The sky, The sky was so clear and the air was so crisp that it was cool and enjoyable
to be out. Looking down at his feet Kento realized that he wsa not on the ground but was
actually flying throught he air. "What is going on. I am supposed to be on the ground
not in the air!!"
As he looked around he heard a silvery laughter ring about him seeming to envelope him in
the sound. "Kento, Kento Rei Faun, Kento of HardRock." The names surrounded
himfirst lovingly then harder and more hatefully. "The spider was right about you
Kento, Hardrock can no more change its nature than the stone it was named after."
~The spider?? Whats Dais have to do with this.~ Kento started looking around for signs of
his friends or the owner of the voice that was speaking to him. Soon he heard a familiar
song and as he strained to hear the lyrics he was almost shocked at what he heard.
"The itsy bitsy spider, went up the water spout
Down came l'raine and squashed the spider out
Out came the Son and dried up all l'raine
But the itsy bitsy spider could never live again."
Kento listened as the melody swam around him, then faded away with the daylight that was
there. He had to wonder what this was all about as the voice was that of a child's. How
could a mere child know who he was and how to make him fly with out his armor?
As he touched down to the ground he felt himself grow weary, as if the act of flight was
his own actions and the exertion pulled on him. He found a tree and hopped up into it and
as he leaned back to brace himself he found himself falling asleep. As the Darkness
claimed his mind Kento woke up in his own bed wondering if what he had was a Dream, Vision
or something else all together. As he looked out the window he saw that it was still night
and there was no sign of the dawn so he figured that it was still late. He turned back
over and tried to go back to sleep but that melody kept haunting him.
-----
Encased in the darkness Rowen tried desperately to find his way out. The walls were close
to him and he wanted again to feel the openess of the skies again. "Silly Rowen,
Rowen Hashiba, Rowen of the Strata." The child's voice chided him as it identified
him.
Rowen stopped looking for a way out as soon as he heard the voice and wondered at its
child like clarity. ~Who is that?~ "What do you want? Why am I here??"
The voice giggled. "Silly Rowen ever so curious and always in trouble."
"Darkness had a little scam, It's fleece was green and glowed
everywhere the green one went, the darkness surely goes
it followed him to school one day hoping light would play
but learned a lesson from his own, the darkness can not repay
Death is there for one and all, its darkness eternal plight
Come and get the darkness Halo, your friends will share his light."
The poem's words flowed with menacing hatred around Rowen as he finally latched on to the
mind of Halo and used his own light to haul himself out of the dark pit that was there.
Once he reached the light Rowen found himself disturbingly awake even though the room was
completely black with the still autumnal night.
-----
As the two boys reached out with their minds for any other sign of disturbance they ran
into each other mentally and agreed to head to the kitchen to talk about the dreams. Rowen
quietly got up and moved stealthily out of the room and down the hall towards the stairs
and the kitchen.
As he moved he had to wonder why the little girl spoke to him even though the poem she had
recited sounded more like it was directed at Sage than the others. He also had to wonder
what kind of dream Kento had to get him up this early in the night. Usually the big guy
slept much like Rowen did untill the scent of food wafted up the stairs in an irresistable
alarm call.
As Kento and Rowen reached the kitchen they opened the door only to find Anubis in
conversation with White Blaze and Mia. The three that were already in the kitchen looked
unsurprised as the two came into the room as they offereed hot chocolate to the boys.
"Looks like my warning was in time to prevent so potentially serious damage."
Anubis looked over at Mia and then to the boys as they sat down and accepted the warm
drinks. "I can only assume that something rather unusual happened in your dreams to
wake you up at this hour, Especially you Rowen."
Rowen nodded just accepting that it did take something pretty spectacular to wake him up
at this early/late hour. They all jumped however when the unexpected presence of Sage
shuffled through the door with a very grim look on his face as he looked at Rowen.
"What was the meaning of the mental wake up call at this hour of the morning
Rowen??"
"Sit down Sage and I will get you something to drink while we all try to find out
what all happened to Kento and Rowen that succeeded in waking you up." Mia had stood
up and pushed Sage towards the table and the chairs as she seemed to float over to the
still hot kettle and made a cup of Sage's favorite herbal tea. Pressing it into his hands
she accepted his nod of thanks and moved back over to her seat.
As she sat down they started talking in detail about the dreams. "A touch strange
that your dream would have you in Rowen's element and yet have the song directed at you
and your armor Kento. But I find it far more unusual that Rowen would be put into Sage's
element and have the poem that was given to him really be directed at Sage." Anubis
watched from the background as he was familier with the ronin's as a group and they tended
to exclude anyone that was not directly involved in the conversation until they were
needed.
"Actually I think I can answer that question there Mia." The now more awake and
alert Sage spoke up now after drinking his tea. "Ever since I was young I knew that I
was to an extent empathic. In my own defence I focused my studies in the martial arts into
the direction of meditation and and the shielding of my mind from mental distraction and
coersion. The mental shield I have developed over the years are very strong but not
inpenetrable, as demonstrated by Rowen's mind being able to wake me up. The shield itself
I have an autonomous reflex to raise those shields at night when I am asleep only to bring
them down when awakened by an imovable force or trouble."
Sage turned his grey eye to Rowen. You say you were in a closed dark space when you heard
the poem?" When Rowen nodded in assent he thought. "Well that could be that you
astral walked back to the caverns where I was sent the first tiem around to recharge after
our first major battle with Talpa."
Mia injected. "That would make sense considering Kento was flying when he entered the
dream. Rowen, what were you doing as you woke up from the dream?" Mia, Anubis, Sage
and Kento all looked over at Rowen as he thought of how to word his reply.
"Welllll. I think what was happening was that I remembered Sage and the light ans I
felt his mind somewhere. I reached for it and grabbed and used that to help me out of the
darkness. As soon as I got to the light I woke up into the dark room again." Rowen
had grabbed a pencil and a note pad that was nearby and was doodling and sketching as he
spoke. The pictures that flowed from his fingers to the paper were incredible as they
slowly turned one line at a time into the nine ronin armors in miniature. As he finished
his doodling he realized what he had done and also realized that the armors each had
something different about them. None of them could put their finger on what it was and
left it at that for the moment.
I do not own any rights to The Ronin Warriors or their characters. However. The Silver Raven Spirit Armor IS my idea and I will send the Masho and Youja after you if you steal it. This page is copyrighted: Dragon Dagger 8/31/2000.