Vision Of Escaflowne Fan Fiction ❯ When Escaflowne Rescued Trilladen ❯ chapter ten, book two, Danny and Duffer ( Chapter 35 )

Chapter Ten

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Danny and Duffer

Echo, echo throughout your mind, goes the peaceful contented sound of silence.

The windmill of your thoughts is kind, as it whispers to you. "This is your life. Your life is the life of the universe, of love and oneness, together in all things.

Though our interests may be quite diverse, in the flow of life, we all have the same feelings." Holly Schmidt, 1972

The Great Creator- the Creator of ALL- planted a seed called OUR universe. Next to it, he planted others, some just like ours, while others were completely strange and different. All were seeds gathered from the Creator, and they were smaller than a grain of sand, and there were countless numbers of them. And the seed of OUR universe began to grow. What a remarkable occurrence it was.

It was not yet ten seconds old and no larger than a walnut and we, all of us in spirit, witnessed the birth of our home, OUR universe. It was then that our missions were decided. The inner most desires of hearts are granted, not as a means of indulgence, but as a tool of learning. Thus it was in OUR universe, in our galaxy, that a terrible cataclysm was about to unfold because of the desires of one.

But I get ahead of myself. I am Helliose. I am embodied in the thing you call the sun. I am light and give life with it. I am not alone. For The Great Creator, before He makes a living thing to be in body, He makes it in spirit through His will. And I have a twin spirit, my sister, Helliese who chose to become like the flowing river mortals, a witness and guardian of Gaea-for all time. But time is precarious, fragile and fleeting.

It is our eternity that is being threatened. The eternity of OUR universe is being dabbled with by a peon, a neophyte mimicking a god. Through a window of fate I saw her death at the hands of this insignificant insect. My anger was stirred as well as my concern for both worlds and the parallel dimensions where they reside next to each other. For both drew life from the light and heat of my body.

My sister knew this would happen. She knew there would come a day when she would need to save the soul of Gaea in order to preserve the soul of the Mystic Moon. Though each holds a place in separate universes, they are connected by myself and she who is my twin.

Helliese wanted to protect and defend the soul of a planet, to feel the importance of being connected to and a part of the life that sprang from it. Not being much different in nature, I wanted a part of all living things as well. But I wanted to gather a source to feed it. I became Helliose, the sun. That my soul lives within the source of heat and light gave me much joy.

Watching Helliese toil and sweat like a river of turbulent life that flowed from Gaea left me amused-until now. Now I have work to do. I can't bask in the glow of loving life alone. I must work now. Now I must inspire the truth in the hearts of all living things on the Mystic Moon that ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE! It is through the magic of hope that I will help preserve free will and the soul of Gaea herself.

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Duffer was dead. He lay still and his pink tongue drooped out of his mouth. His eyes were only half shut. The boy who loved him cried over his lifeless body, petting his black fur in a loving grief stricken manner. The boy was Danny-a lonely young boy who'd only just befriended the Pit-bull four short months ago.

Danny found him on the side of the road, bloody, starved, infested with mange and suffering. The dog's fur was almost non-existent from the pestilence that plagued his bludgeoned body. Clearly the dog had been severely abused. Most likely because he was a Pit-bull he was being systematically beaten to turn the dog mean and fighting mad.

But the dog was a gentle dog, all stereo types put to rest. Even after the astounding abuse he'd suffered the pleading message in his eyes as he locked contact with Danny's eyes was that he was begging to be loved and cared for. Danny's heart wrenched with the pain of empathy, somehow relating to the animal with a tenderness of heart that was so typical of the lonely child that he was.

Crying immediately at the sight of suffering of this dog, Danny opened his arms to the battered creature. The dog whined and cried. He walked pitifully into them and huddled close to the boy for the first real experience of love and affection the dog ever knew, the kind of love the dog always craved for. And Danny wept for the dog as he'd never wept for another living creature before. The heat of that emotional union radiated under the bright hot summer sun and the sun smiled.

It took six weeks and three medicinal baths every two weeks before the mange was eradicated. The dog went from skin and bones to a kind of bald fitness. Being a Pit-bull, his chest swelled with macho muscles and his teeth, loose and ready to fall out at first, grew strong and sharp. Yet the dog remained a gentle warrior and friend to Danny. Danny nursed him back from the brink of death and the two became inseparable after that. Eating and sleeping and playing together like brothers, they made a unique pair.

For Danny was slight of build for ten years, short and sickly, not athletic or tall, and thus was very lonely in a small town of Michigan where football reined supreme. Both parents had to work to put food on the table like so many other families in that small town, and the children of that town were left to raise themselves. How do children raise themselves? They form gangs and territories and mimic the violent abandoning world they were born into.

Yet Danny, a strange boy who was a loner, for the first time in his life, was not alone. And though his real world was harsh, his mind was a beautiful place-kind and nurturing. Both Duffer and Danny were glad to have each other. For this boy, the kingdom of heaven was at hand, in his mind-his heart's inner most desire was granted in the befriending of a dog.

But walking home from the first day of school, after that summer vacation was over, he was again following the ritual that had been established since kindergarten. He walked down streets that went out of his way to home avoiding the bully or two that would taunt him and beat him up. He was smart, shy, small and gentle- a perfect target.

But it was not to be so. The Andrew brothers ambushed him, just as he was within eyeshot of home. Danny saw Duffer trotting up to great him and he smiled to say hello just as Chris flew out from behind the bushes by the bank parking lot and slapped him hard in the face. Danny fell down, too stunned to make a sound as his face stung and the red-hot welts of Chris' fingers and palm imprinted on his cheek.

Duffer saw this and went berserk with rage. Charging up at Chris like a demon hound from Hell, his now healthy teeth bit down hard into Chris. Crying and yelling for Duffer to stop, Danny pulled at the dog with all his might to stop. Finally he did stop. Chris' skin wasn't cut open, for the sleeve of his shirt buffered the bite Duffer made, plus the fact that he didn't bite very hard. Still it was a frightening site, and the town police chief witnessed the whole thing.

That was what sentenced Duffer to death. The fact that the police chief saw this big ferocious Pit-bull bite down on another kid, albeit a mean one, was what put the wheels of merciless justice into action. It didn't matter that Duffer was defending his beloved friend, or that Danny was actually more hurt than Chris. Chris could wallow like a banshee in agony and that's all it took for the town to want a terrible Pit-bull put to sleep.

Danny fought village council and lost. Who was going to listen to a geeky ten year old kid at any rate. And so it was decided. Duffer was to be killed, executed, by lethal injection. The only real mercy granted to the two friends, both boy and dog was that the boy when he asked for permission to be with his dog to the end, was granted that. And so Danny held his gentle dog, his sweet gentle defender as he peacefully went to sleep, never to wake. At the first realization of the permanence of the barbaric act, Danny wailed with a pent up rage and bone crunching grief.

Danny was allowed to take the body of his dog and bury him in his own back yard and give him a proper funeral. Danny's mom bought a baby mountain ash sapling tree for Duffer's spot and Danny's dad was to dig a whole. The spot he began to dig was behind the garage, hidden away. But Danny would have nothing of it. He wanted the entire town to feel his grief and be ashamed of how they weren't raising their children, how they weren't kind and nurturing like heaven was supposed to be. He wanted Duffer buried right out in the front yard, blemishing the green lawn with the grave mound. Danny hoped that shame would enter into the heart of a cold-hearted town and thaw it.

That night, after everyone was asleep, a strange miracle happened! An astounding unheard of thing took place that changed everything! The mountain ash tree, the tiny two foot twig tree that looked more dead than alive, began to grow. It grew at an excelled rate. The twig sprouted up and thickened and grew tall and strong. Huge sprawling branches grew out of it with a majestic span.

It grew taller and branched out wider than any other tree ever grown on earth, or ever will grow again. It happened in the span of one night. The mountain ash tree normally had a series of tiny leaves connected to a wispy willowy branch on either side, delicate and green. But this giant tree was different. One leaf alone was as wide as a block of cement sidewalk, and dark green and thick like parchment paper, but moist and sweet smelling.

The tree was more than twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty and the tree trunk diameter took over the entire front yard at thirty-five feet. The base of the trunk made the asphalt of the street buckle up and crack and split apart. There no longer was an Orchard Lake Avenue where Danny's house was. There was the side of an enormous tree, whose bark was grooved and dark with life and as hard as a diamond surface.

The roots wrapped around the entire foundation of Danny's house. They wrapped underneath the house, not crushing or cracking pipes or wells, sewer drains or power lines. Like the gift it was meant to be, the only real disturbance the huge growth of the tree made was the obliteration of the street in front of Danny's house.

The tree itself had an unusual formation that faced Danny's house. It looked like a cave almost, for the indentation was sharply exaggerated with dark moss hanging over the mouth of it. In fact, the tree itself, though not apparent from all viewing sides, save Danny's front door, was hollow. It would have dwarfed the redwood pines of Oregon, had it grown there. No chainsaw made could cut through the hard wood, for it's unnaturally rough strong bark was a shield of protection against the will of mere mortals.

And there it stood, fully-grown and gigantic in just one night, in what would have taken a redwood pine an entire millennium to get have as tall. The red berries were as big as bowling balls, and just as heavy. The hollowed indentation was hidden from the rest of the village, and in truth, from everyone-except Danny. That is, as soon as he discovered it, for it was a Saturday morning and he was sleeping in.

What a stir the giant tree was already causing. Fire-engines trucks and Michigan State police were already barricading the streets that ran to its enormous trunk! The press was in a feeding frenzy. Famous anchorpersons from New York were already there, as well as the reports from local newspapers! The neighbors were huddled in hushed awed groups, yet Danny slept blissfully unaware of the turn of events, for the shade the tree provided made morning seem like night still!

Danny stretched lazily in his bed, somehow, not feeling the heavy burden of grief he went to bed with. It amazed him, for his first thought this morning was his dog. A charged electrical current was somehow buzzing in the air around him and his excitement was stirred into action. His heart raced, his breath came quickly and his palms were sweaty. He couldn't explain this feeling. He only knew to the core of his being that something wonderful had happened!

He sprang out of bed as if it were Christmas morning. "Mom! I'm hungry! What's for breakfast?" He yelled into the hallway that connected their bedroom.

Mom grumbled. "It's still dark outside. Go back to bed, Danny."

He bounded in like a jubilant puppy. "I know it is! Isn't is weird? It's 8:00 a.m. and the sun isn't out yet! It's cool!"

Dad checked the alarm clock. Yep, 8:00 a.m. it is. So where's the sun? "Must be a storm coming." He thought out loud. If only he knew.

In the insulated quiet of the house, for the giant mountain ash tree trunk buffered all the sounds the vehicles in the streets made on all sides, they went about they're Saturday morning routine, brushing teeth, washing, dressing, breakfast-usually pancakes. Mom turned on the small television seated on the kitchen counter. The reception was very bad. She pounded on the thing, changing channels to no avail. The reception stayed very poor.

"Well, looks like no morning cartoons for you, Danny." She yawned and went to the refrigerator.

Mrs. Gauker, the town gossip poked her old sagging face with her thick coke-end bottle glasses that made her eyes look like huge bubble eyes in the window of the back door. She startled Mom.

"Now what do you suppose…" Mom mumbled irritated. She opened up the back door and the busy body shoved her way in.

"Do you think it's aliens?" Mrs. Gauker asked without so much as a 'good morning'.

"Huh?" Mom felt quite befuddled at that.

"In front, dear, the growth on your front lawn. I hear Jane Paullette from the Top of the Morning Show wants to interview you." Mrs. Gauker "I think it's from all those sunrays that have been going on showering the earth. It's in all the news. Probably radiation poisoning. And that was such a nice tree you planted for that ugly dog. Still it's pretty exciting, don't you think?" She didn't stop to take a breath.

"Mrs. Gauker, what are you talking about?" Mom was getting worried that she'd lost her mind.

"You mean you haven't looked out your front living room window? Oh, this is so exciting. I get to be the first to see your reaction! You have to come with me!" Mrs. Gauker was literally shoving poor Mom out of the kitchen, situated in the back of the house, through the dining room into the living room.

"Well of course you didn't see it. You never open those venetian blinds. I would hate my house being so gloomy. Why don't you ever pull them open? Here let me do it." In her excitement, Mrs. Gauker pulled the venetian blinds off of their hooks and they came crashing down.

Mom didn't know what she was looking at. "Honey, could you come here! Raymond! Come here." She was shouting.

"Oh darn, you can't quite see it, it's so dark!" She began to turn on light switches until the front porch was on. That put mom into a panic.

"RAYMOND!" She screamed.

Raymond was still in the bathroom shaving. He had only a towel wrapped around his butt. Hearing the panic in her voice and not knowing that the old crony was in his living room he made a mad dash to her in all his semi-naked glory. Mrs. Gauker howled in fright as if he was about to rape her. The ugly ridiculous old hag raised her hands above her head like a lunatic and screamed while she ran to the back door.

Raymond went from fear, to anger, to surprise, to amusement, to shock as he turned around and looked out his front window. "Beth, what the hell is that thing?"

Danny sauntered in whistling a merry tune and stopped dead in his tracks. He saw the darkness of the bark showing through the window pain like a vision of a wild jungle just outside his front door. His eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. Everyone completely forgot about Mrs. Gauker's loud scene as they slowly opened the front door and peered out of it, all three heads in complete astonishment.

Danny was the first to speak. "Think we should sell tickets?" He grinned.

Raymond and Beth, mouths gaping open still slowly lowered their heads to stare stupidly at their son.

Then Raymond spoke, barely recognizing his own voice. "What the hell is that thing?"

"I don't know." Said Beth numbly.

"Mom, I'm still hungry." Danny reminded her.

She was still too stupid to register anything he said. He simply shrugged his shoulders, walked into the kitchen and made himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He started whistling that same merry tune again, just as pleased as punch.

Both Mom and Dad, or Beth and Raymond Bellinger, as the whole world was about to get to know them held onto each other and just stood there for a good forty-five minutes. Finally Dad collected his thoughts.

"I'll go get dressed. You make pancakes. I'm going to pretend like this is just normal." He said as he walked out of the living room.

Mom, a pretty blonde fair-haired woman who always shunned sunlight because she burned so quickly, nodded her head and turned to him, but he was already in the bedroom.

"Pros…um…let's see. Lots of shad, a serious novelty, lightening will never reach the house. Cons…No daffodils, no roses or other sun loving flowers. Um…way too many leaves to rake up in the fall. If lightening does strike and the tree gets on fire, the village will have to call the National Guard to put out the fire before the whole village goes up in flames. I'll never hear the end of it from every gossiping irritating no-lifer in this town."

Dad came out at the end of that speech and added a pro. "No lawn mowing every Saturday morning." He grinned pulling his shirt down his muscled back.

By the end of that day, no one in the house of Bellinger wanted to leave the premises ever again. There were Hare Krishnas dressed in bed sheets kneeling and chanting. Druids tented out in the back yard wanting to perform rites. Tattooed bikers rode loud Hogs up and down what was left of the street. Pagans pranced around painting other half-naked pagans. The neighbors were standing around in groups with horrified and angry looking faces. All the while the obnoxious media covered every little detail of the insanity.

That was the circus end of it. The government also was stepping in. Surveillance planes flew over the village. Botanists, nuclear physicists, agricultural specialists, the DNR, geologists, and all manner of egg headed scientist the federal government could enlist were there taking samples, asking personal embarrassing questions, snooping about with their own agenda.

All the while only one person seemed utterly happy with the tree. And that was Danny himself. Somehow, he just knew this was a gift from heaven. He couldn't quite make all the connections, but he just knew that the tree was meant for him. When the world went to bed, he stayed awake and thought about this marvelous tree, his tree with a smile on his face. He fought drifting off to sleep just so he could think about his tree. But finally sleep overcame the boy, still his smile never faded.

That night he dreamed of Duffer. Instead of sadness making his heart heavy, the dream lifted his spirits even further. Duffer was running up to him and Danny opened his arms to his dog and hugged him fiercely. Then the dog tugged at Danny's shirt pulling him to the front of the house where the tree was. The trunk was huge and moss covered. Duffer lead Danny towards the trunk and showed him that the moss on the tree covered an entrance. They both entered the hollow tree, pushing vines away as they moved forward.

Inside the tree, Danny was stunned. The hollow walls inside the tree were lined with colorful crystals. The entire color spectrum was there for the viewing. It left Danny speechless. One of the crystals, a gorgeous emerald green began to glow more and more intensely. Light emanated from this one crystal. Duffer barked and ran up to it, jumping up to try to grab it with his teeth, but the crystal hung too high up for him and he was no climber.

Danny woke up with a start at the sound of Duffer's barking. His eyes went wide and he felt an urgency to find his dog. He

jumped out of bed and ran into the living room. He opened the front door and saw for the first time the opening to the hollow tree. He walked slowly to it, climbing up the base of the trunk a bit and moved the moss away from his face just as he had done in his dream.

Then he was inside. He felt, or sensed the presence of his dog and his heart leaped with joy. Then the green crystal began to

glow and the light of it was calling to Danny. More on instinct, Danny climbed up the crystal wall and reached out to grasp hold of the crystal that was now pulsating like a heart beat. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. Thump, thump.

He felt the crystal in the palm of his hand and he squeezed it tight and pulled hard to dislodge it from the wall. It came free with ease though and the heat of the crystal warmed his hand. Danny had the odd sensation of feeling his hand being licked by Duffer in an affectionate doggy kiss. Then the walls began to shudder and quake.

Somehow, all the crystals on the walls began to fall and then began to come together as if magnetized. Then the crystal in Danny's hand also grouped into the others and together they formed a glowing armored giant. The green crystal was nestled in the giant's left breast of its chest and let off the sound of a heartbeat.

The helmet of the giant opened up and revealed a cockpit and the hand of the giant reached down and extended to Danny. Danny jumped onto the palm of the giant and lifted up to be placed inside the cockpit. Danny hopped in and the helmet shut with a woosh of air. Closing his eyes and picturing his dog Duffer, Danny thought about what he wanted the giant to do.

"I want you to talk to me and tell me your name." Inside the cockpit Danny heard a voice.

"I am a Guymelef here on Earth. You can call me Duffer, but I am not a dog anymore, I am a dragon. I am your dragon."

The next morning Danny's mom woke him up for church. She decided to take Ray's advice and go on with life as if it was normal to have the largest tree on Earth grow up on your front lawn in one night's time. So the three of them were getting ready to go. Breakfast, washing and dressing then off to church.

As soon as they arrived there the whole congregation which had become a dull roar of gossip and speculation went silent instantaneously. Like a slap on her face, Beth felt the heavy wall of scrutiny slam into her causing her face to go red. She put her chin up higher and marched to the front of the church, to the front pew, and made everybody there scooch their butts to make room for three more. She plastered a fake smile and her face and turned around and smiled looking everyone in the eyes, well, those eyes that hadn't been downcast. She smiled and waved at her friends. They were embarrassed and waved back lamely hoping nobody noticed.

The pastor had been no better in his behavior. Before the Bellinger's arrival his face was just as Animated as Mrs. Gauker's face, the busy body neighbor who lived across the street. Catching himself in the thrilled throes of gossiping, he had to stand up and clear his throat, adjust his religious collar and step up to the podium to begin the service. It was the most awkward Sunday anyone had ever experienced.

The night was peaceful because Raymond shut the ringer off. Since the tree insulated the front of the house with such quiet and privacy, they simply stayed there. Danny went to bed early which surprised the both of them. He hated going to bed normally. While the Bellingers couldn't get a television signal because of the tree, they were vastly entertained just being together and talking. They hadn't done that in a while and it almost felt like a date. Before the evening was over the two of them were necking like high school sweethearts.

Danny drifted off to sleep. As soon as he did he heard Duffer barking. He got up and walked quietly to the front door and opened it. The tree again was hollow with moss covering the opening. He pushed himself through and the Guymelef lit up with delight. His friend was back. They would be together and fly away and learn to shoot and fight like champion black belts. He couldn't wait to get started showing Danny how to make his move and fly and shoot and kick and punch! It was going to be just like old times playing together!