Most of March 8th was uneventful and boring. I finished up on some more schoolwork, this time tackling English and Geography. I also helped out in the workshop, creating some new tables and chairs for the “Twirled Spaghetti.” A fancy new Italian restaurant opening downtown. It is considered a very high-class establishment. Mom told me that the owner was a famous head chef from Toronto, with a couple Michelin stars to boot.
The work wasn't easy since my hand was still maimed from the fire. But by the end of the day, we were able to finish the furniture to a point where all that was left was to add a couple coats of varnish and deliver it to the restaurant. We finally finished around six o'clock in the evening and although tempted to work on the sculpture, I promised Mom not to. I headed upstairs not knowing what else to do with my day.
As I was walking up the stairs Mom stopped me. “Hey Ink, what do you plan to do for the rest of the day?”
“Well, I figured I could probably watch something on YouTube for a couple of hours, maybe listen to a D&D podcast or something. I'm pretty much done with my homework, so I don't have much else to do today maybe I'll go to sleep not much else to do.”
“I know you used your sculpture day yesterday and I know how you do like to keep yourself preoccupied so I went around rooting in the basement and I found something fun you could work on," she suggested, presenting a small book. The book itself was a colourful child's book on how to carve animals. I took the book, flipping through it revealed some simple drawings and instructions, although looking back I'm pretty sure some of the words were in Latin.
“Um sure, I'll take a look at it soon," I told her half-heartedly as I headed up the stairs but as I tried, I was stopped as she grabbed my wrist tight.
“Look Ink. I know it isn't what you wanted to do but at least try it. It'll be like those little figurines you used to make when you were little,” she pleaded desperately with a smile even I could tell was pained.
“Okay Mom," I conceded turning around and headed down the stairs and into the workshop. “I'll give it a shot.”
“And before you get started, please make sure to go to bed at a reasonable time tonight,” she pleaded.
“I'll try Mom,” I assured her, as I headed through the metal door.
I walked over to the wood storage and grabbed a plank of pinewood. Figuring since it's probably some new technique I would be trying, it would be best to start with a simple, soft wood, I could work on quickly. I put the plank on a table and put on safety goggles and an apron while looking at the instructions of the book. There were a lot of options for things like lions, snakes and even dragons. For some reason, and although all the animals were interesting, I decided to start small with a dog.
There were no images for specific dog breeds or anything but instead the book instructed me to carve the general shape, suggesting choosing a breed yourself to detail the wood into. There were a couple tips and specific instructions like “be sure to carve the word Cordis into the mouth or somewhere hard to find.” Usually, I would just ignore weird nonsensical directions. But being both tired from working all day and woozy from my hand, I decided against my better judgment and followed the odd instructions. Choosing a small Japanese Akita as my breed of choice.
I figured since the shape was fairly simple, it wouldn't require me to spend a crazy amount of time on it, allowing me to keep my promise to Mom. I pulled up a good reference image on my phone and propped it up on the table and got to work. I started by sketching the outline of the dog making sure to give it pointy ears, a big puffy face and four skinny legs. After finishing the sketch, I grabbed my carving knife and started to whittle the wood down until it got to the rough shape.
The next step I followed was probably the weirdest step. I had to carve these strange words and phrases all around the body. The head had to have “Caput”, the legs had to have “Pes” and on the spine of the animal I was instructed to carve a word to represent its nature. I had a choice between three natures Bellator, Sanitas and the one I choose the funniest word, Scutum. I finished by carving Surge Deadwood on its belly.
I was puzzled by the next step which was to give your very soul to your work. Which I interpreted as doing a good job completing the carving. So, I started to shape it all with my knife, adding more and more details like groves in between his toes and small indents in his ears. As I whittled into the carving’s face to make it something recognizable, as I did my mind started to wander as I thought about the history of the knife I held.
It was a small carving knife that could be disguised as a wooden pole no bigger than a simple ballpoint pen, so when you took off the cap it would reveal a blade. I always liked it because the pattern on the grain reminded me of swimming in the ocean, the riptide which was odd considering I can't swim. Mom gave it to me a couple months after coming to Canada. She was always worried about me getting mugged or kidnapped and wanted me to have a way to def… "OW!" I yelled.
I lost control of the knife causing it to fly into my hand, making blood spill onto everything the table, the book, the dog. I quickly ran to the first aid kit. My hand leaving to a trail of blood behind me. Quickly drowning the cut with disinfectant and tightly wrapped it with fresh bandages. I. My hand was still bleeding, but the blood would be contained by the new bandages with the continued pressure. When I looked back at my carving, I saw large amounts of blood on the floor and the table.
“Crap," I muttered to myself, as I went to get cleaner and a rag. “Oh no no no no no, please tell me none of it got on my Sculpture.” I panicked looking at the corner of the room to see that my magnum opus wasn't hurt. “Oh, thank goodness” letting out a sigh of relief, as I finished cleaning the floor. I moved on to the rest of the mess, I started to wipe down the table but as I did I noticed something. There was no blood on the dog itself, but there was blood all around it, even contouring the paws, yet it looked like it never connected with the sculpture, forming a bloody outline.
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“What how is there no blood on it?” I wondered as I absentmindedly grabbed the dog with my bandaged hand and moved him aside towards where the book was so I could clean the table. “Damn it,” Realizing my mistake I turned to where I had placed the dog, only to see my bloody handprint slowly fading into the sculpture. It looked as if it was being absorbed into the wood. “What the hell?" I approached the figurine, wanting to get a better look. By now the blood had completely disappeared. I placed one hand on the book and one on the table to help balance myself as I leaned closer at the disappearing blood. I looked at what appeared to be the exact same carving it was before I cut my hand, not a drop of blood anywhere on it. “How is this even possible?” I know I bled on the sculpture but why is there no blood? I took a step back confused and wanted to sit down. But as I was backing up, I caught something in the corner of my eye. The Book had completely changed, from simple white paper with black ink in Times New Roman font to old yellowed pages, handwritten in what I hope was red ink.
I picked up the book with both hands only to immediately feel a sharp pain in my left forcing me to drop it. As the book fell to the table, a stream of blood flowed out of my left hand directly down onto the book below. Causing more words to appear as if being fed by the blood. The pages flipped to the next, whenever the previous had its fill. Moving my hand caused the way the blood flowed to change, from a waterfall flowing directly into the book, to a small river the slithered downstream.
I froze with a mix of fear and astonishment at the crimson line. Watching the flow of the scarlet pour into the book which now had more than half of its contents filled with new words and diagrams the likes of which I could not conceive of. As it did a thought occurred to me, it didn't make sense that I could produce this much blood and still feel fine, I was either dreaming or there was something else happening. After what felt like an eternity, the book closed and my hand produced maybe sixty or so final drops of blood, that gently floated down onto the front of the book, each one stretching and contorting into a different letter, spelling out the words.
“A Guide to Golems and Magical Materials by Alejandro Marino The Craftsman."
When the bleeding had fully stopped as I just stood there dumb founded by the sight before me. Eventually, I snapped out of my trance and opened the book. Which now appeared as a simple brown leather book with a few tears and rips. Which revealed glimpses of a pulsating glistening emerald green underneath. The book itself was illuminated by a purple, yellow and green glow all emanating from its center. Skipping past the dedication and index pages, the introduction read.
Hello, I’m glad someone well versed in the art of Green Light has managed to crack the code of the book. Clearly you know that like any good Craftsman does with his work, that you must give your blood, sweat and tears into your work, especially your blood. This book contains all my knowledge and studies of inanimate animation or the creation of golems in layman's terms. As well as the properties of magical materials such as Draining Diorite, Spell Steel and Mana Mahogany. So go forth my fellow craftsmen learn from my studies and create wonders. I’m sure if you knew enough to bleed you know enough of the threats and dangers around you so I will not bother going into them here so good luck. Hopefully you use your light to shine purer than the ones who move against the world.
As I continued to read the book, I learned of the various symbols I could carve into the sculpture or golem as the book calls it, numerous abilities. Qualities such as seeing through the carving’s eyes, being able to shrink, explode, unleash a sonic scream, or even able to teleport to me not to mention a dozen other abilities.
I took a seat on a stool and started to soak it all in. It was insane, there was no way that magic could be real. And even if it was why would instructions on how to use it be hidden away in a children's workbook, one that you have to bleed on to even unlock. It didn’t make any sense. It couldn't be real it, it had to be a dream or a hallucination or something, anything that could mean that what I was seeing wasn't real. That’s right it has to be a dream. I remember in that moment forcing myself to believe that this entire situation was a dream, and anything that happened after was just part of the dream.
Figuring this was just some kind of weird dream, I decided to carve three phrases into the golem. One to make it bigger or smaller, a second to form a disguise to make it look like a normal dog, and the third to allow myself to see and hear whatever the golem hears for a short duration of time.
After finishing carving the last of the runes, I looked towards the book again to figure out the next step which was to “Bleed your very soul into your work. Give it your all and do not stop until it’s had its fill. Speak the words “accipe sanguinem meum et cresce tua” again and again until its eyes flash bright with magical light.” Figuring since I've already gone this far, and I was still dreaming. I took a step back grabbed the book with one hand, and placed my other on the akita.
I started to chant the words. “Accipe sanguinem meum et cresce tua.” The surrounding sawdust and wood chips started to float and move towards the statue.
“Accipe sanguinem meum et cresce tua.” The sawdust started form several overlapping rings of wood that spun around in different directions.
“Accipe sanguinem meum et cresce tua.” The circles spinned faster and faster, forming a cyclone of wooden fury.
“Accipe sanguinem meum et cresce tua.” The cyclone started to recede inwards, creating a thick fur like layer of sawdust around the statue. The runes began to light up with a neon green.
“ACCIPE SANGUINEM MEUM ET CRESCE TUA!” The dog's eyes glowed bright and the runes even brighter, until the green started to cover and consume the entire dog. When it did the dog exploded outwards into a wave of green light causing my vision to go dark. When my eyes readjusted to the light, I saw what looked like a small Japanese Akita, emitting a green hue, sitting on the table, patiently looking at me wagging its tail. He was barely half a foot tall and double the length. I reached out my hand to which it met it by nestling its head.
“Huh, I guess you're just a normal dog, aren't you, I mean minus the glow of course?”
“BORK!”
“Hey hey quiet, we don't want to wake up mom, do we little guy?” I cautioned, filled with a strange joy from the absurdity of the whole situation, and at the time I still half believed that this whole experience was just a crazy dream I asked. “What's your name… Well, I guess that's up to me actually.” I pondered the question, thinking about what kind of name would be a good fit, I decided to name it after other famous dogs with one story of another akita instantly coming to mind.
The story of the dog was a simple but sad one. The dog was walking with his master to the train station where it agreed to wait for him to return from the train. But its master had died before ever returning. The dog waited by the train tracks everyday until its death waiting for his master to return.
I hoped that since this was my own creation it would stand by me much like the dog did for his master and unlike my old friends, he would never betray me. “Yeah, I think that's a good name for you little guy, from now on your name is…Hachiko.”