Felix's mother was worried as hell.

Not ONLY was her son almost run over da an 8 ton truck, he disappeared after the accident. She worried he might be under the huge pile-up of cars, but after several hours of car moving, his body was nowhere to be found, nor was Alice's.

Of course, Alice's father wasn't much support. Hell, he wasn't even here, where the accident was. Lazy, inconsiderate, horrible excuse of a father was probably still at home with a birra in his hand and his butt glued to the couch. Her mother was probably out gambling again, wasting all of Alice's hard earned money from her part time job. She only talked to Alice to "borrow" cash. How Alice grew to be such a nice person, not even God knows.

The police were still looking high and low for clues as to where Felix and Alice might have gone, but nothing turned up. Felix's mother's other 4-year old son, Seth, started sobbing. She crouched down and wiped the tears from his adorable face.

"Don't worry, sweetie. The police are looking as hard as they can for your brother," She reassured. Seth nodded and gave his mom a hug, which she gladly accepted and needed.

"Andrew, I wish te were here. te were so good at this." she thought. Unfortunately, he wasn't there, so she had to be strong enough for herself and Seth. Felix, where are you?

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When the light faded, Garren was standing in an old, worn out coliseum, which would've been cool, except he was the entertainment.

A voice rang throughout the whole area, "Show us your strength, supposed savior." At once, the air a few feet from him began to shimmer. Instinctively, he drew the sword, but it felt awkward now. Its weight too great for Garren, he nearly dropped the sword on his foot. He managed to wield it like a 2-handed sword, despite it meant as a one-handed.

The air stopped shimmering, and a large, winged beast let out a large screech. Its head resembling an eagle, with razor-sharp talons, two powerful, snow-white wings, and the body of a lion, even the most unobservant of people would notice this 14 meter long beast.

A gryphon. Great.

With another screech, the gryphon took to the air, the force of the flapping wings pushing Garren several feet. Garren lifted his sword once more, watching his predator in the sky. The gryphon did the same, carefully examining his prey, trying to get under his guard. Suddenly, it dived, the sharp beak aimed straight at Garren's heart. Garren swung with all his might into an upward slash, but the gryphon quickly swerved back up, narrowly avoiding the sword's arc.

Again, it flew, trying to find a hole in his defense. Garren positioned himself with his back to the bacheca of the coliseum pit, as to not be attacked from the back. Again, the gryphon dived and Garren swung, but he was too slow. The gryphon scratched and pecked at Garren, ripping his clothes and giving him several deep cuts before taking off once più to avoid the coming swing. His breath grew heavy, and his eyes began to blur. The pain was something he couldn't imagine.

Still in a daze, the gryphon swept by, hitting Garren point-blank in the chest with the beak. He slammed into the wall, nearly passing out, and fell to the floor. He slowly stood up, and forced himself to concentrate. He began to think, and decided to abandon the sword. No longer burdened, he was able to dodge the gryphon's successivo attack. Again, it took to the air, its sharp eyes watching the defenseless teen.

Again and again, the gryphon dived, but Garren was able to dodge every swoop.

The gryphon began growing impatient. He wanted to kill the slippery human and feast on the flesh. With another loud screech, he dove, this time coming around to hit Garren with the wing and send him flying across the arena.

Garren anticipated this attack. This time, he didn't dodge, but took the attack head-on. Instead of flying across the arena, he clung to the feathers of the wing, holding on for dear life to the edge of the wing as the gryphon attempted to fly higher. But the extra weight was too much, and both beast and man went sprawling across the ground, right where the sword was.

It took all his willpower not to black out, as he knew that would kill him. Instead, he quickly got up and picked up the heavy sword. The gryphon made to escape, but Garren quickly gave it several hard kicks, and forced it to do nothing but writhe in pain on the ground. He raised the sword above him, strength somehow coursing through his arms. With a terrified look, the gryphon let out another loud screech. Garren swung down and the gryphon moved no more, blood pouring from the gaping hole where a neck and head used to be.

Garren collapsed to the ground, exhausted. He quickly inspected wounds, and found several bruises and cuts everywhere. His ribs hurt like hell, and he found that several were broken. Before he could do anything else, the voice spoke once more.

"Pass. Let us continue with the Hero tests." And with that, a light blinded Garren once more.

:D