Chapter 3: Antidotes and Lathes
After many bangs and more than a few odd smells had diffused throughout the house, the Poison Joke antidote was ready, causing Lightning Flicker to flap his bare wings in anticipation of having his feathers return.
Steel was almost knocked flat by the pegasus’s headlong charge before being bucked out the door and into the hallway wall.
Steel entered the lounge and turned to his saddlebags and was levitating the Poison Joke into a bowl when Lightning called out to him.
“Can you get me a vodka martini, shaken not stirred? And when I say vodka martini, I mean straight vodka. In the bottle.”
Steel shook his head before shouting over his shoulder.
“You drank the last of the vodka on Tuesday. We’re out of alcohol in general!” as Steel went back to his work, he muttered to himself: “what happened to Lightning to make him drink so much?”
Steel used his magic to pull various books, tools, instruments, and ingredients towards him, including what appeared to be a large pile of firewood and kindling.
Steel looked over his shoulder and called out, “Hey, Lightning, mind if I use your tools again?” as he levitated a set of carving tools towards him.
Lightning’s voice had an edge of irritation in it as he replied.
“DON’T TOUCH MY TOOLS! I’ll get some that you can use.”
“Too late, I’m using the one’s you keep under my cooking utensils.”
“Fine, just don’t touch the ones in the couch.”
Steel Script suddenly looked up from his preparations, an expression of horror on his muzzle. He looked over his shoulder to the door to his bathroom, before shrugging it off and levitating all the equipment behind him as he walked down the hall to a door at the very end which opened up into a small yet serviceable workshop that doubled as a laboratory.
Steel Script stood in front of a lathe and set a smallish log in between the two stocks and started to use the hoof pedal, the lathe gaining speed.
Once the lathe, and the wood on it, was moving fast enough, Steel levitated one of the tools he borrowed off Lightning and started to turn down the log.
* * *
It wasn’t long before the log had been turned down to an elongated oval, the roughly carved surface of the wood’s grain swirling in nearly hypnotic patterns.
“Are you still trying to make that artificial Timberwolf thingy?” came a voice a few feet above and behind Steel, causing him to jump and light up his horn at the same time.
“LIGHTNING FLICKER! How many times do I have to tell you not to do that, although I do see that your feathers are back,” said Steel Script as he found Lightning hovering off the ground behind him.
“Like I ever listen to you. So, Timberwolf thingy, you still doing that?” Lightning pestered.
“Yes, now go do something that doesn’t involve me!” yelled Steel, his annoyance at Lightning building, “or if you have to stay here, please stay QUIET!”
“Fine, I’ll try to shut up,” muttered Lightning Flicker, flying through the door only to return a few moments later, pushing a fluffy white cloud ahead of him.
Steel Script rolled his eyes as the pegasus reclined in the cloud, and levitated the oval shaped wood in front of him along with a hack-saw and proceeded to cut the oval in half.
“Why don’t you just make a toy to do that instead of using my tools?” queried Lightning from the cloud he was resting upon.
“Because my magical constructs are often purely defensive or act as a deterrent, I don’t know how to make an edge sharp enough or stable enough to cut through wood,” replied Steel.
“But you punch me in the face with those things, frequently!”
“Again, they do no lasting damage and cannot draw blood. They are a deterrent, and I use them on you because I frequently need to deter your mouth from making an idiot out of you.”
The two halves of the oval fell slightly as the saw finished its work.
“Now, if you don’t mind, I would like to get back to work.”