Reread and rewritten


The Ties That Bind.

Chapter 1.

"Yeah! Go Dragoon!"

Tyson yelled encouragingly as his blade slammed bodily into Draciel.

"No. Come on Draciel. You can do it!"

However Draciel wasn't quite good enough this time as his blade flew out of the stadium spinning lazily to a standstill at his feet.

Tyson dramatically punched the air, hopping from foot to foot, celebrating his victory

"He He! I won again Max."

Max closed his eyes, his face showing the obvious, and all too familiar, expression of disappointment. He bent down to retrieve Draciel, his fist closing around the still warm Beyblade. He brought the blade up to his chest momentarily before locking it into his launcher, his eyes blazing with determination.

"Let's go again!"

"Yeah!" Hollered Tyson, his victory grin spreading impossibly wide as he fixed Dragoon to his own launcher.

"You can do it this time Max," cheered Ray heartily from the sidelines.

Kai, Daichi, Kenny and Ray were all watching with various levels of enthusiasm; Kai studying the battle readying himself to point out all the mistakes; Kenny studying the Blades themselves for any tweaks or improvements he could make to them; Daichi jumping up and down impatiently, wanting to be battling himself and only holding himself back out of fear of the imposing figures of Kai and Ray standing either side of him, and finally Ray watching calmly, waiting to throw in helpful comments and encouragement, the very epitome of a supportive and unfathomably patient teacher.

As night began to draw in and the streetlights began flickering into life, the Bladers wound down, eventually splitting off to head to their respective homes. The group was soon down to its last two.

"Same time tomorrow Kai?"

"Sure. See you."

Ray walked off towards the road as Kai set off alongside the river, preferring the quiet of nature to the busy streets of the town and the people he would encounter there. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked at a steady pace along the river's edge passing empty benches and the remnants of their former occupants. Along the route Kai would walk beneath several bridges, the growing darkness around him enveloping him completely as he passed beneath each of them.

It was at the second bridge that it happened. Under the bridge there was always piles of random rubbish that people dumped there instead of taking it to the nearest official dump. Kai normally just stepped carefully around the mounds, taking very little notice of what they consisted of, however, on this occasion he paused. He scanned the piles searching for whatever had alerted his senses. At first nothing appeared to be any different to what it usually was when he came by this way, but then he saw movement in the pile to his right. This wasn't unusual in itself, as rats and other small animals were frequent visitors to the dumping ground but this movement was different. Kai peered into the darkness attempting to work out what had peaked his interest. His ears strained against the silence of the ever-darkening night and could just about make out a kind of quiet sobbing noise. Now if Kai were to see somebody sobbing openly in pubic he would most likely avert his eyes and continue on his way but this situation seemed so strange and the sobbing was so quiet yet also so intensely desperate that he felt an urge to investigate further.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

The rubbish suddenly jolted as if something underneath them had jumped in a confined space.
"Do you need help?" Kai asked tentatively knowing that, as the sound had abruptly stopped, that whatever had been making it must be aware of his presence. Again, there was no response to his question. The pile of rubbish remained stubbornly still and silent. Confused and more than a little curious, he stepped closer to the pile and tugged at a piece of wet cardboard near the approximate location of the sounds he had heard. He tossed the cardboard behind him and leaned forwards to grab a second larger piece as, suddenly, Kai was thrown backwards by a blur of dirt and rags hitting him solidly in the chest. He just about managed to stay on his feet as he stumbled backwards clutching his chest and gasping for breath. As he gathered himself Kai looked across just in time to see a small figure running off back in the direction Kai had been walking. Through his watery eyes Kai couldn't make out much about the person, other than that they were small, probably quite young and possibly female judging by the sobbing he had heard.

Kai coughed and straightened up as he got back his breath. Looking back at where the young girl had come from he could see what appeared to be a little nest made of paper and cardboard. The girl looked to have been living there. He turned to see if she was still in sight but she was long gone. Kai absently rubbed his chest where he'd just been struck by this small curiosity and contemplated the events that had just occurred. He looked once again to the direction the girl had fled in and turned to continue home…


That's it for chapter 1.
Hope you liked it.
If you did, just let me know by leaving a review.
Thanks in advance!
Mamph.