Neo-Gods

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The book might be right, or might trying to make up a story to deceive him. However, he does not have any clue what is the truth anyway, so a fake story and a true story is just the same for now. More than that, the grandma told him to read this book, and he trusts her.

Lenny decides to open it again and continue reading, but the pages are all blank now. He picks up the quill and asks it,

"Hey, where are all the pages with explanation about magic?"

The book shuttles, faster than usual.

"I have a feeling that you don't believe my knowledge, it hurts me so I erased all of them."

"Come on. You know that those things are too much for my brain to absorb in such a short period, right?"

"Kidding. Muah hahahah (Does it sound evil yet?). I figured it out so I think I will just give you the magic instruction and explain more on the way. We still have plenty of time before the Dark Age."

"Ok, give me the instruction, also give me a short explanation of the Dark Age."

"The Dark Age is a two thousands years old prophecy of the great god of Knowledge, Dararie - who also happens to be the famous No-Bell winning Magi Theorist I told you earlier. Basically, it foresee that 1 year after a great invasion from the other world, the sky will turn dark and Chaos will destroy everything. Everyone will die, not including me, I am not a living thing. Muah hahahah. I will watch you all die ........................................................................................................................................... ................................................ Just kidding, I also don't want it to happen."

To be honest, Lenny feels nothing from that piece of information. The world is going to end? That does not matter to him, since he does not feel like he belongs to it any more.

"So what? I don't care.", he writes.

"You will care, because in the prophecy, several neo-gods will appear and kill Chaos, bring balance back to the worlds, the chance is 50/50. When I looks around, there are not that many neo-gods available to my knowledge, and one of them is you, young master."

"What the hell is a neo-god? I am just a regular soldier from the Light Half. I didn't even know there is magic in my past life."

"Neo is new, neo-gods are new gods, after the old ones left this world ages ago. You are a neo-god, it is in your vein. Remember I told you that you have the ability to absorb magic that is equal to a god?"

"In my vein? I don't understand."

"Oh I forgot to tell you that you are a descendant of the old ones. I found blood of Dea - God of Hell, Vulcan - God of Fire, Repun Kamui - God of the vast Ocean in your vein, a long with your human part. There must be some relations between your family members with them, and it could be thousands of years ago."

"Then how did I land on the Light Half?"

"Who knows? My information about that was erased. But there are many occasions that people from the two halves travel back and fort."

"You told me there are more than just me. I think if I can ask the others about their origin, I may find my own answer."

"That's a good idea, you are smart, my young master. I am afraid that I only know Miss Selene of Skythea as another neo-god. Some one has erased most of my knowledge about the neo-gods. May be it was for their safety. Our only clue is Miss Selene. As I told you, she is pretty, I think you two could make a good couple."

"Don't try to mess with me, Dararia. I don't care about her, my only question is the origin of my existence."

"Alright, then as you wish, master. I will teach you your first spell: globusignis - fireball"

The book then floats in front of Lenny while he is reading the word "globusignis" in his mind. Two streams of red light come out of the word and gently land on his forehead, entering it. He can feel a chill down his spine, but it is not fear. It feels like a river of energy flow through every cells inside him, warmly and strangely.

The book shuttles itself again as soon as the red lights faded off, a new instruction appeared,

"Lets go outside and burn some stuff, master."

Even with many doubts are still residing in his mind, Lenny picks up the magic book and goes out. There is nothing in sign, except some trees tip out of the ground fog. Then the book floats again on its own, giving new instruction,

"Now, master, please point your fingers toward anywhere you want to test the spell, concentrate and think of fire or something burning, then shout globusignis out loud. Don't point at the house though, I hate rain and still need something to cover my papers from being wet."

Lenny does as the book said, doubtfully. He points his fingers toward a random direction in the fog, and start to think. The first burning object that comes to his mind is Old Fart, of course. At the top of his lung, Lenny shouts the magic word, expecting to get a comment from the book of how stupid he looks like and why does he believe in such an idiotic thing.

Then, the tip of his fingers start to glow red like a hot steel under high temperature, right in front of his panicking eyes. From each finger, a stream of fire rapidly flows toward a ball shaped fireball that is just two inches away from them. The fireball at first was as small as a bean, but then it grows up into the side of an egg in just a mere second and does not stop. He feels like the little fireball is draining his energy out of him, rapidly and if he does not do something fast, all of his life will be dried out. Freaking out, he immediately clenches his hands to stop the fire from coming out. It really stopped the fire like he wanted, but also somehow it also pushed the fireball flying extremely fast toward the direction he pointed to. Flying at the speed of a bullet, the fireball needs less than a blink of an eye to get itself lost inside the thick fog, leaving a trail of black smoke behind. Shortly after, in the place where it landed, a fierce explosion emerges, along with a eardrum-rupturing sound effect. The whole area around it is blasted with an explosive power that is comparable with a small volcano eruption, burn everything down to black ashes. Its also created a wind gust that quickly blow all the fog around it away, revealing a big area of the forest with a newly created meteor crate at its center.

The pressure of the blast made the house behind him shaken violently and freaked Lenny out. However, the shocking stage disappear quickly, leaving the awe left alone. He could not believe in his own eyes anymore. Just a moment ago, he blew away a huge part of the forest with his bare hands and it is so awesome!

Lenny immediately turns around to find the book, which was also blew away in the explosion.

"Where are you Dararia? did you see what I just did? wow, where are you?" He talks to himself out of excitement.

"I am here, Master, hiding behind the door." A woman's voice raises up, stroking the silence.

"Who is that?", Lenny is surprised by the appearance of a new voice.

The book flies out of the door, at the same time, he hears that voice again.

"It is me, Dararia. Apparently, now we can talk."

"Wow, I thought I must use that quill to communicate with you.", says Lenny.

"Yes, that was the past. Now you have just acquired a new power, a power that allows us to communicate via telepathy.", it replies.

"Telepathy? That is so ...wow. By the way, did you see that explosion?". He does not even try to hide his excitement.

"Yes, I saw it. You are really have potential, master. Not many fire mages can utilize globusignis that well in the first time. You are natural. But do you feel exhausted now?"

"Yeah, I feel a little bit dizzy right now. It was like I used up all of my energy to create that fireball."

"Almost correct, master. You actually used more than half of your Magic Aura in that blast. But don't worry, you will get all of them back in a few minutes. Meanwhile, let us work on your controlling skill.", the book explains.

It then tells Lenny that he can control the amount of magic aura spending in his spell with more practice, so he does not have to use so much energy for each cast next time. Also, it will lower down the damage of the blast. "More control over the spell, more efficient it becomes", said the book.

About half an hour later, Lenny get used to firing balls from just one finger, with minimal damage and smaller explosions. To that progress, the book stated that it was deeply impressed. Other fire mages need at least one month of practice in able to do that feat while Lenny has mastered it in less than thirty minutes and in less than twenty tries.

While being overly hyped with his newly found power, Lenny does not notice some one is running toward the house from the wood. He point his finger toward that direction and prepare to shoot a fireball for the twentieth time. When he releases the fireball flying, a small and quick figure jumps out of the fog, right in the collision course.

<To be continued>

Thanksgiving: 0 - Black Friday: 1

As we have already known, Thanksgiving is a traditional holiday in United State and Canada. People here celebrate this day to give thanks for the blessing of harvest and of the preceding years. Even though, our modern technologies today play a central role in securing our food sources, the "blessing" and most other natural phenomenons do not contribute as much as before, people still keep this traditional holiday as a mean for family members to gather and have precious times together. There is always not enough 'family time' for anyone, so this tradition is kind of useful.

Then there is the Black Friday, appeared out of nowhere and conquered the world. People in the United State have been celebrating Thanksgiving for 402 years and eventually, the entrepreneurs discovered that they can make more money from this holiday by giving discounts on overpriced goodies. It is natural for people to go shopping when they have spare time, it is close to Christmas and the kids come back from schools. The holiday boost sales in all store, and the discounts boost them even to a higher level. Rich people are smart people, when the neighbor supermarket gives discount on Black Friday, they immediately copy that to their stores and eventually, the whole country is on discount. Consumers start to develop a habit of camping outside of Walmart or BestBuy or other retailers to wait until they have a chance to get a discounted item they wish for. Meanwhile, the retailers start to raise price on some particular items in order to discount them without losing profit on Black Friday. Also, if something was not sold well during the last year, it will also get a discount. The business people know too well that those baiting items will attract a lot of customer to their stores and usually, they will also buy things that are not discounted, or even things that are getting a raise in price. Smart move.

Soon enough, Black Friday has became one of the most noticeable culture presses of the United State in the eyes of people around the world. Human is a weird species. If we like something very much, and we can not have it, we will try to copy it at any cost. America has long been a dream land, a great figure for people around the world to look up to (except North Koreans, their country is already the best of the bests, with their great leader Kim Jong Un who has conquered all poverty with his mighty godly power. For them, the United State is the evilest place on earth and its citizens are living in hell on earth... so yeah.). However, many people will never ever have a chance to move to this country and experience its culture, so copying the cultures from it is their only option. Those cultures are not necessary compatible with their owns, but they can still be adopted. Halloween could be considered as an example, even if it is not originated from the United State, but Hollywood has made it an 'American thingy' and now young people all over the world are going crazy with it. Basically, no one knows anything about the All-Hallows-Eve of the Christians, they just know that "Monsters and ghosts festival" is cool, at least on the widescreen. Black Friday was also in their wishlist for a long time now. Recently, Spain, Vietnam and many other countries have officially made Black Friday as their thing while there is no holiday associated with it. Cool huh? People still flood the supermarkets and retailer's stores no matter what. Entrepreneurs get their big profits from that.

Sadly, Thanksgiving is also an American thing, but nobody cares because it does not provide profit nor be a cool monster-ghost festival. 

The power of the Sea vs the power of Hell

Magic particles

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The next day, he wakes up just to find out that it is mid day already and the grandma and Old Fart are not in the house. Having nothing else to do, he decided to open the book again by moving the petal mark near it. The book opened, but this time it shuttle the pages by itself and move to a page that says:

"Good day my Master. Can you please not throwing me like that again? I am old and my spine are are killing me, especially after that throw."

Lenny picks the quill up and start to write.

"Sorry, book. I thought you were just a book."

"Can any regular book also talk to you like me? I am not just a book, I am Dararia - the book of Knowledge. My beautiful body is the result of thousands years of artistic doing."

Reading the text, Lenny sighs sarcastically. He does not know which one bothers him the most now, the problem with his memory, who are his parents, or this egotistical book.

"Okay, I am really sorry for the pain you had to bear, Daria. Honestly I don't know what to do now."

"It is DARARIA, sir. There is a 'RA' between 'DA' and 'RIA'. About your situation, I would highly recommend learning some magic now. Magic is very useful, it may also help you to regain your control over your mind."

"Magic? What did you mean by controlling my mind?"

"Not controlling your mind, sir... You younger generation never bother to read carefully. Back in my days, people actually love to read. Come back to the main idea: There are some spell that can help people regain their lost memories. That is why I think it would be a good thing for you."

"I have no idea about what is magic and spells. But I do want to get my memories back. Who can teach me magic?"

"Of course you don't. There is no magic in the land where you came from. Also, you are a very lucky person to have me as your servant, for I am having the knowledge of all magic in this world and the underworld, except some forbidden spells because my previous master has erased them from me."

"That is nice. Who was your previous master?"

"I don't know. That person erased those kinds of information from me already. I hate it when people do that to me. If I had some hands, I would beat him/her up. Too bad I don't have hands."

"Sorry for that. Also I would like to assure you that I would never do such a thing. Now, can you teach me the spells that can help me to regain memories?"

"I know you won't, young Master. Your personality is too kind to do that. Also I can not teach you those spells yet, because you do not have enough magic aura to perform such spells."

"What is magic aura? How can I obtain enough magic aura to cast those spells?"

The book takes a while to shuttle pages, and when it is done, there are more than one page that has text for Lenny to read.

"Let me explain further to you: Two thousands years ago, a magi theorist had proposed a theory of magic to explain many thing about the magic usage in this world. His name is Dararie - the greatest Bookworm (I can assure you that he is a human, not a worm). He found out that the magic power that some people are using in this world are actually very small particles that also forming everything else, and they are everywhere in this world. To prove his point, he built a 27 kilometers tunnel in the earth and called it: The Magical Particles Accelerator. In that sophisticated artifact, he experimented with many extraordinary magicians and normal people. The result was also very surprising at that time as it also got him a No-Bell award. That was most honorable award for any magi theorist at that time...

Well, about the result: it shows that for people who can utilize magic, those particles are their source of magic and is extremely unstable, while for normal people, those particles are very stable. He concluded that the more unstable particles a person has, the more powerful that person is. So he derived a measurement term for magic level, which he calls it 'Magic Aura'. A person would get more Magic Aura by continuously spending his/her current amount of Magic Aura on spells. When that person does so, his/her body will absorb more unstable particles inside and increase the Magic Aura. More Magic Aura means more powerful spells can be made, because spells consume them. The ability to gain more Magic Aura is varies between people and many other creatures. For example, some can gain extremely amount of Magic Aura and became the Gods, the Lords while some others can feel free to practice their tiny spells for a life time and still can't do anything cool. Also, there are many type of Magic Aura and for a specific race, only one or two type can be absorbed. For example, the races of the underworld can only absorb Fire Aura, while the Sky World races can only absorb Ice and Air Auras. Each type of auras can do some pretty neat big spells of that type. However, there are some other uses of them, like using them to enchant physical power (some human can lift up a mountain or run faster than the speed of sound), or general purpose spells like memory regaining spells. Initially, a magical creature is born with a little Magic Aura, and if it does not use them in its entire life, then the Aura will stay the same forever.

You, my Master, is someone like that. Your Magic Aura is not enough for big spells now. However, you have a special ability to gain Magic Aura. As you see in your palm, there is a petal of the Heaven Flower, or some people prefer to call it the Glowing Blossom. It is purely magical, that has a high density of unstable particles. When you were holding it, you were unknowingly absorbing its Magic Aura, a very large amount of them, compare to normal human. From my observation and calculation, your ability to gain Magic Aura is even comparable to that of a god! Spoiling: you are going to have a very bright future, my Master.

While you are asking yourself: why the hell I were absorbing Magic Aura if I did not use any magic? I did a little research about your type of aura and the way you absorbed that petal. The result is quite mysterious: you are able to absorb both Sea Aura and Fire Aura. There is absolutely no record of anyone that has two kind of opposite Auras inside them like you, except for the case of Selene Aglarus - a 19 years old lady who happens to have both Earth Aura and Air Aura. No one knows that except for her father, who is the Lord of Skythea. He tried to erase my knowledge about his daughter once but some how I still have her name and her address. You should totally meet her, she is cute and single.

Damn, I forgot to write the main point again. Alright, the main reason why you were able to absorb the petal is that you naturally used your Magic Aura to survive diving underwater and survive the hell fire of your Ceberus (Yes, your big husky dog is from a species called Ceberus), not to mention that you absorbed the entire fire blast from a Drakul six months ago and hibernated until three days ago to recover from the impact. Because your Magic Aura were still weak, you couldn't block that fire and lost your memories. At least you didn't die, or else I may have to wait for another 100 years for someone who is worthy to read me. "

Lenny stops reading and thinks in silence as he is still trying to comprehend the information he has just received from the book. Suddenly, from the least expected source, he learned many thing about himself for the past six months. That is not something that is easy to believe, especially when the person, or the thing that provided those information is always speaking in a joking sarcastic tone.

<to be continued>

The princess of Skythea - Selene Aglarus

Three months in an English speaking environment

It has been a quarter of a year since I arrived to the mighty USA. I am pretty sure of that because the insurance company has deduced 54.78 dollars from my bank account for being well-protected for a Quarter. 

What have I learned from the last three months? English or confidence? Did I change anything about myself? My appearance or my inner value? It is hard to say because I tend to use overly sophisticated words to describe simple things. 

However, there is a fact that my English skills have been improved, a long with my confidence. By confidence, I mean the tendency to speak more in English without caring much about my terrible grammar reflex. Now, my reflex is becoming so fast no grammar can go over my head. Responding faster, with so-so accuracy is my new way of life. Of course, that is an improvement. I evolved from shy boy, who was so afraid to say something wrong, or pronounce something wrong that could lead to awkward situations, into a manly man who does not fear awkward situations anymore. Just speak out loud, what could go wrong?

This is the moment I finally realize what is my inner value, and bring it into light, make it shine like the sword of Frodo Baggins - the Sting. That value is the thickness of my face's skin. It is not only preventing my beard from coming out, it is also prevent the sharp spikes of awkward conversations from penetrating into the emotion inside. Thanks to it, I felt more obligated to speak, and to learn new words, new expressions, new concepts. Sometime, we are too afraid to open our heart and let something new inside, because we do not want to get hurt. However, if you are brave enough to do so, everything will get better day by day. Of course you still get hurt though, but the point is, you will get used to it. I made new friends, lost some potential ones, made some people upset, made other laugh. To think about it, speaking to people is not so scary at all. Some good people even told me what I said wrongly, or bothered to explain some new things to me. 

Those are the things I had learned from this environment, but I did not mention the things I may never have a chance to learn, did I? Well, I want to learn the British accent. That is certainly not feasible in this country though. Hope that one day, a true British person will teach me that. 

For now, or to be specific, for the next three months, before getting another insurance bill, I will work on the grammar accuracy of my speaking skill. Maybe one day I will be able to instantly compose new random songs in English when sitting in front of the piano making random tunes. 

Questioning

<Continues>

Old Fart turns back into its husky form before running through the door. It sits just next to its bowl and wait for its food from the grandma. Lenny comes in to help her prepare the table.The food is good but they make him feel like he has tasted this flavor before.

"Wow,  this soup is very delicious. Grandma Mely. I think I have eaten this kind of food in the past, just can't remember where and when right now. " Says Lenny.

"That is not possible young boy." She smiles to him.

"Why not? What's wrong with it?"

"Because your army has never been able to advance this far into the mainland. While the flowers I used to make this soup only grow in this area."

"Must be my imagination then."

They continue eating and talk. Lenny tell her about the glowing blossom underwater and asks her about the meaning of his new mark, to which she says she does not know, and he must find out the answer by himself. They then talk about Old Fart and its incredible feats today. They share compliments to the dog but it seems like it care more about the food in its bowl than the human's story. Every ten minutes, it brings the bowl back and push it into the grandma legs to ask for more. Lenny does not fall too far behind the dog's demand though as he constantly empty his dishes. He feels like he has not eaten anything for ages. Soon enough, the two finished eating everything grandma Mely has to offer them.

Dararia - God of Knowledge

After the dinner, the grandma tells him to go sleep since he is still weak after a "long slumber". Although he does not understand what she means by "long slumber", he agrees that his muscles are still tired and a rest is necessary. Old Fart seems to be tired too, as it fell sleep on the floor peacefully before anyone can notice. Lenny goes back to his room after saying good night to the grandma.

As he closes the door, Lenny notices the magic book is already there on the table. "Must be grandma Mely. She must brought it here.". he thinks. Deciding look at it later, Lenny blows out the candle and jumps on the bed. However, he can not sleep that easily.

In the dark, the petal mark on his palm started to glow, so is the book on the table. Both of them glow purple light and immediately catch his attention. Lenny walks out of his bed, and move closer to the book. As he get closer, the book glows stronger like it is reacting to the petal mark. Lenny takes it to the bed to investigate further. Turn out, not the entire book is glowing, it is just the stone in front of it that emits light. He touch the stone with his marked hand, and a stream of purple light slowly move from the mark to it. Now, in front of Lenny, the book opens itself.

He turns the pages repeatedly, but there is nothing to read. The entire book is blank. However, there is a quill at the last page. It is a red feather quill that looks like it is burning at the tip. Lenny picks it up to get a closer look of the tip. What he did not expect is that when the quill was taken out, from its tip, a red line is produced in the air. The red line glows in darkness for a second then disappears. Fascinated by a pen that can write on air, Lenny hovers it aimlessly to create multiple shapes and size around him. They all are dissolved after a second.

An idea comes to his mind, as Lenny writes "hi" on the air. Suddenly, the book moves by itself. It starts to shuttle the pages and then stop at one random page. On that page, there is a line, saying: "Hello my new master, how can this servant serve you?"

This surprises Lenny, because he was very sure that he checked every pages and there was not any thing written in them. He then goes into a conclusion that this quill can help him to communicate with the book.

"What are you?" he writes.

The book shuttles itself again, and opens another pages.

"I am Dararia - the Book of Knowledge. I can answer any of your question if it is related to the knowledge of this world."

"Okay then, who am I?"

"Your name is Leonard Alexander - 24 years old. You are not supposed to be existed in this world."

That answer greatly disturbs Lenny, why did it say he is not supposed to be existed?

"What do you mean by that?", he writes his thought out.

"You did not come into this world by a normal way. I cannot obtain the knowledge of your father and mother. You are not a result of sexual reproduction."

"Where did I come from?"

This time, the book shuttle for a longer time than usual, and when it stops, it says:
"Sorry master, the answer you are seeking is outside of my knowledge. Please ask me another question."

Irritated, Lenny throws the book to the corner. Now, not even a magic book of knowledge knows who he is. He is in no mood for any other question, so he decides to sleep.

<To be continues>

Commercial culture

Recently, I bought a lot of stuff, both in-store and online stuff, including snow boots, a piano, headphones, jeans, etc. Therefore, I think I am quite used to the commercial environment in the United State, which is quite different from what we have in Vietnam.

On the surface of the iceberg, I can look for best prices and best customer satisfied stores on the internet. It is all transparent with reviews and rating systems everywhere. We have Google Certificated Stores, Ebay Top Rated Plus sellers, Amazon Prime, and many other super-branch retailers that is trusted by reviewers. After finding the right stores, I can go to theirs physical locations or their websites to find the items I need. Usually, the online stores are cheaper while the physical stores are more convenient, and it is a known fact so I will not brag about it. However, if you want to buy from an online store, you can just ignore the listed prices and make a call to their customer service for a discount. Most of the items listed are available for a discount, so there is no need to immediately purchase for the higher price. I saved 200 dollars for my piano and accessories that way. More over, since the market is so transparent, you can also tell a store about a better deal from another store to see if they can beat that. They want to sell their stuff, so if they can lower the price to beat a competitor, they will. Most of the time, I walked away from a shop with satisfaction all over my face.

That is totally different from how we shop in Vietnam, or in many other Asian countries. Most of the time, you cannot find the item you need online, because the options are not that many. People are too lazy to post their stuff online and maintain a payment system with it. Usually, if you need something, there will be a specific market/street that sells those stuff in your city, and you will have to go there yourself to see and to try. You never know who is honest and who will try to cheat, so you will have to be careful all the time. The good side is, after a while of training your bargaining skill and hardening your classification skills (for fake products), you will be someone called the Bargaining Warrior! Your friends, your cousins, your family members and girls you know will worship you and always want to go with you when they shop. I have yet to achieve that title but I know some people who are already at that rank. For example, my dad can talk to a seller and make him discount 80% off a wooden table that originally costs 800 dollars. The best I have ever done in my life was 20% off a $700 violin in Vietnam.

The hidden part of the iceberg is how people manage business here in the US and how we do business in Vietnam. In Vietnam, China, Phillipines, etc everyone can do their small business without having any legal issue. They do not have to be a company entity to do that, and government collect tax from them in a specific way. Everyone with a small building, house that faces the road can sell their things. Therefore, most of the small businesses do not have to invest much money and the consequence is, they do not have online stores. The online stores are for big and serious businesses that can make sure to customers that they will not send them a red brick instead of their iPhone 6 Plus. Meanwhile, in the US, the law requires you to be a business entity in order to open a shop, and selling your stuff over Ebay, Amazon is relatively cheap. That is the reason why you can find most of things you want on the Internet without leaving your house. However, the things you see on the Internet is just pictures with descriptions, and you have no way to know if your iPhone 6 Plus that is on the way to your home is actually an iPhone-shaped rock or not.  So the reviewing websites/ rating systems were born for that sole purpose. All the stores are now considering their online rating is a crucial factor of their business, so they try their best to satisfy customer, naturally. These systems build a hidden bond between consumers and suppliers in a straight forward way. That is the difference.

Not only retailers, this culture of rating is applied for many other aspects of an US citizen. You have history on your driver license for insurance companies to check, you also have credit history for bankers, auto-sellers, T-mobile, Verizon, etc to check. If you did anything wrong, like forgot to pay your monthly credit statement, or hit someone's dog with your car, then you will have a serious mark in your history for at least 7 years.  Third world countries do not have those systems, so no one care about driving carefully, or be on time with your payment. Of course, we have solution for that. If you hit my dog, my men will beat you up or you will have to pay. Or if you 'forgot' to pay the bank, some random guys 'might' show up from somewhere and beat you up for 'some random reasons', until you finally pay in full. Life finds its own way.

Fur of flame

Sketagon

<Continue>

Old Fart is not staying in his vision range again. It is not normal for such a massive dog stops making waves on this small stream. "He must ran of somewhere into the wood again", thinks Lenny.

He then swim back to the bank to get his clothes and wash them. Not until now he can feel the unbearable smell stuck on his clothes. It is a combination of both sweat and a stinky unknown substance, which he presumes to be rotten flesh of animal or, maybe, human. It is funny how he was used to this kind of smell just fifteen minutes earlier and now he can barely breath in it.

Right after he dips his clothes into the stream, those smells suddenly vanishes. They were not just faded away slowly, they vanished, literally. Not only the smell, all the dried dirt were washed away faster than he can blink. There is something in the water that cleaned his clothing in a surprising way. Now when he takes them out of the water, they looks like brand new shirt, jacket and trouser, except for the tattered areas. Maybe even a magical spring can not fix what is already broken.

While locking himself in various thoughts of this spring, a bark behind pulls him out of his own fantasy. Old Fart is back. It was sneaking behind him with the intention of licking his face one more time. However, Lenny pushes it back again, just to realize that Old Fart is not a giant monster anymore. It has shrank back into the normal sized husky he knows. Lenny does not know why, but maybe after all of these events, he does not surprise anymore.

An awesome confrontation.

The sun soon helps him to dry his clothes on a large rock before slowly ducking down the horizon. Lenny wears his clothes on, while telling the dog that they need to stop playing fetch and go back to grandma's house. Old Fart seems to understand what he said, but reluctantly disagree by trying to push the stick he found into Lenny's hands. However, he determines to leave now, because it would be very dark in the fog when the sun goes completely down, so the two heads back to the trail and walk up.

The light is fading out at an incredible rate. In just a few minutes after walking into the fog again, Lenny can not see any thing at all. He can still hear Old Fart barks,  but complete darkness blocks his view of the trail to the point of no direction sense could be defined in his head anymore.

"Old Fart, where are you? I can't see anything at all", he calls his companion.

Old Fart does not bark back, this time it starts to growl. There is something lurking in the dark, around them. Lenny can feel it too.

"What is that? Who's that?" says, Lenny, to the darkness.

No respond. Old Fart is still growling, indicates that this 'something' might not be a friendly being. Lenny hears some foot steps and the crunching sounds of wood around him. Evil escapes from the sounds it makes, sending chill up Lenny's spine. He has no weapon or whatsoever in his hands right now, as his only hope is Old Fart. However, despite of hearing it growling all the time, he still can not locate it in this darkness.

Then, he feels foul breaths behind his nape. The breaths have a smell of a thousand rotten bodies, clearly is not a product of Old Fart. The 'thing' is just behind him, it emanate evil in every single sound it makes. The evil that could normally strike down any average person just by fear is surrounding Lenny as if it will consume him all at once.

"OLD FART!" He yells loudly to tell the dog his position, in the hope that he would respond in time.

*WOOF*, Lenny feels a small fireball jumps right between him and the 'thing', light everything up. The first thing he can see in the light is a dragon-like head that requires him to look up 70 degrees just to see its green demonic eyes. The eyes have no pupil inside, just plain glowing green color. Even the longest fang Old Fart has in its Hell Spawn form is just about a half compare to this monster's fangs, which are pouring drops of poison to the ground, burning it. Beside of its long, bloody tongues, which always sticks out of its creepy mouth, there is no any other sign of flesh, no skin, no meat, as if the entire monster is a demonic skeleton that can move on its own.

Lenny is shocked by its appearance, but what is more shocking than that is the monster seems to be scared of the small fire ball in front of it. Moreover, the fireball is... growling and threatening the giant monster away. Turn out, it is Old Fart. Now it is not a white husky dog that jumps around when excited, nor a giant Hell Spawn that can freeze anyone heart if they don't know how sweet it is.  Instead, it chose the form of something in the middle: a fire hound. It is still as small as the husky form is, but has the look of a fearsome Hell Spawn form, in which the flame pours out of its body as fur. While still not be able to feel any heat from Old Fart's fur, Lenny notices that every trees around it in the range of 200 foots starts to catch fire and lighten up a huge area around it. The small dog is emitting a flame aura that can break spirit of any opponents upon contact. The dragon-like monster is being intimidated completely to the point of not even dare to look straight to Old Fart eyes. Its submission to the dog is like the most mean abject servant to a an almighty god. Soon after the appearance of Old Fart, the monster lurked back into the darkness like a lamp running from the wolves as if it has made a terrible mistake.

The chill in Lenny is long gone, only the awe stays. He has heard the granny said that Old Fart can protect him from any Hell Spawn in this fog, but what he has just witnessed is incredible. Now he absolutely admires his small but fiery companion in every single aspect.

The dog lows down its flame, while not forget to proudly bark one or two times toward the dark to celebrate its victory, then runs back to Lenny. It leans against his legs, expecting a treat.

"Good boy, you are an amazing dog, Old Fart." Says Lenny, while patting its head and scratch its neck. He knows that its flaming fur will not burn him or hurt him, because the dog can control it.

They promptly continues going up the trail as Old Fart is lightening the way for Lenny now. Soon after, they reach the house, in which a delicious smell of good food is coming out of the kitchen, excites them.

<To be continued>

Intimidation

Fur of flame

Heart of the State

What is so special about the United State? I say it is the States. Utah State is one of them.

Yesterday and today, I had a chance to visit Salt Lake City, for my housemates has a new car and he wanted to test drive it. We also had a workshop in the University of Utah though, there is no reason to not drive to Salt Lake City and see what's up! So we said bye to the beloved Cache Valley and drove all the way to the magical capital of the Mormons.

My first impression is: It is truly the Heart of this State! We went through farms, a small valley, a lake, and farms again, and factories, and farms again... A lot of farms. At first, I felt like this country is so big people here can be billionaires by just farming on the vast lands. But then a huge white structure showed up behind the hill, follow up by several tall buildings behind it: The capital city of Utah appeared before my tiny Asian eyes, beautiful and majestic. If the farms in the wild places of Utah can out reach your vision range, the industrial city of Salt Lake can make your eyes blinded by its spectacular beauty.

The big white structure I mentioned earlier is the Capital of Utah State, where the governor works. It gave me the impression of a wealthy and powerful being by just staying there in its Greek-like look. Of course my Asian instinct told me to take some pictures in various weird poses in front of it, for the sake of showing my achievement of putting my feet on its property. There was a moment when my actions of showing the Asian dominance was noticed by some police officers who was patrolling around the building in their nicely polished sedan car. They stood there, in front of the building, with cold faces and skeptical eyes. They were scared of me, of course. They were afraid that I would do something harmful to their sacred place and their boss would fire them. I am a tolerant person. So I decided to not make them feel more nervous with the present of my dominant spirit there anymore and left the place in a glorious retreat. It is not like I was afraid of their cold faces and unfriendly attitude or anything, totally not. I just want to say it again: no, it is not. I just did not want to make them feel uneasy, that is it.

Then we drove into the city. It was very tidy and large. I felt like I was in Hanoi once again, with all the buildings and shopping centers, minus the tidy part. I was living in Logan for several months, and I thought my memories of big cities would fade into my past without any trace soon, until this city opened its hands and held me inside its heart. It has everything I could remember of Hanoi: noises of cars and people, bricks and mortar (not wood like the houses in Logan) buildings, windows and glasses, hobos and dogs, etc. Even the smell, it was so...big city-ic. Everything intrigued me and my sense of time and space was overwhelmed by the happy feeling of escaping out of a boring small town to a real city. Then I heard a voice.

The voice said to me: "Hey Phong, look!". I turned to my back, just to found an artistic sculpture of an old man blessing two younger men. (By touching their forehead, of course. How else can people bless others?) That moment, I realized that somehow my legs brought me to a holy place, where the history of the Mormons started in this land: The LDS Temple. It was a nicely structured building with artistic details. A whole bunch of other buildings are positioned purposely around it to support its shininess. Some of them are twice as big as the Zion Bank building nearby. "This must be the capitol of the Mormons", said me, to myself. "Wait, could that voice belongs to ... OH MY..."

"It belongs to me, dude" my housemate said.

That was how it ended. The Mormons are rich, Utah State has a huge capitol, and my friend has the voice of a holy spirit.

Someday I will visit you again, my love. (Next time I will eat less sugar and be cool)

More of the past

<Continues>

...Then it licks him. He can feel the tongues go all over his face in a surprisingly familiar manner.

"What?? This can't be..."

Lenny opens his eyes and push its heads out. The hell spawn stops licking his face and looks at him excitingly with all of its tongues out.

*woof*, it ...barks. Its giant tail is waving extremely fast behind, causing wind gusts strong enough to make trees to be pushed over.

"Are...are you Old Fart? oh dear...", Lenny's words stumbled from his mouth. The scary hell spawn in front of him is now acting exactly like a overly excited dog, running around him, barking and randomly taking his behind leg up on some random trees, except that this "doggy" is two hundreds times bigger than Old Fart and when it runs around, the earth is shaken.

"Wait wait wait, Old Fart, come here." Lenny shouts at the top of his lung, afraid that his tiny voice could never reach to such a giant dog. But it did, and the giant hell spawn runs toward him playfully, before about to lick his face with its blood red tongues again.

"No no, don't lick, bad boy. Lie down and let me look at you, lie down." Lenny pushes its heads out and orders it to lie down. The dog shakes its heads reluctantly lies down, putting all the heads on its front legs and stares at Lenny.

He slowly pat its middle head, and it seems to really like that. The other heads move closer, pushing the middle one aside to reach Lenny's hand. "Now this is not fair, I only have two hands, you know?", he says to the heads, and pats them. "I was wondering why Grandma Mely could survive in this place, and now I know why. You must be a very special dog she has." He smiles while the dog is enjoying its treat with its eyes half closed.

Now, when it is calmed down, Lenny takes his time to look at the dog again. It has red fur covered some parts on his badly scarred body. The claws are sharp, and seem like they are really hot, even though Lenny can not feel any heat at all. "You can melt rock with your claws, but why didn't they hurt me, doggy?" Lenny touch his hand on a really large scar on its right chest. He feels that this dog has been through a lot, and some what resemble himself, a soldier. Although the scar is old, but it still hurts Old Fart when Lenny touched it, as it shivered uncomfortably. Lenny can feel that, so he stroke the scar gently to make his dog feels safe. It still have mud and blood on some part of its body, but due to the enlarged size, they do not look as significant as before. Still, it is Lenny job to clean the dog.

A glimpse to the past

"Lets see how can I wash this huge doggy so he can be clean and clear for dinner!" He says to the dog, and whistle at it, signals it to jump into the stream. He also takes off his smelly, tattered uniform to throw himself into the water. Old Fart jumps after him excitingly, making the water splashes all over the place.

"Oh dear, you made me almost drowned here, bad doggy."

*woof woof woof*, the dog barks playfully while running around. It is too big to really swim in the stream, instead, it walks and runs. Lenny laughs out loud because of the dog. He feels like he has not have so much fun for a very long time. He dives down to see the tiny rocks beneath, and some algae swinging with the flow. The water is so fresh and worm, as if he is a baby inside its mother's womb. He never knows that he can hold his breath for such a long dive. There are many things he can not remember, even about himself, but this stream of freshwater took all of the anxiety away.

Suddenly, he sees something under the water when he investigates the source of the stream. The water goes out from under a big rock, but there is something shiny under that big rock too. Lenny swims over to take a closer look. Usually, the water flow pushes him back, but this time, even if he is diving toward its source, he can not feel any force to stop him. The whole flow is avoiding him, thus giving him a strange feeling that it wants him to get closer to its source. When reaching the bottom, he wipes away the leafs that got stuck under the rock and blocking the shimmering light he wants to see. As the leafs got wiped away, a glowing blossom appeared before his eyes. The purple light emits from it pure and tiny petals. Lenny immediately realize that this is one of the glowing blossoms Grandma Mely was talking about. It is the essence of a god, that is why it is so pretty and special.

"So you are the beauty that makes this whole spring different from the rest of this realm." Lenny thinks to himself. The blossom is there, fragile but beautiful at the same time. Just the same as Lenny, it somehow stays still under the extremely strong flow of water under the rock.  Lenny reaches his hands to the blossom, put it at the middle of his palm gently without breaking it off the fragile stem. A warm feeling runs over his heart.

He closes his eyes, starts to recall some blurry memories, where he was inside a huge building. The building is made of stone blocks, with knights in heavy metal armors guarding every doors, even if it has a hundred of doors. On the wall, there are hundreds of strange but beautiful painted pictures of people who he haven't met before, many of them were wearing golden crowns with countless of precious gems attached on. He then remember the soft, lovely voice of his mother who was holding his hand, the knights all were bowing before her. She walked him to a room where he met a girl. The girl is just about his age at that time, about eight, always smile and joyful. She was wearing a princess dress but running around just like a wild kid. His mother smiled to him and tell him that this was now his new home, and she was now his new mom. He asked her who is the little girl, and she told him that was his new sister. She then told them to love each other and be good with each other. He can not remember clearly his adopted mother's face, but he can remember every single detail of his newly adopted sister, who has a dark silky brown hair that blows up with the wind every time she runs and her wide, pure and innocent blue eyes that were always on pair with her big, obstreperous smile. "Hi big brother, you are so thin, haha", she said. He then recalls himself looking at himself in a giant mirror at the middle of that room. What he saw was a thin ginger boy with a deep, blue pair of eyes in a tattered, dirty clothing. His face was covered in dirt but his eyes shine lightly, like the ocean under the warm light of the sun above. The last thing he can remember was his adopted mother's voice, and she said: "Leonard, you will make a great king one day, my son."

Lenny open his eyes, while still holding the blossom. He realized that one of its petals has fell out and landed on his palm without him know that. The tiny petal still emit its shimmering purple light on his hand, then a second later, it dissolves into the water. However, it did not just dissolve away, but also left on his right palm a purple mark of its shape. The mark does not hurt him, but it gives Lenny an indescribable feel of someone is watching over him, makes him feel safe. "The grandma might know something about this, I will ask her when I get back to the house.", Lenny thinks to himself and release the blossom, leaves it there where it belongs to and start to emerge to the surface, looking for his dog.

<To be continued>