It was a fairly typical day, nothing overly special, well, a field trip to a museum, but that's pretty much it. Sighing as he stepped off the bus, Julius rubbed his eyes. "Dear God, why are we here?" He thought to himself. "All that's here are bones, rocks, rocks that look like bones, and cheap knock-offs of actual relics," his thoughts becoming more and more agitated. "We could have gone somewhere exciting, hell even a movie theater, but no the class just had to vote to come here. Again!" He loudly thought. "For the fourth time this year," Julius thought, he thought, but nope, the words slipped out from under his breath.

"Hah, relax," a guy next to him said, muffling a laugh. "At least we're not in class," the boy said, smiling.

"Listen, Luke; I would prefer to be in class. At least then, we wouldn't be wasting time. I mean, really, the fourth time here, what exactly changed?" Julius sarcastically asked, rolling his eyes. "Oh, look, I think that crack is new, wait no, the rock is totally different; it moved a few centimeters. Wait, the bones aged more and now evolved into an Aerodactyl!" Julius said very mockingly. "Quick use Ancient Power!" Julius exclaimed, laughing. The class teacher shot a look back at him.

"Be quiet back there," she said before leading the class forward.

"OK, OK, I get it," Luke said, smirking at Julius's mockery, "but they do have a new artifact," Luke said reassuringly.

"New replica," Julius quickly shot back, "and so what, some random person probably just found a stone arrowhead in their yard while gardening," Julius said, very bored.

The museum tour continued until, nearing the end, they came upon a new exhibit, a weird amulet, made of onyx maybe, with ruby accents. The figure on it looked like a unicorn, but wings were coming from the sides. "So this is it, this is the amazing new relic?" Julius asked out loud. The teacher looked back at Julius, clearly annoyed, but the museum guide kept her smile and answered.

"Yes, it is. This amulet was found in the forest. Due to its condition, we thought it was a fake, we tried to test it, but somehow, all known testing methods came back inconclusive. A weird script is on the back, one that no linguist has recognized," The guide explained.

"So you brought a possible hoax into a museum?" Julius asked, bewildered.

"Well, not exactly. While we cannot confirm what exactly it is or where it came from, but it is clearly not of this time, it matches no known styles, and the cost of making such an amulet well, you'd need to be rich to afford it," the guide continued to explain while smiling. The rest of the class moved on, but Julius, Julius, stayed, staring at the amulet. He couldn't explain it, but somehow, just at the edge of his hearing, he could make out someone, something speaking. Julius felt compelled to walk closer to the amulet. Step by step, inch by inch, as he came closer to the display, the voice became clearer, more pronounced. At first, the language was odd; it sounded Latin but different. Once he was touching the glass that held the amulet, though, the language became perfectly clear. Sure it still sounded like Latin, but he understood it.

"Make a wish," the voice tolled Julius. The ruby accents started glowing softly. "Make a wish, use me," a disembodied voice nearly pleaded with Julius. Rubbing his eyes, shaking his head, Julius laughed.

"This isn't happening," Julius thought.

"It is, though," the voice said, almost responding to Julius's thoughts. "Make a wish, use me," it continued. Julius looking shocked, took a moment to regain composure.

"I get it, hidden speaker, good effect, almost got me," he laughed. A dark, smoke-like mist started to fill the room. Seemingly emanating from the amulet, the mist seemed to be making equine figures, if only for a few seconds.

"Not fake, real. Make a wish, use me," the voice pleaded. Gathering himself, Julius sighed; either this was the most elaborate display of any museum or an authentic magical amulet.

"Alright," Julius said, a thought forming in his head. "Take me to where you came from," Julius said, smirking. This amulet baffled experts, so there was no way the people behind the illusion could grant this wish. Oh, sure, he could have asked for something more mockingly impossible but hey, why not play along.

"Hehehehehe," the voice laughed, the rubies glowing brighter, "Very well, I shall grant your wish, good luck," the last thing the amulet said. A flash of light, bright red, furious and powerful, engulfed the room. Electricity pricked through Julius's body, rushes of energy surged through his body. Each jolt felt like it was ripping his body apart, only to stitch it back together. Panting hardly, Julius passed out.

"What, what are you?" A gentle, feminine voice asked. Julius shooting up awake, looked around, panicked. As he looked around, his eyes widened.

"This," he gulped heavily, "this isn't the museum," he said, a quiver in his voice. Looking around, Julius found himself in a verdant forest. It looked crisp, pristine, it looked peaceful, and idyllic, but the energy coursing through his body told him that this was a place of great danger, a place that was not natural.

Slowly, shakily picking himself up, Julius breathed in. The air was refreshing, far cleaner than anything he was used to, yet a shiver permeated the air. This was the most beautiful forest Julius has ever seen, but something else, some strange energy told him that he was in great peril, told him that only darkness and danger rested in this forest, it told him to leave.

"O-OK," Julius made out, not sure what exactly to do. "Well, if nothing else, a sturdy walking stick would be nice," he tried to laugh, walking up to a tree. Grasping a thick branch, slightly longer than his body Julius braced himself. "If nothing else, it might help scare off-" CRACK The sound of the branch breaking off echoed through the forest. A rush of energy bolted through his body; his arms felt unrealistically stronger as if he could just casually juggle elephants; he only pulled on the branch softly, but it snapped off and sent Julius hard on his ass. Slowly grabbing the torn off branch Julius picked himself up once again, eyes bulging "-OK, OK, OK, OK, OK," Julius kept saying to himself. "Don't freak out, don't freak out," he said, clearly freaking out. "So you have some kind of super-strength, that's OK, that's OK," Julius said, walking up to the tree. He tried to push the tree, but nothing happened; Julius's energy was still there but wasn't activating. "OK, so it only activates sometimes. I uhh, I have to test this out."

Hours passed as Julius tested the extent of his powers. All Julius had was drastically improved physical capabilities, strength, speed, endurance even regeneration from what he could make out. Julius accidentally got a slash on his arm. Julius placed his hand over the cut, and a white glow came from his palm; the pain got sucked away. When he pulled his palm away, the white light seemed to have healed the wound. These powers were terrific but were not always there. It appeared that they only came up when he truly needed them or when he really concentrated.

"OK, so these powers are nice to have, but I shouldn't rely on them. Keep them as a last resort," Julius said as he walked through the forest. "What time was it," Julius thought out loud. Day, night, dusk, dawn, some weird time he never heard of, he couldn't tell, this forest seemed to follow its only rules. One minute, it was raining harshly, the next it was scorching hot, then snow, followed by heavy winds. "I can see why I sensed leaving was a good idea," he sighed before hearing a deep, bellowing roar.

Julius froze; the roar sounded like a lion but kind of clicky. Heavy steps followed the threatening roar. Whatever made that roar was coming his way, and it was close. Working his breathing, Julius gave his walking stick a few swings, the last thing he wanted was to fight this creature, but he might be able to scare it off, make himself look big enough, make himself seem like too much work to eat, it might just make it run away. That changed when a large winged lion with a scorpion's tail jumped out of a nearby bush.

"What the, A MANTICORE?!?" Julius yelped wide-eyed "That's impossible! They don't exist!" He said fearfully, though the beast's bellowing roar and breath instantly dispelled that notion. As scared as Julius was, he felt the energy return. The manticore lunged at Julius. As the beast bared its fangs towards the bewildered human Julius smacked the beast with his walking stick. CRACK A deafening sound echoed through the forest, the branch burst into a storm of splinters, and the beast went flying off. As the beast flew away, its tail scratched through Julius's left arm.

"AHHHGN~" Julius yelped in pain. Sure the cut wasn't deep, but it bled, and it burned. It burned like fire. Placing his right hand on his arm, he felt the energy flow through his palm and arm. His magic healed the cut and numbed the pain, but there was still a pain, unlike other cuts. Wincing hard, Julius tried to steady his breathing. "Venom, it has venom," Julius said in a panic. For whatever reason, the healing didn't work on the venom. Maybe he needed to know what the venom was or needed to know the cure. Perhaps the venom was just immune to magic, but whatever the reason, he needed help. Focusing, he felt the energy rushing through his body, trying and slowly failing to counter the venom.

Walking swiftly through the forest, he looked hard for someone, anyone. Each step felt like fire. His vision blurred with each pain-filled step, his breath becoming heavy, pained, worked. Close to passing out, he spotted what appeared to be a treehouse. It wasn't a shack or something in a tree, but rather a large tree that had been converted into a house. Julius stumbled up to the door, vision almost gone.

"Please," he harshly moaned as he reached the door. Knocking at the door, Julius forces out, "Please, help me," his ears burning. The door opened just as Julius's last grasp on conscience faltered. Through blurred vision, he thought he saw a maybe four-foot-tall zebra. Usually, Julius would be questioning why, but it was all he could do to barely say "Man, tuh, kor, veh, nuhm," before passing out.

Author's Note

Man, tuh, kor, veh, nuhm is Manticore venom, just in phonetic form. Felt it was appropriate considering Julius was passing out, his breathing, and speech would have been strained, and labored.