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After being awake for 34 hours straight, the last 12 hours composed of working, driving home, and showering, I got 8 hours of sleep. I guess it was mostly deep sleep...because I feel fucking fantastic! Let's see what Daniel does today.

Note: I may end up replacing the name Daniel with the name Mike if I'm not paying attention. Yell at me in comments if you see Mike anywhere XD.

Chapter 4: Nick's Secret

Daniel pulled out the desk chair, taking a seat in it and resting his chin on his hand to stay upright. He felt more awake now as if he had been sleeping, but if no time had passed since his 'dream'...well, perhaps adrenaline would explain it. He looked at the new-looking red book with the gold tiger paw on the front. Daniel shut his eyes, gulping nervously as he opened the book to see if it had been filled even more.

No table of contents. No author. No publication date...the first page had a small picture at the top followed by text below. He flipped through the unnumbered pages, noticing that five pages were now filled with pictures and text. The first picture showed Daniel in his common wardrobe in the background lying in the beautiful grassy setting. In the bottom left was the white tiger, Uraku, crouching down as if ready to pounce the human. Daniel turned the page, not bothering to read the text yet. The next picture showed Daniel naked, sitting up and talking with Uraku in the dungeon while the hyena's in the cells in the background looked like they were laughing. Daniel quickly flipped to the last page with words on it, observing the last picture to show the phoenix holding up his talon in Daniel's face, his face looking dulled out and unconscious while Uraku stayed behind him as if ready to catch. Daniel read the text under the picture.

"Daniel had been knocked unconscious by the will of Shah, falling back into the arms of Uraku. 'Leave him here, Uraku. If this is indeed the human in my prophecy, I shall let all of the citizens of Bai'ji know of his arrival, and we shall celebrate throughout the night. You may gather the furs around sunset to await my message. Now go.' Uraku bowed, letting mighty Shah know of his obedience as he turned around to pick up the armor he had brought, rearming himself, and leaving the tower.

Shah looked down at Daniel, smiling as the boy stirred in his sleep. 'Even if you aren't the one...you truly are one of the most beautiful creature's I've seen.' "

Daniel finished the last sentence in the book as written, slamming it shut and holding his head in his hand, scratching gently. "Can this really be happening?" asked Daniel out loud. He thought about what was happening, not taking long to accept the fact that either he was insane, or the book really was an outlet to another world.

Daniel closed the book and got out of his chair. The fatigue started to return to him, and he crawled into his covers. He had school early the next morning, and didn't want to miss the first day of his engineering classes. He resolved to properly equip himself for his next entrance into the book later tomorrow night. Insane or not...he was interested in what was happening.

Daniel woke up the next morning at five a.m., only getting five hours of sleep. Strangely, he felt completely refreshed. It was as if his body knew how to sleep finally...or how to wake up. He easily got out of bed, quickly stretching before perkily going on with his morning routine. Today was going to be a good day!

He packed his backpack with the four books he needed for the four classes he had today, along with notebooks for notes. He hauled it over his shoulder and headed out the front door. The weather was perfect, only a little chilly. The chill was nothing compared to the long sleeved black overcoat he wore. He began his trek down the winding nature scene sidewalk to the large building at the main campus. His first class was Statics, the study of forces acting on non-moving objects. The course sounded math intensive, which he would have no problem handling.

The professor's name was Dr. Ruhala, a young woman with brown eyes, short and curly black hair, and a formal blouse and slacks, matched with black dress shoes. Daniel was sitting in the back of the small high-school sized classroom, opening an empty notebook to begin taking notes. Dr. Ruhala cleared her throat as she propped up one of the required texts in front of the class. "Good morning class. Today is going to be a short lecture so that you can begin your first reading assignment. There will most likely be a quiz on Thursday, so be sure write the page numbers down!"

Daniel quietly sighed. He hated reading from text books. They always bored him to tears. Dr. Ruhala wrote, "Read: pp 1-55 in SoE" Daniel wrote down the assignment and listened closely to the lecture, making sure to note of anything important.

"Class, everybody in here wants to become an engineer. Well, not all of you will have what it takes for such a demanding job. Others of you will be discouraged after what I'm about to tell you. Every math problem we'll be doing in class during your college career will be nothing compared to what you'll need to do in the real world. All the easy problems have been answered, and nobody benefits from repeated works. Every engineer will tell you that if they could go back in time with the knowledge they have now, they'd be famous and loved by practically the world. If you don't feel up to the task of having to answer these silly questions in your school years, don't bother returning on Thursday."

Daniel nodded his head, not really concerned about what she said. He's a god at math, and he wanted to be the one to solve the world's current engineering questions with his insight. Dr. Ruhala gave a brief introduction on what statics was before dismissing the class an hour early. Daniel had three more classes to go, Chemistry, Speech, and Writing.

Daniel rushed to the second large building on the main campus, the direct neighbor of the previous building. The first room on the left contained the forum where chemistry would be taught. He looked around for a place to sit amongst the vast crowd of students. Daniel's ears perked up almost like a dogs as he heard a familiar voice call out to him. "Hey, Dan!"

Nick was waving over at Daniel, making him smile as he quickly walked through the crammed aisle to go sit with his friend. "Hey Nick! Glad you're in one of my classes!"

Daniel's heart fluttered to see Nick still being so friendly towards him, even after the awkward night they shared before. He feared Nick would realize how much he teased the poor homo that night with his charisma. But here he was, requesting that Daniel be near him. Nick smiled as Daniel took his seat right next to Nick. The seats were so small that their butts could practically touch...if only they were a little smaller.

"Hey, Daniel, I wanted to apologize for the way I acted last night." Daniel tilted his head to the side in a bit of confusion. "Nick?"

"I figured you had a crush on me with the way you looked at me and all, and I just felt flattered...and I wanted more. I changed into that suit right in front of you so you could look at me. I felt so wonderful when I saw you gawking at me. I was using you...and I'm sorry."

Daniel was surprised at how honest Nick was sounding...and the apology was sincere. Daniel could relate to what Nick was saying. In his high school years, he had seen some girls show interest in him. He loved teasing them with his moves and lusty mannerisms just to make him feel sexier. Daniel patted Nick on the back. "Don't worry about it. Hell, you can keep toying with me if you want. I wouldn't complain." The two of them laughed some, the ice of awkwardness seeming to crumble beneath the tremor of their friendship reinforced.

The two friends started mingling about random happenings around the town, what kind of professors they had, etc. They had ten minutes before class started, so why not have a chat until then?

Daniel noticed Nick always clutching his chest as they spoke. Was he still trying to hide that blue book he saw earlier? Perhaps it was a diary. Daniel couldn't help but prod for more answers. "Hey, Nick, what is that book, anyway?" Nick looked a little distraught now, hiding the book away as best as he could. "It's...a journal of sorts." Daniel nodded. He understood why Nick would want to hide it from him still. "Ah. Don't worry, I won't go snooping around in it." The two of them didn't chat for the rest of the five minutes. Daniel wanted to slash himself up for asking that question. He just opened Pandora's box in their friendship. Well...maybe one little mess up won't destroy what chance he had with Nick.

Chemistry was by far the worst experience in his life. The teacher was boring as hell, the monotone male voice and general unenthusiasm for the subject sending Daniel into periodic snoozes. Nick seemed to be enjoying himself. Well, at least Daniel had someone who he could copy notes from later. Once the professor had dismissed the class from Chemistry, Daniel turned to Nick. "Hey, what're your next classes?" Nick pulled out his schedule, walking with Daniel out of the forum and back toward the first building. "Speech composition with Mrs. Avery, and Rhetoric and Composition with Mr. Pease" Daniel looked ecstatic. Those were his classes too! "I don't believe it! Only one class we don't have together today." Nick looked equally as pleased. "Looks like we're going to become good study buddies then!"

Daniel suddenly had a wild idea, stopping in the middle of the overpass connecting the two buildings. He turned bright red, nervous as hell about asking the question that he just brewed up in his mind. Nick paused, looking over the reddened Daniel with curiosity. "What, are you gonna ask me out?" Nick chuckled, trying to break the ice if that's what Daniel would try to do. It in fact was, but Daniel knew it wouldn't happen. "Nothing." Nick smirked back at Daniel, flattered at the interest he was given. "C'mon, let's get to speech class!"

The classroom for speech was small and dark, only about 12 students including Daniel and Nick. Mrs. Avery was already there, waiting for the clock on the wall to reach the 1:00 p.m. mark to start class. She was a very large woman, short blond hair spiked up like Bart Simpson's hair. The top of her red t-shirt was covered by her triple-chin and her waist seemed to be harboring many large balls. The black sweat pants and black sandals, added to the overall appearance of the women, gave the impression of a person who just didn't care about much in life.

"Good morn...no, good afternoon, class! Now, judging by all your excited faces in seeing me, I'll let you know a little secret. Well...let's see if you can guess it first! Now...how much do you think I weigh?" She was standing up, her hands going into her pockets as she spun slowly side to side. Nobody raised their hand to answer such an embarrassing question. Mrs. Avery chuckled a bit, "I see you all have a bit of modesty bearing you down. Well, that's why we're here. I'm going to have you finishing this course with the ability to express yourself. Now, I don't think you should go around guessing everybody's weight! However, you should trust your senses right now. Now, consider what I'm asking you." Mrs. Avery came over to Nick, holding her hand out to him as she looked around at the class again. "If I asked you how much this young man weighs, would any of you have the slightest idea?" Some of the others shook their heads, including Daniel. Nick just sat there blushing madly. "Exactly." She now held her other hand out to Daniel. "We don't know by what we see how much they might weigh. They are concealed too well by these interesting clothes they chose. This isn't bad on their part, though." She smiled, nodding to the two of them. "Now, look at me. There are bulges in the oddest places, a triple chin, about 5'-7" tall. What are the chances that I don't know my own weight?" She looked around as if expecting an answer, but quickly answered for the class. "I damn well better know my weight if I look like this. My health is at risk because of this, after all. So, if I were to be offended if you guess to high, who is the real idiot here? You can guess 450 pounds, or you could guess 750 pounds. I asked you an odd question such as this knowing what I look like. If I don't expect harsh answers...then I am a fool."

The class looked excited to be here now, and so were Daniel and Nick. Mrs. Avery walked back to her mobile chair that was beside the teacher's desk. "The answer is 560 pounds by the way, in case you are curious. Now, I have some good news. There are no tests, no quizzes, no workbooks, nothing. Your grades are based on 4 different speeches. We'll discuss them in detail as we approach each one. The first speech is narrative, and you do not need any visual aids or references. Simply speak about something that occurred to you in the past, or make up a story! This will be graded on how clearly you speak and how charismatic you are. Show your emotion! Make your audience feel what you're feeling! If you are angry, slam your first down! The next three speeches will be nowhere near as relaxing as this one, so enjoy it while you can." Mrs. Avery snickered as she saw the lit up faces of her students. "Now...we can end class early today so you can think about what you wish to speak about...or if anybody feels they can speak right now, you may by all means do so. So...any volunteers?"

After ten seconds of silence, Daniel looked over to Nick, wanting to see if he was just as excited about this class as he was. Daniel saw Nick looking down at the desk, seeming distraught as he slowly raised his hand. Mrs. Avery stood up, a little surprised that someone actually volunteered on the first day. "Oh! This is new! Well, Mr..." Nick answered the inferred question. "Olas...Nick Olas." Mrs. Avery chuckled. "Nicholas Olas...sorry, I couldn't resist." The other students began giggling, Nick not seeming too bothered by the fun they were having with his name. "Very well, Mr. Olas, please come up to the podium in front and give us your speech!"

Nick slowly got up from his chair, looking over at Daniel with a blank expression. "Why would he do this if he was so nervous?" Daniel thought. Nick slid behind the podium, looking around at the class before letting out a sigh. He seemed very emotional. "This is a fictional story I've let my imagination take me through. I hope you don't think I'm insane if I seem a little...attached to everything. I'm very close to this." Nick pulled out the blue book Daniel caught a glimpse of last night.

Nick smiled as he rubbed his eyes and breathed in deep. "This is the story of the love of my life...how I met her...how I joined her...how I lost her...and how I'm doomed to watch her roam life without me. It's a story about how I tasted death to the fullest extent, but can stand here today to still speak to you."

"This story is called...Paws of Ice".