Author's Note: So, this is been on here for 4 years and with only 2 chapters, and my muse suddenly revved its engine during a reread of it and suddenly I had more ideas that I had to write down. It's been a bit hectic for me these past years. Short version is that life's troubles distracted me from writing, which I usually do when I'm not reading.
So, I thought I'd keep this one going until my muse's engine dies out on this. Not that I'm giving up on it, though. Time just happens to take and give certain things life happens to drop at your door. Sometimes it's a gift, sometimes I watch the door with flashlights, making sure nothing gets through. Now, I'm being totally long-winded.
So, to the point: I've re-edited the story. Read at your leisure and review if you please. I like to read other's opinions. So long as I can work with whatever problems or thoughts you have on it.
In The Eyes of the Dragon
A darkness is on its way: The Heralds of an ancient evil have begun gathering the tools to reawaken their master. Viveka, a young woman whose parents were explorers of the supernatural world: is chosen by a mystical dragon ornament with a curious crystal to be its protector. With friends old and new, she is to help prevent the evil from returning. Life will never be the same for her again.
Prologue
Dwelling in the shadows of a terrace overlooking the lake, a lone figure was perched on the edge of the wall that surrounded it. Faint music hummed quietly in the background: 'Nickelback: Gotta Be somebody'. Sirens drowned out the words, but she could still hear the traces of the beat. Her fingers drummed along, dark green orbs flickering left and right. By her side sat an ornament: a black dragon perched on its hindquarters guarding a mystical orb in its talons. It had come into her possession with the death of her parents. A tragedy, sure, but she had not regarded it that way. Her parents and she had never gotten along. They were – had been – ambitious individuals, travelling the world in search of mystery and knowledge. Having a baby had been their greatest joy, but ultimately their fiercest regret. She had often been left to live in their home, alone.
Growing up she had not thought much of their absence. They had never been around for her to miss. Instead, she had been left in the care of the Butler. He made sure she received an education and grew to be knowledge of the world, but considering his age; she had grown up depending on herself. He had stayed in the home, providing some sense of a stable home life. She figured he felt some sort of parental obligation to stick around. He had died ten years ago and she had been nine at the time. It had been the scariest, saddest moment of her life – the first time she had felt fear and pain of such magnitude. Sure, she had nightmares, but it had been a sort of fear that left you numb. It was around then she found out she had parents, and their identities – when the only source of protection she had ever known had been lost to her.
For the next nine years, her 'parents' as they were called took her around the world since there was no one left to look after her. She learnt the truth about the mysterious of the world; the legends and its myths. They were real. The old saying went 'Every myth and myth held a grain of truth'. On each of their adventures, they brought her. She had been forced into situations no child should dare witness and she could not say she was better or worse for it. She had experienced much more than any of her peers and most humans did in a lifetime. Although, she could not quite regret the time she had spent with them and learning what she had, she had never connected with them.
But she had learnt a few things.
All legends of mythical creatures were as real as the stone she stood upon. So, perhaps 'the parents' had actually taught her something.
The sirens stopped, signalling the end of her recollections, such as they were – just as the last few lyrics played on the radio and she turned towards it: "Nobody wants to be the last one there/ Cause everyone wants to feel like someone cares/ There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere/ There's gotta be somebody for me out there."
The fluttering of wings caught her attention. Above the canopy that sheltered the terrace from the rain crouched a winged figure; the feathers were a charcoal grey at the top and gradually darkened until they were black at the tips. Long locks framed handsome, chiselled face. Violet orbs glowed in the lightning that struck somewhere in the distance and the rain began to fall. He was dressed only in a pair of black loose-fitting pants, kept in place with red satin. He loomed over her as she straightened slightly as if to make herself taller.
"Felix," she murmured, stepping down from the ledge, clasping her hands behind her back and waited until he dropped down before her. His wings stretched high above before folding behind him, forming his own raincoat over his shoulders. He was always shirtless unless he made his wings smaller to avoid detection from other humans. "What brings you here?" she asked the angel in front of her.
He had been born on Earth rather than where the angel's resided; making him a stranger to his own kind. (She guessed that was why his wings were multi-coloured because others she had seen always one one-coloured wings, sometimes dyed to show their station or personal preference. That was not clear to her and most angels did not really speak with 'the mortal'. Especially humans. Some were a little nicer, but that was only to the soul they were guarding. But only in the rarest of circumstances did they ever reveal themselves.) If one were to question her relationship to Felix, she would liken it to a brother and sister paradigm. Her 'parents' had found him when they had taken her along. He had been bruised, battered and alone. They had taken him in and for once in her life, she had not felt alone. She had gone from being an only child in the strictest sense to having a 'family' with a sibling added to the mix.
Wings ruffling, Felix stepped out of the rain. "I just heard the news," he said, folding his arms over his chest and pinned her with a raised brow. "Are you okay, Viveka?"
She frowned and turned to pick up the dragon ornament. It glowed bright as she held it between her palms. She stared, surprised though her face remained expressionless as she lost herself to the hypnotic dance of colour. Felix unfolded his arms, slowly approaching her as Viveka continued to stare at the orb held beneath its right paw. He sighed. Truthfully, he would have been surprised if she had been crying over Michael and Mary's deaths. The three of them had no connection to one another outside biology; despite their insistence to try and make up for the damage they had caused, but it had been far too late. They had long since destroyed any chance of reconciliation with her the day the Butler had died. He had never met the man, but was incredibly sorry he was gone, though that would have meant he may have never met her.
Felix gently placed his hands on her shoulders, jostling her dark forest eyes to snap to his violet. Those eyes hid more than what appeared on the surface, and so he was never sure what she was thinking, but one of his abilities was to sense others' emotions. Viveka however was one of the few humans able to shield themselves. She possessed the ability to 'block' her mind and heart from outsiders. He had to talk to her and hope she was in the mood to reciprocate. With her moodiness, snarkiness and penchant for one-worded or grunted replies, it was easier said than done.
It appeared she was in the mood to speak, because she admitted: "I don't feel like I'm going to start bawling my eyes out. But, I suppose in some strange way… I'll miss their absence as much as I did growing up," she admitted, looking almost concerned that she felt that way. She bit her lip and looked towards the approaching storm rather than him. "Feeling like there should be something there, but never knowing what..."
He sighed, but at least it was something. An affirmation. He lowered his hands, letting one grasp her elbow and led her inside and away from the rain. "Come inside, Viv. You're going to catch a cold if you stay out here," he warned her, knowing how miserably annoying she got when she was sick. She was not horrible, he supposed, but she always expected chicken soup and became rather manipulative to ensure she got it. He even ended up doing all her chores for the duration of her sickness and he already did the most of it.
"Maybe I wouldn't mind that," she replied, but allowed herself to be pulled inside. She kept the ornament close to her heart, one arm wrapped around it protectively.
Lightning flashed and thunder rolled as the two disappeared in side, the dragon's eyes flashed four times.
"Of course you wouldn't," was the angel's dry reply as he made sure to get her into the kitchen for a nice cup of hot chocolate.
Across the sea, hidden in a remote location on Japan beneath layers and layers of magic to remain hidden; the twin to dragon Viveka had flashed four times as well. This magically hidden place was called The Lap of the Gods. It was the home of the Ninja Tribunal, and they were immortal ninja warriors embodying the four teachings of ninjutsu: spirit, weapons, strength and stealth. Their life's mission was to prevent the resurrection of an evil that even demons joined the angels to help defeat it. He was called: the Shredder. Once, he had been human and honourable, though cunning, but he had made a deal with a demon that had tried to destroy the world and remake it to suit him. The result was an abomination that forced Kon, Juto, Chikara and Hisomi to hone their abilities and on that mission they became forces of nature themselves.
They were in tune with the world, an ear to the shadows and their sights on the horizon, always watching, always wary. They were wise and mystical, having lived longer than some vampires. Some said they had become dragons; were actually dragons in human form. Such a thing was not unheard of, but you had to be born of a dragon. The Tribunal had once been human and so human they were, but simply… more than just human. They had dabbled in the most primal of magicks: nature – a force neither good nor evil it was wildly unpredictable. Pure in essence and form, wild and untamed: the kind of magic only the desperate sought, and even then it was taken slowly, gradually and hesitantly.
When the dragon stopped pulsing, Kon approached it. "Some has found the second Dragon's Eye," he told the others, though they did not really need to be told. It would be the only reason it would react. Most magical artefacts acted in multiple numbers. Some to guard and defend, some to attack and harm, some to promote good luck and others to befall misfortunate upon the unlucky individual to stumble across it. All held a purpose of some kind. Benign or not was the question. Enchanters were the ones who practised such magic exclusively and were highly prized, but also very rare. The commitment needed to perform their practise was huge, time consuming and draining. A single mistake could mean death for them or summoning demonic hellfire onto the earth. The artwork on his Dragon was small, written in ancient Japanese, a language long since forgotten by the modern age.
Touching the orb, silver eyes shining he let his mind connect with it and asked who had found its twin. A language learnt only the oldest of beings whispered directly into his ears, and just like the first time he had heard it, a shiver ran down his spine. But unlike the first time when he had shied away from it, he only closed his eyes to listen closer. "A young woman who knows the truth about the world has been entrusted with the Second Eye," he said as he disconnected from the orb and turned to his companions. "Events have been set into motion. The Heralds are planning to resurrect the original Shredder. She may be the one to help us."
"And what of the ones we have chosen?" Chikara, the only female asked. "Is it still not our goal to teach them?"
Kon's silver eyes shifted to her lightning green. "We will need all the help we can get. We shall send our Mokusai No Bushi to bring them to our ship."
"And if they fail the test?" Juto asked the question that all four dreaded, but it needed to be asked.
"Then the world will fall."
With that cheery sentence, silence fell and in that moment Hisomi disappeared before his brothers and sister noticed him. He reappeared atop the highest mountain of the place he had called home for centuries. It was here he came often, to dwell under the sun and stars, listening to the world around him. He found solace in this place, even as his thoughts dwelt into the past as it so often did. He remembered a time when he had once been mortal – where death held a meaning. It no longer proposed fear for him. Living so long, he would often consider death as the final adventure into the unknown but he had a duty. His duty was to teach Acolytes the ways of Ninjutsu. His forte was stealth.
Long ago, he had become mute in his dedication to his way. He could not say he regretted it. Words could become needless, annoying and meaningless. Body language and actions spoke louder than words and he was a master at reading it, but sometimes he wished he could speak, to communicate with those unable to see as he did. Only Chikara, Kon and Juto could 'speak with him' and that was only because they shared a mind-link that had been honed between them over the centuries. One could not defeat the ultimate demon without becoming a force beyond human reckoning themselves. Sometimes he wondered if they truly were human anymore, but in the end, it did not truly matter. They were who they were now and there was no room for regret, not after so long.
Dawn rose. His yellow eyes glowed in its golden and warm caress. Closing his eyes, he wondered what the future – something even he could not determine – had in store for them.
And that's the Prologue.
I would add a few thoughts, but most of it's up top. So, how about a quote?
Humans live through their myths and only endure their realities. Robert Anton Wilson