Chapter 1

High up in the sky, the Xiaolin monks were being whisked along on the back of Dojo, questing for yet another Shen Gong Wu artifact. As they neared their destination, they made a dive through some rain clouds and swooped over a stretch of mountainous land far below. Despite everyone getting wet, it was a sight to see.

A whistle instantly emitted from Clay. "Man Rai, you seriously never been to Peru? Gorgeous place I gotta say."

"Such mighty mountains…" Omi was spellbound. Kimiko took a quick picture with her phone's camera that made the little guy jump.

"What, is it some sort of 'crime' if I haven't?" Raimundo jested.

"Well, no I – "

"That's like me calling you out for not going to – I dunno – Montana! Huh, when you see how big Brazil is you can't be surprised by someone like me having never – "

Dojo suddenly interrupted Rai's rambling. "Let's stay focused, warriors! Help me find a good landing spot so we can get that Brace!"

Raimundo lowered his eyebrows at the reptile, still suspended in mid-sentence.

"Ah, right, the Brace. Okay then…" Kimiko took out the Shen Gong Wu Scroll and opened it up. "So, what does this thing do?"

Omi read the Chinese scripting alongside an image of a man having a conversation with another. "It is supposed to let you speak in any language. Any language in the whole entire world!"

Kim huffed. "Okay… THAT would've been useful…"

"Interesting. And how exactly would it play a part in all the fighting?" Raimundo wanted to know.

Dojo tried thinking in the same vein as the mysterious mind of Dashi. "Uh, well, I'd say it'd make it much easier to trash-talk to your foreign opponent. You know, for 'intimidating' them so to speak."

One could tell by Rai's expression that he was not convinced. "You serious?"

"…Maybe."

"Well whatever the case – " Clay intervened, "Dodge, I'd say a fine place to land would be over on that flat hill there; then we can flush it out."

"Hmm, yeah, perfect! Thank you Clay." With that Dojo made a smooth descent toward his newfound destination.

After making their landing, the monks spread out to search in the surrounding rainforest. While Raimundo and Clay set out toward some low foliage, Kimiko was carrying Dojo up on her head so that he could possibly smell the Baberu Brace with less trouble.

"This helping at all Dojo?" Kim proceeded to ask.

"Eh… not… quite," the dragon replied as he attempted to stretch out and heighten his senses. "It's gotta be in this general area though… I know it."

"KIMIKO! DOJO! Wait for me!" echoed a high-pitched voice. Omi pitter-pattered across the forest floor and entered the scene breathlessly. "I had nearly lost you two!"

"Sorry – we thought you were with the guys." Kimiko turned to him with a weary look.

"No, no I was not." Omi had his hands on his knees, panting. "I suppose I was immersed in the ENVIRONMENT and nobody noticed." As he said so, a falcon suddenly appeared on a tree branch hanging overhead.

"Well Omi, you just gotta be aware of WHERE we are."

"Ya need to stick with a buddy too," Dojo proposed. "Can't afford getting lost here, what with all the overgrowth and bugs and jungle beasts…"

That's when the falcon swooped down and plucked the snake-sized dragon right off Kim's head. The bird's freshly picked prey burst into a bloodcurdling scream, which succeeded at scaring other feathery fowl out of the trees.

At the base of the big, lush green hill, Clay found himself "pricking" his ears and standing upright.

"What was that?"

Raimundo digressed from his Wu hunt as well. "Dragon Dude?"

"Sounds like it's comin' from up there," Clay gathered, glancing up the cliffside. Rai climbed onto the rock the cowboy was looking out from. "Let's go then," he sighed.

"HEY!" Kimiko clamped both hands onto her hair in shock.

Omi's quick eye spotted the falcon as it flew off. "You, bird! Let go of Dojo!" He went ahead and pursued it higher up into the forest. Kim blew away strands of hair in her face before doing the same thing.

Meanwhile a dizzy and disoriented Dojo was being whisked above the trees at the speed of sound. "HELP – " His capturer firmed its grip on him as it spiraled upward toward an odd-looking stone temple hidden underneath some tree branches. It was aiming to land on a nest that had been situated on the edge of the temple's roof.

But the dangling "meal" had had enough of this. "Erf… " He twisted around, leaned forward, and chomped on the falcon's leg, causing the predator to screech. It lost control and skewed down toward the building's front, where a lone pillar stood, then knocked over some pyramid-shaped container that sat on it, letting it crack open as it hit the ground. Fortunately the falcon weakened its grip trying to regain its bearings, and Dojo wiggled out to make contact with the hard stone plateau. On came the thud, and on the reptile rolled before stopping flat on his back.

"Ooo-hoo-hoo." He could only lie there and groan.

Nevertheless, even with that small mishap having taken place, Dojo's bird friend returned from the air, soaring back to grab dinner. Yet unexpectedly, it changed its mind at the last minute and made a sharp turn out of the area as if in fear.

Dojo lifted his woozy head up and looked around. His eyes bugged and he too scurried away to safety.

Omi was just scuttling up the steps to the temple when he saw he was about to reach the top. "KIMIKO! He must be up here!" hollered the monk. In the meantime, Kim was a little too far behind for Omi's tastes. "Yeah, I'm… coming!" she breathed.

As his feet passed the last step, Omi peered ahead at the temple entrance. The first thing he saw was an item that curiously resembled a brace, with broken shards of rock surrounding it at the foot of a pillar.

"Ah-hah!"

Kimiko soon showed up behind him, out of breath.

"Kimiko, look! There is the Shen Gong Wu! How… fortunate!" Omi beamed.

The tired monk stared at it in surprise. "Uh, huh."

Then they both noticed Dojo poking his head out from a chunk of rubble further ahead. "Guys…"

"And there YOU are, Dojo!" Omi blissfully continued.

But he didn't shift his gaze to the right as Kimiko did, where there was a stomping sound being heard coming out of the nearby bushes. Whatever was making the noise seemed to have been searching for something, and only when it walked out into the open did Omi take heed. And boy, did he take heed.

Above him towered a large brown creature, blocking the sunlight. It was cycloptic, possessing only a single orange eye with a cream-colored pupil; and its crocodilian snout had long pits embedded in each side, along with two brown bottom teeth. Its chest and shoulders were wide, carrying thick, muscular arms; yet despite a long body its legs stood short and bent forward, slumping the creature's posture. It was still standing quite tall – eight feet to be exact.

Omi stopped staring and started speaking. "Um, you are in our way. Please step aside so we may acquire the Brace."

With the little monk's "distraction," Kimiko took the opportunity to sneak over and swipe the Wu from the broken container. But the creature turned around and snarled at her.

"Yikes!"

"No, no, THAT is what we want!" exclaimed Omi. "If you do not let us have it, we will be forced to use force!"

The monster, however, began charging toward Kimiko, unmoved by his plea. But as she prepared herself to fight, it snatched the Brace away instead.

"Hey, c'mon!" Kim objected. It turned its dark striped back to her, holding the artifact close.

Dojo finally sucked it up and slithered forward from his hiding place, flexing sharp claws. "Am I going to have to 'reason' with him… the old-fashioned way?" The beast promptly stared down at the small dragon and let out some jarbled chirps.

"…Because I WILL," he continued in hesitation, somewhat offput by such gibberish.

But then it, along with Dojo, Kimiko, and Omi, drew their attention to the other sounds of panting and trodding on stone. Raimundo and Clay soon appeared, tuckered out from their stair climbing.

"Thanks for helping us find you with DOJO's voice," sputtered Rai sarcastically. "What's going… on?" He gazed up at the Brace – which was in the hands of some brown monster.

"Whoa Nelly…" Clay finished what his pal had started. "Need I ask what in blazes that thing is?"

"It appears to be a reptile-like animal," Omi answered broadly, "and it is NOT letting us have the Baberu Brace!"

"Great input there," said Kimiko. "Only now we wanna get the Wu without hurting precious wildlife."

"…Obá… um bemarun!" came an exclamation from the still awe-struck Raimundo. He started to make his way over to the creature.

"Uh, Rai, that may not be the best idea," cautioned Clay. "Looks like it could snap you in half."

"I know what I'm doing," the Brazilian replied as if he was being nagged. He slowly proceeded up to the "bemarun" and then held out his right hand. The beast looked down at it with its single eye.

"Vamos! Estenda a sua mão."

After a moment of suspenseful silence, it responded by raising its left arm.

"Eh, bom o bastante." Rai gleefully took hold of the giant brown hand with his left one and shook it, with the creature just standing there puzzling.

"Nunca pensei que eu veria um de VOCÊS…"

"...Ya wanna fill us in a little on what you're doing, here?" suggested Kim in a joking manner.

"Ah, sorry," Rai chuckled. He glanced up at the animal. "This, you see right in front of your very eyes, is a bemarun."

"A whozawhat now?" Dojo cut in.

"A mythological beast or something along those lines. I… pretty much obsessed over these things when I was little – 'round five or so."

"So, it's sorta like one o' your 'childhood fantasies come true' then," Clay surmised in fascination. "Heh – frankly I was expecting more of a 'El Chupacabra' speak outta this."

"El Chupacabra's, let's say, 'ridiculous.'" Rai reached up and patted the bemarun's bulky upper arm. "But this guy's the real deal; I just can't believe I forgot all those stories for so long and then WHAM! Here's the proof."

Dojo put his hand under his chin. "Hmm… and I take it you thought of dragons the same way."

"Uh, not really – I always had a hunch you little guys were real… being sighted so much in Asia and all that."

"…I see."

After a brief pause for thought, Omi popped a legitimate question. "So… are we going to try and retrieve the Shen Gong Wu from it?"

"…If this thing's gonna give us trouble, then we might need to rough him up a bit," Clay proposed with uncertainty. "Otherwise we all came here for nothin'."

"No-no-no, hold up dude," Raimundo began. "We can get him to hand it over. …In fact, we can bring him along with us!"

Kimiko crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "What are you thinking?"

"Yeah, we'll take him back to the temple and show him around! Maybe even keep him!"

"As a, pet?" Omi looked confused.

"Ahem – kiddo, Master Fung doesn't take kindly to pets, especially BIG pets," claimed Dojo, unimpressed by the idea. "Sorry to say, but that's the way it is."

Rai looked up at the sky, exasperated. "Ah COME ON! It shouldn't be a big deal! Besides, who's the leader here?" He pointed to himself.

"Not me…" mumbled Omi.

"…Yeah. And I think me, and you guys, can handle a pet, whatever size it is. Hey, we had dinosaurs ya know!"

"Only after we shrunk 'em," clarified Clay.

"…And then they answered the 'call of nature' by eating themselves," Kim maintained grimly.

Omi scrunched his mouth. "Oops."

"Well that's cuz they were too SMALL to be noticed," Rai pointed out. "And we're not ignoring a bear-sized animal. So let's just see how this plays out. C'mon Dojo."

Dojo grimaced. "Fine." He swelled up to his full forty feet. The bemarun stared up at him and almost dropped the Baberu Brace it was holding, with an even greater sense of wonderment than before.

"…Alrighty then." Kimiko climbed up onto the now-giant dragon with Clay shrugging and following suit. Omi, meanwhile, looked back at Raimundo and the creature as he was boarding.

"Here, it's okay! He's just our friend-slash-transportation." Rai pulled gently on the bemarun's left arm, which made the beast decide to follow him. He then led it onto Dojo's back by the hand and, after a little adjustment effort, they all took off into the sky.

And there is the first chapter. Hooray to something being accomplished!