--|Ring of Seishin|--

Shirubu Asakuru (Matt)

Today was a day like any other. The clammy weather was normal for us, and the fact that we inhabit a large forest covering the whole island, that we call Rudokai, would just make the day seem darker than how things usually are. But like I said, we are used to it. Canopies cloud the sky in a furry lace of pine needles. Even if you were to look up to the sky in a clearing, you wouldn't see much light: a dark, hazy, shroud of vapor covers the unknown color of the sky. It seems like a supernatural power, oblivious to our people, is purposely hiding truth from us. The few that have escaped from our doomed, dank, lives have never been seen again.

Pine needles that had fallen from the trees crunched under my feet; my mom held my small hand while walking with my dad to a small clearing where our foraging bushes are. Our baskets were woven from soft fibers of trees, and these baskets were soon full of vast amounts of delicious berries. We all turned around to head back to our archaic home, but my mom stood still, staring into the dark depths of the bushes in the forest.

"Kati," This was Mother's pet name for my Dad, Katsuru, "I heard something in those bushes... I don't know what it is..." Her ears drooped; Kin'yuki was never skittish, just worrisome.

"Don't be worried Kin'yu, there's nothing I can't handle." He stepped up to my mom and gently landed his hand on her shoulder, "You know there is nothing to be worried about." His golden-brown eyes shone with what light was being emitted through the mists. After a heart-warming stare, Katsuru turned back and stepped forward, the sounds of pine needles crunching echoed through the seemingly idle bushes. Another rustling noise came from the bushes, my mom twitched. Dad pulled out his halberd-like weapon to thwart any evil that might jump at us. His ears were up and alert, but were of no use; the shrubs were idle again.

"S-s-sorry about that, Kati." Kin'yuki stuttered as she murmured to Dad.

Katsuru turned around and laughed with his careless attitude. "No worries Kin'yu, nothing bad ha..." Before Katsuru could finish his sentence, a dark abyss, like a weak black hole, appeared below where he was standing.

As Katsuru fell out of sight, Kin'yuki rushed to where the abyss opened; her basket fell to the ground, leaving the berries to spill out into the pine needles. She squealed, "Kati, dear? What just happened?" Her voice shook with every word, "Please, come back! Give me some kind of sign you can hear me..." A soft breeze blew through her long, golden hair. Darkness emanating from the sky did not help her situation at all; she looked up to the haze as she clenched her fists to pray. "Kati..." Glints did not show on the tears flowing down her cheeks; nothing would ever shine in this land. Swiftly, she ran off, leaving me behind.

Everything went dark, and nine years of my life flashed through my mind's eye. Suddenly, I was gagging out water on a beach somewhere. "Thank God you're alive, I was getting scared." came a voice unknown to me. "I'm Ruby and I was hoping you would wake soon." All of a sudden, my body was shaken violently. "Oh, and my friend, Mori, is here too." She chuckled, "Could you be any more violent, Mori?"

"Of course I could!" Mori joyfully replied.

"It seems like you aren't the best at identifying sarcasm." Ruby remarked.

"It seems as though neither are you." Mori said prompting Ruby to make a grunting noise. "And where are we anyway?" he asked.

"Where are we? No clue. What are we on? This is Jorica Island, my homeland." As Ruby finished, she went over to hug a tree.

I found all this really awkward: I knew I was twelve but my last memory was when I was three years old, and my dad disappeared. What was even more strange was that I could remember everything I had learned, but not how, why, what or who.

Mori, who had shaken me, was a demon-like species whose frightening appearance was contradicted by the fact that he wore glasses. His long, scaly tail with its arrowhead shaped tip and clawed hands and feet looked innocent because he was dressed in a pale blue, almost white T-shirt and orange cargo pants. Everything was completely soaked, and the water glistened from the rays of the sun.

He helped me regain my balance. I looked up to the sky; I couldn't believe it, the sky. Its pale blue color surprised me. No mists, hazes, shrouds, anything, covered an inch of this blue wonder. The sun was even more amazing, its bright, yellow rays shone upon this land. This sight would brighten anyone's day in Rudokai, emotionally and literally. "When I feel like I'm lost, something tells me you're here with me, and I can always find my way when you are here..." Where do I remember that from, I don't know, but the sight reminded me of those words.

Ruby was back from tree-hugging, and she too was amazing. She seemed to be a dainty big-eared burgundy five foot six inch cat. She had the appearance of an ancient warrior, adorned with an emerald green diamond shaped crystal.

"Well, now that you are all stranded on an uncharted island with me, what do you want to do?" Ruby said giddily. "Oh, I know! I can teach you two some of my magic skills."

"That sounds great. I'm a very skilled Kaze Kitsune." I stood to think and scratch the back of my head, "Actually, I don't know why I am really... I just am." She stared at me. "Oh, sorry, forgot to say: hi, you can call me Shiru. It would seem that I can't remember anything from the past nine years of my life. Oddly enough, I can remember everything else pixel-perfectly. What type of magic do you use?" I asked.

"What do you mean 'type' of magic?" Ruby inquired uncertainly, confused by all I had said.

"You know: earth, fire, water, etcetera..."

"Actually I don't." Ruby blushed as she scratched the back of her head. "Here, there is only black, white and energy magic. None of this wind stuff."

Mori came over to us. "So, Ruby, didn't you say something about those magic skills?" Mori was pretty much pleading for more skills.

"Oh right, just follow me." giggled Ruby as she hopped from branch to branch in the forest like a cat... I don't know why a cat would be doing that, but she was definitely excited. Conveyance for me was swinging from my own bars forged from the air instead of scraping my paws on trees. Mori, being like a dragon, just flew.

As we approached our destination, I held my mouth open in awe. "Whoa, so this is one of those legendary temples our lore taught us about. I suspect this to be the Temple of Fire?"

"Indeed it..." we all stopped in our tracks. "...isn't? What happened?" Ruby was shocked. "I come here to pray every day, so how could this happen so quickly?" There stood a huge castle made of black stones. From a non-present memory of mine, I remember these stones from somewhere. Stones that hold a magical force strong enough to resist all damage could only be found in the mines of hell, but that place was back on the small demon-inhabited island of Aitsura. How could they get here?

"Oh god no..." Mori whimpered. "If they see me, I do not know what horrid tortures could await." Mori turned around to fly back to the shore we washed up on.

Ruby grabbed hold of Mori's necklace before he could escape. "What's wrong, Mori?" She inquired in a soft tone.

"Not now, must run!!" Mori exclaimed. He stopped as Ruby stroked his blonde hair. "Well, seven years ago, my family secretly snuck in a small kitsune child, three years of age. My parents were discovered and were executed by the demon leader Aitsu, then she dumped us into the ocean; her acts left me with physical and emotional scars." Mori pointed to a character on his forearm. Marks of the character were arranged in an odd, horrifying way. "This symbol represents my traitorous acts to our tribe, allowing anyone to kill me on sight. Forces from Aitsu herself deplete me of my energy when I am in a kill-or-be-killed situation, giving me no chance of survival." Mori then took my arm and pulled up the sleeve, pointing to a ring of characters around the part of my arm right under the shoulder. "And this is the ring of... I forget what it is called, but it causes Shiru's to blackout when he is near strong 'good' magical forces, with the exception of his own magic

"Oh kirikabu!" I cursed. Not exactly, that's just what I say when I'm really annoyed at life. Stump is the word; I feel like stumps are an end of a life that is soon to be lived again.

"Oh right, Ring of Seishin, that's what it was."

"Mori, hold those thoughts. If you are one of them, then don't you think you will be our greatest knowledge source?" Ruby stood to look at the enormous fort in front of her. "Wait a second; this fort is bigger than the temple! They cleared some of the forest! They cleared some of my forest!" She started to whine. "Think of all those little critters that lost their homes because of these evil beings." She looked up to see Mori staring at her in the eyes. "Except for you, Mori, you're a great friend."

Ruby wiped her hand under her eyes to catch some tears. She sniffed, "Well, do you think you could help us find a way in there?" Ruby hinted. "And find the source of the evil?"

"It's not all that simple." Mori replied. "The stones which power the fortress are heavily guarded in the tower you see there." He pointed to a large pagoda like structure reaching beyond the clouds. "The stones harness the power of your temple for evil. This was all created by the power of the crystals, not labor."

I interrupted, "I'm sorry Ruby, but it's probably our being here that attracted these demons. I wouldn't know why, but I do know that these are the same demon species from Rudokai's competitor Aitsura, which is a pretty small island compared to ours, no offense at all."

"Let's just go get these crystals, leave, and once the temple is back to normal, convert these treacherous gems for our own." Ruby suggested. "Oh, and don't worry about it Shiru, my land will be back to normal in no time."

We all followed Ruby above the canopies of the trees to get a better glimpse of the crystals in question. "Mori, you can fly me to that balcony over there, right?" Ruby asked.

"That'd be a cinch. Just get on my back." Mori explained. He flew Ruby to the balcony as I swung from air to land on the stone. As we opened the door, a long hall was awaiting our entrance.

The hall was more dark and damp than my home island. The mossy stench fumed through the poorly kept track of hall. At the end of this hall was a spiral staircase leading to the crystals. Unfortunately, a silent alarm was triggered and demon guards came from all directions to the stairs. We hastily ran up the stairs and swept up the crystals, but an air force came crashing in though the glass, forcing us to run back down. Only one path was clear of guards, so we headed that way. Ruby and I noticed that 'we' stopped including Mori.

"Oh man... this is a kill or be killed situation, isn't it?" Ruby inquired.

"Wait, so Mori is..." we turned around to see guards, but no sign of Mori. "The guards must've slain him. That darn engraving on his arm wouldn't allow him to move." I took ruby's hand and pulled to get her to continue on. "It's too late now, c'mon!" I shouted.

After a while, Ruby budged and continued to run outside of the fort with me. As soon as we left the building, everything began returning to normal. The tower fell into a mist than vanished, leaving only the temple to be seen. A sharp pain was felt in my arm. Glass from the windows in the tower must've cut my skin causing some bleeding scratches across my arm.

We turned to the wonder of the Fire Temple; Ruby opened the doors and entered so she could perform her daily prayers. I slowly entered behind her. In the far corner of the room I could see Mori hunched against a wall. Quickly, I ran to his body to see him waking up. I turned around to Ruby, guessing what her prayers were. The flame of the giant goblet she was praying over lightened and grew larger. My head felt light all of a sudden. Must be that ring on my arm.

Wait, what will happen if I go blank? "Ruby, stop praying!" She looked over to see me falling over onto the floor. It was her prayers that converted those crystals, which activated the Ring of Seishin.

My mind went blank, everything was dark. "Hey Shiru, wake up!" I heard my mom's voice.

"It's been a really long time."

"Dad?" I stuttered. Thank heaven, this was all a dream!

"Yeah, don't worry kid; we treated your arm well."

What? The cuts from the glass still existed. I stuck my hand into my pocket to uncover a converted crystal. I hopped from my bed to look outside. This was my homeland, just different... I could see the sky.

The End...?