A New World Ch 5: Second Wind

Story by attonranden on SoFurry

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#5 of A New World


** Hello to any fans I have left, sorry this took so long, I've had exams been ill and basically been lazy the past weeks, (well the past month, so sorry) so it took a while for this to come out but i made it a bit longer than the others as a kind of sorry, I also realised that I am a terrible writer, I noticed that I have been stupidly lazy with character descriptions, like Dan for example, does anyone know that he's supposed to have long red hair or that Samantha's a pure white wolf? No you don't because I'm far too lazy for my own good, to rectify this I will be doing a serious editing of the first four chapters to include detailed or at the very least more detailed descriptions of the characters, I'm also going to write up a characters bio sheet to post that I will update whenever a new character enters the story. Hope you enjoy this chapter please leave a comment and rating.**

Smiling happily as he watched the training field Dan sighed from where he was sat against a nearby tree, after his practice session with Kiba and the attack from Aercus the guild members that were present seemed to catch a second wind and reintroduced themselves this time asking a lot more questions, he must have answered half a dozen questions from everyone that was there and ended up telling and listening to more than a few funny stories. He truly felt accepted now, he was confident and determined that he wasn't going to be a burden on the guild with the new found knowledge that he could 'see' and react almost as well as the two strongest dragons in the guild, he was going to become strong enough to be able help them or he would die trying... But there was a problem.

Dan cast a worried glance down at his arms both of which were resting down by his sides completely limp, he had lost all feeling in them the moment that Aercus's attack had broken his blade earlier and they had fallen limp sometime during his second acceptance. Thankfully it was then that the master shoed them all away and asked Nathan to guide Dan over to the side of the practice field to rest while the magnamon went to get something from Sam to help with his arms. Dan couldn't help but chuckle as he thought about what Sam would do to the magnamon when he told her about Dan's arms, she'd probably mould another bowl around his forehead if he was lucky, even if it was the master's idea for Aercus to attack Dan, he didn't think that it would save Nathan from her wrath, she had only just come out to patch up Dan's hands a short while before.

"I don't think someone in your position should be laughing." A far too sweet and gentle voice said from behind Dan, making his face go pale as he turned to look at Sam, the white furred wolf gave Dan an innocent smile that seemed to radiate killing intent. "What did I say would happen if you got yourself hurt again?" She asked still smiling at him, Dan became very aware of the fact that he couldn't use his arms as she walked around the tree; he was utterly defenceless right now if she was really angry with him, he doubted that he could even get up to run right now.

"Master...Aercus he...you know they..." She silenced him with a glare making him squeak out a quick 'I'm sorry.' Before her innocent smile came back and as she reached into her robes Dan realised that she had been dragging Nathan along by his tail, the unconscious magnamon's body had a look of complete horror and pain on his face. Sam snapped him out of the fearful gaze of his friend's body by shoving a small vial filled with a purple potion into his face, she gently lifted his head back to make sure Dan drank the whole thing and patted Dan on the head when he was finished. Returning the vile to her robe Sam pulled out a small container and a fresh set of bandages.

"Let me see your hands." She demanded more than asked twisting Dan's hands so that the palms were facing upwards and with a practiced ease undid the bandages that she had wrapped herself less than an hour beforehand. The container had the same green sludge from before in it which she once again coated his wounds in; Dan noted with interest that every drop of the substance from the first treatment was gone. "It's a fast acting healing agent, absorbs straight into the skin." She explained rewrapping his hands with a small frown. "Although it shouldn't work that fast on a human." Sam whispered picking up her stuff before smiling at Dan again.

"Now remember that I'm the one who puts you back together when you try and kill each other ok." She said in a sweet voice rubbing Dan's cheek affectionately turning to walk back to the guild when Dan nodded slowly. He was still sweating bullets when Nathan decided to re-enter the world of the living a few minutes later.

"Is she gone?" he asked quickly bolting upright and looked around frantically before meeting Dan's terrified gaze.

"She's scary." Dan said, getting a sympathetic nod and a small shudder in return. It took a few minutes but when Dan was able to block the image and sound of Sam's voice from his head, seriously it was terrifying how such a sweet voice could instil so much fear, he looked down at his arms and realised that they weren't completely numb anymore and he could move them, well he could move his fingers at least, a definite improvement from only moments ago but still worrying. The movements were clumsy as Dan couldn't really control his still mostly numb hands but he smiled knowing that Sam's potion was doing its job. It took a while for Nathan to snap out of the shell shocked state that Sam had put him in but when he did he turned to Dan and scrunched his nose.

"You stink." He said bluntly, going as far as to cover his nose with the back of his three digit hand. "Really bad." At first Dan flushed red in anger about to burst out saying that he didn't stink but he realised that Nathan was serious and remembered that he probably hadn't been properly cleaned since he had been here, and considering that he was climbing back in the human world...Dan paused as he thought that, 'Human world, not mine, theirs' he thought, a little unsettled about how easy it was to change how he felt about being here.

"Sorry." Dan mumbled, looking away as he cheeks flushed bright red in embarrassment; it was probably close to a month since he had had a proper shower of even anything close to a proper wash, and he probably did stink. Nathan flashed him a bright grin before standing up, apparently over whatever torment Sam put him through as punishment for disturbing her to tell the wolf that Dan was hurt again.

"It's alright come on." The digimon beamed happily offering a paw to Dan, who had difficultly taking it, his hands felt almost like he was trying to move them by pulling on strings, his movements sudden and heavy. In the end Nathan had to haul Dan to his feet but he quickly pushed Dan along and back into the guilds main building, leading the grumbling teenager through a short series of corridors that led them both to the male shower room.

The room itself was simple, split into a changing room with benches and alcoves obviously meant to hold clothes and other things and the actual shower room each divided by a wall with a small sliding door set into it.

Nathan quickly striped out of his shirt and Dan gawked as he saw some blood staining the white fabric.

"How bad did she beat you?" Dan exclaimed pointing at the shirt in disbelief; Nathan just shuddered and instinctively tucked his tail between his legs. "Never mind I don't want to know." Dan conceded, watching as Nathan unfastened a small clip that was above his tail. Dan had to admit that he found the tails to be the most interesting things about the dragons in the guild along with their head crests and horns if they had them, they were almost never the same, Nathans was smooth all the way along and ended in a gentle tip while others like Furvus had spikes running along the top of his tail and Dan could have sworn that he saw a dragon with two tails when he was in the main hall earlier that day.

"Take a picture Dan, it'll last longer." Dan flushed an especially deep red when he noticed that he had not only been staring at Nathan but had been caught doing it. He quickly turned away to try and hide his blush as Nathan walked into the shower room, sighing Dan starting taking his own shirt off. Dan felt kind of uncomfortable knowing that Nathan had just basically caught him staring at his ass and they were about the shower together, and putting it like that didn't help his blush either.

Dan shook his head to clear away those thoughts it didn't matter right now anyway as he tried to grab the base of his shirt and stopped suddenly. Dan stared down at his hands that actually couldn't grip his shirt; his arms were still to numb from before to put any pressure on his fingers. If it was possible, Dan flushed an even brighter red, 'This is not happening, this is not happening.' Dan repeated over and over as he tried a second and a third time to take his shirt off without success. Giving up on his shirt he tried his trousers but had the same result, he couldn't even hook his thumbs in the sides and push them down, he could move his hands but they were useless! The most he was able to do was kick off his shoes.

"You alright Dan?" Nathan asked from the doorway, frowning in concern at Dan's fully clothed form when he mumbled something and looked away blushing heavily. "Sorry what?"

"I can't...They won't." This wasn't just embarrassing it was humiliating, Dan didn't have enough control over his hands to even undress himself and he was on the verge of asking Nathan to help him but couldn't his pride just couldn't take the hit of not being able to do something so simple by himself. Taking a deep breath Dan looked at Nathan again, who was obviously confused "My hands, I can't." Dan couldn't finish the sentence; he physically couldn't admit that he was incapable of taking his own clothes off but he gestured to himself in an effort to make Nathan understand.

Nathan frowned for a moment before he seemed to realise what Dan was getting at and made a small O sound. It was his turn to look away and blush now, it wasn't as obvious as Dan's because of his blue scales but there was a defiant reddish tint around his cheeks.

"You err... Need... Some help?" Nathan asked Dan felt his pride take a hammer stroke when he nodded unable to actually word an answer. He thanked whatever gods were looking over him that Nathan didn't find this situation anywhere near as funny as it should have been from his position. Dan made sure to look away when the magnamon gripped the base of his shirt and pulled it off, Dan lifted his arms as best he could to help but refused to meet hid friends gaze.

"This is humiliating." Dan groaned to himself as Nathan folded his shirt and put it into another alcove. Nathan chuckled, pulling Dan's breeches and underwear down in a single motion so he could step out of them easily.

"It isn't that bad and it's not like its permanent Sam's potion should do its job soon enough." Nathan said smirking as Dan covered his groin shyly. "You know you were naked in that bed for three weeks Dan."

"That's not helping." Dan growled his blush burning as bright as ever. Smiling at his Nathan put a hand on his shoulder and made Dan look at him.

"We're friends right, you don't have to be embarrassed around me. And you really don't have anything to be embarrassed about." The magnamon teased, Dan opened and closed his mouth a few times trying to say something but just couldn't, and Nathan laughed at him as he walked back into the shower room.

Deciding to let it drop Dan walked in behind Nathan and took the shower next to him, glaring in mock anger at his friend, who only gave an innocent little grin at him. Sighing Dan tried to turn the shower on only to receive a surprise when his hand smacked painfully against the wall, remembering he still had dumb hands Dan stared death down at the useless extensions of his body.

"Here let me." Nathan said, carefully turning the knob so the water ran just warm instead of hot.

"Now I just feel pathetic." Dan admitted closing his eyes as he stepped under the stream of water, after a few minutes he sighed in pleasure as the warm water cascaded down his body slowly washing away the grim and dried sweat that had built up in layers over the past three and a bit weeks.

"It's not your fault, Aercus's attack completely shattered the blade, I'm surprised that your arms are the only problem you're having, he usually destroys the people he trains with." Nathan shuddered making Dan laugh quietly at the terrified look on the magnamon's face.

"I take it that you've been his sparring partner before?" Dan asked reaching behind his head, it still hurt to lift his arms up that high but all he needed to do was hook a finger in the loop of string that kept his hair in a loose pony tail, he felt embarrassed when he realised that he couldn't even do that, he still couldn't lift his arms up high enough without the pain becoming too much. Sighing in defeat Dan settled to rub his face with a small cloth that hung from a hook on the wall, glad that he could still do that without hitting himself in the face.

"Yeah I'm one of the only ones that can spar with him properly, although I just end up hiding in a shield and becoming his glorified punching bag, he's just too damn fast for me to track." Nathan admitted giving him a sideways look that said he wanted to ask something but was nervous. "Do you want me to...?" Nathan left the rest unsaid and simply reached for the string in Dan's hair, the dragons dexterous fingers undid the knot in a moment and watched in rapt attention as Dan shook his head gently to separate the pony tail.

"What is it?" Dan asked trying to look around behind him thinking that there was something wrong with his hair, Jordon always teased him about it saying that he spent more time playing with his hair than any girl in school, but he always loved his hair, well ever since he got it dyed anyway, Dan noted with some despair that he wouldn't be able to dye it again now that he wasn't in the human world anymore and that it would eventually return to its very bland dark brown colour. It didn't matter right now though because he could swear that Nathan was blushing it was hard to tell with his scales being blue but Dan thought he could see a slight pink tint in the magnamon's cheeks.

"Could I urm...can I..?" There it was a definite pink tint, Nathan was blushing, quite badly as well if Dan could notice it this easily and he was shifting his weight from foot to foot while fidgeting with something behind his back, at first Dan thought it was the string out of his hair and almost laughed when he though Nathan was going to ask to do his hair but he wasn't far off, Nathan took a small breath and brought his hands from behind his back revealing a bottle of...shampoo? "Can I wash your hair?"

"....Pardon?" Dan wasn't sure if he heard that right but Nathan had the bottle in his hand and he defiantly didn't have any hair, anywhere, for him to wash. Dan could only describe what Nathan did next as cute, he was twirling the bottle around in his hands and looking anywhere but Dan's face, he was clearly embarrassed about asking this and Dan couldn't help but smile, Nathans blush was as obvious as a sore thumb now.

"Well it's just that I don't grow any and ...and you can't do it yourself with your arms like that and..." Nathan said the last part so softly that Dan almost thought he had imagined it but caught himself blushing when Nathan looked up at him. "And I've always wanted to do it." Somehow managing not to look at Nathans face Dan nodded his consent and Nathan smiled broadly, opening the bottle and moving behind Dan, who was suddenly nervous.

Dan wasn't scared that Nathan would hurt him he trusted him enough to not worry about that, what he was slightly nervous of was having a naked male behind him in an isolated part of the guild building while he was practically defenceless. As soon as the thought popped into his mind Dan crushed it with a wave of guilt, in the short time he had known Nathan the magnamon had been nothing but kind to him, Nathan saved his life and gave him a new home one that had accepted Dan with open arms, how could he possibly think the dragon would take advantage of him.

"Daniel." Dan bolted away from the touch on his shoulder, spinning to press his back against the wall not caring about the handle pressing painfully into his back as he faced his attacker, a look on his face that could only be described in one way, terror.

"Dan?" It took almost a full minute for Dan to recognise that it was Nathan stood in front of him; the magnamon looked somewhere in between scared and worried as he stared at Dan his hand hung in the air where it had touched Dan's shoulder just a moment ago, Nathan took a full step back putting a little more distance between them as he tried to gauge Dan's reaction before licking his lips. "If you're really uncomfortable with it Dan then..."

Nathan stopped talking when Dan stepped forward suddenly, covering the small gap between them in a couple of steps, the dragon tensed up when Dan reached for his hand but didn't move away, Dan was shaking, it was subtle and if you weren't really looking at him you could easily miss it but it was there, Dan could feel his knees shaking, his entire body was coming down from the massive burst of adrenaline that had just been fired through his veins and he really didn't want Nathan to leave, if he did...

Tugging lightly on Nathans hand Dan pulled them both back to the still running showers, stopping just out of the waters reach and lifting Nathans hand up towards his hair as far as he could with his damaged arms while tilting his head down slightly keeping his gaze fixed on Nathan's stomach this was to give Nathan better access to his hair but also to ensure Nathan couldn't look him in the eyes. Thankfully he caught on quickly and dumped a hefty amount of the scented shampoo directly onto Dan's head. Without a word being said Nathan began to rub the shampoo into the red hair, Dan didn't try and stop the small smile pulling at the corners of his lips when he realised that Nathan was only using the palms of his hands to try and rub the shampoo in but didn't bother to correct him.

"Dan...wh."

"I don't understand." Dan interrupted, Nathan took that as a silent warning not to ask and whatever had just happened was apparently none of his business.

"Don't understand what?" Nathan asked trying to focus on both the task he had at hand and watching what he could see of Dan's face carefully.

"What you all find so special about me being able to see you when you attack." Dan asked looking up at Nathan who paused what he was doing a moment to think about it, Dan's ability was truly amazing even if he didn't know it yet, to be able to see Aercus before he hit you was worth a lot of respect alone but to be able to see him and have enough time to react, let alone block was nothing short of amazing. Nathan kept rubbing the shampoo into Dan's hair glad that he was a few inches taller as he tried to find a way to explain.

"What did you see when they attacked Dan?" Nathan eventually asked falling into a steady rhythm washing Dan's hair, it was oddly relaxing and he felt strangely content doing it.

"I saw, I don't really know, to me Kiba looked like he was moving sluggishly the entire time but Aercus he was just there, the closer he got the slower he seemed to move." Dan admitted, now that he thought about it the same thing happened with Kiba as well he just didn't notice it, the closer their blades got to Dan the slower they seemed to move until he was ready to block, then everything went back to normal almost like someone was playing a film in slow motion then decided that they didn't like it and put it back to normal speed.

"I guess if you saw them like that then it's hard to put into perspective, so let me tell you that Aercus can almost move at the speed of sound." Nathan let that bit of information sink in for a moment while he washed Dan's hair splashing it with some water to wash some of the foam away. "You were maybe ten metres away from him when he came for you, for a human being, for any of us wolf, dragon, mouse it's impossible to physically be able to see that without years of training and magic, the fact that you could see Aercus before he stopped moving is nothing short of amazing on its own but you... You did something that we thought just couldn't happen, we accepted that Aercus and the master and people who are on their power level were freaks of nature when it came to their power but then you stopped Aercus's attack, in the fraction of a fraction of a second that it took for him to attack and you to defend you saw him coming towards you, had enough time to register his claymore, predict where it was going to strike and move fast enough to block his attack, and you did it all naturally."

"Well when you put it like that."Dan tensed up when Nathan moved his hands down to Dan's neck to rub the shampoo into his long hair, Dan forced himself to stare in the magnamon's eyes, and those eyes, those dazzlingly bright and kind blue eyes stared back filled with worry. 'Blue, blue, he has blue eyes, blue' Dan repeated to himself over and over again relaxing his muscles with pure willpower as Nathan gently stroked down his back lathering his hair in what was left of the shampoo and Dan sighed a little when Nathan lightly traced his claws down his back.

Neither of them broke the others gaze until Nathan was finished with Dan's hair, even though he was teasing Dan before he felt uncomfortable with Dan looking at him the way he was. His eyes were so focused but it was like they weren't really looking at him at all they were just staring, but when Nathan brought his hands back around in front of Dan his entire body just seemed to relax normally as if it had just heaved a huge sigh of relief and his eyes, his eyes became aware again, on a hunch Nathan reached back behind Dan's head and true to what he thought Dan tensed up like he had just been struck.

As gently and slowly as he could Nathan gripped Dan's chin and made the teen look up at him, a silly smile on his face.

"You alright Daniel?" Nathan felt a slight shudder run through Dan when he said his full name and immediately began to seriously start worrying about what happened but Dan looked straight back at him and smiled, it was small and looked strained but it was there and it was genuine. "I'm done." Nathan said gently still smiling brightly. Dan tilted his head with a confused look before Nathan ruffled his hair, pulling his hand away to show the soapy bubbles covering it. Realising what he meant Dan let the dragon push him back a step and tilt his head back eyes closed into the stream of water, it didn't take long for the rushing water to wash the shampoo out of Dan's hair.

Nathan waited until Dan opened his eyes again before stepping forward closing the gap between them in a single step and pulled Dan into a hug. Dan's eyes widened fearfully when Nathan reached for him but soon enough he found himself being held gently against Nathan's chest, the kind hearted dragons natural body warmth was seeping into Dan and making his entire body relax and as Nathan just held him there not saying a word Dan eventually lifted his arms and hugged Nathan back as tightly as he could dropping his head into his friends shoulder.

"You know Dan." Nathan was happy when Dan didn't flinch, shudder or cringe when he used his nickname and made a mental not to not say his full name for a while at the very least until he was able to calm Dan down and get him acting normal again. "If you ever want to talk, you know about all of this, you're new home, or something that's bothering you I'll listen okay, I'll always listen if you want me too."Dan tilted his head to look Nathan in the eyes again and opened his mouth to say something until he shifted his body slightly and Dan's face turned a shade of red that Nathan had never seen before but Nathan knew why, he had forgotten that they were both still naked when he had hugged Dan and had pressed his body flush with Dan's.

Taking a quick glace down Nathan blushed heavily when he saw his member rubbing up against Dan's soft manhood. The two teens shared a glace and quickly separated, Dan swiftly picked up the leather string that was discarded earlier and swiftly tied his hair into another pony tail, while Nathan turned the showers off and walked beside Dan out of the shower room and back into the changing room where the towels and their clothes were.

Neither of them dared look at the other for the very awkward few minutes it took them to dry off and pull their clothes back on but when they were fully clothed and Dan was busy drying his hair properly Nathan cleared his throat.

"Erm sorry about...that." He said at last with a blush that Dan thought was becoming permanent and was surprised to feel a smile pulling at his lips, Nathan was stood there not looking at him and fidgeting a lot. If it was possible Nathan blushed even more when Dan laughed walking up to his friend, embracing him in a tight hug.

"Don't worry about it; I needed a little wakeup call anyway, although next time cold water would work just fine." Dan admitted relaxing when Nathan returned his hug and despite... well despite everything he felt safe, for the first time in... Dan chuckled when he had to wriggle out of Nathans grasp to head over to one of the mirrors in the changing rooms. Nathan watched with rapt attention when Dan picked up a brush and started running it through his hair, he had never bothered to stick around and watch any of the others in the guild ever brush their hair because it took so long with them usually being wolves so they had most of their body to brush down but he figured that Dan wouldn't take too long.

After five minutes Nathan's reflection grinned at Dan and the human wasn't sure if he should be scared or not.

"Your arms seem to be alright now."

"Yeah I don't know what Sam puts in those potions but my arms feel perfect." Dan said batting away Nathan's hands when he came over to poke at them mumbling something about Sam never giving him a potion like that when Aercus kicked his ass. Smirking at his friends antics Dan looked back at his hair and satisfied that it wouldn't embarrass him decided to leave.

Nathan was walking behind him with a proverbial raincloud over his head, mumbling about favouritism and damned rookies getting special treatment. Unable to help himself Dan fell back a step and patted Nathan on the back.

"It's alright Nathan; it's not that she likes us rookies." Dan saw a small flicker of hope in his friends eyes and almost felt bad for doing this but he needed to get some kind of payback for that stunt he pulled back in the showers whether it was intentional or not. "It's just that she hates you and likes watching you suffer." Nathan just kind of face planted into the floor when Dan said that and for a moment Dan was worried that he overdone it.

Dan decided to take a page from Sam's book and kicked Nathan; softly he wasn't quite as cruel as Sam herself, in the head. The reaction was instant, somehow Nathan was upright so fast that even Dan didn't see it and had taken a swing at him, luckily for Dan though his punch was much slower that his ability to shoot upright in an instant and was able to move out of the way with a confused look on his face.

Nathan looked shocked for a moment before scowling at Dan, taking another swing at him which Dan managed to dodge again and now that he was paying attention Dan could feel the slight rush of wind as Nathans fist passed by his face. 'But it looked so slow to me.' He thought backing away from a fuming magnamon.

"Stand still!" Nathan practically screamed beginning a barrage of punches directed at Dan.

"Why, you're trying to hit me." Dan countered easily moving around the attacks, until he decided that retreat was the best option and took to jogging down the hall

"You kicked me in the head, I told everyone to stop that!"

"You were having a... Wait, how many times have you been kicking in the head?"

"Are you making fun of me?" Nathan growled a golden sphere forming in his hand as he scowled at his friends retreating back. Dan frightfully wondered if he would be able to dodge magic and listed it as something that he would try to avoid testing at all costs.

"Nathan, don't you think you're taking this a bit TOO FAR!?" Dan screamed as the dragon took aim with his little ball of death, taking the only option he could see Dan leapt out of an open window. Thanking god that it was on the ground floor Dan got ready to run for his life again until he heard a voice that made him press his back against the wall so fast he was sure he made a dent.

"Who the hell is making so much noise?" Samantha yelled storming through a door and into the hall, when her infuriated glare turned to Nathan the dragon stopped in his tracks and Dan stopped breathing hoping that she couldn't see him from where he was cowering below the open window.

"Nathan." She growled advancing on the frozen dragon and grabbing him by the collar so he couldn't get away.

­ The rest of Dan's day was spent in the practice field watching the guild members train their magic and combat skills and also spend some time getting to know some of the other guild members but soon enough the weight of his day caught up with him and Dan said he was going to bed.

So here he was back in the small but cosy room that he had woken up in three days ago, leant against the door with a content smile on his face. He could learn to love it here, the guild just felt like one big family to Dan, the way they laughed and joked about each other.

"One big fam-"

"Daniel."

Dan's eyes bulged and his hands shot up to grip his head tightly, 'No, not now.' Dan screamed frantically inside his head when that voice ripped through him, Dan tried to move towards the bed planning to just lie down and go to sleep, but never made it to the bed.

Ok please comment and rate, hope you enjoyed chapter 5, wish I could say ill have the next chapter done soon but I really can't, I promise I won't stop working on them though