A/N: Yay, I got more reviews! (is happy) So, Danny has left the Academy, what will happen now? Here's the next chapter!
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Back at Elementum Academy, Tucker was jolted awake at 7:30 in the morning by a loud rapping on the door.
"Tucker!" an annoyed voice practically screamed, banging on the door more forcefully now. "Tuck, please WAKE UP! It's urgent!"
Tucker was annoyed at being woken up so early, but if it was urgent, he had to answer the door whether he waned to or not. He slowly opened the door and saw Valerie standing there with a worried look on her face and a piece of paper clenched in her hand. "Oh, hey Val," Tucker said sleepily, "what's up?"
Valerie looked like she was ready to explode. "What's up? WHAT'S UP? Did you not see this note on your door? And did you fail to notice that Danny's not here?"
Tucker shook his head for a minute. "No, I didn't see any note..." Suddenly, Tucker's sleepiness disappeared almost instantaneously. "What do you mean he's not here?!" he gasped as he frantically looked through all of Danny's drawers only to find that all his belongings were gone.
"Oh, I supposes you didn't read this, huh?!" Valerie half whispered, half screamed as she thrust the note into Tucker's hands.
Tucker took one look over the note and realized it was true. Their friend had run away from the academy and gone off to who-knows where. "When do you think he went off?" Tucker asked, clearly puzzled by his friend's disappearance.
"How am I supposed to know?" Valerie shouted angrily at Tucker. Before she could say anything else, Dash came running toward the two.
"What's all the commotion about?" Dash questioned. "I could hear your banging all the way down the hall, Valerie, what happened?"
Valerie looked at him, tears beginning to form in her eyes as she showed Dash the letter.
"Danny's gone."
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Several miles away, Danny woke up in a dense part of the forest that surrounded where Elementum Academy was. He made sure he was far enough away from the academy before he fell asleep the night before, so that if he encountered any palebloods, at least his friends would be safe.
"It's kind of nice here," Danny thought to himself as he slowly ate one of the apples he'd packed, "living away from all those loud noises and chaos." He knew, however, that he couldn't stay in one spot too long. He had to find a place that he could truly call "home", as it was the primary reason he had run away in the first place. The small area had been a nice place to camp out for the night though.
"I have to keep searching," Danny said out loud as he walked. "The farther away I go from the acadamy, the safer my friends are and the closer I am to my true home...at least, I hope so." An unnerving thought suddenly crept into his mind: What if I don't belong anywhere? Danny shook his head, of course he belonged somewhere. "Don't think like that, Fenton!" he scolded himself, pushing the thought out of his mind.
Another unnerving thought suddenly occurred to Danny, and this one was crucial. "Where am I going to get any food?" he though desperately. He had enough rations for about two days, but after they ran out, what then? The forest seemed barren and lifeless, and he hadn't seen a single fruit tree anywhere, just twisted vines. He figured that was the reason Vlad had chosen this forest to conceal the Academy from the palebloods. He found the appearance of the forest unsettling, as he remembered that this was where most of the Academy's food came from. If that was true though, why was the forest so shriveled?
Danny didn't want to starve to death, but who knew how big the forest was? Sure, if he was really desperate he could use icicles thanks to him being a Cryto, but they wouldn't be able to sustain him for very long. It could be weeks before he saw another Elemental who could help, let alone a paleblood.
After about two hours of wandering, lost and with no idea what to do, Danny sat down on the ground, retrieving The Book of Lost Knowledge from his bag.
"Maybe there will be some answers in here," he said. He tried to open the book...and for some reason, he couldn't. No matter how much Danny pulled, he couldn't get the book to open. Danny's eyes turned toward the white hand in the center of the book cover, which seemed to be indented, and brighter than before. "I wonder..." Danny murmured to himself as he placed his right hand flat down on the book.
Almost at once, the indigo rings glowed a dark blue, and a searing pain shot through Danny's right hand. He attempted to remove his hand, but it was as if an electric current was causing his hand to be stuck there. The rings glowed even brighter as a white glow seemed to come from the hand on the book's cover. The pain only seemed to grow, and Danny could no longer see the forest that surrounded him. He could only see and hear, in quick instantaneous flashes, visions that caused his body to shake as the pain grew more intense with each passing second.
The ball on the altar...
A scent of fire...
The terrified voices of his friends...
A cold evil laugh...
A deadly paleblood weapon...
Destruction and death...
Danny shut his eyes. He felt that everything was spinning around him. The pain, the visions, the voices...it was all too much for him to bear. As he slowly began to lose consciousness, he felt that he could hear another voice among the visions-one that was strange...but somehow familiar.
"Danny...Danny!"
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A/N: You know what to do: read and review!
