Date: Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:14:39 -0700
From: J H <jarsil1980@gmail.com>
Subject: Second Chance - Chapter 5

Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction. It involves gay sex among
other things. If you feel your soul will burn in hell after reading this,
please do not read it. Or read it anyway because you know you are already
on you way there. If you are in an area that does not allow you to
read/access this, do not read it. Everyone else, enjoy.


Chapter 5: The Shadow Bloom

After my enhancement was completed, I met Daniel by the side of the road.
He grabbed on to me and we flew at a blinding speed to Central America. We
spend the next few hours exploring the underground cave system deep in the
forest. Daniel's eyes were full of wonder as we explored the various
stalagmites and stalactites structures within. Unfortunately, we didn't
have the time for site seeing. I grabbed his hand and we flew deeper into
the cave. It took some effort to get through some of the tight crawl spaces
but eventually we found what I was looking for. Before my eyes were a group
of blue naturally occurring crystals. These crystals had no magic within
them, but they were a great magical conduit. But the most important detail
was that these crystals naturally defused the magical energy used by the
Order of the Shadow Bloom. We harvested these crystals and fused them with
three steel staffs. With the sharp crystal at the end, the staffs actually
looked more like spears. Since they were tools against the Order of the
Shadow Bloom, I named them `Shadowbane Staffs'.

Throughout this journey, I had been paying close attention to Daniel.
Whenever possible, his eyes wandered back on me and when I held his hand, a
smile crept through his lips. I could see the contentment in his eyes from
just spending time with me. When we were next to each other, I could feel
that he wanted to touch me but was afraid of how I would react. When I gave
him a kiss or a hug as a thank you, his heart began beating like a drum.
Keith was right. This boy had fallen for me deeply.

During lunch time, the following Monday, I wanted to push Daniel to a
normal comfort level. I suggested that it was time he and Keith make
peace. He was unsure but I wouldn't take no for an answer. He finally gave
in and I dragged him to my normal hang-out spot. Keith was there by
himself. He jumped to his feet as soon as he saw Daniel.

Nervously, Daniel waved and said, "Hi, I just wanted to tell you that bully
wouldn't be bothering you anymore. I took care of it."

The awkward tension left Keith speechless. He saw that I was pleading with
him with my eyes. Finally, he sighed and said, "Thanks for your help."

As if things weren't tense enough, Alex chose that moment to arrive trailed
by that freshman with the Shadow Bloom necklace. I could tell Keith and
Alex were communicating with each other using body language. It appeared
that they agreed on something unknown to the rest of us. Alex turned to
Daniel and asked. "So, you're hanging with us today?"

Daniel gave me an uncomfortable glance and answered, "Sure!"

With that, we all turned our attention to the freshman. Alex introduced him
as Derrick Blake. He was about 5'7", slim, with brown hair, a baby face,
and wore glasses. He just moved to town two weeks ago. Alex met him in art
class. Since he didn't know that many people, Alex wanted to introduce him
to us.

Though I was suspicious, I kept myself calm and watched him carefully
throughout our conversation. Overall, he acted like a normal kid his age.
There were no signs of duplicity but I did detect a very faint concealment
spell at work. The spell felt very complex; too complex for someone like
him to be able to create.

"So Derrick, I have never seen a necklace like yours before. What's up with
that flower?" I asked.

"Oh this?" he answered. "It's just something my mom gave to me. There was
supposed to be some mystical background behind it." He laughed at the idea.

"Well I love a good story. Tell us the story behind that flower," I nudged
Daniel.

"Yea, yea, tell us the story," Daniel said following my lead.

"Supposedly thousands of years ago, a powerful sorcerer led an army to
conquer Europe. He was too powerful to be stopped and killed and burned
down any village that didn't obey him. One of the villages that he burned
had three survivors; a mother and two sons. They were hiding in some cave
and discovered this flower growing in absolute darkness." He pointed to his
necklace. "Somehow they learned some magical seal base on the flower and
killed the wizard," he finished.

Keith frowned and said, "Kind of a dull story."

"Hey! You guys asked for the story. I didn't say it would be good." He
sounded hurt.

Alex changed the subject and our conversation continued. Derrick had a very
optimistic view of the world. His life revolved around school, reading, and
video games. As soon as the subject of video games came up, we couldn't get
him to shut up. I truly thought he might be there to spy on Keith, just as
Elena did on the weekend, but his eyes were not on Keith at all. Whenever
he could, he stole a glance at Daniel's buff body. It wasn't hard to
recognize the lust in his eyes.

As time passed, I began to think Derrick didn't really know anything about
the Order of the Shadow Bloom. It was likely that his parents were members
and eventually he would become one of them. It seemed like currently he was
just a nerdy kid who had few cares in the world. I told Daniel to get more
information out of Derrick anyway he could; even if he had to fuck him.
That got a laugh out of Daniel, as well as punch to my shoulder.

It was late afternoon on Thursday when Daniel and I met at our usual spot
at the park. "So, did you find out anything from Derrick?" I asked.

He shook his head and answered, "Nothing but stories, video strategy, and
storylines from video games." He leaned back against a tree and asked,
"What's the story with this Shadow Bloom thing? I can see it worries you
and that really scares me. I never thought there was anything in this world
that you would be afraid of."

I leaned into him and said, "I'm not invincible, you know. There are plenty
of things I'm scared of. I'm scared of these Shadow Bloom people and I'm
scared of falling in love with you."

He gave me a light shove and laughed, "Quit teasing me or I will beat your
ass. But seriously, why are you scared of them?"

I draped my arms around his shoulders, trying to figure out where to begin
with my story. Derrick was correct on the basic background behind the
origin of the Order of the Shadow Bloom. The order was created by those
three survivors. In fact, their leadership structure is still based on
those three. Always, the Shadow Bloom members are lead by one Matriarch and
two male counselors. Their primary mission was to destroy class 3 sorcerers
before they realized their full potential. Their aim was to stop any one
person from amassing enough power to bring tragedy to the world.

The classes of sorcery are based upon power level. A class 1 sorcerer can
only do minor tricks, like enhancing a fire to make it bigger. A class 2
sorcerer can manipulate the elements as well as create more complex spells,
like uprooting a tree and making it attack. A class 3 sorcerer can do all
that, but on a grand scale. A powerful hurricane or a massive firestorm is
not out of the question for a class 3 sorcerer.

The most efficient attack against a class 3 sorcerer was their Shadow Bloom
Seal. It paralyzed its victim and used their own power to burn them from
the inside out. I happen to be a class 3 sorcerer.

My story begins 10 years from now. I landed a decent job working at an
accounting firm but still lived at home. My mom was very ill, so my dad
needed my help in taking care of her. I was dating a really hot blonde by
the name of Eric at the time. Though things were far from perfect, I was
pretty content with my life up to that point.

Then one night while I was getting ready for bed, I heard sounds coming
from the living room. When I went out to investigate, I found, to my
horror, my dad lying in a pool of blood. Three men were standing over him
and one of them was Eric. I went insane with anger and lashed out at them
with a chain of lightning. That was the first time I got to know that I had
any kind of power. The force of the lightning knocked them through the
walls and out the house. I ran to check on my dad and realized that he was
dead. Thing was far from over though. Eric and his companions came back
through the hole in the wall. They combined their power to launch the
Shadow Bloom Seal at me. I grabbed a crystal ornament on the mantle and
threw it against the seal as hard as I could. To my surprise, it shattered
the seal and the crystal shards lodged itself into Eric's heart. His
companions were stunned at the turn of events. I launched a cone of flame
from each hand, roasting them alive before they had a chance to react. I
went to check on my mom and found that she had passed away in her sleep.
Ever since that day, I did all I could to track down the Shadow Bloom and
killed all of them for what they did to my dad.

"Wow, I can understand your hatred for them. But you should be more than
powerful enough to deal with them right?" asked Daniel.

"Against one of them or even a group of them, I can handle. But I can't
handle all the arsenals that they have. Plus, this time I have a chance to
protect my family. I'm definitely scared since I have more to lose." I
said.

I took his hands and looked into his eyes. "I wasn't kidding when I said I
was afraid of falling in love with you. I do know how you feel about me,
but I lived a dangerous life with many battles ahead. I don't want to see
you in that kind of danger. Besides, you are not comfortable with being out
yet. I doubt you would want to walk hand in hand with me down the hall at
school."

"Are you kidding me?" His eyes were sparkling with hope. "I would kill for
a chance to be with you. I don't know when these feeling developed but I
have never cared for anyone more than I care about you. You are the only
man I want in this world. I thought you had feelings for Keith and that I
had no chance. I didn't want to tell you how I felt and risk losing any
chance of being by your side, even as a friend. Being near you, talking to
you, is all I need to make me feel happy. I don't even care what kind of
danger I will be in. If you give me a chance to love you, being outed is a
small price to pay."

I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him for a deep kiss. He took the
opportunity to stick his tongue in my mouth and explore vigorously. We were
making out for about ten minutes before I broke the kiss to catch my
breath. His face was beaming and I had never seen a man so happy in my
entire life.

"So, you said you don't care about being outed?" I said with a sly smile on
my face. "Well, Keith and your brother are hiding in the bushes over there
for the past hour. I made sure they can't hear anything but they surely saw
that kiss."

Despite his bravado, Daniel was panicking at the thought of being outed to
his brother. He rushed to the bushes just in time to see Keith and Alex
dashing off towards the parking lot. I took a different path and cut them
off before they got to their car and gave Daniel a chance to catch up to
them. Daniel was quite upset at being spied upon but Alex and Keith didn't
seem to care. They were both snigger quietly which made him even madder. I
think he was about to punch Alex in the face when I grabbed his arms to
calm him down.

Still laughing a little bit, Alex said, "So this is the girl you told me
about, eh bro? He's a lot hotter than I expected."

Daniel's face was red with embarrassment. I put my hand on his back and
said, "You told me that you would be ok with being outed. Don't go back on
your word."

He just took my hand and said, "Let's just get out of here."

I waved a goodbye to my friends. As soon as I got into his truck and closed
the door, he sped us out of the parking lot. I knew it will take some time
for him to get over this situation, so I didn't want to push him. I held
his hand as he drove away from the park. When he overcame his
embarrassment, a grin crept over his face. He kept glancing at me, as if he
couldn't believe I was holding his hand. I had to yell at him to keep his
eyes on the road.

I was still curious to see what Keith and Alex were doing after we left. I
was using my far sight to check up on them when I felt the energy
signatures of the Order of the Shadow Bloom.

Hurriedly, I raised Daniel's truck off the ground, wrapped an invisibility
field around it and flew us back to the park. Daniel kept asking me what
was going on but my attention was focused on the current problem. I could
only tell him that Alex and Keith were in grave danger. Just then, I saw a
Shadow Bloom Seal being launched at Keith. Alex pushed him out of the way
just in time, but sacrificed himself in the process. He fell to the ground
and stopped moving.

==================================

To be continued...
Please stay tune for Chapter 6: Rise of the Frost King


Question? Comments?

I welcome all feedback and look forward to all comments. This is my first
story so please be gentle. My ego bruises easily. hehe.

Please write to jarsil1980@gmail.com