Maria is testing her powers by spectator2@web.de Second part of "Maria discovers her powers". A little girl has just discovered that she doesn't come from earth but from a planet far away. She has got some extraordinary powers as flight, invulnerability and very great strength. She's got to know there are some dwarves able to do magic. Maria's two faces Since that day Maria had often been with the dwarfs for visit. She listened to them, learned very fast their language, found out a lot about the caves and made Barin and Atuschél who were brother and sister her friends. Barin was an apprentice one of the best smiths, while Atuschél collected charms. Tejuscha had kept his promise and after two weeks he handed over to Maria a ring with a transparent crystal. " I have improved something, young mistress. Invisibility rings ordinarily generate a fog around the concerning person - a fog which a person with your eyes sees through trouble-free. Indeed, they don't recognise the beings not exactly, but see that somebody is beside them. This one makes the air several times reflect, so that even your father would have to put directly beside you and his eyes on microscope look to recognise you. " Tejuscha also recommended Maria not to fly directly, because the direct way was controlled by her father. If she flew a long curve from the property, it would last only slightly longer, but she would not be seen. Now Maria more often flew at night, because the dwarfs were going outside preferently at night. Her parents seemed to notice nothing, just as little Lola who was carrying really soon a silver belt, but hardly seemed to have become stronger. Atuschél confessed Maria that she would get to know with pleasure the primeval forest. There were the insects who also interested her brother. " Insects are interesting animals. They have weapons which, transferred onto us, would be very effective ", he said. " I do not exclude that could damage even to you. " Even Barin and still much less his sister hardly dared to fly in the primeval forest because of fear of the landlord. Together with Maria they sometimes, however, did it. They put on silver belts and flight coats and came along. Maria had to fly very slowly, so that the both could keep up - they made just 300 miles per hour, Maria on the other side four times more in a minute. Maria was learning much about the forest because the two though rarely having left their cave seemed to know a lot. From Barin she learned many things about magic ornaments, too. There were also mind-readers, apparatuses for telekinesis - a word Maria didn't know but she learned later that it meant to let things float - stones for transformations and some more things. Most stones, however, were rare and Barin didn't get them into his hand often. Tejuscha promised to present her a mind-reader some time but for now he claimed that he did not own one. One day Maria, when she came, saw Atuschél sitting on a rock and crying. When she asked her what the matter was the dwarf girl said: "I was looking with my telescope over the plain. Behind there are Taran birds. Their meat is considered as a very good food and their feathers as basic material for the most beautiful and resistant clothes. But they're very fast and have good senses. Until we'd be there they would have heard us and flown away for a long time. Maria had herself the birds shown. Her telescopic vision was at least as good as Atuschél's telescope. Then she flew up and within seconds she crossed the more than a hundred miles. Really the birds were shocked up but Maria with her speed caught five of them. The others were pounding with their beaks at her but the beaks didn't hurt her in the slightest. She flew back. "There you are, my dear." "Man, great, thanks a lot" Atuschél beeped. "For that we've got to make other kinds of force belts to be as fast. Atuschél and Barin promised her to make good weather considering the mind-reader but without success. Instead she got a new power more casually: She watched Barin forging force belts and asked him for fun whether he believed that her power could be reinforced even more. "We'll soon see that", he answered and melted to belts together, hanged a buckle in one and put the belt around Maria's hips. As it was still too narrow for her - remember it was meant for dwarves - he made a third belt and put it newly around Maria's hips. Maria closed the buckle and suddenly heard a deafening noise. The power shock had come without any announcement. Maria raced through the rock-walls, even the magically reinforced ones - as if they weren't there. No less than twenty miles high she could brake down. The energy she needed for this act caused an earthquake. Maria looked down onto earth and saw houses break down and trees fall down as if they were playthings. Suddenly a heat-beam was dissolving itself from her eyes and burnt an area of quite some acres. She casually opened her mouth and the fire she spat burnt down a forest and some trees. After some seconds she got her senses back and blew out the fire she had caused. Nevertheless it had caused a lot of destruction. Maria was shocked and fascinated in the same act about what she could do. She blew fire down to earth for a second time. This time the burning area wasn't as big as before but it was still covering some acres. She pressed two fingers together and by the air she pressed with that a bomb was produced which destroyed three more houses. The people who lived in the areas where the fire was getting down didn't stand any chance at all. Nobody knew where the catastrophe came from and nobody got to know it because everybody was burnt or engraved by the shattering houses before they could react. Many people saw the fire from a distance of more than a hundred miles. The origin of the catastrophe, however, was flying at nearly the speed of light and thought about what she had just seen. That was exactly what her father had spoken about. Should she confess it to him? No, she had promised the dwarves to keep her secret. Should she hand the belt back? Although an inner voice was counselling it she didn't want to give up the additional force. What child wouldn't have dreamt to be much stronger than her or his father? She raised down to earth and miles into it. In the deep hole she hid the belt and remembered the place as good as she could. For days she didn't dare to fly to the dwarves. Lola was glad because the young lady wasn't away so often. But one day Maria flew there to apologize. To her surprise she saw that all destroyed caves had been built up again. Tejusha ordered her to give the belt back but she rejected. "Then it will take longer until you'll get the mind-reader!", he threatened her but even this didn't impress her. The longer the event was back the less she remembered the destruction and the more the impression of force and power. Even her father would be weaker than her when she only learned to manage her belt. She was learning more from the dwarves. She heard that in the fire in the dwarves' cave it was possible to transform steel to impetral, a material a thousand times harder and heavier than steel. Barin gave her a piece of it and she formed it with her bare hands. She couldn't form it nearly as easily as steel but she managed to build a box which didn't look nice but however was so dense that she had troubles to see through it with her x-ray-vision. Just the place to hide her silver-belt, she thought. She didn't know whether her father had become suspicious, but from Atushel she had heard that the dwarves were looking for the belt. Although Tejusha liked her he feared the immense force she could get because he had got to know what she had done: Without that she had planned it 340 people had died and 30 acres of land had become desert and no return was possible. Maria flew to the hiding place with her new box in her hand. It felt heavy. She didn't want to calculate how many people would be necessary to lift it up. She hid the box in the hole and took the belt in her hands. Another time she wanted to test it, but this time she wanted to take more care: First she flew some miles up to the air, before putting on her belt, then she positioned with her back to earth for that the energy was shot up. From earth one could see bright flashes in the sky but nearly nothing got destroyed. This time Maria flew only some miles uncontrolled. As soon as she got control she looked with her x-ray-vision in her parents' bedroom. Everything asleep and she couldn't hear anything suspicious either. She wanted to see how much faster she was than usually and went down to earth. There was the hiding place for her belt: By her microscopic vision she could see the blind point deep in the earth. Normally it took her twenty seconds to make the 400 miles to her palace when she didn't hurry up especially. She started to fly and after half a second she had already passed the palace. When she turned around something was getting into her mind: The forbidden tree. Even if her parents should wake up she was invisible even for them and many times stronger and faster than they ever would be. She had to fly extremely slowly to react in time at reaching the tree. The fruits were tasting like extremely sweet cherries and she felt her force grow up even a little more. Then she heard something behind her: In fact, her father had woken up. But before he could see even an outline of her she raced into the sky and in seconds she was hundreds of miles above the earth and away from her parents' ranch. She looked down and with her telescopic vision she recognised a camp. The people there were still awake and when she concentrated she could understand their voices. "Great prey!" a man said. "Good for us the wagon wasn't watched." "Let's hope the hostages will bring us even more money!" another man said. Robbers! Maria decided to test her powers against them. She landed next to them and blew out their fire "Hey, what's that?" somebody shouted. The robbers got up and tried to get orientation in the dark. One of them ran against Maria. She would have been able to dodge out easily because for her it was bright as during the day but she enjoyed the collision. While she didn't move an inch the robber broke some ribs, shouted and fell down but he got up again fast. Maria made herself visible. "Do you want your fire back" she asked smiling and with her fire breath she lighted a fire a hundred times bigger than the old one. "Am I drunk? Has the flash struck?" one of the robbers who was standing beside Maria asked. Who was this person in woman's dressing who had just arrived at full night? He went nearer to her. He was a big, strong man, nearly as big as Maria. "What do you want here?", he asked. "What do you want here?" she asked back. "Hand the prey back to its owners!" she commanded. The robbers were laughing "Who are you to command us?" one of them asked. Maria opened her eyes widely and a heat beam came out of them and in frictions of a second killed the man and made ash out of him. "Okay, bind the captives free!" she commanded. A robber took his pistol and shot. The bullet bounced back from Maria's belly and landed in the sand just in front of his feet. Maria flew in his direction at such speed that everybody could just see a flash, stretched out her hand and tore his head from the body. The other robbers ran away at this demonstration of force. Maria blew fire on one of them who burned so fast his comrades couldn't notice it. Three robbers were left. Maria leaped into the air and landed in front of one robber, so near that he couldn't avoid running into her what resulted in him falling on the ground with a shout of pain. Maria kicked her foot against him and in the next second the robber bounced against a tree hundred foot away. So hard was the kick that the tree fell down, too. No sooner the man was dying than she had already found her next victim: A robber had run into the virgin forest hoping he could hide of her but for his persecutor the deep forest at night was as clear as an open field during the day. After few seconds she was standing beside him. The robber went to his knee and begged for grace. Maria giggled and lifted him up. "I just want to embrace you to show how much I like you" she said with false friendliness while she was pressing his body against hers until his flesh was crushed between her invulnerable upper body and her harder-than-steel arms. The last robber had made it to the horses and was saddling one. He rode away and turning round he didn't see anybody. So he thought he was safe but Maria had heard him and seeing through the wood as through a window she thought how to kill him. Should she fly behind him? No, she didn't want to make any more effort. If she blew fire on him this would burn all of the forest. So she pressed her dome and her index finger together. The shot of air raced unbraked through the trees, got the robber destroying half of his upper body and went on for miles. At the same time Maria threw the rests of her victims into the fire. Stop! There was the one she had kicked against a tree. He was nearly whole. She remembered her ancestors. But in the hostages' eyes? "Do you know where your people are?" she asked them. "Yes, we do!", one said. "The bandits killed some of us but others made it to the fort over there. Maria looked into the direction and there really was a fort. She tore away the ropes they were bound with, easier than a tailor a thread. "Go there!" she ordered. "I will look that nothing will happen you! Say you got free because the robbers didn't pay attention. But don't say anything about me or I'll treat you as I've treated them." The men obeyed by fear. When they had gone away Maria took the last robber's body and fried it over the fire. She bit into his arm judging that human flesh didn't taste that well. Nevertheless she ate the arm and half of the leg before she let the rest burn down. Then she blew the fire out and flew away. In the air she thought: In fact the men's hopeless intents to defend themselves had amused her. The bullet hadn't felt as unpleasant as the dwarves' ones - just like raindrops. She was going to make other men shoot on her more often! Pre-School Education Maria was wearing her silver-belt more often and the more often she wore it the less she felt power-shocks. Her super-senses helped her to cope with the additional force. She didn't fly uncontrolled again, she could land as exactly as at a relatively slow flight without her silver-belt. Nevertheless her parents got suspicion. Maria's father was too realistic to believe in magic. Somebody had escaped him near the forbidden fruits and using his x-ray-vision he found out that his daughter often wasn't lying in her bed but he couldn't find her anywhere. Neither he nor his wife found a plausible reason why Maria could escape their searching-vision so often. They thought that the dwarves were doing something and sometimes the barrier seemed to be out of order but soon it was working again and referred every flying object that came nearer than three miles. Once her mother made Maria talk about what she was doing at night but the girl didn't answer. She was hearing an inner voice telling her to answer honestly but another voice forbade her just the same thing. She had promised the dwarves not to say anything and there were also the ring and the belt her parents shouldn't know anything about. She didn't tell them a thing but their suspicion was becoming stronger. More and more often either her father or her mother was out at night. Maria looked through the wall of her bedroom every time before she went out but twice she let her parents notice something as she broke through the sound barrier too near the house. Her invisibility-ring helped her to remain unseen, however. Maria's parents' controlling flights resulted in a crisis meeting at the dwarves'. "It's the only possibility" Teraf, Barin's and Atushel's father, said. "Only she can avoid it from happening." "She's only a child. It could be dangerous if she had too fast too much power" Tejusha contradicted. "Where's the problem? She could already now kill all of us if she wanted but she doesn't" Hatin, the smith, said. "Who can know what else she's able to do!" Tejusha still wasn't convicted. "Oh Tejusha, you're a great wizard but your political skills ... " Teraf took over, "Let's assume everything will remain as it is. Once the landlord will see our people outside - the reporting system doesn't always work fast enough - and he'll kill all of them and at least the same number of others. Think that when it took us some time to make the belt for his maiden he killed ten of us every week - just to warn us. The young lady can also come to take everything by force. The alternative: She'll try to keep her father away. If she isn't able to it won't be worse than if she doesn't try." "Nevertheless I'm not feeling well with the idea. She likes too much wearing her silver-belt and every time she wears it some people die." Maria, who celebrated her eighth birthday in these days, was prepared for school. Normally at Santa Catalina, the best school for girls widely known, girls were only accepted from an age of nine on, but Maria's parents were sure that she would pass it. "You must pay attention to keep your powers a secret" the mother said. Maria had to learn how to play badminton with a racket made of wood without crushing it and to serve so lightly that a normal person could see the ball. This was a much more difficult exercise than everything she had done so far. Apart of this she had to go through the low doors of the upper rooms in the water castle. These were only 5 1/2 feet high. Maria who was already six feet three tall had to bow down - not if it had been dangerous for her to chock but it was as if a normal person should avoid to tear down very thin paper while going through it. When Maria ran into the doorframe it tore as if it didn't exist. She had to pay much attention which was difficult though her super-senses. Her birthday present was a language-band, a chain with a stone which reported as soon as she heard a word the language into her brain. She had already considered it easy to understand much after just some sentences but now she was able to understand all languages and dialects from the first word on. As she had to work hard during the day she enjoyed the more the nights. So she sometimes didn't pay attention whether her parents were already asleep when she flew away. She enjoyed it to fly immense distances in seconds. From day to day she spat fire just for fun more often. When she came to a military fort at the edge of the desert which was opposite her parents' ranch she couldn't resist the temptation. With her x-ray-vision she saw so many of these weapons of which the bullets did feel so softly! She flew down, made herself visible and moved the door lightly - carefully not to take it from its angles. "Who there?" the watchman shouted and shot. The first bullet bounced back from her shoulder and slammed into the wood of the fence. The watchman shot another time and this time the ricochet got him, but not deadly. He alarmed his comrades. Maria tore the gate from its angles and got in. Within seconds the soldiers were on their places with their weapons. She enjoyed the permanent fire like a warm rain. For ten minutes bullets were streaming onto her body and bouncing off again without a break. Ten soldiers died by the ricochets while Maria was just standing without any motion. Then she released her heat-vision once, twice and killed two soldiers instantly. Suddenly she was hearing a silent voice: "What are you doing here?" Barin had had an argument with his sister. "It is a madness what you're about to do" Atushel had warned him. Brother and sister had seen their friend accidentally just a few miles away and had gone after her - if you can say this as they didn't get as far in an hour as Maria in a second. Atushel wanted to turn when she saw the fight start five miles away. "We won't catch her and if we do she'll kill us! Tejusha is right, she's dangerous." "Let me go! I've made her belt, it's my fault! I've got to make it good again." - "You're crazy. She'll kill you before you've said a word!" - "It must be" he didn't accept any contradiction and started to fly. In the minute it took him to make five miles Maria had killed some human beings. What would she do to him? He was getting afraid. He knew that a light motion this girl made would be much more than enough to kill him. He could see exactly how effortlessly she could kill a man and how futile their intents to hurt her were. In fact her reaction on his words was a spit of fire - he was too afraid to look whether it came from her eyes or her mouth. He could dodge out this time but he knew only too well she was much faster than him. So he breathed up when the fire suddenly ended. Then the unexpected thing happened: She cried. "What have I done? I've killed innocent people!" she accused herself. He flew next to her to comfort her. Bullets bounced from his coat until she, frightened the bullets could get his uncovered flesh, brought her body between the bullets and his. A moment later she took him and started to fly away. He had never been on way nearly as fast but suddenly his carrier stopped. "What shall I do now?", she gasped. "Either I'll kill all of them or my secret will get known." "We could manipulate their memories" Barin answered. Maria's face got brighter: "Really?" - "Yes, but for this I'd have to get back to our cave. It would take an hour and until then they'll have said it many people." "Come! I can be at the cave in a second!" Maria said and flew without asking to the dwarves' cave. In fact Barin came out soon with some others. They all grabbed Maria who flew them to the fort where they manipulated the soldiers' brains and rebuilt the destroyed door. Maria helped them tearing down some trees and the branches away and burning the dead bodies with her fire-breath. "You were right, great wise man! She's dangerous!" Barin said to Tejusha. Even Atushel wasn't defending Maria any more. Would she cause some day a massacre at the dwarves'. Some days later the stone laying in front of the caves was moved away. The landlord came: "Now, are you going to speak? Who of you has got power-belts? What have you done with my daughter?" The first dwarves he was asking didn't know anything. Tejusha hid, though knowing the landlord could see him everywhere. This, however, spat fire on ten dwarves killing them in an instant. "Until tomorrow you'll say it or I'll kill all of you" he threatened. The erschrocken Tejusha went to Atushel: "Fly to the young lady! I'll say you when there's nothing to see. You'll get one of the best invisibility-rings I've got. Don't make yourself visible before you're standing in front of her and beg her to come here!" Atushel was afraid but she obeyed. Seeing Maria she flew into her braces. "Tejusha wants to talk to you! Quickly, it's about out lives!" Maria made herself invisible, took Atushel with her in her braces and flew the giant bow in few seconds. Tejusha was already waiting behind the stone. "Young lady, I beg your help!", he said. "Take that!" He handed her out a transparent pearl-chain. "Your father is going to kill all of us!" Maria got shocked. "Can I avoid that?" "If anybody, it's you" the wizard answered. "This chain gives you the ability to read and manipulate minds." "Great" Maria answered joyfully. "You must make your father not do this! We're too weak. If we are wearing this chain we won't make it into his brain. You've been the only person so far whose minds he couldn't read or change with a similar chain." "And what shall I ... " "He has already tried some times to make you tell him everything you know about us but you've blocked. Probably he will block, too, when you attack his mind while he's planning his attack. That's why something is important: Do it while he isn't thinking about it! His only mistake so far has been that he doesn't know people's mind resistance is at the lowest level while they don't think about what you want to know. - Be careful, our lives depend on you! Maria got frightened of her new responsibility but at the same time she liked the new power. Again and again she got into her father's brain. She wasn't able to wash his brain completely but after some time she had managed to make him not think about the dwarves any more. The more the parents were thinking about how to make their daughter ready for school. To learn how to get around among people, not the acquisition tests which were, compared to the tests Lola gave her, were prettily easy, could be a problem. Maria however made great progress and managed it from time to time to play a whole set with a normal badminton racket but no later than in the second set it broke. It was important for the parents, too, to explain her how to treat other children. "You've got to remember always: The lightest touch can kill another children" the mother told her again and again. Maria had to practice every day to keep her force on a low level. She had to take cups made out of thin china clay in her hands or to touch and move boards which only consisted of thin fabric without destroying it. The first day she destroyed at least five of them but after some days concentration and super-senses enabled the girl to do it. In the end of February the great day came. Maria should come to the test where she would be tested. The boarding school was 1,000 miles away and the parents insisted in only flying the first half. Then they wanted to go by horse-wagon not to move people's attention. The slow ride was getting on Maria's nerves. The wagon only did about 20 miles a day and Maria meant she was seeing the same landscape the whole journey although it was changing between plain, woods and jungle. She took on her mind-reading chain and read the driver's, the crossing people's and sometimes also her parents' minds. By that she avoided that her mother could think too exactly about the function of this chain (Remember her mother could see through her dress, too) or look through Maria's luggage. At last they arrived and the leading nun greeted them. She reached to Maria's breast or to her parents' belly. Maria was led into a room where they set her the acquisition test. She had two hours to do it but was already ready after 20 minutes. The nun refused to accept the paper. It would have been easy to manipulate her mind to allow it but how should she explain her parents that she had left so soon? So she remained on her place and used her x-ray-vision to watch the rooms of the boarding school through the walls. There were some pretty halls but the bedrooms were more than spartanic. Eight or ten girls had to lay in one room on bare planks. For Maria who had two halls and four smaller rooms in her parents' palace to her disposal that was a great cut. It would be difficult, too, to hide her powers and her jewels permanently, instead of her mind-manipulation-power. After a long time Maria couldn't stand it any more. She begged to be allowed to hand her paper back and manipulated the nun's mind. She was going to be back until the official end - then her parents, who were sitting in the headmistress' room wouldn't notice it - made herself invisible and flew away. She made a map with every detail of the region around the school in her mind. In fact she was back in time. The next day the nun had corrected her test and congratulated her to be accepted with the best results. She led Maria into the dormitory she had already seen through the wall. Boredom The first days in the boarding school were for Maria a torture: A lot what the others had to learn she already knew. In addition, it was difficult for her to bridle her forces: Always and everywhere she had to pay attention: If she opened a door if it was called to the board if she had a needle or something else in the hand, above all however if another girl collided by mistake with her. She could still remember the robbers and thought that a tender girl could possibly die by a collision with her. Quite Maria soon succeeded in disappearing during the homework. Sometimes she floated in the library, sometimes down to the harbour and both was interesting. She analysed the boxes with her X-ray vision and found fine materials, gold, silver and fine woods. She saw how the goods were loaded in shops and how much money was given. Mostly she looked the activity only from the air. Only exactly twice she could not hold back her forces: Once she blew only from high spirits her fire breath on a setting off ship - a gigantic schooner of certain 1,000 metric tons, however, she burnt within seconds. Maria amused herself as the sailors tried to escape in land. She pressed two with her super-breath under water, however, as she saw the rests of burnt bodies on the wreck, she was ashamed. She wanted to kill, actually, no people, however, she could not often avoid it. To her luck she had remained invisible. The memory of some survivors manipulated them, so that some told about a flash, while others accused the devil or a demon. Another spot interfered them in a scrap. She had flown down almost to the earth to listen what the men spoke when it became violent. When one pulled a knife, it wanted to prevent, actually that the scrap degenerated and positioned itself before the potential victim. The man attacked with full strength and the knife bent in Maria's belly and she became visible, however. The men got a fright at the gigantic female being - at least, Maria a foot was bigger than biggest from them - which had appeared there suddenly from Nothing. Maria ordered them to stop. While some really fled, one reached to the weapon, faster than even Maria could react. The ball bounced off from her back and met a man critically. Maria turned round, reached for the gun and crushed it. Now everybody ran away startled and Maria noticed that they would pass on immediately what had happened. She considered what she should do: Indeed, a burst of fire would kill all men, remain unrecognised, however, hardly. She let two of the men forget the events, however, she noticed that an entire brainwashing lasted some time - too long as that none to many could disappear. Thus she made three of the men go on a boat whose hawser she tore immediately and whose oar she broke. She let the injured person and another continue their stabbing. Besides, she reached with her fingernails in the carotid arteries of the both, so that the men were dead, before the ordinal authority could come. Besides, indeed, she had become visible for a moment, however, this moment was probably shorter than a person could perceive. The boat with three other floated, in the meantime, without leader by the harbour. Maria disappeared briefly behind it and pushed it with a strong push forwards, so that it was flung from the harbour. Besides, obviously only her hand had become visible, because her remaining body remained under water. She made herself invisible fast again, flew up and the boat behind and her fire breath did the rest. Shocked about herself Maria noticed that she had enjoyed killing people. In the morning she thought whether it was good to take on her belt again but on the other side she didn't know where to hide it and the more regularly she wore it the less she was feeling power-shocks which could result worse than her last murder. Twice Maria watched her dress tear. Finally she decided to fly to the dwarves' cave during lunch-break and to ask whether the dwarves were able to make her school uniform indestructible or to construct an indestructible copy of it. The latter she got after some days; so she hadn't to be afraid that it would be torn. Did you enjoy this story? Any suggestions how it should go on? Email me: spectator2@web.de Next part: Maria is making a new friend