On The Edge - Chapter 2 (standard:fantasy, 1401 words) [2/3] show all parts
Author: Scott Neelan	Added: Jan 04 2003	Views/Reads: 2641/1800	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The continuing story of a boy who uses magic in a world where it's forbidden and the girl who saves him from madness...

Night fell on the forest, bringing with it a calming feel. The screeches
of owls and squeaks and clicks of bats mixed in the air with the 
bubbling motion of the stream, producing a natural lullaby. The forest 
floor, earlier a hotbed of animal activity, had become a ghost town, 
with holes and hideaways scattered about, some in use, others to sit 
until the next morning untouched. While most creatures settled to rest, 
others rose anew. Yet another awoke in fear. 

Anno shook with a start. "How long was I out?" he wondered as he
gathered the will to stand. Steadying himself, he looked and listened 
for any sign of his tormentors, hoping, as always, that they had given 
up. He glanced toward every visible landmark, checking for anything at 
all. Maybe a trap, possibly an out of place footprint, but in any way a 
telltale sign that the Hunters were still about. This night, he found 
no evidence that anyone else was about. 

Satisfied, he relaxed. He began to think, something which he had avoided
for the last two days. "Two days! I've been running from them for two 
days!" he muttered as he sat down on the path that, just last night, he 
had been running on. "What can I do? These people mean to kill me!" he 
shook his head. Many different things ran through his mind at once. 
Finally, he began to focus. "What do I do? How do I handle these 
people? How did I handle other crises brought upon me by my ability?" 

- - - - - - - - - - 

The village was quiet. It was after the children's lessons, but before
the hunting party returned, therefore there was little happening. 
Annonak liked it that way. For the last few days, he had been avoiding 
contact with the other children as much as possible. It was only a week 
after the discovery of his powers in the ordeal with Naris. After 
lessons that day, the families of the boys who attacked Anno were 
nervous. Their children had, without explanation, vanished. The village 
chief told them to wait, as teens from the village were known to get 
lost in the forest, only to return within a couple of days. With this 
in mind, they waited for a day, then another, then another. After four 
days, the village was in uproar. What had happened to these children? 
The village sent search parties out into the forest, only to have them 
return with nothing. This had happened for three days, until the 
villagers, tired of attempting a fruitless search, gave up and went 
back to normalcy. 

Anno glanced in all directions, looking for someone who would notice
him. No one was paying any attention to him, so he ran towards a small 
clearing just inside the forest and near his home. Once there, he began 
this time as he had for the last two days. He began to practice magic. 
On this day. he was trying to reshape the air around him into inanimate 
objects. He began by trying to make a small stone. He cleared his 
thoughts and began to concentrate. As he did, he could feel the gases 
surrounding him begin to mutate, reforming and reconnecting. Just above 
his head, a small rock in the shape of a perfect sphere began to form 
out of the blue sky. A moment later, the rock began to descend to the 
ground, finally dense enough to invoke the powers of gravity. 

Excited, Annonak reached out with his left hand and caught his creation.
He pulled it up to inspection. It was perfect! There was no way that 
anyone who saw it would know it was actually made by him. It seemed to 
have been finished off by a competent jeweler. He was confused, amazed, 
and excited all at once. Realizing what this meant, he dropped the rock 
to the ground and turned his attention to once again clearing his 
thoughts. If he had seen the rock hit the earth, he would have been 
disappointed, for it shattered on impact and returned to its original 
state: oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen. 

Not knowing this, he began to concentrate on another thing he wished to
have: a spherical, red orb he had dreamed of the night before. As 
before, he began moving the molecules and atoms in the air around him 
to form this shape. He was surprised when, for no apparent reason, the 
ball appeared in the sky, then suddenly vanished. Angered, he was not 
about to give up, and began focusing his thoughts once again. This 
time, the ball slowly materialized, in much the same way that the rock 
had. 

Suddenly, a powerful yet decidedly feminine voice rang out over this
part of the village. "Anno! Where are you, lad? Come home at once!" 


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