New Endings and Old Beginnings
"And so...it has ended." The sage voice said into the darkness. No one spoke and for a while the only sound was the crackling of the small bonfire in the middle of the clan meet's circle. At the head of assembly sat a wrinkled elderly man with long silvery hair stained a mixture of black and orange from the glow of the fire. It was a cold night yet clear as crystal; above them all the stars twinkled.
To his left a younger man with red hair sighed slightly. "A shaman king has been crowned then, master Orak?"
"No." The older man replied opening his white milky eyes. He looked heaven ward unseeing and continued. "The tournament has been postponed. For how long I can not say, the Great Spirit has not joined with a shaman, there is no king and the dark one has passed into the void."
A shrill blast of wind rocketed around the assembled people as with a rush of awe they stared at Orak.
"Zeke is dead?" Someone demanded.
Growling the youngest member of the assembled group stood. She was a teenager with long red hair and sapphire coloured eyes lit with the flames in front of her and annoyance was plain on her face.
"You dare to doubt the word of Master Orak, the chosen oracle of Avalon!" she spat at another dark haired man in his early twenties who had spoken. He too rose to his feet and squared himself off against the red head.
"You shame your master speaking out of place. It is no place for a female in a clan meet! Daughter of Jarik!"
"Peace!" Orak said calmly putting an end to the argument. As the two sat he closed his eyes and drew a shaking hand wearily over his brow and closed eyelids.
"I can not say why but I feel his soul has gone on. So yes Ledvi of Belua, Zeke the dark one has not succeeded this reincarnation. He has been disposed of by the Asakura descendant. How I do not know. "
"But Master, if Zeke is indeed dead then what you fear may very well come to pass! The dark ones arts are forever eluding our attempts to eradicate them from our Clans. If he is gone then the treaty no longer exists! If what you say is true! The rebels have no fear of retribution they will enter the tournament themselves!"
"Yes..." Orak said softly. "They will enter...they will enter and they will use these arts of the very blackest Majiks to make themselves unstoppable..."
"But if the Asakura defeated the dark one Master surely they can defeat them!" The red hair girl said loudly.
"Not if they take him first." Orak whispered then pitched forwards. The two at his side sprang upwards in time to catch him in his collapse. "The spirit world is in turmoil...and I am weak. Even as we speak the Great Spirit sends the destiny star back across the heavens. Back to summon them...back to back with destruction...back..." he lost consciousness and the clan leaders respectively took their leave.
The red haired girl hung back to watch her Master by the fire side. "What does this mean Elder Reh?"
The man who had sat on the right hand side looked upwards to the stars then out across the endless expanse of ocean surrounding their island. "It means we have very little time sister-daughter. Very little time."
Far across the world, unaware that he was the subject of much discussion on a tiny island off the Gulf of Mexico. Yoh Asakura stretched and welcomed a new day. He yawned happily as the sun crept over the horizon. Perhaps today he would spend the afternoon at the river with Morty.
"What a beautiful day." He murmured happily to himself leaning on his balcony and smiling contentedly to himself.
"Yes." A voice agreed as the spirit of a samurai swam into formation at his side and swept the land before them with hawk like alertness. "It feels good to spend these spring days with our friends does it not lord Yoh?"
"You took the words right out of my mouth Amidamaru! Heheh" Yoh agreed chuckling to himself. From somewhere inside the house a large crashing noise indicated that they were not the only ones awake.
"NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE YOU CLUTZ!" Anna's training voice yelled causing both carefree spirits to shrink as if under a visible weight.
"Perhaps we had better see what that is about."
"Do we have to...?" Yoh asked as tears formed picturing the multiple possible explanations for the noise. Most of which included a new type of training equipment. He pushed away from the railing however and crept to the stairs.
At the bottom amidst the remains of a sliding door lay Rio. "I'm sorry Miss Anna...my hand slipped." He seemed dazed as he lay amongst the splintered wood. Tokageroh waved a fan over his shamans head. "Get up Rio!" he pleaded. The twosome at the top of the stairs frowned at each other in time to hear another voice say softly.
"That looks a rather deep cut Anna, It may need a suture. If you would just...hold still...for a moment...let me look at it." Faust's arm came into view at the bottom of the stairs trying to desperately hold onto something. That something glared daggers at Yoh freezing him to the spot.
"YOH, AMIDAMARU GET YOUR SORRY BUTTS DOWN HERE!" Anna yelled. She held a sushi knife in one hand stained crimson while the arm Fust was trying to pull towards him was clenched into a ball dripping red onto the tiled floor.
"Perhaps we should NOT see what that is about..." The samurai corrected.
"Uh-hu..." Yoh agreed as he hurried away from the scene knowing that he would pay for his tactical retreat later. Hopefully much later!
The week progressed a great deal like any other since the end of the shaman tournament. It all really seemed like a distant dream and yet not. Their friendships were living testament to that and had endured even though they had all gone back to their normal every day lives. Anna, when not forcing them to run marathons each night to stay in shape, watched TV in the den while Faust and Eliza did their own thing.
The sound of light organ music reached his ears and he glanced upwards at the tiled roof above him knowing the source of it. Faust and his wife were sitting in their usual spot on the roof enjoying the night air too. Yoh smiled thinking of the time each of their group had met. It seemed like at one point or another they had all been enemies.
And for once...Yoh thought as he sat looking at the sky the sounds of his friends echoing through his memories that did not seem like a bad thing. If enemies truly did hate one another then in their case it was a good thing. Hate was a passionate emotion and passion was still passion he guessed. Once they got to know one another it had turned easily from hate and jealousy into love and loyalty- like snow melting to water.
He had wanted to be shaman king to live an easy life...and though he hadn't managed to get to that goal the journey had taught him more than any other training in his short life had done. That if an easy life existed it would be much akin to the one he was living now.
A brilliant burst of light above him shook him from his pensive state as the night sky lit up with a shower of meteors. The beginning of summer and, through the midst of them, the brightest arc of light followed by a chorus of chiming as the oracle bells in the house echoed the sight. The signal they had been waiting for.
Despite the fact that it was true their original adventure had ended, another was about to begin.
