Reikon

Part 2 - Danny

1

"Danny! Danny, don't go too far!" His mother yelled out the back door of the Ravin's log cabin.

But Danny barely heard as he ran through the woods behind the cabin where his parents had taken him for the past five summers. However, this would be the last summer they would come to the woods of Western Maine.

Danny ran and dodged brush and branches, heading deeper into the woods. He was nine years old, it was a beautiful, warm summer day, and there were woods to explore. He wasn't worrying about how he'd get back. He was an explorer now, he'd figure it out. That's what explorers do.

Right now, he was Daniel Boone, because Boone was the best. His dad had told him stories about the Alamo, the coonskin cap, and all of his other adventures (more than a few fictional). The biggest reason he liked Boone was because of his name. Danny thought it was really cool that they both had the same name.

This thought gave him a smile. Danny Boone, he thought, the great explorer, searching through the woods near Sebago Lake. Many dangers lie ahead, but Boone is boss! He can take anything that comes his way! That's because Boone is bo-

That was when Danny Boone's right foot got caught on something, and with the speed he had been running, he was sent flying through the air in, what seemed like, suspended animation. He had a moment to think

(i'm flying)

before he came crashing down on his chest, knocking the wind out of his lungs. His legs and feet were the last to land. His left kneecap banged on a rock jutting out of the ground and he let out a yelp of pain. The knee was immediately numbed.

Danny Boone rolled onto his back, wincing and trying to get air back into his lungs. Fresh scrapes stood out in angry red on his cheeks, nose, and chin. There was an ashy-brown haze in between the scrapes and in his hair from the dry, dusty dirt.

He lay there for a few moments, just staring at the rays of sunlight poking through the trees and the first thought he had when he got his breath back was: What did I trip over?

Danny Ravin, not Boone (the fall had taken most of the fun out of the fantasy), pulled himself up, first onto his elbows, then onto his hands. But, as he bent his left leg to get it under him, dull purple pain radiated out from his knee and up his leg as the numbness faded and the nerves there slowly awoke. He reached down and lifted his shorts to examine the damage, which produced another lightning bolt that made him wince again. After that passed, Danny leaned forward and took a look at his screaming knee.

Most of the area just above mid-calf and just below mid-thigh was the same angry red as the scratches on his face. At his kneecap, though, ugly black and purple blotches were already beginning to form. There was a long cut running diagonally across the cap. The cut wasn't deep, in fact, it had already stopped bleeding, but it was getting really red. He remembered his mom saying that that meant it might be infected.

He looked around and saw a rock that had a line of red at the top. That stupid rock. He pulled himself over to it, grabbed it, and threw it deeper into the woods. There, he thought, I win. Then his mind went back to the last thought he'd had before his knee had interrupted it.

What had he tripped over?

He wasn't sure how far he had flown through the air and it seemed like it had lasted an eternity. But, looking back the way he had come, he saw that the ground humped up slightly in a spot.

Did I fly that far?

It seemed so unbelievable because the spot that had dissolved Danny Boone and turned him back into Danny Ravin was almost ten feet away. But, at this point, whether it was what he had tripped over or not didn't matter anymore. He wanted to take a look at it either way.