The Awakening

Originally published on November 30th, 2012 by Dimitri Bouniol. #FNADNST

The young boy didn't know where he was.

Instead of waking up on his bed, like he would every morning before young to school, his eyes were greeted by a large, green landscape.

Frankly, he didn't know what to make of it.

The first though it his head was that it had to be a dream.

He often had dreams of going through adventures in fantastical lands, usually due to his own shortcomings in real life.

He wasn't athletic, not too bright either, and always got picked on at school.

So his day dreams really were the only place he could escape to.

But he never had such a dream where he realized he was in one.

That made this situation very bizarre, so he got up on his feet, but in doing so, he fell over.

It was almost as if he put too much strength into getting up and utterly miscalculated how it should have all worked.

A little bit more slowly this time, he got up, but his body felt as light as a feather.

The sensation was very weird at first, especially once he started walking around.

Nonetheless, after getting the hand of it, he started running, taking longer and longer strides.

Pleased with this weightless sensation, he tried doing all sorts of things he could have only dreamed of before: jumping the height of trees, doing flips midair… even falling didn't hurt in the slightest.

After wandering around, he encountered a small jewel in a tree.

Curious, he looked around if anyone was watching, then proceeded to inspect the shiny object.

After taping it twice, it glowed red, and a voice erupted from the trunk of the tree: "Would you mind?"

Confused but excited, the boy replied: "… Hi! My name is Danny!"

The tree responded "Ugh, to be awoken by another brat," before uprooting itself and starting to walk away.

Having never heard of a talking tree, nor seeing one walk away, the boy was truly fascinated.

Even though the tree moved fairly quickly, taking large strides with it's long, wavy roots, the boy caught up quickly.

Having only met the talking tree the whole time he was here, the boy was curious when the tree called out to him as 'another' brat, so he asked what he meant by that.

The tree stopped, and explained how person after person had tried to take its jewel, which happened to be its life source.

In the past, the tree fought hard and fiercely whenever someone tried to steal the jewel, but lately it had been getting old, and thus simply walked away from most encounters.

That the boy who disturbed it happened to be docile was of great luck to the tree.

However, in the middle of their conversation, they appeared.

It was the Cross of the Bloody Saints, a group of thieves that had recently started causing mayhem in their conquest of the country.

There were three of them: two large individuals led my a much smaller figure in the center of the group.

However, they boy didn't know any of the horrible things they had done, and was delighted to see other people here.

The small leader stepped forward and said aloud: "We've come to take the Stone of Awakening!"

The tree moved in between them and to boy, and told him the run away if he valued his own life.

But the boy wasn't afraid. He asked the tree what it would do, but the tree just told the boy to run.

The boy decided to confront the group. He didn't know who they were, but he understood that they weren't very nice individuals.

They reminded him exactly of the bullies he had at school, and while he was powerless then, he felt like he could take anything now.

And he was right: the large fellow to his left jumped out on command from the leader, but one punch to his gut made him fly backwards.

The second one took out a large hammer, but was also done in before he had the chance to use it.

The boy was surprised not at how slow they were, but at how fast he was to be able to deal such damage.

The leader gave off a different feeling though.

The killing intent alone scared the boy a bit, and made him instinctually take a step back.

But this wasn't the time to back down, he thought.

Suddenly, the leader spread out his arm wide and started mumbling something.

The tree, realizing what was going on, yelled at the boy: "Don't let him finish that incantation!"

Knowing he must act quickly, the boy ran forward with all his might, but he was too late.

Suddenly, two large fireballs the size of wrecking balls emitted from the leader's palms.

As he threw one of them, the boy put up his arms, shielding his eyes from the blinding light, but he knew he would be done for the minute the fireball hit him.

Surprisingly, the act of putting up his arms emitted an invisible spherical shield around him, and although he felt a bit of heat from the flames, they quickly dissipated around him.

Thinking he could do this, he ran forwards with all his might, and all it took was a single punch to the leader's face for him to win.

Excited about his win, he collapsed on his back, and quickly passed out from exhaustion with a huge smile on his face.

The tree came closer and used his branches to pick him up, and moved him far away from the three members of the Cross of the Bloody Saints.

It thought to itself that if it was him, if it was this boy, the jewel would be safe.

After all, the tree was getting old, and could no longer protect it was well.

But the potential he felt from this boy could definitely keep it safe.

So with a tip of its roots, it grabbed the jewel from its trunk, and brought it up tho the child's forehead.

And upon touching his skin, the jewel embedded itself almost instantly into his skull.

And with that, the tree became forever silent and immobile, while the child slept happily in its branches.

CONTINUED…

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