Uncovering New Beginnings

He was hiding from the beast. The beast was the most feared thing in the land. It stood over ten feet tall and while its face looked human it was not of human descent. The beast's grin showed its devilish teeth and as he spoke the man trembled.

"I smell the fear radiating from your soul," said the beast in a deep voice. 

The man was not the type to fight. This man was known as Xavier. He was born into a safe home but at the age of five he had lost his family. Living on the streets ever since, he learned to hide from the things of life that scared him. It seemed like this time he would not be able to escape this monster by hiding. Still hiding beneath the bush he listened to the beast speak.

"Your scent is familiar. Have we met before, boy?" 

The beast ripped a tree from the ground and smashed it against another. Angered by the chase through the woods he yelled, "You are just postponing the inevitable!"

The beast knew he was getting closer to the boy because the smell of the boy was growing stronger. The beast finally realized how the smell was so familiar and laughed. He said, "Ah yes, the family of four. I killed three but a young boy was quick enough to escape my grasp. It's been, what, eleven years now?"

The boy froze. He stopped trembling and remembered that day. He had ran without looking back for his family that day. The only thing he heard that day were the screams from his family as they were being torn apart limb by limb. He remembered feeling helpless. Wishing he could do something to stop the beast. That feeling turned into a suppressed anger. It built up each day. There was not a day that he didn't think about it. 

Angered now he made a fist. There was so much anger built up from the years. He started to feel different. His body temperature was rising. It was an abnormal temperature because he looked to the left and saw the bush beside him catch fire. Xavier was confused by this but was not afraid of the beast anymore. He stepped into the line of sight of the beast. 

The beast again grinned and said, "You think your inherited power will help you? It did not help your family before when your father tried to use his magic on me."

"W-w-what magic?" Xavier replied.

"Oh you don't know, do you? Your family was the last of the supers. They were the last threat to me and I almost eliminated them but you escaped" said the beast. 

The anger kept flowing through Xavier as he listened. The power he felt became greater. Without thinking his legs started moving towards the beast at a sprint. Xavier was surprised. It was like something else was controlling him. The beast tried to react but it was too late. Xavier struck the beast in the jaw and sent him flying through the air towards the tree line. The beast hit every tree in his path and finally came to a stop after tumbling on the ground. In an instant the beast was sprinting towards Xavier. The beast struck Xavier in the chest but did not affect Xavier like the beast expected. The beast was shocked. 

"How is that possible?" exclaimed the beast. 

Xavier paid no attention to this but was only angered more by the blow to the chest that he had just received. He rushed at the beast again and they both started to exchange powerful blows. With every hit that the beast landed, Xavier seemed to grow in strength. The punches that he hit the beast with started to do more damage and broke through the thick bones of the beast. Xavier lost control and blacked out. When he awoke there was a desolated forest around him. The downed trees had been coated in blood and flesh. With no explanation Xavier was unaware of what happened after he blacked out. Then a voice inside his head spoke to him. 

"I took over," said the voice.

"Who is there?" replied Xavier as he looked around. 

"There is no use looking around. I am a part of you. I was asleep until your anger woke me. This is late for you to wake your inner power," replied the voice.

"My power? What do you mean?" asked Xavier.

"Well my name is X, I am your power... Well, not so much just a power but basically a second spirit attached to yours which gives us the ability to do things that normal humans cannot." 

"What kind of things?" Xavier asked.

"Well, Xavier, we have a lot of stuff to practice. We will get you caught up in no time, but for now we need to leave here. The amount of noise we created last night surely sparked some curiosity," replied X.

Xavier ran towards the mountains and there he began to learn how to use his power. His new life started and he was no longer scared. 

Xavier and his new found power 

Photo Provided by Pixabay

Author's Note: The original story "The Battle with Grendel" from the Beowulf stories was the story that really sparked my thoughts about the new story. I took the idea of Grendel and made my own beastly character. The original story showed Grendel as this horrid creature not like anything from this world that devoured humans. Grendel was terrorizing the lands and that is where Beowulf came into the picture. Beowulf was not from the kingdom but offered to slay the beast. The fact that Beowulf wasn't affected by Grendel and his magic was like he had a superpower. That is where my idea of the powers came from for the character Xavier. I wanted to create another hero that was unaware of his ability and overcame the fears that he held before. Although Beowulf is a fearless character and has a reputation of being able to defeat any opponent, I thought that it was a good idea to have a fear factor that unlocked a new fearless being within Xavier. Working through the fears and facing his greatest fear, the beast. I think this shows Beowulf in a way because Beowulf faced Grendel and had to have some sense of fear even though it did not state that he did. The battle was the most important part of the story. Like the battle between beowulf and Grendel, it was really important. I intentionally ended the story abruptly because I want to possibly make another story later on explaining what Xavier does with his new found power and if he used it for a good purpose or a bad one. 

Bibliography: "The Battle with Grendel" from The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs Webtext