Hello everyone! This is the next chapter of Jonathan! Hope you enjoy it. This one has quite a bit of action, at least in my opinion. If you haven’t read any of the story before, go to link

Chapter Four

Jonathan grinned at himself in the dirty mirror that had one month ago held the face of a scared, anxious individual who had just been through a huge explosion and sported a fresh cut on his cheek. Now, his expression was a confident one, and the cut had faded to raised scar tissue. Now his arms were full of muscle, and he was trained in the art of the thief. How he had changed from the cowed ten-year old boy crouching by his fallen father!
Jonathan strode through the hallway, nodding to his fellow thieves. He wore completely red, at odds with the black most thieves preferred. And today was the day he would attempt his crafter’s quest.
The Crafter’s Quest was a journey each thief had to take into the sewers of Kerning City. There, they would encounter monsters and have to collect material needed to create their weapon of choice – whether it be a dagger, short sword, or in Jonathan’s case – a set of shuriken throwing stars.
Making his way through the labyrinth that was the headquarters of the thieves, Jonathan sighted Stryder at the end of a low tunnel. His face was grim as he beckoned Jonathan towards him. “This is a test of courage and ingenuity. You have as long as you want to collect the materials necessary to construct your weapon. Go.” He said unceremoniously. And then he pushed Jonathan through the hole at the end of the tunnel that was the entrance of the Crafter’s Quest.
The tunnel was somehow closed behind him, and he was plunged into complete darkness. Fumbling with his pouch, he pulled out a shuriken and infused it with his essence. Since his first infusion, he had learned several things, taught to him by Stryder. His essence was ice, cold, and the opposite of his mentor’s essence, which was fire and heat. He had learnt how to speed up his infusion process so it was almost instantaneous – much improved from the several minutes it had taken him to first infuse a star.
He held the glowing blue star out in front of him and viewed the tunnel in its dim luminescence for the first time. Sickly green slime dripped down the walls and water sloshed against the soles of Jonathan’s shoes. He continued to walk for a while, before beginning to hear something. He strained his ears. Thump. Thump. Thump. It was a rhythmic thumping, getting closer and closer. There was also another sound it emitted – but it was hard to place. The best Jonathan could do was describe it as a sort of squelching. And then – it appeared.
It was huge! A blue gob of disgusting effluence and its small eyes were fixed on Jonathan! He pulled out two stars quickly and threw them at the slime – but to no avail. The stars fixed in the jelly bulk of the creature, quivering slightly. Jonathan figured the best chance he had was to evade the creature and then escape – this was no time to play the hero. But then he noticed something glinting in the centre of gob monster, something shiny and flat. He figured it had something to do with the making of his stars. Although it wasn’t the time or place, and despite of the situation he was in, Jonathan rolled his eyes.
Still the creature oozed closer to Jonathan. This was going to take some fancy footwork. He quickly infused several stars with essence, and waved them in front of him. Much to his disappointment, the monster wasn’t magically transfixed by their glowing, allowing him to quickly nail it with a dozen quickly thrown shuriken. Instead, it didn’t register the light at all. Suddenly it dawned on Jonathan – the thing was blind! After all, what use would eyes be in eternal darkness? The creature was following him through hearing and scent, although there were no pointy ears or olfactory organs visible. Quickly he stifled his scuffling steps, instead employing his stealth training to walk quickly and lightly on the balls of his feet. He slowed his breathing, and began to move slowly and deliberately also. Scent was something he could nothing about, but that didn’t seem to matter as a look of confusion flashed in the blue blob’s tiny eyes and Jonathan tried vainly not to laugh.
He concentrated on drawing a dozen shuriken from the pouch at his hip, holding them all in his various splayed fingers, now somewhat resembling two long legged and very sharp spiders. Slowly, very slowly he extended his energy into all the stars simultaneously and they began to glow. Jonathan couldn’t help grinning – this had to be one of the coolest looking things he had learnt. Then he leapt up, finally making a real noise after minutes of silence, drawing the attention of the massive beast in front of him so its eyes stared in his vague direction. Then, in the air, he leapt into action, flicking his wrists so a dozen blue shuriken sprayed from his hands, hitting the eyes and the surrounding areas. The monster let out the equivalent of a cry of pain if it had a mouth, which actually resulted in something closer to an earthquake from deep within it. Then it charged forward, disrupting its bulky blue body so chunks of goo sprayed from it as it jumped. Without warning Jonathan was enveloped in choking, cold, disgusting slime. His eyesight was blurred, but he could see the shiny object he assumed he needed for his shuriken crafting. Pushing through the sludgy consistency of the monster, he grabbed it – it was a cold sheet of metal. He had found one of the objects for his crafting! He was on his way to creating his very own stars. But first he had to live through being enveloped in slime. What could he do?
Jonathan was running out of air, and was tortured by images of him gasping in the blue blob, its slime running down his throat and asphyxiating and drowning him simultaneously. His pouch full of stars jabbed at his hip, stabbing into his flesh. His stars! That was the solution – but it was definitely going to hurt.
His mind flashed back to a week ago – a lesson with Stryder. A single star lay on the mat before them. “Infuse it Jonathan – it’s a new technique. Remote infusion allows you to add your essence to a star without actually touching it.” But even though he tried for over an hour, Jonathan couldn’t muster the focus and ability to infuse the star. Would now be the time? There was only one way to find out. And this time, he wasn’t just infusing the star. He was going to put enough energy in it to make it explode.
Summoning all his courage and skill, Jonathan began to stretch his essence out into the void.

Meanwhile, sea breeze fills the air. It’s a clear day, and lines of Orbis’s finest guards stand to attention at the docks of Orbis station. Their staves are at their sides, boots waxed and uniforms clean and white. There is one that catches the eye however. Gone is his absent stare and bloated gut, brought on by alcohol. Instead is raw determination and cold anger. This is Andrew Meyers. Jonathan’s father.

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Hope you liked it! Comments/feedback/criticism would be greatly appreciated.

James.