Swords and Swallows

By Dixxy

Chapter Two: Welcome to El Nido

(Sage)

"ARE YOU OKAY?"

I opened my eyes and promptly screamed bloody murder. Of course, I think most sane human beings would if they woke up to what I had just woken up to. There, staring me right in the face, was a giant metal mask-helmet with a loud, booming voice to go with it. Unfortunately, the masked figure decided to scream as well, and THIS scream was so loud I thought I was going to go deaf.

A few moments later, the other screaming stopped and I could hear someone scolding someone else over the loud ringing in my ears. I placed my hands over my poor, hurting ears and sat up, groaning as every muscle in my body complained about the simple task I had just put it to. No, I did not feel and yes, I wanted to lie back down and sleep for a few more days.

Prior to being awoken by metal head, I had been spending a nice, quiet afternoon by myself (save the cats, but they were napping in the house). My parents and my grandfather were visiting some friends a few towns and my sisters had decided it was a good time to go out on a "girls' day out". There were no scheduled classes that day and I had no other plans. So, deciding it would be more productive of me to practice with my sword in the dojo.

But not even five minutes into my workout the shadows came.

And now I was in a strange room with metal head getting yelled at.

I sat up and looked around. Wherever I was, it was owned by someone with a decent amount of money (or was an INCREDIBLE bargain hunter)- everything looked like it was the best of quality, right from the creamy peach walls to the lush red carpets. There was a crystal light fixture on the ceiling that twinkled in my eyes like the stars in the sky, the slight tinkling seeming to laugh in an almost carefree way. I had been lying on a red shrink's couch. I motioned to stand, and immediately regretted that decision. My head was spinning and my legs buckled out from under me, sending me back down onto the furniture.

The arguing had ceased. The man in the metal helmet, I saw, was a mountain of muscle and some sort of war gear, who was now heading out of the door in defeat. His opponent was a much smaller man (though I suppose a football player would be smaller compared to THAT guy) in an Elvis costume pointing towards the said door. As metal head closed the door behind him, the other man shook his head. "By the Ancient Dragonians, if manners were required in being a Deva he would've never become a private- then again, never mind," the man muttered, running his hands through long violet hair.

"Um, excuse me?" I asked. "May I ask what's going on?"

The purple-haired Elvis man looked over at me. "Ah. You're awake. Good," he said. He sauntered over to me with his arms crossed and a half skeptical look in his eyes. Once he reached me, he bent down to look at me straight in the eyes. "What's your name, junior?"

"Sage Date."

"Sage Date, huh?" said the man. "Where're you from?"

"Japan," I answered. "And please, just call me 'Sage'."

The man looked at me oddly. "Japan? Where's that?"

I blinked. "You've never heard of Japan?" I asked.

"Nope. Where's it near?"

I sighed. "Well. . . it's part of Asia-"

"Never heard of Asia, either."

I paled. "Uh, may I ask where I am?"

"Viper Manor, on the main island of the El Nido Archipelago. But let me guess- you've never heard of it, have you?" he asked. I closed my eyes, thought, and shook my head. "Huh." I opened my eyes again to see the man walking back and fourth, a gloved hand scratching his chin. "So I've never heard of your home, and you've never heard of mine. From the sounds of it there Japan and Asia places are pretty big deals where you come from, and if they were big deals I would've heard of 'em."

I sat quietly and nodded. "May I ask who you are?"
The man laughed. "You're definitely not from around here, then," he said. The man held out a hand to me, which I shook. "The name's Karsh. I'm one of the Four Devas of the Acacia Dragoons, and as I Deva I'd like to welcome you to Fire Dragon Isle on behalf of the Dragoons."

I smiled. "Um, thank you."

"Ah, no need to-"

"EEEEEEEEE!"

"AAAAAAAAAAHH!"

"HOLY SON OF A-"

I sprung to my feet from instinct and surprise. "What was that?"
Karsh shrugged. "Nothing- sounds like someone caught Dario and Riddel in the act AGAIN," he said, also managing to mumble something incoherent about "inconsiderate newlyweds". I raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Uh. . . I'll explain it to you later. That's not exactly the top of your list of concerns right now- right now we should get you changed into something more suitable and try to figure out exactly how you got here."

I looked around uneasily. "Um. . ."

Karsh escorted me to what I guessed was his sleeping quarters. He had me sit on his bed while he began to look through a closet for something for me to change into. After I had looked around the very elegantly decorated room (and it WAS quite nice- the wood was well polished and the lighting fixtures were some of the best I'd ever seen), I started to ask some questions.

"Why are you being so nice to me? You obviously think I come from some other world, so wouldn't you be better off throwing me in some sort of a prison? Not that I want you to do that, but. . . I'm just a little surprised at your hospitality," I said. "Thank you for it, by the way."

"Not a problem. And this isn't the first time I've seen a case like yours," Karsh said, tossing me a pair of pants. "Put these on- it's a private uniform, so you'll blend in well with the rest of them. Now, let's see about getting you a shirt and telling you what happened last year."

"What happened last year?" I asked as I stripped out of my jeans (Karsh had his back turned so I wasn't feeling overly embarrassed about my not quite decent state). "And what do you mean by 'privates'? Like privates in an army or something?" Karsh nodded his head without turning it.

"Yeah. The Dragoons are the local law enforcement around here. In fact, that's a good place to start," he said. "As I said, the Dragoons are, basically, El Nido's government and first and last defense against invaders. In recent years, the Porre Republic has been taking over the other countries in the world- last time I checked they had control over what used to be Guardia and Choras. They had Medina but the people rebelled and won their freedom back. Anyways, the Porres have had their eyes on El Nido for a very long time. We're bursting at the seams with natural resources and some absolutely beautiful landscapes that the damn Porres want for their own purposes."

I nodded. "So you had to defend against them."

"Yes. At the time General Viper- the leader of this nation and the army- was trying frantically to figure out a way to stop the Porres. He was eventually approached by a demi-human named Lynx and his assistant, a harlequin named Harle. Lynx was some sort of an officer in the Porre army, but he made some proposals to the General about an artifact known as the Frozen Flame."

"Demi human? Frozen Flame?"

"A demi-human is basically a half human, half animal. The Frozen Flame was supposed to be able to grant wishes and, aside from the legendary Rainbow Shell- the greatest forging material ever discovered- was the most sought after treasure in the world. Lynx believed it was possibly here in El Nido in an area known as the Sea of Eden or the Dead Sea. All we needed was the Dragon Tear and the ghost of a boy who'd died ten years earlier."

I nodded. "Go on."

"Shirt first, then story," he said, throwing a shirt at me. "The Dragon Tear was an artifact kept in the floating town of Guldove. Lynx manipulated Orcha, the chef here at Viper Manor, to steal it by using some sort of a weird seed that makes him go crazy at the sound of a bell. The boy, however, was going to be a little more difficult. Viper sent me and two lower ranking Dragoons, the Shaker Brothers, to find him."

"Did you?"

Karsh passed me some other "finishing touches" such as boots and some light-weight armor. "We sure did- trouble was he looked a little old to be the ghost of a seven year old boy. Looked more like a seventeen year old to me. Poor Serge didn't know what the hell was going on. Things looked pretty bad for him until a spunky little thief by the name of Kid decided to intervene. Sad to say the two of them taught the three of us a lesson we remembered all the way back home."

"But how could he be a ghost if he was physically that much older?" I asked.

"That's just it- he wasn't. Serge was from a whole different reality. An alternate El Nido that was much worse off than our El Nido. Yet he was still alive in that world. By means of a worm hole on Opassa Beach he got here. Poor guy didn't have a clue what was going on 'cept that everyone was after him," he said. "Turns out Lynx was only using the General's power to go after something else much more dangerous that, in the end, nearly destroyed the entire world."

"What could have been that dangerous?" I asked.

"A city from the future that held a super computer named FATE. The idiot merged with it and put Kid into a coma. This didn't sit well with Serge and some other people he'd befriend during his journey so they destroyed him. But THAT was a mistake- FATE was the only thing keeping something MUCH worse from taking hold of El Nido- six really pissed off dragons and a seventh not-so-willing dragon merged into one and nearly killed us all," he said. Karsh sighed. "There's a LOT more to it, but since then the worlds have merged into one."

I sat quietly as I absorbed the long, bizarre tale I'd just been told. Karsh shrugged. "You get used to it after a while, though I'll admit that I didn't think this would happen again," he said. Karsh sat next to me and placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry about it- you might need to get your hands a little dirty, but we'll make sure you get home."

"Where there's a will, there's a-"

"HELP!"

Karsh and I didn't need to think twice about getting out of the room and trying to find the source of the scream. Karsh led me a few rooms down the hallway and threw a door open. Not even two seconds later he screamed and ran full force inside. I skidded to a stop just outside the door and looked in.

The room was what appeared to be a young girl's bedroom- there were stuffed animals on the bed and some hair things on a dresser. And almost everything was pink and pale blue. But there was no little girl in the room. There were, however, two unconscious men on the floor. One of them was dressed very strangely in red and black, his hair dyed to match. A broken guitar was at his side and a small trickle of blood was running down his forehead. The other was dressed in a more armored version of what I was wearing lying belly down on the floor, a silver sword laying a few inches from his outstretched hand.

Karsh was distraught. "By the Ancient Dragonians!" he cried out, cradling the armored of the two in his arms. His red eyes were beginning to tear from shear panic as he began to desperately scream for the young man to wake up. "Glenn! GLENN! Speak to me!"

Thinking quickly, I extended my hand and reached out with my armor's healing powers. I felt the auras of the three people in the room. All three were breathing, but the guitarist was in worse shape with a slightly concussion. I knelt down by the oddly dressed musician and pressed my hand to his head and closed my eyes.

"What are you doing?" Karsh asked.

"Healing him," I said. "I'll get to your other friend next- go get help."

Though I felt a bit odd ordering around a man I'd just barely met, I was happy to see Karsh complied without question. Concentrating, I felt my hand begin to get warm. I could feel the injury beginning to heal itself as the concussion slowly but surely faded to little more than a bump to the head. The guitarist would be fine.

Now to the swordsman (who was apparently named Glenn). I looked him over, the worst of his injuries appearing to be a huge x-mark on one side of his face. On a second glance, however, I realized the mark was very old and too set in for me to fix. Ignoring the mark, I placed my hands on his head and began the healing process again.

Karsh returned with a tall, white haired man in a long black suit coat and a blonde man with neatly combed hair and a gun at his side. "Karsh, what the hell is going on here!" the white haired man demanded. The blonde man with them also had a concerned look on his face, going to examine the guitarist.

"I don't know! All I know is that we heard a scream and we found Glenn and Nikki unconscious on the floor!" said Karsh. The purple haired man was clearly panic stricken over what had happened, and with good reason to be that way. "Then Sage here told me to go get help while he healed them!"

The blonde man looked up at me. "You did?"

I nodded. "Yes, I did." I turned to Karsh. "It's my turn to tell YOU a wild story."