The House of Grey- Volume 4 (18 page)

Guardians, blades, power
,
magic...
magic
? M
agic
was
real...
? H
o-ly crap!

“Our time is quickly coming to an end
,
” Yari interrupted. “Do you remember everything we
ha
ve told you?”

“Well yeah,” Monson
said
in a hurried voice
.
“
B
ut I don’t understand the blade thing. Are you trying to tell me that I have to figure out how to
make
it by myself?”

“Precisely
,
” answered
the other Monson.

“How in the heck am I going to do that?”

“Just remember that you have power
,
” interjected Gi in a
surprisingly soft
voice. “Look deep within the depths of your heart and remember
what you’ve always known
.  The power to perform will be
there
when you need it and the tools are
all
around if you know where to look. The air, the earth, the flame, the mist
,
and
the
heavens will guide you.  Oh
—
and this might help
.
” Without a
nother
word, Gi tossed the
flame-wrapped
Magi Blade through the air
,
sending it
hurtling
towards Monson. Monson reacted
and
caught the blade near
its
middle. He should have been cut
—
it was a blade after all
—
but he was not. 
Instead, the searing heat of the blade scorched his hand
.

“Gi, what in the world are you doing?”
demanded
the other Monson
angrily
.

“
I was just testing his constraints
,” answered Gi
,
looking slightly disappointed
.
“I wanted to see how long it
would be
until I was able to come out and play again
.
”

“If you had wavered in your control you
…!
” yelled Monson
’
s
counterpart
. “What are you
attempting
to do? Kill yourself and everyone else
?
”

“You worry
,
intruder.
Look at the kid. He’s sturdy
.
”

“Enough!” said Yari loudly
.
“We
do not possess the
time for this. Look!”  All four
of them
look
ed
i
nto the depths of forest and saw something that caused Monson
’
s breath to catch.  The
dream
world was disappearing right before their eyes.
E
ngulfing the scenery
was a strange fog unlike
any fog that Monson
had ever seen before
. It was almost as if the world itself was dissolving into
the fog…into nothing.
Something occurred to Monson.

“I’m waking up
,
aren’t I?”
H
e looked at the three. He really was dreaming.

The other
Monson answered
.
  “
C
orrect
.
I
s there anything else we can tell you before you go?”

“Yes
,
as a matter of fact there is
.
” Monson pointed at his mirror
.
“What’s your name?”

Monson
’
s twin smiled.
“
You are
right! I
have not
told you my name
.
You can call me Dawn.”

“Dawn?”
asked
Monson
,
raising his eyebrow
.
“
W
hy Dawn?”

“It
i
s my favorite time of the day,” said Dawn
,
smiling
.

Monson
smiled
back
.
“That’s not corny or anything
,
”

Chapter 4
2 - Ice

“
Good m
orning
,
Hero
.
”

Brian’s voice
interrupted
Monson’s
attempt to collect his
scattered
thoughts
. Not that he was making any progress anyway.  Monson’s butler entered his room holding some freshly laundered clothes
.
“It
is not
like you to sleep this late. Having nightmares again?”

Sleeping? He wished. He
had
actually
awoken
a couple of hours ago
,
his
body
cover
ed
with sweat.
He
had
tried to
go
back to sleep
,
he wanted to sleep
,
h
e needed to sleep
.
Sleep,
however
, did not happen.
H
is brain refused to turn off
,
and at the
forefront
of his mind sat Dawn, Gi
,
Yari
, and
everything he
had
experienced in the dream world. It was weird, even for him
.
C
ould it
actually
be real? Could a weapon known as the Magi Blade really exist? And why would it be so important for him to be able
to
use it?
He
opened his eyes and shook his head as he realized the implications of what he was thinking. Was he insane? There was no such thing as magic! It
went
against
what
he knew to be true.
But t
hen
Monson considered
all the stuff that he ha
d
experienced
:
Casey
’
s mystical martial art, Artorius
’
strange
resiliency
,
Kylie’s mind control power,
not to mention
his
own
unnatural memory
loss
, token moments of extreme combat ability
,
and
…the
list just
kept
g
r
o
w
ing.

He
felt as if he was suddenly sta
r
ring in
some bad epic fantasy novel
. Unexplained talents
,
bizarre happenings
, powers beyond human comprehension
,
and many unanswered questions. Worst of all was the lack of direction and guidance.  His inner
fan club
expected him to work this all out on his own. How was he supposed to do that when he did not even have a proper teacher?

Monson thought of his counterpart, Yari and Gi.
“
If you’re all supposed to be the mentor in this story then you’re doing a sucky job”
.

“Master Grey
,
are you with me?”

“Sorry Brian,” apologized Monson
. He sat
up. “I’m a bit out of it.”

He
rubbed his eyes vigorously
.
I
t was as if he could still see the glow of the Magi Blade in front of his eyes. When he opened
them again,
he immediately shrank back
;
Brian was standing right next to his bed
, examining
him intently.

“Little close there
,
Bri-guy
.
” Monson continued s
cooting
away from
him.
“
I
s there something I can help you with?”

“Monson
?
”

The sound of
his
first
name
startled him
. Brian
almost never called him by his first name—like never ever. S
o when he did
,
it made Monson nervous.
He
waited in anticipation.

Brian gazed in concern
at Monson’s hand. Monson glanced down and saw a strange burn that wrapped
around his
entire
hand.
He
gulped at
seeing the mark
...it was real
—a
ll
of it
.
H
is trip into the mirror, his conversation with himself, his first tutorial in the formation of
the
Magi Blade, and the
magical
duel on a riverbank. Everything just became a great deal more complicated.

Brian
lifted
Monson’s hand
to
inspect the burn
and
touched
it
gingerly
.  This alarmed Monson
.
H
e was not sure what made him more nervous
,
the fact that a burned hand from a dream
had
followed him into
the
land of conscious
ness
or that he was now going to have to try to explain
it
to one of the few people
who
coul
d read him like a book
.

“How did you
acquire
this burn?” Brian
continued
to examine
the
hand.

Monson considered
telling
the truth
,
weighing his chances of not sounding like a psycho. Deciding his chances were not so good, he lied. He lied like his very life depended on it. 

“You know
….
” Monson
flipped
through a list of excuses in his head. “It’s kind of a funny story.”

“Yes, I
a
m listening
.
”

“I was cooking…on the stove
…
and I accidentally grabbed the handle when it was hot
and…well, yeah
. Not very much fun.”

Brian’s brow furrowed
,
an expression that made it plain
to see
that he did not believe a word
.

“Hey, what time is it?”
inquired
Monson in a very
nonchalant
way
.
“
F
or some reason I feel really hungry
.
”

Brian’s eyes narrowed
even further
. Monson could tell that Brian knew exactly what he was doing. Thankfully
,
he did not call him on it.  “Well
,
you should be hungry. It
i
s almost
noon.
”

“
Noon
?” Monson popped out of bed
,
instantly going pale. “Crap, Taris is going to kill me!”

Monson dressed at top speed and
five
minutes later, he was out the door. This was not good. He was busted.
He was more than busted
,
he was dead
. So dead—so very
,
very dead. Taris was going to kill him.  They were supposed to go into town today as their third official date. Thankfully, he was only
about a
half
-
hour late. If
he
was lucky, she would still be there. Monson ran all the way to the outskirts of
t
he Gardens.