Chapter One
Clara awoke to the sound of birds chirping around the nearby trees. She sat up suddenly and looked around in an attempt to orientate herself. The setting was unfamiliar to her except for having seen it on television and movies. "It couldn't be", she muttered to herself. The steep hills around showed otherwise. She stood, and instinctively wiped the grass she was lying on off her bottom and back. She looked around once more to make sure this was real. Suddenly, a giant flying dragon landed not too far from her and four kids, dressed in martial arts looking outfits plopped off of it. She decided she'd go along with her dream, it seemed interesting enough. She stood where she was, and the kids made their way to her. Clara noticed the giant dragon had shrank to the size of a common garden snake. She stood there, with a sinking feeling that this was not a dream, as the group came closer to her. She didn't know what to do, would they hurt her? No, that didn't make any sense, and besides, she knew she could stand her ground well enough. A Japanese girl from the group, waved to her and said "Hi". Clara waved back. Once the group and Clara were face to face, a tall, strongly built young man wearing a cowboy hat, spoke first. "Excuse us, Miss, but you wouldn't have seen any strange objects around here lately?". The boy had an obvious western accent, Texan, Clara thought, But what would he be doing here?. "No", she responded, "then again, I don't even know where 'here' is" "You mean you're lost?", asked the good looking dark boy in front of her, "Yeah, I don't remember how I got here, either. One minute I'm sitting bored in my house, the next I wake up here", Clara gesticulated towards the spot where she awoke, "So any help you guys could offer would be great", "Well, I'm not sure where you came from, strangely dressed lady, but this land is China", said a small bald boy. He had been looking Clara over this whole time. She looked stranger than his friends when they had first appeared. Wearing mostly black and white clothing with skulls and a studded belt. Clara had not noticed him until now. But the knowledge that she was miles away from home gripped her instantly. "China, It can't be!". But it was. And all the tell tale signs immediately set in, the steep hills around her, the trees, everything she had immediately recognized as Asian but decided to store it away at the back of her mind suddenly made sense. No, I can't panic, she thought, I won't find a way home by panicking. She took a deep breath, then the Japanese girl asked her, "Where are you from?", "The States. Southern California, to be exact." "Now that's a long way from China", the cowboy added. "Tell me about it", Clara sighed. "Well, I guess you could come with us, I mean, maybe we can find out how you ended up here", The handsome boy said. "Ok", Clara agreed, "By the way, my name's Clara", "I'm Raimundo", the boy responded, "And I'm Kimiko", the girl said, "my name's Clay, and it's a pleasure to meet you", said the cowboy, "Pleasure too", Clara responded, "And I am Omi and we are all the Xiaolin Warriors. I'm sure Master Fung will be able to help you". "Uh, hello?", the little dragon suddenly said, "Am I invisible?". Clara had completely forgot his existence. "Anyway", continued the dragon, "I'm Dojo. Now if we're gonna help you out, we should get going". The group moved away, and Dojo grew back to his immense size. The dragons climbed onto Dojo's back, and Clara was helped up. "Oh, by the way, you might want to hold on tight", Kimiko told her. Clara began to wonder why she had told her that as Dojo rose from the ground. She began to lose balance and quickly grabbed on. Then, the giant dragon began his flight back to the Xiaolin Temple.