Wind Warrior Read Free

buzzed in with the answer.
    “ See, I knew you were
smarter than you let on,” his grandfather muttered from his
seat.
    Xander jumped, caught unaware that the elder
man was even awake. “God, Grandpa! I thought you were asleep.”
    “ I was, but I still heard
you coming.”
    Xander smiled and walked around to the side
of the chair. “You’re so weird. You know that, don’t you?”
    His grandfather arched his head up to meet
Xander’s gaze. “At least now you know where you get it from.”
    Xander smiled at the old man. Though he
loved his parents, he had always shared a very special connection
with his grandfather. Despite the man’s advanced years, his mind
was incredibly sharp and he was surprisingly spry. When he wasn’t
napping, Xander realized with a smirk.
    “ Did your mom send you in
here to check on me?” his grandfather asked.
    “ Not to check on you. Just
to make sure I told you hello before I went upstairs.”
    “ She can church it up
however she likes, but she still wanted you to make sure I hadn’t
croaked while watching Jeopardy.”
    Xander laughed at the old man. He wasn’t
entirely sure where his grandfather had grown up but he had a
litany of odd sayings that kept conversation entertaining.
    “ So what are you up to?”
the elder man asked.
    “ I was going to go upstairs
and work on homework,” Xander lied again.
    “ Rubbish. That’s the worst
excuse I’ve ever heard. If you were going to work on homework, you
should have just stayed at school. Or at least found a pretty girl
to tutor in a class, if you get my drift.”
    “ I get the drift, Grandpa.
You’re a dirty old man.”
    His grandfather laughed. The sound reminded
Xander of an odd mix of mirth and a hacking cough.
    “ I’m going to head
upstairs.” Xander kissed the man on the top of his head before
turning toward the stairs.
    “ Be careful up there,” his
grandfather said cryptically.
    Xander turned to ask him what he meant, but
he could already hear the repetitive breathing as his grandfather
fell back asleep.

    He stood in the middle of his room and
stared at the bed and the plethora of posters that littered the
walls. As much as he wished it weren’t true, Xander still slept in
the same room he grew up in and many of the decorations hadn’t
changed since his days of listening to hardcore rap.
    His covers were bunched into a ball in the
middle of the bed and dirty laundry was piled just beyond the
footboard. The rest of the room was fairly clean, though Xander
realized that was as much by accident as by design. Only his
working table was cluttered with piles of artist’s sketchpads and
loose-leaf paper. His hastily drawn charcoal sketches covered all
the exposed surfaces. Women’s faces were piled besides blueprints
for space ships. Fantasy creatures growled angrily at cartoon
characters, either hand drawn or traced from Disney cells. Though
Xander prided himself on his artistic ability, he wasn’t foolish
enough to believe he was good enough to make it more than a
hobby.
    Scanning the room, his eyes fell on one of
the larger posters dominating the middle of the wall above the
headboard. Xander flexed his shoulders and waved his arms across
his body as he stretched in anticipation.
    His heart was already pounding in his chest
again. His hands were closed in tight fists and he could feel the
intermixed sweatiness and pain as he dug his nails into his
palms.
    “ All right,” he whispered
into the quiet room. “You can do this.”
    He focused all his attention on the poster
and tried to imagine the swell of power flooding his body as it had
done in front of the school. His skin grew cold and clammy, but he
wasn’t sure if it was from an unknown power or just the adrenaline
he was intentionally pouring into his system.
    “ I can do this. Ready,
go!”
    He extended his arms and opened his hands,
throwing his fingers out wide. His eyes closed involuntarily as he
anticipated the violent windstorm. Slowly, he cracked