RYAN had no idea how insanely lucky he was. After losing consciousness, he fell into the Precipice and was swept up by its magik current. He would've died from the experience if not for two things; his incredibly resilient and virtually indestructible dragon scale jacket shielded him, and the dark power dwelling within Ryan, recognizing an imminent threat to its existence, it enveloped him, shielding him even further. So, Ryan now lays unconscious in a crater, looked upon by a lone observer.
… )]≥( …
When Ryan finally comes to, he opens his eyes to a strange woman hovering over him. Her face is covered in a mask, so all he could see was her sharp, curious eyes; one deep violet, the other bright orange. They were soft yet sinister, and seemed to peer deep into his soul, which made Ryan feel very uneasy.
He sits up abruptly, effectively startling the woman, who backs away immediately faster than anyone Ryan had ever seen. He got up, slowly, Draxonn in hand, ready to be drawn.
"Who are you? Where am I?"
She just backed behind a tree and disappeared.
"No wait, don't go! I'm sorry I spooked you, okay? Come back." Ryan pleaded but she was gone. "Great, Ryan," he scolded himself, "just great. You scare off the only person around who could explain where you are just because she looked at you funny. I thought you were better than this."
He looked at the crater that he was in, not too big, but still surprising. How had he survived a fall that made a crater that big? From the direction of impact, Ryan figured out where he had fallen from, which was probably where the city was, but the sky was filled with thick gray clouds, allowing nothing penetrate it.
"Great, so how am I going to get back now?" Ryan asked himself, he was a little surprised when he heard a response.
"You ingrate. You should be on your knees thanking me."
"Drake?" Ryan asked "What do you mean?"
"You think it's just luck you survived that fall? I saved you… or should I say us."
"I get it," Ryan said, grinning, "If I die, you die. So you had no choice."
"Well sure… if you choose to see it that way."
Ryan chuckled,
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing, I was just thinking how much it must suck for you since your survival is dependent on mine."
"I hate you Ryan," Drake said, "I honestly, truly loath you. I cannot wait for the day when I am rid of your existence."
"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Ryan said,
No reply.
"That's what I thought," Ryan said
As he looked around, he could sense something calling to him.
"Weird." He said, the feeling was oddly familiar, so using a pen he had in his pocket, he drew a simple glyph on his arm that acted as a magik compass.
"Hmm, a magik blip over there? Too small to be a person, I wonder what it is." Ryan mused to himself, as he followed the compass.
… )]≥( …
Seraz and Mika had just met up with the other scarecrows. After their assault on the city went so poorly, they had to abandon the mission and withdraw quickly. It was a simple enough plan; swarm the city with an attacking force of blanks in untraceable highly experimental stealth fighters, then in the din of battle, grab the Reins brat in the midst of the confusion. But things had spiraled out of control when first, the steal tech seemingly also scrambled their ability to coordinate the blanks when they decided to fire on the civilians, then, they lost their target. The Keepers joining the fight forced them to make a hasty retreat.
After disposing of the rouge blanks, they returned to their rendezvous. When they met up with the others, they had a lot of explaining to do.
"What the hell was that?" Kraw asked "The operation was a disaster!"
"There were complications," Mika explained, "We had to abort."
"Complications? You engaged one of the most heavily fortified locations on the planet. If you were discovered that would be the end of us." Ronan said
"We handled the blanks, Seraz was the one who shot our target off the damned city."
"You're acting like it was all my fault." Seraz protested
"It was all your fault." Mika retorted
"Enough, all of you." Ramsey commanded, "So Reins is still out there. Find him, only he can get us that book."
"What about the master?" Mika asked, "He will not be pleased."
"I will handle it," Ramsey sighed, "the rest of you, go."
They had just left, when a screen came to life and their master's face appeared, "Ramsey, you will explain the utter catastrophe that was made of your mission, and you will do it now!"
Ramsey nodded, "At once, my lord."
As they split off towards different hallways, Kraw walked with Mika, the two of them locked in an argument, "Seraz is becoming a liability."
"She's young, bursting with potential. It's expected that she'd make mistakes; but the master chose her for the program for a reason, just like he chose us."
"We were not as wild as she is." Kraw said, "She acts without thought and has complicated an otherwise simple mission."
"You don't have a right to judge her, Kraw, you haven't faced the Reins boy." Mika chided, "He is a different from all the other nobles we have faced, he poses a unique challenge we were unprepared for."
"Any more failure on her part will not be tolerated," Kraw said, "As a Black Talon, she must be prepared to die for her mission. Even if we have to kill her ourselves."
Mika glared at him, thought did not voice any protest.
While the two of them conversed, they didn't notice that Seraz could hear them, and that she was forming plans of her own.
… )]≥( …
Good news; Ryan found his wand, which was the blip his compass detected. Bad news; it was in the mitts of some grotesque creature.
After an intense battle, Ryan managed to vanquish the fowl beast and retrieve his wand. Now, Ryan continued his trek through this strange and unfamiliar terrain, unsure of his destination.
As he struggled through a dense jungle, Ryan remembered every time Stephanie suggested he join the nature scouts and he'd give her an excuse to not go there. He regrets that now.
Finally breaking through some dense foliage, Ryan finds himself atop a canyon, on the other side he sees a small floating mountain, anchored to the ground by a tall tree jutting out from the giant tree line.
"Whoa, cool." Ryan said as he took a picture of it with his wand, "So awe-inspiring. That's going on my wall."
After a few hours of walking, Ryan was tired. He found a spot to make sanctum, making a small fire and soon drifted to sleep.
In his dream he saw his mom lying on a bed, screaming and breathing hard, covered in sweat. Standing next to her was his dad and a nurse. In the nurse's hand was a newborn wrapped in a blanket. Ryan figured that he had just been born [thank god I didn't have to see that.]
"Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Reins, it's a beautiful baby boy." The nurse said as she gave the baby to his dad.
"Julia, he's perfect." His dad said, tears welling in his eyes, "Here, meet your son."
His mom took her baby into her arms, the smile on her face was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, "Hello li'l Matthias, at last we meet. You're smaller than I'd imagined from all the ruckus you caused. Welcome to the family."
Baby Ryan looked at her then gave a small baby giggle.
The dream changes slightly and Ryan finds himself with his parents and some guests in the living room of their home, snow was falling outside the window, so he figured it was winter. Stephanie walks into the room with a drink in each hand.
"Merry Christmas!" She said, setting the drinks on a table and picking baby Ryan up, "and a very merry first Christmas to you, li'l Ryan."
His mom laughed, "His name is Matthias, Stevie."
"You don't get to decide that, Jules." Stephanie replied, not taking her eyes of the baby.
"Actually, I kinda do, sis." Julia said, "That's how it works."
"Well you like being called Ryan better, don't you agree, li'l Ryan?" Stephanie cooed to baby Ryan. "Matthias sounds like the name of some pretentious jackass, and you're too cute to be a pretentious jackass,"
His mom just laughed, "I will have you know that Matthias is a strong and dignified name,"
"Please," Stephanie scoffed, "you've got a pretty warped sense for names, sis. Remember Rondopaupadopolis the 3rd?"
"I thought it was a great name for a puppy," his mom huffed,
"Yeah, well nobody else did. But you were so insistent we just called him 'Rondo' for short." Stephanie said, as the two settled into a comfortable silence.
"So... I notice you've been checking around our old haunt?" Stephanie then said after a beat
"Yeah," his mom replied defensively, "New York was our home for the better part of thirty years,"
Stephanie looked her twin in the eyes, "No BS, tell me you're not still looking for Reginald?"
"He's our father, Stevie." his mom defended
"He abandoned us after mom died, Jules." Stephanie retorted,
"You might find it so easy to forget about him, Stevie, but I can't." his mom said sternly, "Not until I understand,"
"He's easy to understand; he was a mundane trying to parent two recently awakened young grieving magi during puberty." Stephanie said, "you need to stop carrying this weight, if not for you, then for this awesome little guy right here."
She held baby Ryan in front of his mother, then did an imitation baby voice, "pwease mommy, stop wowwying about the bad man who left you. I wuv you so much, so forget about him."
His mom then burst out laughing again, "That was so bad."
"Don't look at me," Stephanie joked, "you're the one who hasn't taught him proper speech yet."
The dream then faded with the two sisters laughing together, and fast forwarded again, and Ryan found himself outside a burning house in the middle of the night, screams and roars echoing from inside the building as a fire rages through one wing of the mansion. Stephanie jumped out a window, cradling a bundle of cloth as she lands on thick snow. Ryan realizes that it's him in her arms, his baby form is crying and Stephanie is bleeding from a wound on her face wandering away from the window in a daze, then, the house explodes in a flash of blinding light, knocking Stephanie over.
"Jules! Matt!" Stephanie screamed, looking back the house as it collapsed in on itself.
Ryan woke up, feeling distressed, his dreams were getting a more and more mysterious. He heard a rustling sound coming from the bushes, which put Ryan on instant alert.
"Who's there?" he asked cautiously, drawing Draxonn.
Jasmine and Mac broke through the vegetation, looking haggard and as tired as Ryan did.
"Finally, found you." Mac said breathing heavily as she crashed down next to the fire.
"What are you guys doing here?" Ryan asked, before raising his sword, "you are you, right?"
"Ryan it's us." Jasmine said, "And we came a long damn way to find you."
"Prove it." Ryan said
"What?"
"Prove it's you." Ryan said, "I've had a very weird day. Tell me something only the real Jasmine would know,"
Jasmine sighed, "What would you like to know? When you dropped a school on me? The several occasions you almost got me killed? Or do you want something more recent? Like when I caught you making out with the Keeper king's granddaughter. Or, maybe when you fondled my boob during the assault on the city?"
"What?" Mac asked surprised,
"Hey, I'd admit to groped –though it was an accident— but fondled is just exaggerating." Ryan said, "Okay, so it's you guys."
"That's what we said." Jasmine replied taking a seat beside Mac,
"So how did you guys get here?" Ryan asked after explaining what had happened, leaving out the parts about Drake, of course.
"Stephanie sent us down here to track you down." Jasmine said, "We managed to track your aura."
"You can track me?" Ryan asked
Jasmine shook her head, "how do you survive being so dense? After we pinpointed where you crashed, your aura was easy to follow."
"Yeah Ryan," Mac said, "Your magik control is terrible; you give off way too much power. You should see someone about getting that fixed."
"Anyway," Jasmine continued, "we took an warbird down here, but this jungle is so thick we couldn't get a proper visual, so Mac and I got down to look from the ground. The second we land, we get attacked by god-knows-what, and our warbird gets trashed. This jungle is putting up some wicked interference, so I can't even call for help."
"Where are we anyway," Ryan asked, they both looked at him, "forgive me if I don't have a map handy for the next time I fall from the sky,"
"This is the largest natural realm in the world. It doesn't have an official name since so much of it is still widely unexplored but it spans two continents, three different regions and several thousand square miles in any given direction. What little is known about this rainforest is its giant vegetation and mysterious magikal properties; some trees of this jungle have been known to grow hundreds of feet, and are millennia old." Mac explained, "I watch a lot of nature documentaries,"
"Well good for you, boy scout," Ryan grumbled
"I'm a girl," Mac commented,
"I stand by what I said," Ryan said
"So how are we getting out of here?" Jasmine asked
Mac smirked, "okay, one of those nature documentaries I watch talked about there being as few as a few dozen native settlements, and one they set up a base-camp in one of those settlements. They had a small relay tower to broadcast and, as far as I know, they never took it down." she then brought out a folded up map from her pocket, "and here is a map of the rainforest."
"You just have that on you at all times?" Ryan asked skeptically
Mac just shrugs, "you have your interests Reins, and I have mine."
Ryan takes the map from her and checks it, pointing at one location, "Okay, so we're here, right?"
Mac moves his finger towards the northern area, "here,"
"I knew that," Ryan said under his breath, "Okay, according to this, the settlement Mac just described is not that far south."
"We'd better get going," Jasmine said,
She tried to rise, but she was so exhausted she collapsed, Ryan caught her.
"Yeah, none of us are getting anywhere if I'd have to carry both of you over my shoulders." Ryan said, "You guys should rest 'til you get your strength back. I'll keep watch."
"You sure?" Jasmine asked
"Just look at Mac," Ryan said, she was already out.
Jasmine rested her head on the ground and was fast asleep.
… )]≥( …
Despite Ryan promising to keep watch, he eventually dozed off. His dreams weren't of the past this time.
Ryan saw himself, his current self, in his current situation in his makeshift sanctum with Jasmine and Mac. Then, with a jump, he realized it wasn't a dream, his consciousness was outside his body, floating a few feet above the others in some astrophysical plane.
[To be honest, it was more cool than worrying. I even tried to give my body bunny ears.]
Then, he started to feel it, a strange attraction, pulling him somewhere. His astro-form started to float away.
As he was pulled to this mysterious source, he couldn't help but feel helpless as he had no control of his trajectory. For all he knew he could be floating into the jaws of some astro-form eating monster.
He continued to float aimlessly at the mercy of whatever summoned him.
… )]≥( …
While Ryan's astrophysical form was out for a run. Jasmine also had strange, unusual, not normal dreams.
In her dreams, Jasmine saw a barren field, riddled with discarded weapons, craters from explosions, ruins from some old structures long since destroyed and old bones of fallen warriors. On a hill –or what was left of one— planted firmly into the ground was a sword Jasmine knew well, Draxonn. The once gleaming black blade was rusted and worn, and the handle was brittle and frayed. Tied to the hilt was a tattered black cloak reduced to rags which danced gently with the breeze.
Standing by the ancient blade was a woman in black, she quickly sees the woman as Stephanie, weathered with age.
"Ryan," she said to the sword, "Why did you have to do it? Why did you betray us? You turned your back on Simon, Sophie, Faust, Vivan… and Jasmine. She never recovered after… after she killed you."
Jasmine stares in disbelief, she killed Ryan.
Stephanie continues to talk, but Jasmine didn't want to listen, she didn't want to know what other horrible things happened.
She covered her ears and ran, as fast as she could until she tripped on a rock and fell, right in front of the gates, the same gates that stood at the forty-fifth.
With horror, she realized that this was the 45th sanctum, this was her home, this was her future. The dream ends with a monstrous roar echoing into the valley and an enormous silhouette looming over them.
She jerks awake, in a cold sweat and breathing heavily. She steadies her racing heart and takes a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. Everything was okay, everything was alright at the moment; Mac was snoozing slightly and Ryan… Ryan was gone.