Swords and Swallows

By Dixxy

Chapter Four: Why Me?

(Kento)

To say the least, I, Kento Rei Fuang, was NOT a happy camper.

For one thing, I didn't know where the hell I was. Which is something I'm not too fond of. I like having control over a situation, and not knowing where you are definitely doesn't apply to having control over a situation. So there was one problem right there. And an understandably BAD problem at that, though I've been in worse situations.

Second, I didn't know where the hell Cye, my best friend was. One minute Cye and I are hiking in the woods, then everything goes dead silent. Not a good sign, which I pointed out to Cye- the forest never sleeps. It's probably my armor that connects me so intimately with the earth and the natural world, more so than the others Ronins.

Not to say the other Ronins AREN'T connected with nature. Ryo loves the wilderness, too- it's in his blood. Before his father passed away, he lived in a small mountain cabin in the woods. It never took much to get that guy to go outside and run around. It wouldn't surprise me if Ryo just took off one day to be one with the animals. But Ryo can't feel the animals, except for maybe White Blaze. His senses revolve more around fire and volcanoes- both of them aspects of nature, but not the forest itself.

Cye? He'll hike with me, but he's connected to another part of nature. I'm in tune with the balance of the Earth and the creatures on land- but Cye loves the sea like no one else I know. Any chance he gets to be near the ocean, he'll take it without hesitation. And he'll spend hours apon hours in the water if you let him. Sometimes I wonder if he'll even skip a meal to stay in the water he loves so much.

Sage and Rowen? They like the outdoors, too, but their passions lie in a bit of a different direction- the sky. Sage's element is light with a little bit of weather thrown in- that guy gets up early every freaking morning to watch the sunrise without fail, unless he's really sick or was out REALLY late. As for weather, well, while we were all still at Mia's, Sage liked to sit by the windowsill and stare out at the sky whenever there was thunder and lightening.

Rowen loves the night sky. The stars, the moon, comets. . . he loves it all. Rowen is unquestionably a night owl- if he has it his way he'll be in bed around two in the morning and up sometime after one in the afternoon. No questions asked. That's the way he likes it, but unfortunately the world doesn't always work that way. Rowen wants to live in the night while the world demands him during the day.

That aside, the shadows swallowed Cye and I up, and now I couldn't find him.

Wherever I was, I was in a large circular room with a pedestal in the middle and a huge wall mural depicting was looked like some oddball form of evolution from dinosaur people to prehistoric man. There were also six glowing dragon statues, each of which glowed a different color- white, blue, green, black, red, and yellow. A ring of light surrounded each dragon and the pedestal, solid lines connecting each dragon to the pedestal. Beyond confused, I wobbled my way toward the door.

Outside, I saw no exit- just a short path a circular balcony with a pattern similar to the one inside the room I'd awoken in. Deciding that I wasn't going to find Cye standing around there, I realized I needed to plan my escape. Cautiously, I got close to the guardrail, where I looked down to see what I was above and if I could find some sort of a ladder or rope.

I regretted the decision to look down almost immediately.

You see. . . there was a building beneath the structure I was in. But there was nothing connecting my structure to the building. Or to the rock walls surround the building. That was when I realized that not only was I lost, alone, and in a strange building, but I was lost, alone, and in a strange FLOATING building.

I screamed, stumbling backwards from the edge towards the circular balcony. Unceremoniously, I fell flat on my ass, my body skidding across the plane until I crashed into the opposite guardrail. I saw stars as my head began to spin. Clumsily, I reached up to grasp the wall and pulled myself to my feet. I staggered back towards the dragon room, only to stop once I reached the middle, doubling over to rest against my knees and catch my breath.

"I gotta get out of here," I said aloud.

My wish was granted.

Before I knew what was happening, I felt my body pass through the floor. Now that I was officially scared stiff, I didn't move a muscle as my decent towards the building continued. The only thing I could think of was that my body was going to be splattered on the domed roof and no one would ever know what happened to me.

But, just as I had gone through the floor of the balcony, I passed through the roof.

Gracefully, as if I had just taken a step off a stair, I was standing in a large, labyrinth like-room with another seven-ringed circle. I looked up and saw solid stone above my head and all around me. I swore aloud, amazed at what was going on. "Where am I?" I asked in amazement.

"WATCH OUT!"

Before I could react, a large purple bat flew past my head. I yelped and dove to the ground as the creature passed over again, snapping its jaws and going for my throat. Doing what any sane person in my situation would do, I screamed like a little girl and backed away as far as I could, right into another person.

"You moron! Get out of the way! We could get killed!"

I ignored the person I'd run into- I was too busy screaming.

I watched as a large, flashy boomerang whacked the creature in the head, knocking it out and down for the count. One of its wings twitched, a pool of drool was forming on the floor, and a rather large bump was on its head. I sat up, breathing heavily. "Damn," I said. "That is one freakin' huge rat with wings."

"Googhoul."

I turned my head. "Pardon?" I asked as I caught sight of the other person in the strange stone. . . place. The person I'd all but rammed into, much to my surprise, was a kid! A nerdy, skinny kid at that. He had gold-rimmed glasses that were falling off the tip of his nose, a dorky brown and red outfit with an extra dorky hat, as well as a dorky messenger bag to match. The only impressive thing about the kid was his boomerang, which was about as tall as he was and glinted with an amazing brilliance I'd never seen before. Staggering, I got to my feet and brushed off my pants. "Right- a goo-goo."

"Googhoul," he corrected. The young man stepped closer and looked at me with great interest. He adjusted his glasses, straightened his posture, and folded his arms. "Who are you, anyways? And what are you doing in a place like this? If you can't even handle one little Googhoul you should be headed home."

I was a LITTLE offended by the kid at first. Then I decided he was a little punk and glared at him. "My name is Kento, I have no clue what I'm doing here, AND THAT LITTLE FLYING FREAK OVER THERE SNUCK UP ON ME! AND I HATE BATS!" I pointed at the bat. "YOU TRY WAKING UP IN THIS FREAKY PLACE!"

"You don't have to be rude!" the boy countered. Then he froze. "What?"

I growled. "Look, I don't know where the hell I am or why-"

The boy stepped closer. "You really don't know what's going on, do you?"

"Do you?"

"No, but I can get you out of here," he said.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked.

The boy straightened his glasses again. "Because I've come to a conclusion. You have no idea where you are or why you are here, correct?" he said. I nodded, rolling my eyes. "You're yelling because you're stressed out, and that's a perfectly normal reaction for someone in an odd situation. I figure that if I help you make sense of what's going on, or at least put a few pieces of the puzzle together, you'll feel better and won't yell so much."

Wow, that made a lot of sense, I mused. "Okay. Where am I?"

"Fort Dragonia," he said. He waved his arms around for emphasis. "It's the ruins of an ancient fort once commanded by the Ancient Dragonians. There's a lot of weird stuff in here left over from them, and a lot of it is magical. In fact, that might be part of how you got here, though as far as WHY you're here. . ."

I moaned. "Great. Now I'm stuck in some crazy magic ruins with killer bats."

"You're not 'stuck' in here- I told you I'd get you out of here," he said. He grabbed me by the hand and started to lead me off the platform we were standing on. "Come on- there are two more people with me, and we'd better find them before we make the motion to leave."

Not having much choice, I followed. "By the way, what's your name?"

"Van," he said. "And your name is. . . Kento?"

"Er. . . yeah," I said. Van stopped at the bottom of a staircase we'd just descended, looked around for a few seconds, and then took a turn. I followed, my arms folded as I tried to think of some more questions to ask. "So, why are you here, Van? Did you get brought here by the black stuff, too?"

Van stopped, turned to look at me, and raised an eyebrow. "Black stuff?"

"Guess not."

"I came here of my own will. Pierre and Janice- those are the people I'm with- wanted to come here for their own purposes and I followed. Pierre wants to be a hero- which, between you and me, will happen when pigs fly- and Janice wanted to find some of the monsters here to train," Van said.

"AHHHHHH!"

"What was that?" I asked.

"Pierre," said Van. He sighed and looked at me. "He probably found an Alphabat."

I shivered. "Another bat?"

"A smaller, not nearly as dangerous bat," he said. "I know a near-sighted old lady more dangerous than those things. Still. . . someone has to save him." As an afterthought, Van grumbled what I interpreted as "unfortunately". He started to go into a slight jog, holding his boomerang tight in his hand.

Deciding that I wanted to be useful, I picked up a spear lying on the ground near where I was standing. I followed Van, holding my temporary weapon in hand as I took off after him. This Pierre guy sounded like a real "winner", and I had to see this for myself.

What I saw was pretty pathetic.

Pierre looked like a Renaissance pimp decked out in light blue and purple thanks to the large, gaudy hat he was wearing. Several feet away from him there lay another flashy weapon- this time a sword- as well as an unconscious AlphaBat. Pierre was backed up against a wall, staring down a large golden robot with fists larger than this guy's entire head.

"Moi has you concerned!" Pierre said.

I stared at the man in disbelief. "Oh. My. GAWD." Van had an exasperated look on his face as he prepared to toss the boomerang at the robot (and maybe hit Pierre on the way back). I readied my spear as the boomerang hit the robot and made a loud metal clanging noise that echoed through the stone room.

"Little Van, mysterious monsieur, I have it taken care of!" Pierre said.

"Right. . . and I'm a pretty ballerina in a fluffy pink tutu," I said as the robot began to move towards me and the kid. Van leapt into the air to catch his boomerang and prepared for another strike while I charged at the robot, spinning my spear like my naginata and combining it with some kicks and punches.

Kicks and punches I would come to regret.

"OW!" I screamed as my fist connected with the hard metal of the robot. Seeing as that did nothing, I retreated and nursed my wounded fist, never taking my eyes off the large metal eyesore. After checking to make sure I was okay, Van threw the boomerang at his adversary again, then began to murmur something under his breath.

Before I could ask Van was he was doing, I noticed that he was glowing. . . green. More and more green energy surrounded him until holographic leaves appeared out of nowhere and a breeze began to blow them around. Van threw his hands forward, crying out the magic attack.

"AEROBLASTER!"

And with a strong gust of wind, Robo Dipstick was down and out.

Pierre stood, brushed off his tights, and puffed out his chest. "Ha! Take that!"

"Whoo-hoo! Van took out the Cybot!"

Van was soon brought to the ground by a slightly woman in a partial bunny costume, who was holding him a near death grip. "Jan-ice! Get offa me!" Van whined, pleading with the bunny lady to let to him. Janice shook her head, giggled, and squeezed tighter. I watched in amazement as I observed the woman and the bunny pieces.

"That. . . isn't a costume, is it?" I said in amazement.

Van and Janice looked at me in surprise – Janice had a look of pure confusion, though Van seemed somewhat sympathetic. "Relax, Janice – he doesn't know what's going on and neither do I. I found him in the teleportation room." The kid pushed the woman off and stood up, brushing himself off. Once he straightened his glasses, he sighed. "Well, the way I see it we should head to Viper Manor or Arni."

"Viper?" I asked. "Like snakes?"

"It's the symbol of the Viper family – don't worry, Viper is the leader of our country and. . . well, he's a nice guy most of them time. If not, there's always Riddel to keep him in line," said Van, laughing. "She's got her father wrapped around her little finger and he doesn't even notice."

"Will he know what's going on?" I asked.

"Not necessarily, but it's a good place to start – if you're not the only one who came here from another world, then any of our friends around the archipelago will bring them there or to Guldove," said Janice. She grinned. "And we DO have a lot of friends, by the way."

"How many?"

"Not counting us. . . about fifty or so who'll believe you," said Van. "We'll explain on the way there, but I will warn you – this is a weird one." I nodded, and the four of us began to walk and talk. "It all started a year ago when a friend of ours named Serge kept having this strange dream. . ."