Dragonia

By Dixxy

Prologue One: Ordinary World

(Rowen)

My life hasn't been the same without you here.

Came in from a rainy Thursday on the avenue
Thought I heard you talking softly

The rain had been pouring down in buckets that day, and I'd gotten stuck walking home in it without so much as an umbrella or even a thick sweater- just me, a T-shirt, some old jeans, and a worn out pair of sneakers. Completely broke, I couldn't even call Mia for a ride home from the library.

The library had become a place I ran to when I wanted to escape the horrible reality I'd suddenly found myself facing. The world was something I didn't want to face anymore. My life was crumbling apart before my very eyes and all I wanted was to run away and never come back. I hated my life and everything to do with it. I just wanted to run away to another lifetime, but no matter how fast or far I ran, I could never get away.

I finally reached Mia's house to find that the lights were all off and the Jeep was gone. I swore under my breath, unsure of where they might've gone. To look for me, maybe? I sighed in exasperation. That figures. As soon as Mia, Ryo, and Yuli get back I'll get a lecture about making them worry. Not too bad at all. I've had much worse. This time it was more of a, well, miscommunication, I guess. But like they'd care. At least I was able to get home.

I turned on the lights, the TV and the radio
Still I can't escape the ghost of you

Even after nearly a year, the house just didn't feel right. Even though they were only there for a short time, they were part of a delicate balance that made the house run smoothly. Shouldn't there be a familiar blonde kendo master relaxing on the couch with a cup of tea and good book? Shouldn't there be a brawny, happy young man be playing video games in the basement with Yuli? And what about the auburn haired English youth feeding the fish in the fish tank that had been eerily quiet for the past few months? Why aren't these empty spaces filled?

The hum of the TV does nothing to ease this rush of depression. Ever since the accident happened, I keep having them. Sometimes I wonder if what happened has made me manic depressive or even bipolar. Wouldn't surprise me- I've been on an emotional roller-coaster since before the war with Talpa even began. When I first met Sage.

I snorted. Sage. Most people didn't know the real Sage. The Sage most people knew was a polite, proper, and at times a little arrogant jerk who spent most of his time meditating or practicing kendo. He was the kid who never even looked at a pair of jeans most of the time and would rather stay at home then set foot at even the tamest of parties.

That wasn't the Sage I knew. The Sage most people knew was the result of his family constantly trying to suppress the REAL Sage. The REAL Sage was just like any other kid I knew- he liked to dance and write fantastic stories about faraway lands and people. He was the kind of person who would run out in the middle of a rainstorm just for the sake of being in the storm. When he laughed it was like tinkling bells in the light-hearted manner he did it. But this REAL Sage was rarely seen.

You have to realize Sage was brought up under the Date clan, a very prestigious family in Japan. I wouldn't call them rich or wealthy in terms of materialistic means, but they had a famous heritage reaching back into the days of the samurai. They owned a very prestigious dojo that most other masters wouldn't challenge. His family was very proper and calm, with maybe the exception of his younger sister, but they were a very traditional group.

Not Sage. Sage was the oddball in the family, and the first glance of him would tell you that. Everyone else had dark hair and dark eyes. My best friend had a wild mane of blonde hair and vibrant violet eyes. That much was a dead giveaway as to how different he was. But when you really got to know him like I did you saw it was more than that.

I guess Sage was born with his wild, carefree disposition. But his family didn't like that, so he spent a lot of time being spanked, sent to a time out area in his basement, and all but beaten bloody into the lifestyle his family chose natural. He built up the arrogant snot act as a defense mechanism against his family. Sage built himself a cage to keep the real him locked inside.

That's what he was, too. A caged bird.

We met when I was twelve and he was eleven. It was a chance meeting. My mom had decided to take me on an excursion to interview the Date clan for whoever it was she was working for at the time. I quickly found myself bored with the adults, consisting of a married couple and an elderly gentleman, so I wandered off to see if I could find anything of interest.

What I found, or rather heard, was the sound of the tinkling laughter. I followed it and saw my soon-to-be best friend playing in the mud. He was covered head to toe in the brown much, covered so thoroughly I didn't know he was blonde until much later. I crept closer, curious, and then he saw me. Poor Sage looked like a deer caught in a headlight. He started to stutter. I knelt down by the mud puddle and swirled my finger around in it, asking why he was so nervous. Sensing that I wasn't a danger, he smiled and asked me if I wanted to play.

When my mom and Sage's father found us we got the verbal beating of our lives. Mr. Date dragged up both to the side of the house, stripped us down naked, and hit us with a hose- that's when I found out Sage was a blonde- and began to mutter something about stupid kids.

I don't know how, but that experience brought us together. Before my mother and I left, Sage and I exchanged contact information and we became pen pals. Letters became weekly events in our young lives, and at times it was all I cared for. When we got older the two of us would sneak off to see each other and act like kids. The two of us were free-spirits in a carefree world.

What has happened to it all?
Crazy, some would say,
Where is the life that I recognize?
Gone away...

But now my best friend was gone. It started the day we learned we were both Ronin Warriors. We found our armor orbes, showed them to each other, and felt some relief in knowing that we knew someone else who had found this strange force. Sage started to teach me how to fight, and I found myself getting good at it. I was a quick study with a bow and arrow, something that bewildered my friend. We dubbed the force "It" due to the lack of a better name.

"It" frightened us.

When we felt that "It" was getting close, we agreed to meet in Toyama, a city that had been pulling at us for a while. I was sixteen and Sage was fifteen. We had agreed to meet at a small motel on the outskirts of the city. I got there first with next to nothing to my name. It was raining that day, too. I sat under an awning marking the decks of the second story rooms, perched on a bench.

Sage arrived with a dazed look on his face. When I saw him I knew something was wrong, and I rushed to his side, escorting him into the room I'd managed to secure for us. He was soaked to the bone, his hair was a mess, and he was hugging himself nervously. I took his backpack from him and sat him down. Before I could say a word, he broke down and cried right there.

Sage had just found out he'd been adopted. Not only that, abandoned as an infant.

I held Sage for at least an hour as he poured out his emotions to me. He was angry with his parents for not telling him- his grandfather had broken the news to him because the old man somehow knew what Sage and I were going through. Sage told me that he felt worthless and unloved. He sobbed, upset because his real parents had, evidently enough, not wanted him. I cried that night, too. I hated seeing him like that.

I promised him that I would always care about him. No matter what.

But I won't cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world...
I will learn to survive

But those days were gone forever. Sage was gone. After everything we went through and everything we did together, they were only memories now. Memories of one of the greatest people I knew. Memories of a carefree laughter that tinkled like bells. Memories of my best friend.

That was all I had.

Passion or coincidence once prompted you to say
"Pride will tear us both apart"
Well now pride's gone out the window cross the rooftops, run away,
Left me in the vacuum of my heart.

Once, between the battles with Talpa, sometime while Ryo was still out after using the Inferno, we sat down on the roof of Mia's house and just talked. We talked about a lot of things, but then you pointed out that we were both men with a lot of pride. "Mia kinda pointed that out to us. Remember, at the very beginning? None of us could work together," was what he'd said to me. "We can't let our pride get in the way of what's really important- sure a personal victory is nice, but we can't try to do this by ourselves. If we don't remember that, we'll fall apart."

What is happening to me?
Crazy, some would say,
Where is my friend when I need you most?
Gone away...

I'm falling apart Sage. . .

But I won't cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world...
I will learn to survive

But I can't cry. I refuse to cry anymore. He's gone and there's no point in shedding any more tears. Besides, Sage wouldn't have liked that. If he knew I was crying for him, he'd be mad. He'd tell me not to cry over him. I could almost hear his voice. "For crying out loud, Rowen, stop your blubbering! Get on with your life and move on!"

Papers in the roadside tell of suffering and greed
Here today, forgot tomorrow

I just can't forget about Sage, though. He changed me. He was a part of me. We were all a part of each other. Ryo, Sage, Cye, and Kento are all a part of me, and I'm a part of all of them. But now that it's just me and Ryo, we're incomplete. I don't feel whole anymore. I feel like a fragment of a person and I know I'm suffering inside. I feel like I'm dying on the inside.

Ooh, here besides the news of holy war and holy need
Ours is just a little sorrowed talk
(Just blown away...)
And I don't...

And yet. . . sometimes it feels like you're still here. Sometimes I get this funny feeling inside me and I can feel you. I can even feel Cye and Kento. And sometimes that little feeling is all that I live for. Just the thought that maybe you weren't killed- just taken away, and you three are still alive somewhere. Holding onto each other for support. Keeping together. Waiting for me and Ryo to find you, or fighting your way back to us.

But time is our greatest enemy. The longer you are away. . . the less likely it is you'll be coming back. Any of you. No matter how strong you three are, or were, something was strong enough to rip you away from me and Ryo, and even Mia and Yuli. But if you are alive, please, keep holding on.

But I won't cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find
And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world...
I will learn to survive

No matter where you are, I'm going to find out what happened!

Every world, is my world... (I will learn to survive)
Any world, is my world ... (I will learn to survive)
Any world, is my world...
Every world is my world...