Flammie and Glory 2: Dreams Come True

by shadowlugia249

A Flammie TF. Part of the DCTA Series, a Flammie fanatic finds a strange metal box in his back yard. WHen he opens it, he finds two items that will both make his dreams come true and test his true power in the coming war...

Flammie and Glory 2: Dreams Come True

By shadowlugia249

Author's Note: Given the disappointing reviews from my "Son of a God 2" story, let me explain something very clearly. That story, this one and Chaos Theory – a later story – are all follow-ups to the "Dreams Come True Anthology" story. The endings are not very definitive because Johiko's, Seryn's and Shadow's stories are nowhere near finished when their individual stories end. I am just summarizing up the 1000 years after these stories leading up to the events of "Dreams Come True Anthology" in just a few paragraphs. If you want to complain, I challenge you to write me a better ending and send it to me so that my "schmutzy" ending can be replaced. Other than that, I don't want to hear any complaining. I am trying my best here and I don't need the guff from picky critics. I've already had a bad experience with someone who took my fan fiction too seriously. If you have a problem with my story, please e-mail me personally instead of posting the complaint on the Internet for everyone to see. Enjoy!

Even after 1000 years, I almost never wake up in the morning and think the same thing: "Was Fate on my side that day?" Was I destined to become this from the beginning or could Fate have played out differently? Now that I am what I am today, I can't exactly take it all back. But even if Fate had changed that day, I feel that I wouldn't have traded anything for the adventures I've had since then.

What am I going on about? Well, it's a rather long story. It's really a strange turn of events that had a lot of strange twists and quirks in it. Let me tell you about it, and then tell me what you think should have happened...

How long has it been... 1000 years already? It's been so long that I've already discarded the name I was born with. Let me think for a while...

...Oh, that's right. I remember now. I used to be called "Sam Tyko". But that was a long time ago. Still, it brings so many memories to my mind whenever I recollect that name. If I think real hard, I can even remember what I looked like.

I was a young man in his mid-20s and fresh out of college. I had moved to a rural area near the center of Minnesota to settle down an live a normal life. I didn't have a girlfriend and I had moved away from my family. Still, I wanted to try and get a job as a video game specialist in the nearby city of Willmar.

But all this had absolutely nothing on my one true love: Flammies. Yep, they're real. And in case you've never heard of them, let me tell you. Flammies are massive mythical creatures with four – yep, four – large, feathery wings and fur like you could never imagine. The feel of said fur is said not only to be softer than alpaca belly fur, but it's rumored to contain magical qualities that people would pay a pretty penny for. There is only a few tufts of Flammie fur out there that aren't attached to the Flammie itself, but the cost for a single lock of this magical fur can be anywhere from $500 to $1000 American. Yeah, it's that valuable.

Most people who can afford this amazing fur usually wear pendants or crystal bottles with a lock of Flammie fur around their necks or as charms or key chains. It is said that the magic of the fur is so powerful that if a single strand were ingested, it could cure almost any illness or injury! And if you placed said fur near your bed at night, it can grant you an unlimited good night's sleep with the best dreams you could ever have. Now you can see why it's so valuable.

But that's nothing compared to the most powerful known part of a Flammie – their feathers. Yes, Flammies have fur, but they also have feathers on their four wings that are shed even less than their fur. That part sells for no less than $2000 a pop.

Why is it so valuable? Because it is said that if you dip a Flammie feather in scented oil and inhale the fumes, your mind is sent into a dream-like state that is completely interactive and won't dissipate for about 30 minutes. The only drawback is that your body is completely unable to move and you might have a slightly vacant expression on your face. I know it sounds like a magnificent high on the streets, but numerous scientific experiments have proven that the fumes of an oiled Flammie feather do no damage whatsoever to the body or your mind and it eventually wears off so that you can function properly again.

The Flammie feather has one more magical property. I've read stories of a man running a feather over a massive bulbous birthmark on his face that took over six surgeries to reduce even the slightest. The following day, the birthmark had reduced in size by 30! A few days later after repeated applications, the Flammie feather had completely removed the birthmark from his face and had even wiped the color away from it! How much more God-like can it get?!

To top it all off, rumor has it that the ashes of a Flammie feather, mixed in an ordinary glass of water, can cure practically any sickness. A woman had had terminal leukemia and was scheduled to die in just a few days. As a last rite, she was one of the rare few to find a Flammie feather lying around and burned it and drank the ashes in water (she was a Native American). The following day, her body had been purged of all illness and she was able to live a completely normal life, much to her doctors' astonishment. Talk about a miracle!

And how did I know all this at the time? Let's just say that I had done some pretty heavy research while I was in college as a science project.

But how did all of this Flammie Mania start? Believe it or not, it all started with a single photograph that a woman had taken of a Flammie in Washington D.C. in September of 1999, followed by numerous eye-witness accounts of a great "furry dragon" fleeing the capital with a "black hedgehog" riding on its back. (Author's Note: This was Seryn and Shadow after they time-traveled in "Dreams Come True Anthology", but no one knows that...) They hadn't gotten a decent shot of the hedgehog, but the shot of the Flammie had been so accurate and the detail in the photograph had earned the woman a small fortune and had sparked nation-wide Flammie Mania.

Shortly after the shot was taken, a full-scale government investigation was launched to find out more about the "furry dragon" and thus the name "Codename: "Flammie"" was born. Not long into the investigation, multiple sightings of the Flammie were reported all over the world and that's when people began finding locks of Flammie fur and individual Flammie feathers and discovering their magical properties. There have even been strange instances where entire cities all over the world have seen the Flammie performing good deeds simultaneously.

But despite the success of the first photo, the ability to capture a decent full-body in-focus shot of the Flammie proved elusive. No one could repeat what that one woman had gotten with just one shot.

Further investigation of "Codename: Flammie" provided the media with a strange piece of information: DNA tests on several different sources of Flammie fur and/or feathers told scientist that it all came from the same one! It was indeed strange that just one Flammie was causing all of this ruckus. It was for this reason that despite no one having captured it, it was placed on the "Critically Endangered" list and was considered illegal to shoot and/or trap it.

There was another fact that wasn't adding up with the media. Despite it being able to fly, the Flammie was reported seen in New York early one morning and then an out-of-focus shot of it emerged placing the Flammie in Russia just six hours later. I know bird can fly fast, but nothing could fly that far that fast! Yet people in-between the two locations reported seeing a "yellow comet" flying at top speed during that time.

And then all of a sudden, the Flammie sightings stopped. There were no new fur patches or feathers floating around and no new sightings or pictures appeared. A search of the black market showed that no surpluses of the two were in circulation, indicating that someone had killed it and was auctioning it off. What's even stranger, it was exactly one year to the date that the Flammie appeared that it vanished off the face of the earth. No one could explain it, and Flammie Mania soon started to fade.

That was over six years ago, but I was not one to give up on a legend. I believed that the Flammie was still out there in some form or another and I was planning on saving up my money to track down the last reported sightings of the Flammie to see where it disappeared to. However, I needed to get the money first, so that is where my story actually starts.

The year was 2007 and I had just moved to the city of Willmar after completing four years in college to become a mythologist. People had called me crazy when I had made plans to hunt down the last movements of the Flammie, but then again, we get called that all the time. Remember the Elvis sightings after his death? Even though there haven't been any for years, people still believe in him. I was that gung ho on proving that the Flammie was still out there.

My story starts one summer's evening while I was out in my back yard, enjoying a rather cool night off from my job. I was waiting for the start of a spectacular meteor shower that was scheduled to start in a few minutes. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect night to see this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

As I lied on the grass, looking up at the stars, I noticed something a little ahead of schedule. Two bright, shining objects were moving across the sky at a speed that startled me. At first, I thought it was either a satellite or plane or even an early shooting star, but then all of a sudden, the two objects stopped directly in mid-flight above me. I blinked and looked at the objects curiously. I had never seen anything moving that fast to stop so suddenly.

Getting up, I decided to try and get a better look at the objects. However, I had left my binoculars inside. Once I reentered my house to search for my binoculars, I heard something strange. A loud whomp tore through the air, followed by something I will never forget.

At first, I thought that the world had come to an end, but then I realized that something had just exploded in my backyard, decimating half of my fence and lighting up the area around it with a bright, blue light and then going out. I thought I had seen the Light of God, but once I rushed outside, something didn't add up.

There was no fire, no smoke and no carnage where the item had hit. In fact, it looked like something had come in at an angle, pierced my fence, dug into the ground with the force of a penetrating laser and ended suddenly several feet down. It was as if something had just dug a tunnel in my backyard and the leftover dirt was nowhere to be found.

Not sure whether what I was seeing was real, I carefully walked over to the tunnel and made my way down the dirt tunnel. The tunnel didn't have any supports, which made me slightly nervous on how strong it was, but no dirt was falling above me, which told me that whatever had hit it had compacted the clay around the outer edge. The tunnel was about ten feet in diameter and with a rough guesstimate, it went at a perfect 30 degree angle down about 50 feet.

At the end of the tunnel in front of a dirt wall was an object that I didn't even know existed under my lawn. A medium-sized metal box was resting at the end of the tunnel, and judging from the rust and the corrosion that had collected on it, it was made of simple iron that could be found at any hardware store.

I picked the box up and started to open it, but I was currently 30 feet under my lawn and I didn't want to end up buried alive, so I carried the box out of the tunnel to open it up there. When I reached my room, though, I found that the box, which should have had some kind of lock on it, simply opened up with two clasps like a suitcase.

Inside the box was something that I did not think was possible. It was a large stuffed toy that looked suspiciously like a... Flammie?! It really looked like a Flammie from all the research I did with it. (Author's Note: Remember the "surprise" that Shadow included in the box in "DCTA"? Well, now you know!) I looked at it and saw that it had been honed to perfection by whoever had made it. It had the four feathery wings at exactly the right scale, its talons and pads were precisely the right size and its fur was exactly the same shade and tone with all of the various colors on its ears and the edges of its wings. But that was nothing compared to how it felt!

When I picked the stuffed Flammie up, I could have sworn that I was picking up a real-live animal! The "fur" on its body felt so real and so soft that I instantly knew that this was the exact texture and density as real Flammie fur, even though I had never felt one before! Not only that, but the feathers on its wings each looked as if they were real bird feathers. They were veined and had feathery fronds just like a real bird's, which startled me on how real they were. I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment that I had this stuffed Flammie for two reasons.

One: because there were absolutely no Flammie toys in circulation since the toy producers hadn't gotten enough detail to create one. And Two: there was no one on the face of the earth that could create an artificial fur or artificial feathers with this much detail or softness. Believe me, people have tried, but nothing beats the real thing. Also, I doubted that even the best toy manufacturers could hone their skills enough to create a toy with this much detail. It just wasn't possible.

I felt the toy's fur for a while, taking in the softness and... wait for it... the smell! It had a kind of dry, furry smell to it combined with a strange scent that smelled vaguely like vanilla. It was really quite cuddly to hold and I seemed to become lost in the sensations that were flowing through my mind.

When I finally had the sense to put the Flammie doll on my bedstand, I noticed that that was not all there was in this box. In fact, there was a small, silver box in the center of the bigger one that looked like the kind that jewelers put rings or earrings in. It was also lined with a silvery material that was rather silky to the touch but I did not recognize.

Opening the box, My heart all but stopped. Inside on a white cushion was what looked like a large, curved, pearl-white... it wasn't quite a tooth, but it looked more like a fang. Under the cushion was a long, thin, metal chain that was threaded through a metal loop at the base of the fang. The fang was about as long and about as thick at the base as my pointer finger and it looked extremely sharp at the end. Just to test how sharp it was and to confirm my suspicions on what kind of fang this was, I tested the tip of the fang on the tip of my finger with a quick tap.

"OUCH!!! Son-of-a...! Damn, that hurt!"

I had barely tapped the tip of it, but it had punched a fine hole in my fingertip, causing a large drop of blood to ooze out of my finger. If a fang of this size could do that with my finger, it had to be...

"It's... a real... Flammie fang."

Maybe I was mistaken, but I highly doubted that shark's teeth or snake fangs could get to this size and have the piercing power of an ultra-thin needle. I was completely stunned to learn what I was holding in my hand. I had something in my possession that was completely unheard of to hold in your hand. I had a Flammie fang!!! As far as I knew, no one had ever acquired a Flammie fang during the entire two years that Flammie Mania lasted. I felt both honored and shocked that I had acquired something that no one else had ever touched before.

Okay, enough about that. I held the Flammie fang in my hand while pinching my fingers together to stop the bleeding the fang had caused. This was a red-letter day for me in my quest to find out what happened to the Flammie.

But something happened that changed everything. I suddenly felt a strange warm feeling running through my blood starting from the point where the fang had pierced my finger, all the way down my body like a wave of hot water. Not only that, but I started to feel a little woozy from the heat.

I stepped forward a few paces but then collapsed onto the floor from the immense dizziness that hit my brain like a ton of bricks. I had a few fleeting moments to think about what was happening to me before I was knocked out cold.

What was this feeling? Could it have been caused by some venom in the Flammie fang?! But that was impossible! Flammies didn't have any venom glands... did they? Was I a goner? I tried to move, but the dizzying feeling combined with the intense heat in my body prevented me from moving even a fraction of an inch. I had no choice but to just lie here and die slowly.

But if this was Death, it wasn't so bad. I seemed to be surrounded by a strange white mist that had a kind of... welcoming feeling to it. It was as if my best friend was somewhere in that mist and they were channeling their energy to me.

But wait... something didn't add up. I could sense a second presence there along with the first one. And the bonding feeling they were giving off told me that they were siblings. This dream was starting to get strange.

Just then, I heard one of them speak to the other.

Everything's going according to plan, Hyozanryu, said the first voice. He's found the fang and he's here right on schedule.

The second presence looked at his sibling and smiled through the mist. The process has started, Ashura. But I don't think he should be left in the dark about this.

I thought the second presence was going to tell me what was going on, but the first presence put its hand in front of its sibling's mouth.

You know what he said; he's supposed to wait just like the rest of us did. If he knew now, it would botch the entire thing.

I frowned at being left in the dark. "Hey! I'm right here! I can here every word you're saying! What's happening to me?! Who are you?! How come I can't see you?!"

The two figures looked at me and seemed to acknowledge the fact that I was here.

I'm sorry, Sam. Orders are orders. You'll just have to wait until it happens just like it did with me. All I can say is that we'll see you before the end. Until then, we bid you farewell.

The second figure could sense my annoyance and reached forward to put its hand on my shoulder. I immediately felt that this touch was unlike any other mortal one. It had a firm grip that felt slightly... rough to the touch, and I could only feel one... two... three digits? Was that it? Even though its touch was unexpected, the figure seemed to radiate a feeling of hope and confidence that made me feel slightly better about this whole ordeal.

Good luck, Sam. I look forward to seeing you again.

Just then, I felt the rocky hand caress my cheek and I thought I could make out the figures' forms right before my dream short-circuited and I found consciousness gripping at me.

What the hell was that all about?! I felt as if none of my questions about what was happening to me had been answered! In fact, I had even more questions about those two figures and their entire conversation with me. They seemed to be keeping me in the dark about some unknown event and I demanded answers!

But then I remembered that it was just a dream and it wasn't supposed to make sense. But what about that second figure's touch? It had felt so real and I could have sworn that I was awake at the time. This day was only beginning and already my head was spinning. To add to the confusion, I found myself lying on my bed with no remembrance on how I had gotten there. To top it all off, I was holding the super-real Flammie plushie in my arm.

Just when I thought this couldn't get any stranger, I looked at the Flammie doll and gasped as if it had burned me. The normally creamy-yellow fur had turned a deep-violet color and its feathers had turned a deep magenta. Not only that, but the plushie's normally baby-blue eyes had been changed to a piercing-red and the number of fangs on each side of its mouth was now at two. Also, it's normally smiling muzzle now looked uncertain and undecided.

What had happened to it? It was as if it had turned... there was no other word for it – evil. I was no psychic, but I could tell that this Flammie doll radiated nothing but pure evil.

In an attempt to hide the evil doll, I found the silver box that it had come in and stuffed it back into it. I then took it outside to put it back in the tunnel in my backyard to bury it.

But when I reached the backyard, I found something shocking – the 50-foot tunnel that had been carved into my lawn had completely vanished! The dirt that had been missing before was now back in the ground and the tunnel was completely sealed off. Even more disturbing, you couldn't even tell that the soil or the grass or even the fence had been disturbed. Everything was back where it should have been and there was no sign of it having ever been there.

I could have sworn that I was seeing things, but my eyes were not fooling me. It was clearly daylight out and my lawn was completely undisturbed. In fact, the only things that signified what had once been there were my memory and the fact that I was holding the metal box that had come from inside it in my hands.

"Maybe I'm going crazy," I thought out loud. "First that light show, then half my yard is missing, then that weird dream, then that freaky plushie and now this! Could this day get any weirder?!" I shouted to the air.

I had expected something to happen, but all I got in return was an itch on my chest. Scratching it, I sighed and went to my garage to get a shovel. I guess I would have to bury this thing myself.

Two hours later, I patted the dirt on top of the now-buried metal box with the Flammie plushie inside with satisfaction. There; it was out of my sight and out of my hair. And unless it could magically come alive and dig itself out of there, it was gone for good. (Author's Note: ...) At least I would never have to look at that evil plushie again.

I went inside and went about my normal daily routine, trying my best to ignore the itching feeling coming from my chest.

But by the time I got ready for bed, I could no longer avoid it. The itching had spread from my chest to all of my limbs and appendages. It felt like my body was on fire and I couldn't satisfy the irritation, no matter what I did.

I took off my shirt and shorts and went to my bathroom to look at the damage. I nearly fainted when I saw that my entire body was an irritated-red. It looked like I had an all-over sunburn, but it didn't hurt as much as that. There was no place where I didn't itch and I soon gave up and went to lie in bed, twitching in pain.

But despite my dilemma, I managed to fall asleep relatively easily. Within minutes of lying down, I was just another visitor in the Dream World.

The white mist was back, but I couldn't sense the two figures that had visited me the previous night. Instead, there was a much larger figure somewhere in the mist that was watching over me.

I tried turning around to get a look at the figure, but it would always move at the last moment, thus thwarting my attempts to identify it. I was getting annoyed and was on the verge of just screaming in frustration when I felt it.

A large, thick, padded... I guess I could say "paw"… touched my shoulder and sent a wave of calmness through me. I could feel the figure's furry paw caressing my neck and shoulder area like a close friend. I sighed and allowed it to run over me. It felt soothing and relaxing. There was also a strange yet familiar furry smell wafting from the figure and into my nostrils.

The paw lifted itself off me for a second and then I felt a sharp talon running over my skin. It wasn't pushing against me hard enough to break my skin, but I heard a rip-like sound and I knew that this talon was shearing my clothes off of me. But even though my subconscious was in control, I found I couldn't move my arms or legs to stop the figure from reducing my shirt and pants to scraps, leaving me half-naked in a strange white fog. It felt like something in the Real World was pinning my arms and legs to my bed, rendering me unable to move.

Once my clothes were cast aside, the furry paw was joined by another as they ran themselves down my back. I arched my back from the tingling sensation it gave me, but soon relaxed as the talons started pushing against various points against my spine. The figure seemed to be checking me for something known only to itself.

Apparently, it seemed to like what it felt, because its paws moved to my sides. I was very ticklish, but this figure seemed to know at what point it would make me uncomfortable. I closed my eyes and sighed as the furry pads massaged me gently. I was enjoying this feeling and as long as it lasted, I never wanted to wake up.

The furry paws now moved to my chest from behind. But even though I could now see the figure's paws, I could not tell them apart from the white mist surrounding me. Even so, I did not object as it wrapped its paws around me and started feeling my ribs with its taloned digits.

Slowly but surely, the paws started moving down my front, bypassing my hips and checking out my legs. It seemed to like what it felt because it pushed on my muscles with its knuckles and took particular interest in the flexible feeling it felt.

Finally, the paws lifted from my body for a moment and then wrapped themselves around my chest area again. But this movement was more of an embrace because I felt myself being pulled backwards slightly and being pulled up against a rugged figure.

From what I could tell, its torso and belly area were covered by a series of rugged body armor that gave off a warm feeling when I touched it. But to the sides of the armor was the most super-soft fur that I had ever felt in my life. No mortal fur had anything on this figure's own and I felt like I had felt this before.

Yet despite being pressed up against this figure's chest, I realized that it wasn't breathing and I couldn't feel a heartbeat. But before I could ask, I heard a soft, musical, slightly feminine voice speak to me.

"I am only alive in your dreams at the moment, Sam. I am not dead, but I do not live, either. It is impossible for me to exist without you."

I did not object as one of the figure's paws started slowly stroking my hair like a favorite pet. In fact, I had a question myself.

"What do you mean? You feel so real to me. You seemed to enjoy feeling me even though I'm half-naked here."

The figure brushed the side of one of its talons against my cheek and returned to stroking my hair. "The Dream World is the only place I can exist at the moment, Sam." It paused for a moment. "But you can help me live again."

"Huh?"

The figure put its paw on my cheek while the other paw remained around my chest, holding me close to its own.

"I need your... spirit, Sam. I need you to merge your existence with me so that I can return to the world."

I may have been asleep, but that didn't prevent me from being suspicious. "Why would I do that? I don't even know you and you want me to become you! You could be the Devil Reincarnated for all I know and you're trying to trick me into allowing you to wreak havoc on the world!"

I seemed to have offended it because the figure did not answer right away. I had expected it to berate me for yelling at it but was caught off-guard when I heard it sniffle and start to cry.

"What...? You're... crying?"

The figure let out a sorrowful wail and I thought I felt a tear fall into my hair. I had really hurt this creature's feelings.

"You were my last hope, Sam! I thought you would want to merge with me! After all I went through to make sure my fang was found by you, I thought you'd warm up to becoming me!"

I felt like dirt for offending this poor, innocent creature by yelling at it. It had treated me like a friend and I had had to run my mouth.

"I'm sorry. I just wish I knew more about you before I commit to anything."

The figure eased up on its weeping and let me go for a moment. "I suppose I should have told you who I was before I asked you to do this. Yes... I'll do that, but I must tell you that I can only show myself momentarily. You must not blink or else I will have used up all my energy for nothing."

I still couldn't see it, but I was determined to show the figure that I would not let it down. "I'll do it."

I thought I felt a smile coming from the figure as it gave me one last instruction. "When I've done it, you must answer quickly because this dream will not have much energy left. Ready?"

I nodded and I felt the presence shift from behind me to in front of me. Even though I still couldn't see it, I could tell it was there.

"Well... here goes."

It happened for the briefest instant. I was able to make out a large, strange creature flash in front of me. I didn't have time to take in its details, but I was able to recognize it as something I had seen before... even though not in full.

"Hurry!" said the creature hurriedly. The dream was starting to short out. "Tell me before it's too late! Will you join me?!"

I made a split-second choice that would make all the difference. "Yes! I'll do it! Please don't leave me here!"

The dream did not last much longer, but I was able to detect a strange feeling washing over me and the creature let out a musical cry.

"Thank you... so... much...!"

That was it. I was awake... and confused. Did I actually give my word to merge my spirit with that... thing? Was my life now in a complete loop because of that?

At first, I thought that it was nothing since it was just a dream, but then a thick, heavy, warm feeling in my chest changed everything. There was something different about it, but I couldn't tell in this light. Climbing out of bed, I went over to the light and turned it on. Before I did, though, I felt I was wearing a sweatsuit. When I turned on the light, though, I wish I hadn't. I was still in my underwear, but what I was wearing nearly made me faint.

My chest... no... my entire body was covered in a coat of creamy-yellow F... U... R... FUR!!! I had grown a full-body fur coat! I was starting to panic from the sheer shock of it, but something stopped me all of a sudden.

"Hang on... I've seen this fur before."

It was indeed true. Even though my fingers were covered in it, I was able to get the texture into my senses and it hit something.

"This... is... Flammie fur?!?!"

"Yes... It has begun."

That voice... was I asleep... or was I awake?

"Over here."

I looked in the direction of my dresser with a large mirror on top of it and gasped. It wasn't giving my reflection but had a different yet familiar figure in it. Walking over to it, the figure walked with me and I was soon able to get a good look at it.

"You're... I'm... a Flammie!"

The figure looked different than me, but I recognized it as the legendary Flammie that had caused Flammie Mania around the world over six years ago. It was much bigger than me in the reflection and was covered by the same creamy-yellow fur that now covered my body. And although my fur was more of a fuzzy suit, the Flammie in the mirror looked like its fur was medium-length and well-groomed. Its face was slightly muzzle-like with a curved "beak" on which there was a large, curved, white fang on each side of its maw. It had long, pointed, dear-like ears that were tipped with a mixture of green and blue color. Its untidy hair was thick and medium-length and was colored a goldenrod-yellow. Its eyes were the most amazing things I had ever seen. They were round and colored a clear, watery-blue that looked full of curiosity and innocence.

I couldn't get a good look at the rest of the Flammie because the mirror was higher than the rest of my body. Despite that, I put my hand on the mirror and the Flammie did the same with a four-taloned paw.

"You... you're real!" I said in disbelief.

The Flammie in the mirror spoke with the same musical feminine voice that had echoed in my dreams.

"Technically, I am. But right now, I only exist inside your body. By tonight, you and I will have merged into one existence... and I will have awakened."

I should have been scared that I was turning into a Flammie, but there was something that told me that I was being given a great gift. I then realized something.

"It was you. You were the one in my dream! You are the Flammie that started all this!"

The Flammie put a paw on its cheek, and against all odds, I thought I felt it touching my cheek as well. "I am... and I do have a name. My name is Seryn – and I'm not an "it" – I'm a "she"."

This had two effects on me. First, I finally knew that this was a female Flammie named Seryn. But then the shock of her last words hit home with me.

"Hang on! I'm turning into a woman?!"

Seryn snorted. "Not really, but you are turning into a female Flammie."

I started to open my mouth, but Seryn held up a paw and interrupted me. "Being a female Flammie is nothing to be ashamed of. You won't have to deal with the consequences of being a female of your species. In fact, it's actually better to be a female of my species than it is to be a human male."

I didn't quite understand. Seryn sighed and stroked her hair, sending a similar feeling to me. "You'll understand tonight, Sam. I know you'll enjoy this experience."

I couldn't think of anything to say, so I simply shrugged and sighed.

Suddenly, Seryn's reflection started to flicker in the mirror, signaling that her energy was running out. She closed her eyes and shook her head as the picture realigned.

"I've used up all my energy talking to you, Sam. I must leave you visually, but I will always be with you spiritually." When I continued to look uncertain, Seryn put a talon under her chin and I felt a similar sensation under my own. She lifted my head so that I was looking directly in her baby-blue eyes. "You shouldn't feel bad, Sam. Life as a Flammie will be much more meaningful in the long run. I swear that you will not regret it."

I smiled sadly and put my furry hand on the mirror as if to touch Seryn's own. "Thank you. I needed that."

Seryn sighed and closed her eyes. For a minute, my reflection became distorted and warped, but it soon returned to normal and I found myself looking at my own furry image again.

For the rest of the day, I did not leave the house. I didn't want to be considered a freak in the public and risk restarting Flammie Mania with my furry body. I watched a few movies that day, but I didn't pay any attention to any of them. I was too preoccupied with what I was to become to enjoy my last few hours as a human.

All the while, I toyed with the Flammie fang that I realized had started all this. I finally realized that there was no venom in the fang, but it must have had some magical properties of its own to turn my blood from Human to Flammie with just one poke. As a reminder to what had started all this, I decided to wear the fang around my neck for as long as I was a Flammie. It would serve as an eternal reminder to what I was leaving behind and what I was to become.

As the hours ticked away to evening, I took pleasure in stroking my creamy-yellow fur absentmindedly. I loved the feeling it gave me, but something didn't seem completely whole about it. This was only a precoat of fur; when the real stuff arrived, It would take on a whole new meaning.

Finally, at 7:00, I couldn't take the suspense any longer and went to go lie down on my bed and try to get some sleep. I may feel comfortable now, but I wanted to bypass any further uneasy feelings that my inevitable transformation would bring.

But all that would go amiss when the clock registered seven seconds after 7:07.

My lights suddenly went out as if someone had magically snuffed them out. I was lying on my bed in the dark and I knew that my transformation would begin. However, I was slightly taken aback when I heard a musical cry coming from somewhere in my room. I stood up and looked around in the darkness, trying to see what I was doing or what was going on.

Just then, I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

"Sam..."

"Seryn?" I said the first name that popped into my head.

Looking around, I noticed that there was no one here except for me. But then I heard it again.

"Sam..."

This time, I looked in the exact direction that it was coming from and received a shock. A ghostly apparition of the Flammie, Seryn, was lying on my bed, looking up at me.

"S-S-Seryn?!"

The apparition looked up at me and smiled. "It's me."

I wasn't quite sure what to make of this and was even more nonplussed when Seryn patted the area next to her and said, "Come, Sam... Let us become one."

I didn't know if this was what I wanted, but I didn't want to make Seryn cry again. I walked carefully to my bed and lied down next to her. Seryn rolled on her side and reached out with a ghostly paw to caress my cheek.

"Are you ready for this, Sam?"

I hesitated, breathing hard, but then I nodded and said, "I'm ready."

Seryn let out a musical cry and her figure seemed to slide sideways into my body... and enter me. Instantly, I felt as if someone had reached into my chest and had locked my lungs in a vice. I struggled to breathe and my heart hurt as if I was having a heart attack. Also, my whole body became so hot but at the same time so cold that I had broken out in a cold sweat. It felt as if my body was burning alive and I was about to die. It felt absolutely brutal that I was living through this. I was seriously rethinking my promise to Seryn to become a Flammie.

Just when I thought I was about to pass out from the pain... it stopped. I suddenly felt weightless as if all of my pains and sorrows had ended, leaving me floating in a white fog. Not only that, but an actual white fog had surrounded me and I could have sworn that I had really died. My room had completely vanished, leaving me floating in this strange mist.

Suddenly, I was greeted by a familiar face. A very real-looking Seryn was standing next to me.

"Relax, Sam. I am here for you."

She held out a paw and I took it in my hand so that I was standing face-to-face with her. So far, nothing had happened that indicated that I had transformed.

"What's going on?" I asked her. "Why hasn't it started yet?"

Seryn smiled and held my hand up so that I could see it. "It has. Look."

I was speechless as I saw that my hand was transforming right before my eyes. My five fingers were thickening out and shortening up. My ring-and-pinky fingers were melting together so that I only had four of them, which then shortened and my hand cracked slightly as a tough brown pad grew under each of my digits. What was even more amazing, my fingernails cracked violently and then fell to pieces as a tough, pointed, brown claw began poking out of each one. It felt like my fingers were stretching out as a razor-sharp talon grew from each of my three digits and my thumb nub. All the while, this was happening to my other hand as well.

When my hands had fully become Flammie paws, I tested them out by flexing each digit and poking the pads on the other hand with each talon. There weren't as many joints as there used to be and the four-inch talons didn't flex at all, but I didn't care. They were my paws now and I was just as happy with them as I had been with human hands.

Seryn took my paws in hers pads-up and checked them closely. She turned them over and smiled as she saw that the fur on the backs of them had grown out a little and had a lot more sheen to it.

"Not bad, Sam. You've certainly started out well."

I smiled and returned my attention to my arms. The fur on them had started growing out while my bones started filling out and increasing in density. I felt as if I could lift much heavier loads than I could before and my muscles became stronger and more sinewy. Soon, I had arms that matched Seryn's to a "T".

Next to change was my chest. A sharp snap in my ribs caused me to hunch over from the shock of it. But before I hit the ground, Seryn managed to catch me and put one of my new arms around her furry shoulder for support. I looked up at her baby-blue eyes and smiled.

"Thanks."

Seryn let out a cross between a purr and a chirp and held me up while my chest changed.

Several more loud snap-like sounds sounded from my chest and I had a hard time breathing for a moment as my ribs blew out. The bones that had broken began pushing out on my torso as I gained a considerable amount of mass. I became so hefty that I wouldn't have been able to support myself if Seryn hadn't been holding me up. While my bones realigned themselves, my organs were getting a workout. With an audible squelch than made me feel slightly sick, several of my organs including my intestines, stomach and liver seemed to lose mass as new, unknown organs filled their places. I would find out what these organs were in time, but I had a feeling that I had acquired another pair of... lungs? Huh. I would figure those out later.

My ribs then took their turn and pushed out on my chest so that it went from flabby to muscular and well-built. But that wasn't all. The fur on my front area started to darken and became wet before it started to crystallize and fuse into rippled body armor that ran from my neck all the way down to my...

HO... LY...!!! With a fluid-like motion, I felt my privates practically suck themselves into my body and disappear along with anything that made them function. It seemed that Flammies didn't need reproductive organs or the like. But then how did they...?

"You and I will be one of a kind, Sam," said Seryn, seeing my pained look. "We are all that are... is... and ever will be."

"Then all that Flammie Mania was caused by...?"

"Yes... Just us."

Well, that made a lot of sense!

Suddenly, I felt something pushing on my back in several different locations. Reaching back with my paws, I felt one... two... four large bumps poking out of my sleek back fur. I had a feeling that I knew what they were. They had to be...

"GAH!!! (explicit)!!! DAMN, THAT... OW!!!"

I felt like I had had my spine ripped from my body as four new sets of bones appeared out of nowhere and pushed out into furry wing-like frames. I looked at Seryn with pained eyes and she gently lowered me to the ground so that I was on my front.

"I guess I should have warned you about the wings. That feeling is the most painful of the whole process. I'm sorry I didn't warn you."

"It's... okay." I said, grimacing as my wings stretched out and grew feathers. "You forgot."

Once my wings had reached their full extent and I had a set of feathers to rival a phoenix's, I felt the pain subside and I was able to think straight again. On a whim, I decided to try and flap my wings experimentally, but for some reason, I couldn't move a single muscle in my body. In fact, I couldn't feel anything in my body. I was paralyzed!

"Not quite," said Seryn, flipping me over so that I was on my back. "Your body's configuration has been thrown out of whack. It will realign when the conversion is complete."

I tried to show her that I had understood her, but my body wasn't responding at the moment, so I had to communicate through my eyes.

Meanwhile, I felt a dull sensation hit my legs and feet. The bones in my feet practically vanished as they started molding themselves like clay. Like my paws, the nails on each of my toes spider-webbed and fell to pieces. The second-and-third and ring-and-pinky toes seemed to melt together and a thick brown talon started to poke out of the three digits once they had shrunk into my feet. Also like my paws, a set of tough, leathery pads formed under each of my digits with a central pad underneath my new footpaws. Unlike my paws, though, my footpaws had three talons while my forepaws had four. Now that my feet were taken care of, the bones in them reappeared fully intact as if they had always been there.

Next, my legs gave a dull pow and my shins snapped cleanly in half. Along with my thighs, the bones in my legs started to fold over each other so that I was noticeably shorter than before, but the strength of them had more than tripled. Soon, my legs took a break and the fur on them rippled and became more elegant.

The only thing left to change was my head, but Seryn flipped me over again unexpectedly as if expecting something. I soon found out what when my spine started making a dull grinding noise like a lawn mower and started to lengthen. My backside vanished and I felt the plates on my front growing along with what was to be my new tail. It worked like greased lightning; within 30 seconds, I had a full-length thick, flexible tail lined with fine creamy-yellow fur.

Now all that was left was my head. Seryn flipped me over once again so that she could watch in interest. The first thing to happen was the dull crunch as my skull was reduced to shards. Meanwhile, my nose and upper lip were being pushed out together and were fusing together to become a new furry muzzle with a slight curve at the tip of the lip so that it looked kind of like a falcon's beak. My ears also started to shift to the top of my head where they elongated and became deer-like and floppy. Once my skull had reformed, three final things happened. First, my normally-brown hair started to thicken and became goldenrod-yellow. Next, my eyes rounded out and changed to a similar baby-blue shade. Finally, I felt two of my teeth become pointed fangs and stick themselves out of my muzzle where they stayed there forevermore.

As a last motion, my body suddenly felt like a thousand needles sticking in and out of it as my brain recalibrated my entire body again.

Finally, the transformation was complete. I was a full-fledged Flammie.

For the first time, I began to appreciate what Seryn had done for me. She had helped me shed my meaningless human life and open it up to something much... more. I was now an Immortal, but my responsibilities had changed from meaningless human ones to those that would benefit the world.

When I looked up at Seryn, I received a shock. She was no longer a Flammie but was instead in a human form that looked exactly like I used to. If I didn't know better, I could have sworn that it was me!

"Seryn...?" I said in my new song-like feminine voice.

"No..." said Seryn in my former voice. "Not Seryn anymore. I am Sam Tyko. I am you and you are me. You are now Seryn the Flammie and I am now Sam the Human. The conversion is complete and I may now rest in peace."

I looked at "Sam" in astonishment as he laid a hand on my furry cheek. I let out a crooning purr and closed my eyes as he scratched me in-between the ears. He looked sadly at me as he lifted his hand from me and started to walk away.

"Good-bye, Seryn. May your new life be full of joy and adventure."

I sniffled as I watched my former life disappear into the white fog. Tears fell from my eyes and I let out a sorrowful wail that echoed all around me.

"Good-bye... Sam. I will never forget you."

As Sam disappeared from view, I found the white fog starting to lift and I soon realized that I was still in my human room. I lied on the floor, wondering what I should do as my first act as a Flammie. I was now immortal and I knew that I had a collection of new abilities to try out.

On a whim, I decided to see if I could find the two creatures that had visited me in my dream two nights ago. I had a gut feeling that they would have more information on my new form than Ser... Sam had been able to give me. I had to remember that I was Seryn now. Nevertheless, my first task was to make my way out of my room. I had grown a good deal during my "conversion" and I doubted that I would be able to get out of here as easily as before.

The first thing I did was fold my wings close to my body – they would only get in the way. I then started making my way to the door. Sucking in my rugged armor, I was able to squeeze through the door and into the hallway. I then inched bit by bit along the narrow hallway until I made it to my living room. Once there, it was smooth sailing for the door.

But on the way to the door, I passed a full-body mirror that had always hung next to the closet near the door. I passed it before I halted and doubled back to get a good look at my new form.

I looked just like the original Flammie had looked in the photo that had started all the commotion. I had a coat of beautiful, soft, rich, creamy-yellow fur over a good portion of my body. The only part where I didn't have fur was the area on my belly where my rumpled orange leathery armor ran from under my chin down my front and to the tip of my tail.

Speaking of tails, I took in the splendor of having an extra appendage at my command. It was as thick as my legs and about as long as the rest of my body. By moving my tailbone just below my spine, I found that I could flex it rather expertly.

I stood on one leg and examined my footpaw. I had three sharp, pointed brown talons on the end of my three padded digits with a thick pad under my footpaw. They looked dull, but I knew better than to judge appearances.

Holding my right paw out in front of me, I flexed each of my digits experimentally again. Along with a fourth thumb-like dewclaw, I had three short digits with a similar brown claw on the end of each one. And on the underside, I had a set of pink pads under my palm and my digits just like cats had. As a test, I ran a single talon over the drywall next to the mirror. It came as no surprise when my talon pierced the rough drywall and left a decent deep gouge in it.

When I looked at my face in the mirror, I could have sworn that I resembled a cat somewhat. In fact, I would have been surprised if Flammies hadn't evolved from cats at some point. I had a small, hooked muzzle with my nostrils buried somewhere in the fur on it. And on the sides of my maw were two sharp, pointed fangs that somewhat resembled the fang around my neck.

I took another look at the fang that had turned me into a Flammie in the first place and saw that it was slightly curved where my own were straight. Despite it clearly being a Flammie fang, I decided that it must have warped over time and gone from straight to curved.

Moving closer to the mirror, I noted that my eyes were a bright yet soft baby-blue color. They weren't quite sapphire but not quite light-blue – just somewhere in the middle – baby-blue. And in-between my crop of thick, goldenrod-yellow-colored hair were my deer-like ears tipped with a mixture of green and blue that I could use to pick up a whole new range of sounds. I was clearly the vision of Beauty and Hope all wrapped up in one furry, cuddly package.

Now that I had gotten a good look at what I was, I started to make for the door but halted at the last second. My family would be coming by sometime in the near future to check on me like they normally did. As a last will, I decided to leave them a note. Since I couldn't write with these new paws, I had to improvise. Moving from my living room to my kitchen, I opened my fridge and rummaged around for something to leave a mark that would last.

"Let's see..." I said to myself, flitting around the shelves. "Raw hamburger...? No, I don't want them to think I'm dead. Chicken...? Unh-uh. Grease doesn't leave that good of a mark. Salad dressing...? Nope, not sticky enough."

After some more trial and error, I found a bowl of leftover Jell-o. Since I was a little hungry after my conversion, I decided to make a light snack of it and use the leftover syrup to dye my pads and leave a note on my normally spotless floor. Swishing the succulent gelatin around in my mouth like I normally did, I dipped my talon in the syrup and etched the following words into the floor.

"Gon awy 4 lfe. Sory i ddnt say anythng. Sam"

I know my spelling was bad, but I had only so much syrup to work with and made it short and simple. And as a final message, I soaked my paw in the syrup and left a sticky red paw print complete with talons next to my note. It would probably freak them out, but it was the best I could do to tell them what was going on without actually "telling" them.

Once I was sure that they would at least get part of the message, I made to leave but stopped halfway. Something didn't seem quite... complete about it. It was missing something that would explain in whole what had happened to me.

An itch in my fur distracted me while I thought. But then I knew what I needed. Digging my muzzle into my chest fur, I took a big crop of it in my mouth and pulled. At first, nothing gave, but then I took a deep breath and tugged hard on my fur.

RRRIP!!!

Tears came to my eyes as I pulled a good square-inch-and-a-half of Flammie fur out of my chest and spat it out on the floor.

"Ow," I said, whimpering from the pain.

I had a good bare spot of pink flesh exposed from the ripped fur, but I wasn't worried. I bunched the fur up in a ball and set it next to my Jell-o paw print. It was a final gift from a god... but there was still something missing... something… meaningful.

Bingo! Reaching back with my muzzle, I seized three on my many wing feathers and gave a quick tug. These came out slightly easier than my fur did, but there was still a sharp tug as I tugged out three non-essential steering feathers and spat them on the ground next to the tuft of fur.

Now it looked complete. I had given my first gift to my family. A tuft of Flammie fur and three Flammie feathers would contain enough magic to keep my family occupied for a while.

"But just to be sure..." I said, moving back to my room.

After rummaging in my dresser, I found my scrapbook of Flammie paraphernalia. After squeezing back through the hallway, I flipped through the book with my talons carefully, so as not to rip the pages, and let the book sit with it open to the information on the magic of Flammie fur and feathers. They would get the hint when they saw it.

Now fully set, I meandered over to the door and rolled the doorknob with a paw, since I couldn't wrap my talons around it like human fingers could. Once the door was open, I stepped outside, pulled it shut with a flick of my tail and set off for a new life...

...wait! I'm not quite done yet. Not even close to close! When I stepped onto the front lawn, I had the first surprise of my new life.

Two large, winged... I guess I could call them "dragons" were standing in the middle of my lawn, apparently waiting for me. In all my life, I had never gotten a glimpse of a Flammie before all this and here were two dragons that landed practically in my furry lap. I wasn't expecting this at all!

The dragons looked rather alike at first glance. They both had abnormally-shiny scales. If I didn't know better, I could have sworn that they were made out of diamonds! They were both bipedal and each stood on digitigrade clawed feet with three talons appearing to be made out of sharpened yellow crystal and a fourth dewclaw poking out of their heels. Their legs were lean and muscular, which seemed to come naturally with their form and they each had a long, prehensile tail that had a spot near the base that looked like their scales cracked slightly.

I marveled that their arms were just as lean as their legs with three yellow-crystal claws on their forepaws instead of four or five. Their torsos were lined with a line of colored plates that took a break at the middle of their torsos and resumed on their serpentine necks and throats. And their draconic heads had two pointed yellow-crystal horns on the backs of them with a third one sticking out of the point of their muzzles. I flinched when I saw that they were smiling at me, showing rows of razor-sharp, pointed teeth that would not have been mistaken for shards of pointed glass. And their eyes... they had the most pure sky-blue irises in them that showed all the beauty of diamond and crystal.

But the coup de grace was their magnificent wings. They were large and not unfitting for a dragon's, but the thickness and detail made it look like they were hand-chiseled from pure, raw diamonds. At a glance, it looked like they were too heavy to get them airborne, but I had no doubts that they worked just fine for them.

So how could I tell the difference between these two? The dragon on my left had royal-blue armor plates on his chest and throat while the one on my right had deep-orange-colored ones. Instinct told me that the orange-colored one was the leader of the pair.

The blue-plated one had its arms crossed and addressed his partner. She certainly took long enough.

The orange-plated dragon gave the blue-plated one a look. Now, now, Ashura – let her have some time to say good-bye to her family. I'm certain you wanted the same pleasure when you had to say farewell.

The blue-plated dragon sighed. My mistake.

Something about these dragons' psychic voices seemed to trigger something in my memory. It felt as if I had heard them somewhere before.

"Have we met before?" I said, leaning my head to one side.

The orange-plated dragon looked at his partner and grinned, showing very pointed teeth. She's already forgotten, Ashura. Be a gentlebeast and introduce us.

The blue-plated dragon nodded and spread his wings with a flourish. Seryn the Flammie, we are the Diamond Dragons, second in command to the Guardians Lugia and Altair. My name is Ashura and this... He gestured to his partner. ...is my brother, Hyozanryu. The orange-plated dragon bowed.

It's a pleasure to meet you.

I was at a loss for words, but remembered my manners. Spreading all four of my wings at once, I gave a gentleman's bow and introduced myself.

"Seryn the Flammie at your service."

Hyozanryu held up a paw and shook his head. You can keep your service, Seryn.

I chirped with interest. He was really quite noble.

Ashura motioned with a paw behind him and said, Will you join us on a morning flight, Seryn? We have much to talk about.

I smiled at the offer but frowned at my own abilities. "I, uh... don't know how to fly yet."

Hyozanryu smiled. I'm sure if you put your mind to it, you can do it. When you figure it out...

...we'll be waiting, finished Altair.

Without waiting for me two answer, the two of then turned, spread their wings and took off with me still standing on the front step.

This must have been a test to see whether or not I was suitable material to become a Flammie. And it was one of those tests that seemed to pop up when you haven't studied or practiced.

Nevertheless, I was determined to show Hyozanryu and Ashura that I would be the best Flammie ever. First, I had to get some room to practice, so I stepped off of my porch and onto my lawn. Once there, I stood in one spot and looked up at the sky. I could have sworn that I could see a faint sparkle in the air where the Diamond Dragons were flying.

For a minute, I did nothing, but then I closed my eyes and thought deeply. A great wisdom had been given to me during my conversion and I used this knowledge to figure out how to get airborne and fly. It took a while, but I was finally able to focus on an ability that had been passed onto me – the power of flight. By harnessing this power and channeling it through my mind and body, I spread each of my four wings out in turn and got the wind flowing through them.

Once this was accomplished, I started flapping them in turn. When my upper wings went up, my lower ones went down and vice-versa. And with one good push, I kicked off the ground and took off.

It took a little wobbling, but I was finally able to steady myself and pump each of my four wings in succession to gain altitude. My tail was acting as a counterweight to balance me in the air, keeping me from falling out of the sky.

Once I had finally managed to get over my flight anxiety, I realized that I was already 2000 feet in the air. Now that I had gotten over my fear of heights, I began to take in the excitement that was flying.

It's very hard for someone like me to describe the pure emotion and freedom that I felt while I was flying on my own. The sheer amazement of flying through the air without any restraints or supports was amazing! I felt as if I was floating in an infinite space that I had felt back in the Dream World, but this experience was real! Feeling the wind rippling through my fur gave me the chills, but not the bad kind. I held out my paws and spread my talons out as I flew forward, feeling the cool wind passing in-between my digits. It was like holding your arm out of the window of a traveling car but the feeling was over your entire body! Not only that, but the sensation of pushing wind from under each of my wings was a different sensation altogether. My wings kept flapping in a smooth enough sync that I felt that I was floating in a void of pure warmth and coolness. I could go on forever, but I have to continue my story. You should try this, though... IF you were a Flammie (ha-ha-ha!!!).

Now that I had finally gotten my head on straight, I tucked my arms under my torso and flew forward to follow Ashura and Hyozanryu. I had a feeling that they were waiting up for me somewhere in the air, so I flew after them to prove that I was indeed Flammie material.

As I flew, I didn't even try to hide myself. I was determined to restart Flammie Mania even I risked getting caught. I had a feeling, though, that the sight of a Flammie flying through the air again would be shocking enough for the people down below to forget to take a picture. At the speeds I was getting up to, I would be long gone before they even started to look for their cameras.

I finally caught up to Ashura and Hyozanryu over the Atlantic Ocean. They had gotten some considerable distance on me, but I was easily the faster flier now that I had had time to practice.

"Hey! Wait up!" I whined as they got within my sights. "You just left me there! Show a lady some respect!"

Ashura and Hyozanryu halted in mid-air over the ocean and waited for me to catch up. With my sniper-like vision, I could see Ashura grinning as I approached. I frowned at him and the two of them broke out laughing!

"What's so funny?! You didn't even tell me where you were going! I had to rely on my instincts just to find you!"

Ashura turned to look at me and gestured with his paw. It's just that you Flammies are so cute when you're mad. I never get tired of looking at your face whenever you are in one of your moods.

I frowned again, but Ashura managed to contain his laughter at my face. "You don't say... Well, you have to deal with this "cute" face for the rest of your lives, so get used to it!"

Hyozanryu smiled and put his paw on my furry shoulder. We were just joking with you, Seryn. We meant you no harm.

I sighed and trilled in annoyance. "That's fine with me. Just don't let it happen again." Now that we were on even terms, I started flying again with the Diamond Dragons at my sides. "So... what did you want to talk about?"

Ashura shook his head and pointed to his brother when I looked at him. Hyozanryu looked at me with his clear-blue eyes and I suddenly began to see things all around me like I was having a vision. My entire world had vanished and I was floating high above the planet.

Down below, the world seemed completely normal. It was just so... blue. I never realized how much water the planet had. But then the planet darkened and I started to see streams of various-colored energies flowing throughout the earth.

"What's going on here?" I said, looking to my sides. I saw that Ashura and Hyozanryu were floating next to me and were looking down at the planet in anxiety.

Take a look at the violet energy, said Hyozanryu, pointing to a large patch of violet coloring.

I did and I noticed that the purple energy was not flowing over the world like the rivers of other energy. Instead, it was spreading from a central point like a creeping menace, infecting the world slowly but surely. The other colored energies were being consumed by the growing violet energy, disrupting the streams and breaking the gentle rivers.

"What is that?!" I said in disbelief. I was not very experienced in the ways of the planet yet, but even I knew that that violet energy was – there was no other word for it – evil.

Hyozanryu and Ashura exchanged nervous glances. They seemed to be silently debating whether or not to tell me. Finally, Ashura said, "That is an unknown evil that is starting to overcome the planet. It's not as bad as Giygas, but it is something that is cause for concern."

I noticed that the center of the violet energy was centered around Minnesota. I didn't want to believe it, but that was about where I had once lived as Sam Tyko. I was bothered that it had originated near my house.

Hyozanryu noticed my concern and asked me a simple question. Is something bothering you, Seryn?

I looked at him with nervous eyes and whined nervously. "I didn't tell you this, but there was something else that came with the Flammie fang that seemed... evil to me. I can't get it out of my head. Do you think it has something to do with this?"

Hyozanryu and Ashura looked at each other again and then Ashura addressed me. Can you tell us what that item was? Maybe it has something to do with this.

I racked my brain for what the item looked like. I had only seen it once back when I was a human and I was sure that I had buried it in my back yard. On a whim, I opened my muzzle and breathed a gentle stream of blue fire onto my right paw. I then waved the paw in front of me in a complex pattern so that the fiery trail left something in its wake. Ashura and Hyozanryu looked on in amazement while I drew the object in front of me. I was working on auto-pilot at the moment. I would have been shocked to learn that I was using one of my powers without even training for it.

When I was done, the smoky figure of a small Flammie was hovering in front of me. It looked lifeless but at the same time, it scared me. It was slightly bigger than my paw, which told me that it was about two feet long. Also, the violet smoke that had been left behind said that this figure was pure evil.

Hyozanryu put his paw under the object and brought it close to him. The look on his face was that of pure amazement and pure fear.

This is... a Flammie? It's small... but the evil coming from it alarms me. How could it...?

While he thought about this, I tried to remember where I had seen this pygmy Flammie before. The color rang a bell in my mind, but something told me that the Flammie was not alive.

Wait a minute... not alive? That's it!

"Hyozanryu! I remember now! That's the stuffed Flammie that I found in the same box in my back yard!"

I explained everything that I could remember about the stuffed Flammie that had been in the box with the Flammie fang around my neck. I told him that it had started out the same-colored fur as I was, but then overnight it had turned violet and... strangely evil. The last thing I could remember about it was burying it in the box in my back yard, but at the time, it wasn't alive.

Hyozanryu looked back at the slowly spreading evil energy and then gave his arm a swift swipe in front of him. The vision tore open and reality was soon back in focus. We were still in the same spot as we were when I had looked in Hyozanryu's eyes.

I think I need to have a talk with Shadow. He was the one who buried the fang, so he might know something about this evil Flammie. Ashura... He addressed his brother, who looked up. Go with Seryn back to the site and see what you can learn about this. I will be back in a few hours.

Ashura nodded as Hyozanryu spun in mid-air and was suddenly engulfed in a blinding-white light. When I could see properly again, He was long gone.

"Neat," I said, trilling a low note.

Ashura looked at me and spoke in a serious voice. I'll go ahead and check it out. You bring up the rear and meet up with me back at the center of the energy field. I trust you know what to do.

I nodded unsurely and Ashura did the same disappearing act as his brother did, leaving me alone here. Now temporarily visually impaired, I tried to fly forward but tripped in mid-flight and fell out of the air into the ocean. I gasped and came up for breath. Now I was in a dilemma. Like most feathered creatures, I was weighted down by my damp feathers, rendering me unable to fly. And with the amount of fur I had, I now weighed a lot more than I did dry. I was now in the middle of the ocean with no way to get to shore.

After treading water for a minute, I managed to break even on the surface and float in place. My hair was a mess and my fur now smelled fishy. It would take forever to get clean now.

But all was not lost. When I was a human, I was a pretty good swimmer, so I figured I might as well try. I took a deep breath and submerged myself. I was alarmed at how much oxygen could fill my lungs and started swimming. I did a kind of breaststroke and even used my wings to provide extra propulsion. With the added help of my tail swishing from side to side, I was moving like a shark through the water with amazing speed.

I was surprised at how long a good breath of air allowed me to travel underwater. It was well over an hour before my lungs started to ache and I had to resurface. I now knew that Flammies were naturals in the water and I could out swim anything that came my way should I ever become waterlogged.

But even two more hours later, I realized that I was further out to sea than I had originally thought. My muscles were starting to tire and ache, signaling that I had reached my limit. I knew that I would not last much longer at this rate and had to get out of this ocean. I had to find someway to dry myself off so that I would be light enough to get back in the air.

It was then than another Flammie instinct kicked in. I took a deep breath and blew a stream of blue fire all around me. The magical fire evaporated the water around me so that I was sitting in a bowl of molded water. Then with a flick of my paw, I surrounded myself with the blue-tinged smoke so that I was wearing a shield of warm air. The shield evaporated the water in my fur and feathers, leaving me bone-dry and able to get back in the air.

Once I was airborne again, I stopped and looked back at the ocean. The bowl of water had filled in again, leaving the unbroken surface in its wake. I smiled and shrilled with happiness.

"I will never cease to amaze myself. Flammies rule!"

And with that note, I resumed my flight back to land.

Not long after I reached the mainland, I was greeted by a wave of bad weather that threatened to ground me again. The rain was pouring down on me, but for some reason, I was able to shrug off the extra weight. The wind, though, was beginning to annoy me. The force of the gusts that were hitting me were throwing me off my flight pattern more than once. I was amazed that I didn't hit anything from being blown and battered around the cities. But still, I pressed on. Ashura was counting on me to meet him at the center of the evil cloud. I had to make sure that I held true to my word.

But I wouldn't even get that far. Before I even left the Eastern States, I was struck by a bolt of violet energy that seemed to come out of nowhere. The next thing I knew, I was laying face-up in the dirt somewhere in Virginia.

"Oww... Did someone get the license plate of that thing that hit me?" I whined as I gingerly sat up. As far as I knew, nothing was broken, but my pride was damaged a little.

"Poor, poor Seryn," said a dark voice from somewhere nearby. "You didn't honestly think that you would be suitable Flammie material, did you?"

Something about that voice struck pure fear into my heart. I had never heard it before, but it sounded like someone that I had met in a previous life. I looked around and then looked up to see a large, intimidating form looking down at me from the top of the crater I had created.

Almost instantly, I recognized this creature. It was the violet Flammie plushie that I had buried in my back yard before I became a Flammie. But this one was much larger and was about the same size as me. It had all the characteristics that I had except with key differences.

This Flammie had shadowy-violet fur whereas I had creamy-yellow, its eyes were piercing-red while mine were baby-blue, its wings and hair were crimson while mine were golden and creamy-yellow, its talons and pads were a deep-blue, which was different from my pink pads and brown talons and finally, it had two fangs poking out of each side of its muzzle in comparison to just my pair of singles. And on instinct, I could tell that this Flammie was male.

This didn't make any sense. How could that plushie have come alive like this? Why had it changed its appearance to begin with? And why was there a second Flammie to begin with? I thought that I was the only Flammie in existence.

The dark Flammie smiled malevolently as he looked down at me. "I see the body of a Flammie, but all I see is the spirit of a pathetic human! Such inferior scum is unfit to even lay their eyes on us.

"Mana..." I said to myself, unsure as to how I knew his name. "Why?"

Mana the Flammie reared back on his haunches so that he was almost sitting on his tail. "Isn't it obvious, dear sister? The anger and power that you left behind when you were converted was absorbed by my dormant form, giving me strength beyond all comprehension. Now, I can get rid of the inferior model and people will learn to fear those that they thought were heroes."

This was a little difficult for me to understand, but I finally figured that Mana wanted to kill me and destroy the Flammie legacy. I growled at the thought of this.

"You may have been born of my emotions, Mana, but you are no match for the real thing!"

Mana grabbed my chin in his claws and held it painfully close to his so that we were eye to eye. He chuckled darkly as we stared each other down. "Your enthusiasm is impressive, Seryn, but even you know that the powers you have given me make yours as pathetic as the scum that inhabit this planet. You don't stand a chance."

(Author's Note: Readers of the first two "Flammie and Glory" stories will remember Mana's outlook at humans, calling them "inferior scum". Some things never change, I guess.)

I growled and had the nerve to spit in Mana's face! The stunned Flammie staggered backwards from the cheap shot, allowing me to get back in the air.

"If you're so confident in your abilities, Mana, why don't you get up here and prove them to me!"

Mana didn't appear annoyed by my sneak attack. Instead, he wiped his eyes with his paw and chuckled without looking at me. "So be it. It will be all the more satisfying when I personally destroy you like I did to that Diamond Dragon."

My expression fell. "You're lying! Ashura would never lose to you!"

Mana finally looked up at me and started flapping his wings. "That's open for interpretation. But your demise... is not!"

Mana charged at me with his claws outstretched, I quickly flew higher to avoid getting speared by those talons. I had to pull my tail out of reach so that Mana would not be able to grab it. The two of us spiraled higher, keeping a set distance between us until we got to about 10,000 feet over the countryside.

The Battle of the Flammies had begun.

Mana opened up his attack by opening his maw and letting fly a breath of static lightning. I retaliated by firing a breath of liquid ice. The two breath attacks met in mid-air and exploded, sending static bolts and ice chunks flying everywhere. Mana didn't flinch but I did. That was all the time he needed to fold his wings at his side and come spinning at me. I took the force of the attack full in the chest and was pushed backwards a good 200 yards before I managed to recover moments before I hit the ground again.

Now annoyed at my actions and Mana's, I spread my wings and fired a beam of super powered water at my opponent. Mana was far enough away to avoid it in time and then send another Bolt Breath directly at the column of water coming from my mouth. The lightning traveled down the stream instantly and hit me in the face like I had been hit with a sledgehammer.

This time, I did hit the ground. But before Mana could take advantage again, I rolled out of the way, causing him to plow face-first into the ground. Taking a cheap shot, I let fly a Fire Breath at Mana. The unnatural blue fire caused Mana's fur to ignite. He roared with pain, but somehow, he managed to put them out.

"That was a dirty trick, Seryn! Allow me to even the playing field!"

At first, I was confident that he had just told me his next move, but just as I got back into the air, Mana anticipated my move and fired a beam of strange, violet energy straight at my heart. What happened next would haunt me forever.

The instant the Shadow Breath hit my heart, I felt as if my soul was on fire. You cannot imagine the sheer pain and agony my body was in. It felt like I was being turned inside-out with needles driving into every possible nerve in my system. I shrieked and screamed for it to stop, but it only intensified. My very being was being tortured to within an inch of my sanity and I found myself praying for Death to come. It hurt that bad.

Just when I thought that I was going to die here and now, the Shadow Breath stream was broken. Mana, for reasons not yet clear, had closed his mouth and was currently preoccupied with something else. I was still twitching and whimpering from the pain and I was hoping that Mana would show whatever mercy he was capable of.

But then, I managed to get my eyes open and I lifted my head to look and see what had happened to Mana. It turned out that Mana was currently locked in battle with a small, black figure that was attacking him like a wild animal.

I could not make out the black figure because it was moving too fast for me to see clearly. I did notice, though, that it was exchanging energy attacks with Mana by using some kind of device in its hand. Whatever the figure was was obviously trying to protect me. It would not let Mana get back within distance to attack me again.

Mana was getting annoyed by the figure's persistence. "You have no business here, hedgehog! Do not come between me and my sister's battle or you will suffer greatly!"

The figure, though, was adamant to the end. "I may have created you, but I will do whatever it takes to destroy you. You will not touch her again, you piece of filth!"

Mana roared as he took another black energy blast in the chest. Whatever was attacking him had amazing accuracy and speed. Mana wasn't hitting it once!

Finally, the figure froze and began charging up a field of black energy. Mana tried to take advantage, but the shield was too powerful for him to break. The black figure ignored him and pointed the device in his hand back at him. Two words escaped his mouth before all hell broke loose.

"CHAOS... BLAST!!!"

The black shield around him blew out, causing the area around him to become overloaded with powerful energy. Mana was close enough to take the full force of the "Chaos Blast" and he screamed bloody murder for all the world to hear. The energy that was released in that blast trumped Mana's own and his body disintegrated mere seconds after being exposed to the blast.

I should have been happy that he had destroyed Mana so easily, but then I noticed that the Chaos Blast radius was heading in my direction. If Mana couldn't survive that energy, I would stand no chance. I could only pray that it dissolved before...

What the...?! The energy had engulfed me, but I felt no power behind it. It was like I was invisible to the blast, but Mana wasn't. It surrounded me for a moment before it vaporized into nothingness.

I laid there in disbelief as the figure that had been at the center of the Chaos Blast came walking over to me, completely unharmed from having almost self-destructed himself. I tried to focus on the figure, but the figure was now surrounded by a blue aura. I couldn't make him out through the aura, but I could see that he was only about four feet tall at the maximum.

I was in too much pain to resist the creature putting his hand on my forehead and whispering in my ear. "Be at ease, Seryn. I am not your enemy. I'm going to take you somewhere safe."

"Okay..." I said weakly. That Shadow Breath had all but destroyed me, so I did not object to the creature's help.

The figure looked up and held the device in his hand towards the heavens. I suddenly felt my body feel significantly weightless and my mind was starting to fade. I was spared the thought of dying at this creature's power when he called out like a man possessed.

"CHAOS CONTROL!!!"

With those words, I whited out and knew no more.

The next thing I knew was that I was curled up in a cavern somewhere in the world. I must have been sleeping and whatever pains I had felt had been lifted. I was in a relaxed state of satisfaction without any realization on how I had gotten here.

Nearby, a blue-flamed fire was burning brightly in the cavern and the figure that had saved me and destroyed Mana was sitting on a rock nearby, waiting patiently for me to awaken. When I looked up at him, he smiled and flipped an item in his left hand.

"About time you woke up. You had me pretty worried when you started screaming in your sleep."

Mana's description of the creature was the most accurate one I could think of. He reminded me of a hedgehog, but something told me that this was not your average mammal. He stood on two legs like a human would and wore a pair of unusual red-and-white-striped shoes. Strange devices could be seen in the tips of them, which suggested that this was how he had moved so fast while battling Mana. His fur was a blacker black than I had ever seen before except for a tuft of white fur on his chest and red stripes lining his "quills" He wore a pair of white gloves over his five-fingered hands with a pair of strange golden rings around his wrists. One look at his stone-serious face told me that this hedgehog was a born fighter. He had long, narrow, crimson-red pupils that were currently looking pleased and relieved to see that I was awake. A pair of pointed ears was on the top of his head and a small, black tail poked out behind him.

The item in the hedgehog's hand happened to be a large, glowing, black gem. I had never seen a gem as big as the one he held in his hand, nor would I ever see another again... maybe.

The black hedgehog stood up and walked over to me. "I don't think I've properly introduced myself. My name is Shadow the Hedgehog, and this..." He flipped the black gem in his hand again. "...is my trusty Black Emerald."

I found myself able to move again and sat back on my tail to look at Shadow. I trilled and held out my paw to him. "Hello, Shadow. My name is Seryn the Flammie."

Shadow shook my massive paw and sat down next to me. "Pleased to meet you Seryn, but I had a feeling we would meet before the end."

I tilted my head and chirped, "Huh?"

Shadow continued to flip his Black Emerald and told me his story. "I was told by the Dream Travelers that my future self buried the Flammie fang that's around your neck in your back yard. I can't remember this, but apparently, that's what must have happened. What do you think?"

Some unseen force (probably the spirit that was in my Flammie fang) seemed to fill me in on what had actually happened. Apparently, our future selves must have traveled back through time and planted the items that would transform us and turn us into Immortals. The "Dream Travelers" in question were named "Klonoa" and "Arcana" and were in league with Ashura and Hyozanryu, the Diamond Dragons.

When I told Shadow this, he didn't appear to be surprised. "I knew all this from when I first touched the Black Emerald; I just never knew that it would all make sense eventually."

The two of us talked about our origins for some time, although Shadow's past was a little rocky. Unlike me, he had had his memories wiped when he had transformed and he was trying to remember who he really was. I didn't blame him, though. I had had to give up my whole former human life when I became a Flammie, so I understood some of what he was feeling.

When I brought up Shadow's actions in defeating Mana, he merely shrugged and said, "Anything for a fellow Immortal. I was in the neighborhood and decided I had time to kill." I rolled my eyes at him and he chuckled. "I kid, alright? I would have helped you even if you were doing just fine."

I finally brought up the subject about where we were. He said that we were in the Rocky Mountains, far from where Mana and I had fought. He had managed to get me here by using the powers of Chaos in his Black Emerald to use a power called "Chaos Control" – the ability to teleport anything from one location to another in no time flat. A similar move called the "Chaos Blast" could be used by him to destroy anything he wanted to by unleashing the true power of Chaos stored in his body and the Emerald.

As we discussed the true powers of Chaos, two figures appeared at the entrance to the cave. One of them was none other than the Diamond Dragon, Hyozanryu. The other, however, was a little more bizarre. He stood about the same height as Shadow, except that his fur was more... "furry" than Shadow. Also, he wore a set of clothes that included a pair of red sneakers, blue shorts and jacket, yellow gloves over his five-digit hands and a blue hat on his head that had a picture of Pac-Man eating a dot on the side. Two locks of black hair poked out of the hole in the back of his hat, which was turned backwards. The figure also had a short, pointed, white-fur-tipped tail sticking out of his shorts, a large, golden ring with a large green gem embedded into it in his right hand and the most peculiar ears I had ever laid eyes on. They reminded me of a rabbit's slightly, except that they drooped all the way down to his ankles and were covered in white-tipped points. In fact, about six inches of the ends of his ears was covered in white fur. Also, he had a short, white-furred muzzle with a small black nose on it. He also had long, narrow pupils like Shadow's except that these eyes were golden-yellow-colored and they radiated all the free spirits of an energetic teenage boy.

Shadow recognized this creature immediately. "Klonoa! What brings you and Hyozanryu here? And... where's Arcana?"

Klonoa sighed and spoke in a young, energetic voice. "We have a small problem. Arcana has been taken captive by... by..." He broke off. Whatever he was trying to say seemed to really bother him. He couldn't get it out and turned to Hyozanryu for advice.

I'll take it from here, Klonoa. Seryn... Shadow... He sighed and spilled it. Ashura has been possessed by Mana's spirit.

I did not register this right away. Surely, he was kidding. Mana was dead. I had watched Shadow destroy him with my own eyes! This couldn't be true!

But Hyozanryu seemed to be reading my mind. I tell no lies, Seryn. Mana still lives, and he has possessed my brother, Ashura.

He seemed visibly disturbed by this. His body was shaking and he was breathing heavily as he spoke. It seemed that he really cared about what had happened to his brother. I didn't blame him. I would have felt the same way if it had been my family in danger.

Determined to help out, I asked what I could do to help. Hyozanryu sighed and looked at Klonoa. The two of them exchanged unspoken words and they both turned to face Shadow and me.

Since Ashura knows all of my powers, said Hyozanryu. And Arcana may have had his powers stripped from him, it's going to be difficult for either of us to get close to him. You two are going to have to go in our place to stop him.

Shadow and I exchanged nervous glances. He and I had already fought Mana, but we had never fought a fellow Immortal possessed before. This was going to be a rough encounter to come out on top from. Nevertheless, we were determined to prove that we were Immortal material. We accepted the challenge and left with Klonoa and Hyozanryu to reclaim Ashura and Arcana from Mana's influence.

I had originally thought that Klonoa would have been what the Immortals called an "Earthwalker", but he had his own ways of getting airborne. He and Arcana had a pair of unique snowboards powered by Dream Energy called "Slider Boards". A green gem fused into the fronts and backs of the Slider Boards draw energy from the Dream World and give them the power of flight. Like I said before, the powers of the Immortals will never cease to amaze me.

Finding out where Ashura had gone turned out to be an easier task than I had originally thought. The closer we got to his location, the darker the surrounding area started to get. Shadow rode shotgun on my back and the Diamond Dragon and the Dream Traveler led the way into the heart of the evil area.

But before we got to the center of the evil gathering, Hyozanryu and Klonoa stopped dead. I flew ahead of them a little before either Shadow or I realized that they had stopped.

"What's going on?" said Shadow, rearing me around. "Aren't you guys coming?"

Klonoa shook his head. "This is as far as we can go. Ashura and Arcana's powers are too powerful for either of us to go any further."

Hyozanryu turned to Klonoa and offered a suggestion. We may not be able to, but they can.

At first, I thought they were talking about Shadow and me, but Klonoa gave a smirk and said, "We'll have to go get them, then." He turned back to us and said, "We have to go get the others. Keep Ashura busy until we get back."

Shadow and I looked at each other uncertainly. They obviously knew more than they were telling, but we couldn't do anything about it, so we flew on without saying anything. Klonoa and Hyozanryu left to get "them" while we went to deal with Ashura ourselves.

"Aw, man! Why did they have to pick this spot?! I still had payments on that!"

I was whining about the location that Ashura and Mana had picked to construct his fortress. They had built a massive 500-foot tower over the exact house where I had lived as Sam Tyko. At the top of the tower, a swirling mass of violet clouds had gathered, signaling that this was the center of Mana's evil. Four tall spires stuck out of the corners of the top of the tower, raising its height another 150 feet. It kind of looked like a smaller but wider version of that tower in Isengard from "Lord of the Rings". Shadow knew I was joking, but he obviously did not laugh in public. The look he gave me when I said that shut me up for now.

But when we reached the top of the massive structure, what we didn't find alarmed us the most. Ashura, Arcana and Mana were currently missing in action. There was no way of knowing if they had ever been here. The top of the tower was in mint condition and there was no trace of any of them having been here.

"Do you think this is a trap?" I asked Shadow after letting him off on the tower's summit.

Shadow held up his Black Emerald to his eye level and appeared to be looking through like a telescope. I could tell that he was just as stumped as I was at the result.

"Something's not right here. There's no trace that any creature, human, dragon or Flammie have ever been here. It's like whoever built this didn't take the time to examine their handiwork. It just doesn't make... any..." He broke off.

""Sense"?" I finished for him. But Shadow held up his hand for me to be quiet.

I listened carefully, my ears flickering at an unusual sound. It sounded like wings were approaching, but there was a slight metallic sound to it. I could hear the sound of the "metal wings" approaching from somewhere close by. It grew louder and louder until just listening was no longer necessary.

The figure that came out of the clouds was the very symbol of a dragon, except instead of a shining white dragon, this one was covered in what appeared to be jet-black armor. It was covered from tip to tail in a heavy, metallic, jet-black armor. The only spots that weren't covered were its piercing-red eyes and its blood-red leathery wings. If this was Ashura or Mana, they had certainly teamed together to make one heck of a creature. It had the draconic figure of Ashura but the dark and powerful nature of Mana. I knew that if we wanted to get through to Ashura, we would have to do something about Mana's influence.

The massive dragon flew overhead and let out a shriek of fury at someone trespassing in its territory. It wanted to fight and would defend its territory, no matter what it took. I started to spread my wings to take off after the dragon. I was going to save Ashura from Mana's influence, but for some reason, Shadow grabbed my paw and held me down.

"Shadow... what are you doing?" I chirped in protest.

"Seryn... you stay put. You aren't going to be able to get through that armor even with your strength. When I get that armor off, it'll be your turn. Until then, just stay out of danger."

I was not used to staying out of a fight, but I did as he said and stayed put. I watched as Shadow started running up the side of one of the columns on the edge of the tower at an alarming speed. Once he was at the top of the spire, he watched the dragon flying around, watching him. It seemed to be considering if this black creature was its enemy, but it soon lost interest in him and turned its attention to me. The dragon stared me down and then dove towards me with its talons outstretched. I was about to dive out of the way when I locked eyes with it.

What I saw all but took the courage out of my heart. I was staring into the same eyes that belonged to Mana the Flammie, but for some reason, there was much more fear behind them this time. I was stunned as the fear in my heart reached a climax and was unable to react as it drew closer to me.

"SERYN, MOVE!!!" called Shadow from atop the pillar.

I tried to move, but I was paralyzed from the cold fear that was haunting me. I was going to be spitted on the end of the dragon's talons and I knew it.

But before it could attack me, Shadow came out of nowhere and had latched onto Mana... but not in a normal way. He had fired a beam of black energy from his Black Emerald and it had connected with Mana's tail. The force of the impact had yanked Mana out of the air and caused him to crash into the top of the tower in a heap.

I was still stunned from the look in Mana's eyes, but the next sound that came from Mana shook me out of it. Like an Olympist swinging a hammer, Shadow whipped the Black Emerald around his head and practically ripped a piece of Mana's armor from his tail and sent it flying from the tower. Mana roared in anger at being exposed like this, but he must have felt that it wasn't enough to render him vulnerable. He got back into the air with a few flaps of his wings and began to circle the tower again.

Shadow came over to me to make sure I was alright. He looked directly into my eyes and said point-blank, "You have to look past your fear, Seryn. If you don't, I'm fighting a one-sided battle here. Get a hold of yourself and you'll be fine."

I didn't know what to say, but I took these words into account. I realized that Mana was only a spirit, but he had possessed one of my friends and was trying to destroy me. If I didn't get over my fear of Mana, I was as good as useless to Shadow.

By the time I thought to respond, Shadow was already back in the fight. Mana was outraged that he had let his guard down and had overlooked Shadow as a potential enemy and he was not happy about it. He opened his mouth and let fly a blast of electrical energy at Shadow. This finally confirmed to me that Mana was still alive, even though in spirit. Mana was the only creature that I knew that had the power of Bolt Breath.

The black hedgehog created a shield of Chaos energy around him and absorbed the blast like a lightning rod. When Mana had expelled all of the Bolt Breath, Shadow stood there for a second and then held up his Black Emerald. The resulting explosion was enough to cause Mana to stumble in the air and knock him out of the sky a few yards.

During this time, Shadow had used his Black Emerald again to grapple onto another part of Mana's armor and yanked him clean out of the sky, exposing his ruby-red body even further. With another whip of his arm, he sent the piece of armor flying and geared up for another attack.

This time, Mana chose to ignore me and went right for Shadow. But the hedgehog was giving him a hard time attacking him. Three more times, Shadow exposed another part of Mana's body, finally exposing his chest and back. When the last of the armor had fallen away, Shadow made a mistake.

As he sent the last piece of armor flying, he mistook Mana for being stunned and left his back exposed for just a few seconds. Mana, meanwhile, had spotted a weakness in the hedgehog's defenses and breathed the same Shadow Breath that had tortured me when he had been in his Flammie form. Shadow turned around a split-second too late and paid for his ignorance dearly. The Shadow Breath slammed into him and... and...

I'm sorry, but I cannot describe in words what I saw or heard from Shadow's stricken form.

When it was all over, Shadow had fallen and the Black Emerald left his hand for the first time since I had met him. Mana roared in triumph and started to advance on him, licking his chops hungrily. The shock of what I had experienced was still fresh in my mind and I didn't know what to do. I was going to watch my closest friend be killed by this demon and I could do nothing about it.

But then...

WHOOSH!!!

From out of nowhere, three beams of clear, concentrated energy were fired from beings yet unknown and slammed into Mana's back. Mana went flying over Shadow and crash-landed some distance away in the town below.

I looked up and saw three impressive figures flying next to each other in the air above the tower. I had never seen these creatures before, but I knew that they were three of my fellow Immortals.

(Author's Note: To avoid taking up more space in this story, I'm going to assume that people who read this will have also read the first "Dreams Come True" and "Son of a God 2: Hybrid Theory". These figures are Lugia, Altair and Johiko – I watched two of the figures descend on the fallen Shadow while their anthro friend came to check on me. I had never met these creatures before, but the Flammie fang around my neck told me that large, bird-like creatures were the Guardians Lugia and his brother Altair, while their anthro friend was Lugia's son, Johiko Darck.

Johiko came to check on me to make sure I was alright. "Surprised to see us, Seryn?"

I did not have to ask how he knew my name. He was psychic, after all. "I'm fine... but what about Shadow?"

Johiko craned his neck to check on his father and friend. He sighed and said, "I'm not sure, but he'll be okay. We'll be leaving shortly to take him somewhere safe."

I didn't quite understand this. "But..., what about Mana and Ashura? What about Arcana?"

Johiko sighed again and ruffled his hair. "Arcana is safe, but it's up to you to deal with Mana."

"Say WHAT?! What are you talking about?!"

Johiko shook his head. "This is your last Immortal test. My father and Altair will take Shadow to safety, but to officially become one of us, you must defeat Mana and free Ashura. If you pass, we will accept you as one of us."

I was about to interject when Johiko looked back at his father and nodded. Before I could say anything, a blinding-white light radiated from the center of the tower and Shadow, Lugia, Altair and Johiko vanished completely from sight, leaving me alone here.

Now that was just rude! They expected me to beat Mana by myself before they accepted me as one of their own?! Was this some kind of Immortal hazing or was I at the bad end of a joke of the gods?

But like most of my troubling situations, the Flammie fang that I wore always gave me the answers. They were not picking on me; this was all planned. Altair, Ashura, Arcana, Johiko and Shadow had all had to prove themselves in one way or another that they were fit to become Immortals. It was just my turn to prove that I was capable of becoming one of them.

TIME-OUT!!!

For those of you who haven't been paying attention, let me recap on what the others' tests involved to become True Immortals:

DCT 1: Altair – swear his allegiance to Lugia, thus returning him to the planet

DCT 2: Ashura – overcome his own nightmares to prove that he was free of all negative thought

DCT 3: Arcana – travel the Dream Highway and defeat the King of Sorrow, thus freeing the Guardians and the Diamond Dragons

Son of a God 2: Johiko – use his powers to escape his cell and speak with his captured father before freeing him from the lab

Chaos Theory (Not yet written): Shadow – defeat the Metal Overlord and Black Doom in both the Real World and the Dream World, freeing the Dream Travelers and leaving his past life behind

Now you know, so I don't want to hear from all you Flammie fans that Seryn is being picked on by the Immortals.

TIME-IN!!!

I had a few moments to mentally prepare myself for my upcoming battle before I heard the roar of Mana returning to the battle. From the look he was giving me in the distance, he was extremely sore from being ambushed by the Guardians and having been robbed of a well-deserved meal. Now I had to deal with his rage ten-fold and this time, I was on my own. But I knew that the Immortals were not going to make this easy for me. I felt that some of them had gotten off easy when they became Immortals, but there was nothing I could do about it now. I had to look my fear in the face and conquer it once and for all.

But there was one good side to this test. Shadow had removed every piece of Mana's armor, leaving his body exposed for a direct attack. How nice of him to do that.

Now for the first time since the battle began, I spread my wings and took flight. I was slightly faster than Mana and was soon at the same height as he was. The two of us stared at each other for a minute. We had locked eyes again, but for some divine reason, I did not feel fear this time. I was no longer scared of Mana and I was determined to remove him from Ashura's body.

When Mana realized that he could not intimidate me by looking at me anymore, he resorted to his second way of destroying me. He opened his mouth and expelled a third Shadow Breath at me, but this time, I was ready. I opened my own muzzle and expelled a breath containing all four of the natural Flammie elements – fire, ice, wind and water – along with a special "Dragon Breath", turning the attack into the almighty multi-colored "Omni (or "Flammie") Breath". The two powerful breaths hit each other like two semis colliding head-on at top speed. For a while, it was a contest of who could trump their opponent's attack and capitalize. For a few seconds, I was losing, but an unknown power deep inside me enabled me to retaliate and push the clashing beams back at Mana.

The force hit Mana hard enough to cause him to break his attack and flip over and over in the air. In those few flips, I saw my target. A large, purple gem that radiated all of Mana's power was embedded in Mana's back in-between his wings. I knew that to defeat Mana and restore Ashura, I had to either pry that gem out of its socket or destroy it completely.

Once Mana had fully recovered, he immediately charged at me with his talons outstretched. But this time, I was ready for him. I waited for that one critical moment before I gave a quick flip in the air and landed on Mana's back before he knew what had hit him.

Mana flailed wildly in the air, trying to fling me off his back, but I dug my talons into his scales and faced the purple gem embedded in his back. I knew that Mana would not hold still long enough for me to pull it out, so I used my alternative plan. I clawed at it with my free forepaw and alternated between gouging at it and sinking my fangs into it. Mana shrieked with pain as his power was being destroyed at my paws and teeth.

The crystal was being shredded like crystal glass as shards flew everywhere. Suddenly, I reached a core that was too hard for me to break. The divot in Mana's back was a good 12 inches-deep, but as long as the core was there, Mana would still live. But with one good yank, I managed to rip the core from Mana's back like pulling a splinter from your finger.

I finally dislodged from Mana's back as the dragon's body went flying off into the city. I had a few last moments to hold the super-hard core in my hand before I realized that this would not do. If I was going to destroy Mana once and for all, the core had to go as well.

I threw the core in front of me and let fly another, more-powerful Flammie Breath. The crystal absorbed the attack, but it was all it could take. The core started to crack and break violently before it exploded like a nuclear bomb going off. I was at the center of the blast and it was enough to cause me to be knocked unconscious. My last few fleeting thoughts were the words: "I... have... won!"

The next thing I felt was a little cool spot on my muzzle. It annoyed me, so I tried to flick it off. But the cold feeling returned followed by a wet feeling. I tried to ignore it, but my whole body was wet now. Realizing that it would not go away, I opened my eyes and looked up.

I was laying face-up in a snowdrift atop a high mountain somewhere in the world. Gentle snow was falling around me and a cool breeze was blowing over my face.

But the sight of what I saw next made my heart lift. All eight Immortals were standing in a circle around me, shielding me from the frozen air. I recognized Johiko, Ashura, Shadow, Hyozanryu and Klonoa immediately. I assumed that the second Dream Traveler was his twin brother Arcana, while the two massive bird-like forms were Lugia and Altair.

The smiles that I received said it all. No words had to be spoken and I understood everything about what had happened. Mana was defeated, Ashura and Shadow were safe and I was officially labeled a True Immortal. Nothing more needed to be explained.

Shadow helped me to my feet and the other eight spread out. They all nodded, turned and took flight into the snowy horizon, leaving me and Shadow on the top of what I realized now was Mount Everest – the meeting place of the gods.

Shadow climbed onto my back and patted my shoulder reassuringly. He then gave the most innocent question I had ever heard him say: "Want to go for a flight?"

I smiled and trilled for the entire Himalayas to hear. I was happy and pleased that I had found my spot in the world. I spread each of my four wings and took off down the mountainside. For the first time in days, I felt safe and confident that my place in this world was finally reached. Like each of the Immortals had once said to their friends:

"Dreams do come true."

END

Coming soon from shadowlugia249:

"Flammie and Glory 3: Furred and Feathered" – A new Flammie TF and adventure

"Flammie and Glory 3.5: Challenging Fate" – That's a secret!