Kari made her way across the snowy hills. The chilly air was biting at her nose and sending chills down her spine, making her shiver. She wrapped her arms around herself, cursing silently for not being able to get a jumper and having to brave the elements in nothing but a sleeveless t-shirt.

She stumbled over and rolled in the snow, tumbling farther and farther down the hillside until she came to a sudden stop at something solid. She brushed her hair out of her face and stared into the eyes of a tell being.

Its body was tall and hidden with black armour. Its face was hidden under a helmet, the sunlight showing a little bit of purple skin.

Looking past the guard, Kari saw a black castle with more guards wearing the same uniform. The outer wall was high and inside there were four tall citadels with a more focal point in the middle, so indescribably beautiful and yet haunting at the same time Kari couldn't remove her eyes from it.

Until she was forced to. She was roughly dragged to her feet by the guard she had been staring at only seconds before. As he held her at his shoulder height, she took a wild guess at seven feet high. He tucked her under his arm and marched inside.

Once inside the castle, a sharp pain hit her but she regained the urge to cry out. She didn't know who was here, who could be her enemy, and she didn't want them knowing her weaknesses. So, while her head felt ready to explode, she put up with the pain and let herself be silently carried to somewhere unknown…

He ached all over, and for once he was please about it. That meant he could feel pain in his body instead of putting up with the numbness of before.

He heard a soft cackling sound beside him. He rolled over (despite protests) and saw a small campfire with a girl sitting next to it, her fragile figure silhouetted in the light.

"Kari?" He said gently, his voice not wanting to respond. The girl seemed to jump a little, and turned around.

"No, I'm not whom you think. I am Melody." She replied. T.K looked at her, studying her features, as if believing that she wasn't real.

She was quite tall and had a very fragile figure, looking as though too much exertion and it would snap. Her white hair fell down to her waist. It was down with the style so familiar to T.K.

It was a side parting with a baby blue plain clip in one side, two pieces of hair shorter than the rest dangled infront of her ears. Her pale face outlined her ice-blue eyes, so cold, yet so full of warmth.

She wore a blue tank-top and khaki shorts, with bare feet. At her side lay a long staff engraved with such fine detail, Takeru could not make it out.

"Melody…" T.K repeated, the syllables slipping easily off of his tongue. The girl smiled at him.

"Yes, that's right. Might I ask what you are called?"

"I'm Takeru, but people just call me T.K."

"Tee…Kay…such a strange name. Where is it that you come from, with such an unheard name?" T.K cocked an eyebrow.

"I come from Odiaba."

"Where?"

"In Japan. You do know where that is, right?"

"I have never heard of such a place." Her face then contorted into a thoughtful expression, "Well, actually…yes. I have heard of such a place. But I thought it was only a myth, or a fantasy made to help little children dream."

"Please, tell me." He urged moving to sit nearer the fire.

"Well, I haven't heard it in a long time, but here goes anyway." She thought or a moment, "Once upon a time, as all stories must start, there were four worlds. The world of light, the world of darkness, the digital world and the human world. These four worlds lived in peace and harmony, save for one.

'The world of darkness had always hungered for more. It wanted more power, more land, more everything. The leaders of this world set armies to all other worlds to try and capture them, but none prevailed. They were all defeated. The other worlds were just too strong over the weak forces of the darkness."

"Why didn't the winning armies destroy the Darkness then?" T.K asked.

"Because that would have thrown our world, and the other two, completely off balance. You see, Light and Dark, Good and Evil, Black and White all fit together to create a whole shape, say a circle." She drew a picture on the sandy floor of what T.K recognised as the yin-yang symbol, "Without one of these parts, the other would collapse. If the worlds of Light and Darkness were gone, it would start a chain reaction that would inevitably trigger the next apocalypse."

(((Sorry, I was watching the Mummy returns just now. And, don't flame about this bit, it is 10:15 and I have an operation tomoz so…)))

"I see…anyway, carry on."

"Where was I? Ah, yes, I remember now. The armies of Darkness kept coming and coming, ignoring the plain as day fact that they would never win. An army would come, be defeated and then go again, just like that.

'All was silent for years. At first, the guardians of each world thought that there would be something wrong, that it was a false attempt to lure them into a false security, so they kept on their guard. Through the next three years after that, the guard was forgotten and the thoughts of deceit lain to waste.

'The armies stopped training, causing them to fall slack. People became merrier, not so uptight that there would be a large fight. But they were wrong.

'The attack came from neither the Darkness' armies or minions, but from within the Kingdom of Light itself.

'People became so merry that things got out of control. People would argue over the slightest things and soon their souls would be covered in darkness when their friends would not forgive them.

'The Darkness had been waiting for this opportunity and offered those in the dark a chance to let everything be forgotten and put in the past. Not knowing or suspecting anything, they accepted.

'Only a few months later, most of the population had disappeared, leaving only a few. With the armies slack from lack of training, and no one as back-up, the kingdom was prone to the attacks that the Darkness threw at them. They were easily defeated.

'And so that is how it is today, the Darkness ruling over both Light and Dark worlds."

T.K took a moment to let everything sink in.

"But what about the Human and Digital worlds?"

"They fought, something the Darkness was not expecting them to do. But, being human, they too had darkness inside of themselves. The last Mages of the kingdom of Light sealed the two worlds off. Somehow though, the dark world was able to connect to the Digital world but was too weak to rule it. The same was said for the human world, as the Darkness connected to certain people, either through past experiences or history." She explained as she placed another piece of wood on the fire.

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. Anyway, I'm pretty sure that one of the people with a darkened connection was from a place called Japan in the Human world, so that's where I think I have heard it before." T.K just nodded, "You'd better go back to sleep. You still look tired and it might help the story sink in. It plays an important part in this world and I can assume that you are not from it."

"What world are we in?"

"You are in what used to be the kingdom of Light."

H-4-T: Can't really say much except R+R plz!