Flowers can fade and go down, and trees fall season by season. The forces of nature battle against each other and a cycle carries through and through; from life comes death, and death ends each life.

But legend tells of those great and terrifying creatures, arguably not a part of nature: dragons. They rule the crags of mountains and fly through the highest portion of the sky. Never seen by human eyes, they exist only through ancient stories and songs, imperceptible to us.

However.

There was one such lad who proclaimed himself burned by a dragon, destined to rule over them and control their race. He claimed to have seen them himself, and yielded the power found in their great hearts. He terrified others, and at times managed to help them.

He was felled by the one knight of our time, and his loss was mourned for a long time by his faithful follower; but as they say, dragons are hard to kill, and who knows...this one's managed to come back time and time again. Haunting nightmares and perforating reality, there have been sightings...some say strange happenings have been going on.

But I suppose that's improbable, don't you?

Gingka squealed as Madoka grabbed the back of his headband - and a good part of his hair, too - and dragged him into the workshop.

"Listen, Gingka. You've been avoiding me all day."

"That's because you're mad at me", he whimpered. "I don't know why! Just spare me the agony and kill me now!" Wailing, he fell onto his knees, stretching his hands up in claws to the ceiling.

"Gingka, stop it." Madoka smacked his hands away. "I need to talk to you about Kenta. He's been so depressed lately."

Gingka got off the floor and slid onto the worktable. "I noticed. What do you think we should do about it?"

"The question is: What should YOU do about it? You're Kenta's best friend. He wouldn't listen to anybody else. He needs you, Gingka, so go talk to him!"

"I think it's because Ryuga's gone. He really looked up to that guy, you know."

"Just go talk to him", Madoka said softly. So Gingka exited the room to find Kenta.

He found him outside in the garden under the setting sun, the sunflowers swaying around him quietly. He had one leg tucked underneath him and was staring out into the distance silently.

"Hey, buddy", he sighed, settling on the warm earth beside him. "What's up?"

Kenta pointed to the ground about a foot in front of him. "Look at that. I just can't figure it out."

Gingka sat up and leaned forward. "That certainly wasn't there yesterday..."

"No way it sprang up overnight."

Before them lay a sprawling bed of snapdragons.

Rolling in all directions in front of them, the flowers wove and snaked around the roots of Madoka's sunflowers, popping up in every available space and taking up each inch of barren ground except the space where Kenta sat.

"When I stepped through here they just sank into the ground under my feet, but I can't get them to do it again."

"Snapdragons, huh? That's unusual." Gingka stood up and surveyed the strange garden.

"We better go inside before Benkei finishes off all the food." Turning and glancing over his shoulder at Kenta, he added, "Cheer up, buddy. It'll be alright."

Kenta squinted at one of the flowers and plucked it off, tucking it into his shirt pocket thoughtfully, then headed inside.

The next morning the garden was barren of snapdragons, and the one in his pocket had vanished without a trace. But he thought he say a dragonfly head off through his bedroom window, opening his eyes sleepily in the watery light of the early morning.