We started to remember our way around, following familiar trails in the forest. Once we had our bearings back, we started heading to Zack's place. As we made our way back, I started picking all sorts of different flowers. I stared at the flowers intently for a bit, I wonder if I really should be going to see her. Did I have the right to just show back up in her life like this? I looked over at Zack who still had a huge grin on his face as he walked, there was no turning back. This was something I needed to do.
Eventually, we found our way out of the woods and back to the city, and from there to Zack's place. The rest of the walk was relatively quiet, Zack had an oddly peaceful look on his face the whole walk. However, I couldn't keep myself still. By the time we found our way back to the city, I had bitten off all the nails on my fingers.
When Zack's apartment building came into sight, my heart began to race more and more. I took a deep breath as we stopped at his door. I stared at the cream-colored walls and scratched-up door of his little apartment building. It looked exactly the same as the last time I was here. Zack knelt down to the mat and grabbed his key from under it opening the door. I followed behind him as he stepped inside.
There was trash all over the place, food, drinks, and clothes. It looked like the remains of a college frat party. Zack walked straight through the sea of trash down the hall. I followed further behind him as he walked. I stared down the hall knowing exactly which room was hers. I felt my heart racing more intensely as I stared down the hall at the door. I was really back. I was really going to see her again after all this time. I noticed the halls down to her room and Zack's were the only ones untouched by the storm of trash. Zack stopped at her door, bearing a huge smile on his face as he swung it open so hard it crashed against the wall.
"Guess who I brought Sis!" Zack screamed leaping inside her room.
I jumped a little realizing that was my cue to go. I jogged down the hall and jumped into the room. Then there she was. Sitting up on her bed with wonder in her eyes as she saw me.
"Stryder!" She cheered weakly for me.
I was speechless at first. She looked exactly like how I remembered her. Her long and tangled brown hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in ages. She still had that sincere and hopeful smile on her face, and her bold green eyes that reminded me of gemstones. But she looked so pale and weak, like she could shatter from a single touch. It made my chest hurt looking at her like this, but I kept my composure. This was the first time in years since I've seen her, it didn't need to be with me crying.
"Hey Annual, long time no see." I replied to her in a soft tone, giving her a big smile.
"My knight has finally returned to me," she proclaimed softly, laying back down.
I walked over to her and laid the flowers down next to her on the bed. Her expression seemed even more excited at the sight of them. Like a kid in a candy store.
"My hero." Her voice seemed too soft now, almost inaudible.
"I'm no hero, princess Annual," I replied giving her a somber look.
She lifted up the flowers and smelled them with a satisfied look. I had this feeling of guilt washing over me. I had been avoiding her for so long, and all she wanted was to see me. I was a horrible person. She looks so happy just having me around like this. I should've visited much sooner.
"Mmm, Stryder these must be the blue Hyacinthus flower, they kinda remind me of you. It's a good representation." She spoke softly to me again, however, she wasn't looking at me. She was fully engrossed in the flowers.
"Thank you, it's my favorite color too," I replied.
I kneeled down next to her bed, taking in her smile that stretched ear to ear.
It felt so refreshing seeing her again, smiling just like she used to.
"I want these flowers at our wedding night," she weakly proclaimed.
She looked up at me, staring deeply into my eyes.
"Wh-what." I stammered a bit as I felt the heat rushing to my cheeks.
She moved her gaze back onto the flowers, smiling so tenderly at it. Like it would break if she held onto them too hard.
"Whenever I get better, I'll make you a great bride. I promise." She said in almost a whisper, which led to a coughing fit.
"Rest, we'll talk about this another day. I'll be back, I promise." I moved my hand over hers giving her a reassuring smile.
She eventually calmed down and gave me another smile back.
"Ok my knight, I'll be waiting for you." She said sweetly to me as she closed her eyes and I slowly moved my hand from hers.
And in an instant she was asleep, which was our cue to leave. I looked over her one last time before I stepped back, heading out with Zack. Zack had a peaceful look on his face. A look I hadn't seen in a long time. I can't blame him either, I felt exactly the same. Like a weight had been lifted off my chest. As we got outside, we both sat in silence for a bit in front of his place until Zack spoke up.
"Hey, let's go back to the woods and examine our books. It may give us an edge on other power buffs." Zack said to me softly.
I was surprised to hear a complete thought come out of his mouth. Was the world ending? Was this the warning sign?
"Zack, that's actually a smart idea. Did the body modifications fix some of the neurons in that brain of yours?" I said with a laugh.
"Neuronitisins?" He asked questioningly, and I just sighed.
"I guess Revelations hasn't come yet then…" I muttered under my breath.
We walked back down into the woods. I didn't want any chance of someone running into us. After a bit of walking, I figured we were deep enough in to stop.
"Alright, let's summon those bad boys!" Zack cheered.
I took a deep breath and concentrated. I thought about my book and focused on that in my mind, imagining every detail of it. Then the familiar blue sparkles of light appeared in front of me. I reached out and put my hands in the blue lights. I felt something heavy and rough land in my palms. I held my hands there till the lights vanished.
I pulled my book in close and examined it, exactly as I remembered from earlier. I looked over at Zack who was on his knees holding out his hands. There was an intense flame that appeared above his palms, I could hear it crackling like a campfire as his book slowly came into formation from the flames, dropping into his hands. Soon the flames vanished and there was nothing left but the book. Zack smirked looking over to me, raising his eyebrows up and down at me like an idiot.
"This is how you get o.p. with style." Zack purred.
"Suiuure. I just hope you're up for the challenge of reeaaaading!" I joked in a ghost storytelling tone.
"Shut up ya nerd and see my power!" He stood up from his pose and started rapidly turning pages in his book.
"Ha! Here we go!" He abruptly stopped and began to read out loud. "Creatura autem nocte voco. Ferae aestum in shapeshifter noctis profundum. Veni autem quarta et iussu meo!" It sounded familiar to me but I couldn't put my finger on it. Latin maybe?
He made another weird pose with his legs spread wide apart and his handheld out in the middle of us. His head was flung back like a ballerina with his other hand on the book. Then suddenly an odd mist came from the ground. A dark purplish light shimmered from below us as smoke secreted from it. The glowing lights seemed to make a five-pointed star around us and the smell of burning rubber filled the area.
"Behold! My almighty power! I summon the Beast to do my bidding! Come now!" Zack yelled as the smoke and lights slowly began to fade.
To reveal a small goblin-like creature standing before us. He had big ears and a toga-like cloth on him. He was only as tall as my legs and had a light green skin tone. He kinda reminded me of a frog, with big blue eyes as large as pool balls. We stared in silence for a while, then Zack broke that silence.
"The hell is that?" Zack demanded.
He looked over to me like I had an answer for him, and I just shrugged.
"Come on Zack, rela-" I tried to calm him down, but he wasn't having it.
"No, no, no! What in the hell is that? Did I summon freaking Dobby from Harry Potter!?"Zack yelled in a furious fit.
"Zack don't be mean to the little guy."
The creature looked up at the both of us with no expression on its face at all, as if he's been through this before...
"I thought I was summoning a freaking demon king or a hot monster girl! But instead I get some diarrhea with legs!" Suddenly the creature cleared its throat. He started talking in some funny-sounding languages until finally, it spoke in English.
"Does this suit you better?" The creature spoke in a refined upperclassmen voice.
He sounded like someone you expect to see teaching physics or something, sophisticated.
"My name is Thadias Dawnbat the Third." He spoke fixing his clothes and bowing to us both.
"Well, Thadias, I am your lord and master Zack, the mighty slayer of worlds." Zack approached the little man now and I followed suit.
I knelt down next to him and examined him in greater detail.
"And I'm Stryder, welcome to our world," I said holding out my hand for him to shake.
He shook my fingers slowly and looked toward Zack.
"What is my mission Master Zack." He replied, bowing to Zack again.
I studied him curiously and I started to wonder where he could have come from. Did we abduct him from another dimension? Did Zack create him out of thin air? My mind raced with questions, so much so in fact that I missed Zack and the creature's conversation. Zack was now looking in his book with a surprised look on his face.
"Oh, I take back what I said, you're pretty cool, Thadianius." Zack said as he read his book, looking like a 5-year-old kid in a candy store.
"It's Thadius, sir the-" Zack stopped Thadias in mid-sentence.
"That's a dumb name. For now on, I will call you Bean, because you remind me of green beans."
"Sir that's –" Thadias started to talk but Zack stopped him.
"Ah ah ah. I own you so no back talking, Bean."
"Yes sir," Thadias sighed defeatedly.
"Come on Zack, at least make it something cool?" I tried to help Thadias out but Zack wasn't listening.
We eventually moved on to my book. I started reading my weapons equipment section. There were no pages beyond the vision and weapons sections. It basically said that I can manifest any weapon I could imagine. But the catch was I couldn't summon any types of firearms. Once I read over all the other minor details, I set the book down and concentrated on creating a double-edged longsword. I closed my eyes and held my hands out. I took a deep breath in and focused.
I could feel a cold sensation in my hand, then I started to feel the leathery handle of the sword in my palms. I opened my eyes to see the rest of the sword materialize in my hands. There was a mass of blue sparkles in my hands that slowly materialized the sword's shape. Then like ashes floating to the sky from a fire, the blue lights floated away leaving behind my blade. I gripped the leather handle of the long sword with both my hands and swung it around. It wasn't really heavy at all. I wondered if it was my new strength, or did I make a weak weapon? I started thinking again, but I was interrupted by Zack's -oohs and -aahs.
"That's so cool!" Zack squealed, running over and snatching the blade from me.
I imagined the blade turning back into dust and as Zack swung it around it soon dissipated into the same blue lights as before.
"Dude, we're really superheroes!" Zack exclaimed, jumping over to me grabbing my arms and swinging me up and down and around.
I started to ignore my inner questions and fell into the inner child stirring within me. I jumped around in a circle with him while we chanted "We're gonna be heroes. We're gonna be heroes!" Zack followed suit adding his own twist to it. "We're gonna knock some thugs, knock some thugs!"
The reality finally set in for me. Today was the first step in being real heroes. Our fun soon ended when we noticed Bean, who was just staring at us with a 'really' look on his face.
When we finished fangirling, I decided to look through Zack's book. I noticed he had a whole other page with a spell on it he didn't notice. It seemed like a magical plant type of spell. I sat on the ground and started to read it over.
"Hey, Zack. There's a whole other page in here." I called to him as I finished up my reading.
"What, for real!?" Zack yelled.
He ran over to me and practically knocked me down, taking his book back and reading it frantically.
I didn't fight back and sat up from the push and started manifesting other weapons. I materialized various different types of weapons as I leaned against a tree stump. I summoned tomahawks, bows and arrows, katanas, etc. I could manifest as much as I wanted. I started to pant and leaned heavily on the stump. I was sweating intensely as all my materialized weapons vanished. I guess there was some kind of limit to my summoning.
"Hey Stryder! I think we should have a real test run of our powers!" Zack called out to me.
I forced myself to stand up, and turned to face him. I realized he could probably tell I was sweating but I put up a good front.
"Woah, it looks like you ran a marathon, Dude. What happened?" Zack asked in a more agitated than concerned tone.
"I'm fine. What are you going on about now?" I grunted, forcing myself to sound as normal as possible.
"Well, I went ahead and called out those genies or whatever. One responded to me and said your genie thing was cool with my idea." He suddenly got an evil grin on his face.
"What kind of favor did you ask?" I replied, letting my exhausted voice shake my words.
"A quick little battle royal." He held both his hands out with his demonic green flames in them. I was tired and confused. What the heck? A battle royal?!
"We could kill each other!" I yelled at him.
"Ppffft- they promised to regenerate us. Besides, I really wanna get you back for that nut shot!"