Chapter 1 : Rebirth

Bow awakened to find that he was lying in the ground in the dark. He remembered running into the giant demon, what was its name again? Oh yes! Barubary. Then getting hit by the huge tail and then extraordinary pain for a brief few seconds before he slipped into unconsciousness. What had happened to Ryu? Where was he? Bow struggled to his feet and scrambled around in the darkness trying to search for his companion. Although he had only known Ryu for less than a day, he was starting feel a bond develop between them, with time maybe even friendship. If he could find out what happened to him.

After searching around what seemed like an eternity, Bow's leg brushed up against something in the dark.

"Ryu, is that you?" he asked.

But the lump remained motionless. Bow knelt down and felt around. He could feel a body and then in more detail, legs and then a head. But in the darkness he couldn't quite complete the picture so he searched for the candles that Ryu had been carrying before they had encountered Barubary. He found one lying not far from where he was but it was broken in two, so he continued his search unto he discovered an unbroken one and then using the little flint and tinder he had left, lit the candle. It's pale light reflected against the cavern's massive walls and then Bow turned to see a sight that turned his stomach.

Lying on the ground where he was feeling before was the broken and bloodied body of Ryu. The first thing that Bow noticed was a gaping hole in the middle of Ryu's chest. He could only guess as to what would have caused that and then he examined the rest of Ryu. His head hang to one side, eyes open staring into emptiness, they shone with the candles flickering light. Bow slowly walked over to Ryu's body and checked him over but it was obvious that he had been dead for some time.

Bow lifted Ryu's shoulders up and placed his head on his own lap. He stroked the blood covered blue hair out his face.

"I promise you Ryu, that I will not rest until I find that demon Barubary and see that he is personally destroyed," whispered Bow into the cold loneliness of the cave.

He then lowered Ryu back on to the floor and looked around the cave. He was searching for anything he could use to carry Ryu out of the cave so that he could give him a proper burial, it was the least he could do for the person who had saved his life. He found a few branches lying on the ground and tied them together with some rope and made a sling to carry Ryu. Then he lifted Ryu's lifeless body onto the sling and began the journey through the cave.

Darkness surrounded his vision. So thick it poured around him. Stretching into infinity and forever more. Then a light appears in the corner of his eye. It shines brighter and brighter and he walks towards it. He has already walked towards it once before and it lead to his death. Dare he trust the light again? His essence continued forward and then upwards as the light continued to shine on him, lighting his way. Then he was walking through a garden, so beautiful that everything he had seen before paled in comparison. He strolled through along the path and became aware that he was alive again. He looked down at his body and discovered that it was fully healed and that the giant whole in his chest had disappeared.

The path continued on through the garden and winded up towards a pergola that sat on the edge of a huge lake. There sitting in the pergola was man ready from a manuscript.

"And so he walked down the path and came upon a pergola next to a large lake. He had know idea where the lake was, nor where he was himself. He approached the pergola only to find a man sitting reading out aloud from a manuscript in front of him," the man said as the body approached.

He looked up from his reading and stared at the person in front of him.

"I was just reading your life story. Very interesting! Although it ended a bit short for my liking. But then suddenly it just started again. Very interesting indeed! Normally that doesn't happen, but for in very rare circumstances when a dragon reaches the age of understanding. You however don't look that old so I am guessing that you have arrived here too early. Well, I guess that means that you are not yet ready for the knowledge that I usually impart. This poses a very unusual question. What am I to do with you? I don't know because this has never happened before," the man said as he scratched his head.

After much deliberationhe arrived at a decision.

"I have decided to send you back to your body until your time is at hand. Then I will send for you through one of my messengers. Until then I suppose I will be seeing you. Oh! And this time make sure you are not so careless as to through your life away. I don't know how many times a dragon can be reborn before it really is the end, so be careful."

And with that the man clapped his hands and the body was suddenly lurched backwards through the garden and then down the path back through the light and towards the darkness, then was jolted back into reality. Cold air rushed into his face as he awoke. He leaned forward only to find that he was resting on some sort of sling. He looked up to see a confused and horrified face looking down at him from above. He slowly stood up and took a few unsteady steps forward.

Ryu had been reborn.