Suprise

Dante just stood there, stunned. Of all the things that could have happened he never expected that. It took Dante a few minutes to really register what happened. Amada had actually kissed him.

Slowly Dante started walking towards his his front door, deep in thought. He was so distracted he didn't even notice how eerily dark his house was. Not a single light was on inside his house. Not realizing anything was off, Dante reached out and opened his front door.

Dante didn't realize the house was dark right away. As the door clicked closed behind him, he suddenly felt the darkness of the house. He looked around, frowning slightly. One or both of his parents should be home. He had received no calls or texts from either his mom or dad about them being out of the house.

"Hello! Mom, Dad?" Dante shouted, as he walked toward the hall table, with the lamp.

As he reached forward to turn on the light he was bathed in a sudden light coming from his living room. It was so sudden he couldn't see anything right away.

"Surprise!" a group of voices cried out in unison.

As Dante's vision returned, he couldn't help but be truly surprised. There was Perry, Finnegas, and Amada. Next to them was his parents, and next to them was Amadas parents. There were also a few other classmates scattered around the room as well.

A banner that spanned the room said "Happy Birthday Dante!" Streamers and balloons were hung from the ceiling. Guests were wearing cone shaped hats with sparkles fountaining from the tip. as Dante was taking it all in, all the kids from his class aimed Party Wands at him. Immediately he was showered with magical glitter and confetti that disappear on contact.

"Happy Birthday Dante." Perry said with his iconic gigantic grin.

"Were you surprised?" Amada asked excitedly.

"Of course he was surprised." Finnegas said laughing, "can't ye see the look on his face? Priceless!"

"Duh I'm surprised! What's going on? I thought you guys had to go home. Perry you said you had to take your medicine." Dante said to Perry accusingly.

"Well I didn't really have an earache. We just needed to be closer to your house to help set up before you got there. So, we decided to hang at the arcade instead." Perry explained.

Dante looked at his friends, a smile spreading across his face. "Thank you guys, this is awesome." he said.

"Don't thank us." Amada replied, "Thank your mom and dad."

Dante looked at his parents totally shocked. "You guys did this?" Dante said incredulously

Dante couldn't believe his parents would throw him a surprise party. He thought he had the most plain, boring parents. They never did anything spontaneous or fun.

His dad looked at Dante and said, "It's not every day you turn 16, son."

"Yes, you deserve to have some fun for your birthday dear." His mother added.

"Well thank you guys. Thanks so much." Dante said, hugging his parents.

"You are welcome sweetie." His mom said. "Say, who wants cake?" she asked to all his classmates.

This was met with a cheer and Mrs. Tenebris walked into the kitchen. At the same time, Dante's friends led him to a chair at the head of the dining room table, just off the living room. Soon, Dante's mom walked in the dining room carrying a large cake, with 16 wisps floating around the top. Looking around the room at all his friends, Dante closed his eyes, and he did something he hadn't done in many years. He made a wish.

Dante didn't really believe wishes came true, but still he had a wish in his heart. "I wish I had the power to end the war, and protect everyone." Dante said in his heart.

Dante blew at the wisps, and they began to dance in a line toward an open window. The last wisp in line changed course, and began dancing around Dante's head. As he looked up at it, the wisp lightly touched Dante's forehead, Leaving a shadowy blue mark that disappeared in a matter of a second. Then the wisp made it's way out the window with its brethren.

Soon after Mrs. Tenebris began cutting pieces of cake, and Mr. Tenebris was handing them out. During all the chaos of handing out cake to his classmates, their came a knock at the frond door.

Dante, would you mind getting that?" Mister Tenebris asked, both his hands holding a paper plate witch cake on it.

"No problem." Dante replied, and he made his way to the front door.

When he opened the door, Dante saw it was Pops at the door.

"Hey Pops, what's going on?" Dante asked surprised to see him here.

"Oh, Dante. Good good, just the lad I came to see. I have it on very good authority that you are celebrating a very special birthday tonight? You are 16 now correct?" Pops asked

"Actually it's tomorrow. My parents just decided to throw me a surprise party tonight." Dante explained.

"Well, welcome to adulthood young man. Soon you will be off to military school, and then too soon off to war." Pops said, sadness creeping in to his voice near the end. Pops shook himself and continued, "I have brought a gift." Pops said, handing Dante a small box. The box was rectangular, and wrapped loosely as if in a hurry. "I made it for you myself, the instructions are inside."

"Wow, thanks Pops." Dante said with appreciation. "Would you like to come in? We just cut the cake."

Pops looked at Dante apologetically, "Oh I would Dante, I really would, but I must get back. I just had a huge breakthrough with a new coffee machine." Pops said excitedly. "You see, I have been trying to create a new, highly concentrated coffee. With new enchantments on this machine to enhance one's connection to their own feelings, and a new special foam formulated from breaking down the Charisma Crystals. This new creation, in theory, will give the imbiber the ability to express themselves in a more complete fashion for a short period of time. I call it Expresso!"

Dante could barely follow along with what Pops was saying, but he could tell how happy Pop's work made him. "Pops, that sounds amazing. When can I try it?" Dante said happily.

"Bring your friends by tomorrow. With any luck, it will be ready by the time the shop opens." Pops replied. "I must be going now Dante, Happy Birthday again. Be seeing you my boy!" and with that Pops was off, walking as fast as his little legs would carry him.

Dante smiled and walked back into his house carrying his gift. One of his classmates spotted him walking in with the present and decided to shout "Time to open gifts." As he led Dante into the living room in front of the couch.

Most people had finished eating by this point, gathered around Dante on the couch, bringing over their presents and setting them next to him. Since he already had Pops present in his hand, he decided to start with it. Dante easily pulled off the loosely wrapped paper to reveal a plain wooden box. inside was a black cylinder, just large enough to fit in Dante's hand, and a note. Upon reading the note Dante got a huge smile on his face.

"Well, what is it?" Perry asked anxiously.

Dante didn't say a word. He stood up, and then held his thumb over a small biometric scanner on the bottom. After that he held the cylinder in his hand in front of him, as if he was holding a weapon. He thought of a common short sword, picturing it in his mind.

Suddenly, the object in his hand started to vibrate. The cylinder slowly started to reform into the hilt of a sword. Liquid black metal began to rise from the top, forming a blade as it rose, until it reached the tip. When the weapon was complete all the students gasped and chatted amongst themselves. This thing was cool.

"It's a sword, dude that is so cool!" one of the students said.

"It's much more than a sword. Watch this." Dante told them

Dante pictured Finnegas' axe in his minds eye, and the hilt of the sword started to vibrate again. The blade turned back into liquid and quickly matched the exact shape of the axe. The handle extended out to match the length of the haft. Within a moment Dante's weapon was a black steel replica of his dwarf friends axe.

"Wow Pops, this thing is amazing" Dante thought to himself. He knew it would help him in military school.

As Dante thought this, he could feel some sort of strange energy leave his hands and enter his weapon. For a short second he could see a glowing shape on the haft, shadowy and blue, and the shape of a wisp.

But then the shape was gone, and Dante couldn't get it to come back. So he thought of the small cylinder and the weapon reverted to its original form. Dante put it back in it's box and started to move on through the other presents.

One by one presents were opened and his friends started to leave. They all wished him a happy birthday, and soon it was only Dante, Amada, and their parents. While Their parents were talking Amada walked up to Dante and presented him with her gift.

"Here you go Dante. Happy birthday. " Amada said.

"Thanks Amada, I can't wait to see what it is." Dante replied.

Dante began to open the present, carefully removing the ribbon and lid to the box. Inside was a beautiful wrist clasp made of wood. The clasp was tapered at each end, widening to a band above your writs. from each tapered end the trunk of a tree rose, growing toward each other. A sun providing light for them both in the middle.

"It took me a week to sing the wood into that shape." Amada said with a hint of pride.

Woodsinging was a skill only wood elves could utilize. They would sing to a tree about what shape they wished for the wood to take. The branches would come together and grow, slowly, into the desired shape. The quality was based on the wood, and the skill of the singer. Usually even a small trinket like this would take at least two weeks to create, and Amada had done it in half the time.

"Amada, this is beautiful. This is the best gift I got all night." Dante said, and he meant it.

From the front door, the two heard a light cough and looked up. Mr. and Mrs. Woodsong were waiting by the door.

"Amada, it's time to go home dear." Mrs. Woodsong said.

"Happy birthday Dante, we hope you enjoyed the party." Mr. Woodsong said, giving Dante a look he thought looked very familiar...

"Chipmunk." Dante said suddenly, looking at Mr. Woodsong.

When Dante said "Chipmunk" Amada blushed a bright red, and left as quickly as she could get out of the door. Mr. Woodsong started to chuckle as he walked out of the door and closed it behind him.

Dante turned to his parents with a shocked look on his face. "Mr. Woodsong was the chipmunk?" Dante asked his parents.

"Yes sweetie, we asked him to go along to make sure you didn't come home early. If you tried he would have ran off, changed back into himself, and intercepted you." His mom said.

"So when we were outside he saw..." Dante started to trail off. He saw the knowing look and small smiles on his parents faces. "Goodnight!" Dante said quickly and ran upstairs to his room.

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As midnight rolled around, Dante was asleep in his bed. Slowly his body rose off of his bed, as a glowing light started to surround him. Then the light flashed and Dante was no longer in his room. Still sleeping Dante was now in a large room, with cots lined up in a grid pattern. There were 50 cots in the room, and 23 of them now had sleeping bodies in them.

Back at the Tenebris house, Mr. and Mrs. Tenebris were still awake. Mrs. Tenebris had her face buried in her husbands chest, sobbing.

"Shhhh dear, we knew this day was coming." He whispered to his wife, trying to console her.

"It's so cruel. What if he never comes back? What if we never see our baby again?" Mrs. Tenebris asked between the tears.

"He will be back." Mr. Tenebris replied matter-o-factly. "His is Tenebris blood."