A few kilometers away from the Clan, a large beast could be found lying on the ground. With its eyes wide open, no air coming from its nostrils and a gaping hole in its belly the giant creature was dead as it could be, and around it a group of people could be found, resting from the battle.
They were the mixers Clan elite force.
“How many of these have shown up recently? It can’t be natural that so many of these creatures decided to appear this close to the Clan” asked Dalton to his friend and second in command, Jason.
“I bet there is some tamer smell in this beast wave. Counting this one we have slayed 15 of those in the past three weeks, but that is not the worst part…” Jason took a pause to take off a bit of the beast’s gut that got stuck to his beard. “The bastard got really close to me this time…” He complained.
After throwing away the piece of beast intestines, Jason resumed speaking “What was I saying? Oh, yes, as I was saying, the worst of all was the three armored leopards that showed up. God help us, they're for sure damn fearsome creatures” Jason said.
But something didn’t add up in Dalton’s mind. “How come you guys fight three armored leopards and all of you are still alive and without a scratch on top of that?”
With his hands up Jason said, smiling “You got me hehe. I was just bragging, we didn’t fight against them all at the same time. They came on different days and were all infants or teens on top of that. We scared two and killed the youngest. Marcus won the draw and claimed the beast’s skull for himself. Bastard told us it would look nice over his fireplace”
In a lighter mood Dalton answered his friend “Let the boy be, after all this is probably the first one he fought against. How can we judge him when we both have an adult armored leopard’s skull over our fireplace? It’s quite a nice trophy after all hehehe” Giving a few slaps on his friend’s shoulder, he turned around to start going back to the Clan but then he stopped.
“Green mist, Jason! shit!” Without waiting for his friend’s answer, Dalton’s feet released a controlled blast to position him a few couple meters above the soil where he could go all out on his flying techniques. Positioning his body almost horizontally, he instantly broke the speed of sound leaving behind only the sonic boom.
###
Near the Clan, after confirming it wasn’t an enemy attack, he slowed down and very slowly landed in front of Sarah’s house. Green mist started leaving his body too the moment he entered the cloud, but since he knew what that was for, he let it be.
Looking at the hole in the side of the house, he took a mental note ‘The wall is broken, seems like the doing of that earth boy’ he noticed. Gathering the clues on the way, it all pointed to an accident in the training grounds. ‘Maybe one of the nightmare kids got out of control again?’ He thought. But there was no use to brainstorm, so he just waited patiently with all the calm in the world.
Seeing the wall getting fixed, he knew he was about to get some answers.
“What happened?”
Listening to the frightened instructor, Dalton didn’t utter a single word and started walking to his house. Each step he took, the air around him grew heavier. Slowly but steady his killing intent aura grew, impregnating all around him.
People left the streets the same way smaller creatures hide in the presence of a death beast, it was instinctual. Their mind’s screamed to run away, and so they did. That was a response born from experience and everyone in the Clan that was old enough had learned to respect their own instincts.
Outside the Clan, in the wilds, thinking before reacting could get you killed. A fraction of a second could be the difference between life and death and so, those who had embraced their animal side could live longer.
The poor instructor kept walking along Dalton despite his legs screaming to run away, until they finally arrived at their destination. With all the care in the world, the earth's coffing started to turn into sand above Lucien’s bed, gently lowering the boy to his bed. The sand then left the house along with the instructor and not a word was spoken again.
After delivering Lucien to his bed so he could rest, Dalton stormed through the village, and word was out that his kid was the one who almost died.
Most would think that there wasn't a single soul willing to get in Dalton’s way in this moment of madness, but there was one.
“Out of the way Jason, I’ve got a little bastard to kill” Said Dalton while reaching Jason’s hand that was holding his shoulder with the hope to put some sense into the Clan leader’s head.Dalton applied some force but the hand stood still, like it belonged there. If anything, the grappling hand only exerted more strength.“We both know I can’t let you do that, Dalton. We are already lucky Artemis is visiting her father, otherwise a few people would already be dead” Jason said. “Take this chance to think things through as the rational one of Lucien’s parents. I know you will regret it if you do as much as touch that child.” He complemented.
Of course Dalton knew he was not thinking straight. No sane person would act reasonably after having his kid almost murdered, be it intentional or not. But even so, the urge to do something completely possessed his body and the hunt to find the culprits had begun.
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To Dalton, his closest friend's opinion was second only to Artemis, his wife and, therefore, this couple of sentences had enough weight in his head to make him rethink his plan of action, even if for a moment.
Dalton stopped trying to get free from his friend and answered “Maybe Jason, maybe I’m wrong… But what would you do if it were one of your girls instead of Lucien? What if it were Jess or Cindy?”
That was a bucket of cold water. The tricky question lingered in the air, unanswered for some time. Could be a few seconds, could be a few minutes they couldn’t tell. Time seems to work differently in situations like this.
After a bit of contemplation, Jason answered what he thought would be the best to defuse this situation, “If it happened with one of mine, I would be standing right at your place, hunting the prick”, and before Dalton could think of anything, he continued, “But also, if I was in your place, you would be playing my role, stopping me from doing anything stupid”.
The right words at the right time. A powerful force that could start and stop wars of the biggest scales and, in this case, stop one of the most powerful beings on the planet to murder a kid.
It was not an answer spoken only to calm him down, and Dalton knew it. It was the truth. If it was Jason in his place, certainly he would be in Jason’s place, simple as that.
The villagers hiding around felt as if tons of rocks had been lifted from their shoulders, and the atmosfere grew a lot lighter. The killing intent emanating from Dalton in these few minutes of hunting was just that heavy.
“So, my dear friend, what do you suggest I do? Just banish him from the Clan? Banish his family together?” A lot calmer, Dalton started thinking of a different solution that didn’t involve killing anyone.
Jason, who had already removed his hand from Dalton’s shoulder when he sensed the killing intent backing off, refused his friend’s idea “You know that banishing someone from our Clan is like sending them to an almost certain death right?”
Seeing his ideas not being refuted, Jason kept on “Our Clan is the place banished people go to, if they aren’t killers or psychopaths of course. No other Clan accepts stray people with random dreams like we do. So when you kick someone out of here, they most likely will have to survive outdoors forever…”
That was a fair point. When Jason put that living outdoors was equal to almost certain death, he meant it. Given how aggressive and wild the fauna was in this world, few could live alone outdoors, and even those would face some risks.
Only the most versatile dreamers with a very strong mind and profound knowledge about the region could make it, and of course, a kid that barely got his first dream was not even close to this distinct group of individuals.
Dalton looked his friend in the eye, and asked to confirm his friend’s opinion “So you're saying that I can’t kill the bastard who almost killed my son and neither can I banish him? So what should I do? Give him a prize?”
Making his stance clear, Jason said his opinion on the matter “In the end he is just but a kid that didn’t know how strong he was. But even so, punishment must be delivered”
Jason then proceeded to give his verdict on the case “So my opinion is to banish him, not from the Clan, but from the training. There is just so much a kid can accomplish without sparring partners and some good instructors to guide them, and so the boy in question would have a much slower growth rate than his peers. The punishment I suggest is not to harm him today, but to cripple his future.”
###
Later that day, all the important people from the mixers Clan could be found sitting around the big old wooden table where all the decision making of the Clan was made. They gathered here by Dalton’s order to address the situation when Sarah had to use her nightmare.
All the people present knew that someone should have died today. Some knew more of what happened, some only saw the green mist from far away and came back.
When all the spots but one, which was Sarah’s, were filled, Dalton started speaking “Something terrible happened today in my family, that I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through the same…” Memories of the state he found his son quickly passed in his eyes and then he continued, “This evening during the training…”
He recounted the full version of the events that happened earlier, and also included all the sources that helped build up the whole story.
While Dalton was sharing what happened with the others, Jason was anxious. He didn’t have any specific reason for that, just a feeling. A feeling that Dalton, even having listened to his opinion, would do something a bit different.
‘Wouldn’t it be simple to just ban the kid from the training and move on with our lives?’ Jason thought.
“... and so, I made a decision to preserve our future generations and keep their spars, just as spars. I thought it was obvious for the kids as it is for me that the training, just as the name implies, was to train and better ourselves along with our peers, but it seems I was wrong” Dalton made a brief pause and looked in the eyes of those present, giving a dramatic air to his speech.
“On my way to execute the brat who almost murdered my son, Jason put some light in my thoughts. In the end, a kid is still a kid and I, now with a clear mind, know how it would be unfair to kill the boy who was probably testing the limits of his power. Even so, he used excessive force in a fight that didn’t demand it leading to the use of Sarah’s nightmare”
Standing up, Dalton brought the decision he made and confirmed Jason’s anxiety, “Kids like that can’t be trusted to have power be it because of his education or his personality, be it because he is evil or just because he acts without thinking. So, from now on, all kids, including him, who beat another half dead, in training or outside, will be banished from the Clan training forever. That is a new law I want to implement in the Clan”
In shock, a few of the powerhouses started getting up to complain. How could they not? The term ‘all kids’ was the problem. All their children were extremely talented and, of course, quite powerful. For them it was easy to beat other kids half dead, even if it wasn’t intentional. The disparity of power was just too big. So, to make this verdict a new law, was the same as letting a potential harm to their children pass.
They had to protest now or it would be too late to complain in the future in case their kids messed up. Some powerhouses started getting up to argue about the decision, but before they could say anything, Dalton made a sign for them to sit down again because he hadn’t finished. “Different from the way we usually do things around here, this matter is not to be discussed. My decision is already done and if needed I will use my power as the Clan leader to make it happen. So, teach your kids self control, teach them to wield their dreams and abilities with more control and finesse as I will do with mine. Spread the word”