Episode 28: The Origins of Saving a Child
Matt opened his eyes one morning. He looked around the city which he was at before, once again. “Olympia…”
“Welcome to the Trials of Olympia, dear child.” This voice was heard by Matt but he did not know where it was coming from. He tried to turn in circles, being alert that the voice might be thrown right at him at any moment. “Are you frightened? Ah, but that is not the way to a power wielder.”
“Power wielder? Oh right, my fire powers. What about it?”
“You will be the first to go through the Trials of Olympia. Hurry before the child burns to death.~” The voice disappeared.
Matt froze in fear. “What are you talking about? What child?!” Matt was hasty due to his fright. “What am I supposed to do? What child is…” He suddenly thought of the baby from the fire that Yessenia alerted him with. Matt tapped his head, “Is it going to happen for real this time? Come on Matt, wake up, wake up!”
~~~
Matt woke up from his horrendous dream. He looked around but nothing happened. His room was normal as ever and he looked at the clock, “Ugh, I’m early for school. What about the dream? It doesn’t affect this world really, so I don’t have to save the child, heh…” He thought about Jaime’s joke that Matt could use his fire powers for evil. He shook his head, “But on second thought… Hm.”
He headed for school. Santi rushed over to Matt, “Hey, you! What are you doing? Hurry up and get to Olympia!”
Matt was surprised from Santi’s fastened command. “What, what? Hold on, I don’t have a cellphone!”
“You don’t?! The Ancient Gods are playing with us now, Matt. We’re on the first stage and we are already going to lose this.”
Matt shook his head, “Why do you think that? These only happen through dreams so it can’t really affect us.”
“You do not get it at all. We could die forever in our dreams if that child dies.”
“Who the heck is this child that I keep hearing of anyway?!”
“She’s the nymph. Have you not noticed why you’re first between all five of us?” Matt listened to him carefully. Santi went on, “This nymph is one of the sole members of Olympia that became our task. Meaning, she was born and grown only to be used as a game for us. I went to the altar of Olympia last night and it showed me a list of one through eight but it was empty. We need those people to help us. There’s only you, me, Yessenia, Shirley, and Danny as of right now but we cannot find the last three. As of now, we must focus on you. We are all waiting for you right now.”
Matt pointed at himself as he said stupidly, “Me?”
“The problem is that you don’t have a cellphone! Even if you get to Olympia through me, you won’t be able to use your powers. Without your powers, you’ll have trouble even trying to save the child.”
“So this child is a nymph that we have to save?”
“The past dream that we were all looking at was when the nymph was a baby and only you’re able to save her because of the flames in the building. Only I can help but I won’t make it in time. Even with my time powers, what can I do? If I slow down the fire, the child will still be in danger.”
“But I don’t have a cellphone! What do I do now?” Matt began to panic. “I don’t want to die in my sleep. I’m still young!!”
Santi grabbed Matt’s arm, “Let’s find a way in Olympia rather than standing here, thinking without any progress.” Santi pressed the button towards Olympia as they both began to vanish away.
~~~
At Olympia, Matt took a look around, “So where’s this fire?”
Santi pointed at an area from where they are standing, “It’s not too far from here. Hurry, follow me!” They both ran towards the flames which were still growing. The mother was afraid, “Please, please save my precious Eidothea!”
Matt looked up at the flames then at the mother simultaneously, “Eidothea?” He ran up to the flames but he was only feeling painful heat, “Argh… it’s happening again. I can’t use my powers!”
Santi clenched his fists, “Damn it! We’re in trouble now. Keep trying!” Matt continued to get closer to the flames. A big wooden piece from the second story-building fell from above. Santi was alert of this as he took a few steps back. “Hurry, the flames are getting out of control!”
Matt was still not in the flames yet. His powers were completely empty. Shirley was nearby, trying to use her ice powers to stop the flames but the fire was only melting her ice. Yessenia’s wind powers could only push the flames to more areas. Danny was completely unable to support Matt. There was no point for Santi to slow time or stop time. Matt would still not be able to make it. Matt told Santi, “Can’t you reverse time?!”
“I can’t seem to reverse time in Olympia, nor Arkon’s Magic!” The flames were circling Santi now. He used his time powers to completely pause the flames that circled him but he could not keep this up. “Even if I use my powers for a long amount of time, I’ll get exhausted.”
Matt remembered that Shirley was getting tired from using her powers too much way back when Matt was getting chased in school. Matt watched as all his comrades were getting tired as well.
Yessenia screamed, “Nooo! No!!” Matt turned to Yessenia. Yessenia said to Matt, “Matt…! Do something…!” She was vanishing. Shirley was vanishing as well. Santi knelt down and Yessenia told them, “If we get too tired, we’ll get kicked from Olympia until we regain our health. This is exactly what had happened when you saw me behind Double Freeze. I got kicked out of Arkon’s Magic but when I had some energy back, we returned to Arkon’s Magic together, remember?”
Matt was scared, “B-But what can I do?!” Santi completely vanished.
Yessenia said before she vanished as well, “Find… a way!”
Danny looked around. He did not use his powers at all anyway. “Matt, this is bad!”
Matt suddenly felt a breeze. His hands began to burst into flames. He gave a really big smile, “SWEET!” He took sight of the steps ahead of him, “I’ve got to hurry!” He ran into the flames and tried to look for Eidothea. He heard a child’s cry as he followed the sound. He saw the child at the corner of the room, crying. Matt broke the window nearby the child as he grabbed it, “You’ll be okay!” He looked out the window and Danny was still there. “I’ve got it! Danny, raise the ground level. Do it!”
Danny frowned, “But I don’t know if I can use that much power. I’ve lost it awhile back when we first met!”
Matt pointed at the child, “Do it for this child!”
Danny tried to use force. Finally, the ground was successfully rising. Matt smiled and he jumped onto the ground and he escaped the two-story building. Matt placed the child on the ground, “Phew! That was a close one!”
Danny knelt down in exhaust, “I’m tired… that was too much for me…” He began to vanish and Matt coughed.
“I sorta feel tired too. I can handle it.” He grabbed onto Danny so that he could vanish away from Olympia through the cellphone. Matt’s pants were being tugged from something but he could not even take a glimpse at what it was because he vanished right at that moment…
~~~
Back in the real world, Matt and Danny fell onto the ground. Matt took a look around, “The cafeteria? It’s not even lunch time yet. What were you doing here?”
Danny lied, “I was never here before…! I was outside and then when I went to Olympia and came back, I somehow got here…”
Matt scratched his head, “You liar. You need to stop eating. Anyway, let’s go find the others. I think we finished the first stage.”
~~~
Matt told Santi that he had saved the child. The five of them now understand that if Matt enters Olympia through someone else’s cellphone, he will not be able to use his powers unless the original cellphone user disappears, just like what happened with Santi. Shirley had her hands on her hips, “Hmph! It’s just as if you were borrowing out cellphones. You freeloader…”
Matt rolled his eyes, “Hey, hey, be glad I saved that child.”
Yessenia remembered, “Oh, speaking of the child, I’m sure it is safe with its mother. According to Santi, we have to put our stories in chronological order.”
“And be alert that there’s only five of us so there might be a gap in between.” Santi added.
Matt pointed at himself, “Well, mine was first. My task is done. I get to slack off.”
Three of Matt’s friends glared at him, excluding Danny. Danny was too confused about what was going on. Yessenia recapped, “Anyways, let’s see what we have. Shirley watched the nymph on stage and a rope was about to be ripped. Santi saw her almost trying to jump off a cliff. Danny saw her drowning in the sea. As for me, the nymph was at a pier but there was a man who was running up to her. I did not see a weapon but he seemed dangerous.”
Shirley questioned the order, “How can we tell what the order is? All of these can happen at anytime in someone’s life.”
Yessenia snapped her fingers, “I’ve got it. Nymphs are supposed to be good at swimming, but why would she be drowning? In this case, she is still almost a child. It is parallel to a baby who is learning how to walk. I’m guessing Danny’s stage is next.”
Danny asked, “Didn’t we all see the nymph? We can base it on how old she looked.”
“That may be true, but nymphs don’t really specify with age. They can look old or young at any time they want.” Yessenia explained.
“Maybe mine is last. There must have been a reason as to why she wants to jump off a cliff.” Santi said.
Matt completed the list, “And I’m guessing Shirley is before Yessenia. It would make sense that something as small as a rope is before a man who is trying to kill the girl.”
Shirley nodded, “I see. So it is in this order: Matt, Danny, me, Yessenia, and then Santi, right?”
Santi agreed with her but he resented the completion, “Do remember that I saw a list of one through eight. There’s three gaps somewhere in between us all.”
“Maybe I should ask Jaime if he’s been having these weird dreams lately. If he did, he can help us with the chronological order of the nymph. With that said, Jon might be able to help too. Although that is a low possibility…” Said Yessenia.
Shirley gasped. “Oh my gosh, don’t ask him! He hurt Joey!”
Danny squealed, “And he’s evil, isn’t he? No, no, no, you should not ask him.”
Yessenia rolled her eyes, “You two should just calm down. It was only a thought. Maybe these eight stages are only for the good-willed people who have powers. In fact, Jon might be the man that I saw trying to get a hold of the woman. He was wearing a hood so I could not tell. For now, we have to improvise because we do not know the other three people. The tasks may actually be easier now that we can use our cellphones unlike Matt.” Matt stared at her in annoyance. Yessenia continued, “All we have to do is use our powers to save the child, er, what was the name of the child again…?”
Matt informed them, “Ah, the child’s name is Eidothea.
“And Eidothea is one of the sea nymphs from Olympia. Tonight, we will have to dream again and see what is going to happen next.”
Danny and Shirley began to walk away after saying goodbye. Matt whispered to Santi and Yessenia, “Is it really going to be okay once Danny’s stage comes next? He doesn’t seem like he understands half of what we say.”
Yessenia laughed. “Aha, we will see about that. Right now, I need a rest. I used too much of the wind powers in Olympia. See you two next time.”
Santi yawned, “Awh, what a day. Be glad you made use of your powers. You saved a child’s life.”
Matt chuckled from joy. “Yep! I guess my powers aren’t used for evil after all.” He began to yawn.
“Oh geez, you’re tired too. Go home.” Santi said bluntly as he walked away.
Matt stared blankly at Santi, “That was a quick mood change…”
~~~
Erica was still in the hallway near the cafeteria. “My friend is taking so long… It’s already the end of sixth period.” She checked the time on her watch then the music building. She gave a sigh, and then she suddenly saw a child crawling on the floor. She knelt down and pointed at it, “Oh my goodness, aren’t you a cute one.” The child giggled and reached out for Erica’s shirt. Erica grabbed onto the child and held it, “Let’s find your mommy.” She got up and she took a step.
All the sudden, she froze. Her body, her mind, her memory, everything froze. The baby began to shine and vanish. Erica’s body was shining as well and as it was all clear, she came back to her senses, except her eyes turned green. “I feel so much better. Hm, I wonder why? Oh well, time to go home.” It was as if her memory about the child was completely ignored. Where did the child go now…?
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, let's welcome back Jaime! The first stage is now complete and I am done with my part in Olympia. The next seven are still in session!
Santi: I take it that you're now unimportant?
Matt: Excuse me?
ShirleyC: Hehe, useless Matt! Hey, why can't Eidothea see me?
Matt: Oh you're right... I wonder what's going on? Next chapter, Precautions Before the Boulder!
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