Can you keep a secret?

The heart of the Kingdom was ravaged by the explosion. The flame's waltz burnt all through the Kingdom as Jotunheim had a display of orange while casting shadows.

Coming from the raging inferno was King Will. He walked through the Inferno, unharmed as he walked towards Walter who lay weak on the ground. He took haggard steps towards Walter, but ironically, his skin was no rougher.

Did I hurt him? Walter wondered, half awake as he watched the King walk towards him.

On getting to his front, he picked him up and put him on his shoulders without any visible struggle. As he carried him, Walter could see that the fire was being put out by creatures he hadn't quite seen before. He was almost unconscious now, but he could depict their outline.

They looked like mandrills, but just…less colorful, and made less noise. They all worked in coordination, like they had one mind, to put out the fire before it spread further.

Where did they come from?

Walter couldn't keep up with their movements. He succumbed to the slumber that beckoned.

What happened? Where am I? Who turned the lights out? Walter struggled as his awareness slowly crept back to him. The veil of darkness was slowly lifted from his eyes. As his surroundings started to take shape, he could tell that he was laid on a bed. He had lost all sense of time.

He groggily rubbed his eyes and sat up. On doing so, his first observation about the room was a shock. Someone stood beside his bed, waiting for him to wake up.

It was…it was Nicole!

"Wakey wakey sleepy head" she said with a smile on her face. She still had the most captivating smile he had ever seen. Her skin was still as smooth as he could remember, but the only difference was her eyes. They were gray…slate gray to be precise.

"Nicole!" He yelled in disbelief.

"How're you, Wally?"

"How am I? Nicole, you're asking how I am? Where have you been all this time? I was told you were dead. You've been in Jotunheim all this time?"

"Walter…"

"Don't you 'Walter' me. Just don't!" Walter said, uncovering his blanket and trying to roll out of bed but was stopped.

Walter looked over his uncovered body, his feet were chained to the bed.

"Walter, I'm going to kill you."

"What?" Walter looked back at Nicole. She had a knife in her hand, and tears rolling down her cheeks in great quantity,

"My mother is dead because of you! You captured my sister, you are planning to kill her. I will kill you!" She cried as she began stabbing him on the bed.

Mother, Josephine and Aaron also walked into the room holding their knives in their hands.

"Help! Somebody! Please!" Walter yelled, as the four of them kept stabbing him, multiple times without any remorse.

Walter could feel his life leaving his body as he began to lose strength in his limbs, his iris changing color in the process.

"Nooooooo!" He yelled as he jolted from his nightmare into the real world, still yelling.

"Calm down, calm down!" Tanya voiced, trying to hold his fidgeting hands in place.

"It's alright. Everything is fine. Just calm down." she said, sitting across from him, looking into his eyes, and he, hers.

As she held onto his hands, she could feel the raging storm in his heart. As they maintained eye contact, and Tanya's persistent but gentle voice kept speaking to Walter, his fears and troubles began to recede like the rays of the dusking sun.

As he took a deep breath, his anxiety waned. Walter took another look at Tanya who noticed that his right eye began to give a bluish colouration.

She asked, "What happened in your sleep?"

"It's nothing."

"C'mmon, you can't say that. What really happened? You know you can talk to me, right?"

Walter kept silent for a minute, not knowing what to say.

"Just say it as it is." She said,

"I had a dream"

"A dream? Don't worry, nightmares are pretty normal here…especially when you're new."

"Tanya, this wasn't just a dream. I could feel every bit of it…I could feel life leaving my body."

Tanya's eyes were intently focused on Walter's. She also observed his right eye was becoming blue like the left.

"Walter, like I said. It's pretty normal to have such dreams in the underworld…cheer up, would ya? The King wants to see you. We have a lot to talk about…it's concerning how you almost destroyed the Kingdom."

"Okay."

"So clean up and meet us downstairs, okay? I'll be waiting for you outside." She said as she turned to take her leave.

"Tanya." Walter called, holding her hand, stopping her movement.

"Yeah?" She answered, turning.

"What is my Father's gift? When we were sparring the other time…it happened so fast, I couldn't tell where that smoke came from…I thought I could stand a chance but I was totally outclassed just by smoke… But that's not what truly got me bothered. When I exploded, he was the closest to me, but when it was all over, he walked through the flames that surrounded me, totally fine with no scratch. Not even his clothes got torn or stained with ash. And when he came to pick me up, he had beasts that appeared from thin air to put out the fire."

"Walter…" she called walking to him, "can you keep a secret?" she whispered.

"Yes, yes. Just tell me."

"you won't…(snort) believe me,"she said, chuckling.

"Tell me, I will…I'm dying to get as strong. Father completely changes the topic anytime I ask. He doesn't want to go down that lane at all."

"That's really understandable."

"Why is that understandable? He doesn't want to share a lot of secrets with me. He just wants to chill. The war doesn't seem like much of a priority to him anymore."

"It's really just hard to understand."

"You're beginning to sound like him."

"Walter…" she called in a nigh inaudible tone.

"Go on already."

"I won't tell you more than I'm about to say."

"Fine! Just get on with it!"

"The King doesn't have any gifts."

"What? Is this one of your silly jokes?"

"No…not this time. I'm being honest. His eyes were never blue."

"That's true, his eye is gray. But hold up, where does all this power come from? I mean, you all saw what he did to me at the tournament."

"I'm afraid I can't tell you where his power comes from. You're going to have to ask him yourself."

"Tanya wait…"

"Nope. That's enough gossip for now. Meet us downstairs. Everyone is waiting."