Dragonia

By Dixxy

Chapter Five: Spirited Away

(Rowen)

Not a single pair of eyes had left Demone since his dramatic entrance. Especially not Lucky's- whoever this man was, Lucky seemed to know who he was and did NOT like him. By now the dragon had taken refuge down the front of my shirt, poking his head out of the collar to see what was going on.

"Lucky! Who is this?" Mia asked.

"Demone. . . he's awful!" Lucky said, shivering. "They. . . they say that he, he has. . . he has. . . enough. . . p. . . p. . . pow. . . power. . . t, to take over. . . D. . . Drag, Dragonia! Then. . . he, he, he would. . . p. . . p. . .plunge. . . D, Dragonia into. . . an, an eternal darkness. . . of. . . of. . . misery. . . and. . k. . . k. . . chaos! B. . . but. . . but he was, was only a legend!"

At this story the man who called himself Demone began to laugh. "Well, well, little dragon, you may not be totally correct, but I'll give you two points for trying," he said, curling his lips into a devilish grin. "Yes, I do want to plunge the world of Dragonia into a world of darkness and black magic, but I don't have enough power to do that as I am standing here- I would be put down in a second if the Dragon Kin were to retaliate!" Casually, Demone sat down in an open chair and snapped his fingers. A golden goblet materialized in his hand, and he took a drink of a thick, crimson red liquid. I cringed at the thought that it could very well be blood.

"So then what do you want with us!" Ryo demanded. His old temper had flared up again, a sort of inner fire seeming to burn in his eyes. "If it's the armors you want then you won't have enough power- only two of the armors are here. We don't any the whereabouts of the other seven, so you're just wasting your time, especially if you think we'll go down without a fight. There's no way we're just going to let some demon use us to take control over a whole world!"

Demone chuckled, some of the liquid in the goblet drizzling down his chin. "Oh, I fully expect you to put up a fight," he said. He the rivulet of the drink off his chin with the back of his hand and licked his lips. "It would be foolish if any of the guardians of this world didn't fight."

"But what do you want?" Ryo asked again.

"Oh, a few things," he said. Slowly, the demon turned his gaze to where Mia and Yuli were. The former was protecting the latter with arms wrapped around the young boy, both looking at the man in terror. Demone stood, grinning as he began to stand. Ryo and I realized one of the "things" he was after included Mia and Yuli.

"Get away from them!" Ryo shouted, attempting to run towards Mia and Yuli.

Demone turned viciously towards Ryo, Lucky, and myself. "Not a chance, Ronin Rodents- they're MINE now and there's not a damn thing you can do about it!" he spat. He raised his hand, a mass of dark energy circling around the exposed palm. His robes began to billow around him as he eyes began to glow a deep ebony. The three of us were tossed backwards as Mia and Yuli screamed our names, begging us for help.

"MIA! YULI!" Ryo screamed.

I struggled to move, but found myself held against the wall I'd been tossed into by some unseen force coming from our foe. I couldn't move anything- not even a finger- from my position. I tried to scream, but the pressure against my chest from the force (and Lucky) was making it difficult to even breathe, never mind scream. I could only watch helplessly and weep.

If Sage, Cye, and Kento were only here. . . we might've stood a chance. . .

Demone grinned, closing his hand into a fist. More energy surrounded the hand, making me wonder if this was the deathblow. He was, after all probably going to end up killing it. He didn't seem like the kind of man who'd leave his prey to live another day. I choked back more tears- was this really how I was going to die? Helpless at the hands of a mad demon man? Is this was we had spent so much time fighting against the Dynasty for? For all of us to die without warning and at the hands of something so violent and horrible we couldn't even begin to comprehend it before it was too late?

Demone opened his hand.

Good-bye, world. . . Sage, Cye, Kento, I'll see you all soon.

Nothing happened to me.

Instead of the expected kiss of death, I saw a huge, swirling vortex of black, blue, pink, and purple appear in the wall behind him. The force holding Ryo, Lucky and me back disappeared, causing Ryo and I to fall to our knees. Lucky (somehow) got to my shoulder and held tight to my neck in fear. I squinted to protect my eyes from the gale of wind in the computer room, watching as large black shadows reached for Mia and Yuli.

"No! Mia! Yuli!" Ryo shouted, reaching fruitlessly for our friends. Demone laughed at our helplessness and at the helplessness of Mia and Yuli. They were struggling, digging into the floor and grabbing onto furniture in desperate attempts to keep from being pulled into the strange vortex.

"Rowen, what are we going to do?" Lucky asked.

"I. . . I don't know!" I said. "STOP IT!"

"Oh? What are you going to do about it, Ronin?" asked Demone.

Before I could answer, everything went white.

Once the white faded, I found myself standing in a long corridor. No longer was I in the chaos filled computer lab- Demone, Mia, Yuli, Ryo, and Lucky were no where to be seen. Torches were on either side of me and a royal blue carpet was underfoot. Through the darkness at the end I saw something shimmering and sparkling, beckoning me closer. Without thinking, I obeyed and began to run towards it.

The run was strange, like a dream or a drug-induced hallucination. Everything was in slow motion. My vision was slowly blurred to the point where it looked like the hallway was twisting and twirling before me. Thousands and voices were called my name, yet there was only one that I was listening to. The floor beneath my feet was turning to rubber, swaying with each stride I took. And my mysterious goal only seemed to get further and further away from me.

. . .Rowen. . . don't give up. . .

. . .you can do it. . .

. . .keep going. . .

. . .you can't give up now. . .

In a sudden rush, the gap between me and the shinning object closed and I was standing before a pedestal. Set firmly in the pedestal was a sword, glistening in some unspoken glory. Mystified, I extended my hand towards the hilt as my eyes widened in some unknown excitement. My heart was skipping several beats at a time and my palms were shaking.

One finger touched the grip. Two. Then three. And then my hand closed around the hilt. Everything seemed to stop, save my own breathing. I placed one foot on the pedestal, suddenly determined to pull the sword from its resting place. This sword. . . it was calling to me. It was the voice speaking to me. This sword wanted me to take it from the pedestal.

In one swift motion, I removed the blade.

Just as soon as the mysterious vision had appeared, it also subsided and I was back in the madness of the computer room. But now I was kneeling against something, both hands gripped tightly around it. I raised my head to see what it was, unsure of where it had come from. Or, for that matter, what it was I was leaning against.

I was staring at the blade of a sword.

What the HELL?

"ROWEN!"

I snapped to attention and saw Mia, who was now mostly in the vortex. Yuli was nowhere to be seen, and my heart sank as I realized he'd already been sucked in. But there was still hope for Mia. Only her head, a shoulder, and an arm were outside of the vortex, but at least SOMETHING was still in our world. I gaped, screaming her name as I released one hand from the sword and reached for her. But it was to no avail- I was by far too far from her to even touch her fingertips, and she was swallowed up by the vortex.

His deed done, the blue skinned man turned to Ryo and me with an icy smile that ran shivers up and down my spine. "Farewell, Ronins- don't wait up for us, because I can almost guarantee we won't be returning," Demone said coolly. He snickered, bowed in a sort of mock politeness and turned towards his vortex, calmly stepping through. It rippled around him as he began to disappear into the wall.

"Stop!" Ryo was on his feet and running as fast as he could towards the strange vortex. He had an enraged look in his eyes that told me he had NEVER been that pissed off in his entire lifetime. "Get back here you coward! Fight me! See if you come out of it alive you yellow-bellied ass!" Then he fell into the portal.

"Ryo! RYO!" I cried out in desperation. No! I wasn't letting him go into that thing alone! Not without me, at any rate. My hand still wrapped around the hilt of the sword, I got to my feet and charged towards the vortex. "If you're going in then I'M COMING WITH YOU!"

"ROWEN!"

I hit the vortex.

Ooo. . .

"Rowen! Rowen, wake up! Rowen!"

I felt hands on my shoulders, shaking me in attempts to wake me up. I groaned in protest, though the sound was somewhat bumpy from the shaking. I had a headache and the shaking wasn't helping any. "Go away. . . my head hurts. . ." I complained rather loudly. "Lemme sleep already."

"ROWEN! This is NO time for NAP!"

I slowly opened my eyes and found a worried looking Ryo was leaning over me. "Ryo?" I asked. "What's going on?" Slowly, I helped up with a little bit of help from my friend. I placed one hand against my forehead, the other hand clasped around something. I moaned, rubbing my poor head.

"I'm. . . not sure, but I don't think we're in Japan anymore."

I opened my eyes for the first time and looked around. We were in a small clearing of a lush forest that was colored with an explosion of greens. In the distance I could hear birds chirping a lovely song. A soft breeze blew through, kissing my cheeks and playing with my hair. I sat up, looking around in wonder. Everything in this little clearing was peaceful and calm.

Then I snapped back to reality.

"Where's Mia? Yuli? Demone?" I asked, looking around frantically as I tried to get to my feet. Ryo held me down, shaking his head. I swore under my breath, turning my head into one of my shoulder. "Damn it- we've lost them. SON OF A BITCH!" I tightened my grip on the strange object, trying to release my stress into it.

Huh.

Once Ryo gave me some breathing room, I picked up the object and saw it was, once again, a sword. More than likely the same sword from my "trip" and the one I had just before we went into the vortex. I laid the blade across my lap and looked at it. Though I didn't know much about swords, I knew this was a special weapon made with the utmost care.

The blade itself was made of a well-polished silver metal that was lightweight but heavy enough to cause damage to anyone who crossed its path. Both edges of the sword were very sharp to the touch, as was the tip. The cross guard of the hilt was a blue metal carved in the shape of a dragon (a large one, not the small furry version I was used to in Lucky) in mid flight, the grip wrapped in a soft and sturdy leather. The pommel on the end was a metal ball with a yellow crescent embedded into it.

"Rowen, where did you get that sword?" Ryo asked, sitting across from me as he inspected it was well. He scratched his head and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "I've never seem one quite like it- it's very nice. You had it in Mia's computer lab as well."

"Wow! This is so cool!"

The two of us turned our attention to the source of the voice. Lucky was sitting on a small tuft of grass not far from us at all. He spread his wings and lifted himself into the air, flying closer to the sword with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth. "Lucky? Do you know what this sword is?" I asked. "If you do, could you please tell us?"

"How did you get it, Rowen?" asked Lucky, placing his face infront of mine so we were seeing eye-to-eye. "You didn't, by any chance, go into a trance and find the sword in a sort of. . . vision, I guess. . . and then snap out of the vision to find the sword in your hands, did you?"

My eyes widened in surprise. "Er. . . yeah."

"Do you know what this means?"
". . . no."

"You're my Dragon Tamer!"