Alex trying to hold back a snicker, brad was trying harder than Alex.

“And why is that?” I asked even though I couldn't argue. Ever since we came to this country my mom told me to not get into any trouble or we could get sent back to China. I always followed those instructions to a T until around three months ago. 

“Ink I mean this in the nicest possible way but for the longest time you've looked like a depressed anorexic vampire.” Brad and Alex could no longer hold in their laughter after that. 

“Hard to see a nice way to take that, I'm gonna be honest.” 

“Ok, ok let's move on from this, we should put these boxes back, take the magic back to Alex's place.” Brad wheezed, which the rest of us quickly agreed to. As we started to put away the boxes, Alex found something. 

“Hey Ink, is this you?” I turned around to see Alex was holding an old photograph. As I approached it to get a closer look, I saw it was a photo of me and my parents. My parents were holding hands wearing traditional Chinese garments while I was sitting on my father’s shoulders holding a sprinkler. 

“Wow!” I said in surprise. “I have not seen this in a long time. Yeah, this is me. Me and my folks, this is during a Chinese New Year festival back home. Wow, this must've been six or seven years ago, back when I was still in China.” I cheered smiling bright reminiscing about the happy memories. 

“Wait, Ink you're from China? I thought you were from Canada.” Tulip asked. 

“No, me and my mom moved here six years ago for a better life.” I corrected.

“Oh, I never knew that I always thought you moved here from a different town like Hamilton or Burlington.” Alex explained. “I mean for immigrants you have pretty good English or at least your mom dose.

Well to be fair English is my mom's native language while Chinese is her secondary it's actually the reverse for me. I chuckled at the oddity of the situation, already knowing what was coming next.

“Wait how does that work?” Alex asked dumbfounded.

“Well basically the story goes that my Popo and Coung Coung escaped from China during the Cultural Revolution they immigrated to England where they had my mom. My mom met my dad in England, he was on some kind of business trip, I forget the specifics. But they met, got along like a house on fire and eventually my mom followed him to China where they had me and we eventually moved here.”

“Wait your grandparents were okay with your mom moving to China? I figured that it would be a pretty big taboo based on what I've read on the cultural revolution.” Tulip questioned hesitantly clearly trying to figure out if this was something I was okay with people asking.

“Oh no it was actually a pretty big argument and now they haven't talked to each other in years. I'm pretty sure they still think that were in China I don't think they know that we moved to Canda.” I explained. “Apparently, I have aunts and uncles but I'm not sure never knew that much about them. Which is a real shame I mean ever since we moved to Canda it's just been me and Mom.”

Hey Ink is... I don't know how to ask this but is your dad dead? Tulip asked uncomfortably.

“What! No, he just had to stay behind in China. He’s coming here permanently in a couple weeks, in fact” Why does everyone think that I asked myself.

“Wait, for real?" Brad said in surprise. 

“Yeah, I literally found out this morning and I was just as surprised as you are.” I said as I packed the last of the boxes, we intended to take with us. 

“Well, congrats, I couldn't imagine not being able to see my dad for five years," Alex said. 

“Yeah, same here I love my dad,” Tulip said, brad had a clear uncomfortable reaction to this, the topic hitting a bit too close to home, seeing this I did my best to try to steer the conversation away. 

“Well thanks guys. Oh, Alex do you want to see the wood while we're here and before I forget?” 

“Sure!” Alex enthused. 

“Tulip, Brad can you load the stuff into the car while I get Alex the wood. They nodded their heads and Alex passed her keys to tulip as we headed up the stairs to the workshop. “The piece of wood that would work best, given your description is right over there,” as I pointed over at the wood storage. 

“Wow this is a pretty impressive place Ink, so much equipment!” Alex admired leaning forward hands behind her back. 

“Do you make literally everything by hand, or do you get any pre-made parts?” 

“Nope, everything is handmade arguably it's cheaper and we have the excuse of being able to charge more.” I chuckled. 

“What's that thing?” Alex said pointing to a crudely made half finished sculpture in the corner of the room. It was a long rectangular block of wood with only the top half of it done. The top of it barely resembled a traditional Chinese house, a Siheyuan courtyard house, although it didn't look like one. They are usually a square building with a courtyard in the middle. In the unrefined center, laid barely carved out stonework was a small square of poorly detailed grass with a cherry blossom tree that only a mother could love. With branches that stretched out in every direction with no concern for proper structure and beauty. The house slowly transitioned into the top of a town house which then transitioned into untouched wood with only rough pencil sketches to give an idea on what it is supposed to look like the very building we were in. 

“That is a recreation of an old project.” I explained approaching it. 

“Oh, what's it supposed to be?”

“Well, it was supposed to be a way for me to get a scholarship at University of Guelph.” 

“A scholarship?” She asked, confused. 

“Yeah. They were hosting a once in a lifetime art competition and the winner gets a full ride. I was nearly finished my submission, but someone killed it. I am trying to remake it, but I probably won’t be able to get it done in time.” I sighed and placed my head on the monument, the memories of it coming back in all their painful detail.

“Hey, why do you do that?” Alex asked analyzing my word choice.

“Huh? Do what?”

“Talk about inanimate objects the same way that people use with people. Like I’ve heard you talk about this thing before in passing and every time you've referred to it as being killed. Like I get when you’ve literally made sentient sculptures like Hachiko but with things like that, It's kinda creepy.”

“It's kind of a sad reason, are you sure you want to hear?” I asked awkwardly secretly hoping that she would say no and leave me alone.

“Ink what part of you isn't sad? Just tell me I knew what I was getting into when I asked.” She yapped.

“Okay fine geez.” I snapped just wanting her out of my home. “I've always just been a bit lonely ever since I moved to Canada. I mean yeah, I made friends with Tyrone and the others but there was always this unspoken air about it, that I wasn't really one of them just hanging around them. It wasn't a racism thing; they except for Guams were too young to experience in a way that they could replicate. It was just that for the first couple of years, I never fully felt like part of any group. More like an outsider looking into what normal friendships look like. It always made me a bit sad, and I guess to cope I started to make my own friends. Little guys and animals who I knew liked me, who I knew without a shadow of a doubt wanted me around, to be near me because I made them. Over time I started to refer to them with words like alive or laughing, thinking, happy. It just made me feel better. And even after the feeling of being an outsider went away, the small habit that got me through my worst days didn't.”

“Wow that was sad, and creepy…How long do you have before you need to turn it in?” 

“A week and a half, funnily enough, two days after my dad is supposed to get back.” I said with a heavy sigh. “Unfortunately, as much as I would like to be working on this, I have more important things to worry about right now.” I girt my teeth yet still forcing out a smile. “What did you need the wood for anyways?” 

“Oh well a while ago, I was talking to Tulip about wanting to be able get around town even if my mom was using the car and she mentioned that there are no laws stopping me from making my own vehicle as long as I got it registered.”

“You're gonna build a car?” 

“I was thinking more of a minivan and use the wood for the floor but yeah.” 

“Hell yeah, that's awesome!” My mood, now improving significantly. “Well, it is a piece of rosewood, in case that affects anything.” 

“It shouldn’t” 

“Okay then I'll unhook it and bring it to your car. We can figure out how to get it to your place.” I said approaching the wood storage area. 

“Hey Ink, what do you do for fun?” she asked in a way that made it feel more like an interrogation then a genuine question but being too tired to care I answered truthfully.

“I mostly woodwork, draw or go on walks. I used to watch TV but not so much anymore. None of the stuff really interests me anymore.” 

Yeah, I get that. Most of the stuff on TV nowadays is just cop shows or detectives with a different mental disability.” 

“Yeah, and half the time they don’t do a good job at representing me!” I complained.

“Oh didn't realize what do you have?” She asked cautiously not wanting to offend.

“Autism.” I answered plainly.

“Nice.” she said approvingly before her eyes widened in surprise, clearly remembering something. “Say, are you dating anyone?" 

“No?” I was confused wondering why she immediately shifted from hobbies to dating. 

“Have you ever dated anyone?" she said, somewhat confused by the tone of my response.

“No never.” 

“How come?” 

“Too busy helping mom out with the business or just studying.” 

“Would you ever want to date someone?” 

“I'm not sure, I never really thought about it. But yeah, I guess I'd be open to dating a girl.” 

“Maybe I could set you up with one of my friends.” 

“Sure… Although I'm not sure who, if anyone, would be interested in dating a depressed anorexic vampire as Tulip called me.” 

“Tulip just teasing you. I know she doesn't think of you that way.” 

“Look thank you but maybe we can talk about this after all of this is over. Right now, we have a lot on our plate.” 

“Sure, sure, totally get it.” 

“Anyways, this is the piece.” I gestured to the giant plank of rosewood. 

“Wow this is perfect, Ink thank you so much.” 

“Well then let's load it up into your car and get a move on.” 

“Okay let's do it.” 

“Actually, it might be easier if you pull your car over there behind the shop and I can load it on top of the car and I can also quickly say good-bye to my mom before we go.” 

“Sounds good," as she opened the steel roller door.

I walked through the door into the store section of the building to see my mom wiping the counter clean. “Oh, hey Ink how was the basement? Did you find everything you needed?” 

“Yeah, I did. My friends and I are just going to go bring the stuff to Alex’s house to work on the project there.” 

“Sounds good, just make sure to be back before nine, okay?” She said with a smile. 

“Ok I'll make sure I will. Before I go, I found someone to take Rosy.” 

“Really who?" she said with surprise. 

“Alex apparently wants to make a car out of it.” 

“A car?” she asked, perplexed. 

“Yeah, I know, pretty cool. I'm just happy we're finally getting rid of the thing.” 

“That's true, yeah you never mentioned Alex was a girl. Is there something about the two of you, you're not telling me?” 

“No mom and this is the exact reason I didn't tell you because I knew you would have this reaction.” 

“Fine, fine. A mother can dream! Well now don't let me keep you from having some fun," she said. 

“Ok well, I'm just gonna get some things from my room and then I'll be on my way.” as I headed up the stairs. Quickly grabbing Hachiko the book, I headed downstairs and to the car where Brad and Alex were finishing securing the wood. I hopped into the car ready to head to Alex's place.