If anyone ever asks you why you did something, what do you tell them? The
reason you did it, right? What if there wasn't a
reason, it just seemed as if "fate" intervened? What then? That
was the question asked of eight very courageous teenagers who
harnessed an extraordinary power and saved two worlds from total
destruction, and they answered it marvelously. But, first things first, let's start at the beginning.
The protagonist of this story is a boy named Jake. He is a
very mysterious character, just ask anyone who knows him. He
attends his Upstate New York high school as an almost straight-A
student. His life was mostly boring until one seemingly normal
Thursday, in his sophomore year, a beautiful green-eyed girl
transferred there. He walked over to introduce himself.
"Hey, are you the new kid?" He started to sweat a little.
"Yeah, and you must be Jake." She offered her hand, and
Jake followed suit and shook it.
"I see my reputation precedes me." The girl laughed. "It's not
that bad, I just heard you were the shoulder that everyone cries
on."
"Yeah, it's hard not to be. I'm just there for everybody, and
they know it. Everyone thinks I have good advice, and they'd be
right in thinking so. I guess they feel that they can trust me."
The girl looked at him for a while, as if in a trance, but then
she snapped out of it. "My name is Adrianne."
"You want to meet some of my friends?" Jake hoped that he
could break the weird tension that was forming between them.
"Sure, can you point them out?"
"Jake, I have a question!" One of Jake's good friends ran
over to him. Her name was Amber Milton, and she was a twin to
her sister Kelly. She flashed her brilliant blue eyes at him as she
held up two pieces of paper, most likely ripped from a Sears
catalog.
"Which of these dresses is cuter, the red, or the green?" Jake
looked at them and weighed the choices. "Myself, I'm partial to the
green. What about you Adrianne?"
"I like the green too." Amber's eyes rose from the dresses to
notice Adrianne for the first time. "Oh, you must be the new
student, Adrianne." Adrianne shook her hand. "I've heard an awful
lot about you and your school."
"And I've heard an awful lot about you Amber. You're the
only person who has gotten perfect grades and perfect attendance
for eleven consecutive years. You're a legend."
Amber blushed. "Nah, I'm just a smart girl who works really hard and gets really lucky sometimes. I'm really not that special."
Adrianne grinned. "And modest too. I think I'm gonna like it
here." Jake smiled. "I hope so." Adrianne started to walk away.
"Say, Adrianne," Jake asked as she turned to look at him.
"You wouldn't happen to have, I don't know, a date for the prom
already would you?"
"There's a prom coming up?" Jake almost kicked himself for
not remembering how new she was. "Yeah. This Saturday."
Adrianne gave him a puppy face. "I wouldn't want to go alone now, would I? I suppose I could go with you, if it's alright."
Jake felt a rush of relief. "Perfectly. I'll pick you up at 7:30?"
Adrianne was confused. "You can drive already?"
"No, no, one of my friends who can drive is picking us all up
at my house. Do you need directions?"
Adrianne shook her head. "I'll just ride the bus home to your
house tomorrow. See you then!" Amber smiled evilly at him.
"Someone's got a little crush," she sang in a perfect voice.
Jake wondered why anyone so perfect would waste her time hanging out with him. "Maybe a little one."
"Well, I've got to go home, I don't have lacrosse this
afternoon for once. See ya!" She waved, and Jake waved back.
"Bye!" She went to her last period class, and Jake figured
he'd better do the same.
Unfortunately for him, today was double mod biology. That
was his least favorite class. All the theorems and equations, it was
like a second math class, only more boring and useless than the
first. And he had the most mind-numbing teacher on the face of the
planet: Miss Luten. She droned on and on for what seemed like
hours about Charles Darwin and those whatever-they-are things he
discovered. It was like the class that excitement forgot. Jake
couldn't wait until he was out of this god-forsaken subject and
back at home.
********************************************
Every day after school, Jake had to walk through a small
forest that bordered his house. What happened that day changed
his life forever.
He walked through the marshlands in the small forest, as he
usually did, when he saw a glint in the grass. He stooped down to
see what it was, and saw a small stone. It was an ugly pale green,
save the red eye-like mark near the center of it. He picked it up
between his thumb and fore-finger and examined the quiet beauty of the mysterious bauble.
Suddenly, it began to glow with a blinding light so bright,
that Jake had to shield his eyes from it. When he opened them, he
felt different. More powerful, like a strange energy was coursing
throughout his veins. And a voice inside his head had abruptly
appeared and started to speak.
'You have been chosen by the Void Dragoon to lead your
world to salvation from the impending evil it will face sooner than
you know. Do not abuse this power, as it will lead to further
suffering and death for you and your fellow warriors. Do you
accept the fate of the world?' Then the voice all but disappeared.
Jake thought about this a while, and determined that the voice
was a hallucination, and decided to go home and act like nothing
happened. But the voice was still there, subtly nagging at his brain
to agree to take the fate of the planet. Jake finally thought that it
might be a good idea to give in to this voice, and, for no apparent
reason, he accepted the fate dealt to him. He closed his eyes, and
let the power take him over. When he opened them, he could not
believe what he saw.
Armour, and lots of it, covered his body. It was a mix of pale
green in some spots and beige in others. His left eye was covered
by a red eye patch with a green sphere in the middle. On his right
arm was mounted a large cannon, which he supposed he should
know how to work. This amazed him.
The voice was back in his head, and it said to him, 'You have
chosen the fate that is a Dragoon fate. You must not tell another
living soul about this. Open the book on your desk. It will tell you
how to work your new magic that comes with the Void Dragoon
Spirit.'
'Wow, magic too?' Jake thought as he searched his desk for
the book. He found it, and enclosed on the cover of the thick,
ancient tome was the hilt of a sword. Judging by the size of the
hilt, it must have been a rather large sword. He clasped his hands
around it, and the sword revealed itself. It must have been at least a
four-foot sword, and the blade was made of a material not familiar
to Jake, maybe because he never paid attention in science class. He
sighed a breath of amazement, and the entire entourage vanished
completely in a bright blaze of luminosity. He opened the book and
read it all through the night.
*******************************************
Jake's classes went by more quickly than he thought they
would, mostly because Adrianne was in nearly all of them. There
was a lot about her that he found rather attractive. Her green eyes,
her light brown hair that was best when she wore it in a ponytail,
her beautiful singing voice, the list went on for miles. During
biology, the one class that Adrianne was not in with him, business
ran slower than usual, as he was waiting for the bus to show
Adrianne the way to his house. He wondered what his mother
would think when she came home and found Adrianne there. Well,
he imagined she'd be pretty mad, and-
"Are we paying attention Jake? No? Why does that not
surprise me." Miss Luten was especially cross today. Most of her
students had failed her test. Jake, Amber, and Adrianne were the
only ones that passed. Adrianne had Miss Luten, but at a different
time than Jake. Luckily for everyone in her class, Miss Luten was
done after the single period ended, and Jake looked for Adrianne's
last period class. She told him it was Spanish, which was
fortunately right next to his biology room .
"Hey Ben, have you seen Adrianne anywhere?"
Another one of Jake's friends, Ben was a blonde boy who
was just the slightest bit taller than everyone else. He was a very
sarcastic person, and always had a snide remark for whatever was
thrown at him.
"Yeah, she's getting some gossip from Becca."
Becca was a good friend of Ben's, though Jake did not know
her very well. She had blonde hair, but Jake suspected that it was
not her natural color. She always seemed to be smitten with Ben,
although the nothing ever happened between the two of them. As
Becca walked out of the classroom with Adrianne, she turned her
brown eyes towards Jake's of the same color.
"Your lady awaits," she teased. Adrianne hit her lightly on
the shoulder. "Stop it, you're evil." Both girls laughed. Adrianne's
laugh sounded like the quiet chime of a church bell. Adrianne
started to speak again.
"So who else is going in this carpool? The one that goes to
the prom that is."
Jake thought a while and started counting off guests on his
fingers. "Well there's me, you, Ben and Becca, Alex, Jimbo, Greg
and Amber. I think that's it."
"I don't know most of those people. It'll be fun to meet them.
Which one is driving?"
"Jimbo," Ben interrupted. "Isn't that right, Bec-" He turned
to find his friend had already gone. "She must have gotten on the
bus already. We should too." Ben ran toward the bus circle and
Jake and Adrianne followed close behind.
********************************************
Jake and Adrianne got on the Jake's bus and ended up sitting
next to Ben, who rode the same bus as Jake did. They talked for
the whole 15 minutes that it took the bus to get from the school to
Jake's house about Adrianne and her life before they knew her.
Apparently, she had had only one boyfriend before she came here.
His name was Evan. He is not a focus in this story, so there will be
not much more talk of him now. Eventually, the bus pulled up at Jake's stop.
"This is it Adrianne. Good-bye Ben. Talk to you later?" Ben
nodded. "Sure. Bye." Jake and Adrianne got off the bus and started
to walk to Jake's house.
"Hey Adrianne, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, but you have to tell me what it is first. Contrary to
popular belief, Jake, I'm not a mind reader." Jake laughed.
"Um, you've only known me for a couple of days now, but
I'm sure you already have an impression of me in your mind. What
do you think of me as of right now?"
Evidently, this question caught Adrianne off guard. "Um,
well, I don't know. I think you're funny, unintentionally of course,
and I think you're cute for a guy with such big brains. What else?
You're smart, and, I'm sure you get this all the time, but I think you
could get anyone you wanted to have."
Now it was Jake's turn to be caught off guard. "Wow, I didn't
know anyone felt that way about me. You aren't like anyone else I
know Adrianne."
Adrianne smiled. "Now, I know you'll hate me for this, but
they say turnabout is fair play. So, what do you think of me?"
Jake answered the question as if he had prepared it the night
before, like a speech. "I think you are stunning, and you're so cute
when your hair is in a ponytail. You're ten times as smart as I am,
and so much funnier, intentionally and unintentionally. I know you
could have anyone you want, and they would stay faithful to you
because of all your likable qualities, despite the fact that you're a
little ditzy."
Adrianne was utterly taken aback. She hadn't expected this
kind of answer from him. "Wow, I had no idea you felt like that.
You've only known me for a little while. How can you be so sure?"
"Let's just call it intuition."
********************************************
They had been talking for such a long time that before they
knew it, they were at Jake's house. He walked through his poor
lawn, which hadn't been mowed in weeks, and opened his door
with the temperamental key. Adrianne followed him in. His faithful watch dog Dakota ran to the door, barking like all hell broke loose. Jake quickly subdued him with a few gentle words, and he led Adrianne on a tour of his house.
"This is the bathroom, the kitchen, my mom's room, my
brother's room, my sister's room, and my own room. I'm sorry it's
so messy, I didn't really have time to clean it up properly."
"It's fine. It's cleaner than my room." She walked around and
looked at a picture of Jake and another girl. She was blonde, and
she looked happy to be with him. "Who's this?"
Jake picked up the photograph and smiled fondly, as if
recalling some bygone friend who moved away long time ago.
"This is Kylie. She was a good friend of mine, until she left for
Paris. She lives there now."
"Do you miss her?"
"Not much. Less than I thought I would. I guess she and I
weren't as close as I thought."
Adrianne sat on his bed. "Did you like her?"
"Of course I liked her. Oh, you don't mean as a friend. Sure,
maybe a little. We were good friends until we started to date each
other. Then, when we broke up, the two of us drifted apart. I don't
know where she is, what she's doing, or anything else about her as
of about a year ago."
"That's so sad. It's almost like a love story that you read in
books or see in movies." Adrianne almost had tears in her eyes.
Jake laughed.
"Yeah, but after that, the protagonist usually gets a new
girlfriend, and I don't have one yet. But I'm keeping my fingers
crossed." He crossed his fingers. Adrianne was slightly hurt in a
small portion of her heart.
"So do you want to do something? I might be here for quite a while, since prom is-" Adrianne thought for a moment. "Prom is tomorrow. Um, Jake, can I stay overnight? Like on the couch or
something?"
This was not quite what Jake was expecting. "Um, sure, if you can hide from my mom." Then he remembered that his mom had left him a note that said she'd be in Baltimore for the weekend, and she was leaving Friday morning. "You know what, my mom's not even going to be home, and my brother and sister went with her."
Adrianne looked a mixture of fright and relief. "Great. We
can find something to do for about a couple hours. That shouldn't
be too hard." So they went online and chatted with various friends
of theirs, mostly Ben and Becca. By 9:00, everyone had gone to
bed, so Jake and Adrianne started to talk about their lives previous
to meeting each other.
Adrianne had been quite busy. She was apparently a very
good actress, and an amazing singer. She didn't have a lot of
friends at her old school, but they were good ones, and she is still
in touch with them. Jake's life paled in comparison with hers. The
only thing worthwhile he had accomplished was......... well,
nothing.
"I guess you win," Jake said, throwing his hands jokingly in
the air. "You have a much more exciting life than me." He looked
at her and smiled. Then he looked at the clock and gasped. "We've
been sitting here and talking for three hours. It's midnight. Do you
want a blanket or something?" Adrianne nodded. "Alright, let me
see what I can find." He rummaged through the old closet at the
foot of his stairs and pulled out the ugliest green blanket that ever
was made.
"Sorry about the unattractiveness of this blanket. My mom
apparently has a passion for collecting broken or hideous things."
She laughed. "Or broken and hideous."
She laughed again and took the blanket. Soon after, she was
asleep. Jake smiled and went to bed himself.
********************************************
A meadow. Soft and green. Everything was alright there. He
felt so safe and comforted in this place that he did not want to
leave. And Adrianne was there. It was just the two of them. She ran towards him and into his arms. She pressed her face against his shoulder, and he encircled his arms around her waist. She did the same. Her head rose up, and for a moment, he saw those beautiful
green eyes. Then they closed as their faces drew closer and closer
together. And he almost felt something between them in what
consciousness he had left.
Now there was fire. Everywhere. And lots of it. Everything
was ablaze in a violent inferno. Adrianne. Where was Adrianne?
Come to think of it, where was he? And what was he doing here?
He started to walk anywhere there wasn't fire. The flames licked
high up the walls, and there appeared to be no one else there. He
called out Adrianne's name, but it just reverberated throughout the
echoing walls of what ever building he was entrapped in.
Suddenly, he heard a response. A scream, shrill and
frightened. He ran towards it as fast as his legs could carry him.
When he arrived, he saw the terrible sight of a burning human, and
smelled the rotten stench of burnt flesh. Adrianne's screams echoed
in the background. He ran forward and tried to wrench the poor
creature who he assumed to be Adrianne from its fiery prison, but
instead it crumbled in his hands and he was in its place. He felt a
searing pain race through his nerves, and the fire made him cry out
in his sleep. He awoke in a cold sweat.
********************************************
At the same moment, Adrianne was having a similar dream.
She dreamt that she was in a meadow all alone, calling out for
someone to save her from......... well, she didn't quite know what
she needed to be saved from. But she felt that it was very evil, and
that only she could stop it. In order to do that, however, she needed
to move, which she could not do for some reason. Jake was there
too. He reached out his hand for hers, but it wasn't far enough. She
fell into a large pit.
Bells. Lots of bells. Loud noises everywhere. And she was
wearing lots of white. 'It must be a wedding, but who's?' Adrianne
was taken down the aisle by none other than Ben. Why? She had
no idea. But she knew the person waiting at the alter was not Jake.
It was Evan. Only she knew the truth about Evan's strange
disappearance. There was nothing more unsettling than to see
someone who is supposed to be dead. As she neared the end of the
aisle, she was suddenly one of the guests, and it was no longer her
in the white dress. At least, she thought it wasn't her. The figure
turned around and Adrianne saw the figure's face. It was her own!
But it suddenly was distorted, and turned into a grotesque imitation
of her. Ben did the same thing.
"Mashter wantsh with yoush, yesh yesh. Mashter would
likesh to talksh with you, Adriannesh. Yesh, yesh, talksh," said the
raspy-voiced creature who was once Ben. "Help me Adrianne," the
girl in the wedding dress cried. Evan laughed, and sucked
something white from her back and red from his. A look of pain
crossed both their faces, and they slumped to the floor, dead. He
absorbed the colored spheres, and looked Adrianne in the eye. She
felt as if someone had set fire to her soul. She was burning in that
dress. She could see her own flesh ablaze with a bright orange
firestorm. She screamed loudly and bolted upright in her bed.
'Wait, I'm not at home,' she thought. "Adrianne!" A voice
echoed through her house. It was Evan's. She felt so heavy, and she
couldn't move. Evan came closer and closer. She screamed again.
********************************************
When she awoke, Jake was holding her and trying to calm
her and wake her up. She rose her eyes to meet his, and they both
broke into tears and just sat there holding each other in a death
grip, neither wanting the other to let go.
"Oh I had the most horrible dream. You tried to save me, but
I got married to Evan anyway. But it wasn't me, except it was. And
Ben, something happened to Ben. He was evil-looking, and Evan
stole something from both of us. They were little pebbles, and
mine was white and his was red. And we both died, oh it was so
horrible!" She cried some more. "I know you must think that I'm
weak now, so just go ahead and leave me like all my other friends did."
"Wait, you said on the bus that you were still in contact with
your friends," Jake said, feeling very confused.
"I keep in touch with them, but they don't keep in touch with
me. And it's all because they think I did something to my last
boyfriend." She had dried her eyes now for the most part, but they
were still quite red. Jake brought her chin up with his hand. "What
happened?" Adrianne shook her head. "I don't want to talk about
it." Jake seemed slightly hurt, but let it go and continued holding
her and letting her cry. After about an hour, they realized it was six
in the morning already, and it was pretty much pointless to go back
to sleep, so Jake made the two of them coffee.
"I......... I think I'm ready to talk now. But you've gotta
promise not to tell anyone."
Jake nodded. "Alright, I promise."
Adrianne sighed, and began her story.
********************************************
"I had only known him for a little while, and I didn't see
much of him, but I really liked him. So, one day I said to him,
'Evan, you know I like you, right?' and he said 'Yeah, do ya wanna
go somewhere after school?' I was flattered, and naturally I
accepted. We went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and I went over
to the edge and looked over it. I guess I looked too far, because the
next thing I remember was falling. And Evan came after me.
'He dove in just as I hit the water. We ended up somewhere in
a secluded spot a couple miles downstream. He said to me 'This is
how I wanted to die, so please, just tell the people who find you
that I'm dead. I can't be in touch, but if you see me again, you'll
know.' And with that, he was gone. Out of my life forever. I think I
cried for at least an hour and a half straight that night. The next day
at school, everyone thought I fell in on purpose to get him killed. I
don't have any idea why they would think that, but they did. And I
became such an outcast at school that, after three years, my parents
thought we should move to another state to get me away from the
pain. So when I go to school here, I put on a mask of the happy,
ditzy Adrianne that everyone loves, and no one has a clue."
********************************************
Jake stared at her for a moment, and put his arms back around
her as she started to cry for a third time.
"Now you must think I'm the most worthless piece of scum
that ever walked this earth," Adrianne sobbed into his chest.
"No, you're probably the strongest person I know. You dealt
with that secret tragedy alone for years, and that takes real courage.
You're far from weak. Crying doesn't make you weak. It just
makes you stronger. It's a common misconception. Just like love.
People think that love makes you weak, when in reality it only
strengthens you, especially when you lose someone you love."
Adrianne gradually stopped crying and looked at Jake's face.
She saw no hint of malice, sarcasm, or contempt, just a caring and
helpful face. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. He took a
tissue and dried her emerald eyes. His fingers ran along her cheeks,
which were stained red from crying. She reached down for his
hand and put it in hers. Adrianne smiled, and Jake smiled back. He
put his arms around her again and they stood like that for a few
minutes.
"You know what, I'm really tired. Let's try and go back to
sleep." Adrianne lifted her head off his chest and started towards
the couch, stretching. Before she could get very much further, Jake
called out her name. "Adrianne?" She turned to face him. "What is
it?" Jake sighed. "I've got a secret of my own. There is no Kylie. I
made her up. The girl in the picture is some person I got off a
website for picture cropping. I have never had a girlfriend. I'm
sorry I lied to you." Adrianne smiled understandingly. "It's ok. I
lied to you twice, and you're not leaving me."
"Why would I leave? It is my house after all," Jake said.
Adrianne laughed and went back into the living room and fell
asleep on the couch within seconds. Jake thought that looked like a
good idea, and went into his room and fell asleep quickly.
********************************************
"Mashter, Mashter, she's ashleep now Mashter. May I kill
hersh now Mashter?" an impish creature crooned in it's whiny,
raspy voice. It twitched it's leathery scarlet wings as it waited for a
reply.
"I told you ,Mullog, you are not to kill the girl. I want her
alive." A strange cloaked figure raised his head as he said these
words.
"But Mashter-" The creature vanished before it could say
anymore. "Anyone else who wants to kill Adrianne?" All of the
imps shook their heads. "I will have Adrianne again, and
everything will be as it was three years ago."
********************************************
A/N: YAY! This is my biggest chapter ever! 4000 something
words, not including the A/N. Gee, I know right now it seems like
a sappy love story, but it will not only get more exciting, it will get
sappier. Fun fun. Well, for me at least. For all you LoD fans, you
know that there is more than one Dragoon Spirit. Who gets the
other seven? And is there a ninth? Find out in later editions of
Quest of the Dragoons.
reason, it just seemed as if "fate" intervened? What then? That
was the question asked of eight very courageous teenagers who
harnessed an extraordinary power and saved two worlds from total
destruction, and they answered it marvelously. But, first things first, let's start at the beginning.
The protagonist of this story is a boy named Jake. He is a
very mysterious character, just ask anyone who knows him. He
attends his Upstate New York high school as an almost straight-A
student. His life was mostly boring until one seemingly normal
Thursday, in his sophomore year, a beautiful green-eyed girl
transferred there. He walked over to introduce himself.
"Hey, are you the new kid?" He started to sweat a little.
"Yeah, and you must be Jake." She offered her hand, and
Jake followed suit and shook it.
"I see my reputation precedes me." The girl laughed. "It's not
that bad, I just heard you were the shoulder that everyone cries
on."
"Yeah, it's hard not to be. I'm just there for everybody, and
they know it. Everyone thinks I have good advice, and they'd be
right in thinking so. I guess they feel that they can trust me."
The girl looked at him for a while, as if in a trance, but then
she snapped out of it. "My name is Adrianne."
"You want to meet some of my friends?" Jake hoped that he
could break the weird tension that was forming between them.
"Sure, can you point them out?"
"Jake, I have a question!" One of Jake's good friends ran
over to him. Her name was Amber Milton, and she was a twin to
her sister Kelly. She flashed her brilliant blue eyes at him as she
held up two pieces of paper, most likely ripped from a Sears
catalog.
"Which of these dresses is cuter, the red, or the green?" Jake
looked at them and weighed the choices. "Myself, I'm partial to the
green. What about you Adrianne?"
"I like the green too." Amber's eyes rose from the dresses to
notice Adrianne for the first time. "Oh, you must be the new
student, Adrianne." Adrianne shook her hand. "I've heard an awful
lot about you and your school."
"And I've heard an awful lot about you Amber. You're the
only person who has gotten perfect grades and perfect attendance
for eleven consecutive years. You're a legend."
Amber blushed. "Nah, I'm just a smart girl who works really hard and gets really lucky sometimes. I'm really not that special."
Adrianne grinned. "And modest too. I think I'm gonna like it
here." Jake smiled. "I hope so." Adrianne started to walk away.
"Say, Adrianne," Jake asked as she turned to look at him.
"You wouldn't happen to have, I don't know, a date for the prom
already would you?"
"There's a prom coming up?" Jake almost kicked himself for
not remembering how new she was. "Yeah. This Saturday."
Adrianne gave him a puppy face. "I wouldn't want to go alone now, would I? I suppose I could go with you, if it's alright."
Jake felt a rush of relief. "Perfectly. I'll pick you up at 7:30?"
Adrianne was confused. "You can drive already?"
"No, no, one of my friends who can drive is picking us all up
at my house. Do you need directions?"
Adrianne shook her head. "I'll just ride the bus home to your
house tomorrow. See you then!" Amber smiled evilly at him.
"Someone's got a little crush," she sang in a perfect voice.
Jake wondered why anyone so perfect would waste her time hanging out with him. "Maybe a little one."
"Well, I've got to go home, I don't have lacrosse this
afternoon for once. See ya!" She waved, and Jake waved back.
"Bye!" She went to her last period class, and Jake figured
he'd better do the same.
Unfortunately for him, today was double mod biology. That
was his least favorite class. All the theorems and equations, it was
like a second math class, only more boring and useless than the
first. And he had the most mind-numbing teacher on the face of the
planet: Miss Luten. She droned on and on for what seemed like
hours about Charles Darwin and those whatever-they-are things he
discovered. It was like the class that excitement forgot. Jake
couldn't wait until he was out of this god-forsaken subject and
back at home.
********************************************
Every day after school, Jake had to walk through a small
forest that bordered his house. What happened that day changed
his life forever.
He walked through the marshlands in the small forest, as he
usually did, when he saw a glint in the grass. He stooped down to
see what it was, and saw a small stone. It was an ugly pale green,
save the red eye-like mark near the center of it. He picked it up
between his thumb and fore-finger and examined the quiet beauty of the mysterious bauble.
Suddenly, it began to glow with a blinding light so bright,
that Jake had to shield his eyes from it. When he opened them, he
felt different. More powerful, like a strange energy was coursing
throughout his veins. And a voice inside his head had abruptly
appeared and started to speak.
'You have been chosen by the Void Dragoon to lead your
world to salvation from the impending evil it will face sooner than
you know. Do not abuse this power, as it will lead to further
suffering and death for you and your fellow warriors. Do you
accept the fate of the world?' Then the voice all but disappeared.
Jake thought about this a while, and determined that the voice
was a hallucination, and decided to go home and act like nothing
happened. But the voice was still there, subtly nagging at his brain
to agree to take the fate of the planet. Jake finally thought that it
might be a good idea to give in to this voice, and, for no apparent
reason, he accepted the fate dealt to him. He closed his eyes, and
let the power take him over. When he opened them, he could not
believe what he saw.
Armour, and lots of it, covered his body. It was a mix of pale
green in some spots and beige in others. His left eye was covered
by a red eye patch with a green sphere in the middle. On his right
arm was mounted a large cannon, which he supposed he should
know how to work. This amazed him.
The voice was back in his head, and it said to him, 'You have
chosen the fate that is a Dragoon fate. You must not tell another
living soul about this. Open the book on your desk. It will tell you
how to work your new magic that comes with the Void Dragoon
Spirit.'
'Wow, magic too?' Jake thought as he searched his desk for
the book. He found it, and enclosed on the cover of the thick,
ancient tome was the hilt of a sword. Judging by the size of the
hilt, it must have been a rather large sword. He clasped his hands
around it, and the sword revealed itself. It must have been at least a
four-foot sword, and the blade was made of a material not familiar
to Jake, maybe because he never paid attention in science class. He
sighed a breath of amazement, and the entire entourage vanished
completely in a bright blaze of luminosity. He opened the book and
read it all through the night.
*******************************************
Jake's classes went by more quickly than he thought they
would, mostly because Adrianne was in nearly all of them. There
was a lot about her that he found rather attractive. Her green eyes,
her light brown hair that was best when she wore it in a ponytail,
her beautiful singing voice, the list went on for miles. During
biology, the one class that Adrianne was not in with him, business
ran slower than usual, as he was waiting for the bus to show
Adrianne the way to his house. He wondered what his mother
would think when she came home and found Adrianne there. Well,
he imagined she'd be pretty mad, and-
"Are we paying attention Jake? No? Why does that not
surprise me." Miss Luten was especially cross today. Most of her
students had failed her test. Jake, Amber, and Adrianne were the
only ones that passed. Adrianne had Miss Luten, but at a different
time than Jake. Luckily for everyone in her class, Miss Luten was
done after the single period ended, and Jake looked for Adrianne's
last period class. She told him it was Spanish, which was
fortunately right next to his biology room .
"Hey Ben, have you seen Adrianne anywhere?"
Another one of Jake's friends, Ben was a blonde boy who
was just the slightest bit taller than everyone else. He was a very
sarcastic person, and always had a snide remark for whatever was
thrown at him.
"Yeah, she's getting some gossip from Becca."
Becca was a good friend of Ben's, though Jake did not know
her very well. She had blonde hair, but Jake suspected that it was
not her natural color. She always seemed to be smitten with Ben,
although the nothing ever happened between the two of them. As
Becca walked out of the classroom with Adrianne, she turned her
brown eyes towards Jake's of the same color.
"Your lady awaits," she teased. Adrianne hit her lightly on
the shoulder. "Stop it, you're evil." Both girls laughed. Adrianne's
laugh sounded like the quiet chime of a church bell. Adrianne
started to speak again.
"So who else is going in this carpool? The one that goes to
the prom that is."
Jake thought a while and started counting off guests on his
fingers. "Well there's me, you, Ben and Becca, Alex, Jimbo, Greg
and Amber. I think that's it."
"I don't know most of those people. It'll be fun to meet them.
Which one is driving?"
"Jimbo," Ben interrupted. "Isn't that right, Bec-" He turned
to find his friend had already gone. "She must have gotten on the
bus already. We should too." Ben ran toward the bus circle and
Jake and Adrianne followed close behind.
********************************************
Jake and Adrianne got on the Jake's bus and ended up sitting
next to Ben, who rode the same bus as Jake did. They talked for
the whole 15 minutes that it took the bus to get from the school to
Jake's house about Adrianne and her life before they knew her.
Apparently, she had had only one boyfriend before she came here.
His name was Evan. He is not a focus in this story, so there will be
not much more talk of him now. Eventually, the bus pulled up at Jake's stop.
"This is it Adrianne. Good-bye Ben. Talk to you later?" Ben
nodded. "Sure. Bye." Jake and Adrianne got off the bus and started
to walk to Jake's house.
"Hey Adrianne, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, but you have to tell me what it is first. Contrary to
popular belief, Jake, I'm not a mind reader." Jake laughed.
"Um, you've only known me for a couple of days now, but
I'm sure you already have an impression of me in your mind. What
do you think of me as of right now?"
Evidently, this question caught Adrianne off guard. "Um,
well, I don't know. I think you're funny, unintentionally of course,
and I think you're cute for a guy with such big brains. What else?
You're smart, and, I'm sure you get this all the time, but I think you
could get anyone you wanted to have."
Now it was Jake's turn to be caught off guard. "Wow, I didn't
know anyone felt that way about me. You aren't like anyone else I
know Adrianne."
Adrianne smiled. "Now, I know you'll hate me for this, but
they say turnabout is fair play. So, what do you think of me?"
Jake answered the question as if he had prepared it the night
before, like a speech. "I think you are stunning, and you're so cute
when your hair is in a ponytail. You're ten times as smart as I am,
and so much funnier, intentionally and unintentionally. I know you
could have anyone you want, and they would stay faithful to you
because of all your likable qualities, despite the fact that you're a
little ditzy."
Adrianne was utterly taken aback. She hadn't expected this
kind of answer from him. "Wow, I had no idea you felt like that.
You've only known me for a little while. How can you be so sure?"
"Let's just call it intuition."
********************************************
They had been talking for such a long time that before they
knew it, they were at Jake's house. He walked through his poor
lawn, which hadn't been mowed in weeks, and opened his door
with the temperamental key. Adrianne followed him in. His faithful watch dog Dakota ran to the door, barking like all hell broke loose. Jake quickly subdued him with a few gentle words, and he led Adrianne on a tour of his house.
"This is the bathroom, the kitchen, my mom's room, my
brother's room, my sister's room, and my own room. I'm sorry it's
so messy, I didn't really have time to clean it up properly."
"It's fine. It's cleaner than my room." She walked around and
looked at a picture of Jake and another girl. She was blonde, and
she looked happy to be with him. "Who's this?"
Jake picked up the photograph and smiled fondly, as if
recalling some bygone friend who moved away long time ago.
"This is Kylie. She was a good friend of mine, until she left for
Paris. She lives there now."
"Do you miss her?"
"Not much. Less than I thought I would. I guess she and I
weren't as close as I thought."
Adrianne sat on his bed. "Did you like her?"
"Of course I liked her. Oh, you don't mean as a friend. Sure,
maybe a little. We were good friends until we started to date each
other. Then, when we broke up, the two of us drifted apart. I don't
know where she is, what she's doing, or anything else about her as
of about a year ago."
"That's so sad. It's almost like a love story that you read in
books or see in movies." Adrianne almost had tears in her eyes.
Jake laughed.
"Yeah, but after that, the protagonist usually gets a new
girlfriend, and I don't have one yet. But I'm keeping my fingers
crossed." He crossed his fingers. Adrianne was slightly hurt in a
small portion of her heart.
"So do you want to do something? I might be here for quite a while, since prom is-" Adrianne thought for a moment. "Prom is tomorrow. Um, Jake, can I stay overnight? Like on the couch or
something?"
This was not quite what Jake was expecting. "Um, sure, if you can hide from my mom." Then he remembered that his mom had left him a note that said she'd be in Baltimore for the weekend, and she was leaving Friday morning. "You know what, my mom's not even going to be home, and my brother and sister went with her."
Adrianne looked a mixture of fright and relief. "Great. We
can find something to do for about a couple hours. That shouldn't
be too hard." So they went online and chatted with various friends
of theirs, mostly Ben and Becca. By 9:00, everyone had gone to
bed, so Jake and Adrianne started to talk about their lives previous
to meeting each other.
Adrianne had been quite busy. She was apparently a very
good actress, and an amazing singer. She didn't have a lot of
friends at her old school, but they were good ones, and she is still
in touch with them. Jake's life paled in comparison with hers. The
only thing worthwhile he had accomplished was......... well,
nothing.
"I guess you win," Jake said, throwing his hands jokingly in
the air. "You have a much more exciting life than me." He looked
at her and smiled. Then he looked at the clock and gasped. "We've
been sitting here and talking for three hours. It's midnight. Do you
want a blanket or something?" Adrianne nodded. "Alright, let me
see what I can find." He rummaged through the old closet at the
foot of his stairs and pulled out the ugliest green blanket that ever
was made.
"Sorry about the unattractiveness of this blanket. My mom
apparently has a passion for collecting broken or hideous things."
She laughed. "Or broken and hideous."
She laughed again and took the blanket. Soon after, she was
asleep. Jake smiled and went to bed himself.
********************************************
A meadow. Soft and green. Everything was alright there. He
felt so safe and comforted in this place that he did not want to
leave. And Adrianne was there. It was just the two of them. She ran towards him and into his arms. She pressed her face against his shoulder, and he encircled his arms around her waist. She did the same. Her head rose up, and for a moment, he saw those beautiful
green eyes. Then they closed as their faces drew closer and closer
together. And he almost felt something between them in what
consciousness he had left.
Now there was fire. Everywhere. And lots of it. Everything
was ablaze in a violent inferno. Adrianne. Where was Adrianne?
Come to think of it, where was he? And what was he doing here?
He started to walk anywhere there wasn't fire. The flames licked
high up the walls, and there appeared to be no one else there. He
called out Adrianne's name, but it just reverberated throughout the
echoing walls of what ever building he was entrapped in.
Suddenly, he heard a response. A scream, shrill and
frightened. He ran towards it as fast as his legs could carry him.
When he arrived, he saw the terrible sight of a burning human, and
smelled the rotten stench of burnt flesh. Adrianne's screams echoed
in the background. He ran forward and tried to wrench the poor
creature who he assumed to be Adrianne from its fiery prison, but
instead it crumbled in his hands and he was in its place. He felt a
searing pain race through his nerves, and the fire made him cry out
in his sleep. He awoke in a cold sweat.
********************************************
At the same moment, Adrianne was having a similar dream.
She dreamt that she was in a meadow all alone, calling out for
someone to save her from......... well, she didn't quite know what
she needed to be saved from. But she felt that it was very evil, and
that only she could stop it. In order to do that, however, she needed
to move, which she could not do for some reason. Jake was there
too. He reached out his hand for hers, but it wasn't far enough. She
fell into a large pit.
Bells. Lots of bells. Loud noises everywhere. And she was
wearing lots of white. 'It must be a wedding, but who's?' Adrianne
was taken down the aisle by none other than Ben. Why? She had
no idea. But she knew the person waiting at the alter was not Jake.
It was Evan. Only she knew the truth about Evan's strange
disappearance. There was nothing more unsettling than to see
someone who is supposed to be dead. As she neared the end of the
aisle, she was suddenly one of the guests, and it was no longer her
in the white dress. At least, she thought it wasn't her. The figure
turned around and Adrianne saw the figure's face. It was her own!
But it suddenly was distorted, and turned into a grotesque imitation
of her. Ben did the same thing.
"Mashter wantsh with yoush, yesh yesh. Mashter would
likesh to talksh with you, Adriannesh. Yesh, yesh, talksh," said the
raspy-voiced creature who was once Ben. "Help me Adrianne," the
girl in the wedding dress cried. Evan laughed, and sucked
something white from her back and red from his. A look of pain
crossed both their faces, and they slumped to the floor, dead. He
absorbed the colored spheres, and looked Adrianne in the eye. She
felt as if someone had set fire to her soul. She was burning in that
dress. She could see her own flesh ablaze with a bright orange
firestorm. She screamed loudly and bolted upright in her bed.
'Wait, I'm not at home,' she thought. "Adrianne!" A voice
echoed through her house. It was Evan's. She felt so heavy, and she
couldn't move. Evan came closer and closer. She screamed again.
********************************************
When she awoke, Jake was holding her and trying to calm
her and wake her up. She rose her eyes to meet his, and they both
broke into tears and just sat there holding each other in a death
grip, neither wanting the other to let go.
"Oh I had the most horrible dream. You tried to save me, but
I got married to Evan anyway. But it wasn't me, except it was. And
Ben, something happened to Ben. He was evil-looking, and Evan
stole something from both of us. They were little pebbles, and
mine was white and his was red. And we both died, oh it was so
horrible!" She cried some more. "I know you must think that I'm
weak now, so just go ahead and leave me like all my other friends did."
"Wait, you said on the bus that you were still in contact with
your friends," Jake said, feeling very confused.
"I keep in touch with them, but they don't keep in touch with
me. And it's all because they think I did something to my last
boyfriend." She had dried her eyes now for the most part, but they
were still quite red. Jake brought her chin up with his hand. "What
happened?" Adrianne shook her head. "I don't want to talk about
it." Jake seemed slightly hurt, but let it go and continued holding
her and letting her cry. After about an hour, they realized it was six
in the morning already, and it was pretty much pointless to go back
to sleep, so Jake made the two of them coffee.
"I......... I think I'm ready to talk now. But you've gotta
promise not to tell anyone."
Jake nodded. "Alright, I promise."
Adrianne sighed, and began her story.
********************************************
"I had only known him for a little while, and I didn't see
much of him, but I really liked him. So, one day I said to him,
'Evan, you know I like you, right?' and he said 'Yeah, do ya wanna
go somewhere after school?' I was flattered, and naturally I
accepted. We went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and I went over
to the edge and looked over it. I guess I looked too far, because the
next thing I remember was falling. And Evan came after me.
'He dove in just as I hit the water. We ended up somewhere in
a secluded spot a couple miles downstream. He said to me 'This is
how I wanted to die, so please, just tell the people who find you
that I'm dead. I can't be in touch, but if you see me again, you'll
know.' And with that, he was gone. Out of my life forever. I think I
cried for at least an hour and a half straight that night. The next day
at school, everyone thought I fell in on purpose to get him killed. I
don't have any idea why they would think that, but they did. And I
became such an outcast at school that, after three years, my parents
thought we should move to another state to get me away from the
pain. So when I go to school here, I put on a mask of the happy,
ditzy Adrianne that everyone loves, and no one has a clue."
********************************************
Jake stared at her for a moment, and put his arms back around
her as she started to cry for a third time.
"Now you must think I'm the most worthless piece of scum
that ever walked this earth," Adrianne sobbed into his chest.
"No, you're probably the strongest person I know. You dealt
with that secret tragedy alone for years, and that takes real courage.
You're far from weak. Crying doesn't make you weak. It just
makes you stronger. It's a common misconception. Just like love.
People think that love makes you weak, when in reality it only
strengthens you, especially when you lose someone you love."
Adrianne gradually stopped crying and looked at Jake's face.
She saw no hint of malice, sarcasm, or contempt, just a caring and
helpful face. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. He took a
tissue and dried her emerald eyes. His fingers ran along her cheeks,
which were stained red from crying. She reached down for his
hand and put it in hers. Adrianne smiled, and Jake smiled back. He
put his arms around her again and they stood like that for a few
minutes.
"You know what, I'm really tired. Let's try and go back to
sleep." Adrianne lifted her head off his chest and started towards
the couch, stretching. Before she could get very much further, Jake
called out her name. "Adrianne?" She turned to face him. "What is
it?" Jake sighed. "I've got a secret of my own. There is no Kylie. I
made her up. The girl in the picture is some person I got off a
website for picture cropping. I have never had a girlfriend. I'm
sorry I lied to you." Adrianne smiled understandingly. "It's ok. I
lied to you twice, and you're not leaving me."
"Why would I leave? It is my house after all," Jake said.
Adrianne laughed and went back into the living room and fell
asleep on the couch within seconds. Jake thought that looked like a
good idea, and went into his room and fell asleep quickly.
********************************************
"Mashter, Mashter, she's ashleep now Mashter. May I kill
hersh now Mashter?" an impish creature crooned in it's whiny,
raspy voice. It twitched it's leathery scarlet wings as it waited for a
reply.
"I told you ,Mullog, you are not to kill the girl. I want her
alive." A strange cloaked figure raised his head as he said these
words.
"But Mashter-" The creature vanished before it could say
anymore. "Anyone else who wants to kill Adrianne?" All of the
imps shook their heads. "I will have Adrianne again, and
everything will be as it was three years ago."
********************************************
A/N: YAY! This is my biggest chapter ever! 4000 something
words, not including the A/N. Gee, I know right now it seems like
a sappy love story, but it will not only get more exciting, it will get
sappier. Fun fun. Well, for me at least. For all you LoD fans, you
know that there is more than one Dragoon Spirit. Who gets the
other seven? And is there a ninth? Find out in later editions of
Quest of the Dragoons.