Okay here's the next chapter. I felt sad writing this one, to be honest.

Meir flew across the skies until he saw the Lightning Mountain village, and then he flew lower so that he wouldn't be seen. He landed halfway below the Mountain village secretly, and then he worked his way upward. He stood before the entrance of the village, and after taking a deep breath, he entered the village. His fangs were slightly visible, although his tongue wasn't since his mouth was closed. As he walked around a bit, certain kids were able to recognize him from afar. They ran over to Meir with smiles on their faces and said, "The Purple Ninja! The Purple Ninja!"

Meir shyly smiled, as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Hey kidssss," Meir greeted them, but soon regretted it when he automatically stressed the 's' sound with his serpent tongue.

The kids looked at him in awe, while some of them gasped.

"What is that?" A little girl asked, pointing to Meir's tongue.

"Whoa. You get that for being a ninja?" A little boy asked.

"I want one," Another little boy asked.

"Are you a monster Mr. Purple Ninja?" Another little girl asked.

"No no. I'm not a monssster. I helped to sssave Aeroplane, and I protect people. I don't want to hurt anyone," Meir replied.

"Oooohhh," the children said in unison.

"Hey -Gasp-" A woman said, as she and a group of people, mostly parents of the kids, approached the children and Meir.

Meir took a step back, as he could sense a sudden tension in the air. He was able to recognize that tension, as the parents quickly gathered their kids, and they stood looking at him for a moment, with widened eyes.

'Fear,' Meir thought, realizing that the people were afraid of him.

"Pleasssse, hear my out," Meir said, but he stressed the 's' to reveal his serpent tongue and fangs, as the crowd of adults gasped.

"What is that?" One of the adult guys asked.

"It's jusssst me," Meir replied, as he took a step forward, while the parents stood back.

"What are you?" One of the adult ladies asked.

"I am Meir," Meir replied.

"Are you human..." an elderly man asked, as he took a step forward and added, "Or are you a Monster?!"

The crowd gasped again.

"There hasn't been a monster up here in so many years," a woman said.

"And now that one has come, we may all be doomed! He may not have come alone!" the elderly man said, as the crowd gasped again and took a few steps back.

"No no, you've got it all wrong. I'm not a monssster, and no othersss have followed me," Meir said, trying to convince the fear-stricken crowd of his innocence.

"But they may come now. The beasts below may come up, knowing that a similar creature like you was able to get here!" The elderly man said.

"I told you, I'm not a monssster, at all," Meir said.

"Then what are you?" The elderly man asked.

Meir thought about it for a moment, as he ran his hand through his hair.

'What am I?' Meir thought.

"Well?" The elderly man asked, as he took a step back.

Meir tried to think of an answer, but then he replied, "I don't know."

"Then how can you say your not a monster if you don't even know what you are?!" The elderly man asked.

"Mommy, he's not a monster, he is nice," the little girl told her mother.

"Yeah. He's not bad. I think he's cool," the little boy said.

"He's corrupting the minds of the children! He is a monster!" The elderly man said in fright, and then he ran away.

Most of the parents were really scared now, as they grabbed their kids and ran. The few that remained held their children close to themselves as they left.

"No! Wait!" Meir called, as the people were running and some were screaming.

'No... no no no! I'm not...' Meir thought, as his eyes began to moisten.

"Hey Meir! Is that you?!" A familiar voice called, as Meir turned to see Rai coming towards him from a distance.

"What's going on? Why is everyone running?" Rai asked Meir, as he approached him.

"Sssstay away," Meir said, as he turned from Rai, who looked at him in confusion.

"What's the matter dude?" Rai asked, as he continued walking towards Meir.

"No! Pleasssse, just sssstay away. I don't want to causssse you any more trouble," Meir said.

"Why are you hissing every 's' sound? Come on dude, tell me what's wrong?" Rai asked, as he placed one hand on Meir's shoulder and turned him towards him.

Rai released Meir's shoulder and looked at him in surprise to see the serpent teeth and tongue.

"What the... what's this Meir? Your a hybrid or something?" Rai asked.

"I-I... I jusssst don't know!" Meir replied, and then he turned and ran off.

"Meir wait! Let's talk dude!" Rai called out, but then Meir summoned his Silver dragon and flew off.

Lloyd and Raven followed after Meir, as he was heading towards another Mountain village.

"... Raven," Lloyd said, and Raven looked toward him.

"Did... did you ever feel like that? Like you didn't know what you were?" Lloyd asked.

Raven thought about it, and she replied, "I questioned myself one time when we were trying to save Lucy, but you helped me with that."

Lloyd nodded, recalling that moment, and he asked, "How about when you first ran away from home?"

Raven replied, "Well, I didn't question my own identity, but I could relate to how he feels because some people were afraid of me. But some of them were nice and they didn't care about what I was. Like that one woman I met... Lorena is her name. She actually took me in and let me stay with her for a few days, until the Viporeans came closer to her house. I remember her well because her hair was so long."

"So you understand him," Lloyd said, and Raven nodded.

"He was right when we first met... about us being alike," Raven said, as she looked downward.

"But your still different," Lloyd said, which comforted Raven, as she looked up at him and smiled.

Lloyd and Raven looked ahead, and they realized that Meir had already entered the next village. They quickly flew down into the village, and they saw that Meir stood before a group of people, as they were curiously examining him.

"How strange... how peculiar? A man born with fangs and a tongue like a serpent. It's a rare phenomenon," Micheal, the science guy of the village, said.

"Rare? How would you know? You just heard of this," a village woman said.

"Exactly. It's so rare that I have just heard of it," Micheal said, as the other villagers signed.

"If you don't mind Meir, can I have a blood sample from your mouth?" Micheal asked, as he pulled out a syringe from his backpack that he carried.

"Wha- No you can't!" Meir replied, as he stepped back.

"Are you kidding me Micheal?! He's not one of your experiments to study," the village woman said.

"Well he's not fully human, so why is it wrong?" Micheal asked.

Then a village guy grabbed Micheal by his collar and said, "He may not be fully human, but he is still a person. How dare you make that excuse!"

Micheal responded, "I'm just saying. He's neither fully human nor beast. Where does he belong then? With us? With the beasts below? Which laws of human or beast apply to him? Should he be treated as a human or beast by us? By the beasts below? Answer me that."

The people stood quiet, trying to think of an answer, while Meir stood with his head lowered, as his hair covered his face.

"I say we first examine him, to see if he is fit to be with our kind," Micheal said.

"He's not an experiment, and how can he not fit with us? It's not like he's trying to hurt us," the village woman said.

"You mean eat us?" Micheal said, as the village guy slapped Micheal over the head.

"Ouch!" Micheal said, as he hit face-first onto the ground.

Then a swift wind was felt, as the village people looked up to see that Meir was flying away on his Silver dragon.

"You jerk," the village guy said to Micheal.

"What did I do?" Micheal asked, as he spit out dirt.

"Was that Meir?" Peter asked, as he just came over to the group of village people.

"Yes that was, sir. But he left since Micheal wanted to take a blood sample from him," the village guy said, as Peter looked at him, questionably.

As the people were informing Peter of what happened, Meir was flying away pretty quickly, as a single tear rolled off of his cheek.

"Where do I belong? My human-ssside wouldn't be accepted by other beasstsss, and my beasst-ssside isssn't accepted by humansss... then where do I belong…?" Meir thought out loud, as he started flying lower and his Silver dragon was starting to fade away.

Lloyd and Raven continued to follow Meir downward, as he descended to the ground in front of the bottom of a cliff. The Silver dragon faded back into him, as Meir started to walk alongside the cliff wall.

"Akemi..." Meir whispered.

Then he looked upward and added,

"Would you sssstill love me...?"

Meir continued to walk, as he kept his head downward in sadness, until he turned a corner. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw a corpse made of bones surrounded by a black, charred-like, substance that was in a splattered shape.

Meir stood a foot away from the bones and substance, as he examined it. The bones were in the shape of a large, lizard-like creature that fell on it's back. The eyes were still there though, and they were fully white. The black substance was all over its bones, and it was almost seeping into the ground and cliff wall.

"Thisss isss... a grundal," Meir speculated, as he walked a few steps closer to the dead creature.

Then, Meir noticed a smudge of the black substance on the boney cheek of the Grundal, as if someone had touched it. When Meir touched that same spot with his hand, his eyes immediately glowed silver as he saw a vision. Lloyd and Raven were wondering what he was seeing, so they reached out and touched his shoulders to see if something would happen.

Indeed it did, and Lloyd and Raven were able to see what Meir was seeing:

It was Meir's father, Yahto, who first found the Grundal corpse and touched it's cheek in curiosity as to what the black substance was. After rubbing it around his fingers to look at it, Yahto dismissed it as nothing, and then he left. Some of the substance got on his clothing, as he washed his hand near a nearby pond. But Yahto didn't realize that the pond turned dark and that after he left, the fish in the pond died.

Lloyd and Raven were pushed back, as Meir snapped out of the vision. He held his hand in surprise, as Lloyd and Raven waited for his reaction.

"This stuff... is corrupted..." Meir said, as he quickly ran to a clean river stream and washed his hand outside of the river so that it wouldn't ruin the water.

He also checked his clothes and saw that they were clean.

"But it's more like a poison-" Meir said, as his eyes widened and he remembered his mother.

"Mother... She was sick! After father came home that week and left again, she got sick... he came here before..." Meir was thinking out loud, as his eyes watered and he trembled.

"No... NO! Father... I-It's... It's YOUR FAULT!" Meir collapsed to the ground on his hands and knees, as he pounded the ground with his fist.

"It was your FAULT! YOUR FAULT! Your FEAR made you come down here! Your FEAR is the reason why I don't have my mother! The people's fear is what kept you away, and kept you down here! This wouldn't have happened if ALL of you weren't Afraid of NOTHING!" Meir shouted, as tears poured down his eyes.

Then something snapped in Meir, as he cried, and his pupils flickered red, on and off. After awhile, Meir slowly stood up on his feet, while tears still stained his cheeks and his hair covered his eyes.

"They're all afraid... of nothing..." Meir whispered, as he sensed a familiar presence some distance away, and then he started heading towards it.

Lloyd and Raven followed, as they looked at one another in worry of what was going to happen next.

Prepare yourselves for the next chapter...