Tag: Dan Farrell

By the time I got home from Camp Tandy I felt an overwhelming heartbreak, that I didn’t understand. I never told anyone about Diana and what happened between us at camp. I even forced Gary to keep his mouth shut about it. When I started training again I threw myself into my workout figuring it is all I had in my life. The school year began fairly smooth. Some of my friends mentioned that I had changed, that I was colder, usually the girls. I knew I had been changed by all that had happened at camp. I wasn’t sure if it was good or bad but I knew that was how it had to be now.

My mom could see how much I had become focused on my training. Although she was happy that I was making faster progress she still worried about me. The harder I trained the less time I had for Gary but he had turned his focus more towards girls than ever. His father had a new girlfriend that had a daughter about our age who went to school with us. Gary was sure this was his ticket to manhood.

Halloween has always been a big holiday at my family’s house. Part of the reason was that it was my sister Christine’s birthday. Christine’s eight birthday fell on a Saturday and my parents threw her a large party. Mom had Dad and I build a huge playhouse for her to put in the backyard as a secret gift. We spent a couple of weeks building it in the garage. Dad had plans that allowed us to build it in several pieces. Usually a project like this would take several men and heavy equipment to move the pieces into place and assemble them. My Dad had me. Christine loved her gift and the costume party. As a private joke between my mother and I, my costume was of my own creation, Wonder Man, son of a fictional Amazon princess. Some of my friends came to the party too. So by the end of the day I was eager to get some rest before my training the next day.

I don’t know how long I was asleep but when I woke up I was not in my bed or my room. I jumped up out of the old four poster bed in which I was sleeping. I was still in my pajamas. The room was like something out of an old Vincent Price movie right down to the oil lamps and roaring fire in the old stone hearth. My ears could pick up the sounds of others moving around in rooms beyond mine. What the hell was going on? I moved to the door and slowly opened it not knowing what to expect on the other side. Beyond the door there was a hallway with the same decor of the room complete with ugly wallpaper. I stepped out into the hallway to quickly discover I was not alone.

A blonde girl about my age stepped from another room, she too was dressed in pajamas, a rather skimpy nightshirt. She carried a large piece of firewood, I assumed as a weapon. “Hello,” I called to her. She turned to face me startled with a look of fear on her face.

She held up the firewood, out in front of her. “Who are you?” she shouted at me clearly as confused as I was.

“I’m Steve,” I replied. “You can put that down, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Where are we?” she asked still threatening me with the firewood.

“I don’t know, last thing I remember was going to bed at home,” I told her.

“Same thing with me,” a male voice said from behind me. I turned as another guy our age walked toward us. He was a big guy, larger than me and wore only boxer shorts. He smelled of sweat and wood smoke as he approached reaching out his hand for me to shake. “Hey bro, name’s Bruce,” he said.

He seemed friendly enough as I shook his hand, he had a very firm handshake even by my standards. The blonde girl appeared even more frightened by Bruce’s arrival. “This is some gross thing my step-father set up isn’t it?” she said her hands shaking as she held the piece of wood up at us.

“Log turn to smog,” yet another voice said as the piece of firewood the blonde was holding as a weapon turned to smoke. “I don’t know who your step-father is but he did not bring us here,” A brunette girl said walking down the hall behind the other young blonde girl.

“What!” the blonde shouted. “How did you do that?”

“I have my talents,” the brunette girl replied. “And it wasn’t your step-father that brought us here it was the house itself,” She told us. “My name is Zandia and I am a born magic user.”

“You’re a witch, you mean,” Bruce stated. “Cool!” The term witch struck a nerve in me and made me immediately suspect of this girl as the one who had brought me here. But why would she have brought these others?

“No, witches use potions and talismans to work magic I have no use for them,” Zandia answered. “Fear turn to cheer,” Zandia said and the blonde girl’s demeanor instantly changed.

“Hi, everyone, I’m Pam!” the blonde said in a very cheerful tone completely different from the way she had been acting.

“Was that really necessary?” I asked. “If you are that powerful how do we know you didn’t bring us here?” I questioned.

“Because I don’t know who any of you are, but this house does,” Zandia told us.

“How can a house ‘know’ anything?” Bruce said eyeing up Pam pretty thoroughly.

“A normal house can’t ‘know’ anything, but this is no normal house,” Zandia explained as she reached out to touch the ugly wallpaper. We all watched as the pattern on the wallpaper moved to flee her touch. “I’ve heard about this place from my great-aunt.” “She told me that it is called the House of the Thirteen.” “Every hundred years or so it brings special young people to it.”

Her use of the words ‘special young people’ made me even more suspicious of her intentions. “If what you are saying is true then why did it bring us here?” I demanded.

“To feed of course,” Zandia replied. “The house is kind of a mystic parasite that feeds on powerful souls.”

“You mean magical parasite,” I commented. “As far as I can tell you are the only one of us that has magic.”

“Souls don’t need to be magical to be powerful,” Zandia replied. “All of us are powerful in our own way.” Zandia glared at me with a raised eyebrow not making me suspect her any less. “We need to find a way out of this place as fast as possible.”

“Why don’t you just use your magic to pop us out?” Pam asked.

“My magic doesn’t work that way,” Zandia answered. “You all seem to be accepting my magic very easily.” “Most people don’t accept it this easily.” “Doesn’t that make you think it is this place and not me.”

“There is nothing special about me,” Pam said shyly.

“Me either!” I quickly denied. Bruce was silent at this pivotal moment. “We should split up to find a way out then,” I suggested.

“Two girls and two guys looks like a perfect pairing to me,” Bruce said.

“Not exactly,” another voice said, somehow familiar to me. “Make that three girls and two boys.” I looked past Pam and Zandia to see another girl walking down the hallway toward us.

At first I thought I was seeing things and then I thought I had lost my mind. “Diana?” I said out loud. As she got closer to the group she responded.

“Steve, what are we doing here?” she asked rushing past the others to embrace me. We hugged for a long time that I am sure that was less than it felt. When we broke our embrace it was like we were strangers. Both of us feeling strangely uncomfortable about what we had just done.

“Looks like we are going to have a group of one boy and two girls that works out perfectly for me,” Bruce said boastfully. “I like these kind of dreams!”

Diana had been listening from the door of the room she was in. She knew what was going on and she didn’t trust Zandia either. We easily convinced the others that being the only two of us that previously knew each other we should be together.

Diana and I chose to search the attic together. As we climb the narrow stairs both of us begin to feel a little uncomfortable about the way our friendship ended. We both still had strong feelings for each other but feared the other felt the opposite way. Neither of us wanted to be the first to bring up the subject of our past. Both of us tried to stay focused on finding a way out of this freaky house.

I lead the way but I felt Diana’s eyes on my ass under my thin pajama pants as I climbed the steps. “It’s kind of odd how all of us are in our pajamas, don’t you think?” Diana asks as we reached the door at the top of the steps.

“Not really if we were taken as we slept,” I replied as I took hold of the old locked door knob. Trying not to look too obvious I leaned into the door twisting the knob to break it open.

“Zandia said we were all special, what do you think she meant?” Diana asked.

“I have no idea,” I lied again, I was getting good at lying to people, it scared me a little. I remembered the weird dream I had about the leach. How Diana had powers in the dream. Is that why she was here, is that why I am here?

“But we are all from different parts of the country, why would we all be in bed at the same time?” Diana questions as we moved into the attic room. The space was much larger than either of us would have expected, almost impossibly large.

Suddenly the door slammed shut. “Why did you do that?” I asked.

“I didn’t even touch it,” Diana retorts as she turns to reopen it. “It won’t open it’s locked,” she told me.

“What do you mean it’s locked?” I said stepping past her. “That is impossible!” I told her, knowing I broke the lock and frame when we entered. Examining the door frame and knob I discovered it had somehow repaired itself. I tried to force it open again but the door would not budge. The old door seems to have healed stronger than it was before I broke it. “I don’t understand how but we seem to be trapped in here,” I told Diana.

“Not if we find another way out,” she replied. “If I remember correctly we are both pretty nimble, we can break a window and climb down the outside of the house.” I still liked the way she thought as we began to search the attic for our escape. The attic was filled with old furniture, lamps, and boxes just like we would expect. Unfortunately there was only one window in the attic that Diana found behind a large amour. “Steve, it’s over here!” Diana called out as she slid the two-hundred pound cabinet out of the way. I was shocked at the sight of the small girl moving the large piece. “It’s not as heavy as it looks,” Diana told me.

I dropped the box I was holding to cross the attic to the window. I looked out to see that it is night outside. Grabbing an old dining chair I told Diana, “Stay back.” The girl took a seat on an old chaise to watch as I drew back the chair. I swung the chair hard striking the window. The chair bounces off the window on impact causing no damage to the glass. I would learn later that a similar result happened down stairs when Bruce tried to break a window. But I knew I was much stronger than that guy. I swung the chair again to get the same results. A third try resulted in the destruction of the chair leaving me holding what was left of the wooden chair back.

“This is impossible,” I announced. “This old window should be splinters and shards on the floor!”

“Maybe it’s magic?” Diana suggested.

“There is no such thing as magic,” I said, knowing full well there was magic in the world that must be kept secret from normal people.

Diana sat back on the chaise as I picked up another chair to attempt to break the window. She watched as my muscles flexed causing her to think back to camp. Or so she told me later. “Then how did Zandia do what she did to Pam?” Diana questioned.

“She is just very charismatic,” I answered. I was breaking a sweat and my pajama shirt had begun to cling to my body when I turned around to look at Diana. She was squirming on the chaise squeezing her legs together seeming excited by my show. For the first time in my life I felt sexy and was enjoying it as she watched. Breaking two more chairs without putting a niche in the window before I stopped. “Feel better now?” Diana asked sliding to the end of the chaise appearing to try to calm herself. “What if this is all a dream?” she suggested.

“I just feel hot and sweaty,” I said dropping the final pieces of the chair to the floor with the rest broken dining set. Then without a thought I pulled off my pajama shirt and wiped my chest and armpits with it.

“I see that you have sprouted a few more hairs on your chest since last I saw you shirtless,” Diana commented. I ran my hand through the hair on my chest as Diana watched me. She had loved staring at me shirtless at camp I guess it was no surprise that she would notice such a thing.

“I guess this being a dream would explain a lot of what has happened to us,” I said sitting down on an old high back chair covered with a white sheet. I looked over at Diana to see that old look in her eyes that I remembered from camp. “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have, I wasn’t thinking,” I said holding my shirt up in front of my chest.

“No, it’s me again, I’m the one who is sorry,” Diana said looking away from me in shame. “We had become such good friends and I ruined it.”

“No really, I am sorry, I never should have run away like that or treated you like I did,” I said standing up. “I was just scared.” I dropped my shirt to the floor. “Go ahead look at me.”

“What are yooo…..” Diana is stunned at the sight of me standing in front of her.

“I figure if this is a dream you might as well get your money’s worth.” “You’ve earned it,” I told her putting back my shoulders and trying to puff out my chest. “I know how much you like looking at me so do it.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve made you uncomfortable,” Diana said looking down at the old wood boards of the attic floor trying to organize her thoughts. “It is just that from the first time I saw you I was so attracted to you I couldn’t stop looking at you.” “I feel so stupid that I couldn’t control myself.” Diana looked up at me and the sight of me took her breath away again. I stood with my broad shoulders back and my bare, hairy chest out. She blushes at how much she was turned on looking at me. I looked down at her as she slid to the edge of the chaise. Diana stood up a few feet from me.

I reached out and took her hand to hold it to my chest. Diana looked into my eyes and then down to her hand on my pectoral. She moved her hand over my skin and through my hair to my nipple. Pulling her hand away, I could never have guessed what she would do next. “What if this is your dream?” she asks as she began to unbutton her pajama top. The thin fabric slid off her bare shoulders to the floor with my shirt. The pale skin of her firm breasts were topped with round pink nipples. My jaw fell slack at the sight of her beautiful boobs. I couldn’t believe what she had just done, nor could I control what the sight of the topless girl was doing to me. “I’ve heard it said that in dreams all inhibitions are lost,” Diana stated pulling her hair up from her shoulders to pose for me.

I had never been much of a poker player but I knew when it was time to raise the stakes. I slid my thumbs inside the waistband of my pajama pants and pushed them down to my ankles, kicking them off. I stood in the attic wearing only my tighty-whiteys. Diana’s eyes fell to the trail of hair on my belly leading down into my Fruit of the Looms. Then she couldn’t help but look to the expanding bulge under that thin cotton fabric. Diana seemed impressed with both my package and my bravery. She moved closer to me to test my new found courage. She pressed her breasts to my chest to kiss me. Unlike our last kiss, I did not pull away from her. In fact returned the kiss two fold. It took every bit of willpower for Diana to break the kiss as she pulled away.

“This truly is a dream,” Diana said to me as she slipped off her pajama bottoms to reveal her small pink panties. I fixates on her beautiful body, examining every smooth white inch of it. I could make out the slightly darker triangle on the crotch of Diana’s panties I was sure was a patch of silky dark hair. She turned slowly to allow me to view her smooth apple shaped butt. Then she slid her fingers along the leg bands of her pink panties to pull them from her crack. She came back around to my horny teenage body and gave me a sexy smile. “What now?” she asks a little surprised at how far this challenge had gotten.

“You don’t think I’ll do it, do you?” I dared to ask.

“I know if this is a dream, this is about when I would usually wake up,” Diana said cupping her breasts nervously. “So if you’re going to do it, hurry up and do it.” I grinned at her before turning around to give her a view of my bubble butt under my tighty-whiteys. I glanced back over my shoulder at her to see she had slid her right hand into her panties to hold herself in anticipation as I slid my thumbs in the waistband of my underwear. I bent down forward sliding the Fruit of the Looms over my legs. I could only guess that Diana caught a glimpse of my ball sac as it fell loose of my underwear between my legs. When I reached my ankles I kicked my underwear off to the pile of clothes on the floor giving Diana a view of my ass cheeks. “Wow,” she gasped as I stood back up still facing away from her. “You really did it!” She was impressed after our last encounter. She was even more impressed when I turned to reveal my half-erect cock jutting from my dark brown bush.

“Well?” I said. “Do you like what you see?”

I could tell where Diana’s eyes were focused as she put her words together. She timidly replied, “Yes, I like what I see very much.”

“Thanks, I guess,” was my awkward reply. “I feel like I should be embarrassed to be so excited in front of you but I’m not,” I said.

“You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” Diana told me. “I just hope this is your dream because I’m afraid that reality won’t live up to how good you look naked in my subconscious.” Diana strolls back to the chaise to slipped off her panties. She crawled onto the reclined chair as I watched her ass. I felt a rush and I became fully aroused. Diana sat all the way back on the chaise gesturing for me to come over to her parted legs. She watched my manhood closely as I walked toward the chaise. “Wow,” Diana said again. “I hope that thing doesn’t get any bigger.”

I looked down, “No that is pretty much it, the whole sha-bang,” I said sitting down to straddle the end of the chaise. She reached out pulling me down on top of her. Our bare chests pressed tightly together as we began to kiss hot and heavy. The passion between us was all consuming. My hands found their way to her breasts as Diana’s hands move over my broad back.

Out of breathe I sat up to gaze down at her slim form. I moved my hands up her belly to cup her boobs again squeezing them gently eliciting a moan from her. I slid my hands back down her torso to rest on her thighs. She gazed up at me through glassy eyes. “I want to see it,” I said.

“Mmmmhh,” she murmurs.

“Yes,” I whispered leaning forward to kiss her passionately again. I sat back up and Diana slid her hands down to expose her inner regions. I glanced up at her, she nodded at me. I reached out my finger to touch her intimately. I took a risk by messaging her with my wet finger making her squirm and moan. While her eyes were closed, her breathing was fast and short as she lay squeezing her breasts. I slid closer to her body touching her moist flesh with my own. Using my hand I took hold of my manhood, I massaged her with it causing her more pleasure. Then I stopped, I stared down at where our bodies touched, then up to her face. She had calmed and opened her eyes to look back at me. “Are we really going to do this?” I asked.

She grinned at me springing up into my arms impaling herself on my lap. “Hell yes we are!” she asserts as we began to kiss passionately again. “You didn’t really think I was going to have a dream with you naked and not have you inside me before it ended, did you?” she whispered in my ear nibbling it. We reveled in the sensation of our union for several minutes before I laid her back down on the chaise. My body reacted on instinct as we slowly made love. Kissing and panting like dogs in heat we enjoyed each other’s body for what seems like forever until we both climaxed together.

When we were finished I rolled over onto the chaise beside her. We didn’t speak as we lay in each other’s arms on the chaise for awhile. It all seems too real to me now. If this really wasn’t a dream then I just lost my virginity in an old haunted house? I continues to roll off of the chaise to the floor where I knelt. “That was incredible!” I said softly. Looking back into her eyes I said, “You are incredible.”

Sitting up and turning to face me Diana took my face in her hands, “So are you too,” she said kissing me again.

“Steve, Diana where are you?” A voice called out, it was Bruce. We jumped up quickly throwing on our clothes as to not get caught. Bruce turned the corner of crates just as I pulled on my shirt. “Hey, what are you guys doing we thought you got lost,” Bruce said a suspicious look on his face as he looked to the wet mark on the chaise.

Diana and I were both smiling ear to ear at what we had just done as we walked down the stairs from the attic. “Did you guys find a way out of here?” I asked.

“Zandia says she found something in the library that might help us get home,” Bruce replies as we reached the bottom of the steps. At this point I didn’t even care if I ever got home if it meant I could stay here with Diana.

We held hands as we walked into the library. Zandia and Pam waited for us there. Pam looked scares again so I assumed that whatever it was that Zandia had done to her when we arrived had worn off. Zandia stood in the center of the bookcase at the back of the room. She stared intently at a crystal skull on the shelf. “When I first woke up here I cast a spell to understand what was happening,” Zandia told us. “The spell was working rather slowly, I thought I had linked to the house and it was teaching me.” “Now I know it was not the house that was teaching me but this thing.”

“So what you told us about the house was not true?” Bruce asked.

“No, this is the House of the Thirteen and it did bring us here because we are all powerful if any of the rest of you are willing to admit it or not,” Zandia told us.

“So how do we get out of here if we can’t even break a window open,” Pam asked picking up a fire poker from the hearth.

“We shouldn’t be able to, but this thing does not belong here,” Zandia said. “The house is a huge magic talisman, far too powerful to have this trinket inside of it.”

“What do you mean trinket?” I asked beginning to trust the witch a little more.

“It will not tell me what it is but there is an entity inside of this crystal skull that somehow snuck inside the House when it brought us here,” Zandia explained. “It says it can get us out of here, but.”

“But what?” Diana charged.

“It says there is a price for our freedom,” Zandia told us.

“What does it want from us?” I asked.

“It wants to be free,” Zandia said bluntly.

“Sounds easy enough to me,” Bruce said picking up the glass skull from the shelf. “We smash this thing on the floor and we go home!” Bruce raised the skull over his head.

“No, no don’t!” Zandia shouted grabbing the talisman from the brute in boxers. “If you break the skull we will be trapped here forever!”

“Then how do we get out of here?” Pam pleaded.

“A spell, to free this thing and to allow us to go home,” Zandia told us.

“You may be a witch but the rest of us are just normal kids,” I said.

“You know that isn’t true Steve,” Zandia said glaring at me. “Together we five form the five points of a mystic pentagram.” “I am the sorceress, and each of you fit into one of the other points, the warrior, the alien, the half-breed, and the tortured soul.”

I looked around at the others knowing full well that I was the warrior but I wondered which one each of the others fit were.

“If we are going to do this spell we must all agree on it,” Zandia told us.

“Let’s do!” Bruce said eagerly.

“I just want to go home,” Pam said.

Diana leaned in close to me to whisper, “What do you think?”

“There might not be any other way out of here,” I replied. “Plus, this is just a dream right?” I said questioning everything that had happened. I kissed her again hoping to hold onto whatever had happened between us.

“I’m in,” Diana said as we ended our kiss. The others were all looking at us in shock.

“Me, too, let’s do it,” I said reluctantly.

Zandia went to work drawing a pentagram on the old wood floor. She sat the skull at the center of it and instructed each of us to stand at one of the points. I was more than a little nervous as we began. I looked over at Diana standing at the point across from me, she was so beautiful.

“Everyone repeat after me,” Zandia said. “Suns, Stars, and Moons align shine your gifts on we five who need to be free.” We all repeated the words and something began to happen to the crystal skull on the floor. At first it wobbled and then it began to float up from the floorboards. The eye sockets glowed with an astral light like nothing I had ever known. The skull turned in mid-air beaming on each of us one at a time. When it reached Zandia the beams struck out to meet her eyes. “No!” she cried out. “You tricked me!” Before any of us could move to do anything to help the witch girl there was a surge of white light that blinded us all.

Suddenly I was sitting up in my bed startled awake shouting, “NOOO!” I sat there looking around my room. “It was a dream!” I said out loud. “It was all a dream.” “The best dream ever!” I laid back down in my warm bed that is nothing like the cold drafty old house I dreamt about last night. I was kind of sad that it had been a dream and that I hadn’t really saw Diana again and made love to her for the first time.

After that night I had many more wet dreams about Diana but none of them was as clear or detailed as that first one. I had spent the first few months after camp trying to forget about her but now I was rushing to bed to see her again in my dreams.

My Mom noticed something else about me as I trained. My form and the way I was moving was more confident and self assured as I punched, blocked, and kicked at a non-existent opponent.

“Steve how are you feeling this morning,” she asked approaching me. I had grown so much since we started my training that I was more than a few inches taller than my amazon mother now.

“Great Mom, great,” I replied stopping my workout to talk with her.

“You seem much more eager this morning and in stronger form than I’ve seen before today,” she commented.

“I just feel good Mom, better about my training than I ever have,” I told my proud mother.

“Why, what has changed?” she asks.

“Nothing really, I just feel like I’m going to need to be the best I can in the future.” I answered even though I suspected it is because of the dream I had about Diana and how much less insecure I felt about myself now.

When I went back to school after my sixteenth birthday I was feeling different somehow. I couldn’t really describe it to anyone other than a sadness. My Dad picked up on there was something wrong.

I had been having wet dreams about Diana that were really driving me crazy. The dreams always happened the night after I got home from training. It was a Sunday morning in March by the time Dad finally got up the nerve to come to my room and ask what was going on with me. “Your Mom tells me your laundry is getting lighter,” Dad said trying to break the ice with a joke. “We can go shopping and stockpile you some new underwear if you want.”

I was mortified that Mom knew I had been throwing away my underwear rather than have her see my jizz soaked ones in the laundry.

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of son, I had the same problem when I was you age,” Dad told me.

I hadn’t gotten a chance to get rid of the pair I was wearing last night yet. I had them hidden in a plastic bag in my school bag. I usually ditched them in a neighbor’s trash can on the way to school. I got my backpack and pulled out the sopping wet white underwear, “Like this Dad?” I asked. From the look on his face, I could see that he was surprised.

“What on Earth have you been dreaming about?” Dad asked motioning for me to put the wet mess back in the bag. I sat there on my bed staring at my feet I didn’t want to tell him about Diana. “I’m sorry son that is just a lot of semen,” Dad said sitting down on the bed next to me putting his arm around my shoulders. “I guess it makes sense that with your extra skills.” “Can I ask how often are you masterbating?”

“Dad!” I exclaimed.

“It just seems that you might be backed up and it would help if you drained your tank in the shower a little more,” Dad told me, making me feel even more weird. But I have to admit he might be right.

“I don’t masturbate,” I told him. “I haven’t in years.”

“Then I suggest you start beating off more my boy,” Dad said with a snicker. I couldn’t help but laugh at him. “Well that is one problem solved I hope.” “Now what about this new attitude you’ve had since you got home from camp last summer?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I lied to him.

“You are a terrible liar,” Dad said getting up from the bed to go sit facing me in my desk chair.

I hadn’t told anyone about what happened with Diana especially not my parents. Mom would kill me if she knew what happened. Dad just sat there at the desk waiting for me to say something. From the look on my Dad’s face it was clear he was not leaving until I told him. I laid back on my bed letting out a sigh. “You can’t tell Mom, do you promise?” I said.

“I don’t know if I can make that promise until you tell me what is going on with you,” Dad said.

“There was this girl at camp,” I started. I laid there not looking up to see Dad’s reaction but he remained silent. “We became friends, really great friends.” “I felt as close to her as I did with Gary, maybe more.” “But in the end she felt differently about me than I did her.”

“What do you mean, son?” Dad asked.

I sat up on the bed to look at him. I hadn’t said any of this out loud before. “Diana, Diana was her name.” “She kept telling me she just wanted to be my friend that we couldn’t be anything more.” “We had the perfect friendship, all the fun and none of the complications.”

“Fun?” “Complications?” Dad said. “What kind of fun?”

“NO!” I said. “We didn’t have sex!” “I thought that was the way we both wanted our friendship to be.”

“But?” Dad commented.

“But she kissed me,” I said falling back on the bed.

“And you liked it, didn’t you?” Dad asked.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“What?” Dad asked.

“Why did she have to do that?” I grumbled. “We were having such a great summer and she had to ruin it.”

“How did she ruin it?” Dad asked. “Sounds to me like my son had his first kiss.” “Was she pretty?”

“Beautiful,” I said before I even knew it was coming out of my mouth.

“Sounds like you wanted the kiss as much as she did,” Dad charged.

“NO, I didn’t, Mom would kill me if she knew,” I said sitting up to look at his smiling face. “What are you smiling at?” I said.

“You had the hots for her didn’t you?” Dad asked smiling. “But you blew it because of what you think your mother wants for you.” I just sat there not sure what he was talking about. “Let me just let you in on a secret, if there is one thing your mother has wanted for the past two thousand years it is grandchildren.” “Not right now of course but if you intend on avoiding women your whole life because of something bad that happened to you a few years ago, it will break her heart.” “You need to protect your semen not keep it all to yourself.”

“So you are saying I screwed everything up with Diana,” I asked almost wanting to cry.

“There will be other beautiful girls, you just have to be careful, not chased,” Dad told me getting up from the desk chair. “What say we go shopping.” As he led me out of my room he gave me a real surprise. “How about I take off work tomorrow and we go get you a learner’s permit?”

I hated to admit it but my Dad’s advice was good. I started beating off in the shower a couple of times a week and the dreams became fewer and less intense. My showers became noticeably longer after coming home from Magic Island to make sure my increased testosterone didn’t bubble over that night. It was around this time that I began to notice the problems with having a 3000 year old amazon as a mother. My mother had no sense of privacy or modesty. I had always known that she was not embarrassed by nudity, hers or anyone else. She always implied that I was the one with the problem. As I grew older and stronger I she told me of the link between amazons in part due to the danger sense we all possess. There were many times when I felt her watching me when I would shower under the waterfalls of Magic Island. I found it impossible to embarrass her no matter how hard I tried.

The day before I left for summer camp I got my driver’s license and all I wanted to do was drive. So much had changed in the past year. Gary and I knew this was going to be our last year at Camp Tandy. In a way I was glad because I knew it was going to be a rough one for me. Gary had lost his virginity to his girlfriend before she dumped him. Now he intended to use the summer to get some more practice at screwing. I on the other hand needed to find a private place to release my pent up frustrations. I spent most of the bus trip to the camp trying to figure out where that place could be.

Because of our age and years of coming to the camp Gary and I are given the title Intern. With the title comes more responsibility and free time. Neither of us had to sign up for classes anymore but we do have to spend several hours a day helping with younger campers. There were only about eight other Interns and only three of them are girls. So Gary was eager to couple up with one of them if not all.

I had done a lot of thinking over the past few months and I was also eager for something but not in the same way Gary. At the first meeting of campers at the clubhouse I searched the crowd of campers to see if Diana had returned for a second year. To my disappointment I soon found she had not. I sat down at a table alone as Gary went to size up his potential summer loves. For the past year I had tried to forget how badly I treated Diana but the dream I had at Halloween made me think it wasn’t too late to fix my screw up. As I sat at the table feeling sorry for myself I had that same strange feeling I had last year. I felt like someone was watching me.

I jumped up on the table bench to look around the crowded room again but still saw no sign of Diana. Then I spotted a young kid outside the club house staring at me. I couldn’t explain why I did it as I jumped down from the bench to push my way through the crowd to the door. The boy was younger and much smaller than me but he didn’t seem at all intimidated by me as I approached him. “Why aren’t you inside with the others?” I asked the dark haired boy using my new authority for the first time.

“I’m not a camper here, Steve,” the boy said coolly calling me by name.

“How do you know my name?” I asks.

“It’s written on that sticker on your shirt,” the boy replies. “My name is Dan by the way.”

“Well than Dan, if you aren’t a camper then why are you here?” I asked.

“I need your help,” the boy replied.

“Do you live around here, are you lost?” I asked the odd boy.

“I don’t need that kind of help,” Dan replied.

“Why don’t I take you to the camp manager and he will do whatever it is you need,” I suggested.

“You are the only one who can give me the special help I need,” Dan told me. “I know your secret and I need your help, not anyone else’s.”

I was getting a little freaked out by this kid and I decided the best thing to do was turn him over to the Coach Booth. “Wait here, I will be right back,” I told the kid. I turned to walk to the clubhouse but when I got to the door I looked back and the kid is gone. I used my extra sharp eyes to scan all of the surrounding area within 300 yards to not see the boy anywhere. It was strange but I returned to the lodge as the campers finished picking classes. When next I get free time I will keep a look for him.

After class choose the Interns got free time that I spent walking around the camp. I really hadn’t considered how being back at Camp Tandy would have brought back all the memories of Diana the way it did. The first night I woke up with a raging hard-on that would not go down. I couldn’t risk a wet dream with all of my thoughts of Diana fresh in my mind. I pulled my pants on over my fat tool and snuck out of the tent. It was dark and there was no one around so I made my way to the bath house. I was going to do it in the shower but I forgot to bring a towel so I went into one of the toilet stalls.

Next morning it was another bright and sunny day at Camp Tandy and I was eager to coach my first soccer match of the season. My team was made up of ten and eleven year old boys, not much younger than the odd boy I met yesterday. For some of the boys it is their first time away from home and this game was a good way to take their minds off of that. I on the other hand was just glad to have these two months not to be training to be a warrior with my mother. Some of the larger boys are singling out and targeting smaller ones which was something I could not stand for. I tried to instill in them the importance of playing fair.

The sun was high in the sky by mid way through the game. My team was skins and the heat of the sun made me decide to join them by pulling off my shirt and tying it around my sweaty head. I took a moment from watching the match to see what else was going on around the camp. On the roof of the club house I spotted someone sitting and watching the events from a bird’s-eye view. Focusing my sharp well trained eyes to see it was that boy Dan again. The odd boy waved to me as if he knew how good my vision really was at this distance. I looks back to my team on the field to see that they are doing fine. Then I looked back to Dan, who waved for me to come over. Curiosity overcomes me and I started to jog across the field to the club house.

Dan walked down from the peak of the roof to the edge where I stood almost two stories below. “What are you doing up there?” I called to the younger boy.

“Just waiting for you,” Dan replied.

“How did you get up there?” I asked.

“That’s for me to know and you to figure out!” Dan shouted back.

“You better come down before you fall and get hurt, I instructed trying to sound authoritative.

“I’m like you I don’t get hurt too easy,” Dan replied. What does this little jerk mean by that? I wondered. “Why don’t you come up and get me?” Dan challenged.

The boy’s dare somehow struck a nerve with me. I began to jog around the outside of the clubhouse to find the ladder the boy used to climb up onto the roof. Making a full lap around the clubhouse I was surprised to find nothing that would explain how this little boy got up on the roof.

“Can’t find a way up big man?” Dan called down from the roof near where I was standing on the ground. “Why not just jump?” “You know like you’ve seen on TV.” “Or are you afraid your mommy will punish you if you get caught?”

This kid was really pissing me off now. Why was he saying these things that ring a little too close to the truth. I looked around the area, the left side of the club house sat up against a grove of trees that shelter the view from the ball field. I jogged over to the left side of the building and looked up at the roof, it was a good twenty-five feet above me. I had never tried something so blatant before but had always wanted to give it a try. I was pleased that the tree limbs have been trimmed back from the building making it a clear path to the roof, but impossible for the boy to jump from the tree limbs to the room. Crouching down like the boy suggested I pushes off the ground leaping up almost too high onto the roof. Landing on the tar paper I smiled to myself pleased with what I had done.

“Pretty good big boy,” Dan commented standing on the roof a few feet away. “You can be so much more than just a fighter if you take a few risks.” We stood on the side of the roof facing away from the ball fields, our conversation out of view to anyone else.

“Okay kid you’re getting down now if I have to drag you down,” I said walking across the slope of the roof for the boy.

“I don’t think so,” Dan smiles as he turns away. “Try this,” he says running across the roof.

“STOP!” I shouted. “What are you doing?” The boy ran to the edge of the roof as I followed trying to catch him before he fell. I watched in shock as Dan leapt from the edge of the roof. I lunged to grab him, missing. I watched as Dan landed safely on the grass as I fell headfirst from the roof. I managed to twist and land on my back with a thump. Not anymore injured from the twenty-five foot fall than a baby falling after its first steps. I sprang back up.

“Haa, Haaaa,” Dan laughs. “Never thought I’d see that.” “Come on!” Dan challenges as he began to run for the woods edge. I gave chase but even running at top speed I couldn’t seem to catch up with the boy.

“Steve…..Steve!” I heard the shouts as I reached the woods where Dan has already disappeared into the foliage. Stopping and turning back I saw Gary running after me. I could only hope that my friend didn’t realize how fast I was really running. “What are you doing out here?” Gary asked trying to catch his breath. “Coach Booth is looking for you, he is about to blow his stack,” Gary explained.

“Remember what I told you about the first day of camp?” I asked Gary. He nodded still out of breathe from the run. “I saw him again.”

“You are chasing after some little kid when you are supposed to be coaching a soccer game, that you begged to do I might add,” Gary questioned still breathing heavy. “And another thing how is it you aren’t even winded after that run?”

“Never mind that I need to get back to the game!” I said as I began to jog back across the field at a slower pace, avoiding the subject at hand.

It was getting close to the Fourth of July and it was late at night, everyone else at Camp Tandy had long ago turned in for the night. I had been having problems sleeping, so I snuck out to the bath house to have a shower. As the cool water washed the day’s sweat and dirt from his body my thoughts turned to the dream I had of Diana last October and how we made love on an old couch in the attic of a Haunted House. I closed my eyes and held in a moaned in the shower stall. I leaned on the side partition for a minute to catch my breath. Wow, that was great. Every time I remembered that dream it feels more and more like it was real.

I closed my eyes to hang my head down under the shower spray to let the water run down my neck and back. For the first time I saw a similarity between this strange boy and Diana from the previous summer. The way I could feel the boy watching me at sign up, the boy climbing to a high place without any help and then the out running me across the field. The most amazing thing was the jump that he made off the roof. My mother told me that she had other sisters out in the world, could this Dan be one of their sons?

I closed my eyes to hang my head down under the shower spray to let the water run down my neck and back. For the first time I saw a similarity between this strange boy and Diana from the previous summer. The way I could feel the boy watching me at sign up, the boy climbing to a high place without any help and then the out running me across the field. The most amazing thing was the jump that he made off the roof. My mother told me that she had other sisters out in the world, could this Dan be one of their sons?

Opening my eyes to look down at the floor I spotted feet wearing blue and white Keds under the shower wall partition. In a single motion I looked over the top of the wooden stall to grab the boy’s shirt that stood outside the shower.

“Hey Buddy, how’s it hanging?” Dan said to me in the shower. I pulled him to the wooden partition by his shirt. “Or is it still hard in there?”

“Don’t give me that, who are you and what do you want from me?” I demanded. “I’m done fooling around with you!”

“Then you don’t need to hold me so tight,” Dan said as he backed away from the stall slipping through my fingers.

“What the hell!” I shouted storming from the shower stall nude. “I can’t do that, how did you?”

“If you are going to chase me across the field again you better grab a towel first,” Dan laughed. “You’ll really get in trouble for streaking!”

“Trouble?” I repeated. “I almost lost my coaching gig thanks to you.” “Coach Booth almost had a stroke!” I told him reaching for a towel to wrap around my waist.

“Coach Booth is your problem, I have one of my own,” Dan told me. “A problem that I need your help to solve.”

“If you’re not an Amazon offspring than what are you?” I asked running another towel over my hair and under my arms.

“I’m a Zeni-human, just like you but I’ve got some different ability and some that are the same as yours,” Dan explained to me.

“Zeni-what?” I questions.

“Did you think you were the only kid in the world with powers?” Dan asks. “There are plenty of people out there but like you they keep what they can do a secret.” “For good reasons too.” “But I need your help now to save an entire world and it is not your fighting skills I need.” “If you are interested come to the logging camp up the mountain.” “Everyone is off for the holidays so no one will learn your secret.” Before I could reply Dan turned to walk through the wall of the bathhouse.

As Interns Gary and I each got one free day a week. The next day we had made plans to watch the girls play tennis but my offer to go to the logging camp had changed that plan. I laid fully dressed in my bunk staring at the roof of the tent. I thought about the last time I was at the Logging camp and what happened between Diana and I. I was such a fool. Why did I run away like that, like a little child. Now this odd little child wanted me to go back there to meet him. The coincidences between this boy and Diana continued to pile up. I felt so conflicted by all of it but I felt I had no choice but to see this through.

Gary had gone to the bathhouse to take a shower before starting our bro-day as he called it. I hadn’t had the nerve to tell Gary I wasn’t going to hang out today. I really didn’t know what to tell him. “Gary you know that little kid I told you about, he’s got superpowers and he wants me to use mine,” that would not be a good thing to say.

Gary returned to the tent whistling eager to begin our Bro-day. I watched as Gary splashes on after shave like he is going on some kind of hot date. “Whoo haa, that burns,” he said.

“Are you kidding?” I commented. “What do you have nine whiskers?”

“It’s all about the musk,” Gary told me as I sat up on his cot. “Ladies love the musk.”

“Maybe I should let you have first pick at the tennis match and I’ll catch up with you later,” I suggested.

“What don’t you want to see those girls in their short shirts and white panties?” Gary teased.

“Maybe next time,” I replied, “You go and have a good time, I’ll just be a distraction.”

Gary thought for a minute and then decided, “You’re probably right.” “What are you going to do?” he asked.

“Just hang out here I think, maybe go for a hike,” I told Gary stretching the truth.

Once I was sure Gary was gone I started up the mountain path through the forest. I knew how far up the mountain Logging camp was from my last trip. I took a break to think about my last trip to the Logging camp before starting back to my hike. I left the path and to head straight up the rougher terrain. I starts slow after my release soon picking up the pace jogging then leaping over fallen trees and boulders. Dan may be right, this is fun! I thought. At the pace I was moving it didn’t take long to reach the crest of the mountain where the Logging camp was located. I have to admit I was a little surprised by how much of a sweat I had worked up on my trip up the mountain. I slicked my hair back with the sweat on my face to take a look around the camp.

Not much had changed since I was here a year ago. I looked to where the bench Diana and I sat and discovered it was gone. I wanted to walk over to where the bench sat but I hear a loud thud from behind me. My danger sense warned at the last minute before I heard the rumbling. I turned to see a runaway log rolling toward me. The log must have weighed over 400 lbs, but that wasn’t a problem for me to simply put out my foot out to stop it. It was an odd coincidence me being here as this log got loose. But when three more logs came barreling across the property at me I imagined it was a little more planned that that. These logs were moving much faster, hitting together as they bumped up and down over the terrain. One log I could stop, this was going to be a little more work. I slipped by foot under the 400 lb. log in front of me and kicked it up into my hands. Raising it over my head I rammed it down into the ground in front of me like a post. I braced the makeshift post with all of my strength as the four logs collided with it sending them off to either of me. The logs continued to roll before coming to rest at the edge of the trees. I would say it is the mill that is my location of interest, where the logs are stored.

I began to walk up the hill toward the mill, still no sign of Dan. I had to assume this was another of his tests. To send 2000 lbs. of lumber at me was a pretty incredible test I had to admit. But that was just the beginning of what Dan had in store for me that day. As I approached the mill I spotted a front-end loader driving across the lot toward a fuel tank. I could see that there was no one behind the wheel, so I made a run for it. It was a good thing I had just gotten my license or I don’t know if I would have known how to stop the run away. Reaching the front end loader when it was only about fifty feet away from the fuel tank, I jumped up onto the running board and climbed into the cab. It took me a few minutes to figure out the controls but I managed to stop it before it hit the fuel tank.

I climbed out of the cab and up onto the roof to shout, “OKAY DAN, VERY FUNNY, NOW WHERE ARE YOU?” “You know, you could have burnt this whole place down with that stunt!” Not far away a tractor trailer truck sat near fully loaded with logs. It looked to be missing about five. I could see a small black head of hair sitting down behind the top of the logs. “I know where you are Dan I can see you!” I shouted.

“Oh yeah, Superman, do you have x-ray vision now?” Dan shouted from the pile of logs on the back of the truck.

“I can see your head stupid!” I yelled to him. I must admit what he did next was nothing short of amazing. Dan stood up on the pile of logs lifting one high over his head, like I had just done. But this kid was half my size and he wasn’t even straining.

“Here, catch!” he shouted sending the log sailing long ways at me. It must have been a seventy-five foot toss but the log made it to me to catch. When I caught it I could tell there wasn’t much force behind it, the kid was pushing his limits, but I wasn’t. I stood there on top of the front end loader holding the log when a loud creaking sound gave me the hint that the log’s weight was too much for the cab roof. I jumped down to the ground still holding the log over my head. When I looked back to the truck Dan was gone. I carried the log over to the truck and boosted back up onto the pile. Then suddenly I got the strangest feeling I was being watched. I shrugged the feeling off as I was just being paranoid about using my strength out in the open. Then it struck me, of course I’m being watched, by that little brat wherever he got to so fast.

Unfortunately, years later I would learn that I was right to be paranoid that day at the lumber camp. In time I would learn that Gary had become jealous of what I had been doing with Dan and he had followed me that day. He saw everything that Dan and I had done and he learned my secret without ever breathing a word about it. The jealousy would build inside of him for many years to follow. But I’m jumping a head.

I walked over to the door of the mill, it was padlocked completely undisturbed. But I knew what Dan could do from back at the bathhouse. He didn’t need to break in to get into the mill, but I did. “Come on, what is this hide and seek small fry?” I shouted.
“Don’t call me small fry!” Dan said as I turned around to ding him again standing behind me. “Small is one thing I never thought you would call me,” he said strangely.

I could tell the term angered him a little so, “How old are you anyway small fry, eleven?” I asked as I stood there smirking at him. He never ceased to surprise me as he pulled off his shirt.

Lifting his arm to show me the sparse black hair in his pit he said, “I’m thirteen!” “See!”
For the first time I saw that this little kid had a tattoo that almost covered his whole chest. It looked like the sun rising over water casting a reflection with four moons floating on the edge of the sun. “Really impressive kid,” I cracked.
“More than you had at my age!” Dan said throwing his shirt in my face. “Start counting!” The few seconds it took for me to get his shirt out of my eyes is all it took for him to disappear again. How the hell did he know things about me no one else did?

“Hide and seek it is then,” I called out stuffing his shirt in my back pocket.

“Then you better start counting,” Dan called down from the roof of the mill above me.

“This game again, didn’t you learn anything the last time?” I called to him as I jumped up onto the roof to chase him. The mill roof was long and narrow and the little guy sure could move. But I wasn’t playing around this time. Running him down I leaped forward up and over Dan’s head, twisting around to landed facing him on the edge of the roof.

“Smooth move slick,” Dan said as he put his brakes on, sliding over the roof toward me. I reached out to grab him and he instantly passed down through the roof.

Back to the breaking and entering dilemma. I need to find a way into the mill without breaking anything or getting caught. Then I spotted it, the log shoot. At the other end of the building was an opening in the roof used to lift the logs into the mill with a crane. I ran to the loading shoot hoping it was unlocked. Looking down the shoot the setup was much different than I imagined. It was like a wood chipper. Once the logs were dropped in they pass directly into the biggest saw blade I had ever seen. There was no security on this entrance because no one in their right mind would drop down this lethal shoot. The blade was turned off and I am a lot more agile than a log. I climbed down the side of the shoot to hang on the rim to make sure my feet hung down beside the blade of the saw. Then I let go falling to the conveyor belt below.

The inside of the saw mill was dark, the only light was the sun coming in through the windows at the top of the walls. I started to walk down the belt looking around the mill for Dan. Not sure what Dan was up to, I rethought my location and jumped down to the floor. “Where would I hide if I was a small fry?” I said out loud trying to trick him out of hiding. The mill smelled like sawdust and grease. Wait I could smell something else now. I was well aware that my sight and hearing were beyond that of normal, but I never considered that I could smell things better too. It was a sweet odor I was smelling, no it kind of smelled like sweat. I took a whiff of my own pit, that wasn’t it. Then I remembered the kid’s shirt in my pocket. I reached for it and held it in my hand. I stared at the blue T-shirt for a few minutes. What was it about this boy? I took a deep breath and exhaled before doing it. I put Dan’s shirt to my nose and smelled it. That was it. Why of all the things in this place, I could be smelling am I smelling this kid’s sweat, gross. But I had to admit it was my best chance to finding the little shit. I spotted an old grocery bag in a trash can and stuffed the t-shirt inside of it, knotting it closed. I rubbed my hands in the sawdust on the conveyor belt and then brushed them clear. Putting my hands to my face I breathed in the smell of the sawdust to cleanse my palate, so to say. I wasn’t sure how to do this so I just stood there in the center of the sawmill trying to remember Dan’s scent. The whole thing was just very weird how easy it was to do. It only took me a few minutes to find that odor in the warehouse sized building. I began to walk away from the conveyor belt. I spotted what I needed, a rope hanging on the wall. “Ollie, Ollie, Oscan, Free,” I called out bending down to look under a worktable. Then at top speed I moved, grabbing the rope and springing back into a backflip that I continued to do across the floor. Flipping over about four more times I turned to leap up into the rafters. I slipped the rope around him as I landed on the rafters next to Dan who sat watching me from above. I quickly tied up my target. I knew the rope wouldn’t hold him for long but it made my point that I won.

“Part bloodhound I see,” Dan said. “Smooth misdirection too.”

“Thanks, now are we going to talk about who you are and what you want from me?” I asked letting the rope around the boy’s torso go.

“Sure, let me just get my shirt on and we can start cleaning up,” Dan said jumping down from our perch. On the floor of the sawmill Dan got the bag I had put his shirt in and redressed.

“Clean up?” I said jumping down to the floor.

“We have to put everything back where it was so no one knew we were here,” Dan told me walking for the door. He projected a strange glowing doorway in the wall from his hands. “Come on, this is your way out without breaking anything.”

“How are you doing this?” I asked stepping closer to the glowing hole in the wall.

“You probably wouldn’t understand, just come on,” Dan said to me condescendingly. I stepped through the doorway and back out onto the lot. We gathered up the logs and put them back on the truck. Then we put the front end loader back to where Dan found it.

He didn’t answer any of my questions except to tell me, “Come to the river at the waterfalls tomorrow.” “Then I can explain what our mission is and what we need to do.” “Wear your bathing suit,” he called after me as I headed back to camp.

It was almost dinner time when I got back to camp so I headed back to the tent to get cleaned up. Gary was in the tent lying on his cot when I came in. “So where were you all day?” he asked.

“Oh around,” I said pulling of my shirt and gathering up my shower gear.

“How’d you get so scuffed up?” Gary asked referring to my forearms.

“I fell down at the river, the current was pretty strong,” I told him, I’ve never been a very good liar.

“Is that why you never came back to meet me at the tennis court?” Gary asked the anger now showing in his voice. I looked at his body language as he sat on the cot. Gary had been angry at me before but this time seemed different.

“I’m sorry, time just got away from me,” I apologized. “Look I’ll make it up to you the day after tomorrow.”

“Why, what are you doing tomorrow?” Gary asked still giving off his angry vibe.

“Tomorrow is family day so I figured you’d be busy,” I said as I was ready to hit the showers. I knew Gary would get over being pissed at me in a few days, I just had to ride it out. Gary did come around in a few days but from then on things got more strained between us. He became much more competitive with me and we began to drift apart.

The fourth of July was family day. I still wasn’t even sure I wanted to meet Dan at the river. But before I could go to find out what my secret mission was to be, there was something else I had to do. Some of the parents of the children I had been coaching in soccer wanted to meet me. I was one of the drawbacks to being an Intern I had to endure. Most of the fathers were just know it all blowhards. A couple of them seemed to be just regular guys only wanting to know how their kids were liking Camp Tandy. The meet and greet took about an hour. I have to admit it was a little flattering to hear some of the moms tell me how much their sons and daughters like and respected me.

By the end I was on a little bit of a high and figured I’d just humor Dan even though I felt we had developed a strong bond while he taught me to let go a little. I knew the way to the waterfalls well by then I had been there twice over the past two years. I thought only Gary, Diana, and I knew where they were but I was wrong because when I got there Dan was sitting on the large flat rock were Diana and I had our picnic lunch the year before to the date.

“Do you remember this place?” Dan asked.

“Of course I do,” I replied.

“Last year when you were here with D… a girl you met, you got a leech on your back,” yet again Dan told me something I already knew.

“How do you know this stuff?” I asked again expecting the same answer as before or lack thereof.

“I still can’t tell you that,” Dan replied as expected. “After Gary scraped it off your back you had a dream about it.”

“Now not only were you spying on me, you know what I’m dreaming about too?” I quizzed. “What exactly is the extent of your Zeni-human powers as you call them?”

“That is so not important right now,” Dan deflected again. “In that dream the leech was further mutated by an artifact in the river.”

“Ya, but it was just a dream,” I said as the memory of the nightmare I had spent a year trying to forget began to resurface. “I’ll admit the dream spooked me so much I looked for the leech the next morning and burnt it up, but I know it was just a dream.” “It would have never really happened.” “It would have been impossible,” I insisted.

“We need to find that artifact in the river and you are the only one who knows where it is hidden,” Dan told me again avoiding everything I had said. Then I remembered that in the dream Diana had powers too. What Dan had been calling Zeni-human powers. As a matter of fact her powers in the dream were very similar to what I’ve seen Dan do.

I sat down on the rocks at the edge of the river concentrating on remembering the details of my dream from the previous year. In the dream by the time Diana and I had escaped to the river so many people had already been killed. We sat here, right where I was sitting at the moment, to pull ourselves together. Diana was crying and I was almost ready to start, but I remembered a dream I had the previous night. As freaky as it seemed to me, in my dream I had also had the dream I was now lost in. In the dream within a dream I knew about the thing in the river and that it would kill the leech monster. In the first dream I told Diana we needed to find a quartz crystal buried in the river farther upstream.

She pulled herself together and said, “Then let’s go find it!” I sat on the rocks watching her as she bounded up the waterfall in three jumps, far from the clumsy girl that had fallen from it days earlier. Watching her in the dream was just amazing. We made the perfect team as I followed taking a leap that took me to the top of the falls. We searched furiously under every rock in the river looking for the lump of quartz.

I looked up at Dan standing over me with a smug little look on his face. Jumping up I shouted, “Come on it’s up there!” I lunged at him grabbing the little guy around the waist to carry him under my arm as I leapt up to the top of the waterfalls.

Landing in the river at the top, Dan struggled to get free of my grip, “Let go of me you ox!” he called out as he finally just passing through my arm. I had to laugh this kid had such a complex about being smaller than me. I felt a little guilty that I was bullying him but it was just too much fun.

Soon we were knee deep in the river as Dan and I dug under the rocks pulling up one after another looking for what I remembered Diana and I found in my dream. By this point in the dream Diana and I were a skilled team. When Dan and I looked up and met eyes there was something more. It was Diana who found the artifact in the dream. It took longer for Dan and me to find it than it did for Diana in the dream. It was a hot sunny July day and I had taken to tying my shirt around my head to keep cool. I had just about enough of this kid’s fantasies as I sat down in the cool river water.

“What are you doing keep looking,” Dan urged.

“You look, you’re the one with the important mission not me,” I replied to his bossy attitude. “I here on vacation.” I laid back to float on the water’s surface as the current started to pull me along. Dan reached out to grab my ankle as I floated by him.

“Stop messing around!” he told me yanking my leg to toss me back up stream.

He was a strong small fry I had to admit. When I landed back in the river my butt hit bottom and I felt something that wasn’t shaped like a river rock. “Allwwh!” I yelled. “That went right in my butt!”

“It won’t be the last thing to go in your butt!” Dan grumbled as he continued to search the river.

I ignored his comment to find what I had landed on, I stood up in the river and pulled it out of the water. “This is it!” I shouted showing it to Dan who was in the deeper water pulling up rocks from the bottom.

“Put it in your pocket and we can get going,” he called back.

“Going where?” I asked.

“To Volkov,” he told me. “But before we go any farther you are going to need these,” Dan said pulling something from the backpack he had been wearing all day that I didn’t bother to ask about. He handed me my gauntlets that I had left at home over a month ago.

I was shocked again by this boy’s actions. “How did you get those?” I exclaimed. “My Mom keeps them locked up tight!” “Only she and I know the combination to the safe!”

“When are you going to stop asking questions you know I will not answer?” is all Dan said to me as I put my gauntlets on. We walked out of the river and Dan held out his hands to create another glowing doorway like he had back at the lumber mill. This one was different. When I looked into it I wasn’t seeing what was on the other side but a whole different landscape. It was amazing. I walked around the portal as he called it and from every angle it was the same view of this other place. “This is the world of Volkov,” Dan told me. “Contained in that crystal is the soul of the only man who can save his world from destruction.” “We must return his soul to his body.”

“We?” I questioned. “Why do I have to go?”

“Because only your blood can free him from the crystal like it did in your dream,” I couldn’t believe it the small fry had finally given me a straight answer to my question. “Once his soul is released it is drawn into the nearest vessel.” “In your dream it was the leach and it became a monster.” We must put it back into his real body.”

I heard everything he was telling me but all I could think about was that he was saying my dream was true! If I hadn’t burned up the leach all of the things in my dream would have come true! That meant that the team that Diana and I had become was true, it could still happen. I could make it happen. But first I would do what I could to help Dan. He lead the way through the strange glowing portal and I followed cautiously. I stood at the edge of the glow looking across at him on the other side. “Come on get a move on it won’t bite!” Dan said. I took a single jump forward going through the portal all at once. It felt no different than if I had jumped over a threshold of a door. “Quite the daredevil aren’t you,” Dan snipped.

We stood in what looked like a gothic cathedral. “This isn’t right,” Dan said.

“Why, what is wrong with it?” I asked.

“This is not where we are supposed to be,” Dan answered. “The paradox in the future must have twisted this dimension so much that it realigned all of the location point.”

I looked at Dan for a minute, think about all of the big concepts he was talking about and decided, “I think it is time you told me everything that is going on before we go any farther on this trip.” He just stared at me for a minute with a look that said he knew I was right but he still didn’t want to tell me anything. “If I get hurt or worse on this trip of yours I get the impression that would cause a major problem for you,” I said trying to sound like I knew more than I did.

“Basic back story is all you are getting out of me,” Dan said finally making his decision. “Ages ago Mist’s brother, Octogod came to this world to attack it and steal its power.”

“Mist has a brother?” I interjected. The Mist I knew appeared to have no family at all. I was surprised to hear such a revelation.

“If you are going to ask questions we will never get through this!” Dan said an angry grimace on his face. “Mist had a brother who was the exact opposite of him.” “Octogod used his magic to destroy worlds of which this was one.” “This world was unified in its fight back against Octogod making its destruction all the more satisfying to him.” “Octogod defeated this world by taking their leader from them.” “The leader of Volkov was Erik the Prime, Octogod attacked him casting a spell that split his soul from his body into the quartz crystal you carry in your pocket.” “Then it was cast to Earth.” “Now that Octogod is dead this world needs to have its leader restored.”

“So what is this about a time paradox?” I asked.

“That is harder to explain, I don’t even completely understand it.” Dan told me. “If events had transpired as they did in your dream Erik the Prime would have been restored.” “Life here in Volkov would have been restored to normal as it was meant to be.” “When you destroyed the leach to save lives on Earth it created a paradox that carried on into the future.”

“So you are saying this is all my fault because I chose to save lives?” I charged.

“Not if we can fix this,” Dan said. “I spoke with Volkov in the future when the Paradox was about to collapse and destroy this world for good, he told me this is the day that we fixed the Time Paradox to save his world.” “But when I came here before, then everything was different.” We need to find the Palace in this time.”

It all made sense to me now, “You are from the future, aren’t you?” I asked. “That is how you know all these things about me.”

“Right back to the questions I can’t answer I see,” Dan said as he started to walk for the door to the cathedral. Together we opened the large wooden cathedral doors. We stood there looking out into the world of Volkov. For as far as the eye could see it appeared to be a barren desert with the exception of a few large buildings. Dan continued his story about Volkov, “Octogod left this place in ruins, taking all the power he could from it.” “He left behind creatures to drive what was left of the people into hiding preventing them from reviving their leader.”

“So where is this prime?” I asked.

Dan raised his arm to point at one of the largest structures in the distance, “There,” he said.

“It looks to be about ten miles, at top speed we should be able to get there in no time,” I said, stepping out into the bright sunlight. The moment I did my danger sense woke up. I could feel the danger all around us but couldn’t see anything remotely threatening. “Wait,” I said touching Dan’s shoulder to stop him. I turned back and looked up at the tall cathedral we had just exited. Above us swarming around the steeple were hundreds of dark shadow like creatures.

“Oh my god,” Dan murmured. “They are ‘Terror Minions’.”

“What are ‘Terror Minions’?” I asked watching as the things that didn’t even seem to notice us.

“Something I hoped to never see again,” Dan replied. “If we are lucky these earlier models are not as deadly as the others we fought.”

“We fought?” I repeated. “My guess was right you are from the future and we do know each other.”

“Look we need to get to the palace,” Dan told me ignoring my statement. “Those things are pack oriented, when we run they will all follow together after us.” “We need to stick close and whatever happens don’t let one touch you,” “On your mark, Get set, GO!” Dan shouted and we took off running.

I didn’t dare look back but the way the dark shadow cloud loomed over us, blocking out the sun I knew those things were following us as Dan said they would. I ran harder and faster than I ever thought I could, Dan was keeping up just fine right next to me. As the distance to the Palace shortened I felt that tinge at the back of my skull. Several of the ‘Terror Minions’ passed over us to come down at us. One of them reached out at me. I instinctively raised by arm in defense. The Minion grabbed hold of my gauntlet and instantly began to wail. The other Minions instantly cleared our path at the sound of the wail. The shadow thing holding my arm did not seem to be able to let go as I continued to run dragging it along side of me. I stopped running again to try to shake it loose as it continued to howl.

“What the hell are you doing,” Dan shouted to me as he stopped to look back. “Get rid of that thing!”

“I’m trying, it won’t let go,” I told him. Close up these things were even more freakish than from a distance. I tried to use my other gauntlet to push the thing away but when it touched the Minion it was like I was completing a circuit. The creature went silent and its dark eyes bulged for an instant before it exploded into dust.

“Come on let’s go!” Dan called to me as he began to run again. I followed suit, but with the end of the Minion’s cry the others began to move lower in the sky. It wasn’t long before another swooped at me. It was almost like they wanted to die. I leaped up bringing my gauntlets in on both sides of its head. The effect was reproduced instantly without a sound from the Minion. My feet touched down on the ground and I was off and running again. Dan was almost to the palace steps when a third Minions swooped down on at me. I was getting tired of this. I threw up my arms banging my gauntlets together. The moment they hit together a burst of energy like that which was fired at me in Celaerio a couple of years back was released. The wall of energy washed back over the Minions destroying many of them and scaring the other’s away. I turned to run not sure what had just happened. I quickly joined Dan on the steps of the palace.

“Not bad,” Dan said as I leaped up the stairs to join him.

“I have no idea what that was,” I told him as we entered the palace. The inside of the palace of was empty, drafty, and deserted. Dan seemed to know exactly where he was going now and I followed close behind. There was no sign of anything alive. “You said we fought those things before, what were they?”

“Octogod was a fan of using his victims to his advantage,” Dan told me. “The ‘Terror Minions’ were people he tricked into helping him.” “I would guess that these Minions aren’t much different other than they don’t seem to have bodies.” Dan opened a large door at the end of the entrance hall. “I think I just found those bodies.” Dan announce as we looked into the throne room. It looked like a scene out of Night Of the Living Dead. Over fifty decaying corpses stood swaying in front of us.

“Stand back, I got this,” I said nudging Dan aside. I raised my gauntlets preparing to use their newly discovered power. I clinked them together just as I did before, but nothing happened. I did it again, still nothing.

“You’ve used up the charge,” Dan told me. “The gauntlets need to absorb energy before they can discharge it.” “See how fine the filigree is,” “The thicker the lines the more power stored in them.” I looked at Dan surprised at his knowledge about something I had for almost two years and had no idea how they worked. “Time to use your fists to bust some heads,” Dan said walking into the room. I couldn’t help but admire how confident this little guy was at his age.

As we moved closer to the zombies they began to growl louder. Dan started punching at these things as they came in closer to us. I was impressed by this kid he packed quite a punch. I had to wonder who taught him to fight. We both fought like old partners trying to make our way through the crowd. With every injury we inflicted on them they kept coming back for more. “What are these things?” I yelled to Dan over the noise our attackers were making.

“They are dead things sent to stop us from finding the Prime,” Dan called firing a blast of energy from his eyes at one of the dead things. I had never seen such a thing, not in real life anyway. This weird little kid was amazing to me. “Grab that sword!” Dan shouted at me pointing to the wall behind me.

I looked at the wall where two swords were mounted crossed in a coat of arms. I lunged at the wall grabbing the top sword breaking it free of the mounting. The sword felt natural in my hand as I began to swing it at our attackers. I had only used practice sword carved of wood up until then. Now with this real sword I cut through their arms, legs, torsos, and necks with ease. We fought through what seemed like an endless march of dead things. I looked to Dan and those eye blasts were taking a lot out of the little guy. I made my way through the horde to him. “Get on my back!” I told him.

“What?” he says over the noise.

“Grab on around my neck!” I shouted. He jumped up onto my back grabbing around my neck and locking his legs around my waist. His weight was barely noticeable as I continued to slash my way through the dead things. With Dan on my back we moved through the crowd much faster. It was hard work and I was sweating like a pig by the time we got to the next door. I had the strangest feeling that Dan was nuzzling my neck a little too closely, almost like he was smelling me. When we reached the door he dropped down the floor and worked to open it. I turned to face the horde continuing to fend them off with the sword.

“Come on,” Dan said pulling me by the arm once he got the door open. Once inside I jammed the sword into the door handles to block it closed. I turned to see where Dan had gotten to in the room. He had walked over to a statute of a man that stood alone and tall in front of the throne.

“Is that him?” I said following in his footsteps.

“Ya, take out the crystal,” Dan told me. I reached in my pocket and dug out the artifact. I held it out to him. Dan took the clear quartz stone from my hand. Unexpectedly he grabbed my wrist and used the sharp edge of the crystal to cut deeply into my palm.

“Hey, what the fuck!” I shouted yanking my hand away using language that would give my mother a stroke. I looked at my hand gushing blood. I don’t think I have ever bled that much in my life. “Shit why did you do that?” I asked holding my wrist as my palm bled.

“Because we need your blood to make this work,” Dan told me putting the crystal back in my bloody palm and taking my wrist again. He guided me over to the statue to press my palm to the stone man’s chest. I felt a warming numbness in my hand and arm as Dan released me. I pulled my hand back and the crystal covered in my blood stuck to the statue. I looked to my hand and my palm was completely healed, good as new. Something began to happen as the statue sizzled and slowly turned to flesh.

Volkov revived and his world saved, we returned to Earth in the woods not far from Camp Tandy. Everything I had seen, learned and done this day was rattling around in my head. I couldn’t believe how much my life has changed in the last day. Dan was looking at me and somehow I felt he knew what I was thinking before he even asked.

“What are you going to do now?” Dan asked me bluntly.

“Don’t you mean what am I going to do first?” I replied. “First I’m calling my mom to come get me, then I’m going to find Diana and tell her my secret and that I know her secret!” “If we are both as powerful as I saw in my dream, we can be together!” “I can tell her that I love her!” Dan got a sad look on his face.

“I’m sorry I can’t let you do that,” Dan said. “Part of the power of the Zenith is to let me reverse damage caused by extra dimensional crossings.” “This is one such event.” “Your premonition caused you to act to change fate for the good in this world but the worst in another.” “Now to right that twist of fate I have damaged your destiny.” I had no idea what this freaky little kid was talking about, but his eyes began to glow with a golden sheen. “YOU WILL NOT REMEMBER MEETING ME THIS SUMMER OR THAT YOUR DREAM WAS A PREMONITION OF THINGS TO COME.” “BUT YOU WILL REMEMBER ALL YOU LEARNED ABOUT LETTING GO AND HAVING FUN WITH YOUR POWERS TO PUSH YOUR LIMITS.” “WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT ALL THAT WE HAVE DONE WILL RETURN TO YOU.”

After that I remembered none of it, my desire to find Diana to confess my love to her it was all gone. The next thing I remembered was walking back to camp just as the fireworks show began. Needless to say I am telling this story from a point after “the time was right.” I remember that odd little boy, Dan now and who he would become but that is a story yet to come. Funny thing is even though I didn’t remember that adventure for years afterward it was the third step in me becoming Master Warrior. You see Dan missed one small detail either on purpose or by mistake, I remembered how my gauntlets worked.

It took a few days but Gary came around and forgave me for standing him up at the tennis game. The rest of camp that year went smoothly. Riding home on the bus it was like nothing had changed between Gary and I, but once we got home I could tell things had. I would call Gary and leave messages with his Dad but Gary never called me back. Through the whole month of August before school started we hung out maybe four times. It confused me quite a bit, I didn’t know if I had done something else wrong and he wasn’t telling or what. I sat down with my voice of reason, my Dad, one night to talk over the problem I was having with Gary.

“You know son,” Dad started out trying to sound all Ward Cleaver with me. “As we grow up friends come and go in our lives.” “People change, their interests change, you said yourself that Gary was spending a lot more time with girls.” “Girls change everything,” Dad said bluntly. “Maybe it is time you tried getting a girlfriend?” he suggested.

“You’re kidding right?” I replied. “Mom would terrorize any girl I brought around here!”

“I think you are too hard on you mother when it comes to you dating,” Dad said of course. “I think you would find she is much more accepting than you think.” “Maybe you should get a job?” “Start earning some money to have some fun with.”

“A job?” I repeated. “What kind of job?”

“That is for you to figure out.” Dad told me making me think about what I could do to earn money.