Hidden Power
Originally published on December 7th, 2012 by Dimitri Bouniol. #FNADNST
Continuation of The Awakening, originally published on November 30th, 2012.
Danny was in a deep sleep.
He was unable to wake up, twisting and turning in pain.
He knew this was a dream, but the way in which it presented itself to him was rather horrifying.
It was like something was trying to invade his thoughts.
Surrounded by walls of flame, it was chasing him, and he knew that if it caught up, it would be too late for him.
He needed to find a way out, but no matter how much he ran, not an exit was in sight.
Quite suddenly, his face met the ground with an impact enough to make him realize that he wash't dreaming anymore.
It was daylight outside, and Danny layer there in an awkward position at the base of a tree, trying to get a handle of the situation.
It seemed like he was no longer dreaming, but he wasn't quite sure what to make of the situation.
He got up, brushed the dirt and twigs off of his shirt and looked around.
In front of him was a small river peacefully flowing in front of him.
It would seem like he was in a mountainous region as past the river was a cliff that oversaw the great green plains he saw the day before.
Turning around, he saw a large tree, but it didn't move in the slightest as he expected it to.
Although Danny realized that it wasn't normal for trees to move, this one looked like it should for some reason.
At that moment, the previous day's memories came rushing back - how he found a jewel in a tree, how he fought that mysterious trio…
A deep pain crept up inside his head as these memories came back, causing him to kneel to the ground, but it soon passed.
Feeling the need to wash the sweat off his face, he walked over to the stream and picked up some water with his hands, and that is when he noticed it.
In the middle of his forehead was the stone from the tree — neatly embedded in his skull, about the size of a golf ball, green in color.
No matter what he did, it wouldn't budge, so he promptly washed his face, covered up the jewel with a ripped part of his sleeve, and headed over to the cliff to see if he could find anywhere to go.
At the bottom of the cliff was what looked like a small village, but it didn't seem like any path led directly to it.
Deciding it was better to just follow the river down the mountain, he turned around, but in that moment the rock under his feet gave way and with it he fell.
In just a moment, he ended up all the way down the mountain, and oddly enough, didn't feel all that hurt.
It was almost as if something was protecting him on his way down, but he didn't think too much of it.
Once again brushing the dirt off his newly cleaned shirt, he headed into the village, which looked like it was something out of the middle ages.
It didn't necessarily look all that old, just very simple.
If was filled with merchants and food stands, and rather lively.
Upon looking at all this food, he found himself in front of on of the stands that looked like it was selling some sort of BBQ meat, and instinctually started drooling in front of it.
The shop keeper caught eye of this young man looking very hungry and completely moneyless, and tried to get him to move on, but Danny wasn't paying attention.
"Are you hungry?" abruptly said an older woman that was standing at the stall.
Surprised, Danny turned around to see this beauty with long, blue hair standing besides him, and nodded immediately as if he were worried of loosing this chance.
She bought a handful of skewers from the old man at the stall, and told Danny to follow her.
Attracted by the fragrant smell of the freshly cooked meat, he happily tagged along.
She handed one of the skewers to him, and asked him: "What land did you come from?"
Although he was confused by such a question, it wasn't asked without warrant.
After all, there he was with in rather strange clothing compared to all the other people who were dressed in rather simply garb that didn't even seem to be made of cotton.
"…"
… he couldn't remember.
Just where did he come from?
Sensing his confusion, the woman said "My name is Diana, what's yours?"
Relieved by this simple question that he could promptly answer, he responded "I'm Danny! Thanks for the food miss!"
She continued: "You looked so hungry there, so I guess I ended up feeding out out of sympathy. You don't seem to know where you came from though, do you?"
"Nope!" he responded. "One moment I was sleeping, and suddenly I woke up in the plains nearby…"
After a long pause, Diana said "If you don't have anywhere to go, why don't you accompany me? I happen to be passing by this village anyways, so you might remember something if you travel around."
She got up, and started walking.
Not wanting to be left behind, Danny quickly got up from the bench and quickly followed after her.
After staring at her from behind for a while, he did start to notice that she was indeed different from the other people in the village.
She was wearing a rather elegant dress that seemed to be made of a fine silk, with beautiful patterns all over it.
Her arms were decorated with gold amulets, and upon further inspection, didn't look like a frail woman's arms at all.
Suddenly, Danny was overcome by a sudden urge to never make this woman mad.
This was for a simple reason — she seemed strong.
Without warning, Danny was blown aside by an explosion that occurred from behind him.
Diana quickly turned around to greet the attacker.
"I finally found you!" he said.
Mad that he followed her all the way to this village, she shouted back: "You really are persistent, aren't you, Cross of the Bloody Saints!"
She continued: "You don't learn do you. I won't hand over these amulets no matter how many times you try to take them from me!"
The attacker started laughing.
"Don't you dare think that I'm the same as those maggots who tried to get them from you in the past!"
And with a single swing of his arm, fire erupted from every building around them.
Gathering energy from his legs, he launched forward with all his strength and thrust his arm directly for Diana's neck.
He was simply too fast — there was no way she could react in time to block.
Feeling death was ion her, she was rather surprised to see the silhouette of a boy darkened by the surrounding flames in front of her.
He had perfectly stopped the oncoming attack, and with only his right hand.
With an indifferent attitude, he threw the arm, along with the body that was attached to it, into one of the burning buildings.
This time it was Diana's turn to think of a single word that described this boy: Strong!
Rather pissed by this turn of events, the attacker unleaded a huge amount of flame, blowing away the building he was in as he shouted: "Don't mess with me kid!"
From where the building was came a stream of fire towards Danny and Diana, but upon raising a single arm, a shield erected itself around both of them, completely protecting them from the hot flame that came their way.
In an instant, Danny appeared in front the attacker, and thrust his right hand directly into his chest.
Coughing blood, the attacker muttered "Who on earth are you!?"
As he said those words, a flame caught hold of the wrapping around Danny's forehead and revealed the stone that lay embedded in his skull, which was now glowing a deep red.
Understanding the situation, the attacker smiled, and prompt retreated.
Finding the flames distracting, the boy swung his arm in a circle around his body, creating a huge gust of wind that immediately extinguished all the flames around the area.
He turned towards Diana, but she noticed that the look in his eyes wasn't that of the clueless boy that she had just met, but those of a ruthless fighter enjoying the thrill of chasing prey.
However, as if he ran out of energy, his body became limp and he started to collapse.
Before his body hit the ground, Diana caught him, and noticed the stone in his forehead turn back to a green color, and suddenly realized the same thing as the attacker.
She promptly took the boy and left the village.
If you would like to support more Friday Night ADN Stories, please consider donating to our open source projects, downloading some of our apps, or sponsoring Mild EleMints! Thank you for your support 😉