Prologue: Waking up and meeting new faces

My eyelids felt heavy as I lay on the soft mattress…only I didn't know how I knew what a mattress was. Furrowing my brow, I forced myself to open my eyes. The blindingly white ceiling of the hospital glaring down at me. Wincing, a single thought crossed my mind, how do I know this is a hospital? What is a hospital? Swallowing hard, I opened my mouth to ask what happened to the empty room. Horror struck me as no sound escaped me. I'm mute…I can't talk. The door opened as a nurse with crisp brown hair and sharp, no nonsense dark gray eyes, walked into the room.

Upon seeing that I was awake, she walked over briskly and began to look over the beeping machines that I was surprised to realize I was hooked up to. "Good, you're awake. We have been unable to find any records of you…so if you could be so kind to tell us your name and your parents' names, we would greatly appreciate it."

I glared at her, frustration flaring inside of me. I'm mute genius. That and I don't know my name or my parents' names! I have amnesia! I crossed my arms, hoping she got the message.

"Ah, shy one, aren't you?" She smiled warmly at me as she wrote something down on her clipboard.

No…I am a mute amnesiac. Get it into your head…uh; I think that says Joy Anna. I glared at her again, before looking away, wishing there was a way to communicate with her.

Joy Anna looked up from her clipboard, still smiling warmly at me. "How about we call you Drake? It means dragon, and you do have a dragon birthmark on your right wrist."

Startled at that announcement, I lifted my right arm up to see that she was telling the truth. There was a bright fiery red dragon around my wrist, the tail wrapping itself around my entire arm. How did I not notice that!?

"You…don't remember it…you have amnesia don't you?" Joy Anna frowned, worry creasing her brow.

I bowed my head in embarrassment, tears of frustration threatening to escape me. It's not fair… I can't communicate with you, or remember anything!

"I'll be right back." Joy Anna stood up and left the room, the door closing with such finality that I sank back further into my bed.

Several minutes later, I had four guests walk in to see me. One was an elderly man wearing a white kimono with gold trimming and carrying a staff. He had a long white beard and mustache, and a straw hat on his head. The other three were wearing matching plain black gis, though they had the hoods down so I can see their faces. One had light brown hair neatly combed back, and electric blue eyes that danced with humor. Another one had pitch black hair, and chocolate brown eyes that seemed to bore into me. The last member of the group, who was much taller than the other two, had stiff looking snowy white hair and icy blue eyes that were emitting a deep calm.

The elderly man walked up to me, a smile on his face as he placed a hand on my shoulder. "Hello there, my name is Sensei Wu. These are my students, Jay, Cole, and Zane. How are you doing, Drake?"

I'm a mute amnesiac that really needs to find a way to communicate that fact to everyone else apparently. I arched my eyebrow up at him, hoping he had the ability to read my mind.

"Not talkative are you? No problem I can make up for that! Let's see here, you probably feel terrible after being unconscious for the past three weeks…" The student with electric blue eyes suddenly began rambling. Alarm shot through me as I realized that I didn't know I was unconscious for that long. The student gave a nervous laugh as he noticed my expression. "You didn't know that, did you? I mean I guess you did just wake up and…"

"That is enough Jay." Sensei Wu interrupted him, gently reprimanding the teen with a look. Jay ducked his head in embarrassment, a mumbled apology escaping him. Turning to face me, Sensei Wu patiently tapped his staff against the ground. "Since you have no memory of anything, and I have been looking for a new student with potential, I have made an agreement with the hospital that from now till you have regained your memories and reunited with your rightful parents, I will be your guardian. Is that ok with you?"

I nodded my head, wishing I could actually speak with him. Please help me out here!

"Good. I'll tell the nurse that I am ready to check you out, Drake." Sensei Wu walked out of the door, pausing just long enough to turn around to look at his students. "Oh…introduce yourselves to him while I am away. It will do him no good not to know who you are."

"Yes Sensei." They bowed to him out of respect.

The second that the door closed, the one with the black hair turned to face me. "My name is Cole, the tall blonde is Zane and you already know Jay the chatterbox." An undistinguished sound of protest escaped Jay, though he didn't say anything else. "Just so you know, I'm the leader and nothing in this world scares me."

Really…what about dragons? I thought sarcastically as I arched my eyebrows at him in question.

Zane turned to face Cole, his voice eerily calm and devoid of emotion. "Except for dragons."

Cole spluttered incoherently, before clearing his throat loudly. "I said in this world, Zane."

I frowned, wondering how it was that I knew that Cole was afraid of dragons. Had we meet before? No, he wouldn't be calling me Drake if we had. The door opened again as Joy Anna and Sensei Wu entered back in the room.

Joy Anna walked over and quickly began to disconnect me from the machines that were monitoring my health. "You're all good to go…I mean, I would rather keep you here for a day or two to make sure…"

No! Anything but that! I much rather deal with an army of nindroids! I thought frantically, though I was confused over my use of the term nindroid.

A laugh escaped Joy Anna as she noticed my face. "You really don't want to stay here, do you?"

I gave her my best what do you think look, crossing my arms in annoyance. She handed Sensei Wu a clipboard, telling him to sign in several different spots. She then handed me a notebook with a cool looking black pen with red stripes. "Here, so you can write down what you want to say until you learn sign language or something."

I nodded my thanks and quickly wrote down a single question down. Figuring that Zane looked to be the smartest of the students, I passed it back to him. A frown crossed his face as he looked down at it. "I am sorry Drake…but that is not a real word."

I frowned at that, a funny feeling creeping up my spine. If that wasn't a real word, why did I think of it in the first place? Somehow, I had a really bad feeling about this whole mess.

Sensei Wu held a hand out to me, a smile on his face. "Right, time for us to get going. We have a long way to go."

I leapt out of bed, surprised about how fit I appeared to be for being unconscious for the past three weeks.

A/N: Hello! This is my new series. Before you ask, all guesses on who Drake really is will be very interesting to read, so yeah go ahead and guess. Also…why does he know a word that Jay hasn't even invented yet?! And about Cole's fear of dragons? Something is going on here…

Review!

SkyTalon