(an original fantasy story by Nadya Neklioudova aka Angel Mercury. Begun on June 2, 1999)
NOTE: the use of Japanese names is only to give the characters some out-of-the-ordinary name, more like those you see in any fantasy story. They don't mean that the characters are necessarily Japanese, or that this story will have much to do with Japan - it won't. I just like the sound of Japanese words.
~"The only time your mind can truly be clear of all worries is when you are looking at fire or water, because they came first in the universe, and they will leave last."~ --a quote I heard somewhere, I don't remember.
Introductions
--30000 years after the death of the last dragon on Earth--
Intro Part 1 - Ryu Hino (Fire Dragon)
(note: "italics" highlight what the fire says directly)
He was born of fire. He was its living flames, its burning heart, its crackling laughter, its flesh and blood. He was the dragon of fire, mistakenly reborn in the form of a young, ordinary human man, with piercing, burning red eyes that saw nothing but fire. Fire was his life, the only thing he was sure of as he stood in the middle of his burning city, clutching the dark, sharp claw that humans called a sword. It felt familiar and comforting - it reminded him of his claws of his past life.
Many things reminded him of his lost existence. Light gold-ring mail replaced his old scales; it felt comforting even to the alien human skin, but it could not recreate the gold glimmer of his hot dragon skin. A sword, if only one, was now his claws; it was sharp and sure, its cold steel gleamed in the night. Only his eyes remained the same menacing red color, the color of living flames. And he still had the power of pyrokinesis - creating fire with one's thoughts...
The fire raged in the city, needing no wood to burn. Ryu Hino created it - and that meant it could burn stone if it wished to. It frightened the humans, and, abandoning their futile efforts to douse the fire with water, they ran. Just like long ago, the fire gave him life - now he gave life to the fire. He watched, entertained, as little dragon shapes flickered in the blaze as another building crashed down into ashes. The fire still remembered.
...But nothing could replace his wings. Humans had no natural way to fly - except if they used primitive machines to carry themselves. They could never know the thrill of true flight - not the way dragons did. Humans did not belong in the sky, their clumsy machines interrupted the free air. Birds simply lived in the skies, they only knew how to use their wings and air currents to carry them where they needed. But dragons ruled the heavens of their day. The elegant, royal creatures were at home in the air, and considered only their way of flight true. There is no feeling like true flight - the wind did not serve the dragons, dragons became the wind. They could cause a hurricane - or, as Ryu Hino preferred, a fierce thunderstorm - with a few powerful flaps of their wings if they wished, or create a gentle breeze with the lightest movement of a wing-claw, or simply become part of the free air and float to their destination. Only in true flight could one achieve true freedom of thought and soul...
He stood and watched sparks of flame rise, flicker for a moment, and die. Yes, he was still the only child of fire who flew. Though that was long ago.
...He missed it terribly. The human with a dragon's soul felt trapped in this existence. Alone, the only one of his royal kind - it both saddened and angered him. Before, he was a king of dragons - now, only a mere human, just a stick in a bonfire. No matter how many cities burned down under his sizzling gaze, it did not bring him the sense of freedom he sought. He could make the simple humans serve him, he could burn down their lands - but nothing could give him back the power of flight.
The fire crackled and hissed thoughts into his ears - though his hearing was nowhere near that of a dragon, he still heard the thoughts and emotions of flames well - after all, it was his element. The fire whispered to him: "Don't let the humans hurt you." They killed the dragons long ago - he himself saw the destruction of his own kind. They still remained the same closed-minded, simple creatures. Even as a human, one of their own race, they feared him and hurt him because of his burning-red eyes. They threatened to kill him, but he got to them first. He was hurt, but he would not cry like a child because of their laughable threats. He was a proud dragon, after all! "No," the fire crackled, "you must not suffer again." They have not changed. No, not at all, over thousands of years. They do not deserve the rule of the planet - after all, the dragons, and especially himself, the dragon of fire, was here first, and he will leave last. "Maybe, when you will not suffer because of humans," the flames hissed, "maybe then you can get your wings back."
Yes, maybe then.
And so, the dragon of fire stood amid his inferno of flames, and smiled.
Maybe then.
The fire is always right.
Intro Part 2 - Namida Mizuno (Water Tear)
She surfaced from the calm water of the lake, and brushed back her long, wet hair with a tearful sigh.
She could always feel his presence - even when she could not see the fires, they were imprinted on her soul. She always knew he was there, with his sword of fire and those terrible, burning eyes. They haunted her day and night, threatening to burn her to insanity. Only being near water helped her. It made the eyes look away, if only for a little while.
Though she doubted that he knew. Why would he even remember a little girl from fifteen years ago? She was only one among many.
But she was the only one that survived.
No, she decided, he wouldn't remember the little girl that stood before him, crying in the fire. The fire consumed everything she'd ever known. She couldn't understand why, but she knew it came from his eyes. The eyes themselves had a fire of their own, and she couldn't - no, wouldn't - understand it. She looked at him as the embodiment of everything she couldn't understand - hate, destruction, death. Unkindness.
But he let her go. Maybe, she reflected, there was a spark in his heart that she could understand...
She swam - no, floated unconscious - to the shore of an island that he forgot about. Or left alone on purpose - she didn't know. Two people found her - a crying child from the cursed, burnt shore. They took her to their home, cared for her, asked her her name, but she wouldn't say it. "It's burnt. It's gone." was all she said. They then decided to call her Namida Mizuno - in the ancient language, "Tear of Water". Only they could tell that the little girl was crying, even despite that when they found her, she was soaking wet...
But ever since, his eyes have been haunting her. Of course, he must not remember. That was many years and burning cities ago. Compared to him, she was still a child... only a human girl. But one question still rang in her mind... 'Why?' The little girl of the past, and the young woman of the present, were both still confused. Over the years, Ryu became to her the symbol of everything she could never understand.
She floated freely in the water, letting it relax her, cool down the burning memories. She closed her eyes, feeling suspended and safe, between sky and earth. The water helped her live once, it could help her again. Maybe here, the dragon of fire could not find her... The eyes in her memory dimmed.
'No', she thought. 'I can't keep diving into water and running away. He's close, I can feel the heat from the flames. I have to find him.
'I am not a child anymore. Maybe if I look into those eyes again, maybe I can find that spark that let me live. I've got to understand.'
Namida stepped out of the lake’s water, sorry to leave her safe haven. But instead of walking back to a now-empty house, she slowly slumped down against the cool bark of a nearby willow tree, looking out over the serene, moonlit lake, and realized that she was still afraid, deathly afraid. The eyes in her memory seemed to be mocking her.
Could fire and water ever understand each other?
Once again, these great graphics are from:
