"Lad, are you alright?"
"Boy..good you're awake"
"Woof Woof"
They all said together, with the addition of a lick from little snow.
"What are you doing here? Why did you attack the cave?" That's what Ango thought, that they had damaged the cave, who else could have done it? he couldn't do it, and even if he could, he was asleep. So he asked with a hoarse voice and puffy eyes.
"Bo- Ango, we didn't do it. You did" Hawkwood said
Ango raised an eyebrow in response
'Like hell I'm gonna believe that, own your mess you guys' He commented internally.
Piere jumped with excitement, his sparse hair, flowing red beard and clothes dangled in the air as he said "You did it lad, you cast your first magic"
After three weeks of being next to these guys, Ango knew that Hawkwood might tease him some time but when it came to magic or science, Piere was always serious even if his face didn't show it.
His sleepiness was dispelled instantly and he exclaimed "Really?! But how? I was dreaming when-"
"Wait I was dreaming… YES in the dream I conjured a golden spear of lightning and attacked a dragon"
Piere suddenly stopped jumping up and down, his eyes turned from excited to surprised then to serious. he uttered while looking at Ango
"Lad, why do you know about golden lightning, I don't remember telling you even about the distinction between lightnings, and are you sure it wasn't yellow but golden?"
'What does he mean? Is this something important' Ango was surprised by the gnome's sudden change in character but he answered honestly
"I know lightning has different colors, I mean yours and Hawkwood's are of different colors so I assumed that there are other colors as well" he then looked up at the roof, trying to recall the details of the dream "and I'm sure it was golden, at first it was a long golden spear then It shrank and tinges of white appeared in it, why? Is this important? it was just a dream"
Hawkwood seemed confused but Piere had a horrified expression. He jumped towards Ango and held his shoulders then hurriedly said, spitting on Ango in the process
"Lad tell me about your dream, don't leave out anything, not even a small detail, and is it a reoccurring dream?"
Ango was becoming more confused by the second but now he was sure that what he saw was a big deal
"This is the first time for this dream but I've had similar dreams, some about a forest and some about a battlefield, the dream that I just saw was about the battlefield"
"Don't leave me hanging now, go on tell me" he shook Ango even more furiously, even Hawkwood seemed interested now so he asked
"Piere what's this about?"
"I need to be sure first, lemme hear about the dreams"
…
…
Ango told them everything he could remember about this dream and the dreams he had before; Hawkwood seemed as clueless as him though he was surprised every now and then but Piere would be horrified one second and excited the next, confusing the duo to no end.
"So professor, what's this about?"
Silence
"Professor?"
"Aghh this is worse than I thought, this is bad.." Mckenzie was clawing at his hair and muttering under his breath.
"Ango, listen lad, do not and I said it again DO NOT tell anyone about these dreams and do not mention golden lightning. You understand lad?"
'So it's something dangerous? If he is reacting like this, then it means that what I see in the dream might be real or something that happened in the past, why am I seeing them though? Whatever the reason, if he is telling me that, it means there are consequences to knowing about it' Ango thought and nodded.
"Good good, now .." he sat down on the cave's floor with a thud, stretching his legs, seemingly exhausted "as you found out there are different colors of lightning, from weak to strong they are red, orange, yellow, green and violet. These are the colors I've seen but there are two colors I have not but read about in ancient history, it was before the birth of the higher races, over ten thousand years ago so obviously, the book wasn't written back then but Atherius, the god of knowledge revealed it to us and it was later put into written form."
Hawkwood and Ango were listening intently, this was a matter far bigger than them, it concerned a god and had happened even before any of the higher races were created.
'Crap what have I gotten myself involved in'
"There was a group of being that walked on our world, we call them the Primordials. They had gigantic bodies, so big that sometimes they were also referred to as titans and they wielded powerful magic but were always at war. When Atherius was teaching the gnomes about lightning magic, he told the gnomes about golden lightning and that it was wielded by a gigantic Primordial called Godfrey that fell when he challenged our god. Gnomes consider very few things and acts as blasphemous but golden lightning was branded heretical after it was revealed."
Ango gulped with fear 'Fuck, who the hell have I been dreaming about? He was small and there were other races there too so it can't be this Godfrey'
"And white-colored lightning was revealed when a gnome conducted a blasphemous experiment, he tried to create artificial gnomes and was blasted apart by Atherius. That white lightning strike, destroyed an entire section of the city, killing hundreds and it was just one strike"
Piere took a deep breath, waiting for his words to sink in.
After a few seconds he continued "Since Godfrey fell, we can understand golden lightning is weaker than white lightning, BUT in your dream, you saw a human use golden lightning and not just that, but it also had tinges of white and that changes everything. This might be related to the four lost centuries"
Ango's mind was still reeling and he felt like he shouldn't ask any more as the topic was getting more dangerous by the second but he couldn't help it, he had to ask.
'The name makes it obvious that it's a piece of history that is lost but I want to know more'
"Wha- what're the four lost centuries??"
"You don't need to know about that" the gnome said with a dismissive hand gesture
Piere's answer irked Ango to no end and it showed on his face but he was also relieved that he didn't know about another grave matter.
Hawkwood had not spoken all this while and was just quietly listening but seeing that the matter was over he opened his mouth and changed the topic
"Anyway, the boy just used lightning in his sleep, so now we know that he CAN use magic. We're doing something wrong here" he then looked directly at Ango and asked "You said you felt the mana moving in your body when the lightning spear was being created, was there something special about it?"
Piere vigorously nodded and Ango began to think about it, but a bit later he shook his head and said "There was nothing really special about it, mana poured out of my hand in the dream and I could feel it was similar to mine, pure magic but when it was coming out, it would change into golden lightning shaping itself like- wait"
His mind was spinning as he was trying to think if the man's strange act before casting the spell.
'Why did he first get into position for throwing? Maybe there is a reason for that'
He quickly let them know what he was thinking and they went outside of the cave to try it out, not wanting to destroy the cave or hurt themselves in case he succeeded.
Outside of the cave, Ango got into position and did the same set of movements the man had done. For the last part, he raised his right hand and made a grabbing motion near the back of his head and then..
Nothing happened. He waited a while and tightened his hand to see if it would make a difference but he was disappointed.
Out of desperation Ango closed his eyes and visualized the mana as it moved through the body and went through his hand, the mana taking the shape of a spear and turning into lightning, he repeated the process over and over again in his mind, each time the image clearer than the last.
Hawkwood came to him and said with a soft voice
"That's enough for tonight Ango, don't worry, we have tim-" when Ango suddenly cut him off.
"I can feel it, I CAN FEEL IT"
He could feel the mana coming out of his hand and the amount increasing with each pulse of his mana, weakening Ango slightly every time; it was slowly coming out and taking a very small and straight form.
Ango opened his eyes and saw the faint blue mist in his hand, he was confused that it wasn't lightning but also joyful that something happened.
"Professor, Hawkwood, see this? I finally succeeded" Ango said excitedly but then he heard Piere's awkward voice
"Ah.. lad I can faintly feel something in your hand but I can't see anything in it, actually if you had not told me about it, I wouldn't have been able to feel it" and Hawkwood nodded as a form of agreement.
"What do you mean? It's right here, look" and he waved his hand
"I'm telling you lad, I can't see it"
Ango began to think 'They can't see it? that's weird but maybe they will be able to see the effects'
Ango found turned to look at a big rock by his side and locked his sight on it. He breathed in and swung his hand forward in a stabbing motion.
*Tkhhh
The stone was easily pierced, crushed pieces of rocks were pushed aside as the thin needle moved downward, consuming itself to kill Ango's enemy, the ordinary rock. When the needle was gone a second later, a relatively thin and shallow hole was now present upon the rock.