Me: Well, it looks like the trip is coming to an end.

Kipper: Really, how disappointing.

Me: Ya, I know. Oh well. All things must come to an end sometime.

Kipper: But so soon? It doesn't even have ten chapters yet.

Me: This isn't the last chapter you idiot, I still have a few more planned out, and what are you doing here?

Kipper: I don't know. I'm just bored.

Me: Oh, ok.

Kipper: *Sweatdrops*

Shout Outs

Angel Kitty: Your welcome on using your name, I had to give you the credit since it was you who though up his last name, not me.

Ryu Gunslinger: I fixed that problem through out trough-out the whole story.

A Breath of Fire Story

Chapter 7

Part 11: The Ancient City Dragatoa, and the Book

A odd rant: The last chapter was a calm before the storm, so to speak.

The small band of travelers continued to walk. They longed to see any sign of civilization. It was then that they came to some ancient ruins of a city.

Kipper could just barely make out the large faded out sign. "Dragatoa? What is that?" Kipper asked out loud. The place was very large.

"Dragatoa, why does that name sound so familiar?" Teepo asked himself. He felt that he should know this. As if it was a part of a forgotten memory. "Lets see if we can find anyone, or at least an inn." He says and they start to search.

The group had found no one there. They had found a rather large cemetery, but that was it. No signs of life anywhere. They had found an old inn that hadn't been used for 500 years, but hey, it's an inn.

"I wonder if this place has any books? It would be really cool if they did." Said Reina. All of the books she had seen crumbled to pieces in her hands. She had been sorely disappointed.

"All the ones I found crumbled to bits when I touched them. They have to be at least over 100 years old." Makas commented. Then said, "This place has to be at least over 100 years old."

"I wouldn't be that surprised. This place looks old, but there's something familiar about it, but I just cant put my finger on it." Teepo replies.

"Really. That's kinda strange, Teep. It looks as if nobody been here since before you were born, a really long time. You'd be old if you were." Kipper said to him.

Teepo gave a small smile and then said in mock offence, "Hey, I'm not old! I don't even think I'm middle age." Then he laughed. "Come on, lets get some rest. We could all use it. We've spent the entire day searching for a place to stay that I think we all deserve a break."

Kipper was the first to wake from his blissful sleep. It had been very refreshing, and he felt fully recharged. He did not wait for the others to wake, before he left the old, crumbling inn. He headed inside the remains of what may have once been a castle. He put his hand up to the wall and felt it slightly crumble at his touch. It was still very strong though, it could support his weight.

He climbs stairs that no one had climbed in years and he reaches the second floor. He eyes wander the place. The stumble on some ancient writing on the door. It for some reason attracted his attention the most. It was if some unknown was pulling him into the room. He opened the door and saw...

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where's Kipper?" Asked Nirra, for she had awoken to find Kipper missing. She began to worry about him. Her brother shrugged, Makas was sill asleep so he could make no reply. Reina shook her head. Madelline is muttering something, but it was to soft to make out. It was Teepo who finally broke the silence.

"Oh boy. I guess we'll have to search for him." He said, sighing. Teepo was developing parental instincts, though he hadn't realized it yet. Perhaps it was from being with all of the children of his brothers. Though, he felt more parental towards Kipper. He didn't know why, maybe it was because he felt sorry for him. Teepo forced the thoughts out of his head. *You can ponder this later.* He though to himself.

Kipper could have sworn he saw a ghost, if he had ever seen one. No, it was far different than anything he had seen, and this didn't look like the way Nirra had described the ghosts that she said her father had fought in the McNeil Mansion.This one looked as if it were a person standing right infront of him, though he could see right through him. Perhaps those ghosts in the McNeil Manor had not been true ghosts.

The ghostly figure turned and pointed at a large block of stone. It looked as if he wanted Kipper to look at it.

"What's so interesting about a large rock?" Kipper asked and walked up to it. He then noticed a very thin and narrow line at the top of the stone. "You want me to push this off?" He asked the ghost.

It nodded.

"Ok, here it goes." He started to shove off the top of the stone. It then heaved and fell to the ground with a thundering smash. He peered inside, and found a fairly large book. Kipper lightly tapped it. Nothing happened. He then carefully pulled the book out of the block. It's cover was yellow, and the pages looked almost gray with age, but gave no sign of crumbling. It was entitled, "The Dragon War" He turned to the ghost. "Is this what you wanted me to find?"

It nodded again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"This looks like a place he would like to go." Said Rosco. He had been observing his friend and had noticed that when they had been searching for the inn, that he looked inside large buildings, and this one was very large.

"Darn, no locks." Makas muttered to himself. He was becoming bored. No locks to pick, and no machines to tamper with. He knew his sister felt the same way. His tail swished back and forth in a bored manner. He then followed everyone up the stairs.

Teepo felt as if he should be worried about something, but he didn't know what. When they finally got to the top of the stairs they saw Kipper in a room holding a fairly large book. "Where did you get that, Kip?" Teepo asked him.

Kipper almost jumped when he heard Teepo's voice. He hadn't really been paying attention. "That ghost over there told me to get it from that rock over there." He pointed to the Ghost, then to the rock.

Teepo paled visibly. That was what he had been worried about, ghosts.

Ever since he was a child he had been afraid of ghosts. It was an odd fear for a dragon to be afraid of ghosts, and he had hoped that his experience with ghosts in the McNeil Mansion would have lessened that fear. It hadn't. Besides those ghosts in the mansion had been really pathetic. This looked more like the ghosts he had imagined.

He began to back up slowly out the door. He did not want the kids and Madelline to think of him as a coward. He then scolded himself mentally for thinking of running away like that. It most certainly was not him. He then stood his ground as he saw the ghostly figure smile at the group and led them to a table. Teepo dusted it off but kept an eye on the ghost.

Kipper opened the book and began to read it.

What is being read...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today is a sad day for us. This is the day the what we would like to call "The Dragon War" started.

For some unknown reason Myria, the sister of a good friend of ours named Deis, has declared war with us. None of really understand why she did this, but all we know is that we cannot fight back. Our powers would put far to much strain on the planet and would explode. We have lost a few of our people today when we went there to talk.

Myria has sent four Guardians to destroy us. I think I can remember their names.

Garr, or his full name Garland.

Gaist. I do believe I met him before. I really don't think he understands this.

Gaw. I don't know much about him.

And last Gatz. He seems to have a hatred of us. He's a friend off Garr and Gaist. Why he harbors this hatred against us I don't know.

~~

It is the second day of the war and hundreds have died today, and many have fled to the colony of Dragnier. All of them have given up their powers.

I do fear for the young princes. They may only be a year old, but I do think they in a way understand what's happening. It is such a shame that all of this had to start on their birthday.

The younger of the twin princes, and a darkness dragon no less, was very upset.

His slightly older twin, a light dragon, looked more or less slightly relieved that the party had been canceled.

~~

The third day of war. The attacks have moved in closer to our very capital of Dragatoa.

We all agree that we cannot let ourselves go down completely to extinction. We have decided to do a chrysm sealing. We will seal away four of our strongest babies until there is a time where our power will not be such a strain.

The princes Ryu and Teepo will be sealed away most definitely because they are the strongest of all of the babies.

We have also found the two second strongest children. A baby boy named Victor Steele, and a baby girl named Zeta Carta. Both are darkness dragons.''

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kipper stopped reading. "Ok Teepo, this is really weird. Your name, Ryu's name, and my parents names, were all just mentioned." Kipper said, confused out of his mind.

The twins nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, a small memory dug itself out of the bottom of Teepo's brain. "I think that is me they are talking about I somewhat remember it, me and your father were up half the night talking about it." He said to the dragon twins.

"No way. That book is 500 years old. No way that could be you! That would mean that your 539 years old!" Kipper said. "I thought you said you weren't even middle age!"

"Aww, be quiet and keep reading!" Teepo mutters, unhappy about finding out how old he was!

Kipper starts to read again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sealing was done today. Little Ryu cried pretty hard, though Teepo didn't care. The boys had given each other a goodbye hug and, poor Ryu didn't want to be separated from his brother.

I can honestly not blame him. Those two have always been close. I do believe they were talking last night in their own baby language.

The sealing of Zeta and Victor was a lot easier then it was for Ryu and Teepo. We sent them to a forest a few days walk from here.

We have sent the twins into a mine far away from here, where hopefully they will not get discovered, though I cannot say I am holding my breath. The horrible bloodshed has become greater that we could have ever imagined.

~~

We have lost almost all hope of anyone staying here and even remotely feeling safe. We have sent the Dragon Elder to Dragnier in hopes that he will one day meet with the young Brood.

We have lost a good ally today. Deis tried to get the Guardians to stop, and they locked her up inside Angel Tower. She was a very good friend of ours and we shall all miss her.

~~

This is the last time I shall be able to write anything in this book again. I gave put a special incasing around it so that it will not rot, decay, and crumble.

The Guardians have attacked the palace. The king has been killed and I must hide this book for the Guardians would destroy it if they found it. Farewell.

~~

"What a sad story!" Said Madelline. She had thought of the incident where they had encountered a Guardian. He had been very mean. She then latched onto Teepo's arm.

"Ya, it's such a shame that it's a true story. I still can't believe something like that had happened. We never even fought back." Said Teepo, anger in his voice.

He had been told it was the Brood that started the war. That they were going to use the power to destroy the world, but the never fought back for the fear of that very reason.

Why had he chose to agree? To give up his carefree life. His punkish attitude. His freedom. To live in an artificial world that only depressed him. He had seen many things die, such as birds, when they thought the place was real and tried to leave and crashed into the walls. He still wasn't quite sure.

"Teepo, what's wrong?" Kipper asked, noticing that Teepo was thinking about something.

"It's nothing really. Come on, let's go." Teepo replied, as he watched the ghost smile and vanish.

It's task was now complete.

~~~~~~~~~

Part 12: Capture

Kipper had insisted that they continue to look around. Teepo was against it, for the fear of finding nothing but ghosts.

Teepo led the group up some stairs. He had lost the argument. Then he came to two hallways. One left, the other right. Teepo and everyone went left, everyone except Kipper.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Kipper was starring at the walls. Such a history they had, but one would have had to live at that time to understand them. That is what held Kipper's attention the most.

This...This had been the histories he had wanted to know. He was finally getting his own questions answered. He then came to the same intersection, only he turned right, not knowing where everyone had gone.

~~~~~~~

Teepo found himself, and the others with him, in a small room.

Suddenly the door slammed shut behind them, sealing them in the room. All of them jumped.

"I can't get the door open!" Rosco said, his voice raising with panic.

"It's locked from the outside, we can't unlock it!" Makas cried out.

Suddenly the room started to fill with some sort of gas.

"What the...! Teepo said, then noticed Nirra's eyes getting heavy. "IT'S SLEEPING GAS!" He shouted.

Nirra then slumped to the ground in a very deep sleep.

"I can't faaall asleeep." Rosco said, yawning while he said it. Then he slumped into a deep sleep also. Soon everyone was in a very deep sleep.

~~~~~~~~~

Kipper continued to walk down the hall and was getting worried. He hadn't seen his friends anywhere. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't notice the figure following him.

The figure following him crept up behind him, and carefully pulled the crimson red pole out of Its case. He then rams the pole into the boy's side.

Kipper didn't know what had happened when he felt a deep pain in his side and slammed against a wall. He reached for his pole to find it wasn't there. Suddenly whatever had hit him, for his eyes were too blurry to see what it was, rammed his pole down on his head, and he fell to the floor, unconscious.

~~~~~~~~

When Kipper regained consciousness he want to rub his throbbing head. Impossible. He arms were bound to his side with some unbelievably strong rope. He then noticed he was being dragged by something. He was sure that it wasn't the thing that had hit him, for the blurred outline wasn't the same.

Then another figure noticed that Kipper's eyes were open. "He ain't supposed to be awake yet!" It said, and Kipper was dealt with another blow to the head, once again knocking him out.

~~~~~~~

When Kipper awoke again he one again went to rub his head, and found he could. He felt a couple of fairly large bumps on his skull. He then became aware of the sound that came when he moved his arms. Chains were attached to his wrists and they were connected to the wall.

He let out a small growl of pain and irritation. He then looked around to see his Teepo, Nirra, and Rosco chained to the wall, also They appeared to be asleep. "Hey! Wake up! he called to them, nudging Rosco with his foot.

The young half dragon let out a groan and opened his groggy eyes. "Hu, where am?" Rosco asked.

"Beat's me, but I do know we need to get out of here." Said Kipper, tugging at the bonds.

Teepo and Nirra woke up moments latter, both were not particular happy. Just then, two guards dragged in another man. His resemblance to Rosco was frightening, or perhaps Rosco's resemblance to him was frightening.

"Dad, is that you?" Rosco asked after the guards had secured the man.

"Rosco, my son, is that you?" The man asked in reply, then said, "Of course you are, you look exactly like me." Ryu gave a soft smile.

"How did you get here, Dad?" Rosco asked.

~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~

"Why on earth are we walking to Dragnier when we could just use the Warp Gate to take us their?" Asked Ryu, feeling really stupid.

They all go to where the Warp Gate and they are sent to Dragnier.

~~~~~~~

"Why didn't you just have the kids warp there if there is a warp pad here that leads to Dragatoa?" Ryu asked the old man after hearing the story?

"I felt that they would find it very dull and boring just to do that, so I made it a adventure." Replied the old man.

"Can we use the Warp Gate to get their, my parental instincts are giving me a bad feeling about the kids." Ryu asked hopefully.

"You may." Said the old man.

The group then warps to Dragatoa.

~~~~~~~End of Flashback~~~~~~~

"Well, he is right, it would have been boring, but I doubt that any of us would be locked up right now." Rosco stated.

"I have to agree with you but..." Ryu's gaze fell on Teepo. "Teepo, is that..That really you?" He asked the purple-haired man.

"Ryu, it's been along time broth..." Teepo pauses before finishing saying brother, unsure how Ryu would act. "I am very sorry for how I behaved 17 years ago, I really am." Teepo said to his twin.

Ryu suddenly smiled. "I felt bad about killing you. Speaking of which, how are you here?" He asked.

"Don't have a clue. I just woke up in a desert to find 17 years have passed, I don't know if I was dead or not." Teepo replied, the flashed a smile. "So, we're all back together again, though I noticed we have never had any happy reunions." Teepo sighed.

"Hey, it's ok. You weren't..." Ryu paused, searching for the right word. "Yourself at the the time. I never was able to place the blame on you. I'm just happy you're ok." His shy smile fell back on his face as he sighed. Then the Guardian came in.

"So, I have all of the last of the Brood right here, it will be no problem eliminating you. And incase you are wondering how the chains are holding you. This is a dungeon built by the Brood to hold criminals, Brood criminals." Said the guardian named Gatz.

Kipper's eyes narrowed. He wasn't as frightened as he'd though he'd be. Perhaps his fear of himself overwrited the fear of the guardian.

It then dawned on him that he was unarmed. He glared at the gaurdian for taking away his most treasured item. His father's pole was very important to him, as it was the only thing he had to remind him of his parents.

"Well, if your going to kill us, can we at least go down fighting?" Kipper asked.

The Gaurdain sighed and agreed to a fight.

To be Contunued...

Wow, things just don't seem to go good when that Guardain's around. What did you think of my point on the war where the brood were killed, since it never really said. This will become a little clearer in another story to this.

Next time the group starts to battle the gaurdian ,and I have a feeling it will be shorter.