PROLOGUE

Sand and dust filled the air, the sun beating down on his back as the baku he rode neared the faint outline of ruins in the dunes. Guiding his baku over the sands, the outline became clear, and he realized that this would merely be the first of many expeditions. Drawing his turban tighter around his mouth to keep out the choking grit, he motioned to the moster trainers to begin setting up base camp.

Looking out over the ruins, he knew he had his work cut out for him, as he saw multiple possible sights to dig from just the top of this small dune. Who knew what was buried beneath these sands.

"Sir." One of the monster trainers rode up to the professor, "Base camp will be finished in a few hours."

"Thank you," he said looking once again to the ruins.

"Um, sir..."

Professor Arinor nodded, still looking over the vast ruin.

"Sir, no one has ever conducted an expidition of this magnitude, and for good reason." The trainer said, looking a little nervous. "We have a total of eight trainers here, with their monsters... and sir...", the trainer said nervously," Some monsters here just don't get along with the others. There may be some trouble between trainers."

Arinor looked over the trainer, before looking back out over the ruins, the sun setting in the distance. "We camp tonight, and begin the dig in the morning."

The trainer looked out at the ruins with the professor.

"You are trainers, and you're the best." Arinor said, "I expect you'll be able to control your monsters. I've a feeling the ruins hold more than enough wealth to pay you for your troubles. If not, I do, and will."

The trainer gazed thoughtfully out at the darkening horizon, the ruins stretching into the distance. "Aye sir."

*****

The rope pulled taut, and Ronarin quickly hammered in the last long peg of the tent. The black suezo, which had caught the rope in it's teeth, let loose as the peg sank deep into the desert sand.

"Thanks, Bloodshot." Ronarin said, patting the monster.

The suezo nodded, as it glanced out at the last rays of the sunset, illuminating the ruins. The sounds of other trainers, and their monsters filled the air as the rays vanished behind the dunes, and night settled on the camp.

"Listen up everyone!" The lead trainer called out, as he rode into the camp. "Professor Arinor wants to begin excavation first thing in the morning! Those of us with the stronger monsters will go first to clear out any of the major debris, while those of you with the smaller quicker monsters will do most of the actual searching. We have a month to search as much as possible, seeing as these ruins are so large, I don't expect to see more than a fourth of what's here. Be that as it may, I've been assured we will all be paid. Either with artifacts and treasure from the ruins, or from the profesor's own pocket."

The trainer dismounted, his huge green scaled golem helping him down from the baku. "The professor knows that this is the first time any large number of monster trainers have worked together on an expidition. Let's show him that he hasn't made a mistake, and work together as effeciently as possible."

Ronarin looked around again, as the trainer and his golem headed towards their tent. He hoped his father knew what he was doing. They'd be lucky if things ran smoothly the whole month. Most of it depended on how much was treasure was found, and how fast they found it.

Conversation picked up, as trainers and their monster prepared for dinner.

"Let's go check on the baku one more time, Bloodshot."

The suezo sighed, his huge mouth frowning a little at the thought of delaying dinner, then moved after his trainer.

*****

"Professor! We've uncovered a doorway!"

The huge scaled golem pushed the last of the sand out of the way, as Arinor made his way into the pit, and to the huge dark doorway. Pulling out a thick brush from his jacket, he began to brush at some of the faint markings along the frame of the door.

"Is it a temple sir?" A note of excitement creeping into the trainers tone. So far the explorers had uncovered three temples, all of which had housed abundant ammounts of gold, as well as some disc stones, disc chips, and various artifacts. Even though the month was nearing it's end, there was more than enough uncovered for the trainers to cooperate, even with their greatest rivals.

Crouching a bit closer to examine the markings, Arinor motioned for the man to call a searcher. "This isn't a temple," he muttered, as the trainer and his golem climbed to the top of the pit and called for a searcher, " more like a court or hall of judgement." he said, concentrating on the glyphs.

"Where is that searcher?"

*****

The torch illuminated little of the darkness, as Ronarin and Bloodshot made their way down the dusty hall. The dry stale odor of air trapped for centuries had assailed them upon first entering, but now was unnoticable as they mover deeper into the structure. Small beetles, and scarabs scuttled out of the light as the two moved through another arched doorway to check the contents of another room.

"Empty." Bloodshot muttered, it's huge red eye blinking against the light of the torch.

"We should head back soon," Ronarin said, sighing. This time they'ed found a few stone tablets with faded writing. Much like other tablets found in the temples, but no treasures, or new artifacts.

"Let's check one last room." The suezo said as they moved back into the hall.

"Ok, but this is the last one. It's probably starting to get dark out there..." Ronarin said. It was easy to lose track of time inside these ruins. They'd already had another trainer and his Gali come looking for them in one of the other temples. That had been embarassing, mostly because he was the youngest of the trainers. More than once, the others had questioned why one as young as he had been included. Arinor's son or not they felt he was too young. It wasn't far before the hallway ended with another arched doorway.

"Well, let's hope for the best..."

Walking into the room, the light from the torch barely lit what appeared to be an almost cavernous room. Holding the torch higher, it caught the refelction of amber above the door, and suddenly the glow spread along the walls to bathe the huge chamber in a deep yellow gold. Debris littered the almost empty room, at the far end was some type of throne, and leaning against the throne, a golden scepter with some type of red stone atop it.

"Hmmmm," Ronarin said moving into the room towards the dias, kicking through the debris.

"Wait!" Bloodshot gasped, his huge red eye studying the debris closer. "Ronarin! These are lost disks!"

Looking closer, Ronarin realized the suezo was right. There had to be thousands of lost disks littering the floor of the cavernous room. A chill ran up his spine as he realized that he had been carelessly about to tromp through what appeared to be a mass grave.

"We should gather some of these up, and take them to dad." Ronarin said shivering a little.

Bloodshot shuddered.

"I'm not touching them.", he said, crouching back into the door, and slowly moving into the hall.

"You don't have to, now get back in here." Ronarin growled," I can gather up some of these, you float over and get that scepter."

Grimicing, Bloodshot floated back into the room, the golden glow reflecting off his huge eye for a moment, he sighed, and floated out across the room towards the throne.

Ronarin, leaning down, began to carefully pick up some of the lost disks. Brushing dust off of the first one, he found he couldn't identify the markings. Shrugging, he put it into his pack and picked up another. It was the same as the first. Still unable to identify it, he stowed it, and continued gathering the lost disks.

As Bloodshot neared the throne, his discomfort was obvious. Grimacing he leaned over to take up the scepter in his mouth, as he did, he found sitting in the throne a clear amber disc, on top of what seemed to be an intact disc stone.

"Ronarin, come over here...", He mummbled loudly around the scepter in his mouth.

Ronarin stood up, having collected about 10 of the lost discs, "What's wrong?" He asked, reluctant to walk through the piles of lost discs.

"I found an intact disc stone..." The suezo said as it floated back towards the middle of the room, "but you need to come get it, I can't pick it up."

Sighing, Ronarin made his way through the chamber. Even doing his best to avoid and gently push aside the lost discs, some crumbled to dust under his feet. Finally getting to the throne, he reached down and lifted the clear amber disc. The light from his torch caught it, and it glowed faintly.

"Hmmmmm," he muttered, the disc appeared to be gently curved. Lifting it closer to the torch, it caught the light, and briefly flared. A soft beam of light shot out of the lens to play harmlessly across the walls of the chamber.

"Looks like it's a lens of some sort," he said turning to put the amber lens in his pack. As he did so, the torch flickered, and a beam from the lens flashed towards the suezo.

Bloodshot let out a howl, as the beam caught him in the eye. The scepter crashed to the floor, the howl and the crash echoing loudly through the chamber. Quickly stowing the lens, Ronarin hurried to the suezo's side.

"I'm sorry Bloodshot, are you ok?" He said, wiping away one of the huge tears that had formed in his eye.

"Fine." He mumbled, wincing "just blinded for a moment."

Sheepishly mumbling an apology, Ronarin picked up the scepter, and the intact disc stone. "Let's get back, so you can rest." He said, patting the suezo.

Nodding, Bloodshot floated with his trainer back towards the doorway. As they got halfway through the room, Ronarin stopped, and kneeling down to bring the torch closer to the ground, let out an exclamation of surprise.

"Look at this, Bloodshot, another intact disc stone. I wonder why these two survived whatever happened, and if there are any others." Picking it up and putting it in his pack. He stood up just in time to fall back to his knees as the entire room began to rumble and shake.

"What the?!!" Ronarin exclaimed as he tried to stand back up, "Let's get out of here!" He yelled. Dust and sand fell from the ceiling as they moved as fast as they could.

Bloodshot turned around as he got to the portal, in time to see dirt and sand erupt from the ground near the throne. With one great heave, the dirt pushed up, the movement knocking Ronarin to the ground. Behind Ronarin, a giagantic beetle with one huge horn on it's chitonous head, crawled up into the room chittering.

"Ronarin!" Bloodshot yelled, as the beetle, sensing movement, moved towards his trainer. Howling in rage Bloodshot soared at the beetle, whipping around to slap it with his tail. Distracted, the beetle swung it's ponderous horn at Bloodshot. Dodging under the horn, Bloodshot bit at one of it's legs. The beetle chittered in a high pitched squeal, and swung it's horn back and forth in defense, as it backed away.

Ronarin scrambled to the door, and turned under the arch. "Bloodshot!" He yelled, "Come on!!"

The suezo flew back towards the door, but turned as he heard the beetle begin to scuttle back towards them.

"Get out of hear Ronarin!! I'll take care of this thing." He shouted, his eye narrowing in concentration. Energy crackled and shot from the suezo to grab hold of the beetle, and fling it against the far wall. The whole room shook, as dust and sand began to pour down around them.

"Bloodshot!!" Ronarin yelled, choking on the sand, and backing out of the room. The whole hallway shook and cracks began to run along it's length. Unable to do anything, Ronarin stumbled and ran as sand poured into the hall behind him.

A wave of sand filled the structure, chasing Ronarin as he raced down the halls. Seeing a faint light ahead, Ronarin stumbled and tripped through the entrance and into the open, as his legs were covered in a huge cloud of sand and dust.

"Bloodshot..." Ronarin gasped, coughing and choking. Hands gently grabbed hold of the boy and turned him over, and the last thing he saw was his father's face as the darkness closed over him.