"Stephan, come here fast.", Amelia called her husband. "Hurry." She added. "What happened, honey?" He asked her as soon as he arrived.
"Look." She pointed towards Brad"s forehead. Stephan looked at where Amelia was pointing, and what he saw astounded him. There was a glowing symbol of fire on Brad"s forehead. Brad seemed to be peaceful, but the symbol of fire seemed to burn more and more fiercely. They were afraid to approach him. They did not want any harm to befall him. They moved further away from Brad and looked at each other.
"What do you think, Hun?"
"I dunno." He replied. I"ve never seen things like this. He was puzzled by the fact that a symbol could appear on someone"s forehead. He never saw anything like this before.
"I think, I have to go to the East Village. There are many temples there. Someone must have some answer to this." Amelia said.
As his parents were puzzling over the fact the symbol appearing on his forehead, Brad was panicking inside. He was able to hear them at the beginning, but was unable to do so now.
"What is happening to me?" He was angry with himself. "Why did I followed the voice? Now I can"t wake up anymore."
Brad"s calmed his mind. "Calm down Brad. There is no use panicking." He spoke to himself. He took deep breaths, and his mind became a lot calmer than it was before. He tried to search for some information in his brain. He knew that, that person must have left something inside his brain. He was unable to move because of that thing. He did not know what it was, but was determined to find it.
He searched his consciousness and he found a little man standing there. He was tiny, probably, of the size of Brad"s pinkie finger. He was carrying an arrow on his shoulder and there were devil"s horns on his head. He had a tail which was pointed like an arrow at the end. But the figure looked so cute. Brad wanted to pick him up and hug him. He did not know that once he said that, he could feel himself floating to that place. He did not bother to think anymore as he hugged that little body in his consciousness. The little cute man seemed to have noticed Brad and jumped in fear. But before he could run away, Brad got hold of him and hugged him. He even kissed him on his cheeks. The tiny man looked aggrieved. He looked at Brad with his eyes glistening with tears.
"What happened?" Brad asked the tiny man with smile plastered all over his face.
"You! Can"t you act like a man? Why do you always have to hug and kiss me? You did that before. Brad was watching the tiny man"s aggrieved tone, but somehow he felt satisfied. He laughed at his own thoughts. He pinched the man"s cheeks when he wasn"t noticing.
"Who are you?" Brad asked the most important question now.
The tiny man looked aggrieved again. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes. He asked, "Did you really forget me?"
Brad felt unknown emotions creep into his heart, but he calmed down and said, "I seemed to have forgotten a lot of things. Can you help me remember them?"
The tiny man looked at him with pitiful eyes as he hugged him back with his short limbs. He looked at Brad and said, "I will help you. You will become strong. I know."
Brad thought for a while before saying, "What should I name you? I have to think hard. Ah. Naming is so hard. Till then, I"ll call you shorty." The tiny man seemed to be emotional as he broke into sobs.
"Bohoohuhu…" He hid his face in Bra"s shirt as he cried his heart out. Snot and tears ran freely and got soaked in Brad"s shirt. Although Brad felt everything unbelievable, he felt good. He knew that Shorty would never harm him. He could feel his connection to Shorty.
He repeated the same question again. "Shorty, stop crying and tell me, who are you?"
"Me?" Shorty pointed at himself with his tiny hands and said seriously, "I"m a mythical creature. You don"t need to know much about me now. I"ll tell you as the time comes."
Brad was unused to Shorty"s serious demeanor, so he said, "Okay. I get it. Now tell me something else."