A Weekend at the Mountains

The weather was perfect. The sun was bright in the sky, heating the kids and the vast green fields of the mountains. They immediately saw a crystalline lake and thought all the fun times they could have there.

The hotel where they would be staying was also great. A big wooden construction surrounded by trees.

As soon as they left the bus, the teachers lost control of the kids as they ran to explore even before being assigned rooms, but Kazen didn’t care, he needed to think about his life. Fulgor and Iky were climbing trees when the teacher appeared behind grabbing him by the shirt.

“Not again!” Shouted Fulgor, but Kazen took him to the ground and pressed him on a tree.

“What are you going to do with your future?” Asked Kazen serious.

“What? What are you talking about.”

“Where are you going after school? I need to know.”

“Why? You are so weird. I don’t know yet, there are so many possibilities.”

“But what about now, you have adventures, powers and good friends, are you not happy here?”

Fulgor was getting annoyed and summoned a spark on Kazen’s arm that made him drop the boy by instinct.

“Haven’t we already had this conversation? Of course I’m happy here, but I also don’t want to be stuck in high school forever like someone I know.”

The boy noticed sadness in Kazen’s face, a feeling that was not common to the man.

“I have decided. I will be a teacher.”

“Aren’t you already a teacher?”

“No! Not a classroom teacher, a teacher about the world, life and powers. There are a lot of kids like you that need help to keep going, and that is what I’m going to do.”

“Whatever, just let me go.” Said Fulgor wanting to return to play with his friends.

Kazen opened a smile to Fulgor.

“You are not understanding, I’ve decided I will teach you guys the third release.”

After that Fulgor joined his friends telling them the news. Finally the teacher got all the kids reunited to enter the building.

People working in the hotel distributed keys to the rooms and asked everybody to wait at the entrance. The owner had some words to share.

Soon they saw a 3 meters long snake, thick and with purple scales slithering with a man by its side. He was 40 year old, with long purple hair, he had kind of a menacing aura, but his smile and apron were tender.

“Hello and welcome to everyone! This hotel is my dream come true, a lovely place hidden in the mountains. I hope everyone has a great time here and respects this place like your own house. We have a lot of activities for you here, so just go to your rooms to leave your luggage and the fun can begin. Ah, by the way, I’m the owner, my name is Salazar, nice to meet you all.”

This name seemed familiar to the kids, but they barely paid any attention to Kazen so they didn’t remember the details. The man, however, felt all his muscles tense as he saw his biggest enemy right in front of him.

He thought about his decision to stop pursuing his old adventures, but that felt right, his last fight like that, to finally finish off his biggest enemy.

“You!” Said Kazen pointing his fingers and transforming in his third release.

“Oh no.”

Salazar realized who he was and showed fear in his eyes. Kazen jumped to him, who also transformed. The snake disappeared and scales sprouted from his boy, with purple marks appearing in his body.

He held Kazen’s punch, but the flames were spreading to the floor and wall.

“My hotel! No! Of course you would come here and destroy everything!”

“What? You are the villain. You did experiments on children!”

“Could we please talk about that outside! This place was very expensive.”

Kazen noticed the truth in his words. Salazar, a man who once inspired fear on him now looked like an innocent civilian.

When the struggle was over they all put out the fire and Kazen and Salazar went outside while the kids were going to their rooms. Even if Salazar did not appear dangerous, Kazen did not drop his guard, ready to fight at any moment.

“Tell me what your evil plan is this time.”

“I don’t have an evil plan, I just have my hotel!”

“You expect me to believe you? You are the strongest enemy I have ever faced, we never even defeated you.”

“What? Of course you did. You banished me to the Dark Dimension for four years! Which I accepted I deserved, I was injecting chemicals in children after all, but I changed! I can’t take over the world with someone as strong as you in my way, so I followed my second dream.”

Kazen stared confused at the man, like the words weren’t making any sense.

“Your dream was opening a hotel?”

“Yes, a way less dangerous business.”

“I always thought you would return to fight me, and I feared your powers…”

“And I feared yours, I never expected you to find me here. What are you doing here with this school by the way?”

Kazen told his old plan, making Salazar laugh. The man looked so innocent; Kazen could not believe he considered him his nemesis.

“But I gave up that plan, now I just want to be their teacher, to help them in life and teach how to deal with villains, like crazy men injecting them with chemicals.

“Fair enough. Good luck with that.”

The class teacher approached the duo showing a seriously angry face.

“Nice dream, but you are going to do that in another school.” Said she furious.

“Why?”

“You just attacked the owner of the hotel our school has a contract with, and burned the place we are going to stay. After this trip you should start looking for a new job.”

She left, leaving Salazar to comfort Kazen, that lost his objective as soon as he discovered it.