THE DRAGON RETURNS

By Rodlox
[email protected]

SPOILERS: The Dragon!!!!!
CHARACTERS: Montoya, Kami, minor dragon, Queen, other Montoyas.
NOTE: I put the Japanese last names first, then the personal names last. Thanks to Jim and Roanna for their help. All errorS are entirely my own.

~~~~~
"In my dreams I always see you soar above the sky." -song on radio {anyone know it?}.
~~~~~

They had said their goodbyes, and now Kami was leaving the Queen behind after giving her a dragon sword.

A massive head erupted from the surface of the bay, rocketting above the formerly tranquil water on a thick neck. While everyone else panicked and headed for shelter from the monster, the enormous head - easily as thick as Chico's torso - sinuously lowered itself, aiming for Kami and the Queen.

Lightly exhaling through it's nostrils, it spoke, "Child who assumes, why have you not completed your oath? The ancestors are not pleased.""She saved my life," Kami said humbly, bowing and keeping her head lowered. "I was mislead."

"Why?" it asked, the red bristles running along the top of it's neck quivering. "Her reasons are not what you think."

"Did Montoya send you?" the Queen asked, only then realizing how rediculous it sounded. What could he possibly hold over the head of a sea monster?

"Silence, you who wish to land the killing blow upon those in your way!" And, to exclamate this, it kept one nostril sealed, exhaling hard enough with the other one to send the Queen several feet back and on her duff.

While the Queen was down, the dragon turned it's head only slightly to focus on Kami. "Rise up, for I shall carry you to your destiny," and arrayed it's whiskers - barbels - into a stairstep shape for her. Obediently, Kami climbed up them, taking a seat at the back of the dragon's head.

Almost immediately after that, the tatsu - dragon - spun it's head around, moving swiftly through the water and the surface of said water, kicking up sea spray all around it.

"Behave, Endo Kami of Samuri," the dragon told her. "Breath deep and seek peace."

Obediently, Kami did as she was told, breathing deeply and focusing on the calmness in the center of her turbulent emotions; the calmness grew and grew, until it was dominant.

Below her, sea-spray was no long being kicked up by the dragon's swift passage through the water. Now, they were soaring over it - not truly 'floating' for that held connotations of drifting like a passive cloud.

"Wise and ancient, tatsu," Kami said, "is there something you wish for me to do?"

"Not ancient," it corrected her. "I mere centuries." On the horizon, Kami could see Santa hElena, siloetted against the sky. "The dragons must destroy the tengu before their passion kills this land," the tatsu told her.

With a turn of the tatsu's sinuous body - no wings - they headed towards a little valley trimmed in on all sides by little mountains or big hills, depandant on your perspective. The valley had at it's center a sparkling lake of crystal-clear water. Kami could see the depths of it, and wondered who possessed it.

The dragon came in for a landing, letting her see that Colonel Montoya was there. The tatsu allowed Kami off it's head once it had come to a complete stop and lowered it's head. Luis Montoya held out his hand to help her down from the height.

Kami knew to behave around the dragon, and that it very likely had a reason for allowing him to be here. "A place like this," Kami remarked; "it must be worth it's weight in gold."

Montoya nodded. "The dons are kept busy squabbling over their own paltry water deposits, thus protecting this place," as the dragon paled into invisibility - the only sign of it's passing was the ripples as it submerged entirely into the lake. "And yet it pales into insignifigance next to such as you.

"I am truly sorry, Kami," Luis apologized. "I know that I should not have felt anger at your siding with the Queen; my emotions overcame me. Can you ever forgive me?" and gave a deep bow.

Kami bit her lip, thinking. Finally, "After a time, I believe so."

"I thank you, Kami-san." Seeing her looking at him appraisingly, "Is there something else?"

"I wish to apologize to you for thinking -" but could not say it.

"It is alright," Luis told her. "'Ill luck, they say, rarely comes alone,' particularly my own."

Kami smiled at that. "I read something like that once," she remarked. "And I was also simply wondering if you had any condiments on you presently."

"Sadly, no," Montoya answered, suspecting something. "Might I inquire as to why?"

Kami's eyes looked down for a moment. "My master once told me that -" and she made sure she remembered the words right, "'It is a saying that a man must eat a peck of salt with his friend before he knows him.'"

Montoya smiled, and gave a slight bow. "I am flattered, senorita, that you consider me even a nominal friend. I am truly touched," and reached up to wipe at the corner of his eye; after that, "And I am also pleased that Hideo has passed on his copy of 'Don Quixote' to one so deserving as you."

"You knew my master?" Kami asked, more than a little surprised.

Luis nodded. "I first met him when I was a youth, callous and uncouth. He helped me to be patient, and taught me something about Nippon...."

~~~~~

MANILLA, SPANISH PHILLIPINES; APRIL 8TH, 1802

The sun was rising over the city of Manilla, a northern city of the once-glorious Spanish Empire in the Phillipines. Having lived in one rising empire or another, kingdoms and chiefdoms too, Luis Montoya was not impressed with the heritage he had been born to.

They'd had to move here, leaving their post in the nation of Air, in the North African heartland. Luis missed his friends, and also was rather upset that they only moved when he was getting fluent in the local language - almost no matter how quickly he picked it up, it was time to go then. Before Air, it had been Morrocco, and before that, Britain....even at a young age, Luis knew they were going further and further.

But it wasn't his parents' fault, Luis Montoya knew. It was that beached whale that had the temerity to call itself an Ambassador for Spain! The man - if it really was one - had been caught with so many women that it was a wonder his wife put up with him at all; for all Luis knew, she didn't.

"Why do they put up with all these scandals?" Luis asked his father. "Why do they not simply send him home and replace him with someone better?"

"Because," his father replied, "the Ambassador has many strong allies in the Royal Court, so he cannot be dismissed."

"Overstuffed peacocks," Luis muttered, refering to the Ambassador and his Cortez, "nothing but useless skirt-chasing blubber."

"Watch your tongue, Luis!" his mother remanded at him.

Luis dipped his head down. "Yes, mother," and went silent. He knew that nobody in this household countered her word; anyone who tried, wound up with a week-long welt.

Young Montoya walked out the front door, not even hearing a 'be home in time for supper' behind him; not from his family. Nobody objected to his going out when he wanted to; why would they? He was a Montoya man: he knew how to fight, how to beat up, how to pummel. Nobody messed with a Montoya twice!

Luis just kept walking, not really minding whereever he ended up this time. With a chuckle, he remembered the time he'd walked into the backstage of a slave auctionyard.

With a start, he bumped into somebody in the here and now. "Hey!" he said, then saw that this wasn't one of those arrogant Chinamen - the difference wasn't blatant, but his eyes had become discerning over the years - this was someone different, a people he'd never seen before. "My apologies," he said in Latin, something he figured was a common language.

"I forgive you," the man told him. "It was an easy mistake: I was not watching where I was going, I suppose."

Luis's eyes widened as he soaked that in: the other man was willing to take the blame? "I am Luis Philip Montoya," he introduced himself.

"I am," the man said, bowing a respectful amount, particularly to a teen, "Kiyomasa Hideo."

TBC

ARCHIVE NOTE: Sequels found on Rodlox's author page on the Cart
http://www.geocities.com/manzanacore/rodloxstories.html