Don The Hero - Chapter 3

The Finch family wasted no time in getting to Maryline after the array disappeared. Elijah, being the most athletic, was the first to get to Maryline.

“Maryline! Can you hear me?” Elijah screamed into Maryline’s ear but she did not respond.

“Chief! where is doctor stone?” Betty asked in a panic.

“He was called in by the neighboring village to help a woman give birth. he won’t be able to make it back in another 4 days.” Chief Mayweather said hesitantly. Betty could only cry as she saw her dear daughter’s state. She had finally got her out of her tomboy clothes only for her to end up like this. Sadly, there was nothing she could do. She did not know a lick about medicine and the only healer in the whole village was shared between 3 villages to cut down on the cost of hiring a local healer.

Don stared at his sister as she was in that state. When no one else was looking, he slowly put his hands on her head and closed his eyes. Colorless light began to surround Marylines body only to vanish quickly. He then took his hands off of her head and started to breath in huge breaths.

“HCAHH!” A few seconds later, Maryline’s eyes burst open in shock and she began to cough and gasp for air.

“Maryline, my baby!” With tears still in her eyes, Betty held Maryline in her arms and hugged her tightly. Alfred and Elijah finally relaxed as they saw Maryline looking around in confusion. They wanted to hug Maryline as well but felt like Betty was already doing a good job at suffocating her on her own. Chief could finally breathe a sigh of relief. He might have never heard the end of it if something had actually happened to Maryline.

Don smiled at the scene of his sister trying to get her mother off of her with difficulty. Don wiped off the sweat forming on his face and could not help but chuckle to himself. ‘phew, all in a day’s work’.

After that situation was solved, Chief Mayweather said his annual speech and called up the 6 children who had awakened their powers. 4 children had awakened the element of earth while 2 had awakened the element of fire. As the children were called many could not help but stare at Maryline. In Taurus, humans had a high probability to awaken earth and fire powers so the type of power they awakened was not shocking. What was shocking was the amount of fire Maryline produced in her awakening. Most children would form their element around their palm but Maryline was burning from head to toe.

After the ceremony was over, many children left city hall disappointed and angry. Out of these 13 year olds only of them seemed different. They walked out of City hall with a huge smile on their face. They were walking with confidence and a hint of arrogance at their new untrained power. Even Maryline who was screaming in pain just a few minutes ago was acting as if the whole thing was a breeze for her.

No matter how much Maryline whined, her parents did not allow her to use her powers. The scene of their daughter’s face covered in flames was still front of their minds. They waited 5 days for Dr. Stone to come back in hopes of him having an answer to their questions.

“Mom! This isn’t fair all the other kids have already started training their powers with teacher Zen, I am going to fall behind at this rate!” Teacher Zen was the martial arts teacher who would visit their village once a week to teach youths under 20 about cultivation, and martial arts techniques. Maryline had already learned some moves from him and was planning to take his class every week to get a lesson on fire cultivation styles and techniques. To her dismay, she was unable to even leave her house for the last 5 days and had missed the lesson yesterday.

“Honey, this is for your own good. Until we can understand why you turned into a flame ball, you shouldn’t be using your powers carelessly. Now don’t be angry, Dr. stone is coming to check on you in a bit.” said Betty as she caressed her daughter’s hair. Maryline pouted and turned her face away from her mother. She did not understand why her mom did not trust her abilities. She had already been able to manipulate fire from her hands pretty well in just 5 days. Of course her mother did not need to know this.

A few minutes later, Dr. Stone had arrived at knocked on the Finch’s door. Don was inches from opening the door when Maryline sprinted passed him and pushed the door right open almost hit the startled doctor.

“Good your here! Now tell my parents I am healthy!” Don and Dr. Stone stared at Maryline in shock. Maryline looked at them a little confused before looking behind her. she was so excited that she had left streaks from sliding through the floor. Elijah who was eating his breakfast, dropped it once he saw the heat marks. He could not help but blurt out,

“How the heck did you do that? Did you not just get your powers less than a week ago? you shouldn’t be able to make such an indent even if your emotions are out of control!” Dr. Stone’s easy going attitude quickly changed after he saw this.

“Could it be?” Dr. Stone inquired out loud. As Don saw Dr. Stone’s face he began to sweat. ‘ Was I too obvious?’. Dr. Stone quickly brought out an orb that shone a slight red color.

“What’s that?” Elijah asked.

“This is a body orb. It is used to test the comprehensive skill level of a person. Unlike power level or adventure rank, this level can’t be changed. It dictates how easy or hard it would be for a person to become stronger.” The Finch family looked at the red orb in awe. They had never heard of such a mystical gadget before.

“So you mean that some people are more naturally gifted at being a power user from the get go? Isn’t that a little unfair?” Elijah whined.

“Unfair, yes. But this is just the way things are. Some people are naturally stronger, some are smarter and some are better power users than others. Usually a small village like this one would not see a difference in strength and everyone would be around the E level give or take but” Dr. Stone slowly walked up to Maryline with the orb in hand. Maryline stared at the ball nervously knowing that this may be a start of a new unforeseen destiny. Dr. Stone smiled at Maryline with anticipation. He started to slowly talk to her.

“Now Maryline, all you have to do is put a little energy in the orb. If you don’t know how, just think about the word fire, that should be enough.” Betty, Alfred, Elijah and Don watched as Maryline put her hand on the orb and it started to shine a deeper red than before. Dr. Stone’s eyes glowed as he tried to read the odd language that started to appear around the orb.

“Doctor? What does it say” Alfred tried to inquire.

“L-level B n-no, m-maybe even Level A. Her talent….it’s better than mine by a mile. You said she wanted to become a adventurer right? With her talent she will get stronger very quickly. Even without a lot of effort, being a C class adventurer would just be a matter of standing up and stretching her legs.” Dr. Stone was trembling as he read the results.

“WAIT HOW STRONG?” said everyone in unison. Maryline was happy, excited these words were not enough to explain how she felt. At this point she wished she had her brother’s dictionary of a brain to find a word that could express how she felt. She slowly turned to her brother Elijah and smiled a devilish grin. As Elijah saw this, he could not help but sweat profusely.