David was walking along in the woods behind his house, sulking.
He was just at home, sitting at the kitchen table, doing his homework, when his brother Wes, and his friends Mark and Josh came home, went downstairs and started lifting weights. He snuck downstairs after them, stealing glances as they took off their shirts and started working out. He was envious of them, sure, but couldn't help but be turned on by their muscled bodies, and loved to watch them sweat, Mark especially.
As Mark finished with a set, he sat up and noticed David staring at him, and started laughing. Wes and Josh then noticed him, and started laughing too. "What's the mater, Tiny", Wes mocked David, "wish you could lift with the big boys?"
David hated when his brother called him 'Tiny.' He was rather tall for his age, already 5'10", but he was part of a freakishly tall family, so that didn't help much. Wes was 6'4", their dad, Doug, was 6'6", and even their mom, Gena, stood in at an impressive 6'1". He didn't have much muscle, yet, but every day after Wes and his friends would finish, David would sneak in and try lifting too. He never got anywhere close to the level they were lifting at, and he worried that he never would be able to catch up with them.
So this afternoon, David didn't want to face their laughing faces. Embarrassed, he ran upstairs, grabbed his red windbreaker, and stormed out of the house, slamming the door shut behind him. He would always go to the woods whenever he wanted to be by himself and clear his mind, and that's where he found himself now.
"I hate my life," he muttered to himself. He was holding back tears as he hiked along, and the brisk October wind was stinging his already red cheeks. "Why do they have to be so mean?" He wondered. "Just because they're older and bigger. I wish there was some way to change that."
Suddenly, David's feet got caught up in a gnarled branch in his path, and he tripped and fell face down to the ground. Frustrated, he let out a yell of pain and anger and pounded the ground with his fists.
After sobbing for a few seconds, David then sat up, noticing that he had torn a hole in the knee of his jeans. "Dammit!" he said, "These were my best pair, too!" He checked his knee to see if he was bleeding, and luckily he was not.
Then a glimpse of light caught his eye, and he turned to the side to see what it was. Buried halfway in the mud was some kind of pendant. He brushed it off and picked it up. It was about the size of a silver dollar, and, though it was coated in dirt, he could see that it was made out of some kind of hard white substance, possibly ivory or an animal's horn. David could also make out some kind of writing on one side, but it was obscured by the muck. He shrugged, and put the pendant in his pocket; maybe it was worth something. "Who knows," he said to himself, "it might even be my lucky charm."
Feeling slightly better, David brushed himself off and stood up. It was starting to get dark, so he decided to head back to his house, before he got lost. When he returned, Wes and his friends had left, so David decided to head upstairs and take a shower. As he cleaned the grime and sweat off of his body, the steam cleared his head, and he started to feel better about himself and the day.
After he was finished, he towelled himself dry, and then put his jeans back on. He reached into his pocket, and fingered the pendant he had found. Curious to see if he could read what was written on it, he brought it to the sink and washed it clean. He then brought the pendant close to his eye, but the markings did not look at all familliar to him.
Then, all of the sudden, the pendant began to glow a bright, brillant white. David almost dropped it out of shock, but kept a grip on it. He shielded his eyes, and watched in amazement as the squiggles that were on the pendant reshaped themselves to form words. After a few seconds, the pendant stopped glowing, and David brought it up closer to his eyes to inspect it. This time, he could read the inscription perfectly: "Whoever wears this pendant posesses the perfect power given from the depths of the earth. Whatever he wishes, when he speaks, that will become."
David's jaw hung open. He didn't know what was more amazing; what the pendant said or the way it suddenly changed to say it. He stared at it for a solid minute, trying to comprehend what it said, and secretly hoping something else would happen with the pendant to clarify the situation. But nothing happened.
David thought about what he wanted to do now. He had to show this to somebody. Two phone calls and twenty minutes later, Sam and Paul, David's two best friends, had arrived and come up to David's room, since he refused to move.
"Hey, David," Paul asked, "Why are you sitting in your bedroom?"
"Yeah," Sam said, "What's so urgent that you couldn't tell us over the phone?"
"This," David answered. He pulled the pendant out from his pocket again, and showed it to Sam and Paul. "I found it in the woods this afternoon."
Paul and Sam read the inscription. "...The perfect power?" Sam said. "This is a joke, right?"
"No! When I found it," David said, "that writing was in some other language. It changed to English when I cleaned it off, and glowed white, and everything!"
Paul scoffed. "Yeah, right."
"I swear, man," David said. "I know what I saw."
"Okay," Sam said, "Prove it!"
"How?" David asked.
"It says you can make a wish, or something," Sam said "Try it out."
"Well," David said, "I have to be wearing it. I don't really know how to do that."
"What about that chain necklace you got for Christmas last year?" Paul asked. "Can't you put it on that."
"Maybe," David said. He got up and went over to his dresser, and pulled out a box. In it was a chain necklace, a gift from an eccentric uncle who thought he was hip, but just didn't share David's sense of taste. David took the necklace out of the box, and held it up to the pendant. "But how do I attach it? There's no hole in the pendant or..."
Suddenly, the pendant began to glow white again. Sam and Paul turned their eyes away, and when the glowing stopped, the pendant was attached to the necklace.
"Whoa!" Sam said. "How'd ya do that?!"
"I'm telling you, guys," David said, "This thing is magic!"
"Well, put it on!" Paul said, "Try it out!"
David wrapped the necklace around his neck, and clasped it in the back. It fit perfectly, just the tightest bit snug. "Now what?" he said.
"I dunno," Sam shrugged. "Wish for something."
David thought for a moment. He didn't want to begin too big, so he had to wish for something small, but what would it be?
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