Lumen (12 page)

Daniel turned around once more, his teeth biting down hard against each other. He clenched his jaw harder as the man stood there. He was lightly tanned with a prominent jawline, and wearing the same clothes that he had been before.

“You’re right, you are strong, and people can and 
do
 intrude on other people’s brains, sometimes taking bits out, or pushing stuff around, like a lobotomy,” he said, standing several feet away with his hands tucked into his pockets.

“A lobotomy?” Daniel stuttered, glaring at the man.

“It’s when you get this steel pick,” he said and a sharp-edged stick of steel materialised between his fingers, “and then you open the eye and right beneath the eyeball you put it in, and 
knock
 it, with a hammer.” His face twisted into a smile as he thrust the pick into the air.

Daniel took a step back and watched as the man’s theatrics wore away and the steel in his hands disintegrated. He looked at Daniel and smiled.

“Don’t look so worried. It’s not like I want to kill you.” he grinned as a dim light touched his cheeks and cast half of his face into darkness.

“What do you want then?” Daniel asked.

“Nothing. I’m part of your dream, willed to do as you want. After all, it was you who summoned 
me
,” he said, taking a step towards Daniel which ended in one fluid motion as the man now stood only inches from him. “Have you killed him yet?” he whispered into his ear.

“I don’t want to kill him.” Daniel glanced up, glaring into his eyes, one eye green, and one eye blue. Daniel pushed himself back to take a couple of steps.

“Let’s not start this headache again. Be careful of who you trust, Daniel. Or they’ll be picking your spine from their teeth once they’ve finished.” He moved closer.

“What?”

He huffed. “They are going to eat you alive.”

“Who’s going to eat me alive?”

They both stared at each other. Daniel drew a deep breath, as one single understanding of something pure and innate pulled itself to a balance. Exhaling, Daniel wavered on the balls of his feet as his muscles and skin started to become heavy on his bones.

“Trust me, okay,” he said, and gripped Daniel’s arm before he toppled over.

Daniel shook himself and pulled away from the man. “Who wants to hurt me?”

“You’re from the Lowerlands,” he said with a wry smile and a shrug. “You were born out of place.”

Daniel took a moment, repeating it to himself, and when he glanced back up, he wasn’t there.

“Hello!” he called out, letting his voice echo. “Hello!” he shouted and the echo felt closer. He took another breath to call again, and found that he was sucking himself in. The black started to vacuum around him, becoming smaller and smaller.

You can wake up. It’s your dream!
 He panicked inside himself.

The black chewed at his vision and reduced him to a pile on the floor. His body convulsed and twisted, his arms became gnarled and out of place. He tried to suck at the air again, his chest deflated and his face become more defined as he lost the ability to breathe. And then he let go.

Chapter Fourteen

Pain buried itself in Daniel’s dreams. Nothing ever ended easily, or swiftly, and each piece of hurt was perfectly etched behind his skin.

His lips were dry, and the air behind them chaffed at his throat. He was laid with an arm bunched up against his stomach and another clenched softly at his neck.

A spasm broke out in his arms and fought him to wake. A small energetic surge sufficed in his fingertips and started to glow. He rolled over to his back and a stream of air gushed into his throat. The energy snapped from his fingers and rippled the air, smashing the mirror above the sink.

He sprang to life. “Shit,” he gasped, staring down at his tingling fingers. He turned and grabbed his alarm clock, it was
09:17
, and if he didn’t hurry then he’d miss his first Animal lesson.

He tugged his cold sweat stained clothes from his body, falling over himself to get his pants off. He changed, and before blindly shoving his hands into the sink to wash his face, he noticed the thick pieces of glass reflect him in them; his sickly white skin, and his sleepless eyes. He ran his hands under the cold tap and splashed his face.

He jumped whole flights of stairs, landing and trembling on his legs. He burst out of the front door and fell into Jasper. Jasper pushed him up against the wall and almost growled, “I’m not going to let you put me in a bad mood!” and from behind Jasper, Mark stood with his arms folded and his chest puffed. He let go of Daniel and pushed him. “First Animal class this year. Nobody is going to ruin a great start to the day.”

Daniel brushed himself off and opened his mouth to ask Jasper where the class was, even though he had to think about it for a second, did he hear right, Jasper could shift as well. By the time Daniel thought it was a bad idea to ask, Jasper was already gone. He made his way down a path in search for a sign that would lead him to the class. And then he saw a group of people walking off behind the main building, and he swore that one of them was Jasper.

He shouted after them, and bit his tongue, even though Jasper turned around to see him and snarl. Daniel hurried up to join them.

He’d seen this place before. On his first day when he’d taken that detour to the stables. 
So this must be the stables then
. He followed the lightly worn path and group of people to the large barn behind the building, as they entered he loitered outside for a moment. The sound of their brash voices came from within. He pushed up a slate of wood and peered through to see several people standing around in a group, talking among themselves.

“Spying?” someone chimed in, louder than the rest of the voices. Everyone turned to the gap where Daniel was staring in from.

He gulped and let the slate fall back into place. He froze as he heard the patter of feet from inside the stable. Jasper was the first one out to see Daniel standing there with a flushed face, and then another pushed to the front of the crowd.

“Go back inside,” he said and shooed them away.

“Hi, is this the Animal, shifting class?” Daniel asked, staring up at the man, and back down to his feet.

“Oh, so you’re Daniel,” the teacher grinned, “They get very edgy in this class, people calling them freaks because they can still shift. Well, I’m Enek.” He offered his hand out, and Daniel shook it. “It’s rare that all the teachers are talking about one student.”

“Oh,” Daniel said letting go of Enek’s hand.

“It isn’t bad, honestly. I’ve been waiting to meet you, and I’m sure the rest of the class will be too thrilled to have you. But you are the only first year, so far,” he said, brushing his hand against Daniel’s back to usher him into the stables.

Everyone smirked as Daniel entered. There were a few familiar faces from his class yesterday and from the looks on their faces, they all remembered the public showing of his shift. The group felt huge to Daniel, all eyes on him, all 12 sets of eyes. Daniel flinched as the stable doors slammed shut and a loud clang latched the locks.

“This is Daniel,” Enek said.

“We know,” Jasper said, making his way to the front of the group.

“He’s the first year that beat Mark,” A girl sniggered from behind Jasper.

“I know. I heard, and that’s where we’re kicking the semester off; controlling your animal form to defend as well as to attack. So can you control yourself, Daniel?” Enek asked, tipping his head at Daniel.

“Yes,” Daniel said defensively.

“Looked more like rage to me,” Jasper said, sparking a coo of laughter.

“How would you know? You were in a trance, and got caught cheating!” Daniel grinned as the laughter got louder, sharing the attention.

Enek’s cold expressions silenced everyone, including Jasper who had just opened his mouth to spit some witty retort. “What animal are you affined with?” he asked.

“So far, just bird types,” Daniel replied.

“
So far
?” Enek laughed.

Daniel looked around at all the grins settling on people’s faces. It was the kind of smile you gave a person who was downright stupid or naïve, Daniel had seen it too many times on Jac before.

“We only have a connection with 
one
 animal,” Jasper said what no one else could say from laughter, aching Daniel's face to redness.

“Jasper!” Enek snapped. “It is rare that a person is gifted with more than one animal, but some cases have been documented, like the greats, the Luminary! The woman of Jupiter, Juperae, very fond of her cats, but could also turn into a mouse.”

“Exactly, she was a Luminary. We were taught that in Mythics last year, she’s 
mythical
, bloodlines with that power cannot live without repercussion, it defies nature,” Jasper said, rolling his eyes at Enek, “it’s better if you don’t think you’re special, even if the rumours say that this 
golden
 flare is something to be in 
awe 
of.”

“Jasper, a flare is a personal thing, and it’s a shame to show so much jealously. You said that he lacks control, how about you show us some,” Enek barked back.

“What?”

“If you can shift and everything goes off without a hitch, then I’ll presume you’re okay, but if not, then you’ll have to sit the lesson out.”

“This is stupid,” Jasper said, turning to see the encouraging faces of the group behind him. “And what about 
him
? Don’t we get to test his little; 
I can turn into different animals
, speech.” But the truth was, nobody had asked Daniel to prove it, not since Jasper had taken the full force of Enek’s attention.

Jasper formed a wide circle, leaving enough room for Daniel and Enek to join. He shooed people back as he marked a circle with his foot, snarling when he passed Daniel. Daniel wondered just how big Jasper was going to get, and then he stood in the middle of the circle. He turned his body to face Daniel and then bowed his head. Jasper’s shaggy blond hair became thicker and sprouted out down his neck and under his chin, framing his face. He glanced back up at Daniel and glared at him with his beady jaundice yellow eyes. In one sudden movement, he fell to all fours and his back cracked.

The torso and head of a man shimmered above Jasper. It was the
 
man who had been in Daniel’s dreams. Things seemed to slow down for Daniel; the man glanced up at him and winked, then plunged a jagged slate of steel into Jasper’s back. Jasper collapsed on his abdomen and a thin electric plasma started to covet his body, but then everyone started to clap. Daniel blinked and the man had gone, the man was never there, and Jasper was perfectly fine.

A growl woke Daniel from his induced dream, and he looked over to Jasper, now in the form of a lion. He walked around the circle like he was perfectly trained to do so.

“I see you haven’t shifted in a while, Jasper. Anyway, that there, is rage!” Enek called, taking a deep breath and then turning to Daniel, he whispered, “you’re still calm, somewhat still collected. I think you should fight?”

“No,” Daniel said and shook his head.

“Why not? You both seem to have issues. You can both shift, which means you’ll both heal faster. It makes sense. Plus, it will cut the tension.”

Jasper growled and cut their talk short. He lifted a paw up above Daniel, and took a swipe, he missed and tried again. “No!” Daniel said, shaking his head. Jasper took another swipe, this time his glinting claws came out. Daniel backed away, but the swipes came faster.

“He’s got a weak spot on the centre of his paw, just hit that and he’ll cower away. Plus, you’d make him shift back.” Daniel turned around, the voice was familiar, but he wasn’t there, nobody was there. He turned around again and Jasper swiped at him, clawing at his ankle and dragging him to the ground.

“Shift!” Enek shouted, but all Daniel could hear was his heart beat vying for life.

Daniel held his hands up to cover his face from Jasper’s lion paw as he took another swipe. The circle moved around them, shunning Daniel into Jasper. A slow chant of “get him” and clapping started. Enek was speechless, watching as the events unfolded; still Daniel wouldn’t shift.

“The paw. His paw,” Daniel said to himself.

Jasper swung again, and Daniel batted it away with the back of his hand. He persisted to push himself back, dipping his head into his knees. “Hit the damn thing!” a roar shook Daniel from his insides and he fisted the air, striking the soft bottom of the paw. Jasper pulled his paw away and started to claw at the ground, his jaw snapping with his lips over his teeth, baring his anger as his strong growls ended in weak whimpers.

“He’s the flaw in nature. He’s the weak spot,” the voice chimed in to the rhythm of Daniel’s heart.

The chanting died as all eyes turned to Jasper.

The fur from Jasper’s form deteriorated and dripped from him skin like excess fat, melting in the heat; he slipped right out of it. Choking and flopping around on the floor, people made a new circle around him. And from the gaps in the circle Daniel continued to watch, biting himself in fear. He turned to see a man standing on the balcony inside the stable, grinning at the sight before him.

“Is he okay?” they called out to their teacher, but all Enek could do was watch. It looked like all the animal was being sucked out of him, and the consequences seemed dire.

“He’s going to be 
really 
pissed now. And it will all seem like your fault. He doesn’t know it, but he’s temporary disabled in that department,” the man snickered, sounding like he was only inches away from him.

Enek glanced over at Daniel, his face was pained with remorse.

“You wouldn’t know who did this, would you?” Enek asked as the circle disbanded and tended to Jasper.

“No, I thought he was going to kill me.”

“He probably would’ve, but it also looked like you tried to kill him. What is it again that you can change into?”

“Just birds. Really! But once, I—I turned into a lion,” Daniel glanced around.

“Really?” Enek asked, his eyes lighting up with intrigue.