A Scary Dream and a Bad Joke

Blink was drenched in sweat, his heart racing fast and thumping so hard he could almost hear it in his ears.

He had a scary dream. The dream started out fine. It was in fact just as he liked it. It was of that time he and Berge were sitting in front of the tree at Horns' Juncture where he had engraved their names.

The dream gave him a feeling of tranquillity—something he had looked forward to since the first time he had that same dream several days ago.

Suddenly, his right hand turned the color of a glowing ember. He felt hot around his hand, but the hand itself was as cool as chilled water.

Frightened out of his wits, Blink was forced out of sleep. He checked his right hand immediately and saw that it wasn't a glowing red-orange anymore. However, it was flecked with a few orange remnants like that of a dying ember. The appearance lasted only in a heartbeat. Thus, Blink dismissed it as the after-effect of having just woken from a dream.

Blink assumed the lotus position and took several deep breaths before proceeding to practice the breathing technique he learned at the Ragha Martial Arts Academy.

After a little over ten minutes, Blink's condition had normalized but he decided to continue with the exercise. He had discovered long ago that practicing the breathing technique after his morning training allowed him to have a calm disposition that lasted until the evening.

Blink kept it going for about an hour. He then stood up and walked lightly around the common room. It was still too early for his morning run.

He pondered about the dream he just had.

'It was the same dream as the one I had on my sixteenth birthday,' Blink said in his mind.

That dream happened exactly three months ago. Back then he screamed so loud it startled everyone at the dormitory. He was still shaking after his fellow disciples in the building had all rushed to his room. Everybody wanted to know what had happened to him, so he had no choice but to tell them about his strange dream.

The incident inspired some disciples to try their hand at interpreting dreams.

"He's going to lose his hand."

"Fire is used to forge iron. He will have a hand of iron soon."

"He's about to receive a blessing from Lantiok."

"I think he was touched by a fire sprite or he will soon be."

"Guys, don't you see? Right now Blink has the hot hand when it comes to girls. Perhaps this means more girls will fall for him."

"Shut up, you idiot! It's bad enough that he's got Berge in the bag already. You want him to have the few remaining beauties too! If I don't bust your mouth for suggesting such a horrendous scenario I swear…"

"Yeah, shut your filthy mouth if you know what's good for you!"

"Bonehead!"

"Stupid piece of shit!"

"Could it be that in the future, balls of fire will fly out of his hands?"

"That's the most stupid thing anyone has ever said today!"

"Yeah, you better get your head opened up! I doubt you still have brains left inside your skull!"

"Idiot!"

"Moron!"

"Crazy lunatic!"

"Don't crazy and lunatic mean the same thing?"

"Yes, but he's twice crazy."

Just as they heard the bell, a regular disciple tried to poke fun into the topic as they walked towards the assembly area.

"Perhaps he rubbed himself too hard?"

Everybody looked at the disciple. He was well-known as the clown of the Ragha Martial Arts Academy.

"You're well aware of the burning sensation you feel at night after straining a muscle, right?"

"We've all had that our first night here at the academy."

"What about it?"

"Well, sometimes our body could be telling us something important but we simply ignore it. So, in order for the situation not to deteriorate, our body sends signals to our brains in the form of suggestions. Like dreams!"

"So, you're saying Blink dreamt that his hand turned into a burning ember because he was trying to ignore the fact that his hand was about to burn out?"

"Exactly!"

"I never thought of it that way!"

"Interesting theory! Continue!"

"Think about it! He's got this really hot girlfriend who, I'm sure, wakes up the beast within him! However, he can't do anything to her because there's just no opportunities for that here!"

"I still don't get it!"

"Yeah, what's that got to do with it?"

"Blue balls!"

"What!?"

"You don't know what the meaning of blue balls is?"

"Of course I know what it means!"

"Enough beating around the bush and tell us already!"

"I'm saying he must have worked his right hand too much!"

"That's silly, he would have also felt it down there!"

"How do you know he didn't? We didn't ask him! And if we did, I doubt he would have told us!"

Unknown to the academy clown, Blink was just a few steps behind him.

The guys right behind the clown helplessly tried to interrupt him but he simply just got carried away.

Blink picked up the pace and pushed aside the guys in front of him. He walked side-by-side with the chatterbox without getting his attention.

Unaware of what just transpired around him, the clown continued chattering away.

"He's probably been jacking himself off for several days and…"

Somebody clasped the clown's head with both hands and directed his face to his side. The clown stared wide-eyed at Blink, his jaw dropping several inches from the rest of his face.

Blink just gave him a very friendly smile.

"I'll see you at sparring," Blink said still smiling. He sounded very friendly too.

The guy almost broke into tears.

That day, they had been expecting to be allowed to choose their sparring partner, with the elite disciples having priority.

It would have been highly unusual for Blink to choose a regular disciple instead of Boomer or his best friend, Flip—his regular sparring partners. However, on that day, a clown sought his own destruction.

Luckily for the clown, the seniors decided on the matchups and, to his good fortune, Blink was paired with one of the elite disciples.

Blink tried to recall the name of the clown but failed at it no matter how he tried. He was more famously known among them as "The Fool".

What Blink could recall, however, was that a few days later, The Fool had the misfortune of getting paired with Berge. He got beaten up mercilessly that the seniors had to rescue him from Berge's unrestrained fury.

At the time, Berge had long been an elite disciple but had yet to get a nickname because all the names the seniors came up with referred either to her looks or to her oozing sex appeal. Master Tszarek rejected all the nicknames they had suggested on the grounds that a martial arts disciple's nickname must reflect that disciple's combat prowess.