The caravan had halted for the day in a previously-cleared area beside the road. Years of use by other travelers kept this area from being reclaimed by the forest. They still had light left to travel by, but these clearings were placed a day’s walk apart. Danny and Phantom appeared at the edge of the area, near where his Trio and the Basalts had set up their tents. Danny tumbled exhaustedly off of Phantom and into the grass. She gave him a lick on his face, and he couldn't push her away. Phantom suddenly stopped and started licking her paw as if she had been doing that all day. Confused, Danny sat up only to find himself surrounded by three angry teenage girls.

"Where have you been all day, and what was that loud noise a while ago? Did you have something to do with that?" Ivy demanded, her arms raised while looking around.

"Just playing in the forest, getting Phantom lunch... stopping beasts from attacking the caravan." Danny mumbled the last part, but all three girls heard and immediately lost it.

Brooke looked baffled, “Why?!”

Ivy walked closer menacingly, "You didn't!"

Jade reached over her shoulder, mumbling, "I'm going to kill him myself… Wait, where's my bow?"

A red-faced Lieutenant Cove appeared behind them, "You! Where have you been all day? My scouts have been spotting you flitting around the forest all around us! Then there would be reports of smoke in a similar direction! Do you know that you could have attracted all manner of beasts to our caravan?! If something happens to the Elven Ambassador we could find ourselves without a crucial ally. Now, if the Elven Ambassador was not specifically asking for you all day, I would kick your whole group out of this caravan right now!"

The girls turned wide eyes on the military leader and remained silent during her tirade. Anya led the other Basalts hurriedly over and stood by the girls. She did not look pleased.

"Excuse me lieutenant, but Phantom and I were doing the exact opposite. We diverted most of the beasts in the area away from the caravan. Phantom has some sort of uncanny sense of smell or sixth sense that allows her to find other creatures. I was using fire to drive them away instead of engaging them in a fight. Since I did it without them noticing me, they just thought it was a forest fire and not an attack," Danny explained.

The lieutenant just stare at him in disbelief, before asking. "If that is true then what did you drive away today?"

Danny rubbed his hand through his hair as he thought, "Let's see, first there was the herd of beast boars. Phantom ate the largest, of course. Then there was a rather large bear with cubs, I'm guessing it was their mother. Then a pack of wolves, who must have smelled the caravan, were rushing this way. We almost didn't intercept them in time. The fire I created also might have gotten a little out of hand trying to deal with the wolves, but there were a lot of them. Then lastly there was a giant lizard thing in the road ahead that just ignored any magic I threw at it, so I had to kill it by different means."

The lieutenant looked at everyone that had gathered around and rolled her eyes dramatically. She called over the nearby sergeant in charge of their mounted unit and had her send a detachment to determine if there was a dead “lizard thing” in the road ahead or not.

Anya used the lull to casually walk up to Danny and fiercely whisper in his ear, “We are going to have a serious discussion later about you going off to chase every beast within a kilometer of our position. Wait until…” Anya fingered the material of his duster, “Why are your clothes burnt like this?! Was it from when you said the fire got away from the wolves?"

Lieutenant Cove heard Anya’s outburst and snidely stated, "The boy was probably out starting fires in the woods for fun. As I already told him, if your apprentice’s story doesn't check out, your group will not be continuing on with us in the morning."

Anya turned from the lieutenant to just stare daggers at Danny.

A pair of women rode up at a fast clip. They both hopped off and walked over to the waiting group, before stopping to salute to the lieutenant.

Obviously annoyed by the whole situation, Lieutenant Cove barked, "Report specialist!"

"Ma'am, I think there is a large, dead drake in the road ahead. Its head was missing.”

“Just the head?”

“Yes, Ma’am, I believe there are pieces of the head littered in the area all around the body.”

The lieutenant's eyes widened in surprise, looking briefly at Danny before turning back to the specialist, "Well, why didn’t you tie it up and drag it back here? We cannot leave it out there and attract every scavenger downwind of us."

The specialist looked torn, before replying, "Even without the head, it was too large to move with just our two horses, Ma'am. I would suggest sending a team up there before it gets too dark, and processing it."

The lieutenant looked over at Danny and Phantom shrewdly before turning back to the specialist, "Were you able to determine what killed it?"

"Ma'am, the corpse was surrounded by a burned-out area. There were claw marks all over its back. All in all, it was too damaged to tell exactly how it was killed."

The lieutenant turned away to scoff at Danny, "That's not enough evidence to prove anything. I want you and your people gone after you go speak-"

"Lieutenant, Ma'am, one more thing, there was something odd about part of the burned-out area."

Turning back to the specialist the lieutenant asked, exasperated, "What?"

"There was an unburned area outlined, in the shape of a person, on the trunk of a nearby tree. There was also a half-melted stone wall in front of the unburned outline, Ma'am."

The lieutenant frowned, and reluctantly nodded toward Danny, "Would he have fit into that outlined area?"

Looking over at Danny the specialist nodded, only after confirming his height and size.

The lieutenant sent the specialist off with orders to arrange the drake's removal from the road. She stood there for a few minutes before finally turning to Danny, "Looks like I owe you an apology. I had found it odd that we didn't get attacked by a single beast today. Most merchants hire teams of mercenaries to take them up and down this path."

Danny smiled at her, "I understand, it is a little hard to believe myself. If it wasn't for Phantom here I never would have gotten around so quickly or located them all. So that was a drake? The thing breathed fire. Luckily I was able to counter the flames with a wall of earth at the last moment. The wall, unfortunately, didn’t stop everything."

Danny took that moment to brush more of the ash off of his duster.

Jade, in a very uncharacteristic volume, screeched, "That's it, where is my bow?!" She stormed off toward their tent.

Danny suddenly looked panicked, whipping his head around searching for a quick escape. The lieutenant and Wizard Basalt started laughing at the look on Danny’s face. Anya looked shrewdly at her husband who quickly quieted down. The lieutenant walked off, chuckling, seemingly satisfied that Danny was going to get his just desserts.

Fury was the only way to describe Ivy's face, "You took on a drake?! What were you even thinking?!"

Danny suddenly held up a finger towards her and bent down to whisper in Phantom’s ear. The cat bounded off after Jade.

When Danny stood up Ivy was in his face, "You are intentionally trying to scare us half to death, aren't you?!"

Danny held up his hands defensively, "No, it's not like that. I saw a chance to help the caravan and I took it. Then... I found a few other chances."

Jade's voice could be heard in the distance, "Danny! Get this cat off me this instant! Danny!"

Brooke moved up next to him, her arms crossed over her chest. Danny didn’t know she was able to pull off the sad puppy look. She didn't yell, instead she quietly said, "Did you even think for a second that it might not be your responsibility to scare off every beast that comes close? You didn’t… especially if you didn’t know what it was. A drake, Danny... I thought you were smarter than this?"

Danny had the decency to look abashed. "I'm sorry, it just seems so stupid to not help. If I hadn't scared some of them away, the soldiers might get hurt, some of these beasts jumping out of the forest that's just a few feet away from the road. The drake was headed right down the road, apparently it was easier to move down that than through the dense forest. It wasn't that far away, so there wasn't enough time to run for help. Also, I have never seen a drake before, so I was surprised when it spat fire at me and then shrugged off my fireballs.”

Danny leaned in and whispered, “Fortunately I already had a fire shield up in case my fire got out of control. Did you know those things are magic-resistant?"

Everyone around immediately nodded.

Frowning, Danny continued, “Well, when fire and freezing didn’t work, I tried a rock spike, but that just pushed it around. Its hide is ridiculously tough. Then, I went with my backup plan and tried messing with it internally. I started to freak out when I couldn’t get my mana past its skin. Then Phantom jumped on its back and distracted it for a while. I erected the stone wall and started infusing water into some rocks as tightly as I could, making sure it couldn’t get out. I told Phantom to run far away and taunted the lizard. It took me a few tries but I managed to throw some of the rocks into its mouth right before it breathed fire on me. The rocks exploded a little better than I thought!”

Danny was laughing at the last bit until he realized he was the only one. Glancing between the scowling Basalt Trio and the two girls in front of him, Danny could only think of one way to defuse the situation. He walked over and pulled Ivy and Brooke into a hug. "I'm sorry."

Brooke reluctantly hugged him back but Ivy was not so easily swayed. Anya had a look that said this conversation wasn’t over. In the distance they heard Jade yelling weakly, "Danny…"

The Elven Ambassador called out from within the carriage, "Come in please, Danny."

Danny pushed open the door to find Leaf and the ambassador drinking tea. A small table had been set up in between the two benches of the carriage. An assortment of finger foods was laid out on plates. Leaf smiled at Danny, "Have you had supper yet, Danny?"

Smiling, Danny sat down next to Leaf and grabbed a couple of sandwiches, "No, and I missed lunch!"

Laughing at the enthusiasm with which Danny ate, Leaf asked, "Did your wives forget to feed you?"

Danny looked at Leaf with confusion, "I am not married. I am just contractually bound to marry them. Doesn't that sound romantic…?"

Leaf and the ambassadors laughed at his sarcasm.

Danny asked, “I forgot to ask Leaf before, Is it true elves don’t get married?”

The ambassador primly set down her tea cup and placed her hands in her lap, “Yes Danny, marriage is not a custom of our people. The reason is that whilst we elves are a long-lived race, we are not as prolific as you humans. Relationships that last longer than three decades without producing offspring are generally frowned upon.”

Danny looked confused, “Wouldn’t it make more sense than for male elves to have as many partners as possible? Something similar to how the humans do it.”

The ambassador looked uncomfortable, looking unsure of what to say, then Leaf came to her rescue, “Danny, you are right, and there are other aspects to our culture that make up for this. Just know that elven women are very territorial and do not like to share… except under special circumstances.” Leaf had leaned over and whispered the last to him with a grin on his face.

“Leaf, you have said more than you should have!” The ambassador seemed startled by her own outburst and quickly pushed another plate of sandwiches over to Danny and asked, "So the whole caravan was talking about the boy riding the ghost leopard through the trees. What were you up to today?"

Danny looked over at Leaf with a raised eyebrow. Leaf smiled at him and nodded his head, "She already knows about you."

Danny took an offered cup of tea and, after washing down what food was left in his mouth, he retold the events of the day. As he progressed through his day the ambassador's fine eyebrows rose higher and higher, until he reached the end of the fight with the drake.

The ambassador asked, unbelieving, "You took on an adolescent drake, by yourself, and won?! That is exceptional for one your age."

"Don't forget Phantom, she is very good at distracting enemies, what with the scratching and biting."

The ambassador just shook her head, "Danny when we get to the elven capital, you must speak with our druids!"

"I would love to… as long as the Basalts approve, that is." Danny said the last with more than a little bitterness.

Danny, not wanting to overstay his welcome, bade the two goodnight. Danny returned to his tent to find all three girls awake and sitting up in their pallets.

Ivy's voice was cold, "Did you have a good time with the beautiful eleven ambassador?"

"Ivy, Leaf was there too! They were very impressed with what I accomplished today. They also want me to meet the druids once we get to the elven capital," Danny tried to change the subject.

Ivy didn’t take the bait, crossing her arms, "So is that what you were doing today… trying to impress people?"

"No, I...," Danny paused, looking for the right words. "If I find myself in the position where I have the ability to help, I am going to. Despite what you think, I do consider whether the situation is safe. I spoke with Anya and will not be venturing far from the caravan anymore."

Ivy sighed and looked toward the other two girls. Brooke shrugged her shoulders, and Jade just looked sad. Ivy turned back to Danny, "Anya also reprimanded us for not keeping a better eye on you. We convinced her to let you continue venturing out with Phantom if you want. You will only scout and not engage. We want to see you at least three times before noon, and three more before nightfall. Can you agree to that at least?"

Danny was shocked and just nodded.

"Danny, please don't go off by yourself like that, not without talking it through with us. We are in this together now. We will try not to hold you back, but at least give us a chance to make something that works for us all. Towards the end of today, no one had seen you for a while... we didn't know what to think." Ivy's words trailed off and a heaviness hung in the air.

Danny looked over to see Jade's downturned face streaked with tears, and her bright green eyes looking up at him. Danny couldn’t resist and opened his arms. She immediately lunged at him. As Jade hugged him as tight as she could, Danny rubbed her back and repeated, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Over the next couple of weeks, as they steadily moved through the Great Forest, their days consisted of Danny and Phantom rushing around during the day and collapsing into his bedroll at night.

As promised, he scouted ahead and kept the caravan notified of nearby threats. When Danny watched the soldiers fight he realized how far he and his Trio still had to go. He also realized why they didn't bother having scouts run very far through the forest ahead. Those women chosen for active military duty had trained high levels in multiple weapons and armor skills. This gave them unreal amounts of strength and speed. Only the drake, with its fire breath, would cause a single one of them any trouble. Then the military wizards stepped forward. Their spells flew like machine-gun-fire and they were by no means low level. Danny knew they were picked for their high regeneration and flow rates. Their affinities must be fairly high not just to use such high level spells, but use them so rapidly. The platoon ripped through any beasts that crossed from the forest onto the road. Danny realized now how useless his efforts on the first day were.

Danny took to visiting his sanctuary more often to talk with Cranny. Appearing directly in the crystal room, he decided to start calling it the bridge. He called it that because its appearance went from that of an office building’s security room to the bridge of a science fiction spaceship from a cheesy B-movie.

Appearing in the captain’s chair, Danny shouted, “Status report!”

Cranny turned around in front of Danny, where he was sitting in the pilot’s chair. Cranny was holding a steaming cup of coffee in one hand. He acted surprised that Danny was there, “Oh, hey Danny, we still doing this bit?”

“Are you still mad about your uniform? I thought you looked good in red.” Danny tried, but he couldn’t keep the laughter out of his voice.

Cranny just looked annoyed, “…Fine. You have gained level six in sneak, congratulations on journeyman rank.” Cranny sarcastically waved his unoccupied hand in the air, while taking a sip of coffee. He started tapping on the console in front of him and diagrams appeared on the large screen up in front, “I think I got a handle on what the skills actually do, and only your agility augmentation goes up with the sneak skill. I still can’t tell if it is some sort of modification of your body through your genetic material, or a magical enchantment. When you leveled, there was a brief, faint burst of magic from your source that covered your body and instantly faded.

Your new skill “Riding” is up to level three. That one’s a straight split between strength and agility. I don’t know who decided the attribute distribution, but we seriously need to find you some pure strength skills you can level…”

“Agreed, but more importantly right now, how is the mana bomb?”

Cranny had been taking another sip of coffee and spit it out all over his legs. “Ahhhh, I told you not to call it that! Seriously, we need to jettison that thing as far away from us as we can. That crazy giant of an earth wizard should never have put that idea into your head. Of course, instead of just releasing it, you decided it would be a brilliant idea to store all the extra mana outside… I was lucky to find a way to put it on autopilot. It creeps me out, Danny! Just sitting there, growing. Hey, let’s just release it and start a new one. I know, we could just reset it every night!”

Danny ignored his complaints and suggestion, “Has it had a noticeable effect on our mana regeneration rates?”

Cranny sighed, defeated, and shook his head, “I don’t know, it’s too soon to tell. I need more time to get enough data.”

“Well, I want to keep it for a bit longer. Some people hoard cats, I hoard mana. Anything else before I head back out?”

Cranny gave up trying to get the stains out of his pants and looked up at him, “Yeah, last night I sensed something on the edge of our scanners. It wasn’t a beast or an animal. Keep an eye out and I will let you know if I spot anything.”

On the second week of their journey. They had progressed through three quarters of the Great Forest road when Phantom took Danny to stalk a new enemy. Danny tried to stop her a few times, as she kept wanting to go further from the caravan than he felt comfortable. Phantom settled on a branch and stayed crouched as Danny slowly got off. He knew from the past few weeks that this was her sign that there was something dangerous nearby. Crouching down, he looked around, but didn't see anything at first. Then a small hill walked into the clearing they were observing.

The creature looked like a giant goblin. It was a few heads taller than wizard Basalt and twice as large. It was covered in muscles and had a thick skin, like an elephant's. Its ears were human-like and it had a serious under-bite. Then something else that was new walked out behind it.

A goblin as tall as an adult human. It was gangly-looking, as if someone had stretched it out to get it that height. It was wearing a loose robe made of black fur, probably wolf. Danny was grossed out when he realized it wasn’t wearing anything else.

The larger creature started to slow down and the tall goblin screamed and began kicking it. Giving up its attack, black energies whipped out of the tall goblin and wrapped around the hulking… orc? As the dark energy stopped swirling around the orcs it coalesced into its eyes. The next few steps it took were faster and filled with more energy.

Danny didn’t know what to make of this until more goblins flooded around the taller goblin and orc. Here and there more of the tall goblins could be seen. Every now and then dark energies flowed out of the tall goblins and struck any stragglers, speeding them up. It was strange because there were no screams of pain when this happened. The only sounds came from their movement through the brush and occasional vocalizations of the taller goblins. Then more of the orcs entered the clearing, each with their own tall goblin handler. Danny noticed that all of the tall goblins were male. Danny jumped back onto Phantom and they raced towards the caravan.

Lieutenant Cove swore, "Those were not orcs, those were ogres. The tall goblins were hobgoblins, or goblin shamans. They are usually female and rarely work together.”

Wizard Basalt piped in, “Hobgoblins are what happens when they gain access to their mana. Why human wizards don’t physically change, I don’t know. Now, I am more concerned with this dark energy you described. I have never heard of this..."

The lieutenant started barking orders to her subordinates and requested aid from the Basalts. Danny was allowed to scout but not engage, as he had been doing. Danny agreed and started to take off, but Anya stopped him by grabbing his arm.

“Danny, do not engage them, and if things take a turn for the worse, you run. Do not come back to save us. You are of more importance to our people, and we did not expect to run into this kind of trouble. Run back to the headquarters. If they somehow block you from going that way, then head north towards the elven forest.”

Danny nodded his head and Anya released his arm with a nod of her own.

Danny leaped on Phantom to begin scouting. Phantom almost immediately went into stealth mode. Confused, Danny saw a handful of ogres with shamans heading for the caravan. Not wasting any time, Danny shot a gout of flames high into the air. Spells flew through the trees, in Danny and Phantom’s general direction, but Phantom was already moving. After a few heart beats, Danny heard the sounds of battle in the distance. Hiding high up, in the topmost boughs of the trees, Danny waited. A group of goblins on beast wolves ran under the tree. One wolf paused briefly to sniff the trees below him, before moving on. Danny had Phantom creep back towards the battle.

Earth wizards, probably wizard Basalt included, had erected stone walls and fortifications at a rapid pace. The walls were not tall enough to stop anyone but would slow the goblins down. Ogres moved forward into a sea of human soldiers in front of the fortifications. The ogres swung thick tree branches like clubs, and one even used a human body. The ogres' hides were so tough that even the augmented strength of the soldiers had trouble piercing them. Magic and arrows flew from the humans' fortifications, across the field. In one location, Danny could see an ogre fall, but only from a multitude of burns and cuts.

The goblins on foot raced into the field, attacking with swords, knives, and clubs. Danny realized something was definitely off about them. When one goblin's arm was removed and it kept fighting unperturbed, his suspicions were rewarded. When another goblin was cut in half and kept crawling towards the defenders, no blood gushing from its wounds, Danny knew what was wrong.

“Undead…” Danny whispered to himself.

Then something twice as large as the ogres stepped out of the forest. Trees were pushed aside as it entered the battlefield. Danny heard multiple people scream out something and managed to make out, “Mountain Troll!” It wielded a massive bone like a club. Multiple human and goblin bodies were knocked into the air with each swing. Danny recognized wizard Basalt, who behind the fortifications with his wives and the rest of Danny’s shadow, gestured towards the massive creature. A spike of stone as black as night shot up from the ground, impaling the troll right through its lower stomach. The troll fell, breaking the spike, and stood up again, unfazed, to keep wreaking destruction all around.

Wizard Basalt pulled a massive hammer from behind his back and stepped out of the fortification towards the troll. The wizard’s wives ducked and weaved through the approaching goblins. The three women easily removed heads and limbs, letting nothing touch their husband. Once Basalt reached the edge of the defending line of soldiers, he stomped twice on the ground and two spikes broke through the ground, piercing the zombie mountain troll and pinning it in place. Another stomp and a pillar of stone shot it high into the air. Wizard Basalt jumped after it, using the growing pillar's momentum to give him an added boost.

Danny couldn’t believe what he was seeing, as the large bulk that was wizard Basalt flew through the air, and brought the hammer down on the troll's head. The spikes had thrown the troll off-balance and, unable to defend itself, the troll took the full brunt of Basalt’s attack on its head. Bone and brain matter ejected out across the battlefield as the headless mountain troll fell to the ground, crushing friend and foe alike.

Wizard Basalt landed on the troll’s corpse and retreated back to the fortifications with his wives. Those defenders in front of the walls were retreating as well. There seemed to be no end to the waves of zombie goblins and ogres.

That’s when Danny realized he hadn’t seen any hobgoblins join the fight since it started. He searched the rear of the enemy to see something odd. Phantom, hearing his mental request, raced through the trees towards a group of shaman hobgoblins all in a circle. They were down the road and in view of the human fortifications. Danny knew from school that a team of wizards could work together to cast a large spell. Each wizard added their mana to power a specific piece of the rune in the spell. Seeing as there were six shamans, Danny was very concerned. He needed to stop them, and after looking back at the defenders, realized he was their only chance to stop this.

He debated if using the mass of mana was a good idea, but all he needed to do was interrupt their casting. He probably only had one chance at this given the shamans were being defended.

Phantom crept up on the edge of the tree line, overlooking the mages. There were beast wolf riders and more hobgoblin shamans surrounding the mages. They were on high alert, ready to strike as quickly as possible. They had not spotted Phantom and Danny yet, so he sent half of the mana stored in his body into the circle of shamans. Deciding it wasn't the right time to experiment, Danny thought he would use his new explosive trick with air affinity.

Danny could now see a large, dark orb forming in the center of the shaman circle. Danny didn’t know why this magic could be seen when the others only showed up when activated. Concentrating, Danny started condensing the oxygen towards the center of the orb. Danny kept condensing the oxygen in the air expecting a random ignition source to trigger it like last time, but it never came. Tired of waiting, Danny threw a fireball and the shamans’ defenders all looked up to his location in alarm.

They didn’t have a chance to retaliate, as the fire hit the condensed air and an explosion expanded from the center of the shaman circle. A concussion of air and dark energy hit Danny and Phantom, flinging them through the trees behind them. Danny could feel the trees ripping at his skin and clothes before he hit something, and blacked out.

Danny came to, hanging from a broken tree branch. The branch was pierced through his chest near his left shoulder. Blood oozed around the tree branch in the wound to drip down his badly-burned body and clothes. Danny looked around and couldn’t see Phantom anywhere. Then his vision started to fade.

Danny slammed into the familiar captain’s chair in the sanctuary. Cranny was busy at the controls.

Shaking his head Cranny pushed a button on the console. In what was supposed to be a Scottish accent but sounded more like a pirate, Cranny shouted, “I’ve given her everything you’ve got, cap’n! I was only able to give us a wee bit of thrust so that the branch didn’t pierce your heart.”

Danny could see through his eyes, shown on the screens, that his body was slowly sliding down the branch. His body unceremoniously fell to the ground, with his face looking up to the sky. Danny could only scream in pain.

Cranny looked back at him apologetically and gave up on his accent, “Sorry, I know you can still feel all this. Fortunately for you I only feel what I want to.”

Cranny got up and walked over to the captain’s chair and squatted down in front of it, “Danny, do you think you can focus enough to help me separate some of the mana from the mana bomb to heal you? I don’t know what using all that mana will do to you and I can’t manipulate that much on my own.”

Danny’s only response was to moan in pain.

Cranny frowned and nodded his head, “We don’t have any more time. All I can do is move and try and condense it. Worst case, this explodes and puts us out of our misery.”

Manipulating the controls for a minute, Cranny reached over to hesitate above a button on the control panel.

Looking down at the button, Cranny smiled sadly, “Here goes nothing,” and pressed the button.

A bright flash of light washed over everything and eventually receded.

Cranny finally opened his eyes and looked around at the screens, only to start laughing.

“We did it, Danny!” Cranny looked around to find Danny’s presence gone from the sanctuary.

Looking up, he could see through Danny’s eyes that the boy was desperately trying to sit up. Danny was making strained sounds and his breathing was heavily labored. Danny screamed out as he grasped at where the tree branch had pierced his shoulder. As he desperately wiped away the blood covering the area, it was revealed to be completely healed. Danny let out another strangled scream as he began to writhe on the ground.

Confused, Cranny tapped into Danny’s senses and could feel a burning sensation at the locations Danny had been healed, especially where the large wound had been. He desperately searched the screens for what was happening, only to realize the areas that had just been healed didn’t show any damage, internal or otherwise. What they did reveal was a spreading white light. Damage was usually shown in shades of red and infections in green, but this whiteness was something new. Cranny could only sit there uselessly as Danny screamed at the pain that was slowly engulfing his body.