DRAGON OF FIRE, MAIDEN OF WATER (working title)
(an original fantasy story by Angel Mercury. Begun on June 2, 1999)
CHAPTER 5 - Connections
(This is ONLY A ROUGH DRAFT. I may edit this without warning)
Ryu's gesture of kindness caught Nozomi by surprise. She had become so absorbed in trying to make sense of the storm of emotions she was feeling, that even if Ryu had decided to kill her then, she would not have felt the touch of cold, death-bringing steel. But somehow, simply the brief, somewhat awkward touch of Ryu's hand upon her face was what brought her back to reality.
Always being rather withdrawn, Nozomi, however, was never at a loss for words - even if she only thought them to herself, not voicing them openly. For years until now, she had not been in such an overwhelming situation that seemingly took away her gift of speech.
'Why is he doing this? To confuse me?' she tried to think. 'Or... does he himself have a clear idea at all?'
"Why are you crying?" Ryu asked, withdrawing his hand from Nozomi's face.
How was she supposed to answer to this? Nozomi had no idea.
"Your name means hope..." the dragon spoke.
"Your name means wind." Kaze heard his teacher's voice in the mystical darkness of the tower-room. "That is your truth, and your truth only."
"My truth?" the young man was rather baffled by this mysteriousness.
"What do you think of when you hear the wind?"
Kaze paused to think. He was used to his teacher being clear, quick and to the point, just like the cold steel that he taught Kaze how to handle. The student based his actions on his master's, looking up to him as he would to a father... though he had never known his human father. As for his resurfacing dragon memories.. his father was the wind itself.
"I think about... free flight. The evening breeze... Thunderstorms, tornadoes. And...the past. My father."
"Good. That means your dragon memories are coming back quickly. Now you just have to sort them out without getting the threads of your memory into knots." His teacher said. "You saw the threads?"
Kaze remembered the landscape of the other side of reality. The threaded outlines of dreams... something not seen with the eyes, but with the soul. To break the barrier between the realities, one had to be ready to accept different truths. The world of dreams was, in essence, a different truth in itself, its fragments linked to this tangible side of reality by the threads of everyone's memories.
"Yes... I saw them. You knew I was a dragon?"
"Hope...that is your personal truth. You were born to hope.. and to inspire hope. Not to cry..." Ryu spoke quietly, astonished at hearing his own voice. He knew that he could not kill this girl, never. 'She must have come here of her own accord after all... she could not be so innocent if she was sent to me on purpose by someone.'
Nozomi timidly, yet with growing courage, raised her eyes to meet Ryu's. The storm was calming now, her thoughts were no longer racing through tears. She saw in the dragon man's eyes that his caring gesture surprised even him... The fire in his piercing eyes was not full of blind rage anymore, it was not pushing her away as much; instead it was burning calmer, almost warmer - yet she sensed he was still uncertain. 'About what? About me?'
"Why... why did you name me Nozomi... Hope?" she wondered aloud.
"The Dream Threads... they connected us for a moment then. I knew your true name before... before you did." He answered vaguely.
"Dream Threads?" Nozomi had heard something about them from Amari, the old witch of the island, but she did not fully understand what they were. Amari spoke vaguely of connected memories and realities... nothing more. "A-And please.. sit down." She realized first that sitting on the ground, looking up at Ryu towering above her was a rather awkward pose for a conversation. Ryu had also not moved for the past few minutes. 'It's like he's made of steel... a warrior always ready for battle. But I'm not his enemy... I don't hate him...'
Ryu immediately felt uncomfortable at her request. Being a dragon and a warrior, he never let his guard down so easily. His mind was still running on a well-trodden road of calculations and analyzing the opponent - things he alone trained himself to do, convincing himself that he would never steer off that course. He had not thought that one day, he would not need to push others away... his way was that of a lone dragon, breathing the fire of terror into the very souls of people. He could not change the direction of his mind immediately to embrace the alien concept. Instead, he finally moved - but only to lean against the side of the boat, hand instinctively ready on the hilt of his claw-sword. Not realizing that by human standards, he was not being too polite, he simply went on to answer the young woman's question. Being a dragon and well-versed in mysticism, he knew the Dream world better than he knew the Tangible world:
"Dream Threads connect our souls to another side of reality..."
"...and tie together memories and lifetimes." The even voice of Kaze's teacher flowed in the green-tinted darkness of the room high up in the tower. The student listened intently, not making a single extra movement. "Remnants of our past incarnations remain in the Dream world, so we can find them in our next life. Other souls may also be connected to ours - through dreams. Even if one dies and is reborn, their threads do not break - instead, they strengthen, so that the past is never forgotten. Dragons are best at finding their way through the tangled web of the other reality... they live on the border of both worlds. Being made of both the fabric of dreams and of reality, they are forces of Nature itself. And you, Kaze, are the wind."
Meaning. The one word that shot through Kaze's thoughts like an arrow was... Meaning. A dragon reborn... That was the past, and future, of the young man standing proudly before his teacher. For an instant, he could almost feel the sweeping expanse of wings behind his back, and claws on his hands...the primeval wind rushing through his very being, carrying him through the tower's stone walls, higher into the abyss of the star-speckled heavens...
The next moment brought him to his knees, screaming in pain. Despite all his warrior's training, to his aggravation, he could not hold the instinctive expression in. The feeling was as if something within his being had been slashed, severed, torn ruthlessly away. Not from the outside, not even from the inside, but something in a dream... like the filaments that tied his existence together. However, because of his training, he did not say anything more.
His teacher first gave a start, then chose to remain calm. "Get up," was his cool command.
The young man rose up again, flinching as a ripping sensation in his back, near where wings would have been, caught him unprepared. 'What... is happening?'
"Kunshi..."* he uttered.
"Do not call me that!" the older man protested sharply. "I abandoned that name decades ago. I am simply your teacher."
"But... that is what I called you in the vision..."
"Nevermind," the teacher said. "But this... this should not have happened."
* Kunshi = in Japanese: man of virtue; person of high rank; wise man
"...I named you Hope... because that is what I saw when you looked up at me then." Ryu explained quietly, gazing high at the sun at its zenith. "What you saw was the Dance of Life's Morning. Each dragon gives a name to a creature that will... play a special role in his life. You...are who I saw."
'Why me?' Nozomi wanted to ask, but remained silent. 'Connected... to him. The dragon who destroyed my childhood... What role could I possibly play?'
The bright star of daylight rose higher in the sky, beginning to be shrouded in feather-clouds flitting quickly across its innocent face. A gentle ocean breeze flowed lightly over the charred city ruins, blowing strands of Nozomi's hair into her eyes. However, as the wind became a sudden gust, whipping Ryu's long hair around him, the dragon grew uneasy - but the wind calmed as sharply as it began. The unexpectedness of this movement in the air alerted Ryu's acute dragon senses, sending him to seek any connection, any reason for this change in the weather. Concentration was not necessary for his mind to cross the threshold of reality - he did this as easily as walking through a gate. As Nozomi looked at him in wonder, he stood - hair ruffled by the wind to resemble a lion's fiery mane, eyes closed in relaxation, though his hand still rested on the hilt of his ever-present sword.
Ryu saw the Dream World through his mind's eye, feeling the complex web of connections, links, threads that mirror and outline all existence. His vision-hand accidentally brushed by the thread which, he knew, led to Nozomi, on its way to another thread that he sought, whose sudden flash of light was fading quickly. He touched it, and understood immediately... while his attention was absorbed by the arrival of the young woman, another connection was being restored. A link he believed he had severed eons ago.
'Kaze!'
With shimmering energy, he slashed the thin thread before it could be joined by others to weave a link that would soon be more difficult to cut. Realizing that his life had just become more complicated, his consciousness leapt back to the Tangible World, where, with his human eyes, he saw a distraught Nozomi standing a few feet away.
She did not dare to speak, as Ryu's eyes finally opened. Quickly stepping back, she looked at him in fright, as if he was possessed. The claw-sword, drawn by the dragon man's sure hand, flashed in the sunlight, drawing a crescent around Ryu with lightning-speed, releasing his frustration, and disappeared back in its sheath at his side. Within a moment, all was still again, leaving a dumbfounded Nozomi standing before the dragon man.
He noticed her fright, and explained shortly:
"I had to cut a certain thread."
To himself, he snarled in thought: 'How could I have been so unattentive?'
"...This should not have happened." Kaze's teacher repeated, as the student did his best to stand straight before him. The strange sensation of pain was fading from Kaze's body, but it left an odd void in his mind.
"What went wrong?"
"I don't know. But regaining one's memories has never affected a person physically, to my knowledge." The older man said. "Where did it hurt you?"
"It felt like... like wings were being torn from my back." Kaze replied in confusion.
"Stay there," the teacher's voice was commanding as usual, but not stern. "I will see what happened in the other reality. Don't follow me."
The already faint green glow of the tower-room seemed to dim, as the old man leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes. Telling lines of concentration appeared on his forehead, as Kaze watched him, wondering what he sees. 'Kunshi... Such a commanding presence, and yet... the kind things he does for me... like a father. Why does he refuse the name I called him? Was I mistaken?'
For a long while, the young man stood silently, feeling left alone in the room. His teacher was there before him, but his mind was elsewhere... In a mystic world Kaze had just discovered, and where he was ordered not to follow. 'Why?'
Soon, the teacher returned from the Dream World and opened his eyes. With a furrowed forehead that did not denounce any good news, he stood and announced gravely:
"You cannot go back to the Dream World. What you felt was your link there being severed."
"By whom?" a shocked Kaze asked.
"I have a feeling it was someone you knew long ago..."
These beautiful golden seastar graphics used from:
