Everything was dark.

Shyne couldn't see anything as she walked through what seemed a dark nothingness. Her footfalls echoed, so she thought she might be in some sort of tunnel. An endless tunnel. An endless dark tunnel.

Creepy.

She felt a if this dream should mean something - even though there was nothing in the dream. Yet.

Then, suddenly a vivid light crashed through the end of the dark tunnel, and Shyne winced at the bright light. But the light didn't fade, so she inched closer to the end.

Maybe it wasn't even light! She gasped in horror as the light turned to flames. They burned everywhere, but there was nothing to burn. It was like a desert of nothingness had caught fire.

What should she do? Should she call for help? Her parents wouldn't be very happy if she woke them up. Maybe she shouldn't have come out here in the first pla-

"Oh no!" She cried out as the realization hit her. Where was the city of CandleFlame? Had it diasapeared into the fire? But what about Sienna? Her parents?

"Oh no." She whispered with horror. "No, no. This cannot be happening-" She paused to look furiously around her. "Mom! Dad! Sienna!" She screamed. "Somebody!"

Nothing. No one came out from the fire, miraculously alive. No Mom to hug her and tell her that everything was going to be alright. No dad to ruffle her hair and call her Princess.

Nothing.

No one.

Suddenly, a thought struck her. Why wasn't she affected by the fire? Of course, she had only ever heard of fire from the Schoolbooks at GoldBlaze Academy. But the Headmaster wouldn't really put fake pictures of people burning to a painful death in fires, would he?

Just then, something caught her eye.

"Wow," Shyne leaned towards the flickering flames, entranced. Admist the fire, a bird emerged, flickering gold and red and iridescent.

A phoenix. A Legendbird from, well, a legend.

It disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

"Hey, wait!" Shyne called after the Phoenix.

"It's her, it's really her!" A girl's voice cried.

Shyne tensed at the sound of the unfamiliar voice and slowly turned around.

A brown eyed girl with coffee colored skin and a beaming face was looking straight at her. She was perhaps a few years younger than the 14 year-old.

The girl smiled and clasped her hands together. "I knew it would happen eventually! You summoned a Phoenix!"

~ xXx ~

"What?!" Who are you? Where am I?!" Shyne cried, confused and angry. What was going on?

Now the girl looked confused. A blonde haired boy with emerald-green eyes blinked in surprise as he appeared next to Shyne.

The girl had a desperate look on her face as she said, "Tell her Conor! She summoned the Phoenix! She's going to save Erdas!"

Two more kids appeared beside them: A pretty dark-haired girl, and a tall brunette boy.

The new girl spoke. "She's living a thousand years in the future, Abeke. She's probably confused, and slightly annoyed, I know I would be-"

Then the brown-haired boy. "And also weirded out that she's standing in a burning nothingness chatting with people who are appearing out of nowhere."

'Abeke' looked worried. "You have summoned a Spirit Animal. The first one in 500 years!"

The kids began to fade away.

Abeke shouted to be heard. "Be careful! You have no idea what some people would do to get your Spirit Animal! Go to the Outla-"

They faded away completely, and so did Shyne's surroundings. Everything went dark.