THE LEGEND OF SPYRO – VENTURE TO DRAGON REALMS

Prologue: The Gate

Now, where should I start? How about a question, like, how long has it been since the greatest world war that almost pushed dragon-kind to the brink of extinction ended? Too straight forward, eh? Yeah, I'm really bad at indirect intro style. Besides, I don't think I can remember the exact time, the difference between the flows of time on Earth and Dragon Realms is but a pain in the butt to calculate. As the only human, well, I am no longer a normal human, who witnessed and participated in that war, I believe I have responsibility to retell the whole story of what had happened there. You wanna know what am I now? Well, that's the only spoiler for now. Let's get down to business, shall we?

First thing first, a self introduction is always a must. My full name is Hikari Minosuke (蓑助光 - Minosuke Hikari: the helping light, or the saving light, depending on how you want to understand it). I'm currently owning my grandpa's dojo as a martial art instructor with Iaido and Aikido being my main subjects. My grandpa recognized my potential in martial art since childhood and decided to train me in Japanese's traditional art. I do have interest in others such as Karate, Judo, etc. but I didn't learn them thoroughly.

My journey to Dragon Realms dates back to the first day of new year when I was a second-year student of Kyoto University. Before I graduated into that university, I used lived alone with my uncle and aunt since my parents had passed away due to a terrible epidemic, according to my uncle. I later on moved into my grandparents' house near the university so as to be convenient for me to go there.

At university, I didn't have many friends since I wasn't social. The only impression I left was that I had beaten many bullies. To be honest, I was allergic to them, so much that whoever they messed with, even with me, if I spotted them, they were done for. Though my true intention was to protect the defenseless, my method seemed backfired, creating an even bigger gap between me and them. I also got scolded by grandpa a lot because of this.

I always walked from home to university and vice versa on a small path, now filled with sakura flowers. It was almost spring now, the breeze tapped into my face its cool touch, wiping away the fatigue of schooling. The sun was setting down, it looked like a hot big red ball at the horizon, trying to spread its last rays before giving up its place for the night. I emptied my mind and enjoy the view.

Suddenly, a familiar voice called my name, dragged me back to reality. It was Harumi (春美, it means "spring's beauty), my classmate. She had silky long black hair worn in a ponytail, her gentle face always bore a bright smile. She also had an angelic voice that can mollify even the grumpiest man. Okay, maybe I praised her too much! But at a point, we both agree that Harumi's character and appearance resemble spring.

I still remembered meeting her in the canteen at recess. Although it was the first time I saw her, she immediately gave me a familiar feeling and I felt somewhat attached to her, which I found odd. 'Have I met her before?' While wondering, she initiatively came to me and greeted me with a bright smile. "Long time no see, Hikari! Do you remember me?" Not gonna lie, but that smile was damn familiar, I swear having seen it somewhere! But in such situation, I could do nothing but paralyzed on the spot.

On an occasion, she invited me to her house. It was huge! Her relatives, especially her mother, treated me as if I was a member of the family. I found it weird, but let's just pretend I know them, for the time being. Harumi led me to her room upstairs, a cute room painted in sky blue with a pink desk that had a small shelf attached. Next to it was a metal frame sliding window, to the opposite was a bed with some stuffed animals which was next to a wardrobe. There was also a bathroom attached. Neat!

Harumi pushed me to sit on her bed. I gotta say, wow, something big is about to happen. She came to the desk, took something, then returned, sat down next to me and showed the object. It was an enframed picture of two kids, a boy and a girl, which she held as if it was something so precious to her.

For an unknown reason, a light headache struck when I saw the picture. It was… us, when we were young. Then, I acted unconsciously, raising my hand to expose the palm facing at her. Harumi didn't understand at first, but she played along, pressing her palm against mine. It was then my body started to move on its own, making gestures in an order: a high-five, a fist bump, a phone-me, and lastly, a pinky swear. A promise, that we would be by each other's side no matter what.

I remembered! Back in those days, Harumi had been playing near her house when her parents had been away, a big dog had suddenly jumped out of nowhere and had started chasing her. She had run, but it hadn't been long til' her little legs gave up. I had happened to go to her house on that day. Witnessing the scene, I hadn't think much and had grabbed anything I could have found to fend it off her. The neighbors had soon come to help as soon as they had heard the ruckus, but I still had suffered a bit from it, Harumi had got herself some bruises. The scar on my left arm was the proof of my valiant childhood.

Looking at Harumi, her face lit brightly with a smile and some tears. That expression gave me a heart attack since how much I care for her. But now, she's here, after so many years. Fate had led us back together, and I thanked God for that. From then on, our relationship becomes more than just friendship. We shared many memories, new and old. I also learned that her father died in the same epidemic back then, the very reason her family moved away. Time flew, my feeling for her got stronger, but I wasn't brave enough to tell her. Since we lived in the same quarter, we usually walked home together. We chatted a lot whenever we meet.

"Thinking about something, Hikari?" she giggles.

"I'm just enjoying the beautiful view here", I replied with a smile.

"It's a bit soon to ask, have you had a thought about your future job?" she suddenly asked.

"Well, I don't have to worry much about that. I'll inherit my grandpa's dojo, I really enjoy teaching children martial art! Of course, he agreed!"

"Wow, that's awesome! I love working with children, too! That's why I'm going to be a teacher."

"Which domain are you going to teach?"

"Not gonna tell you!"

"Ah, come on!"

"Okay then, 3 guesses!"

"Is it Math?"

"Nope! Try again!"

"Hmm… History, I guess…"

"I may be good at it, but not in the list, sensei!" she grins playfully.

"Hah! I know," I snapped my fingers, "if there's something you're good at, that's gonna be music!"

"Bravo! You won, Hikari!" she cheered as she gave my back a painful slap. I have been her closest friend, how could I possibly don't know a single thing about her talent. Then, something came to my mind. Since passing in to university, we haven't actually had a period to hang out together.

"It's three days until New Year, what do you think if we go to the shrine and after that, we'll go on a picnic?"

"Really? I will ask for my parents' permission then."

"You guys intend to go without us? That's not fair!" a voice reached us from behind.

We turned around to see that Satori and Hidemitsu were right behind us. Those two were my best friends other than Kōmyō. Satori was a little bit short, but he was the biggest brain in the group. Hidemitsu, on the other hand, was quite chubby, he had a dream of being a sumo wrestler. I met them in a very unusual way: They got good points in class, which made some guys jealous. They planned to used violence to "teache those two some manners" in the warehouse after class, but unfortunately for them that I was scheduled to do the cleaning of our classroom. I went to the warehouse to fetch the tools and ran into them. Well, anyone can guess the result, those buffoons were not seen in class for the next few weeks since they had business with the doctor.

"I thought you were going to the café", Harumi said.

"No, the café is closed", replied Hidemitsu, looking like a sour loser, "The owner is having a one-week vacation at Ōsaka. I intended to call you guys over for a chat about going to the shrine first, but it seems Hikari just got the upper hand!"

"All right!" said Harumi, "Sensei, what's the plan then?"

"Sensei?"

"He's going to be a martial art instructor."

"Ah, yes, that fits him. Just hope that he doesn't trip like in the last fitness te- Ouch! What was that for?"

Satori's careless mouth gifted him a bump on his head. I made that kind of embarrassing accident which had got my ankle sprained because of my subjective thought. And of course, the whole class had had a refreshing burst of laughter. Even the professor didn't believe I could fail that simple long jump test.

"Ahem! Well, first, we'll perform the hatsumōde as usual, then we'll find a nice spot for a spring selfie and a picnic. After that, we'll go to spring fair. How does that sound?"

"Great! And about the trip, I'll tell you guys one magnificent spot where my family used to come when we get there!" Hidemitsu said with pride in his eyes.

"So, when will we go?"

"It's going to be extremely crowded those days, so around 4 o'clock should be okay." And then we parted ways.

"Harumi…" I spoke to her before I took the turn to my house "I also intend to go back to our hometown to pay respect to my parents. So, if you…"

"Anytime you want," she held my hand gently as she whispered, "just let me know. Our families can go there together. See you tomorrow, Hikari!"

And everything went smoothly afterward. Both their parents and my grandparents agreed about our little trip, and so everything was set.

Around 3:18 am, I was awakened by the doorbell, since I slept in the room downstairs. I went to open the door with the pajama still on. I was kinda surprised to see my friends standing in front of my house.

"Sorry, Hikari", Satori said with an embarrassing smile, "We had a change of plans last night but I forgot to tell you!"

"Let me guess, you were too hooked on beating the newly released game of this year, weren't you?"

Looking at his embarrassing face was enough to know that I hit the mark. "It's okay! Even if you called me, I couldn't be able to reply since I always set my phone to 'Do not disturb' mode when I sleep."

"We intended to move the rendezvous time sooner because most of the shrines were overcrowded yesterday", explained Harumi.

"Then, I'll go change my clothes. Wait here!"

We left the house and arrived at the torii ten minutes later. It was really cold, and to our surprise, the whole place wasn't as crowded as we had expected. After we had done offering our New Year's prayers, we went to buy some charms, but something happened that would change my life forever.

"Come on, guys!" Satori said excitedly, "We're going to take the bus to get there! Hurry up or you'll miss it!"

"Okay!" we said in unison.

As we were going downstairs, a loud thunderclap from behind almost beat the heart out of our chests. We turned around to see a small fog ball appeared at the middle of the torii. It generated sparks and strong wind and started to grow bigger. The crowd went panic, running away from the strange entity. We, too, tried to run away from it as fast as possible, but Harumi suddenly tripped at the last staircase and got her ankle sprained. I had to carry her while Hidemitsu and Satori supporting me.

The wind at first blew wildly, then its current changed, dragging everything toward the fog ball now has grown into a black hole of sort. We were really in a bad situation now, being the nearest to the black hole with Harumi's injury and the strong current, we had to cling onto a trunk nearby to wait for help. It was really dangerous since there were flying objects around us. While struggling to help Harumi, my hand slipped from the bark. I was blown to the hole's direction, but managed to grabbed on to a chain from the fence in front of the torii. At the moment I thought I was going to make it, a frying pan flew at me and hit me in the head. I lost consciousness and fell into the black portal. Everything that I remembered was the voice of my beloved friends shouting my name as the world spiraled into darkness.