DRAGON OF FIRE, MAIDEN OF WATER (working title)

(an original fantasy story by Nadya Neklioudova aka Angel Mercury. This chapter written on June 21, 1999)

Chapter 2 - Meetings and Tears

Ryu stood in the fire alone, eyes closed. His face, a mask of indifferent, emotionless steel, was perfectly still. Usually the playful flames made his amber eyes glow and his mouth curl up in an eerie smile, letting his dragon memories burn anew. Today he made no effort to keep up the feline fire devouring the city - he could feel the coming of the storm.

And surely, a stormcloud's dark wings spread over the horizon, wind blowing from under them. The wind forced the wisps of magical fire off the city's marble walls, leaving only the natural fire to rage. The sparks spiraled away in the sky, hissing their last curses at the wind before dying. The wind did not care - the dragon of wind was not reborn, so breezes and hurricanes wandered the sky aimlessly of their own accord. And neither did Ryu, for he knew that in this world, everything was reborn, and so would the flames be. All in its own time.

Right now, it was time for the rain.

The rain had already reached Namida, as she lay on her bed in her lonely room, watching with tired eyes the endless raindrops slide helplessly down the window, frozen at times by the mystic lightning. Helpless, just as herself. Mesmerized, she continued to watch endless souls of water fall past her gaze and down to the soaked earth, cleansing and renewing it.

She had heard the leged of the rain being the tears of the sky. Tears, just like her name... Namida. She felt a kinship with the rain. When she cried, the sky cried with her. But never for her.

The rain softened its incessant pounding now, and though it still persisted, its voice turned into a gentle whisper. While thunderstorms sent turmoil and fear into the hearts of others, instead they spoke to Namida, calming her young soul with everlasting stories she still liked to hear.

This time, the rain spoke of dragons, as a light breath of wind blew out the only flame of a candle in her room, leaving her alone with the rain. But she was used to being alone by now. The rain was perfect company.

Namida noticed the candle's death. But she knew that like everything else, it would be reborn. The rebirth of fire... dragons dancing in the midday mist... The heartbeat of the rain.

She wondered vaguely who the sky was crying for tonight.

The flames resisted the first soft drops of the rain, devouring them with a hiss of smoke. Ryu smiled lightly at his creations, watching how they tried to withstand the rain. It was futile, he knew. But he also knew that even if his fire gives up and dies, he will not. He will survive through the ages. He is a dragon. Always has been, always will be. This was only his first reincarnation.

He watched as the rain intensified, beating down his raging fire, as he stood, saying nothing. Silence was a virtue for a dragon. For humans as well, he smirked - they talk too much.

The smoke from the flames merged with the dark stormcloud, as raindrops came, carrying down breaths of fresh air and cold tears to the scarred land, killing the flames. Ryu closed his eyes to the whispering cries of his fires, unable to watch. He hated the rain - it was the only thing stronger than flame.

Soon Ryu was left alone to stand in a dead city, the heartbeat of the rain flooding life back into the barren, scorched earth. That was always the way. Death, then life again.

His fiery hair and clothes were soaked and cooled by the gentle rain. It whispered soft, yet steady reprimands to him, but he brushed them away, pushing stray strands of wet hair away from his face. He would not yield to the water, which tried to cool his burning heart. Nothing could cool the heart of a dragon, he knew with confidence.

The rain poured from the sky, crying for the ruined earth, comforting it. Ryu stood completely alone in the torrent, soaked, yet unaffected. Shapeless ghosts of smoke still rose from the ashes to the sky. In it, he could see faces - scared, burnt, angry faces, but faces hopeful of rebirth. His eyes followed them to the clouds, then let them go. They could not harm him anymore. He could not keep anything from reincarnation, nor would he - he was not as controlling to deny someone eternity while he could enjoy it fully. An empty world could depress even cheerful fire.

It was time to move. Neither the smoke ghosts nor the rain welcomed him, the city was no longer his. But even though the rain forced him out, he would return. Nothing, nowhere was forbidden for a dragon.

Ryu left the city with long, sure strides in the thunderstorm. The soaked state of his clothing did not impede him - he always told himself that nothing could stand in the way of a dragon, and he believed it. The stormclouds watched him go, sending powerless lightning after him, but it died before reaching its target, and was immediately reborn in the high clouds.

However, quickly Ryu realized that he had nowhere to go. The rain poured down in torrents, angrily soaking him to the bone, or so it felt like. If he was still a dragon, he would not care - but his human incarnation was worn out. He hated times like this - if only he was still a dragon, he kept saying. But he was a mere human now, and dragons were long gone. Somewhere, hate it though he might, but the line between dragon memories and human reality had to be drawn.

The dragon trapped in a human body wearily made his way to the outskirts of the dead city, away from the ghosts of rain and smoke. He would not admit defeat - but why admit defeat? This was simply a rest needed - and needed badly - by his forgotten human body. He would never admit defeat until his wild dragon soul extinguished its last flame - but that would never happen.

Ryu stumbled and fell to his knees, hating his own temporary weakness. He sat against the city's stone wall, slightly shielded from the onslaught of the hurricane storm. He had no fear for himself - no one would come to search, or much less try to stand against a dragon, in a ruined city. He may not be able to start a fire with his thoughts in this weather, but his claw-sword was still with him. No one would hurt him, no one would dare to hurt him, no one. He is stronger now. He would not let himself be hurt.

What was he thinking? Dragons had no fear.

But even dragons needed a rest.

And so Ryu sat against the wall of a barren city, alone in the thundering night. Despite the storm, his dragon soul watched pathetically how his human head slowly slumped forward, his eyes closed, wet hair dripping into his face. Unaffected and confident, though raindrops ran down his face like tears, Ryu indulged himself with dreams of lost true flight, waiting for the storm to die.

Namida was walking on the misty, lonely beach of her vision again. The midday sun was not reaching down with its hot rays, nor did it clear the morning fog away. The sand was still cool, and soft with sea water, holding onto her sinking bare feet. This young world did not seem to like being disturbed. The endless waves of a forgotten ocean flowed and ebbed... like the slowed rainy heartbeat of the outside reality, whispering, calling to her.

She did not heed the waves. Instead she was walking again along the shore of the dream, stepping into already created footsteps in the sand that, she realized, were her own. Her eyes took in every detail of the dream, as if she was awake, but eerily, she was unable to control her body. Curiously, she watched herself walk through a dream she had already been in before. She remembered vaguely, like from another life - the life of a child - old Amari telling her of dream worlds. It seemed so long ago. The old witch's voice rang through her memory. "Dream worlds don't exist, but they do. If you return to a dream that remembers you..." Amari's voice faded away, Namida grasping at its fading strands. 'If you return to a dream that remembers you...?' Strangely, this confusion prompted absolutely no reaction from her walking body.

She saw creatures in the sky, but she was unable to get a better look at them again because her dream body kept staring down at the footsteps on the sand before her. Finally she reached a point where the sand jutted out into the ocean, and finally looked up.

Above her in the sky, dragons were dancing in front of the bleak sun, gliding far above and swooping low to the ground through the midday mist. Namida watched this dance, mesmerized by the design the dragons were weaving in this world that was not reborn yet.

He was young again, and so was the world. The world was still shrouded in mist to the sun that did not learn how to truly shine yet.

With his older brothers and sisters, he was again learning the Dance of Life's Morning. His siblings became the air, water and earth, letting him have the role of the fire, the Fire that Names. He received his name today - Hinoryu, simply yet appropriately, Firedragon - and his role was to dance through the air until he named some other new soul, his brothers and sisters then weaving his word into the Design of Eternity that hung invisible in the air between ocean and land.

The steps were hard, but his siblings urged him to keep on trying. They told him to assume his role, to become the fire. Wondering how to do that, Hinoryu sighed and released his hot breath, curiously watching it fade away in the cool mist. Then he understood.

He dove low into the air, then flew up, higher than any of his siblings before, fitting into the Dance. He closed his eyes, following the steps of the Dance through the eyes of his heart that just learned its name. Soon, he believed that he was the fire, is the fire, always will be the fire... Fire that Creates, Fire that Warms, Fire that Names, Fire that is Reborn. With closed eyes, he reaized that he knew the Dance now. He also realized that time was passing by him, and he'd been flying in the air for half of the day. He knew it was his turn to name another new soul before the sun sets.

Slowly, nervously opening his eyes, he noticed something on the shore below him. It was looking at him, he knew. Perhaps, that's what he had to name.

Curiously, Hinoryu swooped down to get a closer look. He did not know what the creature was, but it had beautiful eyes, like pieces of the sea. They gazed at each other, mesmerized, and Hinoryu felt a word burning inside him. He realized, this will be the creature's name, unchangeable for eternity. The young dragon wondered how the name he will give the creature will shape its life. And with one hot breath, he let the new word out...

'Nozomi'.

The word warmed her face and her soul, though her mind was frantically trying to push it away.

Though Namida was not afraid of the dragon, she cringed in surprise at the word he said, though her body did not move a single muscle of her face. Again, the name... her name, her burnt name was reborn. She could not run away from it, only toward it... even in dreams, it would not let go.

Namida wanted to cry the name away, but her face smiled on its own instead. Finally, she closed her eyes, trying to shut the name out.

When she opened them, she was back in reality again, welcome tears on her face, mirroring those still falling outside. She made no move to wipe them away - they would just come back again. Instead, she simply lay on her bed, staring blankly at the storm outside, keeping herself away from the worlds of sleep. Sleep had only one world for her now, one she kept coming back to again and again, and always returning in tears. Her childhood name was like a past life cut short that would not let go.

She now knew - she had to face the fiery dragon, despite her fear of him. They met in a dream, and he cursed her since the morning of the world with a word connected with memories that he caused, that she could never forget - but perhaps he who named her would take that name back, perhaps he could erase her memory of her burnt childhood. Perhaps the dragon who caused her tears would burn her tears away so they will never return.

Please, Namida pleaded, please...

No one but the rain was there to hear her.